seen your wife, kids or husband lately

Being a mother, father, husband, wife, brother, sister or a friend is a privilege - yet so many of us take these roles for granted. These days, many of us are putting our career aspirations ahead of family and friendships - trying to 'fit' them into our busy schedules - if we can 'spare' the time.

What we fail to realise is that our most precious commodity in life is time. And the major source of our happiness comes from the time we share with others - most importantly our family, friends, and those in our community.

"We think that the harder we work the more we can offer our family. But being a provider involves more than being a source of finance - that's what banks are for. Rather, it involves providing for our family's real needs ... which can't be bought anywhere ... "

Understanding and developing relationships are also important professionally - where the ability to listen to ideas, empathise, build rapport and work in teams is a real advantage. Many of us have these skills at in the workplace, however, don't practice them so much outside of our workplaces.

Most of us will say that what we value most in life is our family and friends; however, this is not necessarily reflected in our actions. We engage ourselves in pursuits we 'think' will create happiness in our lives and make us feel important - when all the while the most important pursuits are right in front of us ...