Beat up and exhausted because of the incredibly taxing physical and mental aspects of my work (custom cabinetmaking)...and hopeless because I was so unhappy with the treadmill of a life I had created for myself.
My two kids were growing up way too fast, and even when I took a weekend off, I was usually too exhausted to do much with them because I had to rest my body in preparation for the next exhausting work week.
And besides being exhausted, I had developed severe and sometimes crippling pain in my back and neck. The pain was so bad sometimes that I could hardly get out of bed in the morning...but I had to...because who else was going to pay the bills?
If you have worked construction for a long time then I'm sure you can relate to this.
But it was the passing away of a loved one that made me realize that life is too short...and that my life was passing me by.
That tragic event was a turning point for me. Some would call it a paradigm shift, because it was then that I decided to change my life and do something I had dreamed about doing for many years...and that was to move myself and family to a little island in the middle of the Pacific.
Yeah, big move, but I desperately needed to change the focus of my life from working all the time to having a healthier more enjoyable lifestyle...and to do the thing that I passionately loved to dobut didn't have time to fully pursue before...and that was windsurfing!