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I have not blogged here for 10 months. The reason for that is that I thought I had found my niche. Incorrect. I had found a better job, but not my niche.

How do I know? Because when I think about the ultimate aim of my role in my organisation, I feel bored by my own thoughts.

As we know on this site, lack of passion is bad. I work for a local government education scheme as PA to the director. I genuinely thought I wanted to be a PA. In my case those letters stand for Professional Assistant. My boss believes in me which is both a welcome change and utterly frightening (reasons for that may belong in a different setting). I found that I spend all my time arranging meetings and chasing people up to supply agendas and papers; followed up with general secretarial assistance. Quite often something happens which wipes out half a day or, worse, a whole day, and my To Do list extends to a length I try to ignore.

Plus points are that I am working in the public sector, and not making money for someone else. Yet, I feel that my achievements occur by proxy; it is not really me making any changes, I help someone else to make those changes.

However, this job has really stretched me and I have learnt some valuable skills. I can negotiate meetings with very senior members of the organisation. I even emailed the CEO the other week and had a response in 10 minutes; not sure many people can talk of that kind of influence. But I am not bragging here, it’s not in my soul. I’m just amazed that this is what I can achieve.

I have been on a distance learning short story writing course for some time but progress has ground to a halt. A friend took me along to a literary party this week and it was inspirational – it made me realise that I just need to get on with things. An embryonic action plan formed this week; I intend to write as much as possible, anywhere on anything and see what falls out. This is the start. No it really is.