Work in progress

Something about living away from home/nearly home (London is not my original home) makes me re-evaluate myself and what I’m about. I did it in Japan, took up exercising in a serious way and lost weight. I also completely changed my career direction and ended up where I am now. I also put back on that weight during the past 5 years – thanks very much crazy busy job. In Germany I became the consummate extrovert and even joined a drama club.

So now, being abroad once more, I am looking at where I am seriously and contemplating whether it is where I want to be.

Physical location: No, I didn’t envisage myself in Tanzania but it’s fine for the short term. For the long term I think James and I are starting to think about how we can ensure that our physical locations are the same as each other. Trickier than you might think given how economies have tanked over the past year or so. He likes his job and I’d be happy to change mine but getting one near his may not be feasible for quite some time.

Emotional location: Happy, happy, happy with James. Turns out moving here so that we could be a couple properly was a good move. We still haven’t moved past the honeymoon stage and long may it last. Emotionally I’m feeling so-so about work. Given that I’ve only done three weeks now this may change in either direction. What I am not is busy and that always makes me discontent and bored with work. I prefer to be busy all day long and I’m very good at being able to leave work and work and at going home at a reasonable time. My emotions about the rest of my life are currently at the level setting of ‘content’. Sure, I’d like to be a few kilos lighter but big deal, my clothes fit me and I’m not gaspingly unfit.

Mental location: Mentally (and how is this different to emotionally really?) I think I require a bit of a kick to sort out my motivation. For instance, I haven’t managed to learn much Swahili and usually I’m all over languages. I can’t seem to sort out a gym routine – something that I actually usually enjoy.

Where does this leave me? – generally happy and content. I am however becoming increasingly aware that what I do is not what I want to be doing in 5 years time or even 2 years time. There is a distinct danger that I’ll end up doing another two years here as I’ll complete a year here for definite and then will go back to working at the same thing in London and hey presto, I’ll have done two years. I think it’s time to bust out my project planning skills and plan my way out of this rut. First things first – thing long and deep about what I want from a job. What makes you stick at yours? Is it what you wanted to do? Do you want to do something else?

Photo Credit: weheartit.com (very little to do with the post but pretty!