Dear LPG readers,

I wonder if anyone out there in LPG land agrees with this train of thought?

Our time at home over the past year and a half has allowed us all a bit of deep and meaningful thinking time, and while all the Covid-19 news has been a preoccupation for many of us, I think most would agree that lockdown has given us all time for some of that heartfelt personal-life reassessment that we often don’t have time for when things are normal.  

In my experience, by the time we get to our 60s we are often in danger of getting so caught up with the complexities of our lives that we often have little time to step back, take an objective look and review just exactly what is going on in the situation we are living at that time. 

Looking back, I often wonder if I would ever have taken half the jobs I did when I was of working age if I knew what they entailed before I started.  Reading a job description again after having been in the job for six months leaves workers thinking that they would write the whole job description again more accurately if there was the need to do so.  

The other thing about job descriptions is that they can be compared to those plans that we have for life before it all gets a bit distorted.  I remember planning it and having my whole future all mapped out before I left school but, by the time you get to the age that most people are when they read the LPG pages, looking back has little to do with the blueprint we planned for life when our parents first let go of the reins.

I wonder how your life has differed from the blueprint that you had mapped out for yourself all that time ago, and it would also be interesting to find out how many of us think that we can look back on a life that turned out above, on par or below expectations …

I think that many lives do measure up although in a very different way to the original plan, but there is no doubt that there are always a few elements that need our attention. 

Having stretched my mind this far, I am reassessing my blueprint with a view to redressing the balance just a little.  The last 18 months have forced many of us to suspend our dreams, aspirations and daily routines, so as we gradually can return to normality, I hope that my written ramblings might inspire a few more readers to embark on a new life-plan which redresses the balance a little more.

There is no point in regretting any part of what has gone before, but perhaps now is the time to update the blueprint for the future.

RB, Brockley