Quantity produces quality...

Quantity produces quality. If you only write a few things, you're doomed.
Ray Bradbury

So this is the article I wrote for the stylist - After mentioning it to someone they said- Its like you want women to be put back 50 years! It is not what I meant but now on reflection I can see their point. The point of the article was just that we sometimes have too many choices and we dont know what to do! anyway have a read and see what you think:

Too Many Choices

Last night over a tub of Ben and Jerrys my best friend looked me in the eye, pointed her spoon at me and asked “Do you think the reason for your apathy with your job is because you have too many choices? I looked at her in bewilderment for a couple of seconds before realising what she meant.

This appears to be a problem for most women in their late twenties and thirties, unlike the generation of our mothers, we women have the world at our feet. The proverbial glass ceiling has been lifted and it has left us with too many choices. We have access to education in all sorts of forms and in pretty much any subject we can imagine, and to accompany this there is a plethora of jobs that we can apply for (our economy depending). On-line grocery shopping makes our lives easier, and if we choose there are all sorts of childcare options if we want to focus on a career. No longer is a woman expected to be a stay-at-home mother or housewife with limited job opportunities. For the modern woman who knows where she wants to be in her life this is a blessing. She can be a full time working mother, run a local book club and do the weekly shop, all whilst training for a marathon in her spare time. However, for the rest of us mere mortals we just don’t know where to begin.

We begin our careers with a job we think we are going to be good at, but for the majority of us it’s not quite that simple, is it? And so we attempt something else, maybe we try our hand at another career or take six months out to travel and ‘find’ ourselves; perhaps just to delay making that all important decision as to ‘what we want to do with our lives.’  Better still we throw ourselves into education, a short course now and again with the hope that we will find our true vocation. And we set ourselves up to achieve all of this whilst finding a mate for life and procreating, because this is the only ‘must do’ that has been left over from the generation before and consequentially been indoctrinated into us.

Surely this is impossible for any young woman to achieve, but in an ever evolving world where nothing is deemed as impracticable and at all times there is an invisible hand of pressure squeezing us for every last ounce of our energy to try and achieve the impossible, we strive to realise this. So many women are now looking to marry later in life, because we feel we have too much to do before we settle down. Our lives are full of choice and because of this many of us can’t seem to make a decision.

I looked down into the swirl of Cherry Garcia which was slowly melting in my bowl and stirred the gooey dessert, realising my best friend was right. I have two degrees and a professional qualification, I have written a book and have completed countless short courses as well as having taken a career break to travel the world and somewhere in between I tied the knot with my ever so patient partner. Yet I still don’t know what I want to do with my life, or where I should focus my energies.

The next day at work, I sit at my desk and write my thoughts down that soon evolve into this article and I know three quarters of my female friends are in this same predicament. As I sip on my green tea I know I can no longer ignore that seed of doubt that has been rooted in my mind telling me that I am in the wrong job. Maybe, just maybe it is time for another short course.