I’ve gone through a few things over the past three years. A global pandemic, which obviously we all experienced but each one differently, to a series of pretty bad depressive episodes to a life-changing breakthrough using cognitive therapy.
Over the past few years, my day job had drifted away from being my dream job and I fell behind, bored and depressed. It became a painful chicken-and-egg scenario, and I became less reliable over time. That works against you, and it’s hard to come back from it unscathed. Your reputation takes a hit and so does your self-esteem.
But putting in the work, well…works. I did that cognitive therapy and that’s when it all came together. The benefits of years of doing my own research and trying to figure out the things that were wrong with me all made sense once I examined it with a therapist. I understood what caused my issues in life and once I figured it out the anxiety and self-loathing melted away. It’s like Santa Claus; once you know he’s not real, no amount of pretending is going to make you believe otherwise. You can’t go back. This is how I feel now; I can’t go back to the way I was because now I know it was all built on bad information and lies.
That all came at a time for a much-needed job change. The job that had brought me much joy had now become repetitive and boring. Not blaming anyone; it just happens sometimes. Right on cue, the universe dropped a new job into my lap. Two weeks of interviews and another two weeks of paperwork and I found myself working for a new place; a small company based out of Cincinnati that really needs some help getting modernized. It’s right in line with what I love to do and it couldn’t have come at a better time. It was really hard leaving my current job because I liked the folks on the team so much and I’d put in over five years there; I had some history built up. I designed and built their data platform, and that was huge, but it was time to leave my baby behind and strike out anew.
With a trepidatious yet optimistic outlook, I start the new year with a new job, a new purpose, and a new outlook.
So now that the new year is upon us, it’s time for me to come back to writing. I’ve been prepping for it, revamping the website and taking a good hard look at why I write in the first place. The why might have gotten muddy over the past decade of chasing sales trends and ranking charts, but it’s crystal clear to me now where my writing journey goes from here. Finally comfortable in my own skin, I believe I can now become the storyteller I’ve always wanted to be. It’s about the story, not the pretty words, and that’s more obvious now to me than ever. I call this my “writing 2.0” upgrade because it’s a significant change for the better. It’s the way I want to do things from now on. Still me, only better.
As I hit publish on this post, I’ll be starting my first day back to work from the Christmas break. New year, new job, new perspective, new writing…new me.
2023 will be my comeback year. Stay tuned…there’s a lot more in store.