Is It Time You Protired?

Is it time you pro-tired?

If you love what you do, then it's easier to find fulfillment. Most of the people who would be considered by some as successful in life - with the big houses, big cars and fancy offices - are incredibly unhappy considering all that they have.

If I could sit down with a coffee or soda with you right now I would ask you which is most important - time or money. What would your answer be? Time  if you're like the tens of thousands who have been asked that question. My question back to you would be this; If that is so, how come we always spend time to get money and very rarely spend money to buy us time.

Maybe that's why about one in 15 people aged 30 or over has already decided to "pro-tire"  'down shift' or 'downsize', meaning they've decided to change their direction in life. Doing something else with much lower income, but much greater quality of life.

Pro-tiring is about finding the thing you love doing and doing it. For example, I read about a 32-year old lawyer who quit her £80,000-a-year job because the work left her unfulfilled. She has since set up her own business making and selling modern art - doing something she loves every single day.

Pro-tiring is about finding out what's important to you and not buying into the myth that to be happy you have to 'succeed' in life. After all, it's very common to hear celebrities say that they had everything they ever wanted - fame, money, power - but then found that they had none of the things they really needed. Gill and I were eating in a small restaurant in West Sussex England and read a little proverb on the wall which said 'true wealth is being poor and content'.

Maybe, as we are sharing today this has struck a chord with you, then maybe you & I need to re-assess our lives. Maybe we need to consider a job that's worth doing for its own sake - not for the money, not for the power, not for the fame, but because it needs to be done and you would love to do it.