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The compass always points in the correct direction, it’s the traveller who goes off course. 

The difficulty, these days, with setting targets and objectives are a “true north” direction of travel is that there are so many distractions to push you off course. 

There are times that I think that I am cleverer than that, but it only takes a moment to show me that, that is just pure arrogance and I am the same as everybody else. 

We are bombarded with distraction and temptation to pull us away from the path that we have chosen. 

So, it happened again on holiday in Cornwall, and the contrast between the different worlds was never clearer. 

On the first morning of being there, Alison and I took the dog for a long walk along the beach and met an old guy walking his dog in the opposite direction. 

So, as dog walkers on holiday, we stopped to chat and find out what was going on in his world. 

He lives in Portsmouth, with his wife and his dog, he is retired now and he has a caravan on top of the cliffs. He lives there all summer with his wife and his dog, only going back home to stay over night once or twice to make sure his house insurance remains valid (I didn’t know you had to do that but I do now). 

He wants to walk his dog on the beach and meet people like us and talk to them and live a peaceful life, looking at beautiful scenery and probably reflecting on the things that he has done. He told me quite candidly, that there was no way he could afford to live in Constantine or around any of the bays there, due to the cost of housing and the house that he has in Portsmouth would never allow him to sell up and do that, so he was happy to settle for the caravan, the opposite is to what is happening on the road to Constantine Bay. 

We are lucky (very lucky) that we have family who have a very small flat close to the beach in Constantine, that we can have access to. It’s a squash and a squeeze for the 5 of us and a dog, but it’s so close to the sand and so close to the sea, that the size of it makes no difference. 

The funny thing is though, that as you turn down towards the beach in Constantine Bay, there is a road downhill that runs about half a mile. 

I’ve been going there for 10 years or more now and what has happened is that, any of the houses that have come up for sale, they are knocked down and replaced with modern slate and Cornish stone, architecturally designed masterpieces. 

The gardens are manicured and landscaped, the security gates are high, the balconies are broad, generally the drives are filled with large 4 by 4’s (overfinch range rovers). 

When chatting to the guy on the beach with the dog, he tells me that the house closest to the car park on Constantine, which has just sprung up since the last time we were there, was a result of a deal struck with the owner of a previous house that had existed. 

For £1.8 million, the new owners bought the land and agreed to finish building a house for the existing owner on the site, before they built their own. 

They have an indoor swimming pool and more rooms then I can count, and some of those high security gates. As most people do in these circumstances, and as I have done for each of these houses that have sprung up, and now there are many, I wonder what you do for a living to be able to do that. 

Then I do the holiday thing and get a little bit angry and a little bit annoyed and think, that if I sell everything up, then maybe I could do that. 

But these people aren’t living here, they’re just visiting and the houses are just sitting there, empty for a lot of the time. So, they’re not playing by the same rules as me and they are not paying the same game that I am playing. 

So, I can develop a plan as I walk on the beach, to cash-in everything and sell the business, move to Constantine and build a house, and then what?  

How soon before someone like me is bored of walking his dog everyday? 

How soon before the lack of contribution, to something other than me, leads to depression and self-loathing and loss of direction? 

Ages ago I set my true north (and we all have the privilege of doing that) the tiredness, the fatigue from the emotional effort of trying to stay on course, is nothing to do with not getting enough sleep or exercising too much, or working long hours, it’s actually the psychological, emotional labour of creating a shield to protect yourself from these distractions that would knock you off course. 

 Blog Post Number - 1983