I was recently sent this blog to read by one of my colleagues (http://quitewellintoss.blogspot.com/2011/07/lou-reed-eat-eat-yer-heart-out.html) – I would strongly recommend stopping the clock and casting your eye over it for five minutes. In summary it’s the thoughts of a man who realises just how important it is to recognise what life gives you, and to fully appreciate everything that you have. It’s well written and certainly something which will make you think.
So why do I mention it? Well, take some time to think over your own life. Chances are that there are areas that you wish to improve on. By my own reckoning (and I’m no expert) there are various main ‘parts’ that make-up your life; the importance and emphasis on each will change at various times depending on your circumstances but those ‘parts’ are:-
• family & relationships;
• finances
• health;
• career;
• faith & beliefs;
• hobbies & leisure; and
• ambitions.
Each of us places a different emphasis on each of these areas but generally speaking everybody should have some element of each incorporated into their life. We could introduce another category of ‘general happiness’, but an argument could be made that your happiness is almost a result of your success in each category. Of course the government will tell us that we can even measure this happiness, although we await official confirmation of how this will be worked out and the units of measurements – I’ll keep you posted.
Anyway, let’s take those parts I mentioned and look at what you can control and to what extent.
Health; well there are certain things that you just can’t cover, but healthy eating, regular exercise and perhaps one less glass of wine at that networking event would be a step in the right direction.
Faith & beliefs are personal and would require more than one blog to cover – so far more than 2000 years of ‘discussion’ hasn’t resolved differing opinions on that one.
The career aspect is one which is largely within your control, and your career will have a bearing on your levels of satisfaction relating to both finances and ambitions, and how much time you get to devote to family & relationships and hobbies & leisure. So if you’re not entirely happy with your career, or if you’re finding that it is not rewarding the other parts of your life sufficiently then you owe yourself to have a look at it. If you are working a 50-hour week, which is pretty likely if you’re an associate trying to hit those 1500+ billable hours then you are spending almost half of your wakened life at the office, so if you’re not enjoying it then frankly you need to get out.
Conversely if you are the kind of full-on corporate billing machine who signed up at law school with the full intention of selling yourself to the capitalist dream, yet find yourself in a 9-5 firm where the client base is poor and the equity spread stops at £80k then you may well find that those aspirations and ambitions you had are far from fulfilled.
As the summer holidays start to kick in and people head for sunnier climes then it may be worth spending some time whilst you’re on the beach thinking about where you want to be once you return.
Are you earning the kind of money you think you need to be?
Are you satisfied with your work/life balance?
Can your present firm offer you the prospects which are so crucial to you being able to say “actually, yes, I am absolutely happy with my lot”?
If not then why not speak to someone about resolving this. You owe it to yourself, surely? Who knows, maybe your own ‘perfect day’ could be just around the corner.
To discuss your aspirations and ambitions, and to talk to experts in the market about which type of opportunity is most likely to meet those requirements, call us at VG Charles & Co on 0121 233 5000 / 020 7649 9094 or visit our website www.vgcharles.com
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