Journey to Future Freedom

Tag: mental-health

  • What do you do when you don’t like your job but you can’t leave?

    We own a collision repair business…so you crash your car we fix it. I kind of landed in it when the business started to grow. I left my job as a teacher and came to work with my husband and I am now the admin person. It’s been this way for 10 years now.

    Surprisingly we get along really well 99% of the time and the 1% is usually caused by outside influences. Working together is fine although I would love at the end of the day to ask, “How was your day?” and not already know the answer. It would be great to add to the list of things we get to discuss.

    The problem lies in the fact that neither of us really like the job. I am not a lover of cars and never have been. There is also the fact that the customer that comes to you has crashed their car or someone else has and therefore they are in a slightly heightened state of emotion over it already. Insurance companies take their time. Parts take forever to get to NZ if they are overseas and I am generally the bearer of shit news for the customer. Which I cop it for. I get that! But the reality is…I didn’t crash the car. I am the one trying to help get it fixed.

    There are very few decent staff available in our industry and therefore this limits the amount of work you can get through and creates a world of problems in itself. When you have shit staff you have a hard time getting rid of them and when you have great staff you feel constantly pressured to keep them happy.

    So where does this leave me. Sadly I have bills to pay and I feel kind of stuck so I guess the only way forward is an exit plan? It needs to be fairly solid as it’s not like one of us is walking away from a job we both are….
    What would you do?

  • Meet the Frugalwoods & Why/

    This book spoke to me! I am currently reading it again after getting to the end on Friday. It basically told the story of what I want to achieve. Having a why as to where you are heading on your journey is so important. Sometimes I feel as though my goals are just not even realistic and so to read about others achieving it really helped me focus on yes. This is achievable. It won’t look like their journey did as the cost of living in NZ is completely different from where they were. It will be our journey.

    My husband has worked every weekend for the last three and juggled kids sports in between so he can try and be there. This morning he said, “I don’t want to go to work today”. I could hear in his voice how much he meant it and I thought this is why we are on this journey. He very rarely complains about having to work and is the hardest worker I know by far. I am so proud of everything he has built up with our business and how hard he has worked to get us here but we can’t continue to work at the pace we are doing something that we really don’t like doing.

    This is my why. This is what keeps me focused. It’s what keeps me saying “No” when the kids are nagging for takeaways or treats. Don’t worry they aren’t completely deprived. They get plenty of treats…takeaways not so much.

    When you have a strong why then it makes staying the course so much easier. Especially on those days when you question whether it’s all worth it.

    When I started this journey I had no idea where it was heading and therefore decided to learn as much as I possibly could. Read everything I could find. Take the information that spoke to me and discard what didn’t. The journey is slowly becoming clearer. At the beginning I knew there would be a financial aspect to it but I didn’t realise it would .be the glue that allows the freedom to all come together.

  • Ramblings…#1 because there are probably many to come.

    When I started this journey I had no Idea where it would take me or how quickly my thinking would escalate and dart all over the place. 

    There were so many aspects of change that I felt needed to undergo that I really didn’t know what to expect and nor where it would head.  I think that is what I am loving about the journey. 

    I actually don’t know what is ahead of me.  All I know is that I am chasing some version of freedom, yet to be determined or evolving and that each day I want to be a better version of myself.

    At this stage I feel as though I am mostly achieving this with slips ups along the way.  I think the difference is I am not aiming for perfection I am aiming for progress and I am really not concerned about the tiny blips I am just learning from them and continuing to plough forwards.

    I think the greatest aspect of freedom I have found so far is the concept of being at peace with myself.  Not overthinking, beating myself up, feeling as though I am never good enough. 

    Yes I still walked into a knee high washing pile in the laundry this morning and I had kids that couldn’t find this and that…probably because they were yet to be washed but it’s only washing.  And truth be said there are 3 other people in our house capable of doing it.

    In the past I would feel like a failure because I wasn’t running the house the way I felt it should be run but if I am honest they were the expectations I put on myself. So I am finding this new way of kinder thinking towards myself to be much better for my mental health and in many ways very freeing.