Thursday, September 24, 2009

How To Find Your Blogging Voice?

All the 'how to blog better' advice always goes on about how you should blog about your passion. If you do, it'll come through in your posts, instantly making you more interesting and more likely to make your fortune from the comfort of your living room.

I agree that you should blog about something you're passionate about - why would you want to regularly sit down and write about something you find dull? Surely even the motive of finding your internet business cash cow wouldn't really be motivation enough to buckle down to it, when it comes to the slow drip feed that building up a blog takes. Post by post, day by day, one new reader at a time...

But writing passionately isn't an automatic route to great content. Finding your passion is different from finding your voice. I've been doing this Traildreamer blog for over a year now. It stems from various interests and passions, it has tracked aspects of my journey. I know I don't do much of what you're 'supposed to' if you want to increase traffic and make money, but I do feel I have found my 'voice' for this blog and I have a small number of readers who check in regularly. When I have something I want to say, it flows very naturally and I enjoy it. I hope that comes through in the reading of it. I'll never be a pro, but I get a lot of satisfaction out of this blog.

I've recently started a new blog, one that links much more closely to my professional interests, and I hope may lead to my own business in some way in the future. I'm not ready to add a link here to it, because I really haven't found my voice over there yet. Each post is clunky and awkward. The content is scatty. The focus switches. I'm trying to write about professional interests that get me really worked up, excited and enthused on a daily basis in my 'real life', but finding a way to talk about it coherently and consistently in a blog is proving unexpectedly tricky. This is stuff I do all day, but it's not stuff I've ever written about or even talked about much.

I've noticed this clumsiness in other blogs I've followed, as they switched from being personal journeys or philophy of life musings to something more strategic. I'll not name them, that would be indiscrete, but I'm guessing it's something that happens quite often. I'd love to know what others think about this. Have you seen the process in blogs you've followed? Have you been through that transition yourself and can offer some advice?

I don't yet know how to find your blogging voice. But I need a new one, and I'm going to be working on finding it. I'll let you know how I get on.

Image from Beverly & Pack

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Travelling Gets Into Your Blood

There's been a rush of Hobopoet posts in the past 24 hours (see here), after months of barely anything. For many years Hobopoet was my favourite blog, before he switched from blogspot to his own domain and then promptly seemed to lose the thread of his hobopoet journey.

A new post from AJ usually gives me a wee boost, redirecting my mind back to the priorities of freedom and voluntary simplicity again. In recent months I've strayed from these priorities, because I've reached what might be described as a 'happy medium.' I've landed a great job doing something I love. And I'm living somewhere I love too - I've left the cities behind, and have the space and solitude of the Scottish Highlands to enjoy every day. A happy medium is a great place to be. Maybe the happy medium is the goal I've been chasing, the word 'medium' irrelevant? Is that word 'happy' the true bottom line? I can't complain, and don't much anymore... Except...

It can't last. My contract is for three years, and then... what? Funding dries up, and we're all back out on the street looking for jobs again. It's silly to worry about what I'll do in three years time, and I don't worry about it exactly. I feel more confident than ever before in my life. But I do feel in my bones that I couldn't bear to go back to working out of an office, with a boss who micromanages, and the autonomy and creativity I enjoy in this job firmly squashed. I couldn't stand to submit again to the senseless bureaucracy and hierarchical systems that dominate most jobs in the sector I work in. I'd hate to shelve all the projects that I can pursue in this job, projects that make a difference to my clients and excite me to pieces, and just go back to doing what I'm told and no more.

And, although I've hung up my travelling shoes and stashed my backpack at the back of a cupboard, I'd be lying if I claimed that I don't crave periods of simple nomadic wandering. I've booked a week down in Edinburgh for a training course in October, and I am so fizzy with anticipation at the thought of living out of one bag again, possessions to the minimum, drifting through hostels, quiet times spent writing and observing, learning some pretty amazing stuff at the training course for five days, and soaking in the experience of being adrift again. Travelling gets into your blood. While I may never take off for a year or more at a time again, I can't say I could settle for just two weeks a year either.

The upshot is, I've a strong desire to claim control and live my life doing what I love in a sustainable way, not to fit in with what needs to be, as dictated by a boss or a mortgage or a funding provider's short-term aims. Some people are always driven to do more, and some people aren't great at submitting to the way it is. I may be one of them.

Image by Irargerich

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Once You've Got It, Would You Ever Give It Up? Working From Home

Poor Traildreamer is sorely neglected these days. The two things that drove it in the beginning were my dual passions of running and travelling.  Those two threads led to all sorts of rants and research into work culture, freedom and how to pursue your dreams. No wonder the Traildreamer blog has faltered since then - I've hung up my travelling shoes for the time being while I commit to staying in one place for a bit, probably about 3 years. I've hung up my running shoes due to injury. And many days I don't even make it into a pair of work shoes.

I work from home, often in pyjamas and slippers till lunchtime. I'm pretty passionate about my job, and have an excellent manager who's clearly sussed out that she gets the best work out of me by leaving me to it apart from a once monthly meeting and the odd email.

I'm still assimilating the novelty of this new work set-up. I often marvel at it, and speaking to colleagues in other areas of the Highlands who've been doing the same thing, they all say the same thing...

"How're we ever going to return to a normal work arrangement?" It's true. We were all selected for these jobs based on certain qualities and values, and this job has allowed those qualities to flourish. I have a job description, I have a laptop and a mileage reimbursement rate, and I have outcomes I have to achieve. But how I go about achieving those outcomes is entirely up to me. Help and advice is there for when I want to ask for it, but generally I'm trusted to get on with it entirely on my own. I love that.

Taking on that kind of working arrangement needs high levels of autonomy, integrity, discipline and creativity. And after working like that for several years, how would you go back to an office environment, hierarchies, knowing your place, being closely monitored and controlled, enforced dress codes, having to get approval for every decision or action, being told what to do...?

I think the answer to that is, you wouldn't.  Not if you could bloody well help it.  Would you?

Image by ansik

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Running Gems: Barefoot Under Cover of Darkness

Under cover of darkness, I go out barefoot and walk around the block, just to see. Only it isn't about seeing, it's about feeling! The pavements feel smooth, cold, wet. Leaves are falling from the trees, and are a light, barely-present tickle against my feet. Some kind of seed pod is scattered all over the ground, and as I step on them, I'm surprised to find that they 'give' under my weight. It's a pleasant sensation. I gingerly hobble over the stones and grit where the road surface is broken, and bits stick painfully to my soles. I notice that I'm padding along on the ball of my foot more than I usually do when out I'm walking.  Back at the front door to my block of flats, I unlock and walk in. I wipe my feet, and the mat feels course, but warm after the leeching cold of the concrete outside. I notice I've left wet footprints on the tiled communal porch, and I imagine someone else in the block getting up early for work, and seeing these prints on their way out.

Friday, July 10, 2009

A Blog Worth Checking Out

This is the most amazing post yet, from a truly amazing blog - check it out:

http://ryanrunseurope.blogspot.com/2009/07/days-47-48.html

This guy is an inspiration.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Short Trails & The Injured Runner


It used to be that anything less than 3 miles wasn’t worth getting out of bed for. 

