It’s always dangerous writing an email like this one.

Emails where I’m reporting directly from the front line, taking grenades in the workplace trenches and living it as I’m writing it rather than kicking back in my slippers and pontificating about the world of work like some sort of armchair emperor.

It’s dangerous because I think more clearly when I have more perspective. I know the fog lifts when I’m not standing in the middle of it.

And yet there’s an honesty to writing emails in the thick of it which I like.

See, work has been ridiculously busy the last couple of weeks.

In fact, it’s been like a game of whack-a-mole where an urgent deadline springs up from nowhere and I grab my mallet, crash it down on that mole’s head with all the professionalism & dedication I can muster…

Only for three more moles to pop up in its place!

So there’s been lots of 4am starts, working through to midnight and even missing Baby Grundy’s Easter Bonnet Show at nursery last week.

It’s left me feeling a bit deflated.

That said, two things are clear.

The first?

If every week was 4am starts, midnight finishes and missing out on Baby Grundy trundling round her nursery with a straw hat on her head, I’d find a new job. Not because it’s tough (I can do tough most of the time). But simply because I don’t want to work those hours. Now I’m the ripe old age of 40 with a salt and pepper beard that puts George Clooney to shame, I’m crystal clear that I don’t want my life to be the office. I want a life outside the office.

The second?

I know that deflated feeling will change at some point.

It always changes.

And one reminder I’ve used over the last couple of weeks to help find that perspective again is…

It’s only work!

If my boss or CEO was reading this email I’m not sure they’d agree.

But that doesn’t make it any less true. Work really is only work.

It’s not a life-or-death, mission critical, defusing-a-bomb-in-a-burning-building-full-of-hostages kind of situation. Not unless you’re a spy.

But then again, I doubt James Bond is reading this email.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably more like me than a globetrotting secret agent. And by that I mean you work hard, you feel the pressure and you wonder if there’s a better way to navigate all that.

That’s exactly what I help people do.

If you’re curious, here’s the link:

https://waitinglist.followingfulfilment.com

To fulfilment,

Tom