I am only 24 hours from.....

Across my group of friends, colleagues and family are people with an incredible array of skills and professions.  I know teachers, roofers, a journalist, photographers and television producers.  Small business owners and Vice-Presidents, mothers of 5 who work and stay-at-home fathers.  People who have acted at the Edinburgh Fringe, with degrees in Japanese and mathematics and people dyslexic or who left school at 16 that have gone on to be hugely successful in business. 

And they all have one thing in common.  Just 24 hours in a day and a choice on what to do with that time.

A marvellous example of this was when I received an email from LinkedIn that casually informed me that one of my friends had a new job: 'Clinical Scientist'. 

I got in touch to say congratulations and express my delight that I now know an actual scientist.  His reply was: "Thanks, it only took 10 years of studying and a further 10 years at work to get there...."

I started looking at other friends and thinking about how they got to where they are.  The ones who followed their calling into journalism, photography, and production did not 'fall into' their jobs.  I remember the years of them being skint and slogging their guts out at the bottom of their professions.  

The Corporate VP works until 11, and often later, every night because she wants to give her children incredible opportunities that were not open to her.  My brother can take me on a tour of Basingstoke and show me houses that are watertight because he spent years on site learning how to put up a roof. 

Then there are those that volunteer hours of their time to pre-schools, scout groups and charities because they want to pass on life-skills, motivate children and directly improve the lives of others.  They put this time in because they have a clear picture of what they want the end result to be.

So I will follow their examples and make sure that I am dedicating proper time to what I want to achieve; their success reminds me that you only get out what you put in.  And as I do not want my epitaph to be "She was never published because she kept watching repeats of My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" you will now find me writing in the evening and not in front of the TV...