What’d be the point of going out for such a short distance?  But currently 3 miles is about 1½ miles too far to walk, and I can forget about running it altogether. No can do. The physio and the podiatrist have both drummed it into me that over-doing it will do me no favours, so for now, just don’t run at all. I can cycle and swim as much as I like, which is a mercy, but neither are as satisfying as a fast 4 mile run before breakfast, or a full day out walking in the hills. Of course, I’ve pushed my luck, and either walked too far or tried out a bit of a run despite the advice of the professionals. But I’ve come to regret it, as my recovery has taken a knock-back each time.

Now that a whole day on the mountains is out of the question, what can I do? Where can I go that’ll still give me those much-needed shots of wilderness, exploration, and physical challenge?

I haven’t found a satisfying answer to those questions. But I do find myself looking at local ‘short walks’ guides with new-found interest. I used to find them disappointing, their definition of short being considerably shorter than anything I'd consider worth the bother of turning up for. And they don’t meet my demands of wilderness, exploration and physical challenge. But they do meet the closely related criteria of the outdoors, nature, discovery and some level of physical activity. I now appreciate these 20 minute out-and-back, signposted strolls from the car park, that take me over smooth landscaped trails and don’t require even the slightest scramble.

And I’ve gained a fresh insight into the frustrations of being restricted by my body from accessing and enjoying some of the greatest delights in this world, the places that enrich my life and replenish my soul. 

As someone who's spent the last 5 years or so working in disability services, there's nothing like an injection of first-hand personal experience to refresh my therapeutic practice.  I'm finding it all as frustrating as ever in terms of my personal fitness.  But in terms of my understanding of the importance of the natural world to my health and wellbeing, and the barriers that stop some people enjoying those same opportunities that I value so highly, I guess I'm learning something useful.

Image by cogdogblog

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Gen Y Blogs: Are They Special?

I read a lot of these Gen Y blogs, especially if they have a strong entrepreneurial/start-up thread. This is even though I suspect I’m outside the Gen Y age-bracket, and despite the fact that, for the time being at least, I’ve shelved the idea of starting my own business. So why do I keep coming back to them? Why are they the ones that clutter my Google Reader, rather than the hiking/running blogs that I probably have more in common with?

I think it’s to do with the notion of striving for the life you want to live.

These Gen Y bloggers, they’re all about their search for their path in life, their striving to stay true to their dreams and passions, and they’re putting their dilemmas and initiatives out there along the way, for others to follow, and comment on, and discuss. It seems from some of these blogs that they think it’s their generation that defines them in this search - I say that it’s not. That quest is not specific to people born between year X and year Y (as stipulated in the Wikipedia definition of Gen Y). What is different for their generation is that they’ve come of age with the internet, and see their lives through that lens. Every generation of 20-somethings has a significant number of souls who struggle to find their paths and wish for something different and better that the norms offered by conventional society. The majority ‘grow out of it,’ a minority don’t and become the hippies, radicals, artists, drop-outs, nomads, and independent thinkers of their generation. What’s different, and appealing, about the current crop of Gen Y blogs is that this process is out there, globally, for all to see in the blogosphere. Support and reinforcement flows from blog to blog. And it’s also interesting that the Gen Y bloggers don’t aspire to be artists or drop-outs, but high achieving internet-based entrepreneurs... That, I think, is what’s different.

A few examples of these Gen Y blogs? Here's a good three to have a look at:

Jun Loayza
Matt Cheuvront
Luke Snedden

(Warning: Once you have a look at those few, you could end up wandering forever, lost in a world of links from Gen Y blogger to Gen Y blogger, commenting and crediting and name-checking each others stuff...).

Image by jetheriot

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Phase 2

I put a couple hours into the Traildreamer blogbook this morning.

I think I have a new direction for the project. Which is exciting. I’m calling it Traildreamer Phase 2, because the themes of the original block of the blog don’t seem so relevant anymore. That fight is over, a new one is beginning.

I’m not all het up about work culture and wage-slavery anymore, because I’ve stepped out of that culture. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still working a full-time job, and I’m not working for myself... But it almost feels like it. I have such a level of freedom, autonomy and creativity in my new job, and it gels so well with my values, that it scarcely feels like work. It feels more like a passion, and I’m lucky enough to get paid to pursue it!

Traildreamer helped me get this magical job. Not directly, but indirectly. Part of what was needed for the post was an unconventional attitude, and over the months of blogging, that’s exactly what I was developing. All that reading and writing on work culture, wage slavery, manic society, freedom, following your bliss... it led me to this point, where an astute interviewer picked-up on the views simmering away underneath my surface, and instead of seeing them as a reason to dismiss me, saw them as the reason to hire me! ‘We wanted someone comfortable with a little bit of anarchy,’ she tells me 3 months after I started, ‘someone who is able to see that most things probably need to be done differently, and won’t be too shy to try some off-the-wall initiatives.’ Ha! The main thing I thought was my terrible guilty secret in my old job, is my key strength in my new one.

So, this new direction. It brings me right back to where I started, in many ways. Traildreaming. This blog isn’t about my work, though there are various points where work is relevant, and it’ll probably stay that way. Traildreamer started because I’d spent many years travelling round various parts of the world, and going running pretty much everyday. My life revolved around running, and finding damn good trails to run out on, no matter what town or village I’d washed into the day before.

Finding trails for running, walking, and cycling. Trailfinding ways through life that are thrilling and satisfying and rewarding. That’s what this blog is about, and that’s the direction I’ll be heading out on in future posts. It’s good to regroup, its good to keep going, and it'll be interesting to see where I end up.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Running Gems: Trail Run in the Highlands

It's all just too glorious. My ankle is actually still out of action (still!!!!), but I'm still making sure I get out there in some form or another. This track goes for miles. Life doesn't get any better.

Photo by Me

Back Again

I'm back. Honestly, I am.

For those of you out there who've been following me for a while, and have kept checking in from time to time on the off-chance that I might have posted something, all I can say is sorry for being otherwise occupied for the past couple months. But my life is settling down again, and there is now enough brain-space left in my head at the end of each day to be able to get back to some blogging.

It's good to be back. And it's good to be where I'm at.

Life has changed massively since I left my sensible job and my city flat back at the end of March - and I'm so glad I made the leap. That leap has liberated me from so much of the bullshit of living and working based on other people's stupid expectations and conventions. Now I'm in a position to push forward with amazing things. Here we go folks.

Amazing image by D. Sharon Pruitt

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Into the Groove

I cannot believe that a whole month has passed since last time I posted here. I've been busy, obviously. A big wedding, a big move, no internet for several weeks, a new job... it all adds up to no blogging. But things are settling down again now, and I'll get back into the groove soon. Bear with me till then.

Image by PresleyJesus

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

High-Gloss Voluntary Simplicity

There's something contradictory and cool about Tinymine, a blog I discovered a week or so ago. It's voluntary simplicity, from a glossy perspective. And I'm surprised to find I love it.

I've always come at Voluntary Simplicity with a very minimalist, make-do-and-mend approach: less is more, focus on 'enough,' possessions weigh you down and curtail your freedom in every way - physically and pragmatically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I've usually lived in flat-shares where my space has been my room and no more - that puts a nice limit on how much stuff you can accumulate. I've avoided shopping, and trawls through furniture showrooms are my idea of purgatory. In contrast, I've enjoyed scavenging for cast-offs, and at one point lived in a flat almost fully equipped with furniture lifted off the streets of Glasgow on council pick-up days before the vans came round. I've also moved frequently, and valued the regular opportunity to ditch surplus and walk away. And I absolutely loved backpacking for extended periods of time, which by necessity reduced my essential possessions down to the volume and weight capacity of one rucksack.

