The anniversary of my father’s death and his birthday have passed again for another year. He was a good father, a good man, and he was my best friend, trusted advisor, and confidant until he passed away in January 2000. There were many times I wished he was still around these past few years but he left me with some good lessons I still hold true to this day.
Here is some of the wisdom my father passed onto me:
2012 could have ended up much worse of a year than it actually did. While I didn’t make good on some of the 2012 plans, I got through the year and landed on my feet.
Here are some of the lessons I learned this year:
The year 2012 has finally come to an end. It wasn’t without its personal and professional challenges but nonetheless my year ended on a happy note.
I am past the three month mark working from home again and haven’t gone completely Lord of the Flies or gone total hermit yet. On the other hand, spending three years on a federal government contract might have made me a hermit. Some things had really changed since the last time I worked from home with any frequency.
Here are some observations from what I call Working from Home Redux:
I’ve been relearning a lot about strategy lately since I’ve been thrust back out on the job market. While I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of small projects right now, I still need to land a longer term contract or another full time position. I am thankful to get back to writing again all the while trying to be more strategic in my next professional move. As such a larger project has been fine tuning my brand and strategy.
A recurring theme I am seeing lately is Change. I’ve always been a big fan of change. Heck, a large chunk of my career was spent as a contract technical writer where I had to learn how to adapt to new organizations, technologies, and cultures. Change is a cornerstone of the contract technical writer life. My personal life has gone through a number of changes in the past two years as well. While the changes were largely positive, it was stressful at times until I got through to the other side.
Change is something that many organizations and people want. However, change is not for the complacent. In early stage companies, change means that the first in may not retain their positions so change is not in their personal interests even if it is best for the business. This can produce many unforeseen obstacles because once a state of dysfunction recedes, people can be without a job.
Now that my day job went POOF on Friday due to budgets cuts, I am hitting it early this morning because I am back to freelancing at least for the interim. While the market is still in bad shape and the threat of Sequestration looms over the local federal government contracting community, I have plans and feeling hopeful about what’s next for me professionally.
Here is my plan for the week:
My last official day at my day job is September 14th so it seems time for another edition of Random And Recent Projects. Here are my random and recent projects from the last few weeks:
This isn’t my first layoff so I am not letting myself grow complacent and in fact I am looking forward to what the future holds.
So much is written about the part-time writer or freelancer being the one who complicates part-time working arrangements – they do this, they do that, part-time freelancing during your off hours is going to melt your brain and turn you into a hermit and so forth. These articles only tell half the story and actually do a disservice to such projects.
I’ve freelanced during my off hours for a large part of my career successfully but with a few bumps in the road along the way. However, as much is written about the freelancer fumbling, the employer/client can also drop the ball and put what should be a simple exercise into the wall. Some ways include:
My Thyroid — actually the subsequent Thyroidectomy I had in October 2010 — has been perhaps the most prolific productivity teacher in my life thus far. The farther I get away from the surgery the more I’ve come to realize the productivity lessons from the whole thing.
I had to bring many things to a cold hard stop and then turn things back on in my life switch by switch like bringing up a server farm or a data center. Ultimately, I am realizing the benefits and seeing how it has been a catalyst for positive change.
Here are the five productivity lessons my Thyroid taught me:
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