When I am processing email and going through my RSS feed I’ll often have a TV show or movie running to provide background noise. Today I had the West Wing episode called “Mandatory Minimums” playing.
The episode begins with a speech by the President that quotes the Irish writer Frank O’Connor who comes upon two boys by the wall of an apple orchard that seemed too high for them to climb. One boy proceeded to toss his cap over the wall. He then asked the boy why he would do that. To which the boy said, “Now we have to climb it”.
I’ve always liked this analogy as sometimes you just have to stop thinking about things and pick a direction to go. Over analyzing things can be paralyzing.
In the past two months, I’ve been reviewing my life and goals from the 10,000-foot level (short term) all the way up to 50,000 (3-5 years). I’ve also been looking for new full-time work as my previous contract expired towards the end of 2015. The frustrations of trying to find a new opportunity has been wearing me down. Getting the latest rejection letter let me realize that I still have to make choices in my life and goals.
So I’m throwing my hat over the wall and making some choices.
I currently have two websites that I used to update regularly. My personal site stuartclark.ca and my business site sclarkconsulting.ca.
While I am keeping both sites I plan to make some changes to both. The site for my consulting business SClark Consulting will have some changes coming. Based on recent stats I have not been getting a lot of traffic to it. I may look at doing away with the blog format and moving the posts there into an email list only.
Stuartclark.ca will become more of a home base of my various technology and writing ventures. Posts will be more of a journal of whatever interests me. In the past posts were of more a political nature. You will see less of these and more general thoughts that come my way.
I’ve experimented with self-publishing to Amazon with mixed success but in my opinion, the format shows promise. I want a place to start exploring those ideas.
On stuartclark.ca there is also a hobby section involving my painting and model kit building. I am spinning those types of posts off to another domain I have owned for many years called blackfire.ca. This site will have all the hobby related posts and other content on it as I explore some ideas on this platform.
I still remain committed to my community and to several key projects, particularly my work on the London Public Library Board and my technology broadcasting work with The Canadian Tech Podcast and other broadcast media work in the community. However, I realize I have to stop feeling guilty if I can’t do all the things I would like to do.
Time will tell if these choices are the right ones but with all the uncertainty in life right now, having a plan is a calming thing.
Oh and if you know of a company looking for an experienced IT person let me know. 🙂