Pause. Process. Play.

Stop & Think. Then Do.

How many of you wake up energized and excited every single morning, looking forward to the possibilities, challenges, and solutions you'll be working on today? And how many of you wake up tired, with a foggy mind, dreading the day?

How many of you are excited on a Sunday and get into your thoughts around the coming work week? How many of you are a victim of a dreary sense of the weekend gone by, just hoping to magically teleport to the next Friday?

Ever since I remember, I've always identified with the first type, and then things began to change. I had stopped enjoying what I was doing - and that did not bode well with me. And just to make things funner, the final realization that this is not the right way of working happened in the middle of the pandemic. I did something rather radical - I left my job. I left my job in June to STOP and THINK, and then do something that was invigorating and all-consuming. Now, I have always been that person who lives to work, and that is driven by an innate passion for what I am doing. One can lose this passion for a plethora of reasons - culture, lack of true ownership, managers, loss of trust in the overall vision of the org, etc.

The vast majority of folks around me, including my then-workplace was surprised, to put it mildly. Questions ranged from "Who leaves a solid and safe job in the middle of a pandemic?" to "How can you leave without knowing what you are going to do next?". And that was the whole point - I wanted to press pause, process, and then hit play. As for it being a difficult job market, I wasn't bothered. I was plagued with the question "What next", and had the confidence of getting there once I figured it out.

It's been a quarter+, and I feel calm and collected. I ensured I did not accept anything based on a few of my requirements getting fulfilled, and waited to swipe right only on the ultimate match. You see, I built myself a framework and populated it with different possible career paths to reach the ultimate vision. Each parameter was assigned a weightage even (the ex-consultant in me often takes over). The framework was highly efficient in weeding out options, but still did not help me get to the eventual eureka calling. I spoke to several mid-senior to senior folks in each of the shortlisted options, only to realize it wasn't what I was looking for in entirety. A dear friend of mine, who has also been my mentor helped me clearly articulate to myself what I needed and wanted. And that's something I'd advise anyone and everyone who is thinking of doing something they truly love, and not something that's just like chasing a speeding car to a barking dog - talk to those who know you well and have the courage to take risks in search of a more gratifying future.

Today, I am excited to the bones because I have figured out what that "something" is. It fits the bill on each of those several parameters I had typed out into my excel framework. The first time my fiancé had introduced me to his parents, he had said something rather funny and profound at the same time - "Work to her is like a pacifier is to a baby; take it away and she starts crying". This had always been true for me because I deeply believed in Robert Frost's famous lines from Two Tramps in Mud Time, which I had read way back around 2003 -

"My object in living is to unite

My avocation and my vocation

As my two eyes make one in sight.

Only where love and need are one,

And the work is play for mortal stakes,

Is the deed ever really done

For heaven and the future’s sakes."

The last 4+ months have been thrilling to say the least - confusing, introspective, retrospective, scary even - all to reach that state of self-actualization. I learnt about different industries and tech trends across these, formed my own thesis around them, spoke to founders and investors and creators and builders. I had never done something like this before, but now that I have I highly recommend it. It's very easy to fall into the trap of daily chaos and deliverables, and lose sight of the two most important things - (a) what you truly love doing, and (b) what will take you to your eventual goal most effectively. Maybe today, maybe next month, maybe next year, do try it once if you too used to fall in the first category of people but started drifting towards the quicksand of the second category.

Happy Monday, y'all!