STEVEN Naismith, the Hearts attacker, concedes the sobering thought of hanging up his boots for the final time is driving his career renaissance in the capital.

The 32-year-old claimed Premiership player of the month for September after finding the net five times in as many matches for the Jambos.

His scoring streak also earned a recall to the Scotland squad, and he capped his return to the international scene by notching a goal in the 2-0 UEFA Nations League win over Albania at Hampden.

Naismith, on a season-long loan from Norwich City after being frozen out by the Canaries, now boasts 11 goals in 17 games in all competitions as he enjoys an Indian summer at Tynecastle - and is cherishing every moment more than ever.

“As I have got older I have realised that this is a profession where one day you wake up and you just can’t play any more,” he said. “That, in recent times, has driven me on. I have consciously thought ‘I am going to appreciate every moment’.

“At various times in my career I have had different things that have driven me; for example, when I had a serious knee injury, I was determined I was going to come back better and I just appreciated being back out on the pitch.

“As I go on and on, things change and I know that one day it is all going to come to an end.

"I will probably end up missing all the things I moan about and I will be thinking ‘it actually wasn’t all that bad. I enjoyed that.’”

Naismith's form has underlined that there is ample fuel left in the tank before he is forced to face up to that life after football.

Nevertheless, as one of the more thoughtful characters in the Scottish game, he has given some consideration to what that may look like.

“It will be tough because I have not known anything else but, with the mindset I have got, I would imagine that I would stay in the game,” he continued. “The two things that excite me the most are tactics and man-management. I find that intriguing.

“When I was a young boy I’d be out first thing and I’d be putting the goals up or whatever, and I see one of my mates getting the late train and coming in late and missing all those jobs. I’d be raging, thinking: ‘He should get punished for that!’

“But as I got into the first team - and I probably learned this from Walter Smith the most - I realised you need to treat every player differently, whether guys like it or not. If you have a worldy who is lazy off the pitch but scores you 30 goals a season, you’re going to play him.

“You need to treat him the right way. It’s all of that kind of stuff is what excites me the most.”

It would be fair to assume that, allied with standing on the shoulders of giants such as Smith and Jim Jefferies, Naismith will draw on the experience of working under Craig Levein for club and country.

He has nothing but praise for the methods, temperament and knowledge of the former Scotland manager, who has guided Hearts to the summit of the Premiership.

"When I was at Rangers, Walter Smith would get involved in the banter - but if you're in the gym before training and he walks in then you know the gaffer's there,” Naismith smiled. “There's just this feeling. He doesn't need to say anything but you just know he's there.

"The gaffer here [Levein] has got that too. People take note when he walks in the room and when he is talking.

“He has a lifetime of experience of it and the biggest compliment I can pay him is that he's very honest and makes things crystal clear to the players.

“There have not been any matches we've gone in to and people could say 'they've not got a clue what they're doing here.' We know exactly what we're going to do in each game and largely have done well this season.”

Whether Levein is to lead a bona fide charge for silverware is likely to be far clearer by the time November rolls around.

Today’s visit of Aberdeen sets in motion a run of five fixtures which also include two matches against Celtic - one of those in the Betfred Cup semi-final - and city rivals Hibernian.

"I don't think each result in this run of games is going mean we're a good team or a bad team,” Naismith added. “But it's big month in terms of amount and quality of games and what's a stake with a semi-final - and that’s why we're all here.”