Penny for your thoughts (about starting anew)
Hello you Wile E. Coyote.
Holy moly it is September, folks... How? What? When? Why?
But as we explored a bit last week, it is futile to lament about the things we cannot change, and the passage of time is perhaps the most crazy-making lamentation of them all. So here we are bidding adieu to soft, toasty summer sunscapes, and tossing our mildy resentful bonjour into the crispy, full-steam-ahead-edness of autumn.
To capture the vibes of September 1 in a nutshell, I wanted to start out with this picture. On the left is a young girl about to embark on her first day of school: full of happy expectation, relaxed and ready to face the world, feeling prepared inside and out, shiny as a new penny. On the right is the same girl at the end of her first day of school, trudging home wiser and world-weary, the billowy softness of summer blown away and replaced with the gritty, breathless reality of a new school year.
Ah September! Even though I know the gritty reality of autumn (and gasp! Winter!) will soon be upon us, I do like to approach this month with my pockets full of shiny-penny vibes. Because while January is the start of the new calendar year, it is September that always feels the most optimistic, energetic and fresh-start-y to me. And not just because of school nostalgia or the brisk temperatures. It is also a time of year when-- if you are lucky-- you have just accomplished some summer chillaxing and are hopefully feeling a bit more restored and refreshed than usual-- making it the perfect time to breathe and tap into an extra bit of perspective on life.
So let's take advantage of the summer after-glow: instead of contemplating the start of a new year buried in snow and exhausted by the recently-concluded christmas holiday season, why not embrace those shiny-penny September vibes, grab a glass of iced tea, find a sunny corner to sit in, take out a pencil and spend a bit of time looking back, connecting with the present and imagining the year ahead. (PS: I really like this simple, user friendly template linked above, by the way-- highly recommended if you want to do some simple annual reflecting and projecting)
Don't worry: I will not take you through all of my own personal reflecting and projecting in this dispatch. However, I would like to share one piece that I have been exploring in earnest this summer in anticipation of the "new year": namely, my attempts to get creative about my professional pursuits, and to start challenging myself to go down some new and exciting job paths. At this point in my career, I have spent almost 20 years working in the NGO/ social justice/civil society sector, and while there remains so much to learn and experience in this space, I also want to see how the things I have learned thus far might translate into other spaces. I don't want the substance of my contributions to the world to change-- I always want to be making the world a better place. But as I turn 42 this year (and since women are now writing the new rules of middle age), I want to take advantage of 1) having built some skills over the years, 2) having few encumbrances, and 3) feeling healthy, happy and supported enough to throw caution to the wind and challenge myself anew.
In short, and in true new-year fashion, this year I want to take advantage of where I am in my life to experiment with new ways of applying the skills I have built while also exposing myself to new ways of doing good work.
I feel so lucky to be able to contemplate this kind of identity-shifting pivot, and am exquisitely aware of the luxury of being able to do so. And listen, this all might blow up in my face! I am also aware of that. But as we all know, most of our regrets in life come from the chances we don't take. For a couple of years now I have been experimenting with how to strike a balance between day jobs, side projects and hobbies (and learning LOTS along the way-- whew!), while at the same time trying to better understand what I want out of this one life I have, in part by practicing being my future self and asking questions about who I am and what I want -- all to take a potentially viable stab at creating an out-of-the-box, holistic and fulfilling way of living in and contributing to the world. Maybe this is too ambitious a bite to take right now and I will go down in flames. Or maybe a completely different path will emerge from this leap into the unknown. But I am open to change no matter the outcome. For as the article above points out: "Perhaps the challenge in changing our minds about who we really are is not to rationally persuade ourselves into a new story about who we are, but to learn to live for periods of our life without one."
So I have planted a bunch of seeds and am tending to some exciting potential crops. I will share more about the journey as things unfold and I harvest the crops (or not--- I will be updating you even if they end up failing). For now, I am not sure what the future will hold, but I know that I am SUPER excited to see what might come out of this personal and professional experimentation.
Perhaps you are contemplating taking a leap too? Beyond the resources linked above (and sooooooo much online about career aptitudes, shifting careers, etc...), below are a few resources I have found useful for thinking in particular about the practicalities of forging a new path. Because dreams are great, but we still need to make them land in reality:
How to make passive income to be able to do some of things you love doing without getting paid for them
100 products for optimizing performance and productivity since your time is now your biggest asset
Speaking of time, time boxing is an interesting tool for making the most of what you've got. And I am sure you have heard of the pomodoro technique
If your shift involves working from home, how to work from home and stay healthy
So on that note... happy new year to one and all! Whether you are starting a new job or starting a new book, going back to school, holding course with your current suite of life offerings, moving to another country, leaving a partner, starting a medical treatment, giving up an old habit, taking a year-long break from the grind, or even going full-platypus and throwing everything up in the air to see what happens, I am excited for the potential that this autumn holds for all of us!
And PS: I personally know at least one person for every one of the life circumstance in that list... we are a beautifully varied bunch of coconuts, my friends! Have another scenario to add to the list? Get in touch and let me know what you are planning this autumn!
But wait! Is all this talk of creating a personally-fulfilling professional life feeling a bit too ambitious on a sunny Sunday morning? Then please enjoy these 26 amazing facts about the human body
Still too much realness? Then check out this video of the deeply unsettling sound of an 80" diameter gong
From one experimental person to another, I am glad that we can leap into the unknown together. I hope you enjoyed this dispatch, and have a professionally inspiring week!
Until next Sunday,
The Earnest Platypus