Six Months Later

Yesterday was an anniversary of sorts. Six months ago was the day I turned my badge in and left the corporate world behind. I had actually been told three months prior to that and was in a sort of weird limbo for those 90 days. But May 20th was the day it all became official.

As much as I knew it was coming, there is still a little blow to the ego. What do you mean you don’t need me anymore? But that’s the way of the corporate world.

Since I decided to keep my Linked In sort of active, I’ve spent a lot of time on that site. People post stuff like the above all the time. But I think stuff like this just sounds good so people post it. Nobody wants to post a picture of the pointy haired boss from Dilbert even though there are a significant number of actually bosses who do act like that.

And that’s why with each passing day I can see that this was the best thing that could have happened to me. It was tough being an INFP in an environment where there was no direction and upper management was basically invisible. The uncertainty caused a significant level of stress and tension that you could just feel every time you walked into the building. My team wanted answers and I had none and it was just causing me all kinds of inner turmoil and stress.

I do still fight certain perceptions. I mean people are supposed to work. I think men face this a little more. The whole concept of the man being the breadwinner and being out there making the money. What do you mean you don’t want to get back out there? What ever would you do with your time.

If I could, I’d give this quote back to anyone who thinks that way.

“We don’t have a lot of time on this earth. We weren’t meant to spend it this way. Human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day, filling out useless forms and listening to eight different bosses drone on about mission statements.” A quote from Office Space (1999).

I also have learned that one thing that stresses me is the perception of not having time to get things done. Let me give you an example. We did a bad job with our grocery shopping this week and forgot a few things for some of our meal ideas. Now, I could just make something work but I actually had time today after the gym to stop at the store and pick up a few things. I know it seems small but it is a good thing.

I love that I can get to the gym as often as I do. I love that I can take the dog for random walks when the weather permits. (Of course he now thinks I should do that every day) I love having time to do these posts. I like a little slower pace in my life and not having to block 9 or so hours five days frees up so much time that I can do things at my pace. It is not like I have to rush out to get things done in those off hours from work.

I need to touch a little bit on last night’s lesson. I try to do a lot of leg stuff when I workout. I do what I can without getting into lunges because my knees don’t really work that well. Still there are things I can do. Then I got to the lesson and started running around and realized I might need to back off a bit on Quickstep days.

She wanted to give me a little bit more than some basic steps and she wants to add some figures and shapes to make it a little more dramatic. I mean it is for a performance so it can’t just be vanilla quickstep stuff. So now the second long wall includes two steps with names that elude me right now. Actually, she called one a pepper pot which just means you do two locks in a row. So it is four quicks on your toes. Then we end with some kind of slide to a shape.

We change the shape on the next slow. If it works right, I’m slightly in a lunge on my right leg with my weight over the right foot. The shape has the right side a little higher and I think I’m looking left. Then, we change to bring the left side up and I move my head right and hook my left foot behind the right. Keeping the weight on the right but sort of snapping the left foot behind and just having weight in the toe. The sharpness of the move makes it appear like we are doing a lot but she told me the key is to not expend a lot of energy. Anyway, I was practicing that after the lesson and trying to stay balanced. It works if I do get my weight clearly over my right side. I’m already looking forward to seeing how this ends up.

And with that, I should call it a post.