There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately.
And it’s a strange thing to admit, particularly when I know how fortunate we are.
My husband and I have worked incredibly hard to build the life we have.
We have three beautiful children. A home. Businesses. Investments. Financial security. We’ve travelled to some extraordinary places, created incredible memories as a family and experienced things I once only dreamed about.
There is so much to be grateful for.
And I genuinely am.
But lately, I keep finding myself asking a question I never expected to ask.
Not because it’s a bad life.
Quite the opposite.
It’s a beautiful one.
But it’s also an incredibly busy one.
And I’m starting to wonder whether there’s a difference between having a successful life and having a life that actually feels free.
I think when you’re younger, you have a certain picture of what success will look like.
You work hard.
You build something.
You buy a home.
You create financial security for your family.
You give your children opportunities you might not have had yourself.
And eventually, you imagine, all that hard work will mean you can relax a little.
Enjoy life.
Have more freedom.
But what nobody really tells you is that the more you build, the more there can be to manage.
More responsibilities.
More decisions.
More people relying on you.
More things that need your attention.
And suddenly, the very things you’ve worked so hard to create can become the things that keep you busy.
I sometimes look at our lives and wonder how we managed to fit so much into them.
There’s always something happening.
Something that needs organising.
Something that needs fixing.
Something that needs planning.
And even when we’re doing something lovely together, there’s often another responsibility waiting in the background.
I don’t think we’re unusual in that sense.
I think a lot of families live this way.
We spend years building lives that look wonderful from the outside, without necessarily stopping to ask whether they feel the way we hoped they would.
Before having children, I probably thought about success very differently.
I wanted to work hard, achieve things and create a comfortable life.
And I still value all of those things.
But motherhood has changed the way I look at time.
Because when you have children, you become so aware of how quickly everything moves.
I don’t want every week to feel like a race from one commitment to another.
And I don’t want to look back one day and realise that we had all the resources to create beautiful memories together, but not enough time to enjoy them. Don’t get me wrong… when we are travelling we are doing exactly that, building memories together, but when we are home… if I’m honest… I’m struggling.
Because money can give you opportunities. But it can’t give you these years back.
One of the biggest changes in our family life recently has been beginning our homeschooling journey with one of our children.
And it’s made me think about so many things differently.
Not just education.
Life in general.
For years, like most families, we’ve structured our days around school hours, work commitments, after-school activities and everything else that comes with raising children.
It’s a routine that most of us accept because it’s simply what we know.
But when you begin educating a child at home, you start looking at that structure through a different lens.
You realise how much of family life revolves around a timetable.
And you begin asking questions.
Does learning always have to happen in a classroom?
Does every day need to look the same?
Could we create a different rhythm for our family?
Could travel become part of our children’s education in a more meaningful way?
Could we spend more time together without feeling like we’re constantly squeezing family life into the spaces between everything else?
I’m not suggesting homeschooling is easy.
It certainly isn’t.
It requires time, patience, organisation and a huge amount of responsibility.
And I know it’s not the right choice for every family.
But for us, it’s opened up a conversation about what our lives could look like.
And once you start questioning one part of the traditional structure, it’s difficult not to question the rest.
If you’ve followed This Sweet Life for a while, you’ll know that travel is a huge part of our family.
It’s something I’ve always loved.
But the older our children get, the more I realise that travel gives us something even more valuable than beautiful destinations.
It gives us time together.
Proper time.
Not the kind where you’re trying to answer emails while making dinner.
Or rushing between school, work and activities.
Or thinking about the hundred things you need to do tomorrow.
When we’re travelling, life feels different.
We wake up somewhere new.
We explore.
We learn.
We have conversations.
We experience things together that none of us will ever forget.
Of course, travelling with three children isn’t always relaxing.
There are arguments.
There are tired moments.
There are days when someone doesn’t want to do the activity you’ve spent weeks planning.
And there are definitely times when I wonder why I thought taking five people halfway around the world was a good idea!
But even with all of that, I feel something when we’re away that I don’t always feel at home.
Freedom.
And that’s what I’ve been thinking about.
What if that feeling didn’t have to be something we only experienced on holiday?
What if we could build more of it into our everyday lives?
This is probably the biggest shift in my thinking.
For so long, we’ve been focused on building.
Working.
Growing.
Creating opportunities.
And there’s nothing wrong with that.
I’m proud of what we’ve achieved.
But lately, I’ve realised that I’m not particularly interested in having more things.
I don’t need a bigger wardrobe.
I don’t need a more impressive car.
I don’t need to keep adding things to our lives simply because we can.
And honestly I have never wanted these things. But when you live in a world surrounded by this kind of lifestyle it’s easy to find yourself ‘playing the game.’
What I want is time.
Time with my husband.
Time with our children.
Time to travel and explore. To learn and grow. To be the people teaching our children about the world.
Time to wake up without feeling like the day is already running away from me.
Time to enjoy the things we’ve worked so hard to create.
And perhaps most importantly, time to decide what we actually want our lives to look like, rather than simply continuing along the path we’ve already started.
