Yer a long time deid.

I recently went to a talk by Collen Reid as part of a women in leadership series.

She’s bloody brilliant; a young woman in her early thirties who is out there blazing a trail, shes a fierce advocate for supporting small business and is in the process of setting up an internship that not only provides paid work experience to young people, its free for the small business owner.

Her key messages, better to be divorced at 30 than still in the same position at 50 and yer a long time deid.

Life is short my friends.

This year I made the outrageous decision to bugger off for the entire summer.

What? You are self employed, I hear you shout. A small business owner can’t do that!

And yet I absolutely can and I am and the sky most certainly is not falling down.

This year has been nothing short of bloody wonderful on the work front, we have worked with a brilliant range of charities helping to raise thousands and thousands of pounds for charities. We’ve delivered team building events, conferences, talks and even some work in primary schools. I launched a podcast.

I am tired and I need a rest.

There we go, that’s the crux of it in terms of self care, rest when you need it. Take the holiday, put your out of office on and go do the things that make your heart happy.

Employee of the year and I are on a round the world adventure this year, ultimately we are heading off to meet his new grandaughter in Australia but as it’s only £200 extra to make the flight a round the world trip, it would be rude not to.

I’m sneaking a solo trip into this big holiday and heading to New Zealand to catch up with friends I haven’t seen in more than 20 years, i’m hoping for a glacial swim and some hot springs on the north island.

Every year for the last few years I have been having a solo adventure, it fills my cup and for a bit of time every year I get to be completely free of all responsibilities. It’s magic, i encourage you to try it.

For me self-care is about rest, and relaxation but it’s also about remembering that my time on this earth is precious and limited. I love my job but I don’t live to work, one day I will be lying on my death bed and I hope it’s with a heart bursting full of memories of a life well lived.