I recently enjoyed listening to a podcast by Todd Henry on Accidental Creative, in which he went through three bits of advice he would give his 22 year old self. Go ahead and read the post, but they boil down to:

1. Know what long-term goal you’re working towards

2. Define what success for you would be

3. Go to school every day (i.e. keep learning)

I thought that was pretty good, and I’ve been reflecting this weekend on how I use my spare time, given that the Ebola emergency is dying down and I actually have my weekends back. I don’t really have much in the question of responsibilities (my family isn’t living with me) or chores (I have someone who comes and cleans the house and washes my clothes, and someone else who repairs my car when it breaks down, which it frequently does). I’m pretty conscious about working out my long-term goals, I think I need to be better about imagining what success looks like, and I think I do reasonably well at being in school, though I need more practical exercises.

This weekend I spent several hours going through a couple of long IMF reports and writing a blog post about the figures (aside from reading Ivorian blogs and newspapers). Why did I do all that? I don’t live in Ivory Coast and it has nothing to do with my work. It’s reasonably enjoyable but I could think of more fun stuff to do. So why do I do it?

I think the answer is that one of the things I’ve identified as important to me in my future is Ivory Coast. And so, I’m investing almost every day in keeping up to speed with developments, making connections with new people in Abidjan through social networks, and keeping in touch with old friends. I could potentially drop all that and have more time for fun things in Sierra Leone (like going to the beach). But the person I want to be in 15 years time, needs to have these years of investing in my Ivory Coast ‘portfolio’. And one day, I’ll get a job back in Abidjan, and it’ll all be worth it.

But sometimes you need to live in the present. So, enjoy the evening. I’m off to play my first ever game of water polo…