Adam Taylor-Campbell wonders why you might be awake in the middle of the night, and what to do about it

A question that often crops up in conversations, “what keeps you up at night?”, has never been so confronting than the times we are currently in.

Middle East Conflicts – for those not in Australia, you may ask how does this affect us all the way down here in Australia ? Well, it may not impact you directly, but it could and does impact some friends, family members, colleagues and clients and our communities – Australia is a wonderfully diverse combination of cultures most originating from far away shores including Israel, Lebanon and Iran.

The Political Landscape – countries haven’t been this politically divided for decades, and with elections current and pending around the globe, the uncertainty is no doubt elevating anxiety levels

Recession fears – lower new job numbers and rising jobless rates in the US – the flow on effect here has an impact as part of the global economy

Cost of living – I’ve no doubt I’m not the only one seething at the increase in insurance premiums, fuel prices as well as fruit and veg … to name a few. Even with murmurs of a rate cut in November, inflation is at 3.9%.  We’re still quite a way from the ideal target of 2-3%.

Housing prices – the increasing probability that your children will be living under your roof until their 30’s, or they’re going to being paying ridiculous amounts in rent and have to give up on the Australian Dream of a owning a house and backyard.

Ageing – feels like an unexpected problem for many with so few offerings existing to support our ageing communities. Gen X are so busy trying to get through their day-to-day without investing their retirement plans.  For many – you’ve not put enough aside for your retirement.

Family & Children – how do you provide your children with an improvement on your childhood without spoiling or dampening their drive and ambition? How do you support your partner through their bad days when you’re in the midst of one yourself? Have you done all you can, what else can you do, how can you be better version of yourself and do more etc etc

Work – how do we grow our businesses and revenue, reduce our costs, develop our teams and help them to achieve their goals? How to support our clients and their plans – be their best selves - a fairly lofty goal in the current climate of low deal cadence, oversized teams and firms and inflated company valuations.

Me – a mid-40’s heterosexual Caucasian male…statistically speaking I will have limited future career opportunities.

Well, that’s all overwhelmingly heavy and enough to make you want to crawl deep inside and hope the sun doesn’t rise tomorrow.  These are the things that do cross my mind, and I don’t have the solutions for many, if any, of those.

What I do know is that I –

• Have a small and amazing family, great children who will excel in their own right

• Have a tight group of loyal, smart and driven friends who challenge me

• Work in a role that I love with a great group of people that are important to me

• have two cracking dogs that bounce out of bed to say hello as soon as they hear me

I feel lucky to have all of this … all I have to do is show up every day and try to be a little bit better than yesterday

The best advice I can give is surround yourself with good people who 1) have your back but also 2) call you out for your BS - treat them with respect and try to be a little better each day.

Contact Adam and the JMES team with any comments or queries.