So lots of you agree with me, then?

Clearly my blog of yesterday struck a chord with quite a lot of you, and judging by the number of comments on the blog itself, on Facebook and by e-mail lots of you feel the same. And it’s always reassuring to know that you are not alone; even talking to people about a (at the moment) very vague feeling of wanting to jack it all in and start again with something more fulfilling, refreshing and less stressful gets comments of “I know, I’ve felt exactly the same recently”.

So what has changed about the world that so many of us feel like this? I don’t ever recall my parents having these sorts of conversations or coming home from their work (which was manual and working class and therefore had its significant downsides including the fact that it was very poorly paid) feeling that it just isn’t worth it and wanting a new start.

Is it that we have had our horizons widened, that we have become more ambitious, more materialistic or simply that much more is expected of us now?

I suspect it’s a combination of the lot and the sad fact is that we are paying the price not only for the previous generation that is living in comfortable retirement now, but also for better health care that means we all live longer and so can’t possibly expect the state to keep us for an extra decade or so and for the lack of planning and foresight on the part of companies, banks and government who should have seen this coming. And it seems unfair that one or two generations should have to pay for the sins of the previous ten and of the few big, hideously wealthy corporations that brought it all to a head.

It would seem that for most of us life is, quite simply, too cluttered and busy. The chase for material possessions which in the wider scale of things might be relatively modest is urged upon us all the time by the irresponsible advertising and finance industries, and our children expect more and more to keep up with their friends. As an example, between us, The Hubby and I now have five children who drive. They all have their own vehicle with the costs that incurs and although we don’t pay for all of them, that is a constant financial pressure. The insurance companies penalise young people regardless of background or education knowing it is the parents that pay. The same parents who are hard pressed in every other way.

Anyone who has had a major change thrust upon them will tell you that after the initial shock, it enabled them to see much more clearly what was important and have the courage to take big decisions and make major changes that otherwise they wouldn’t have been brave enough to do.

So, I come back to a personal note. We need to de-clutter, both mentally and physically. Physically, we have too much stuff (although obviously not too many shoes or, according to The Hubby, power tools). We should have done it ages ago, had a good chuck out and made a few quid at a car boot sale. Just recently, I sold a load of stuff on e-bay and to my surprise made £170. Obviously one man’s junk is another man’s treasure. So that’s something that we can carry on with over the winter with a view to getting rid of a load of it in the spring.

Mentally, it’s more difficult and this is where the life changing decisions come in. If I have to work, I’d very much like to work for myself again, having previously spent eight years self employed and loving every minute although not, at that time, being dependent upon it for my living. But I’m good at that stuff! I’m focused, organised and can, I’m told, be very ruthless. And we now have a window of opportunity which I can’t help but feel we ought to take advantage of. It would mean selling the house and living somewhere cheap to rent (and which takes puppies and cats), but it would give us freedom. In addition over the past two weeks due to changed circumstances I’ve seen loads more of The Hubby, and I like it! We’ve worked together before, maybe we could do it again?

Of course I haven’t discussed any of this with him (in fact he’ll probably find out about it through this blog – oops!) and it would be an enormous risk – our window of opportunity has come about a year or two too soon. But I am beginning to wonder whether we oughtn’t to take it anyway!