Life is a funny set of challenges, pushing us to grow and discover.

It seems a mysterious playground at times, but at others it seems anything but in a work environment that is filled with pessimism and irritation, and surrounded with negative world news. I find myself living in a world which seems driven by a strange obsession with money as measure success, which does not appear to be as fulfilling as society likes to portray.

Stuck in a mess of conflicting belief systems, it is not always easy to stand up to this confusion, face your fears and forge your own, true path.

But at the end of the road, on your deathbed, don’t you want to at least be able to look back and say you had the guts to give it your best shot?

When I was self-employed, I used to be a workaholic. I was constantly putting my obligations and work at the center of my attention, and filling in the gaps with my relationship and personal development. I never thought to take care of myself. I didn’t even take time to veg out and watch TV or go to the movies. I just didn’t have enough time.

So, I find it interesting, that returning to work as an employee, it is much easier to manage my priorities. It helps to have a finite working day, and boundaries where I can work hard during the day, and have my evenings and weekends to plan for my personal use. It’s made me realize how much I’ve neglected my own health and well-being.

I’ve started establishing regular sleep patterns, placing exercise and free time to myself as a priority. The miracle of direct-debit means I no longer worry about uncertain finances and I can actually budget my expenses. All together, my stress is reducing dramatically and my energy is returning.

Who would have thought?

At a recent social gathering, the topic of what dreams we want to accomplish kept coming up. There were varying degrees of clarity of what each person wanted to achieve, but what really struck me was that there seemed to be a common thread of “I know I want this, but I’m not ready yet… it’s not the right time.”

I wonder how many great dreams go unrealized because people are just waiting for the right time. This seems to be an convincing trap, when in reality what you need is a kick in the butt to take a step towards realizing your dream, and then to take another.

The course, Creativity & Personal Mastery, taught by Professor Srikumar Rao begins next week at the London Business School. I will be the teaching assistant for the course together with a colleague of mine.

The course is an experiential journey, and I am looking forward to helping the students get the most out of the class.

One of the first assignments is to produce a personal essay. It serves as a short snapshot of where one is right now… a starting point. Later in the course, we turn our focus to our ideal job: something many of us spend a lot of time looking for, but often don’t spend much time attempting to create or describe. The ideal job, or even ideal life is the end point.

What comes between the start and the end is the journey. It is essential to understand where you are and where you want to go to be able to figure out the best way to get there. Defining a path provides direction and clarity about how to act.

This week’s topic is about getting the most from the journey - looking at the starting point, the end point and everything in between.