The more I think about it, the more I realise that I actually don’t want a career. I never have. My job does not define me.

No. What I’ve come to realise is that what I really want is a lifestyle. I want to be able to define all of what I do with my time, not just the five till nine bit and then the weekends.

The year before last (2011) I went through a pretty tough time. One of the results of that was I had a lot of time not working. Months to be exact.

And I had never been happier!

It wasn’t that I sat around and didn’t DO anything. In fact I ended up achieving a great deal. I changed jobs, moved hundreds of miles to a new part of the UK, got fitter than I had ever been for years, stopped drinking alcohol and caffeine for a while, reduced my waist size by a good few inches and ended up happier and more fulfilled than I had ever been.

Work, or creating value and supporting my family is important to me. I enjoy making or doing things that give value to others as well as the discipline involved in “showing up”. But, I feel that all too often, in today’s society, work has come to define who we are and what we do with our lives, with very little life left over.

I want to be defined by the life I have created – all of it.