A Big Change In My Life

I have always considered Obama’s election to be a transformative event for the country, if not the world. In past posts I talked about how to make significant transformations in my own life. There is a big new developments in this area that I want to announce.

I have worked for IBM for 26 years. It’s a comfortable job, but sometimes I wondered if focusing so much of my time and energy on esoteric technology issues for a major corporation is how I want to spend so much of my life. I sometimes fantasize that if I had real courage, I would quit and go work for a non-profit organization, or write a book that would change how people think, or start my own organization. I don’t have anywhere near the guts to actually do that though, especially in this economy.

Well, reality just intervened with a massive 2x4 across the forehead. Last month I learned that our department at work was downsizing and I was scheduled to be laid off at the end of February. I was focused on this for the last few weeks and thus posted very little to this blog. I can now let everyone that this phase of the waiting and uncertainty is over, and I have officially joined the ranks of the unemployed as of yesterday. I’m viewing this as a paid sabbatical for a few months (thanks to a nice severance package) while I look at various opportunities and try to decide what to do. But it’s also an unasked for opportunity to do something substantially new.

I talked to some people about what I should do on what could turn out to be effectively a 6 month paid sabbatical. The most interesting advice I received so far is to do something new, something that I wouldn’t have done otherwise. Despite all the unpleasant stress over the last month, it’s entirely possible that I could turn this into an interesting adventure. Now it’s time to take a very serious look at what to do in the second half of my life.

How far can you go before giving up?

I find that when I've gone about as far as I think I can go, I'm usually about half way there.

- From a good friend of mine, Stan Goldstein