But there's been an irritating conflict in my mind lately, as my life has led me to put down some roots. Making a home requires possessions, tools, equipment and storage. Which means more stuff, and more bloody shopping: for a bed, for a fridge, for a garden spade! No, please don't make me do it.

Tinymine gets voluntary simplicity, gets the concept of 'enough,' and the maximising of what you've got, not what more you could endlessly 'need.' And yet also accepts that we do need things, embraces and enjoys the fun of it, and revels in the aesthetics of it.

Whether you're a hard-line minimalist nomad suddenly faced with having to set up home, or a previous big spender suddenly faced with having to go small and simple, Tinymine might be worth a look.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

5 Good Things About Cycling (For People Who've Forgotten)

My busy life is getting out of hand! New job, new home, brother's wedding... there just aren't enough hours in the day to find time to blog as well.

So, my (brief) message for today is... cycling rocks. Not news to many, but a fabulous reminder for me. My running is still on the back-burner, but the biking is going great. I used to bike a lot. Before I got my drivers license (which wasn't till I was about 26 or something), I biked one hell of a lot - it was my only means of transport, and I lived in some pretty rural areas, so I regularly covered a lot of miles out of necessity, never mind all the cycle touring I did for fun. I used to dream of being Josie Dew, I read her books, and wished I could go off and cycle round wonderful foreign countries as my main occupation. But then I had to pass my drivers test and get a car for work, and then I moved to the city, and just didn't enjoy, or feel safe, or feel confident enough to cycle in the traffic-crammed streets.

Now I'm back up north in nowhere-land, the bike has been hauled out the shed, and I'm rediscovering the joys of cycling. Here are a few motivational reminders for the newly re-inititiating (not for the experienced experts who'd never be so slack as to stop cycling, you guys probably take all this stuff for granted and scoff at such newby-ism).
  1. The achey sore backside you get when you haven't been out on the bike in a while. Ouch. (It doesn't stay that sore forever, honest).
  2. Peddling downhill like a maniac, in the highest gear that'll gain purchase, till you go so fast you could almost be flying... zooooommmmmmmmm.....
  3. That pounding-in-the-chest feeling you get when you finally get to the top of a hill. Have to stop, gasping for air. Rest a moment, soak in the views. And then become aware of the powerful sensation of your heart pumping strong and sure. Oh yeah, I'm alive!
  4. Thighs getting noticeably more firm and muscular even after just a handful of sessions out on the road. Excellent.
  5. Swallowing flies. Yuk.
Image by moriza

    Tuesday, April 14, 2009

    4 Secrets of A Surveillance Society: The Power of Inconvenience

    I'm quite enjoying this low-profile, under-the-radar-living thread. I started to think about the ways that low-profile lives are monitored and restricted. Here's a few:

    1. Packing-plastic.
    You need to have a credit card, even when you don't need one. When travelling in the UK/Australia anyway, almost any accomodation requires a credit card. Even when you turn up on the spot, in person, at the front desk of a hotel, guesthouse or hostel, with your bag on the floor beside you, and you're looking to book just one night, tonight, and you have a fistful of crispy notes ready to hand over to pay for the night, and they do not have a problem accepting cash... A credit card number is still required, 'for security.' What are you going to do with it, I asked. Nothing, they said, we just need it on our computer system 'for security.'

    A few years back my brother had the experience of having his application for a credit card turned down, not because he had a bad credit history, but because he had no credit history. He'd never had a credit card, or any other form of debt, and so there were no records on him for them to check. Rather than think round this, look at his current-account record, or anything else, the bank denied the credit card. You need credit to get credit.

    2. Registered Address/PO Boxes
    They need to know where to find you. Over at Hobopoet, his latest post (here) talks about car-living and advises getting a PO Box as a way of getting round the mailing problem that comes with having no fixed abode. The USA must be different from the UK, because, as I am currently finding out, I can only have a PO Box if I can provide evidence of my current place of residence in the form of recent utility bills in my name. As I am, once again, in transit, I have no address, so no such utility bills and so no PO Box. Proof of address, in the form of utility bills, is a standard request if you want to register or gain access to just about anything in officialdom - bank accounts, security checks, rental accomodation, utilities...

    3. Photo ID
    Seeing you for real isn't enough. They need to see you stamped in plastic, and overwritten with biometrics. That night's accomodation at the cheapo youth-hostel that required a credit card? Also needed photo ID. Bank account? Yup, photo ID, 2 forms of thank you very much. Drink in a bar, even though you're well beyond your 18th/21st birthday? Photo ID. Of course, security checks require photo ID. What's the big deal? All you need is your drivers license and/or your passport, you've probably got at least one of them on you at all times?

    But whether you're trying to live a low-profile life, a low-carbon life, or are in the unfortunate position of having to live a low-income life, a passport/drivers license may be two things you just don't possess. Not owning these two items doesn't just exclude you from travel overseas or driving, it also excludes you from fully participating in day-to-day life in your home country.

    What about standard-issue ID cards? The UK doesn't have these yet, though I know many other countries do. I object, on principal, to the idea. But can principals stand up to practicalities?

    4. Inconvenience
    The upshot of all this stuff is clever, creeping change. If the government suggests a tightening of security and surveillance, with compulsory trace-able histories and ID cards, it usually sparks a massive controversy in the media around civil liberties and freedoms, that clogs up the progression of the policy. But, inconvenience, now that's something different. That can move people to accept things that may have been unthinkable when framed in political terms.

    In this hard, fast, now society where any delay drives us to the point of rage... The threat of inconvenience has the power to make us accept things that even the threat of terrorism doesn't. The inconvenience of not having all the necessary bits of paper, laminated cards with unflattering photos, the credit history, the strings of numbers, and the barcodes - its not worth it. Getting snarled up in a no-mans-land of 'computer says no' bureaucracy when all you're trying to do is move house, change jobs, receive mail or go on holiday - it'd drive you nuts.

    Realistically, faced with that lot, I'd probably accept the ID card without even realising I'd just gone and compromised a step too far.

    Would you?

    Saturday, April 11, 2009

    How To Live Under-the-Radar

    Over at Code Name Insight, there have been a couple of interesting posts recently (see links here and here) about how to live a 'low profile' life, below the government's or other authorities' radars. But it got me thinking about the situation that probably faces more people - transitioning in and out of 'the system,' and the benefits and difficulties that brings.

    This isn't as radical as it sounds. This is for anyone who's gone off backpacking on a shoe-string, strung together some low paid/cash in hand type jobs, helped out friends or friends-of-friends with house-sitting or other odd jobs in return for board and lodgings, or even just had a partner who's taken the reins and had everything in their name...

    Before setting off on my travels back in 2007, I had to spend a fair while disentangling myself from many of the systems that kept me in my place. Shutting down contracts for phones and internet, cancelling direct debits for services I no longer needed or wanted, writing letters to inform the tax authorities that I was leaving the country so they could strike me off their list for the year... It was a complicated effort, they don't like to make it easy for you, but with each contract cancelled I felt a notch lighter and freer. This is well worth it, I thought to myself.

    On my return, I was faced with re-instating many of those ties. But I was more wary, not out of any political motivation, but simply because its all such a hassle. It made more sense to avoid contracts and debts and accounts with all these different services and agencies. Pay as I go, cash, upfront, as and when I need something.

    It is easier. Except when you want or need something from that system.

