Processing my processing

It’s been a little while since I posted on this blog. That was a deliberate thing, as I’ve had much to process over the last month or so. I kept January clean (on this blog, at least) so I could come back fresh, uncluttered and inspired.

Well, that was the plan. I have to say, I’m not quite there yet. But it’s February, the year’s one-twelfth over, and it’s time for me to get back on the horse.

So. What’s up?

My professional journey has taken an upswing during January, with a deeper relationship having been developed with an important client. MIMICO has been good to me over the last six or eight months and I’ve now taken on a more intimate role with them. The culture at the company is one of action, loyalty and ‘we’re all in this together’. The staff get on, the atmosphere is vibrant and hectic, and there’s a positive sense that good stuff is happening every day. My plan is to bring some more structure and organisation to their marketing efforts and help them refine and get a better return on their spend. I think we’re going to have some good fun this year.

I’ve also just agreed to help another company launch a new product. This project includes a range of marketing mini-projects and will span several months. I’m particularly looking forward to helping develop a mobile app that will be an important part of the launch. It’s the first time I’ve been involved in such a project.

During the last couple of weeks I’ve also completed the final percent or two of a couple of projects that seemed to go on forever. My structurally natured self is extremely pleased. So is my financial side as I can finally get the invoices out. That is especially pleasing.

So it’s all good on the work front.

It’s in the personal arena where I’ve struggled (and no, I don’t mean with the family. My wife and kids are the best. Without question. Even when they’re screaming). I’ve battled, personally, with my inner self as I’ve had to find a way to work through and deal with the actions of a person I’d worked with for nearly a decade and who I thought was particulary close to me. It turns, that person wasn’t. And I got slapped by a good old-fashioned blind-side. I took it harder than I should have. That’ll learn me.

I’m not going to go any deeper into the detail here. That’s for another day. For my book, maybe, if I finally get around to writing it.

I will get my learnings out in the open, however, as they maybe useful.

Firstly, it was reinforced to me that you sure can’t control the actions of others. You can only control the way you react. At times, my reaction was particularly dark, unreasoned and unfair on myself. I still tend to take things incredibly personally and this incident was no exception. That’s not actually very healthy. The way out was to keep coming back to logic and processing things as rationally as it is possible for a human to process things.

Secondly, I was able to reassure myself that the personal values I identify with still hold strong. Among these values are honesty and loyalty. I experienced someone who wasn’t loyal to me because he wasn’t honest with me. Again. I hated that. In future, I need to be vigilant about surrounding myself with more people who share similar values to me. Again, this is common sense, but is easy to lose sight of when you’re in the middle of a busy life.

Thirdly, I’ve come to the personal realisation that not many things are forever and sometimes you just have to let go to free yourself and move forward. Even if it means letting go to something you’ve worked on for years, poured everything into and are incredibly proud of. I’m at that point now and I have a couple of big decisions to make over the coming weeks. I do already know what I’m going to do, but taking that final step – making it real – will be hard. And in doing so I may let a number of close friends down. At this stage, though, I have to do what works for me and my family.

Spending the Christmas/New Year period with extended family on Central Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, was a good opportunity to recharge, reboot and remove some of the personal objections I’ve told myself I have to doing what needs to be done. The Central Coast is a very nice area (I’ll post more about this soon), and one I plan on getting back to. Soon…

I’ve had plenty of mostly sleepless nights over the last month. When it’s dark and quiet my nervous mind kicks into top gear, becoming a whirling, buzzing, froth of hysterical electrical pulses. It’s an exhausting place to be sometimes. Hopefully I’m just about through all that.

Or maybe I’m in the middle of my mid-life crisis. Perhaps I should just buy a motor bike.