"Your career is a marathon…"

It is February! How time flies these days.. We've had a few long weekends since the end of 2013. While it's a bane on workplace productivity, it provides a good break from the 9-5 Monday to Friday routine and….my weekends are precious

They are family time. Time to create memories and to just do things together (and of course time for some self pampering too. DND!)

favorite family activity. oh we love our meat

baking is therapy

special birthdays. happy sweet 70 mak!

and sometimes, just being there to see the kids have fun

So work hard, play hard.

My journey in the corporate world so far, is a string of choices. There are those who asks, did you plan and know where you want to be in 5 years, in 10 years? You know, like that annoying interview question where they go, 'soooo….tell me..where do you think you will be in 10 years?' and if you don't sound at all ambitious and wanting to conquer the world, you're assumed as not.

No, I didn't know. But I worked real hard (and smart..we'll talk about this later. Working hard smartly) at each phase and was then always offered the opportunity to take on bigger and bigger roles, and move up, and at each turn, i made a choice to take it on...and here I am today, after almost 18 years.

Recently, I was offered such an opportunity again. And while out of habit, I never seem to turn them down..this time, I made a different choice. 

Someone wise told me this, "Your career is a marathon. You set the pace". And he is right. It's not a sprint, it's not someone else's journey. It's mine and I can set the pace, of course with the grant of the Almighty.

I know people who have made their choices, to completely move out from the corporate world, to refuse a promotion, to become teachers even though they could be this high flying auditor in the Big 3 or a top notch lawyer in Fortune 500 multinationals…so they can have more time for family, time for kids. I respect those choices and they tell me they have no regrets.

I also know people who were faced with situations where they didn't have a choice. Lost their jobs, ill family members they need to care for etc. But the happier ones seem to be those that make a positive choice of how they deal with the situation.

At the end it's our choice. What's yours?