I’m beginning to think that the next chapter of our lives shouldn’t be about accumulating more. It should be about creating more freedom.
I think social media sometimes makes big life changes look incredibly easy.
You see families selling everything and travelling the world.
People moving overseas.
Parents leaving traditional jobs to work remotely.
Beautiful little houses by the beach.
Slow mornings.
Children learning outdoors.
And it’s tempting to imagine yourself doing the same.
But real life is more complicated.
Especially when you’ve spent years building businesses, investing in property and creating a life in one place.
There are responsibilities.
Financial commitments.
Practical considerations.
And decisions that affect five people, not just one.
We can’t simply walk away from everything tomorrow.
Nor am I sure we’d want to.
There are things about our current life that I absolutely love.
Our community.
Our friends.
The opportunities our children have.
The life we’ve created here in Australia.
I’m not dreaming about escaping all of that.
I’m wondering whether we can find a better balance.
Whether the things we’ve built could eventually give us more freedom, rather than requiring so much of our time.
Whether we could work differently.
Live differently.
Spend more time together.
And perhaps spend longer periods travelling without feeling like we’re putting our entire lives on hold.
I don’t have the answers yet.
But for the first time in a long time, I’m asking the questions.
This is the part I find difficult to explain.
Because I know how lucky we are.
I know there are families who would love to have the opportunities we have.
I know that financial security is something many people are working incredibly hard to achieve.
And I never want to sound ungrateful.
But I’ve been thinking about whether gratitude and wanting change can exist at the same time.
I think they can.
I can be grateful for our home and still wonder whether we want to live in it forever.
I can be proud of our businesses and still wish they required less of our time.
I can love our life in Australia and still dream about spending more time exploring the world.
I can appreciate everything we’ve achieved and still feel that something needs to change.
Being grateful for the life you have doesn’t mean you’re never allowed to imagine a different one.
And maybe that’s something more of us need to hear.
I’ve been thinking about this question a lot.
When our children are adults, what will they remember about growing up?
Will they remember the house we lived in?
The things we bought them?
The businesses we ran?
Perhaps.
But I suspect they’ll remember the moments.
The family holidays.
The adventures.
The ordinary days when we were all together.
The silly conversations.
The places we explored.
The times we laughed until we couldn’t breathe.
The feeling of being loved, supported and having parents who were present.
And that’s what I want to build more of.
Not necessarily bigger holidays or more expensive experiences.
Just more time.
More memories.
More freedom to be together.
I want our children to grow up knowing that working hard matters.
But I also want them to understand that life isn’t only about work.
That success can mean having time for the people you love.
That there’s more than one way to live.
And that sometimes the bravest thing you can do is question whether the path you’re on is still the right one for you.
I’m approaching my 40th birthday next year.
And perhaps that’s part of why all these thoughts are coming up now.
There’s something about reaching a milestone birthday that makes you reflect.
Not necessarily on what you’ve achieved.
But on what you want the next chapter to look like.
When I think about the next ten years, I don’t find myself dreaming about working harder.
I don’t imagine looking back at 50 and wishing I’d spent more time answering emails or managing responsibilities.
I imagine wishing I’d spent more time with my family.
More time exploring.
More time enjoying the everyday moments.
More time actually living.
And that’s a confronting thought when you’ve spent so much of your adult life believing that hard work and achievement were the things you should be striving for.
Perhaps the next stage of success looks completely different.
Perhaps it’s less about what we can build and more about what we can simplify.
Perhaps it’s about having the courage to make changes, even when the life you’re changing is already a good one.
I wish I could finish this article by telling you that we’ve made a huge decision. No at this stage these really are just thoughts. My thoughts.
For the first time, I’m not just asking what we can achieve next.
I’m asking what we want our days to feel like.
And I think that’s a much more important question.
Because ultimately, I don’t want to reach the end of my life and realise that I spent so much time preparing for the future that I forgot to enjoy the present.
I want to build a life where we don’t constantly feel like we need a holiday from it.
A life where our children have room to grow, learn and explore.
A life where my husband and I have time to enjoy everything we’ve worked for.
A life that feels full, but not constantly busy.
A life that gives us choices.
And most of all, a life that feels like ours.
And I don’t want to be afraid of wanting a different kind of life just because the one we have is already beautiful.
So that’s where I’m at.
Grateful.
A little uncertain.
Excited about what might be possible.
And increasingly convinced that the greatest luxury in life isn’t a beautiful hotel, a business-class flight or an impressive home.
It’s freedom.
The freedom to spend your time the way you want.
With the people you love.
Doing the things that matter most.
And maybe that’s what I’m really chasing.
Not a different life.
Just more freedom to enjoy this one.
Love,
I’d love to hear from you
Have you ever reached a point where you’ve looked at the life you’ve worked so hard to build and wondered whether you want something different?
Not because you’re unhappy or ungrateful, but because your priorities have changed?
I’d genuinely love to hear your thoughts.
Sometimes I think these are the conversations we should be having more often.