    Code Name Insight wisely states that if you want to live a low profile life, then don't work in the military or any other sector that requires a security check. He's not wrong. I work in Health and Social Care, and in the UK every time you get a new job in that sector, you need a new criminal records check to be carried out - its called an Enhanced Disclosure (what a lovely turn of phrase, all woolly and fluffy). Its a very important procedure, we don't want criminals and abusers working with the most vulnerable people in our communities. But it does not cope well with people who haven't been 100% traceable all their days.

    Sat in an office with an official, we tried to fill in the form together. I had to give all the addresses I'd resided at in the past 10 years. Unsurprisingly given my life over the past 10 years, there were not enough boxes on the form. And then there were the stints when I'd been of no fixed abode; away off backpacking, crashing on friends' or family's sofas, catalogues of hostels and campsites and benches in trainstations or airports, sleeping in cars, working for short periods of time for board and lodgings in a not entirely official capacity... always moving on.

    Getting out of the system isn't easy, but getting back in again can be exceptionally difficult.

    Will there come a day when it goes beyond inconvenient to come back into the system? Governments are increasingly regulating and controlling life. Will a system be devised to effectively monitor under-the-radar lives? Or will it be easier for them to simply exclude anyone without a seamless, official, trace-able history?

    Have you found yourself living under-the-radar? Was it an intentional move, or just the way things worked out? And how has it been, getting back in?

    Interested in Under The Radar living? You might also be interested in:

    4 Secrets of A Surveillance Society: The Power of Inconvenience

    Picture by ToastyKen

    Wednesday, April 8, 2009

    5 Amazing Places to Run in Australia

    Right, let's just imagine for a moment, that you're taking some time out. Getting away from it all. You want to run, and you want it to be amazing. Here's 5 random places in Australia that, if strung together, make for a tremendous trip.

    (Most of these routes are mostly off road, so no traffic, and nicer on the knees. None of these trails require driving to get to the start, they begin as soon as you step out the door of your accomodation. So backpackers and public transporters can run them, just as much as people with the wherewithall to hire a car).

    1. Sydney's North Shore.
    Start with running under the Harbour Bridge and take in views of the Opera House. Keep going, round Cremorne Point and Mosman - watch the ferries, climb over a hill all banked up with posh houses. Keep going, out to Taronga Zoo - pretend you're skirting Jurassic Park with its high electric fences, the scary animal sounds, and the significant reptile presence. Keep going, and going, and going... all the way to Balmoral Beach, or The Spit, or even out to Manly if you're hardcore enough. Running in a city does not get better than this.

    2. Hobart's The Domain - Tasmania
    Loops with stunning views over the city. Botanic gardens at the base. A great spot to get started in Tasmania from.

    3. Bicheno - East Coast Tasmania
    Stay at the funky backpackers hostel at Bicheno. Do hill training up and down Whalers Lookout, then swing round the rocky shore leaping from rock to rock. A nice trail follows the shore to the beach (fantastic blackberries to re-fuel on if you're there in season), then hit the beach and go for it. Magnificent. Don't run those rocks in the dark, you'll die. But do hang out and listen to the fairy penguins... they sound like alien monsters coming to get you.

    4. Freycinet Peninsula Loop - Tasmania
    I've mentioned this one before here. Stay in Coles Bay, unless you're rich and can afford the swanky accomodation at the base of the park. Bit of road running/beach running/campsite track running to begin with, then... you reach Freycinet National Park, a runner's dream. There's a well-maintained track that swings out the peninsula to Hazards Beach, then you can turn inland to cross the isthmus and suddenly you emerge onto Wineglass Bay - supposedly and believably 'one of the worlds best ten beaches'. From there it's a hard climb up to the lookout, and then a hard and fast descent back to the road you came in on. Not for the fledgling runner, probably a cool 13 miles or so...? But well worth training up for.

    5. Strathan to Ocean Beach - Tasmania
    Stay in the town of Strathan, and head out on the sealed road towards Ocean Beach. You don't cover many miles before the road becomes unsealed. Amazing views back over your shoulder to the mountains beyond. As you keep running, probably in total isolation, a roar builds and builds - this is Ocean Beach, its big, and its loud. And when you reach it, it'll take your breath away - assuming you've any breath left. Truely magnificent. If you got to West Tasmania without a car, then chances are the only way you'll reach this beach, is to run there. Well worth it. Just you and the kangaroos.

    Oh wow, just writing that lot has made me nostalgic. Take me back... Then again, take yourself there, and let me know how you got on. Heavenly running or your money back.

    Picture by Linh_rOm

    Saturday, April 4, 2009

    Plan B

    The ankle has gone again. Goddamit, I was just building up to half-decent mileage again, getting excited about the spring and summer ahead, trail-running in the hills day after day... When boom! Something in my ankle goes and tears and screams and stops me in my tracks. This was originally meant to be a blog about running! Who'd have known it?

    Anyway, am meeting up with a physiotherapist friend tomorrow, and will prevail on her for a consult at a reasonable price. In the meantime, the bike has come out of hibernation. Took off this morning, for a test-run 5 miler through mist and smirr. Hey, this is pretty good. No longer in the city, I can make the most of empty roads that don't lead anywhere in particular. I belt down hills at a fair old lick. Around me, there's no sound but the whirr of my wheels, and the cry of birds in the fields and moors - curlews, lapwings, snipe, geese...

    The world is peaceful, alive, and magnificent.

    Image by ex_magician

    Tactical Genius

    Trouble with taking action, is... I've been doing too many other things to be able to sit down and blog. Sorry for the full week without a peep. Here's a wee something, harking back to previous diatribes and musings about motivational speakers...

    Browsing the books and blogs of motivational speakers like Robert Holden (see here), I'm struck by how many high-profile conferences and courses and development days he's spoken and coached at. Not all, but most, seem to have been at senior manager or chief exec level. If all these senior managers of all these big organisations are attending these sessions, all about 'love', flexibility, communication and change in the workplace... How come the lower ranks rarely see any change? Or only changes that work them harder, control them more, and increase stress?

    Is it just a junket? A 'jolly' for all those at the top of the tree? All the inspiring talk of change, values and success is fun and heady at the time, but implementing it turns out to be too much effort.

    Or, is it an indication that things are gradually changing? That interest in these notions is growing? That a tipping point will soon be reached? I'd like to think it's this second option...

    But is it? What about when Holden and his ilk get to speak for the lower ranks? The occasion this happened at my work (see previous post here), it created a real feel-good and revolutionary buzz for a day or two, before a 'healthy' dose of cynicism kicked in. We critiqued the speaker's message all to shreds, and went back to the same old. Did management authorise, invite, and pay for both the motivational speaker and all our man-hours because they really wanted change to take place and spread from the bottom of the organisation up? Or was it a good-will gesture of tactical genius? A way of giving us what we want, no, more than what we'd wanted, and then having us crush it all by ourselves?

    There would have been the risk that a tiny minority of staff might've been inspired to do something radical and wonderful, or quit (which may amount to the same thing)... But it would arguably be a risk worth taking for those who prefer the status quo. The potential loss of one or two skilled staff who're already wavering, must be more than outweighed by the double-bluff of offering the majority a dream that they reject for themselves.

    Friday, March 27, 2009

    Bring On The Next Adventure

    Having so recently had my knuckles rapped for being all talk, no action... Here we go folks! I am taking action, and I am outta here.

