2010 Personal Change: Start to enjoy my life again!
That is the main change I need to do. And for that a clear Professional change is necessary. I would say, the first step is to cut the tumor that has been killing me for too long now (That’s a metaphor! Don’t freak out…). Then, along with the progress of that surgery (that’s a metaphor too…) I’ll restart all the personal projects that stopped around June 2009. Marriage, new house, Guitar, video, geek stuff…
I spent so much time thinking about work outside work, that It paralyzed my will and motivation to do anything else. The first change is to stop anything linked with work when I leave my office. I have already tried the workaholic way of life, and even though I enjoyed it when the motivation was at its top, I have to admit that the unbalance is not healthy. Refer to this video (sorry, it’s in French). To summarize, If work goes beyond the office borders, no matter how much fun it is, and takes over personal life or part of it, personal life is on stand-by. The risk is to extend that pattern on a long enough period to forget the personal life objectives and the small things that make it fun.
I don’t recommend leaving the office at a defined hour no matter the necessity to finish something important. I’m not that drastic. Sometimes it’s necessary to finish something, SOMETIMES. I recommend balancing personal life and leave work at an appropriate time to switch into personal time, if the professional deadlines don’t justify the contrary. Work taking over personal life can only be accepted temporarily and exceptionally! If that’s a permanent life pattern, it testifies a problem at the management or personal level. In any case, the result cannot be positive.
Dedicate enough time to all personal things, and during those don’t lose time and mood for professional issues. That’s not fair to your family and friends, but mainly that’s not fair to yourself!
I started Guitar in April 2009 and practiced frequently every week. I almost stopped after July when the situation got very bad at work, even though I continue to go to my classes every 2 weeks. I was practicing 20 minutes every morning. I stopped practicing but it didn’t make me arrive earlier at the office. I wake up at the same time, and I arrive at the same time at the office. Meanwhile, I also almost stopped cooking, I buy prepared food or eat outside which does not give me more free time despite the higher price.
All for the same reason. As soon as I was thinking of doing something, I was paralyzed by the problem at work. As if I was telling to myself: “I first need to fix that, then I can go cooking… playing… practicing… reading…”. I call this the cat syndrome. When a cat cross a road and suddenly sees a car, it often stops right in front of it. That’s more relevant with dogs but I prefer cats. I sometimes see it with colleagues or project team members who know what they have to do but are just paralyzed and wait that the deadline is passed to blame themselves. That’s part of my job to give them confidence and find out what paralyzes them and get rid of it.
I know for myself what paralyzes me. See previous post. I’m in a dead-end and all my attempts to get out of it are unsuccessful so far.
The only thing I can do is consider the worst scenario and see if my private life is affected: Clearly if I’m fired “Je suis dans la merde” but Asako is also working and I have a good experience is my field, and a good resume to find back a job. The market is not as “job-seekers-friendly” as it was before the sub-prime crisis though.
Even fired, I have my apartment, enough money to leave for several months while searching a job. I may need to postpone the wedding, and cut on Tokyo-Paris trips. But I won’t need to stop practicing guitar, I won’t need to stop blogging, I won’t need to stop editing my videos nor cooking…
I already put all of them on stand-by, by fear of being fired. Let’s not assume what didn’t happened! I still have my job. So let’s get back in touch with what I like to do and leave the fears of being fired at the office. besides changing my work’s situation is one of my business objectives. So I restart from January 2010 the monthly personal development plan as I left it last year. The latest item was the Jogging and Guitar practice every morning… I never stopped to run every day but I don’t feel comfortable with the guitar in the morning. That’s weird. I need a new time slot for that but I don’t have any good one. Why not try to do it after diner, meaning 20 minutes around 9:30pm.
…
List of things I have in mind for a long time now and rally want to start this year, but lets focus on only one each month.
- Cooking on regular basis (3 to 4 times a week)
- Stop eating after a defined hour and cut added sugar to my nutrition
- Blogging on regular basis: not only writting here or reading my feeds but commenting on the Blogosphere
- Go to bed at 23:30 no matter what, even if it’s to read a book or anything else.
- Restart playing video games
- Edit one video footage per week!
- Flying bird
- Restart to practice Farsi
Moreover they are some stuff I really want to do not as a habit, but exceptionally
- Prepare the wedding (a crazy one)
- Children!!!
- Buy an apartment in Paris in 2011 (Even if I don’t live there)
- Make a 2 months trip in Iran
- Switch into linux and use Windows only when it’s absolutly necessary
- Implement a Backup & Recovery solution, and a Disaster Recovery Solution for my personal data including
Tags: Buiness, CoupDeGueule!, Life, Personal Development, Stress