It wasn’t just a blogging whim that sent me on this two year journey: I decided to overhaul my life for a reason. I wasn’t enjoying my life as it was, and something had to change. And why waste time changing things one at a time when I could do a complete overhaul? I wanted things to change fast. And everything, from cutting sugar out of my diet, to changing my career, to spending more time with my friends, has been designed to boost my enjoyment of life. Why waste time being miserable?
A big part of sorting out your life for the better is to do with getting your friendships right. However, this is often ‘easier said than done’! After all, everyone will have those little fallouts from time to time… but patching things up with your friends is not always a straightforward matter, especially if it has all been left to fester for a bit too long. Then you have your own flesh and blood to consider… and we all know how unpleasant a family feud can become!
As you must know by now – I’m sure I go on about it enough on this here blog – I am in the long and arduous process of sorting out my life. Hmm, a tricky thing I can tell you, and not something to rush into!
And, while not rushing into things is important, not wasting time is critical as well. That’s what we’re now going to explore here in the following example. Jane, meet everyone. Everyone, meet Jane…
Jane finished college and, by chance, got a job at a pop up displays company. It wasn’t what she wanted to do or anything, but the people were good and kind and the job – which involved helping manufacture the displays themselves – was hassle free. The problem was…a year after she started, a brand-new company started advertising in the newspaper…a company who manufactured bigger and better displays. Jane knew as soon as she saw the ad for new employees that she wanted to go for it, but she was also the kind of person who was easily settled and not easily turfed out of a rut. If I hadn’t been for Michael, the guy she bumped into as she rushed home from work one day, she’d probably never have called them and got an interview and got the job…
…one thing I know for sure from what I have done so far and how I have overhauled my life: if you don’t ask, you don’t get…
Changing one’s life might be a quite serious endeavour especially when it comes to professional occupation. But a recent trend the corporate world has shown a very smooth transition from one profession to another when it comes to lawyers going into investment banking. Multiple reasons exist why this transition is far easier than any other career swaps and the benefits from such a transition might significantly overreach the stereotype of people aiming to stay focused on one area of expertise solely.
What is investment banking? Investment banking, as well described in the video below by a leading investment banker from Australia, is an activity performed by financial institutions that include management of investments made by financially strong fund providers, risk management and money management services, money raising for corporate institutions and international trade transactions. It is a complex gird of financial operations that require significant skills not only in mathematics! To understand it fully, a person needs significant experience in the world of banking and sometimes even the people providing teacher training courses in investment banking do not completely understand all the aspects of such financial institutions as investment banks.
How is law related to investment banking? Law is investment banking’s best friend. All major banks deal with third party customers and this is why drawing contracts in accordance with the financial situation in the world is an activity mainly performed by lawyers and legal experts. They understand the necessity of making fair contracts for the customers and, at the same time, making the right deal for the bank they work for.
Why changing professions? If you consider law as being unfair practice areas for your legal knowledge, investment banking would offer you a solution. It is a much more stable area of professional development and offers some of the greatest job packages. Investment banking specialists have been among the most well paid individuals during the last decade and as employees, they have certain and unprecedented income that keeps increasing with every signature a legal expert puts on a completed contract.
Now, if you have a moment, I’d like you to partake in an experiment and do something for me: open up your Facebook account – if you haven’t already got it open, of course – and then open up your friends list. Now do the following:
1) For each name, write down how often you think about emailing them.
2) For each name, write down when the last time you heard from them was.
3) For each name, write down when the last time you saw them was.
4) For each name, write down how much this person means to you on a scale of 1 to 10.
After doing that, I think you’ll find out a few things about yourself. One of those things might be this: I have more friends than I can realistically keep track of, and it’s time to accept that actually, I only have a few good friends.
my best friends were actually a group of five or six people who I had known for a very long time and trusted implicitly
For some this might be reason to feel sad; it might make them feel like they aren’t wanted, and that if they were to vanish off the face of the Earth then nobody would be upset about that. For me it wasn’t and I didn’t have that reaction. It was actually a breath of fresh air. I realised, perhaps for the first time in a long time, that my best friends were actually a group of five or six people who I had known for a very long time and trusted implicitly. Quite simply: beyond them I didn’t have time for other people. It wasn’t a negative against all the people in my Facebook list, it was just the reality of modern day living and the restrictions imposed on my life by having a full-time job and other more important commitments.
