New Tides, New Adventures

I got married last week in Puerto Rico.

I also just got off a seven day honeymoon cruise sailing around the Lesser Antilles.

But a week before all this, I was informed that my cush two-day per week position at a creative agency was being phased out.

It was actually more like a heartfelt request to come back full-time, or else move on, which was equal parts flattering and frustrating.

One thing it wasn’t was confusing.

As soon as the ultimatum was thrown down, I knew my decision:

I was outta there.

Often when you decide a thing once, and then live a chunk of life, and then the same decision is put before you, it is hard to muster the same conviction as the first decision. The first decision I made, was a decision to quit. This was years ago. I was offered a deal to drop down to two 2 days a week but retain essentially the same salary. So I stayed. But not because the money was good. Rather, because the time was good. I wanted to work less. I wanted to think about work less. I wanted to sleep better. Et cetera.

Having set this new foundation, it was likely that I could have negotiated a substantially increased salary. But, the mental energy and the time committment was the kicker. I knew I didn’t want to spend one more ounce of time doing the tasks I was doing. Prior to this, I was even beginning to struggle with the two days a week!

And so the choice was clear. Get gone.

So, here I sit, typing madly away on a tropical balcony overlooking downtown San Juan with the Caribbean Sea to my back, entirely contented.

Not only content, but on the heels of yet another confirmation of my decision; I just re-read my post The Van Man. Go ahead and read this if you haven’t yet, but for time’s sake here’s a summary:

• I was on a road trip with Tara up to Portland, and we were flirting with nuclear career/life scenarios (i.e. becoming farmers).

• We met Kevin, a van life dude, at a rest stop in the redwoods.

• He told us all about #VanLife and tried to get us to quit our jobs to become vloggers.

• I wrote a blog post about this guy through my experientially tinted lenses of my time at Fizzle and Tim Ferriss.

• The post is all about being scrutinous about what you do for work, deathbed regrets, loving the living of life, and retaking control of your destiny.

While rereading I had some very intense revelations about the “could, should, and would” considerations about making these sorts of big leaps. At the time I could feel a strong pull to do what Kevin was doing. I knew I “could” and I knew I “should”, but I didn’t.

But now, here I sit having been delivered into the world of the “would”. I don’t have a 40-hour/week job, I don’t even have a 16-hour/week obligation. I have a single very low-maintenance client who loves the work I do. I have TIME!

I have a great opportunity to explore in any number of directions. I could become Kevin; some sort of YouTube dude who documents/teaches/travels etc. I could pursue creative and artistic fame. I could build a billion-dollar business doing something entirely new. I could become a carpenter, a butcher, or a fishmonger. 

I could do anything.

I should do anything.

I will certainly do something.

Cheers to new chapters and clear distinctions between the phases of life.

If you haven’t shuffled, pivoted, detonated, or simply thought hard about what you want life to feel like, now is the time. 

Maybe you’ll be delivered into an opportunity through the seeming tragedy of job loss, maybe you’ll muster the will yourself.

Just pay attention to the winds of change and get them sails up!