All By Myself...

TL;DR - spend some time on your own, you’ll love it.

Siem Reap is home to the stunning temple complexes of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom (amongst other smaller sites), and a vital stop for those visiting Cambodia and the wider region.

Late last year, some friends and I decided to participate in the yearly Angkor Wat Half Marathon, but as we got closer to the date they all dropped out - with the exception of some friends who were literally just flying in for the day itself.  The excuses were good e.g. one friend had a stroke, one left Asia… But I was on my own, and would be for 4.5 days.

When was the last time you were on your own for that long?  No friends, no family, no partner, no kids. For me, I reckon it was 16 years ago during a University summer vacation.  Prior to that… well never.  In my entire life, I can’t think of more than two times when I’ve been on my own for more than a day or two.

So what? The first two days led to the typical post-work decompression - I browsed the news, watched a bit of Netflix, read a few articles online. Standard.  Then the run itself.

When I woke the next day, I started thinking about what I was going to do for the remaining two days.  As I sat drinking coffee in the villa cafe, I pulled out my iPad and started writing to myself. I wrote about the last few months, and what I wanted the next year to look like.  I ordered more coffee.

I thought deeply about the more distant future, essentially a personal meditation. This is something I continuously strive to do, but there was a clarity of thought this time which I unambiguously attribute to being on my own for long enough for the ‘buzzing’ to go away. I wrote it down. I ordered more coffee.

Much of the next couple of days was spent this way.  I attempted to pull together multiple threads that I have been struggling with into a single narrative: What is FinTech? What is my place in it? How will this be impacted by a significant market crash in the next 18 months (as Dalio and others are now predicting)?  Most importantly, I wrote it all down so the insight wasn’t lost.

I cannot overestimate the benefits of this short exercise. We hear a lot about mindfulness, and the mental stillness of meditation, but after this experience I humbly suggest that being on one’s own for a period of time is just as important.  I will try to repeat this foray each year to see if I can recapture this feeling.

Am I just late to this party, and you have been doing this forever? I acknowledge taking time like this is much harder with children - I would be interested to understand how people have (or have not) made that work.  As for my own realisations… Well, watch this space!