living the dream at a gentler pace
I haven’t always lived at a gentler pace. Until April 2019, I’d worked in jobs of the hustle and crush it variety. 5:30 a.m. starts, long days, and travel the length and breadth of the country were the norm.
My daily commute to the office could be two hours each way. The benchmarks of success were productivity and busyness.
My quietly competitive streak meant it wasn’t enough to achieve my targets, I had to exceed them as well. My to do list was a bottomless pit and yet another daily challenge to be met.
Deep down I craved purpose and fulfilment but I wasn’t finding that in my work. It became increasingly clear that my values were at odds with those of the businesses for whom I worked. In my daydreams, I began to contemplate a different way.
A realisation, one weekend, that time was finite led me to hand in my notice, the start of a chain of events that would lead me to Derbyshire. In those early days I was simply putting one foot in front of the other trusting that, somewhere along the line, a plan would unfold.
It was a gradual transition. For several months I couldn’t wean myself off the daily routine that I’d followed for so long. Eventually, and in some ways helped by the enforced slow living of lockdown 1.0, I began to realise the full impact of embracing life at a gentler…
