Time to Take the Blinkers Off – Are You Happy with Where Your Career Has Taken You?

It’s in our psyche, right? We start on a path in life, get your head down, work hard and just keep on going. It’s about self-preservation and we don’t have the time or want to expose ourselves to what we might see if we stop and actually consider the impact of what we are doing.

Am I happy doing what I am doing work-wise? Is it giving me the overall life that I want? How is it impacting those closest to me that I love? These are questions we often consciously or subconsciously choose not to ask ourselves because we have bills to pay, we are trying our damned hardest to keep all the plates spinning and what more can you give without dropping any of them.

This is something I am all too familiar with but it took the artistic masterpiece that you can see below, created with my own fair hands (no feedback required thank you) to slap me in the face and make me realise I wasn’t happy. Subtle isn’t it? I actually did this on a work team bonding event, so God knows what my boss thought when he saw it.

I was working for a good Company in Randstad where I was constantly challenged & developed, working with people I liked and remunerated well for it. The problem was that I was commuting from Bournemouth to London/Luton daily, connected to my work at all times of the day & night, putting way too much pressure on my wife to pick up the slack at home, losing my relationships with my young children and not actually feeling like I was achieving much in this big behemoth of a corporate business anyway. Now the picture made total sense to me and I had to do something about it.

This led me to the team here at The Highfield Company, where we operate as a smaller team, knocking ideas around and then making decisions that we immediately put into action. It is closer to home, with greater flexibility in so many ways, with brilliant people and ambitions that inspire me constantly. I knew I would take a hit financially, but I felt liberated and I couldn’t put a value on the positive impact it has had for me and my family at home.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Randstad is a bad company to work for. Far from it, it is a great place that really can offer you a rewarding place to work and gave me a huge amount that I will always be grateful for. This is my experience and it just wasn’t for me anymore.

Now I embark on a new chapter as I continue to support The Highfield Company, but I set up a new company called Sunblink with my colleagues, where we provide the platform & infrastructure for independently minded recruiters to set up on their own. It has been through my conversations with these recruiters that has got me thinking about this topic again.

Many of them express to me how passionate they are about recruitment but there are nagging reasons in their mind that make them feel working at their current companies just aren’t giving them what they want. They want more autonomy, they want more flexibility to work where and when they want, they want to work to their own goals and targets, they want to receive more of the revenue they personally generate, they want to live their lives in a way that benefits them at home and work!

So, I bring you back to my original point. When was the last time you took the blinkers off and considered where you were in your life and if it was giving you and your loved ones the life that you wanted? It’s a scary thing and I appreciate in the mad rush of life it can seem a pipe-dream, but I promise you the rewards could be immense.