Nothing is possible

“Oh amazing, six months off! What have you done?"

The dreaded, yet inevitable, question. You can’t blame them I suppose, especially the ones without kids, they all assume you’ll have gone backpacking. Your peer group expect you to have done a lot of lunching and family holidays. MBAs and alpha types expect you to have learnt how to code or something.

I’ve done nothing, or rather Nothing.

For various reasons, not just contract reasons, I've been at home a lot.

And it’s been the best thing that could have happened to me.

Going work cold turkey those first few months was tricky (for everyone). After all, this was the first time in 25 years I’ve had more than two weeks off in one go.?

That first day standing in the kitchen wondering what to do. Checking the phone every five minutes but only seeing promotional offers from Pret. Cleaning the coffee machine (again). Going back to read the promotional email from Pret. Wife and kids looking at you like you’re some sort of mythical beast reanimated from DNA found fossilised in amber. Wondering idly how long it would take to walk to Pret in Brighton.

That part’s a real journey, and it has its bumps for sure. But all part of clearing the mental pipes, I’ve subsequently come to realise.

Then something happens after a couple of months. I guess like the cliché that you only start to relax on week two of your holiday. Except after 25 years it takes a bit longer. I spoke with someone else in the industry who’s just taken a year off. I asked her the dreaded question and she said “Nothing, cleaned out the cupboards, been brilliant”. A year ago, I wouldn’t have got it, but now I do. It takes a long time and specific circumstances to clear your mental cache. You need to stare at the wall for a while. Or clean out all the cupboards.

Or go for a (long) walk, not just because as Thomas Mann said, “thoughts come clearly whilst one walks”, but because it helps the cognitive filtering. To Tom Turcich, his seven year walk round the world was “a seven-year meditation” and he described it in The Guardian as “Like weeding your garden. You don’t realise it, but your head is full of these weeds and when you’re walking, you’re on your knees pulling weeds”.

It takes time, and isolation. No phones, no people, maybe a dog less annoying than mine. For those into meditation, no surprises here. But for me, historically suspicious of the new age, a revelation.

It also takes a bit of discipline, not just to make the time, but to get your new life in order. I worked with a brilliant client when I led the British Army ?recruitment ad account, Major General? Paul Nanson . He was also the Commandant at Sandhurst, so knows quite a lot about getting your life in order. He’s written a great book that I urge you to inhale called “Stand up straight”. The first chapter looks at effective habits: look good, feel good. Of standards, cohesion, discipline, making beds and cleaning shoes. Even though I had nothing to do after school drop off, getting up early and making the bed set the tone for the rest of the day. And then I did Nothing, I weeded my garden. Both literally and figuratively. I hung out with my kids and my wife. I focussed on things that hadn’t got a look in for some time. If ever. Without other things constantly demanding attention it forced clarity and priority.

In the end doing Nothing has not been nothing. I think I’m a better human, better dad, better husband, and will be a better colleague.

As I now gear up to do something, rather than nothing, I need to remember that it can’t be everything.

I’m extremely fortunate in many ways, firstly that I was given this opportunity at all. I know not everyone can have the luxury of such a mental fire break. I really hope now that I’ve done it, I can bring some of it with me in bite sized chunks, without needing the forced application of large expanses of time.

And secondly, that there is already such a brilliant and welcoming team at? Saatchi & Saatchi UK . I know that because of the overflow of enthusiasm from everyone I’ve met, and the incredible work they’ve done over the last few months. This is a group of lovely humans on a roll, and it couldn't be more exciting to join that vibe.

They say nothing is impossible at Saatchi’s, this is true and something we will always live by. But maybe I can occasionally show, just every now and then, that Nothing is also possible.