    Already left the job last week (emotional moment at the time, distant memory already). Most of my stuff left this afternoon (thank you to the kindly family members who had the boot of their car free to lift it all). My final bag is packed, and I am scheduled to leave early-doors tomorrow morning (after a last final jog round the botanic gardens, for old-times sake). And that's it.

    The end of my city-living, city-slicking period. The end of easy access to global coffee chains (Starbucks I'll miss you). The last of lounging the afternoon away in global bookshop chains, reading Tim Ferriss for free (Borders, its been good). The demise of crawling the last 5 miles home in first gear every night (M8 motorway, you can go hang for all I care).

    Its a new beginning. A new era of working from home (praise be to internet connections). A new start in wilderness living (how far did you say it was to the nearest Marks & Spencers?). A new life of self-sufficiency, not retail therapy (not that I often did that anyway).

    I don't know how its going to go, but I am more than ready. Bring on the next adventure.

    Picture by atomicjeep

    Thursday, March 26, 2009

    Would Just One 'Great Escape' Be Enough For You?

    A conversation with an occasional reader the other day, put me in my place. "What you write is all very good," he said. (Oh shucks, thanks...).

    "But when are you actually going to do something about it?"

    Oh. Ummm...  Is it enough to say that I'm trying?  'Very trying' would be the droll response to that one. How about: Learning? Laying the foundations? Taking the first steps?  Building capacity? (Ha! I like that one, appropriate a bit of that corporate-speak that says nothing, always a good tactic).  He has a good point. But I'll counter with a better one:

    Nothing sustainable happens overnight.

    I could've walked out on my job any day I chose, and still can. I've got an emergency fund in the bank, and could bugger off to New Zealand or Hawaii or Outer-bloody-Mongolia any time I like. Still might. I've got a pair of running trainers by the door, and could start jogging and keep going, right this minute.  I could, and I might, and when I do, just you watch me.

    I currently have the choice to take any of those steps, and I have taken all of those steps in the past. I 've learned, through direct experience, that they're not all that drastic. I can do them, you can do them. But I've also learned that done like that, they're not necessarily sustainable.

    Ditching work and going travelling is an easy thing to do.

    Really it is.  But at some point, the money usually runs out. And then comes the point of coming back, cap in hand, grovelling for a job, any job, because the basic needs have to be met. That's not easy. That's rotten. What I'm aiming for isn't a one-off splurge.  I've already done that and loved it. What I'm trying to do now is create a life where the things I discovered on that splurge can be steady day-by-day realities.

    There's also the fact that I don't just want to indulge myself. It's a whole lot easier to swan off to somewhere sunny and lounge on a beach (for a short while at least), than to make a difference. I've done both, and I would like to keep doing both.  But one crucial factor is:

    Making a difference takes more effort.

    Making a difference takes more small daily steps, and more commitment. Which is tricky to do, if you're ducking off on great-escapes and then reduced to taking any old job you can get.

    I've lived the dream. Now I'm finding the way to make it sustainable for life.

    What about you?  Have you already done something about your dreams?  And would just one 'great escape' be enough? 



    Fat or Manic?

    There are some great bits of terminology evolving out there, amongst the people who think hard about the world as we know it.






    Some examples are:
    • The Joyless Economy
    • The Overwork Culture
    • The Hyperactive Workplace
    • The Manic Society
    • The Wage-Slave System
    These terms are great.  They make neat and emotive short-hand for long, complicated concepts and arguments. I have slipped into using them, on a not irregular basis. But sometimes... I have to take a step back, and say "hold on a wee minute there!" What they describe and assume, doesn't always ring true. Sometimes I wonder if we're all playing a game, signing up to notions that tell half a story, because they excuse us from our mistakes and our failures.

    Take an example, the Manic Society. This is one of Robert Holden's bits of jargon that I came across in his book Success Intelligence: Timeless Wisdom for a Manic Society (2005). But while he's responsible for the term, he's certainly not the only writer out there describing this phenomenon.  The way he tells it, we live in this 'manic society', where everyone is so busy, busy, busy all the time.  So far, sounds so true.

    But it strikes me that we're also a society characterised by quite a lot of stagnancy and sloth. Now that would never be acknowledged in the writings that are focused on unpicking this 'manic society' for readers who are already interested, and identify with feeling too busy, and too pressured, and too stressed.  But come on. Look at this carefully.  We're so manically busy, that we're too busy to physically do things for ourselves:

    • We're too busy to wash our own cars, we'll drive through a carwash instead.

    • To busy to carry our groceries from the shop to the house, we'll get them delivered.

    • Too busy to walk anywhere, we'll drive.

    • Goddamit most of the time we're all too busy to move at all.

    We are all so manically busy... that we're getting fat?

    Is this not a contradiction? There's this trend in the media to describe ourselves as a manic society, to lament that we're all so busy, and never have enough time... Its a terrible problem, for which you deserve sympathy and maybe should demand change. And at the same time, it's a complement - there's kudos in being super-uncontrollably-busy. There isn't in being a lazy, apathetic, fat bastard.

    Yet most of the time, admit it, most of us are manically sat on our bottoms.

    Likewise, there's this trend to analyse how we're all so busy that our personal lives suffer, our relationships falter through neglect. The media is full of these surveys and stats around the breakdown of family life, parents spending 8 minutes per day with their kids or some such horror... But the same people do get through an awful lot of hours watching TV, and movies, or browsing online (me included)...

    I'm not denying that people are busy, and stressed, and working very hard, and doing stupidly long hours, and worn out, and all the rest of it. I think we've nearly all been there, seen it, done it. But it's half a story. We're manically busy, and we're lazy sods.

    Why is that? Is it the way it has to be?  And who gets to decide?

    Image by herval

    Wednesday, March 25, 2009

    Why Excellent Employee-ism Is Sick

    My closest friends are, by and large, excellent employees. I am the sole odd-bod. They turn up on time, do what they're supposed to do all day, clock off 8 hours later (unless they're doing some overtime), see themselves doing this for the next 30-40 years, and don't have any problem with any of that. "That's the contract. That's what you sign to in return for your pay packet," they explain to me in exasperation.

    All the potential consequences not mentioned in that contract - stress, exhaustion, damaged health, wasted relationships, weakened sense of self, dissatisfaction and lack of fulfilment - are entirely separate issues as far as they are concerned. If you do develop significant problems in any of those areas, well, that's a personal issue, to be dealt with on a personal level. Get a grip. Snap out of it. Deal with it. Accept it. Go to your doctor and get some anti-depressants. Or some counselling maybe. Or some vitamins. Do more exercise, in your own time. Fit your relationships round your work better. Improve your time management skills. Or, ultimately, leave if you just can't cut it.

    The job description as it stands, the workplace environment, culture and expectations are all sacrosanct. The individual has to adapt, or die (metaphorically rather than literally, obviously. Although...).

    Image by theogeo

    Do We Sabotage Our Own Dreams?

    I came back from my travels last year, excited. I'd had a glorious year of running and travel - a combination that rocked my world.  I couldn't wait to get stuck in to doing more of the same in my home country. Have you seen what Scotland looks like?! We may not get the weather, but oh my god, we have got the terrain for trail-running.  My head was full of dreams for all the great things I'd do, building on the things I learned while I was away.

