How often have you heard this expression, in-between?
Usually it is said when we are deep into a task and don’t want to be
interrupted. Or possibly too ducking a task we promised to do. When it comes to
this time of year there is a tinge of guilt mixed in with the need to relax but
even so, it is hard to ignore that so much of what keeps us engaged hits the
pause button. Is that necessarily bad?
As those of us who continue to work as consultants or
who enjoy a gig lifestyle, this time of year brings with it opportunities to
simply lay back and recharge. For us there are no weeks off for vacation or
time set aside to enjoy a sabbatical, but rather, days snatched here and there
where we can leave well alone the instruments of interaction.
Put to one side are the laptops, tablets, smart phones
and even pens and pads. Time to kick back and enjoy that coffee or ice cream!
Perhaps we’d head to the beach or the ski slopes. Maybe a short cruise to
wherever. Yes, we are in between; Christmas and the New Year give us those
couple of extra days to be with family having no demands on our time. The New
Year will be upon us soon enough so that extra cocktail won’t go astray.
Never mind that the folks at LinkedIn think that all of
us – consultants in the gig economy included – just don’t do holidays all that
well:
Margo and I have spent time looking back at all that we
managed to squeeze into this past year. That sense of guilt returning as we
acknowledge how many BizCations we were able to fit into our schedule. Then
again, as storytellers, stories don’t write themselves and there is as much a
need for input as there is finding appropriate “hooks” to kick off yet another story
worth your time to scan.
Shortly we will be posting of our latest sojourn so I
will leave specifics for that post in the New Year. However, while we both
looked back on 2022 we realize we have travelled to Alaska and then later to
Maine. In so doing we can say we have now spent time in every U.S. state. We
also managed to slot in trips to Las Vegas, Mississauga (Ontario), London (UK),
leaf-peeping from Montreal (Quebec) to Ft Lauderdale (Florida) and Long Beach (California)
for the Indy Car races to Maui for well, a Thanksgiving in the sun.
We also managed to find the time to replace every car
in the garage while we planted a number of trees in our backyard. The train
that conveys passengers between concourses at Denver’s airport may not be truly
a measure of rail transportation but when you add in busses, flights, cruises
and multiple cross-country road trips, we squeezed in every type of
transportation mode in just those twelve months.
But here is where it gets interesting. As we come out of the global pandemic, Margo reminds me of how much we took for granted before we were once again unleashed to chase the lifestyle we have now committed ourselves to pursuing. There are times where we simply sigh and wonder, did we bite off a tad too much? Do we really need to take this journey right now? But then with each sunrise, we are back at it; furiously typing that next story.
The bottom line is that time waits for no one; as
Meatloaf once sang, “You were only killing time and it'll kill you right back.”
I was reminded of this line from the song as it was titled, Out of the Frying Pan (and Into the Fire)
and a sentiment shared by Margo and me. There were times, when transportation
was not optimal even as venues were not as they were advertised. When it comes
to international travel, so much time wasted just waiting in hotel lobbies for
a room to become available.
“If you got a dream, chase it, 'cause a dream won't
chase you back.” A line from a song by Cody Johnson titled 'Til You Can't. Together with the admonition to not kill time, it
just seems to fit. To some, we have an enviable balance of work and life that
gives us freedom to set up shop anywhere on the planet. Is the fulfillment of
our dreams? Has this become our ideal longer term lifestyle choice?
Living the dream! A phrase we have heard so many times
as a response to the simple question, how’s it goin’? Among the community we
interact with, it has not only been the response from those engaged in sales
but also, those more readily identified as managers. For decades now, those in
IT have enjoyed a lifestyle unimaginable by the previous generation. The deal
was everything and the travel and entertainment oftentimes simply over the top.
For Margo and I, this was part of the life that fueled
our ambitions. However, today, living the dream, seeing dreams become reality
and enjoying the time together, waiting notwithstanding, has helped greatly in
easing us both into a lifestyle that can only be described as a work/life
idyllic arrangement. But what does this mean and can it be sustained? Is our
future just a continuation of all that we pursue today? As a businesswoman told
CNBC this week, when it comes to success, if not owned is simply rented:
Then again, are we just standing still and enjoying our
in-between time? Perhaps more tantalizing is the question, if we are in-between
then what brackets this in-between state? We were so wrapped up in our
corporate roles that leaving them meant a transition. One that was not
comfortable to begin with. If that is one end of the bracketing, are we
prepared to simply go quietly into the night? Oh wait, the rent is due!
What we are learning and what we find interesting is
the way we both have broken down our lives to date into a series of chapters.
We often discuss the boundaries where chapters ended and began afresh. Simple.
Changed jobs. Changed residences and locations. Changed relationships. All
good. Schooling, first jobs, first marriages, first children, first overseas
move. What they all have in common is the tidy ending of one chapter followed
by a fresh-page beginning.
Margo and I are both US immigrants. Both have moved
around within the borders of America. What we see now is that our in-between
time is drawing to an end and that fresh-page beckons. Not in the coming year
or even the next. But it’s out there. We have a sense that there is still yet
one more chapter. Perhaps two! There is so much we have seen that has
influenced our take on life just as there are so many folks that have touched
our lives in a positive manner.
Many times it was recorded that once sailing to a new
land, the first thing that happened with those immigrants was the burning of
their boats. Symbolic as that was, it symbolized the truth that there would be
no turning back. Chase your dreams? Use time wisely? No question, as we check
the calendar to see that it’s neither Christmas nor the New Year, there is no
escaping that in this instance, the in-between period has a well-defined
ending.
Stories do not write themselves and yet, once begun,
they do end. 2022 is ending and will shortly be just a memory. With each
passing sunset there is the realization that work continues. One more sentence,
maybe, or perhaps the ending of another chapter. But for now, I am already
thinking about the storyline for the next post – the first of 2023 and it will
be heavy on travel and a little lighter on dreaming. For those with
opportunity, enjoy the downtime and the time to recharge. Being in-between?
It’s not so bad after all.
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