So where am I now and how do I feel about it? Honestly? I’m in a good place. I’m happy. Even typing this, I’ve had to stop and think “am I really happy or am I just saying it because I don’t want readers to think I’m a sad wreck?” I can hand on heart say, life is good. It’s not without its challenges, but life is good. I remember being a fresh-faced 16 year old, making what I thought were over ambitious plans for myself but not really having much focus. 10 years later and a mixture of life and love has seen me go down different paths. I’m a 26 years old, single mother to THE most amazing 5 year old (we’ll come to him another time), I have a great job and career that I love and am about to embark on the next chapter of my life that will see me finally go to university. As it goes, if I died tomorrow, I would be proud of what I’ve accomplished but I want more. For those that have read my post on “Starting a Business”, you’ll know I’m a massive advocate of writing a business plan and reviewing it regularly. As far as I’m concerned, my life is my business so you better believe I have a plan! I’ve reviewed it regularly, sense-checked my progress and often changed it in response to life events and different paths I’ve found myself on. At 16, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew I was going to do A levels and wanted to work in either Law, Banking or Medicine so opted in to Maths, Chemistry and Biology. Although I’ve always been quite smart, I quickly discovered I lacked drive and motivation and only now realise it’s because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was stuck in that common rut of “I have to continue my studies but I have no clue what I’m doing”. Towards the end of the first year, I applied for a “summer job” at a bank and then decided to stay and take a gap year. That gap year lasted 9 years (whoops!) but my goodness I needed it! During that time, I set myself a goal that my salary must always be higher than my age. Simple, maybe somewhat shallow, but a goal is a goal and it’s kept me on my toes. In those 9 years, I’ve climbed and bank hopped to my current position and built up a nice little knowledge bank but also professional network. Whilst my work has given me a lot of exposure to the legal profession, I’ve found my interest in the law has come mainly from helping friends and family out of tricky situations so it was only right that I consulted my trusty “life plan” and see how I could further develop myself. To date, I haven’t documented my plan but as Habbakuk says, “write the vision, and make it plain…” and so this week, I’m off to buy a journal to write down my vision for my life that I can regularly review and support with affirmations and wise words. In terms of detail, I’m not sure how deep I’m going to go with it, but I’m trying a lil thing! 

Watch this space x