    But the running has not really taken off since my return. Its sort of limped and faltered. I've chugged out a few short runs per week, doing circuits of the park that barely meet the minimum to keep my body ticking over. Sure it's been good, its very rare for such a thing as a 'bad run' to occur. But, now that I think about it, its been a lot of years, like 10 perhaps, since I've run so little or so poorly.  My dreams, that I'd made part of my everyday life while I was away, seemed inapplicable and unobtainable back in my home country and my ordinary life.

    What's that all about? Yes, I've had an injury to contend with, but that didn't happen till January. What was going on between August and December?

    There was a poor adjustment to being back in 'normal life.' Let's face it, full-time work, urban living, long commutes snarled up in rush-hour traffic? They cannot compete with a life on the road, where your time is your own, the national parks have paths that lead toward heaven, the sun always shines, and the priority for each day is: where shall I run and how far do I feel like going? I got fed up and despondent about that.

    I've had to hand back a certain amount of autonomy to my employer and other authorities. I've had to compromise on values that while I was away, I could live my life by. Things around travel and transport, recycling and waste, time and efficiency, functionality versus 'keeping up appearances'. This has made me feel conflicted inside.

    I've also had a shift in focus, getting really into political, economic, environmental and ideological debates. I've gotten very focused on the systems that limit and crush people and their potential. I've been angered by our wage-slave society, our over-work cultures, our misplaced priorities. And I've tried to make something of the alternatives, to explore other ways of living (and making a living) so that both my own and others' futures don't need to be so restricted. I've had my ups and downs with that side of things.

    I've often felt frustrated, disappointed in myself, and sabotaged since my return to the UK. I've also been getting flabby and weak. But, today I wonder...

    Has it been 'society' that has sabotaged my dreams? Or has it been me?

    One thing I need to remember; there's always a choice.

    Tuesday, March 24, 2009

    What Happens Between Jobs?

    So. I am 'between jobs' at the moment (though it'll not be for long, it has to be said). I can feel my internal gears crunching. It's that shift, away from being externally directed by all the requirements dictated by a job - what time to get up, what to wear, how to travel, be there by such-and-such a time, leave when we say you can...

    Now, my time is my own, and I've got that 'cast adrift' sensation. I've been here before, more than once, and I know how it runs. But that doesn't stop me floundering a bit. For the next short while, I can get up when I want, wear whatever I damn well please, and best of all, do what I choose... Fabulous.

    But my internals are still adjusting. They're expecting a blast from the boss, or a word from the line manager, or a phone call from a client.

    Waiting for something external and all-powerful to make my next decision for me.

    Nae luck to that. For now, it's just me and I'm going to enjoy it.

    Image by aussiegall

    Thursday, March 19, 2009

    Farting Camels

    "Learn to recognise the counterfeit coins
    That may buy you just a moment of pleasure,
    But then drag you for days
    Like a broken man
    Behind a farting camel."

    Hafiz, Sufi Poet

    Image by lovelypetal

    Tuesday, March 17, 2009

    How Travel Can Save The Planet

    A dilemma I have, and rarely address, is the contradiction between how much I love and value travel, and how much I don't want the world to be decimated by self-indulgent plane journeys.

    If you haven't already, you must read Thomas L. Friedman's book Hot, Flat & Crowded (2008) - see here.  It's the book that got me seriously thinking about this topic. The book focuses on the environmental crisis, how bad it is, and what needs to be done about it. Something that made me increasingly uncomfortable as I read, was how extensively the author seems to have travelled. His book is riddled with sentences like 'At a meeting in... While presenting at a conference in... While hiking in... While visiting a conservation project in...' Sentences that seem to include all continents and most countries on the globe. These details seem incongruent.  How could somebody so knowledgeable and so inspirational about tackling climate change be so blase about what must be a truly massive carbon footprint? Is it that his global influence justifies his personal impact? Is it just like Al Gore and his Inconvenient Truth?  I wasn't sure about this.

    But, he did say something very poignant, that I was sure about.  One of Friedman's main motivators in tackling environmental issues has been his travelling the world and seeing the amazing and endangered places, ecosystems, plants and animals for himself. He talks about the Amazon rainforest, and the orangutans in Indonesia... I think about the places I've been; the forests of northern Japan, the moors and mountains of the Scottish Highlands, the red heat of the Australian Outback, the palm trees and surf of Maui's beaches, and the underwater coral reefs and wonders offshore.

    Being there for real, experiencing the reality of these natural wonders on a true, immediate, and sensory level - that's how I know these places are bigger than us, and far too precious to sacrifice.

    With modern life being increasingly urban, man-made, and managed to meet human/economic requirements... How many people get the chance to truly experience the natural world, and from that know how important environmental issues are? Thomas L. Friedman's personal experience and connection with places has motivated his writing and his politics. My personal experience and connection with places has motivated my own small efforts in this direction.  Air travel does need increasing justification. But travel in and of itself does not.

    When it comes to environmental issues and the hard choices we're going to have to make, travel might be one of the very few effective motivators for change that we have.

    Damn Good Quote

    I read a very good paragraph recently, one that clearly articulates something that I have been battling to get to grips with in my head and in this blog for some time. Something that I feel is at the core of so many things that 'just aren't right' with our society. So I'm going to reproduce it. Here goes:

    "The great failure of market economies is that they take no measure of externalities: if something doesn't have a market value, it doesn't exist; this is what the economists call 'the tragedy of the commons.' The emergence and development of the environmental movement pioneered the understanding of how markets, in a bid to drive down costs, 'externalise' them - or, to put it more crudely, get someone else (usually the taxpayer) to pay for them; for example, polluting a river is cheaper than processing and recycling it. In just the same way, markets externalise the social costs of their way of working; it is left to individuals - and their overworked NHS doctors - to deal with the exhaustion, work-related depression, stress and the care deficit."

    Madeleine Bunting (2004) Willing Slaves: How The Overwork Culture Is Ruling Our Lives.
    To me, that sums it up really neatly.

    Running Gems: Spring Has Sprung

    Spring has arrived, and this morning's run was colourful. As the sun was rising, the sky blushed a rosy pink... Bright yellow daffodil heads beamed and nodded at me as I passed... The turquoise dart of a kingfisher zipped by me, on its mega-fast way upstream. Dew drops glint silver and shimmer on the washing lines.

    I was only out for about 20 minutes, but already the morning has made me smile and feel oh-so-glad to be alive.

    Picture by Muffet

    Thursday, March 12, 2009

    Do You Think Big or Small?

    A mosey round the bookshop the other day led me round the usual sections - business, economics, popular science, environment, sociology and politics... I usually skip past the self-help/psychology books - too much like compulsory training courses at work I tend to assume... But this time I stopped and looked, took one off the shelf, and sat down for a read, tried another one...

    I was struck by how many of the self-help books tackle similar issues to those covered in my usual economics/politics/sociology choices - though from a very different angle. All in, there must be millions of tomes, all with slightly different perspectives on these same themes. Which themes? Things like: there's more to life than money, money doesn't buy you happiness, follow your bliss, your job is making you ill, our lifestyles are killing the planet...

    What amazes me is, how come when there are so many books preaching these ideas, virtually everybody is still chasing the money, signing up for colossal mortgages, consuming like resources are infinite, turning a blind eye to others' suffering, and compromising on our own lives because we just have to work more, more, more and harder too?

    It must be an amazing market to get into, because if you can rattle off a couple of hundred pages theorising on happiness and freedom, ideally along with a 'how I did it' case study, you may well have a best seller. And since people love the idea, but find it really hard to implement, they'll probably buy your follow up too. These books, in the self-help genre anyway, are selling hope! But don't actually have to deliver on it, because that's up to the reader.

