This Month...

This month three things are happening to me...

1. I am moving flats.

2. I am starting my 3d placement

3. I am going on holiday to Ibiza

What makes this a particularly interesting month is that this is all happening in one weekend. I arrive back from holiday the same day I am due to move out from my flat and start my next placement the following Tuesday. Needless to say, this will be a really interesting weekend.Conveniently, as there are three things happening, three thoughts in particular occurred to me...

1. Having something to look forward to keeps me focused on the moment... Something that I respond really well to is having something to look forward too. I cant wait to go on holiday, and by and large, I think that the holiday has had a positive effect on my work. By having the "prize" at the end of the tunnel, I am willing to put in longer hours, inconvenience myself and generally take myself out of my comfort zone.

This I think is in part down to the fact that I know I have a full week out of the business coming up.There is one really interesting thing about this, for me anyway. We all get holidays as part of our contracts, so, technically we 'deserve' them (or at least are entitled to them).

However, I view them as a reward for the work I do - they are a motivation for me to work hard. The conclusion for me here is two fold. Firstly, I am motivated to work hard by the potential to not work. Just what this says about my job, I am not sure, but it certainly implies that I value my time off.

Secondly, being rewarded is important for me. While I may like to say that I don't need rewards or recognition from other people (and I do like to say this), it seems that I need at least some sort of recognition from myself. If I am motivated to work hard in order to enjoy my holiday, I at least need that "self recognition" that I deserve a break in order to fully enjoy it. This tells me a lot about how I view myself.

2. 3rd Placement...3rd time still lucky? This is more of an out and out question. So far, I have felt very lucky since moving to London. I have met some great people, I have developed a really good group of people I enjoy socialising with and, generally, feel accepted. My 3rd placement represents the 3rd time in a year I have changed job roles and work place (4th if you count my previous job), and I wonder, can the luck keep up.

I am really positive with regards the role and the people I am working with, but it will be interesting to see how this works out. Its not that I am pessimistic, but from experience, luck does run out.At which point you need to ask, was it good decision making or luck in the first place.

3. New Flat, New Flatmates, New Start? I am quite excited about moving flats. My family aside, I have only ever lived with 4 different groups of people (2 at Unit, 1 in Belfast and 1 in London) and living with another new set will be very interesting. My expectations are that everyone will keep themselves to themselves and it will be quite a quiet group of people, but I cant be sure (having only met one of them for 15 seconds).

However, what is interesting for me is that the people I live with have become almost an aside to my life.When picking a flat, I was more interested in the following 5 things:

1. Location (near work)

2. Location (near Stamford Bridge / central London)

3. Nice Room4

. Location (nice area - apologies for the cliché)

5. Football - local football!

Who I lived with was almost an after thought. Which made me think about my priorities in London. My priorities are definitely the following three things:

1. making a success of my job

2. enjoying myself physically (e.g. playing football)

3. having a good social life

This is the first time in my life where none of these priorities were directly tied to the people I lived with. To be quite honest, from some one who grew up with a quite close family unit, this surprised me that the people I shared my home with were almost an afterthought.

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So, what does all this mean....well , I can draw three conclusions, then I am off to bed....

1. Priorities remain the same - I still want to be happy, have a fulfilling challenging job

2. BUT, what drives them change - I am now less concerned with my home and more concerned with my job / career. Who'd have thought it.

3. Time off matters - Basically, taking time off and time out makes me enjoy myself more and makes me more productive. Turns out, I am not the "machine" I once told someone I was, and those basic human needs surface at some point or another.--

I guess that this post was really about what is currently 'driving' me to work.

I've found this summer to be really tough for a variety of reasons, but what appears to be constant is that with good social life, challenging work life and something to loaf forward to, you can still feel pretty good about things.

Bring on Ibiza!

DD