The ‘Escape Work Fantasy’ genre is booming business in the world of books, and other media. I read the books with a mixture of envy (why can’t I be running a business from a beach?), scorn at their lack of realism (er, because I have two children, rent to pay and a pension), and finally self-loathing (if I were only more adventurous, dynamic, clever, I’d be an entrepreneur too).

Here are the things I have come to realise:

1. Almost none of the people who give up their jobs to become wildly successful freelancers have young children

2. None of them set up their own business fresh out of stacking shelves at Asda, working as a teaching assistant or admin for the local authority. Almost all of them come from corporate city life with a cushion of money and consultancy skills. This puts paid to the ‘anyone can do it’ fantasy

3. All of the people who give up their day jobs to work 4 hour weeks, or run their business from the Bahamas rely on those of us still working for The Man to live their lives. The person serving them coffee, the flight attendant, the assistant they pay to do the grunt work.

4. Success comes in many forms

Don’t get me wrong, these people have done well for themselves, they are go-getters, most of them have written books to share their knowledge. However, the ‘anyone can do it’ message is unrealistic and yet another stick for us to beat ourselves with, another way in which we have failed. I remember on my first maternity leave feeling genuinely disappointed that I hadn’t started my own kitchen table business, or written a sparkling debut novel about the trials of motherhood.

Even now in my dark moments there whispers a voice that quietly berates me for not having given it all up to pursue an (unspecified) dream, and scorns my lack of risk taking in searching for new jobs when I put that ‘within 50 mile radius’ option in the criteria.

We don’t all have a passion, we don’t all have the entrepreneurial spirit, or the resilience (emotional or financial) to run our own business. For some of us a job is just that, a job. We aren’t saving the world, we aren’t reaching professional heights, we are just getting through the day and looking forward to our next week off. Success and happiness come in all forms, from all areas of our life.

I’m not suggesting that anyone tolerates poor working conditions, or spends the next 10 years in a job that saps their soul. But for those people just muddling along, trying to find their way, sometimes it’s the small changes that count, and that’s where this blog aims to help.