“Variety Club”
I have literally devoured the content of this article (p. 78, March 2012 UK issue of Psychologies Magazine) as it felt like it was written for me!
Whenever people ask me what I do (e.g. when I attend networking events), I’m at a bit of a loss. I tend to focus on the work that is most relevant to the event I’ve attended, then mention, in an embarrassed/jokey way all the other careers I’m juggling at the same time. I thought I was slightly dysfunctional for having so many different jobs and, thanks to this article, I now know that I’m not alone in my choice not to settle for just one thing.
After working for other people most of my life, I gradually bought into the company I now own 50% of (www.jarvisjohnson.co.uk) as well as then setting up another company (www.interimbank.co.uk) with my business partner. In addition to this, I decided (after re-kindling the ‘performing’ bug by being a contestant on ‘Britain’s Best Dish‘) that I wanted a presenting & voice-over career; I’ve been working on this for about 8 months now and have succeeded in obtaining some paid and unpaid voice-over work as well as some presenting work, including my own weekly radio show Simply Fred on local community radio station Sine FM. In the last couple of weeks, a friend and life/business coach inspired me to go for my dream (to have my own cookery TV show) by setting up a YouTube channel with accompanying website, this blog and facebook page.
Like Katie Antoniou, featured in the ‘Variety Club’ article, I work 7 days a week and most evenings. Yes, I’m often exhausted, but the additional careers I’m in the throes of launching are the ones that give me the most pleasure and, with the different jobs I’m currently juggling, I feel like I have balance in my life.
Jane Travis, also featured in the article, mentions the traditional view of work/life balance and how she feels that doing work she really wants to do in an atmosphere she wants to be in is a better definition, and I agree. The traditional view of work/life balance assumes that work isn’t part of our lives, when in reality, even in a ‘nine to five job’, we spend most of our waking hours working, so we might as well do something we love & feel passionate about; and if we have more than one passion, why stick to only one career?