    I got some damn good quotes and soundbites out of the self-help books I browsed that day, and more than a few will probably turn up in this blog. I'll probably read some more self-help books too. But I think that overall, I'll continue to gravitate towards the broader genres, that aren't so self-help orientated. Of course I'm focused on me, and improving my life - what are most of these blog posts, if not a running commentary of my thoughts and efforts in that direction. But I think that recognising and changing the systems that create and maintain all these problems and imbalances is probably a more important focus.

    May as well think big, if you're going to think at all.

    Image by janetmck

    Monday, March 9, 2009

    Why This High?

    Wow, I'm on a high this morning. Up before dawn as usual for my morning run, and, with no shame about being cheesy as hell, I 'ran like the wind.' Beat that if you can before 6am on a Monday.

    Got the laundry done, got some housework done, pulled together a 'to do' list, browsed all the blogs I follow (which made me feel even more inspired than I did when I first rolled out of bed), and now nearly all set up to head out for the day.

    Why this high? Because it's all happening. I spent a good chunk of the weekend ditching loads of the crap that I've accumulated over the years, all the stuff that builds up, cluttering the house and weighing me down mentally, physically, financially, spiritually... Moving will be easier with half the possessions I owned two days ago, and so will ongoing life, hopefully. (Just have to persuade my other half to do likewise). Plus, some ideas slotted into place yesterday. Some notions in the direction of a micro-business, an independent way to earn a living, make a difference, and maintain my freedom... It's all very well ranting about the failings and frustrations of my wage-slave job and the wage-slave system, but without any notion of an alternative... it's all about as much use as farting against the breeze really. It's too early days to splurge my ideas out into this blog, but I'm high because I've a vision of where I want to go, both personally and professionally, and I can see the first steps I need to take to make it happen. Starting today. Like, right now. See ya's later.

    Image by mysza831

    Sunday, March 8, 2009

    Running Gems: Time-Trial Snowman

    I could've done without a run this morning. I wasn't feeling particularly inspired when I got up, I could almost have gone back to bed, or put the radio on and curled up with the newspaper under a duvet. Let the weather do its worst, enjoy the rattle of rain on the window panes, while I lounge snug in pyjamas with hot tea and toast. That's how I felt first thing.

    But, I made myself get out there, into the wind, rain and sleet. Chug out a mile or two, I thought to myself, make a token gesture.

    A couple of miles in, the sleet transformed to snow. Masses of snow swirling madly round me on the wind. My black running gear was getting caked white, I kept going, like a time-trial abominable snowman. Big fluffly flakes clogged up on the outside of my glasses, while on the inside I steamed up. I jogged on through a haze of poor visibility. More flakes landed on my lips, tingling as they dissolved. Grinning from ear to ear, I kept running in a state completely ill-equipped for this kind of weather. Brilliant.

    Picture by foggydave

    Saturday, March 7, 2009

    Are You Playing The Game?

    I've only 2 weeks left at work, and my professional facade is wearing thin. Not with clients, but with all the games and pretending, all the unsaid rules, and the unsaid scams, that permeate this organisation. I didn't often mind this stuff before. Occasionally something would get under my skin, but usually I played the game and didn't think about it much, just like everyone else. That's a big part of what being 'professional' is. But now, with the end in sight, absolutely everything is getting to me.

    It doesn't make sense. How many times have I declared on this blog that I love my work? I thought I was being genuine too. I was being genuine; about the work I do, directly with clients... But I was obviously kidding myself about loving the big, unweildy, bureaucratic monster that I work for.

    I want to find a way of living and working so that never again do find myself 'playing the game.' At least, not if the game is all lies and scams, shirking responsibility, getting 'creative' with paperwork, or compromising the health, principals and dreams of myself and others.

    Image by kennymatic

    Thursday, February 26, 2009

    Why Being Sensible Is Super-Risky

    Do you ever get chinks of hope? Moments when cracks appear in the walls in your head, and through the chinks, you can see clear for miles in hundreds of different directions? Moments when you catch fleeting enticing glimpses of all the wonderful things that could be?

    It's scary leaving a career that was secure for life (more or less). But then, a 'career for life' is a fixed path, with little room for deviation. That's scary too. Especially when it encompasses life choices that will lock you onto that path, even if/when it goes horribly wrong, and you want out. Sensible people strongly advise caution - get a good job, get a pension, buy a car, get a mortgage, furnish your house, provide for your family, and slog on slog on. "You've got to play it safe or you'll come a cropper," they say. They're right of course. So long as everything goes to plan. But I look at some of my friends and colleagues right now, they played it safe and did what you're supposed to do, and their lives are falling apart. They're in desperate debt, depressed and stressed, their future looks damned shaky despite 'sensible' decisions, they've either lost their jobs or they feel trapped by them rather than inspired. To me, that's not a good example of how the normal way is the best way.

    It's a risk, but is it really? By taking that first step, that foolish reckless step off the well-trodden path of a sensible career, wild colourful possibilties open out. Things that wouldn't really have entered my mind one month ago, now sneak their way into my mind's eye... I'm free. Free to make choices as opportunities arise, free to do what I fancy, free to follow my bliss.

    What makes me free where others aren't? Why are my colleagues saying "you're very brave/you've very lucky," instead of doing the same thing as me when they so clearly want to?

    These are some of the things underpinning my big step:
    • A certain mental attitude - a faith in freedom, a belief that there must be better ways of living life. A suspicion that just because most people do things one way, doesn't mean it must be the best way.
    • A financial attitude - where both debt and affluence should be treated with caution, as they both entrap and limit choices. Focusing on 'enough' rather than 'more.'
    • A financial safety net. I'm not talking big bucks here, I'm talking what many Brits would probably spend on a family holiday in the sun for 2 weeks. Not loads, but enough to tide me over if it all goes wrong. It goes without saying, that I try not to spend the safety net.
    • No dependents - I recognise that it's much harder to throw caution to the wind when you've children and loved ones depending on your hard-earned monthly salary.
    • A willingness to do without in order to do more. I know I'd rather live in a basic wee flat, if it means I can make big leaps of faith and quit work and go travelling/ take lower paid but more inspiring work. A lovely big house, beautifully furnished, with all the best stuff would be nice. But it just isn't compatible with that kind of freedom. If I have to choose, I want the freedom, not the matching suite, the dishwasher, and the curtains from the John Lewis department store.
    • Blind hope.
    So it might all go wrong. I can see troubling clouds on the horizon in some directions, and may well find myself blogging about disasters and bad choices in the months to come. But who expects life to be peachy right through? Better though, that life choices are based on the chinks of hope rather than dogged resignation.

    Wednesday, February 25, 2009

    Why I Quit



    My notice is in, and I'm counting down to my last day. Busy, getting on with it: clearing the caseload, typing up reports, filing the paperwork, handing over the outstanding stuff that needs picking up... Sometimes, in amongst the dross, shivers of anticipation catch me out - I remember where I'm going, and why I'm going there. See above. I cannot wait!

    Cake Is A Political Issue

    This post is not just about cake. But a lot of it is.

    The other week, I was having a party, and I decided to make a cake. It's been a while since I've done such a thing, so out came the recipe books. "Using an electric hand whisk, whisk together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy," it said. No food mixer came with the flat I'm renting, so I was going to have to do it the old-fashioned way, by hand. I set to with the wooden spoon. Within a minute, I had to have a rest. My arm muscles were too weak to keep going! I got started again... knackered. I kept having to do a bit, rest, do a bit, rest... I was mortified.

