The defining decade.

Good evening,

I wanted to write this post as a little extra for the week. I'm back home after some incredible adventures, with a backlog of photos and videos to edit, and beginning to get myself ready for new challenges.

Whilst I was away I read a book called The Defining Decade by Meg Jay. Whilst it was a good book, I thought it was more aimed at an audience for those a bit older and perhaps feeling a little lost in their career choices and relationships. As someone who is a recent university graduate going on to further study, I'm fortunate not to be in that position.

There were, however, a couple of things that I noted when reading it that really stuck out to me. So often we are driven to success and hope that through this success we will gain true happiness. Although I agree that it is important to be motivated to succeed, I also feel that it is important not to strive for an unrealistic happiness.

"If we only wanted to be happy, it would be easy; but we want to be happier than other people, which is almost always difficult, since we think them happier than they are." 

- Charles de Montesquieu, writer/philosopher.

We constantly compare ourselves to others, particularly through social media with aims to get likes on Instagram posts or a certain amount of followers. 

"Often the first thing we know about ourselves is not what we are- it's what we aren't."

 - Meg Jay 

If everyone had the same stories and the same photos the world would be a very boring place.

"Distinctiveness is a fundamental part of identity. We develop a clearer sense of ourselves by firming up the boundaries between ourselves and others."
- Meg Jay 

After three years at the University of Winchester I can recognise that my personality has developed and moulded into the person I am today. In the next three years it's likely that I'll say something very similar. Through experiences, changes and challenges we grow to have different understandings of the world, and everyone will be different. I'm motivated by change and I'm excited to start the next season of my adventure, and I'm going to do so by concentrating on what I am rather than what I'm not.

Look out for more photos and videos of my adventures in the next few weeks!

xxx