Just do it...

Well here I am. Yet again, writing an apology to myself for not posting in line with the schedule I had in my own head (which was one post a week.)

But in reality, I'm not sorry. And that's ok! This website is simply a place for me to air my thoughts and feelings for now. Quite a lot of things have happened over the last couple of months since I last made a post. Some of these have been unexpected, challenging family events that I won't discuss here. However it's not all negative. Me and my family went on an amazing holiday to Turkey and my little boy turned 2 yesterday (Where has that time gone so quickly!)

So today, I was putting off writing this post as per usual as I have a university assignment due in less than 2 weeks and I've made a small amount of progress towards completing that. However I reminded myself that I'm not under any contractual obligation to write these posts, I do it because I want to write them. Which strangely motivated me to write it.

I've just been appointed a school governor at a local primary school. A few months ago, I registered my interest to become a governor on the government website and a few weeks ago, a lovely lady called Anna who was the chair of governors at the time reached out to me and we connected. She asked if I would come to the school for a visit which I agreed to. I went and met Anna and the former headteacher of the school and was given a tour. We discussed my motivations for registering my interest and after about an hour, we agreed that I would be proposed as a governor at the next meeting. I attended this meeting last week and was officially appointed as governor.

Strangely, I felt more joy and excitement from the short amount of time I've spent at the school that I've felt in years at my corporate job. I was wondering to myself why this is? After all, it's an entirely voluntary position and I'm not gaining anything from it. But then it clicked, that's the exact reason! I've acquired a very specific set of skills in my 13+ years in retail banking which I've always thought were relatively low value, however I was looking at the wrong places to value those skills! Yes, in a big corporate machine, my skills aren't likely worth a executive director-level salary however to a small school with 100 pupils and very, very little funding. I can make a real difference using those skills! And that fills me with joy and purpose, it fuels me to learn even more and keep pushing forward with my own self development. It gives me a reason to give back, knowing that my son in just a few short years will be starting his own school journey. And like many systems in the UK, it's in drastic need of skilled, talented people to turn it around into a system where young people get the absolute best start in life.

So my takeaway from all of this would be to not always think about what money you can earn from the value you provide, think about the impact you make and how that makes you feel. I can almost guarantee if you do voluntary work, whatever that may be. That you will feel a great sense of accomplishment and pride from it and that in turn could re-ignite your purpose and jump start your career aims and objectives.