Ch- Ch-Changes

Graphic credit: Axios

In this blog I’ve written about changes in my daughter’s lives. Sometimes I focus on how their school activities and environment is transforming them. It’s fun to document their activities and their trajectory. Naomi is charting her own course, too—more exercise, more hamsters, more healthy food. There is no staying still or remaining static for any of us.

January through March was another still-working-at-home, highly caffeinated prologue to 2022. Then things changed in April when I moved to a new employer--and it has changed my life. Truth be told, the jury is still out if this new position will work out for me or not. Making the decision to leave my previous company was tough, primarily because they'd been good to me as an employer. I believe I did my part as an employee, too. Deciding to stay or go wasn't easy. I weighed leaving my stable and good job -- that I was grateful to have – for something new, exciting and challenging. Did the salary comparison. Assessed the potential impact on work-life balance and how that could affect the family. And I discussed it at length with my wife because we’re co-captains. In the end, I went for the new gig.

Credit: discogs.com

I couldn’t help myself. David Bowie’s timeless song is perfect: "Ch-ch-changes. Turn and face the strange. There's gonna have to be a different man."

"They" say the first few months of any new position is tough because it rips your moorings away. You must seek out new allies in the workplace. You have new processes and goals to contend with. And people expect you to contribute quickly even during the adjustment phase.

I am right in the middle of experiencing all that. It’s jarring. Sleep deprivation is real. Self-doubt occasionally rears its ugly head. My weight loss is based on stress, not a new exercise regimen. Gadzooks.

I write all this stuff for posterity more than anything else. It's capturing the moment because the changes that headline this post are real for us.

An interesting corollary is an old friend has become a life coach and we are having very interesting conversations. It’s healthy and helpful to discuss the adjustments due to a new job along with extra challenges. It can’t be all wine and roses when your working life turns upside down. For all that, it’s a good thing to take on new opportunities in life and damn the torpedoes. To not take a new fork in the road to see where it leads has its own perils such as wondering what might have been. Better to dare and do, live out loud regardless of the ultimate outcome. Life’s a real pageant (thank you Michael Stipe), but you have put it all on the table sometimes and see what happens next.

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