So I’ll be honest, it’s been a tough week here in the Kristensen household. I have four children and last Monday I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I went to my office, got on with the day. By Wednesday I had tonsillitis, my two eldest were vomiting, my three year old broke out in chicken pox, Tonny was dying of man flu and vomiting and the baby, god love her, had a bit of everything including conjunctivitis!
So this week has been tough as hell. So I’ll keep this weeks blog short because to be honest, im still wiped out and we’re all still quite ill. No longer full blown sick, but not better either.
So what got me thinking was an innocent question from a very good friend,
“Queenie” she said,
“How do you do it all? How do you cope?” as I sat sniffling and coughing on the phone.
And it took me a few minutes to figure it out.
“Unending perseverance” that’s how I cope.
Because this path that we’re on (Not just me, but you too my friend) it takes balls. A will to chase your dreams that is stronger than your fear of failing.
Because we do fail on this path. We get tired and pushed about. We have weeks like this where the chips are down and you’re so damn tired. Where you just want to curl up in a ball and die for while.
But you don’t, you keep going. Keep plodding on.
But because of all my training and all the time and money ive invested in mindset work, I didn’t push on, I took the time to heal this week. I took the time to stop. Even though there was work unfinished, even though there is an important deadline creeping slowly towards me, I stopped.
Everything.
Because time is relevant and I have learned we are masters of our own fate. If we choose to be
But that too has to be a conscious choice.
To decide that you will run your life, your time, your hours.
People say I’m lucky. That I can take a week off work without a bother in the world. But it’s not luck, I engineered my career that way.
When I had my eldest, I drew a line in the sand. I had worked since I was 15. I had jobs that had required me to work 16 hour shifts, weekends, bank holidays, miss family parties. Hell I even had a job were I had to work from 3 in the afternoon until 7 in the morning and the shift was that shitty that MY BOSS offered me a bag of speed just to get through the shift! (I know shocking huh!)
So when my little’uns came along, time with them, time for them, became one of my non negotiables.
So I engineered my career around them. And once I was free to follow my own path, I did the same for my husband.
And I was able to retire him from work at 41!
Because what it takes to achieve your dreams isn’t millions in the bank. It isn’t wishes of ‘when I win the lottery’.
It is unending perseverance.
The ability to pick yourself up and keep going no matter how many times you get knocked down.
To see your setbacks not as a failure, but as part of the learning curve. To find a way, no matter what.
I grew up on a council estate in one of the poorest areas in the UK to a single mum in the 80’s when she had to work two jobs to look after my brother and I.
So trust me when I say you can fulfil your dreams. You can have a job that works round your family. You can have a life you love.
I’m not lucky. Im just bloody stubborn!
And I’d love to help your go after your dreams too. Because you deserve to be happy. You deserve to be able to slob at home on the couch with your kids.
You deserve to be able to rest when you need to.
We all do.