At the end of a tough and restless year, the chrysalis of change opens up on a flight of fancy to a faraway place and a new world of possibility
Novemberitis – that annual malady that tells me my year is one month too long. Overworked, underpaid, stressed out and I mostly feel like I’ve achieved nothing this year. Novemberitis, the Yuppie Flu of the common man, had really done a nasty one on me in 2017 and by the start of October, I felt like I couldn’t trust myself not to make a colossal eff-up of Titanic proportions at work.
For the past couple of years, this has been my annual affliction. It seems that I just don’t have the Big Match Temperament to see it through to year end, and that the only place I am headed to in December is a little town called Nervous Breakdown, population: me.
Knowing that I am headed that way should mean I can do something about it – some bold, heroic, last-minute Hollywood-style action hero stuff…er…no. In true Dave style, I just stay up nights agonising over this self-depletion, the lack of sleep making Novemberitis a foregone conclusion.
This year it seemed worse than before. I kept asking myself if it was just me or if 2017 was the busiest, most obstacle-ridden year I’ve experienced in a long time. My Novemberitis seemed to come on much earlier. Silly mistakes in June. The Nefarious Troll Incident in July. Complete budgetary failure in August and September. Basically, chaos for four months, and that’s before we even hit October.
But wait – there’s more! In between all that madness and the busyness, right in the middle of all the chaos and disorder and sleepless nights, I have landed a new job. In Dubai. So this has meant that quite aside from delivering on everything I needed to in my current role, I had to arrange an emigration and all that that entails. Packing up and shipping my entire life to a new country. While still doing the job that I felt I was failing so dismally at!
Somebody hand me the white flag, I want out of this war.
Breathe. Step back and see the chaos for what it is: the outgoing life clinging to me as I step into the new life. Not unlike the pupal husk clinging to the imago as it is emerges from the cocoon. Yes. Exactly like that! I needed to shake off the husk of the old life, and step into my new one.
And so I’ve done exactly that. When I left the old job, I truly left the old job. I have disconnected from all their platforms and pages; I have released all the stress of the annual increases and upcoming campaigns and the impact these will have on my former team; I have sold or donated all my possessions, had an endless stream of farewells and I have jetted off to Dubai.
While I wait for my visa and ID to be completed, I have a few days to sit back and do nothing For once, I am the customer, the member, the client, rather than the person handling all the queries, and it feels good. Even just for a short while.
Next week or the week after, I can start my new job. Start fresh. Plot, plan, design, brainstorm and start the ball rolling for 2018. This year, I’ve beaten Novemberitis fairly and squarely by changing the rules of the game. The old life didn’t fit me any longer, so I changed up into something new, something better – and I feel that buzz of excitement, like anything is possible, and we’re going to do some great work.
Come at me, Novemberitis – you have no power here!
Look, this solution won’t work every year. I don’t imagine it’s realistic to up and change countries just because you’ve had a rough 10 months, but the crux of it is that the solution really was a shift in perspective – to realise that the months that have passed this year already are done. By letting the stress and the anxiety of May or July or August taint your attitude now is only going to make the last stretch of the year that much longer.
So let it go. Take a deep breath, and own that last stretch before you take a seriously well-deserved break. You’re going to be fine. I promise.
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