Happy new year. It’s 2013.
I admit I haven’t posted anything because I’ve been too busy to think of my blog as something pleasurable, but at least I had time to think about stuff over Christmas. Last year was a year of big changes, admittedly 2nd half being much better than the first.
3 things were important to me;
One, the ‘life is about the people you meet and things you do with them’ cliche.
I met some very nice people in my old job. I also met some hard-working people there. Sometimes they were both. There were those who did lots of overtime to fix things or just to get things out the door in spite of shortcomings from those who (unjustly) forced them to do so. The source was always in those who perpetuated this vicious cycle by being unable to say no or even question why the way we worked never changed.
Despite lots of them being nice people outside work, I always felt bad and antisocial for my inability to use “niceness” out of work hours as an excuse. “But they’re a really good laugh.” Maybe. Maybe not. The wisdom was figuring out who or what just isn’t worth the time invested.
Two, the antisocial network
Halfway through, I started a new job. Until then I tinkered with having my Facebook profile public – almost all of it, bar some albums that contained photos of other people (my graduation and dinner photos). I posted links and gained about 600 subscribers but ran out of spare time for it all. I deactivated my account and vanished.
That’s that – no pointless ‘A month without X’, ‘What brands can learn from my detox’ or ‘My year doing Y’ exercise. No one needs a whole month of deprivation to know that a service is annoying. You already know that the moment you press the ‘Delete’ or ‘Deactivate’ button. Why lie?
It feels better to have no obligations than a place where everyone feels like they should contact you just because they can or pass judgement when you don’t reply. It’s like someone pressing your door buzzer every few minutes. You’d never do that to someone in real life.
Three, spare time or lack of thereof.
Though I really like what I do, it’s been hard. Not just the job in itself, but my reaction to it. Even on quiet days, the weeks and months all seem to blend into one and the hardest task is to remember what was the last thing my friends heard from me; not because my memory is failing, but because so much gets done and is out of the way on a daily basis, it feels like centuries every time we meet.
It’s hard to break ‘news’ when it comes to my personal life. My hobbies aren’t fixed in time and space, they look mostly like loose ends with no beginning or end to them. I like them, get lots of joy out of them, but they don’t make for great conversation. Not with all people anyway. Back to square one?
So, 2013. This much I know so far.
Your life is not your work, but your hobbies and friends. Your life is the time you allocate to these; loose ends are to fill in some small time slots or to have something left just in case you get bored of everything.