Sometimes life gets in the way

Yes I know, there was no blog this last weekend… with life seemingly returning to some sort of normality it has become busy again, and apparently, all it needs is a slight change of routine (an activity was cancelled) and suddenly everything is out of alignment and you’ve run out of time… Who would have thought that writing a blog would have any similarity to landing planes (or indeed running the trains), but apparently it does (albeit less dangerous)… but, everything needs to happen in sequence!

I have always had the plan, to try to get an article out each week, since I started. Largely I seem to have been able to achieve this, and this mostly has been a rewarding experience. However, with life somewhat getting in the way this week I decided, rather than push something out in the smaller hours of the morning, it was better to take a break and come back refreshed another day.

So here we are sitting here in the cold light of day (or an afternoon in early February) and it strikes me is that this was not just a lesson for weekend writing, but also for the experience at work too.

… of great plans

I mean, how many times have you had a plan, a great plan, one that was meticulously crafted and designed, where something has changed and all of a sudden the implementation does not seem quite so easy or even worth it anymore… (I can think of a few ‘un-named’ projects that could fall into this category… and I am sure there are more too).

The question is always what do I do? Do I stick with the plan, plough on regardless, all because it was agreed it would be done? Or, do I give up, throw in the towel and say life happens, adjust and move on?

It is of course easy enough, as a detached party, to say “move on”, but what happens if you have already sunk considerable investment into the project… a business transformation for example… suddenly the pressure is on it is a lot harder to give up.

Deep down apparently, as human beings, we are all somewhat loss-averse, preferring to not lose something than look ahead to what we might gain… now risk aversion is not always a bad thing, nor is a bit of long term planning, but psychologically it can also be a hard habit to break… and doesn’t necessarily really help us in building a growth mindset.

And, if you look closely the same process can be at work in our careers too.

Many of us have of course invested considerably, time, effort, and often money into gaining the skills, experience, and contacts to do the jobs we do well. With all that investment changing direction can be hard. It is easy to fall into habits, doing the same thing because you have always done it and fear the change… whilst all the time, time continues to flow in the background.

… and pain-aux-raisins

Sometimes however life happens, a shock or change of situation… which of course has happened to many of us over the pandemic… and suddenly we are shaken out of our slumber.

After all, many of our lives and routines have been upset… suddenly bringing into focus many of the habits we had before all this started. Do I really need to commute? Do we really need the second car? Do I really need pain-aux-raisins with my coffee at Pret?

But, most of all, a question of… do I really enjoy what I do and was it a habit or something I really find fulfilling, taking me somewhere to where I want to go?

It has been a moment of question… and (like the blog) rather than make a snap decision, carry on or stop, maybe it is time to simply take a step back, assess the situation afresh and decide the next best step in the cold light of day (or a Tuesday in my case).

For me and the blog, I will be back next week… maybe with a new style and theme, but certainly refreshed. It is always good to shake things up a bit…!

Have a good rest of the week everyone.

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