» Features

- Join Here
- Terms & Conditions
- What is Writers Club?

Whilst browsing through a magazine a few months ago, I came across an interview with tennis ace, Roger Federer. When asked how he came to be a professional tennis player he answered, “I didn’t have much choice in the matter. I was never very good at anything else.”

Imagine knowing at ten years old that when you grow up you are going to be a tennis player? Not ‘I think I’ll be an accountant, or perhaps a writer, or maybe I’ll study languages and join the UN’ - but definitely a tennis player. Such clarity at any age is a rare gift. It allows you to focus all your energy into one endeavour. Every choice you make from that day onwards is aimed at fulfilling your ambition. Money is not an option because you know you’re going to be successful since every fibre of your being is geared towards this one single motivation. There are no half measures.

I started out well. I was reading the Famous Five by the age of nine. Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys swiftly followed. I devoured the Thorn Birds in the week following my twelfth birthday, and by high school I was reading the ‘naughty bits’ in Sydney Sheldon to my classmates. I enjoyed English, actually did quite well in it at school. I loved writing stories and essays. You might say had I taken a long hard look at myself then, my future career path was pretty straight forward. But what does a kid know at 16?

Unfortunately I was also good at Geography, History and Science. My father was a successful businessman and thought I should pursue a more financially orientated path. My mother, bless her, told me I could be anything I wanted – and she was right. But what exactly was that?

It was time to graduate to university. Not going was never an option. I toyed briefly with a career in journalism, but all my friends were going to UCT, and I too was a Capetonian, why would I want to go to Grahamstown (the only university that offered journalism as a degree), so far away from my support network and my family? So I didn’t.

Before I regurgitate entire first page of my CV I’ll get to the point. We all, at some stage or another (except maybe Roger) have been faced with choices in our lives. The paths we choose govern what we become, where we go, who we meet and ultimately our future happiness. Lucky there’s no pressure or anything…

Unless we’re a hundred percent certain about what we want to become, be it tennis player, TV presenter or a girl of the Playboy Mansion, how can we know we’re making the right decision?

Some ‘Zen-loving’ folks will say there is no wrong path in life only different ones - which is a nice way of justifying one’s lack of direction, but it doesn’t help if you’re stuck in a thankless job as an accountant and you really want to write a novel, or you’re waiting tables all day when you’d much rather be running your own restaurant. Didn’t a famous movie character once say, “I coulda been a contender. I could’ve been somebody…”? Well perhaps he just didn’t know what?

I recently asked a programming friend of mine (who has great literacy talent by the way) if he regretted not following his artistic heart. He replied the pain fades after a while, especially when he goes shopping. That answer satisfied me for about six months after which the daily grind seemed to exceed the satisfying pay check. (Okay, it’s not that satisfying… but you get my point?)

As Harry Truman once said, “The Buck Stops Here!” I’ve had enough. I’m thirty-three years old and I don’t want to be an accountant. There, I’ve said it. Sounds like a session in group therapy, which I suppose in some ways it is, but that’s my personal declaration. My goal for the next six months is to give myself a ‘make-over’ – not just professionally, but spiritually as well.

I’m going to spend more time writing, I’m going to work on that book, I’m going to start scouting around for a more creative job to get me into the right frame of mind. I’m going to wear my heart on my sleeve and be open to opportunities that come along. Money will not be my guiding light, I’m rather going to focus on personal fulfilment, because let’s face it, nobody knows me better than, well… me.

So in the words of Robin Williams I say, “Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.”

I’ll let you know how it goes.