There are other reasons why some people have a lot of Facebook friends, I think. Those reasons are as follows:
1) It feels good to have a lot of friends. It makes you feel loved and cared for.
2) It’s easier to find a plumber or an electrician or handymen if you have tons of Facebook friends and they can connect with loads more friends. 3) It gives you something to do. Communication is addictive.
For me, I think the future will mean more phone calls and less emails to people I barely know. Personally, I happen to think that keeping my existing friendships in good health is more important than making many more friendships which will probably only get in the way.
The day I gave up cake it hurt: that’s really about as succinct as I can put it. Painful in every way, the day before I gave up cake and bad things – anything with sugar in, basically – I had a massive binge. This was then followed by the worst sugar-hangover I have ever endured. It was horrific, let me tell you; and you know what the really stupid thing is? I actually quite miss it.
Now it’s got a bit better: I rarely even think of cake or chocolate. But that wasn’t the case about 6 months ago. No…back then I was a proper sugar-junkie on the come-down…one who wasn’t in a very good mood much of the time, and one who despised the sight of vegetables. Any vegetable, I hated them aaaaaaaaaall!
alcohol turns to sugar, so essentially that’s out the window too
…But what can you do. The whole point of a radical-life-overhaul is to make a new and start again. You can’t break a few eggs without putting yourself through the ringer after all. Now I know how the eggs must feel…
Here are a few tips which should help you do a similar thing. You don’t need to do it as extremely as I did – in fact, I would advise you don’t if you have even an ounce of sense – but it’s good to start off as you mean to go on:
1) Get used to people eating nice things right in front of you. It’s not easy – it’s about as easy as asking for financial advice when you studied economics, for example – but it can be done. When you get a handle on this one you’ll feel a certain power. And wow, let me tell you it feels pretty GOOD.
2) Don’t fall off the wagon: to make this thing work properly you’ll need to be strict. There’s no sense doing it unless you’re doing it 100% right, so no keeping stuff in the secret stash place, or else you’ll never succeed!
3) Don’t drink either: alcohol turns to sugar, so essentially that’s out the window too. I know this sounds potentially disastrous, but what you must remember is that alcohol gets you dependant and the doesn’t let you go. By staying off it for as long as 6 months you’ll feel infinitely better and life will become easier as a result. Plus you’ll save a lot of money, which is a very fine reason in itself!
Now, first things first, it’s time to establish some facts:
1) This article may hurt some peoples feelings, especially if they adore their clothes.
2) This article will be earnest and honest.
3) This article will speak the truth, so be warned!
Let’s begin here: last night I had a monster clothes clear-out. I mean, I went through all my stuff and was ruthless about it. None of this Oh, maybe I will keep that malarkey. If I found More
I am a real chocolate lover: and I mean a real one. I don’t eat any of that rubbish chocolate me, oh no, I only eat the best. The best, of course, comes at a price. And until recently I had no idea quite how great that “price” was…
It turned out it was a lot. As much as 30 English pounds every week on chocolate. Toooooo much money! So I decided to forge a vicious 5 pronged attack on More
Things I am doing to overhaul my life, and you may wish to follow suit!
1) Not catching the bus into town anymore: this is a big one for me. I always used to just hop on the bus and walk into town without a second thought…but then I realized I was just standing there not doing anything and it seemed ridiculous. So I made a rule to walk the twenty minutes into town from now on. And guess what? More
As anyone who has ever gotten stung by a particularly nasty internet virus will tell you, once that thing has sunk its fangs into your hard drive, there is no escape. When the circumstances are in your favour – you have anti-virus software and your firewall is turned on – it can be OK, and the misery can be confined to a few hours of anger and frustration. But mark my words: when the circumstances are bad, you can be More
