Thursday 30 January 2014

Oh shi.. I'm almost thirty!

So if you read the title and thought 'Hey, that's me..', well, this one's for you!

Naturally we associate with friends that get 'us', right? Our peers that are considered on our level with similar interests and a lot of commonalities. You're all the same sort of age, you probably frequent the same pubs and clubs, live in similar sort of areas and have an understanding of where each of you came from - and where you want to go.

There's nothing that bugs me more than seeing endless reports on the news, social media and the like about how the youth of today is struggling moreso than our parents did, how different things are and how the gap is widening in socio-economic perceptions. Rarely do we see positive news about what we have going for us; what we have achieved and what, quite frankly, we can achieve. The glass is always half empty on the media front, leading to a pessimistic outlook as opposed to a positive expectation for our futures. Hopefully this will challenge some of your perceptions and you'll wake up tomorrow with a fresh idea on what you can change to make things happen.

I'm too busy... but I know precisely what's going on in Eastenders...

Too often we wish away the time we've got. We never find time for things because we're "too busy". We can't ever "make time" because making time is impossible, right? Perhaps not...

I've had to learn a lot of pretty intense lessons in the past few months. I've turned 25 and with it entered a new career that has developed my character and completely changed my responsibilities. Six months ago I was somewhat responsible for looking after a catalogue of thirty or so HGV drivers in the Eastern part of Kent, yet I now see anywhere between 8-15 clients per week, each of them at least three times each in guiding them through the mortgage process from start to finish. If you can't quite work out what I'm getting at; I manage my time far more effectively because time is precious, and if you'll excuse the cliché - time is money. If any of my former colleagues are reading this I guess I owe you an apology because I undoubtedly wasn't working as hard as I could've been!

Make every minute of your professional and personal lives count. Time is a too precious a commodity to be wasted, twiddling your thumbs and thinking to yourself "there must be something better out there for me". If there is; you'd be better off spending your time finding it.

Do what you love, and love what you do.

I entirely appreciate that there's incredibly few jobs in the world that just about everyone would enjoy doing. There's only 20 teams in the Premier League and although I'm completely making these numbers up, it's pretty safe to assume somewhere in the region of 80% of men would consider playing professional football for a living given the lifestyle it provides and less than 1% of those are actually in such a position. Equally, I've only read one news story on a woman that gets to test the Ann Summers catalogue pre-sale, and I'm sure there's a lot more women in the world that wouldn't consider it a bad job! (Tongue in cheek ladies, try not to take offence!)

That said, I'm incredibly confident that if you spoke to anyone considered 'successful' in their profession; they would be genuinely honest in enjoying what they do for a living. We often make the mistake of forgetting that we're so, so, early on in our careers. Chances are we'll be working up to somewhere between 65-70.. I've got at least 40 years left to carve out what I want from life; and you're no different. I haven't even been alive for 40 years which speaks volumes in itself, but I don't plan on resting on my laurels and waiting for success to land in my lap. I can't win a lottery I never play and despite the amount of hours I put in to my poker game, realistically, can't see myself turning up to the World Series and taking home a $13million payday. Not any day soon anyway.

If you're not as happy as you could be, then be honest with yourself and find something that will work for you. Lamenting in the same office everyday that fails to inspire you means you'll never discover nor strive to achieve your full potential. Don't be afraid to re-train - the harder you graft in the short term makes life a lot easier in the long run.

You're only young; but there's no harm in starting early.

1 comment:

  1. And to this man i owe a thanks for getting me a job im happy doing and am constantly told/feel im going to be successful in :-) great read Adam wade

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