Tim Hammond – putting family ahead of his political career (Ep 29)

In celebration of Father’s Day and all things “dad”, we’re joined this week by Tim Hammond who made media headlines earlier this year when he resigned from his position as a Federal Member of Parliament for family reasons.   Tim was open and frank about the reasons for his resignation – he ‘just couldn’t make it work’ – but we wanted to delve deeper into the thought process that led to Tim stepping away from a career that he was so passionate about and had worked so hard to achieve.   If there is one thing that is crystal clear from our conversation with Tim, it’s that he is absolutely living life according to his own values, not anyone else’s, and it is for this reason that he says his decision, albeit complicated, wasn’t hard to make. At the end of the day, Tim’s family are more important to him than anything else, and if they weren’t happy, something had to change. Key to this decision was the family’s commitment to creating an environment where every family member is equal – dad’s happiness is no more or less important than the happiness of their children.   While Tim is happy to share his advice for other families with a parent whose career involves lots of travel, he is keen to reinforce the importance of each family determining their own values. What works for one family will be different to what works for another family.  Tim didn’t leave his busy career in politics to settle into a standard 9-5 job. Instead, he returned to his former role as a barrister and now juggles the demands that come with Court deadlines and client representation. Tim shares how he integrates his career with his family responsibilities (like us, Tim doesn’t believe in “balance”), including declaring one day a week “dad’s day” and spending it with his children.  Our absolute favourite message from our conversation with Tim is his suggestion that we should ‘work backwards’ to design our lives: if we’re 80 years old and looking back on our life, what will we want to see? Once we know how that picture looks, it is then up to us to create it.  If you want to connect with Tim, send him a message on LinkedIn.   Enjoy the episode and happy Father’s Day to all our dad jugglers.   As always, we’d love it if you hit subscribe or leave us a review and, of course, come and join us online in The Juggle Community or on Facebook and Instagram. Happy juggling!