Apples not falling far from trees come to mind this week for me; one of the reasons I do what I do is to set a good example for my daughter; I explain what I do by telling her I help people be happier and better in their work.

We were at the beach hut the other day when Isobel decided to start finding new jobs for people. She had started with her Auntie Amanda, who I had said makes the news website look pretty, “well, Amanda is pretty so she should make pretty jewellery in  shop that is pretty too, she would be VERY happy then”.

Isobel moved onto my brother and asked him what he does. He is a journalist. Isobel decide he should write stories in a book shop because the likes writing.  She then moved onto my Aunt, she thought a while, muttered ‘hmm too old for that’ and then started asking my Aunt what she likes doing best…  We were too distracted by her line of further questioning to find out what my aunt was too old for…

Often having had a child and becoming a working mum, (or a lot of time off work for any reason,) we start to question why and what we are doing with our lives and where our natural talent lies, trying to work out if our work is worth sacrificing a small amount of time away from our children.

I have a couple of questions that may well help you form a picture of the things are happiest doing.

If all the world a stage…

What did you love doing when you were a child? Did you write stories, make up plays, play nurses… stop and have a think for a minute.

This was a time when you had no agenda, just time to dream, pretend and be.

Think about the games you played as a child and the actives you enjoyed as a teenager.

Did even spending time thinking these things make you smile again?

Can you spot elements of these activities in what you do now?

Could you bring them into your daily life?