Do we really want it?

Ambition is not merely a "desire and determination to achieve success" as the dictionary claims.

The level of someone's ambition can be measured by the level of sacrifices he/she is ready to make to achieve success. Ambition is not a desire, it's action. It's basically staying home to revise when all your friends are going out, it's saying "no" to a night out with your friends in order to prepare for that interview.

Let's bear that in mind next time we say we want something - do we truly want it? Have we done everything we could to succeed? 
If not, either consider a. if we really want it b. if we should work more for it! 

Priorities

I started this blog a few days after I quit my job in banking.

Funnily enough, many people who also worked in banking and saved money like me could not see themselves stop working, take time to find out what they really liked and be unemployed for a short period of time. They considered it was "wasting" their savings. The way I see it, after working for x many years, my savings allowed me to take a break and find out what I really wanted to do with my life. What would be a better use of my money? A bigger flat next to the park? Nice restaurants? Nice holidays? Nice clothes? Well all these are cool - once you like what you do at work, yes (or at least when you don't hate what you do). These things are pointless if you are miserable 12 hour a day.
 
Quitting allowed me to finally sleep, cook my meals, meet people who do all sorts of jobs (or at least read about them) and properly think about what I wanted to do, and then research and apply. 

It was the best money I had ever spent in the last 5 years!

Long distance relationships

Long distance relationships always puzzled me. 
Long distance relationships with no end in sight means the following: "You are so awesome and unique. I live in a city with 3mn inhabitants and you live in a city with 4mn inhabitants. Yet, of all these people I decide I want to be with you. Yes you, the one that lives 6000km away. There is no one else in my 3mn inhabited city that is a better fit for me".

Wow. When you take a step back, it's mind blowing. Love does make you blind. Yes, that person is so truly awesome and special that you'd rather spend hours on your phone or Skype or apart because the small moments you have together are worth the energy and the money you spend trying to build a future together - from two different cities.

I did that a long time ago myself. It was just London - Paris. It was hard. From the moment we were no longer in the same city, it did not last. We were young and we did not have prospects of meeting up in the same city.. and we would have prioritised our careers over our love life any day of the week.. ah the youngsters.. To be honest, I was probably not mature enough to be able to handle such a relationship - it is a real commitment. 
I do admire people who make it work. A friend of mine started a relationship like this (Paris - NYC) and after many years of transatlantic communication ended up marrying the girl. They now live happily (ever after?) in the same city. 

A friend of mine once said "it seems in your life you are always looking for either one of these 3 things: a job, a boyfriend or a flat".
Also, that same person said that she did not believe that in this day and age, both persons in a couple could be successful in their careers and live in the same city. Someone always had to "give up" and follow the other in whichever city he got the dream job offer. How sad if true. Although I am starting to think it might be true..

Sometimes life is just that complicated and even though reason and logic are against us, we just do these things, test ourselves, test our relationship. That is also how we know better ourselves, what we want from someone, from a relationship and from our lives.