Today on the blog might be heavier than most. I will apologize in advance. Maybe it’s the long Turkey Day holiday. Maybe it’s the lack of bike riding or creative time? Maybe it is because deep down I am truly trying to decide what my next steps are? For whatever the reason, I just can’t shake these thoughts and ideas so in an effort to move to action, I need to write them down and get them out of my head. So…Here goes.
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is Natures inexorable imperative
HG Wells
As I plot my next steps for myself both personally and professionally, this idea of adapting and changing is ever present. The thing I struggle with has many facets.
The first being with my career and life change now 2+ years in the past, I can’t tell if I am adapting or falling backwards? Part of me feels like it’s been such a positive or forward evolution by not getting too caught up in dysfunctional systems yet other times I have never felt so alone and falling backwards into comfort, old habits and acceptance. Lately, I have been struggling to both understand and define progress.
Thankfully, I have learned when I am stuck, deep down in the throws of internal chaos or questioning, I have learned to climb out and use a bit of retrospection. While I may feel like that first box of jagged lines, I know that where I am at today looks a lot more like the lower left box labeled In Years.
There is endless contemplation around next steps, but right now I am wondering do I continue to seek something I know and comfortable like the bike industry? Do I find another adjacent or parallel industry path where I built my career? Do I move on to another industry all together? Do I continue down the road I started down with creating my own small businesses, consulting and contract work? While it’s always good to have choices, I do honestly feel a bit paralyzed at times. Additionally, each of those choices come with their own set of challenges.
Going back to the quote above, the other thing on my mind about adapting is what are you adapting to? Nature on its own seems to be limiting as it seems to survive in today’s world “NATURE” isn’t the driving force behind survival. It should be as our planet is changing before our eyes. Rather, it seems that for survival you have to pick both a socio economic position and a political position. And all too often this is played out in social media.
I will do my best not to make this a rant on the society. But I really feel we are regressing and likely setting the stage for huge evolutionary and revolutionary change in the not too distant future.
So with all that where is my head at these days? Two more quotes!
The longer you entertain what’s not for you, the longer you postpone what is…..
anonymous
Move forward with the lesson, not the burden
anonymous
The longer I have been away from my old profession and workplace, the more I have realized that I have been holding onto the past. It’s now my time to make my next steps forward because as I have written about in the past, walking isn’t running but it is still faster to a destination than standing still.
This past year I have been stalled. My friends see it. My wife and family see it. It’s time to set some new goals as well as start walking forward.
So as I prepare to make my next steps forward, here are a few of the guiding principals I am using to help define my next steps
- I can only be responsible for my own actions. I learned early on in my childhood in a house with an alcoholic father and later in life with a quirky, family (not my family) run business that I need to be responsible for my own actions as well as live with my choices. I also learned to make them right if I cannot live with them.
- Social Media – It’s time to let go of the social media. This isn’t an end all go into hiding. It’s an end to using it to help define what is next or viable or valuable. Those things need to come from within. It’s also an end to it getting in the way of me taking forward steps. Social media is also contributing to making me feel alone. It’s time I create my own, real life circle and community that reflects who I am and want to be as opposed to attempting to attach myself to virtual community I was once part of and still trying to fit in or influence.
- Focus on the learning, not the burden. I’ve been struggling with some old baggage from my upbringing as well as a few specific individuals in my lifelong, professional career. It’s time to find help with letting that stuff & those people go and moving forward with only the learning/lesson.
There is a lot more than just those things, but those are a few the principals I wish to share and seem appropriate given today’s post.
Don’t fret, I will be back with bikes soon. December also brings my annual favorite images post. Thanks for stopping by and come back again soon!
ImagineGnat 