For a little over a month, I’ve been sitting at home, spending a couple hours a day jobhunting. (These days, with the internet and all, it really doesn’t take any longer than that.)
This has been happening to me once every couple of years or so since the mid-90s, when I sort of switched careers from the military-industrial complex to commercial IT and other things. It takes some time, after leaving a gig, to find something new. Still, every time it happens, I stress about whether I’m going to be able to find something this time, whether I’ve let my skills atrophy, whether I have the wrong skills, etc. etc. etc.
Lately it’s occurred to me that I’m not going to live forever, and that sitting at home beating myself up is a helluva way to spend what little time I have. So I’ve been scouring the web for a few days now, looking for resources that might help me to sustain a positive attitude. Today I came across this article by Scott Young:
Why Your Free Time is Boring – lifehack.org
Here’s the paragraph that really resonated for me:
“Thus we have the paradoxical situation: On the job people feel skillful and challenged, and therefore feel more happy, strong, creative and satisfied. In their free time people feel that there is generally not much to do and their skills are not being used, and therefore tend to feel more sad, weak dull and dissatisfied. Yet they would like to work less and spend more time in leisure.”
Which is pretty much how I’ve felt this week, and for much of the last month.
Tomorrow morning, early, I’m going to the gym. I’m going to start enjoying the free time I have on my hands.
