I’m still taxiing to the gate.

🤔 Just thinking again.

Well, it’s been a week. Or maybe more than a week? You there! Boy in the street! What day is this? Honestly, I have no idea, and I’m not gonna bother looking. I took a leap of faith back in April and I feel like I just touched down on the other side—Airplane! style.

I had ONE job.

By the time I found out I wasn’t going to get to bring that job with me to Iowa, it was too late in the process to do much about it. I mean, I’d mentioned my situation to a couple people in passing, but selling a house, buying another sight-unseen, packing up your whole life, and moving 1,000 miles across the continent in 60 days kinda takes most of your time. And energy. And sanity.

Knowing I’d have to hit the ground running pretty quickly on the other side, I hopped on LinkedIn to see how much work my profile needed. I spent a decade chasing work-life parallel over balance. My work history is all over the place. Different roles. Different industries. Different, yet always adjacent and relevant in some way, interests. You know—typical Gen X shit.

Anyway, while I was there, the algorithm generously served up some of my friend Jacob Warwick’s excellent advice. Just what I needed, even! Next thing you know, I’m on the phone with Jacob and we’re talking about how work is life and life is work because work is how we add value to the world, and the more value we create for others, the more value we see in return. You get what you give. It’s not always about the money.

Jacob reminded me that the high cost of going all-in on your day job like I did is that you hand all your power over to others. “They have all the power now, and that puts you at risk.” Talk about things you know you knew, but didn’t see coming a mile away. Hindsight 2022.

I’ve spent hours thinking about work recently.

• How much work can I get from ClearVoice? For how long?
• 20 hours a week isn’t enough—but I could diversify into freelancing?
• Or could I dedicate 20 hours a week to TGP for 2-3 months?
• What if I started looking at companies I’ve used forever?
• How much time do I have to figure it out?
• What do I want in my next job?
• What do I really need though?

I’m pretty fortunate. I know.

We missed the housing bubble, but got off the most recent wave right before things cooled off. Even though we’ve moved to a smaller town with a lower cost of living that allowed us to buy a 25% bigger house on a 100% bigger lot for 10% less than our own asking price, I still new I was landing without a job. Despite the best of intentions and total faith in my ClearVoice home team, I was relegated to part-time contractor for 60 days. I had to figure it out.

The real estate proceeds we’d planned on putting almost entirely back into the new house didn’t quite make it that far. A $15,000 fence. Several thousands more on appliances, electrical, and all the things we had to replace because we ran out of room. The money was going quickly and I didn’t want to see it completely evaporate while I got my shit together in pursuit of a big dream I couldn’t entirely define. I needed to get a “real” job.

It’s been six weeks.

I have a new job. I’m pretty fucking excited about it.

Even though I’ve been at the new house the better part of two months now, I still haven’t felt like I’m home yet. I still don’t feel like I’ve landed. Or rather, I didn’t, until I got the call that all the incredible people I met at Workiva wanted me to join their team last week Friday. I start on the 15th.

I’m still taxiing to the gate, with my seatback and tray table in the upright-and-locked positions, but I know I’m gonna be okay.

Otherwise, I kinda feel like I’ve been on another planet lately. I mean—I haven’t had this much unstructured time off since high school.

Holy shit. Let’s go!