It’s 2017.
It’s January and like always the “new year, new me” philosophy is already starting to dissipate among many. Being honest… I didn’t have it pre New Year so I don’t find myself lacking in it now; and that’s not to be negative, it just came from a place of enjoying work and not yearning for major change. That being said it’s easy to get caught up in the wave and find yourself, if only for a moment or two, reflecting on your current position.
I find myself in the unfortunate position of recovering from my 3rd operation in as many months. This is the 2nd of which that has rendered me “unfit to work” and under a “mandatory rest” order. Now whilst there’s no avoiding this need for recovery, there’s also no avoiding the overwhelming sense of frustration, inability and complete lack of purpose. It’s worth stressing at this point that my operations were not life threatening and nor is my condition (beyond the premise that technically all operations are marginally life threatening and any condition untreated could potentially kill you). Anyway I digress.
My immobility and lack of tasks has led me here, to Medium. As a result, in much the same way I decided to use a dropped capital for the start of this post, I find myself using Medium; because I can. I suppose from here the next questions are:
“what am I setting out to achieve?”
“what’s the purpose of my profile?”
and even “Is Medium supposed to be used for sporadic and inconsistent blogging?”.
In answer to these pressing issues:
“no idea”
“beyond a platform for data entry relating to my existence… anyone’s guess”
“I’ll be frank, I googled this just now. Conclusion? Yes, no and a fair bit of maybe. Seems as I’ve come this far I’m going to stick with yes. Otherwise the opening 3 paragraphs were a waste”
What I’m getting at
If you’ve read this far, I’d be curious to know what your motivations are but regardless of such I’ll continue. If not only for the fact if I didn’t this would be the end of the post and well… that wouldn’t be overly interesting!
Thinking about it, I suppose what has led me here is just that. The act of thinking about it. I was browsing the web, watching vlogs and talks from the likes of Gary Vaynerchuk to name but one. All in the name of research for a close friend whom I may start working with on content and social media management for his personal brand. I’ve done bits and bobs for him in the last 12 months or so and as he has expanded he’s reach the point of needing a 3rd party to manage this for him. Aside from the fact he knows me and has seen some of my work, I suspect living with him may have also played a part in why I was first on his list… (not that I’d admit it to him but comic deflection is my way of avoiding having to accept his gracious acknowledgement of some of my skills. I’m not great at that self promotion stuff)
Looping back around, here I am, unable to do my full time job due to injury and being presented with new opportunities through a friend. So whilst I’m incapacitated as it were I’ve taken to exploring this offer on the table and doing a little digging. Getting a feel for what it would mean, what would be required of me, all the usual stuff that comes with the territory. The chain reaction of this was discovering Medium, which then led me to set up a profile for the brand I currently work or, which then led me to set up a personal profile. That’s just how I operate, not by halves. I’ve found something that has peaked my interest and I’ve gone full bore in to it. The results remain to be seen.
What’s going to happen
Truthfully? I’m not sure. This could be the start of me blogging my way through 2017 at irregular points in the year. This could be a marker for a major change in my lifestyle and the next “3–5 year phase”. Whatever it is or isn’t I feel better for writing it all down so that in itself is a win. All I do know, and I suspect I’m not alone in this, is that there’s a fleeting itch of excitement and “what if” about this year. It’s not an unwavering desire to make change or an underlying dissatisfaction with my current job / lifestyle. What it feels like is an opportunity. A simmering potential for positive change.
If it amounts to nothing and this is the last you hear from me on the matter, then so be it. That simply means I’m still in the job I enjoy now that offers me travel opportunities and a lot of “out of office” working. If you hear from me more, it means this was the start of something. That in itself is exciting.
I’ll leave you with a somewhat-cheesy phrase I coined over a decade ago when I was an emo kid, contempt for the system was my mindset and MySpace was my domain.
“Your head speaks reason, but your heart holds the key to freedom”
Make of it what you will, but as a chronic over-thinker it’s served me well over the years.
Welcome to 2017