In the past I enjoyed not working. It was only the need for money that drove me back to work. Back in the day (1970′s) I would work for 1-2 years and then quit. The next 6-12 months was spent doing exactly whatever I wanted to. I usually trained (I am a runner), hung out the local donut shop, visited friends and on two occasions took for 1-2 months traveling through Europe. One day I was in San Jose, California and the next I was in Croatia (then Yugoslavia).
So at last I arrive at a point in life where I don’t have to work and I slowly allow myself to get drawn back in to work-like simulations. Coaching cross-country is one. I am an assistant coach for a local high school. The head coach, also a good friend, is retired but he treats his role as a full-time job.
Rule: If you work with someone who is totally committed, you had better be totally committed. But I am not you see. I am looking for something part-time and relaxed and this is frenetic and full-time if not in hours certainly in effort. The season is over in about 2-3 weeks and then I am off the hook.
Not going back. Got trapped. Now getting out of trap.
I allowed myself to be drawn in to a role on a start up’s advisory board. Naturally they are committed. Wouldn’t want it any other way. But now I am starting to get emails that make me feel like I am an employee instead of an advisor. Wikipedia describes and advisor this way:
Advisor
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Look up advisor in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
Advisor or adviser is normally a person with more and deeper knowledge in a specific area…
Oh, that’s me. Remember when Aslan (Chronicles of Narnia) told the children that there was magic but that there was also a deeper magic? Well that is me and as a result I am an advisor. I am also a hunter. A beast of prey as far as jobs, careers, organizations and general thinking are concerned. Not the normal petting zoo animal I run into all the time.
But even Lions like Aslan get trapped and tied up now and then. If you remember the tale of Aslan even he is tied up by the witch but because he has deeper magic he eventually escapes.
The only way (sadly) that I can stay untied, un-trapped and free is to divorce myself from jobs of any kind and money. I can work but it is critical that I have no regular hours, no office, no badge and no title outside of advisor (or now and then consultant). Funny it’s very similar to the days when I escaped work back in the 1970′s. Back then not working meant NOT WORKING!
So I won’t go back to coaching and I will make sure that the company I am presently advising understands what that means (to me). Heck, I could be out on my ear all over the place.
But there are still other traps but that is another post. The one about how you would live your life if you knew you only had one year to live. The difference is that you have good health during that year. What would you do and not do knowing this was it? In fact this may very well be it.
