This week for example, my planned 'quiet day' with two meetings and time to enjoy the moment has been sacrificed to accept an invitation to a London event. No ordinary event, it's a Big Society workshop for senior civil servants and I'm told one or two Ministers of State. It's a unique opportunity to share my views with people able to shape policy and I hope, be swayed slightly in their thinking by the experiences I'll be sharing within them from my work at the 'Big Society' coalface. And yes, I'll learn from them too.
But the fact remains that my week now feels as if it's accelerating out of control. Much of this is of course perception and panic, whilst the reality means time to think and write on trains and for a couple of hours on Thursday morning in my favourite London hotel.
Being busy forces you to prioritise, to make time for the projects you're committed to completing. It also forces you to tread that fine line between saying yes to everything and sacrificing your sense of self and sanity, and being selective to protect what matters to the inner self.
It's a difficult path to tread and mot one foreseen when setting ambitious career goals.
1 comment:
I'm a sinlge handed training provider sat alone in my home office. Strugling, as I have been doing for the last ten months, to diversify, change markets, look at new ways of delivering to meet the needs of the present climate,find new clients outside of the public sector.
I'm 55 in August 2011.
My busines has previously flourished and provided me with a work life balance which I enjoyed for ten years. Having the rug pulled out from under me led to some mental health issues earlier in the year which highlighted that following my fathers experience of unemployment whilst I was a young girl I have been left with a dread of being similalry afflicted. I know there are many peole in worse circumstances and I cannot comprehend how they cope. My life is a constant round of telephone calls and following up contacts from colleagues who although they are unable to provide work are trying to support me.
I don't expect that things will be as they were any time soon but some ray of hope would be nice.
You don't have to answer, just a reflection from my office in Lincoln
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