A while ago I wrote about my struggle to find the right new job, having left behind the non-stop working hours of the City, I was hoping to find a way to still have an interesting career, but not in such a way that it took over the rest of life (which is, after all, the more important part for me)

Now many months into my new job, I seem to have managed to maintain my ‘Slow’ approach. I worried about how to make a success of my career while maintaining that elusive balance, and wanted to find a way to be satisfied in my working life without giving in to the need to be ‘always on’. But having moved from the City to a much more interesting industry, and one of the world’s biggest brands, I worried there would be innate pressure to work very long hours in order to achieve results. But having spent many months of City redundancy-funded sabbatical time thinking about what I really wanted out of life, I was determined to not go back to the old habits.

While my colleagues seem to be constantly working, and leaving later and later, I have managed to stick to my guns, and am out of the office by 5:30pm almost every day. And I am no longer the Blackberry checking fiend I once was - the Blackberry still goes home with me, but its main role after hours is as an alarm clock. The blinking red light indicating new messages is ignored.

Perhaps it’s because I am now happy to do my job, without any burning ambition to climb the corporate ladder, but somehow in this role, I’ve managed to remain removed from the pressure to be ‘always on’. While my colleagues take their laptops home every night so they can keep working, mine stays at the office, where it belongs.

Which is not to say that I’m no longer ambitious, or that I’ve relinquished responsibility for what I need to achieve in order to do a good job. I still want to do a great job, achieve interesting things, and change the world. I just want to do it on terms that suit me.

A colleague who has just gone on holiday was lamenting the fact that he felt the need to keep working and checking his Blackberry even while he was away from work. To me, there’s a simple solution - switch it off, or don’t recharge it while you’re away. That’s what I do!! But his view was that the Big Boss would expect him to keep working and wonder what he’d achieved while being on holiday.

I don’t believe that you can blame that on the boss - as individuals, we’re each responsible for the expectations we set and how we manage the pressures work puts on us. My experience in this role has been that my boss is happy enough - my achievements are good, with no need to work stupidly long hours or to extend my work life into my real life. My boundaries are clear, and I still achieve all that’s needed of me and deliver high quality work.

Perhaps I’m naive and misguided, but I think there’s more respect to be gained by managing things in a way that works for you, rather than working long hours, neglecting your home life and resenting your job and your boss along the way. So many people do it though, seemingly confident, mature people accept the invitations for 7am or 6pm meetings, moaning about it, but never articulating what is ok for them.

I actually feel that because my boundaries are so clear, it makes a working day much easier. Prioritisation is simple and it’s somehow much easier to say no, when I’m clear in my mind that getting home in time to enjoy spending time with friends and family is of more importance than staying behind to write one more email.

And of course, there are rare exceptions. There are occasional times when things go wrong, or a call with colleagues in other timezones means some after hours attention is required. But on the whole, it all works out and feels balanced.

So while my colleagues are working themselves to ill health, stress and general dissatisfaction with their working situation, I am a much more content person for having taken control of this part of my life. Which has to be a better result for everyone;  my employer who gets the results they want out of me and a relatively satisfied employee who doesn’t resent them, or take lots of sick or stress days due to overwork, my friends and family who suddenly feel like a much more important part of my life.  And most importantly, me.

Today, we have been celebrating the Portugal’s Day. Not only in Portugal but all over Portuguese Communities around the World.

The 10th of June is one of the Portuguese national bank holidays and it’s a significant date to the Country where the most important Political and Military entities are the main players of the celebrations and speeches that last for most part of the day.

However, apart from these celebrations there was an important news that had a strong impact on every national TV channels and Press: for the first time, since 1900, Portugal has presented the lowest rate of Newborn Children in the Country. People get married later than ever, have children almost at 40 and there are more people dieing than in the previous decades versus the number of people that are born.

Many political analysts commented on these facts and they all have agreed about the causes behind these structural Social problems:

1. the worldwide economical crisis;
2. the high levels of unemployment;
3. the lack of employment stability.

In fact, a huge stain for an important date that celebrates the Nation.

However, I believe that there are other causes for the negative results of this National Demographics Report. There’s a strong need to change the way Societies live, not only in Portugal but all over the Planet. Even if the economical crisis was not so serious as it is, if the levels of unemployment were not so high, etc… would these results be too different?… Probably but not meaningfully. The numbers would rise but… at a slower pace.

