My Next Professional Step

I'm going back to college!

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

When I look back at the meanders of my life, there’s a familiar pattern to my professional travails. I start in the rapids, battling against the tide to establish myself in a hot new work niche. After a certain period of struggle, I find clear open water and begin to glide along a lazy river, basking in the joy of gaining new skills and confidence in whichever new realm I’ve pushed myself into. But then something happens, and it all stops going so swimmingly. Whether it’s my ambition, short attention span, self-sabotage or an innate greed to conquer new avenues, tension builds. As I become complacent in the job, I start to take on more and more work, to maximise my profit. Money becomes the driving factor. But no matter how quick and effective you are at anything, when you load beyond human capacity, you will sink. At this point, I stop enjoying my work and begin to resent it…And before I know it, my attention has been captured by something brand new over there, clear uncharted waters and I’m right back where I started in the rapids. Over the past six months to a year, I’ve been nearing the end of this cycle.

What’s funny is that I have to see the seabed, before I can pull my finger out to make the sidestep. The comfort zone is cosy, and I personally need to experience the mental chafe as physical pain before I get my act together. But this week, I got an offer letter for a new one-year course to help, hopefully, open the door to the next big thing. It doesn’t start ‘til September, but today I’ve been walking around with such lightness. The anxiety and what ifs will follow I’m sure, as night follows day. But right now, I feel very certain it’s a good thing.

“When you don’t feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you’re just about in the right place to do something exciting.”

David Bowie