Reflection, Relaxation and Reality

If someone had said to me earlier in the year that I would be having months off work, I would have thought “you’re dreaming!”

Yet here I am at the end of an unplanned, nearly half a year off and I have to say, I am glad for it.

To give away the crux of the story at the start, as I know we are all busy individuals, this was the first time in over a decade I had TRULY taken time off for longer than a couple of weeks. If you haven’t taken a month or more off in your career, then I highly recommend it.?Especially in the fast pace and ever changing world we live in today.?

The ability to stop, reflect and rest to prioritise what is truly important in life, across your family, friends, yourself and work, is a blessing. If you aren’t happy, then find the time. Whether it’s a few days or more to truly focus on what makes you happy and then do it, as life is short!

To say that life can change in an instant and the need to live life to the fullest is so true. This was brought home with the recent tragic accident and passing of James Jackson, the smiling giant. RIP JJ.

Along with another mate who lost a best friend to suicide, two very sad events of amazing people. I would urge that every day you simply ask at least one person, “Are you ok?” and really listen, you might just help someone struggling.?

Reflection – over these many months, I found, for the majority of the time, that I became the polar opposite of my previous day to day and became very introverted (I know right!!). Reflecting on work/life balance and the lack of it, the relationships that needed nurturing, my own sense of well-being and the desire to get hands on with what I used to either ignore or pay someone to do for me. It has been a rewarding journey to work on all these things over this time. I can certainly see now how important (and difficult) it is to have balance in life, something that may slip again once I get back into work.?

If you have mastered this then I would love to hear your thoughts on it.?

Relaxation – well you would think that with this much time off, you would be swinging in a hammock every day sleeping.?Well I have to say, my days were just as busy as when I was working! Except I had swapped meetings with customers to visiting Bunnings (I should have shares in this place!), finding a passion for woodworking, restoring furniture and general building work of all sorts, doing brickwork/grouting, cementing, hanging curtains, painting, landscaping and a heap of other fun jobs. There was still a tad more time to relax as I managed to put my feet up with a few good books which had been on the shelf for many years.

Reality – Whilst doing all these projects has been rewarding, as I have learned a ton about other crafts and gained new skills, the itch of wanting to get back into IT and deliver awesome solutions to organisations continued to niggle at me. I love meeting customers, understanding their challenges and partnering with them to solve these. It’s a buzz that never gets old. So it was time to get back into the world, look at what is next for me in my career and start to network towards landing a new role, which also takes a great deal of time. For me, I wanted to be in SaaS, focusing in Security, Integration, RPA, Low Code/No Code, Analytics/AI and all the areas organisation are investing in heavily to digitally transform and stay ahead of the competition. If I can help them on their transformations, then I am one happy camper.?

Luckily for me, I have now found a great fit of a company.?One that is at the heart of organisational transformations, which I look forward to updating you on and my profile with shortly.

?“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful” – Albert Schweitzer

Wishing you all a great December, along with a safe and Happy Christmas and New Year,

Cheers

AJ