To make my point, as far as I’m concerned, even if the scenario was of economical growth would the levels of stress, anxiety and pressure decrease? Would people feel themselves with better lives with more free time to enjoy the goods they would buy and to spend more time with their family and children? I don’t think so. Without wanting to speculate too much about the economical issues the fact is that our lives became worse - qualitatively speaking - with the fast economical development of many countries without knowing how to manage that growth and not measuring the impact of that economical and technological development on Society.

I am neither against the technology nor the economical growth! I am known among my friends as the “Gadget Girl”. :)  And I do believe this is vital for our survival and also quality of living. However, in times of worldwide crisis, worldwide stress and anxiety, worldwide depression increasing levels… lessons must be learnt and not be camouflaged.

Any kind of development process should be also sustainable for long-term and its impacts on our lifestyle should be measured and monitoriesed in short-periods of time.

Technological and Economical growth are extremely important to maintain our social systems working but in a more humanized and qualitative way.

This is my biggest wish for the Day of my Nation: Portugal.

How do you decide the kind of life you want to have? And, when do you decide this? A lot of people will answer “When you start working”. Another bunch will reply, “No, the moment you enter high school”. Another small crew will say, “Actually, the first day of school”. And, leaving the cuter answer for the last, some will add “When you’re born”.

Having so many different points of view is really confusing. So, let’s take the one provided by society in general: “The day you finish high school”. Why? Because of all that that implies: saying good bye to your friends, to your parent’s house, to your childhood… you know: the losing part, which makes any human being start worrying about who they are. And do I know about losing! I’m 19 years old and I’m on my second year of college. That would practically mean that my life started almost two years ago. And if that’s true, I can’t imagine a scarier way of starting a life. But I wasn’t worried, neither confused, because before I could start taking decisions on my own, I received… a welcome package!

Of course, the package was delivered to my parent’s house with a huge note to remind me the oldest world known pray: CARPE DIEM. Which means: Seize the day. In the upper side of the box it said Welcome to the rest of your life, please, use it properly. Inside, there was another box where it said I almost forgot! With properly I mean: don’t waste it!. Inside this box (and continuing the mamushka doll annoying situation) there was another box with a relieving last note: I mean… you’re young. You don’t understand how the world works. I putted the instructions inside this box. Read them and then you’ll understand everything. I finally opened the last box. And there it was. Nothing. Nothing at all. “But… but…” (I read the notes over and over again looking for a secret message ) “…what do I do now?”. Desperated, I ran for advise and all I got was “Study a career. Any kind”; “Get a job. Any kind”; “Do anything. But do it now!”

I’ll spoil the end of the story. There never were instructions. And, of course, the box never existed. At least not for me. I listened to the advises, the complains, the critics and finally made a decision. I’ll not say that “I know which career I want to pursue”, I’ll say it in a way that sounds more important:

I’ve decided that I want to make a life based on Public Relations.

Wow. It sounds pretty awesome, huh?

There are a lot of confusions about this career because it’s a little bit of being a Publicist, a little bit of being a Marketing Person and a little bit of being a Journalist. And that’s what I love about PR: you can do a little bit of everything, you can relate to any kind of professional and you can always go further. The sky is the limit!

OK, but, going back to Earth… what do we have in the negative side? Sometimes… you have to do a little bit too much of everything. What I’ve learnt in my 2 years as a PR student is that responsibilities only increase as time passes. I’ve seen extremely stressed PR teachers. I’ve seen how my dad, who is also a PR, and even being al calmed as he is, sometimes just can’t take the pressure. I’ve seen how at the end of the day, PR professionals finish their work with no strength left. And I’ve heard, more than once, “You won’t be able to handle the pressure”.

So, after seeing, hearing and knowing how hard being a PR can and will be… why in the world would I want to become one? Because I can. Because I want to handle the responsibilities. Because I want to prove that you can be under pressure without being pressured. Because I really want to go further. And sometimes, going further is not only about actions. Going further means letting you mind go abroad, convinced that it doesn’t matter what happens today… it’s worth it.

Good for us. Good for all the PR students around the world. But what happens to those who have another kind of job?

If there’s something no one can deny about the Slow Movement is its diversity. From the highest professional to his lowest subordinate can pursue a slower life, a slower way of living. The bright side? There’s not negative secondary effects.

It’s really scary to pursue a dream and make a life out of it. Billy Joel would say “Dream on. But don’t imagine they’llall come true”. And he’s probably right. But in the end, what’s important it’s not the kind of life you want to have, it’s what you do to have it. You can have dreams or pursue them.

I’m going for the second choice. What about you?

My latest blog at Huffington Post is on the power of Slow Thinking.