Hating your job and being in the wrong job are two completely different issues.
Pretty much everyone I’ve ever come across hates their job for some reason at some time, but generally it always seems to come down to either personality clashes or boredom. And because all things change, then how a person feels about their employment will also change.
What I’m talking about is just knowing that you’re in the wrong job and that no matter how much you achieve or how much flexibility you negotiate, it never seems to satisfy a nagging doubt that there just has to be something, well more…
Hitting your 40s is a shock to the system no doubt and it affects everyone differently, but for me it felt like reaching half time in the big game and some serious dressing room analysis was required.
For 25 years I’d chased to corporate dream of position and wealth only to find that none of it really mattered to me once I’d attained some it. The process of how I reached my conclusion isn’t really all that interesting or important, save for the fact that I realised with blinding clarity that if I didn’t act now then I was going to spend the rest of my life doing something that didn’t satisfy me and that for me was a far worse notion that the possibility of failure.
It’s been a challenge, a few wrong turns and some unexpected outcomes, but it’s all going in broadly the right direction and things are starting to take shape. I’ve retrained as a Chef, and been able to combine my business experience with my new skills to set up a food business, The Deli Shack, in Tiverton Pannier Market and to support the health education of young children in the Tiverton area through the teaching of basic cookery skills. We’re also strong advocates of the need to preserve our heritage animal breeds and as such we use our market business and website to promote the work of the small number of farms in the region that specialise in rare breed conservation.
For myself, well as I write I’ve now turned 46 and I’m feeling excited about the future and confident that it’s all going to work out fine. You can’t stop or turn back the clock, but you can reset it, and I’ll tell you this, it feels good…
• Read more about Iain’s journey to local food, on the Devon Week
(image: Iain Thompson, still from Tiverton Pannier Market film by Foxwell Films)
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