I love what I do and I love to work. I didn’t think I’d ever hear myself say that (I’m mainly referring to the latter!), as it’s always pretty hard going and I do whinge a bit, but I can’t seem to tear myself away from it. So I must love it! Danny is always telling me I need to learn to relax and to take time out… in other words, choose holidays where I can lay on the beach and read a book, rather than spend half the day sourcing (I mean shopping), and the rest of the afternoon full of activities or ’shop talk'. But often halfway through the first chapter I already find my mind wandering to thinking of new ideas and opportunities, and down goes the book (unless of course it’s related to what I do). I love a good opportunity, and very rarely do I let them go by.
My job is fun and fulfilling, challenging and rewarding. I get to work alongside my Husband, which at times can be really frustrating and stressful, but most of the time we give each other energy and our conversations get louder and louder and faster paced as we dream up new ideas and possibilities. We are a strong team and I couldn’t imagine it any other way.
The downside to all of this, is that I am constantly struggling to balance life and work - they kind of mould into one. I also love being a Mother. I work from home most days so that I can spend time with my children (Jonah 3 and a half and Sari 14 months) and to watch them grow up. We made a conscious decision that we’d keep them at home for as long as possible so that we could enjoy as much time with them while they were little. But how time flies, and I remind myself of that each day - to hold onto those special moments, the moments you never get back. But ‘working’ from home with 2 young children isn’t exactly easy… they demand my attention for the majority of the day and I find myself getting frustrated because I have so much work to do, but at the same time I know I need to BE there for my children! I would find myself yelling at them or getting frustrated with them, when really I should be spending more time creating activities for them or joining into their fun, rather than thinking about all of those other things that needed to be done. It’s super stressful, and it was getting to me. At the end of the day, I have realised that trying to work as well as spend time with them is not a winning formula, so I have to put my children first. It’s amazing what you can cram into a few hours when you know that’s all you have! Or how you seem to be able to just push through that tired barrier to make sure you finish a job rather than leave it half done, because who knows when you will get to start work on it again. In the back of my mind, I know there are so many elements to our business that we need to work on, that would really step it up to the next level, but I’m happy to make that sacrifice and extend the time it takes to grow the business if I know I’m making the most of my time with my family.
In the past 2 years, I have really learnt that I can’t possibly do everything, and I have finally learnt the art of delegation. I’m still not great at it, but it’s something that I definitely need to work on in order to make the most of my time with my family. But great things have also come from this. We have a wonderful team who work for us and we all share the enthusiasm of watching our business grow. Without this ‘family’ there is no way we could have gotten to where we are today.