This weekend was a pretty monumental one for English sport.

Whether rugby union, rugby league, cricket, tennis or Formula One is your thing, it was a weekend of outstanding sporting moments where some of our nations brightest and best reached the absolute pinnacle of their sports.

For every competitor, it was the culmination of years of dedication and hard work and justification for all the early mornings, painful training sessions and significant sacrifices necessary to become an elite sportsperson.

But the incredible sporting moments this weekend were not just the pinnacle for those taking part but also for all those who shared their journey – not least the parents who were there to encourage and support their children in achieving their dreams, be it financially, emotionally or logistically!

This was touchingly captured in a post on LinkedIn last week by Steve Livingstone, whose son Liam was about to play in the cricket World Cup Final in Melbourne – and would end up actually batting when England hit the winning runs.

Steve decided in 2018 to step off the corporate ladder to have the flexibility in his lifestyle to support his youngest living his dream – ‘I got fed up of sitting in meeting rooms and getting texts from my wife watching him playing cricket and saying things like ‘it’s sunny here and Liam has scored a hundred.’’’

Writing the post from 40,000ft as his plane was heading into to Australia for the final, Steve finished with this piece of advice – “make the decisions that balance your life and ensure you can be part of your children’s dreams, not a bystander looking on from afar”.

It is such a simple message and yet more often than not we drift through our lives without taking the action that enables us to do the things that are really important to us.

As the saying goes, our biggest regrets in life will be the things that we didn’t do rather than the things that we did.

There really is nothing as precious as time and when we actually look at how we spend our short lives and who we spend time with, it really does reinforce how quickly our lives change and how easy it is for us to lose focus on the things that matter the most to us.

According to the American Time Use Survey, the time we spend with our children peaks in their childhood and declines sharply after the age of 20 to the point where if children move away, you may only see your children dozens of times again in your life (if you are lucky). A scary thought and yet the reality for so many. 

For parents, this means that the time spent with their children will typically peak in their 30s and then declines shortly thereafter. Time with our children really is short and those ‘magic years’ really will fly by if you let them.

The survey also highlights some interesting features about our lives such as the fact that we will spend more time with co-workers than anyone else in our lives apart from our partner and so choosing who you work with is right up there with the most important decisions you can make (after choosing your partner!)

And potentially the most challenging for some is the reality that as we go through our lives, we will spend more time on our own than with anybody else, particularly as we move into middle and older age.

All of this means that we have to cherish every moment of our lives, prioritise what really matters to us and not settle for anything less than a life that is going to make us happy.

Having the financial freedom to be able to make these decisions clearly helps (particularly if you are following your cricket-playing offspring around the world) but this is not just a question of money, but one of mindset.

The question we ask every single client before they embark on their own investment journey is what good looks like to them in terms of the lifestyle they want to live – and you would be amazed how many people have never really thought about it and also how many of the things that they desire have nothing at all to do with wealth. 

Ultimately, we can all enjoy the lifestyle that we want, spend time with the people that are important to us and work with the people that provide the life energy we crave, if we decide that is what we are going to do and then plan accordingly. 

That is the incredible power of being a human being – we can literally do and anything that we want but we have to commit to the future that we want and then take the required action, whatever that may be. 

Not all of our children will become world-class sportspeople but of course that is not the point, having breakfast with your mum on a Saturday morning or curling up on the sofa to watch a movie with the family may seem like the simplest of pleasures but they can also be out of reach unless you have decided that they are the things that are important to you.

So don’t let life just pass you by – ask yourself today what good looks like in your life and then start making a plan that is going to help you get there. As the great Frank Sinatra once said: “You only go around once, but if you play your cards right, once is enough.”