    (Where am I going with this?!).

    I am lucky enough to live in a society where I can buy cakes, really really good cakes, for cheap, anytime anywhere. And if I do want to make a cake myself, there is a wide range of fancy equipment to take all the effort out of it. I am very lucky indeed. Must go out and buy an electric hand whisk...

    Except... perhaps it is precisely that luck, and all those lovely electric hand whisks, that has resulted in me being so mortifyingly weak and feeble? The systems of our developed society work brilliantly together to save me time, and save me effort, and probably save me money too, while earning somebody out there a decent living. But what are the invisible costs? Lost skills, and atrophied physical capabilities? Ill-health and soaring health-care costs? They'd not show up on a balance sheet, but could it be?

    'That link is so tenuous it's silly. Get a grip, and stop harping on about cake. Go down the gym if you're worried about being weak.'

    Yeah yeah, I know. But that's kind of the case I'm making...

    Making time, paying for the gym membership, and summoning the inclination to formally 'take more exercise' patently isn't easy for people - if it were easy, we'd not have the ever-increasing rates of obesity, diabetes and other fat-related illnesses that blight the Western world. Even for those of us who do make time, and passionately enjoy our preferred means of exercise - there's clearly something out of balance when 'a marathon runner' doesn't have the physical strength to whisk up a cake mix! 'Not enough cross-training,' the fitness freaks will tell me. They'd be right - runners are advised to cross-train in order to improve their running form, speed, endurance, and I know I don't cross-train as much as I should. The body is a system, and it works best when all aspects of it are trained. Wouldn't the same idea apply to everything we do? Why is physically using your body increasingly something separate from day-to-day activity? Ever think we're focused too much on component problems and not on the wider system?

    'Taking more exercise' is an individual solution to our societies' health problems. But perhaps we should be focusing on all our activities. Perhaps society shouldn't be structured so that individuals are focused on sitting at desks/in cars/on sofas/in front of screens for most of each day, with technology doing all the other things that need doing. Perhaps then telling these same people to get off their fat arses and go down the gym for 30 minutes 3 times per week isn't helpful either.

    We need to look instead at creating lifestyles where sitting on your ever-fatter-arse simply isn't what people do all day? Plus on tangent, think about the environment - so long as we have food (including cake), we are walking talking bundles of renewable energy. Since we're hell-bent on scoffing more calories than we should, why not use it for something?

    Use it to live an active life. Not a passive grub-like one.

    Mouthwatering Photo by shimelle

    Photo: Details in the Sand


    Thursday, February 19, 2009

    Everybody Loves a Quitter

    Everybody loves a quitter.

    There's something counter-intuitive about that sentence. It goes against everything we're taught and told in life, and all those corny American movies we go to see where lame ducks finally come good cos no matter the odds, they didn't quit.

    But I'm not so sure. I have battled on against all odds in some things - studying for degrees, running marathons through a haze of pain, living in a foreign country despite being miserable as sin... And I have quit repeatedly in others - studying for degrees, living in a foreign country where I'm miserable as sin, certain jobs... Part of me has carried around a germ of guilt and shame for being a quitter. But the more I think about it, the less I think that's justified. It's important to choose the things worth quitting and the things worth sticking at. But if the choice is based on something more meaningful than sheer laziness, it's probably the right choice.

    And at heart other people think so too. When it's come to quitting jobs, the most common responses I've encountered are... envy, admiration, and excitement. No matter that my quitting leaves those left behind with more work, higher caseloads, and increased aggravation until a replacement is found and trained up. It's important to stress that this is not the same as when you leave a job because you're moving up in the world - for a promotion or a better paid more important job. In those scenarios, you're not quitting. There's no risk, no 'giving it all up' to do something risky based on what your heart truly wants. So there's not the same heartfelt envy and excitement amongst colleagues.

    It happened today. I went in with my letter of resignation and met with my line manager and my boss. Both were a little shocked and alarmed at the implications for them and the team, but for me... they were delighted. Both agreed, 'good on you.' They both said things like, 'We'd love to do the same - but we're trapped. We've based our lives on the levels of earnings we get here, we've got our mortgages and our cars and our commitments. We're fed up, scunnered, disillusioned and angry, but we can't do anything about it.'

    There is something of a vicarious thrill in their responses. But hell, there is in mine too!

    Am I quitting a sensible secure job for a risky future? Or am I quitting a career I don't want, for a life that I do? It's just a matter of re-framing the risks. I've never felt so sure as I did today that the risky things are the right things to do. Quitting is good.

    Wednesday, February 18, 2009

    Global Weirding & The Runner

    Unseasonable ice turns to unseasonable mild. Last week saw me running on snow, kicking up powder, sliding on ice. This morning saw me jogging in short-sleeves, delighting at the feel of air on skin, and the lightness of not needing layers. Mmmm... This weather is weird, but I love it.

    Tuesday, February 17, 2009

    Why Boldness Needs Practice

    "When faced with two alternatives, always choose the bolder." Chay Blyth
    I love that quote. I reckon it's a fantastic notion to put at the core of life. Not that I can say that I always do - bold is scary, and risky, and ill-advised, and something parents will definitely disapprove of.

    But hey! What the hell. Given two alternatives recently, I have chosen the bolder, and it's kick-started an adrenalin rush and a sense of freedom that is very exciting! The two alternatives were:

    1. Stay in the job I've got.
    It is about as secure as a job can realistically be, it is well-paid, it has good holiday allowances, excellent parental leave options, and one of the few half-decent pension schemes left in the world. Plus I like the work, my colleagues, and my boss.

    2. Leave the job I'm in, for something that is only one step less risky than ditching the lot and going travelling again.
    It's a short-term contract, with less money, less holiday and less pension. Whaddya reckon?

    Maybe the above description doesn't really get across how I feel about the two options.

    1. I like my current job, but the 'security' of it frightens me silly.
    If I stay where I am, I could easily be doing what I do now for the next 30-40 years. The thought of that makes me feel sick. I don't want my entire adult life to consist of 40 years full-time work for the same employer, with 2 week holidays scattered amongst it, all driving towards retirement and finally getting my hands on my pension so that I can live without work. Just in time to find I've developed arthritis in my knees and wrists, or some other chronic debilitating illness, and can't bloody well do any of the things I've been waiting to do all my life.

    2. In the job i'm going for, it keeps me practiced at being bold - boldness is something that definitely needs on-going practice. It's about actively making things happen and changing things for the better.  It saves me from stagnation.  It keeps me from getting too comfortable, so I continue to live simply, cheaply, autonomously, flexibly, able to act according to my principals without being cowed into submission by fear, debt or authority. And it lets me prioritise my family, my running, and the wilderness.

    Plus I'm hoping that it'll move me forwards. It's hard to develop independent entrepeneurial skills in a government-funded establishment job. While I don't yet know where I'm headed, I hope it'll be in the direction of short intensive work bursts and frequent 'mini-retirements,' or 'years out' (starting to like that phrase, once its in the plural).

    In terms of risk, I've already ditched the lot and gone travelling before, and found that it wasn't all that risky really. I've never regretted the leaps I've taken, though I have felt crushed at the points where I've chickened out, been sensible, and not taken the leap.

    I may live to regret it, but till then, I'm going to be bold.
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