Busy Being

Things here have been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately and there’s a very simple reason for that. I’ve been busy being.

The only thing is, until this morning I wasn’t totally sure exactly what it was I was busy doing. I then had a bit of a lightbulb moment when a friend of mine linked to this wonderful blog post by Richard Branson. If you don’t follow his blog then you really should do. He writes on a huge range of subjects, but does so in such a way that you can easily imagine that you’re just sat having a chat with him in a local pub beer garden over a cold drink – rather than him being one of the top entrepreneurs in the world, often writing it from his own private island.

Richard Branson has always been a bit of an inspiration for me, and it may seem a bit daft, but one of the best job interviews I ever had was back in 2000 when I went to work as a customer services advisor for Virgin Trains at Euston Station, not very far from where I was at university at the time. I loved that interview, because not only did it cover whether or not I could read a train timetable and deal with customers, but it also talked loads about Richard himself and his ethos for business and life. (The only sour note here is that the job never worked out to be as good as the interview promised. Poor management and the Hatfield train crash meant that I worked some long shifts helping passengers who took a crazy number of hours arriving in London from Glasgow on very slow trains and yet didn’t get paid for most of the work. I’m still waiting for the double time pay I was promised for working an eight hour shift on New Year’s Day 2001. If you’re reading Richard – my bank details are the still same, just in case…)

So anyway, why am I rabbiting on about a student job? It comes back to Richard Branson and being. He is someone with such a passion for life and adventure, and back when I was working for him I think I had that same passion and spirit of adventure. The reason I took on the Virgin Trains job was to earn money to support me through my degree – something I wanted to do to further myself – and to also allow myself to build up enough money to go travelling and experience the world.

I succeeded in getting that degree, and after meeting Mr C we were fortunate enough to go travelling around the world before having children. Over the last five years though life has slowed down and if I’m totally honest that passion for life has disminished a bit. Adventures with two small children when sleep deprived and juggling work with nursery runs, school runs and swimming lessons isn’t exactly easy and in the run up to these school summer holidays I was beginning to feel a bit overwhelmed with everything.

That’s why I’ve taken a step back and used the last month to concentrate on being rather than doing. I’ve been busy enjoying spending time with my children and with my family. I’ve been busy thinking ahead to the future and the adventures that we can hopefully now have as the children get a bit older. I’ve been busy experiencing life rather than constantly worrying about to do lists and what I need to blog about to keep other people happy.

It’s actually been a really refreshing month. The first few days where nothing was ticked off my to do list felt a bit stressful, but as time has continued I’ve cared less, and the world’s not stopped turning. I think a lot of the pressure I was under was actually self imposed and if only I can realise that more and worry about it less then I think life will actually be happier as a result. In this month we’ve also had some great time as a family on some small adventures, and also as a couple rediscovering what we used to enjoy doing as a twosome.

I still want and need to work, and I’m coming up with schemes as to how to do that in a more balanced way, but I’m determined that come September I’ll get that balance between work and life right, and have it fit in with our new routine of school and pre-school. I’m also planning ahead. Taking inspiration from Jennifer over at Jennifer’s Little World I’m in the process of writing my own Day Zero project to do 101 things in 1001 days. It’s not a list that I plan to publish here fully, but more personal goals for me and the family and most importantly it’s all things I want to experience to make me happy.

So I guess what I’m trying to say in a very longwinded way is that if I’m not here then it’s just as my blog title suggests – I’m off busy Being Mrs C.

I’ll be back to share my adventures soon.