First off - I cannot steal another man's excellent term, I'm merely borrowing it. :> Dino Dai Zovi came up with "funemployment", and I've..hmm..*adopted* it for my own purposes..I think it sums the concept up perfectly, as opposed to just saying "Well, I'm kinda doing this, a little of that, some of this.." which in essence leads people to think "mmmkay, so you're doing nothing"..
Essentially, my reasoning is as follows - I've been working non-stop since I was 16..part-time then, and full-time since I was 18. No college in between, just flat-out work for 11 years. While I love what I do, I've never had a chance to think about things, to explore some of my other interests, and to really work on the things that I *want* to work on.
The promise that's sold to us as we grow up is that the more experience you get, the more senior you get, whatever..the more time you have to do these things. Riiiight. Anyone who has been there knows that this is not the case - in fact you end up with less time. And even if it is somewhat feasible and you have more time by some miracle (lucky you), you bump into one major stumbling block - the curse of prioritization.
Allow me to take a quick detour here - I'm not going to go into reasons of motivation, outperformance, mastery etc. There are many excellent resources on these, that I'd just do no justice to. Suffice to say that to become great at something takes a lot more dedicated, focused work than you can manage in your day job. If you don't want to be exceptional, and are happy to plod along, well, you wouldn't have the issues I'm describing in this post in the first place, and you'd be a rant for another day. But I digress..
The prioritization problem affects people who actively pursue mastery and excellence. The essence of it is this: I have x amount of "free" time, that I need to split a number of ways - family, friends, exercise, and then other reading and learning. This is skewed in various ways for various people, but that's unimportant. The key here, is that you have a limited amount of time that you need to carve up, and each of those slices is fairly finite - thus, you need to prioritize. Not rocket science..
Now, I have an added blessing (or curse, depending on which way you look at it) - I'm interested in a broad variety of rather different and disparate disciplines. I like to think that I have an advanced form of adult ADHD, but afekz says it much more smartly in his bio - "half a polymath". I know that I'm not the only one with this problem either, which whilst comforting, doesn't solve the problem..
Combine the drive to constantly learn more and improve, with diverse interests and the prioritization problem, and you run into general unhappiness. Often this can and does manifest itself in a jaded outlook, burnout, or a mid-life crisis. I'm a little young for those, but figured I'd preempt it anyway :>
With the necessary background out of the way, back to what I'm doing. I'm presently waiting on confirmation of a work visa, but once that is granted, I start a new venture in the US in October. It's going to be really demanding and challenging, but of course that's what I love about it and I'm incredibly excited about it, from many angles. I'll refrain from speaking more about this until said visa is granted however.
The obvious temptation was to continue working, transition into the new role smoothly, and pick up pretty much where I left off, taking my experience and ideas across and implementing them elsewhere. Coincidentally and ironically, that would also be the worst possible thing I could have done. I believe very strongly in the value of taking a Sagmeister. Though a year would be a bit excessive, I've taken a few months.
In this time, I'm doing a mental reset of sorts, but with some specific goals, and a written plan.
One key area is to fill in some technical gaps I feel that I have, and I've been actively working on this, starting from the ground up to get a thorough understanding. The value of working on this uninterrupted cannot be stated in mere words - but let's leave it at, it has been amazing. My focus is ridiculous without constant mail and phone interruptions, and I can work more in line with my natural schedule (the ZA interwebs are blazingly fast between 1 and 4am) :>
The other goal I had was to re-think my area of work, and try to weigh in on where the industry is going, but with a fresh perspective. Often, you get mired in the ways, mindset and history of your environment, even if you consciously try to avoid it. Outside of this environment, it has been surprising how quickly the ideas have been flowing, and how much more open and receptive I am to new angles, and new ways of thinking.
You might of course notice that this has the side benefit of helping me to be more competitive in my current industry, and is essential prep work for my upcoming role. Ironic, as that's not what I set out to do in this time, but very welcome nonetheless.
I've also been refocusing on my physical fitness, which has the upside of bringing me even more creativity. iPod and the running track at the gym combined seem to be an idea generator of note. Of course friends have taken advantage too, and I've been catching up with local friends, which has been great. Though we're in different industries, they've been surprisingly cool in inspiring alternate thought angles and also gen'ing new ideas. With the football world cup here, I've caught some of the spirit and some of the games - the timing was super :>
I'm going to be travelling a little too, firstly to Australia in the near-term to re-acquaint myself with family and friends who are on the verge of forgetting that I exist or writing me off altogether, and then the annual pilgrimage to BlackHat in Vegas, to do some contract training work for my prior employer. I'm looking forward to both, and to seeing some friends in Vegas that I don't get to see as often as I'd like.
I've been looking into some education options as well (formal education). Both are currently in progress, but unfortunately the wheels turn slowly, and one of the options is dependent on said visa. Patience has not been my greatest virtue, but I'm working on it..we shall see where these things go..more about it once it's locked down.
I've also been putting a serious dent in my Amazon wishlist, however as these things go, it seems to have just grown even more. Fortunately I have some long flights coming up to dedicate to this again :> This is happy time for me anyway, and the Kindle makes life almost idyllic..
Finally, I've been digging into two of the other main areas that interest me. This has been incredibly fulfilling, and has led to great, albeit unexpected insights into the future. Again, ironically, digging into one area has opened a wealth of options career-wise, and digging into the other area has led me into some detailed research within my own field, as it intersects with this field of interest. Twisted sense of humor you have there, Universe..
I've been very fortunate to receive numerous work-related offers locally and internationally on announcing that I'd left my employer. This has been really humbling and flattering, and I honestly thank everybody that has reached out to me from the very bottom of my heart. I'm locked and loaded for my new role, but many exciting opportunities crossed my path and it's a wonderful indication of what's out there - we're in exciting times!
I headed into this period with a lot of trepidation, not knowing whether I'd made the right decision. I can unequivocally say that this has easily been the best choice that I've made. I can't help but refer back to Dan Pink's three pillars of motivation - autonomy, mastery and purpose. The combination of these things leads to a powerful self-drive that I've believed in before, but am only realizing the full extent of now.
It should come as no great surprise that I'm actually *busier* now than I was when I was working full-time, so I'm going to get back to it for now.. :>
/nick
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