Taking Step Two

A lot has happened in the last few months, 6 to 8 weeks specifically. 

The happenings are seen as daily events, routines of life. We don’t set out necessarily to do something different, we just do it. For some reason we decide to handle an event differently than we have in the past.

This presents a fresh set of experiences. New stimuli. Even a new perspective emerges. That alone is empowering. So we think a little bit more about it and suddenly we are breaking old molds, shaping new patterns, and living life a little differently.

Renewal evolves like that. Say your working for the same employer 15 to 18 years and you realize one day that the hopes and dreams you started with are not yet realized. As new agendas appear and become routine your old dreams are set aside yet again. And so it goes, over and over until one day you say to yourself – ‘what is the point of all of our work?’  Are we getting where we wanted to go? Am I getting where I wanted go?

In an uneasy flash we see clearly that the answers to both questions are no.

The next question is why?

Then the cascade begins. New ideas, new routines, better work methods and a yearning to make a difference someway, somehow. This isn't about making a living anymore. It is living in a way that matters. That appears more and more as an awareness and common theme.

Suddenly I’m looking for another work relationship, a project, a plan, that will absorb creativity, attention, inventiveness all for a riveting objective. Whatever it is. Whoever is involved. It the new grail – the search for purpose.

Old relationships are de-emphasized, even old careers are disengaged. A new partnership is entered to attempt to get better things accomplished.

Reinventing myself is hard to do. Same for you. But we all are asked to do this from time to time. Sometimes it is an opportunity that beckons from unexpected origins. Other times we recognize an opportunity that has been staring us in the face for a long time. We are now sensitive and aware that the opportunity is real and needs our attention.

We re-invent ourselves on our own terms as well. The mid-life crisis might be the stimulant, but most likely we just get tired of the same old thing and need new ideas to make life interesting. We switch to another career. Or we catch the entrepreneurial bug and start our own business. Whatever, asked or not, we are likely to be vulnerable to major life changes. Maybe twice or three times. Retirement is an automatic major change. The same impulses are at work then as in earlier moments of life changing circumstances.

For the lazy there are few opportunities. One does what one has been doing. Over and over again. For years and years, and then retirement, then a few trips and finally death.

For the ambitious (not boring) person opportunities exist in unlimited forms. Much to do, many ways to do each and every one of them, and the ability to address each is very much a given to each of us.

Unlimited possibilities. Which ones make the most sense for me? Or for you? Which ones ought to be explored first, then second and third? What are the priorities in need of settling? What transition work is needed to make the change? What preparations should we make? Do we even have to consider if this change is safe?

Quite doubtful. In this atmosphere change is inevitable and we know we have to make it. So we do. And logic is followed as surely as night follows day.

What could be easier? Why would it be unsafe?

The future beckons and it offers excitement. The juices begin to flow. And the ideas.

March 16, 2015