June Challenge: Day 25: Something someone told me about myself that I'll never forget (good or bad)

Day 25, Tuesday: Something someone told me about myself that I'll never forget (good or bad)

I actually think this was one of the easiest blog topics of the month, mainly because I tend to take to heart what people say about me and additionally where things are at in my life right now I've been having a lot of conversations about me and where I am going the past few weeks. 

I think the thing I would focus on that I feel I need to change, although that doesn't so much mean it's bad, is that someone very senior to me has told me recently that I'm a workaholic and that I will burn myself out before I'm thirty if I'm not careful. Anyone who knows me would probably agree with that and I'm frequently being told I work too hard. I guess for me it's trying to balance what I need to do with what I want to do and what I believe other people expect me to do. All I know is that burning out is not an option that I wish to consider so I think there definitely needs to be some time taken to reflect on where I'm going and what I'm doing, plus more time spent writing as I find this settles my soul when I'm all over the place. 

However what I've described is not the thing that has hit home the most. Many years ago now I got myself into a bit of a pickle because I did what I believed was the right thing to do despite knowing that other people would perceive that differently to me. For a while I was terrified I was about to lose everything I had worked so hard to achieve but when I was called to account for my actions things did not go as I anticipated. I was asked to honestly answer whether if faced with the same situation in the future I would act differently and I had to answer that I would not. For me what I had done was a matter of principle and conviction so therefore I was prepared to take the consequences. Far from being angry at me the person called on to challenge me over what had occurred turned to me and said that I had the strongest moral code he had ever come across and that he doubted anyone else would have been prepared to sacrifice what I had on the line over such an issue. He then made the point that they knew exactly who they were getting when they got me and that he wished there were more people like that in the world, people who were prepared to stand up and put their head above the parapet when it really counted. 

To this day that conversation remains one that I can recite because I learned a lot about how other people perceive me that day and that you can gain far more respect from people by having an opinion and standing by it than you ever can by just being a "yes man".

June Challenge: Day 3: Things that make me uncomfortable

Day 3, Monday: Things that make me uncomfortable

Short. Simple. To the point.
And sort of following on from my earlier post.

The thing that makes me most uncomfortable is watching someone do something that ethically I do not believe to be right.

I am very much a believer in doing the right thing and standing up to be counted to challenge someone who is doing something wrong. Watching someone behave inappropriately makes me feel incredibly uncomfortable and therefore I have to react, it's almost instinctive.

Never ever stand back and watch where it means you are compromising on your own ethical and moral viewpoint. Where I feel uncomfortable I will do something about it. That way I don't feel uncomfortable for long and the world around me is influenced by a culture of not passively watching bad things occur.

Always have the courage of your convictions, that way you can be sure if something around you is wrong you will always be able to do something about it.

June Challenge: Day 2: Educate others on something

Day 2, Sunday: Educate others on something I know a lot about or am good at. I would take any approach I  like (serious and educational or funny and sarcastic).

 So this in itself doesn't quite follow what I'm expected to do here nor is it on time but I can live with both those things. I spent much time reflecting on this last night because it seemed surprisingly difficult to put down in words something I could educate other people on. The things I know a lot about tend to be either completely fact based (e.g. I can name every capital city in the world without hesitation) or are things which require debate, as I have an opinion on pretty much anything. And in terms of the things that I am good at, well anything I could think of was either so boring I would be sending the to sleep or not anything I could actually put down on paper.

So that sort of left me a little stumped because no one is going to want me educating them about the political aspirations of countries they don't even know about or teaching them maths!

That in itself made me consider things, because in the past I was going to become a maths teacher. Either that or a geography one. These days it's something I cannot imagine myself doing, not because I don't think it's a positive thing to do more that it's not what I would have been happy doing.

The reason I didn't become a teacher and took up my current career was more fated than by design. I was an a grade student who got bored of school and felt pigeon holed by people who were convinced my only option was university to get myself a job. I was pushed down a route of applications to ucas and leaving home and had no energy left to protest that I just wanted to find my own way. I dropped out of university after four weeks, in which time I established that I had been right all along.

Most people thought I was mad and a lot of them told me so but as much as I suddenly felt very small in a big grown up world I knew I had done the right thing. Fast forward three months and I took a temporary administration job in an office where my desire to help people, combined with an interest in psychology and a willingness to work damn hard to forge a career gave me the stepping stones I needed to be successful.

My decision to leave university was made in October 2004, by May 2005 I was the youngest person in London doing my job and in August 2009 I got promoted for the first time. Since then I've never looked back.

I earn more now than I ever could have expected out of a post university job. I've been paid to undertake courses, and had many development opportunities - no student fees and loans for me.

And yet this isn't about that.

This is not the story of a girl who hated university. No, this is the story of someone who realised that trusting your own judgement and not letting people talk you into things is vital. If I could teach anyone out there something it would be this - the only person who can ever know what is right for you is you, so walk in your own shoes, don't be afraid to take risks and be true to yourself.

I don't always play by the rules and expectations others place on me. Nor do I set out to follow the most challenging route possible. I just do things my way and make it clear to people that if they want me to undertake something then they respect that I will have my own viewpoint on it and will be making that clear. 

Have all my decisions worked out? No. Do I regret any of them? No. Because at the time they were the right decision to make and I was following my own path. As long as you never deviate from being true to yourself you can never lose what makes you who you are.