[tweetability]“You can fail at doing what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”[/tweetability]

These are the words of Jim Carrey.

Hands up who was surprised to see that good ol’ Ace Venturer turns out to be full of amazing wisdom?!

A bit of back story to the quote - Jim was talking about his father, who he says was an incredible comedian, and yet put his love aside to take the safe career in order to support his family. Years down the line he was made redundant from that unwanted carer and the family found themselves doing whatever they could to survive. So when it became Jim’s turn to forge a career, he knew there was only one thing he wanted to be.

I always feel sad when I hear people complaining about their job - and I’m not talking about complaining like “Oh, it was a tough day today”, I am talking about genuine complaining stemming from true unhappiness. So many people are in jobs they can’t stand, but stay out of fear of leaving, fear of trying something else, or they are they because it’s safer and pays well.

I’m very fortunate to be able to say I absolutely love my job, it may not pay the best, there may be long hours and intense deadlines and lots of stress (like many other people’s jobs), but I love it. I work in an industry I only ever thought would be a pipe dream.

But this wasn’t always the dream I had.

I was actually inspired by the BritishBeautyBlogger to write this post. She has a great site and I love seeing what she’s reading. So I thought I would have a go too.

One of the biggest sins of writers, in my opinion, is when they don’t read. So many of my writer friends admit to not reading, ever. Now I am clearly not talking about magazines, online posts etc. I mean real books. Novels, biographies etc. It is through reading that we expand our minds and our understanding of words.

But I must admit to you that I am a hypocrite. I barely read. I have this belief and I don’t even adhere to it myself. As a Drama and Theatre and Classical Civilisations student (as well as English through A Levels) I had to read so much required texts that I lost the ability to read for pleasure. That’s not to say I didn’t read some amazing books during university, but it meant I stopped picking up books to my own enjoyment during down time. And now? Now every time I have five minutes to myself, I can’t shake the feeling that I should use it to write or blog. (I’m on a 2 hour train to Dorset as I write this, perfect reading time but instead I am on my third post).

But this year, my resolution was to start reading more - my modest aim was one book a month. I actually started this last year but failed having only read two books. This year was going to be my year. I bought a kindle to see if that would help me over carrying physical books and it’s now my met coveted possession.

After a shaky start, I found my stride and I am happy to say I am on my 12th book already. WINNING.