A zillion mind instructions flash on imaginative screens in front of me
as I sit here, typing: “Keep it interesting; Keep it short; Be yourself; Don’t
try to be everything for everyone; Offer something that would appeal to
different generations of readers.”
It is rather overwhelming to go public!
Who am I? I am a 63 year old male, living in Stellenbosch, South
Africa. I am possibly experiencing what I refer to as a delayed mid-life
crisis. I’ve had enough of the corporate life, of the business of working for a
business whose business it is to make money and of the daily routine of going
to work and going home at the end of the day. (Of course, I haven’t had enough
of receiving a pay cheque at the end of the month for all of this, but let’s
leave this part out for the sake of the story!)
“Possible delayed mid-life crisis?” you may ask.
Due to interesting careers, career changes at the right time, a happy
family and personal life and interesting and refreshing challenges that I had
to deal with from time to time, I have always had the opportunity to reinvent myself
as life went along. Actually, the reinvention part happened by itself without
me often realising it. I therefore never
had a mid-life crisis (or perhaps I was just too busy to have the time for it!).
When other men of my age started to buy motorcycles to deal with and show off
during the mid-life phase, I merely upgraded to a bigger model as I have been
on a motorbike for most of my life. When other guys started to look around for
new life partners, my wife and I happily cemented our life-long relationship into
something even stronger, more solid and happier than before.
So, at the age of 63 I believe that I am now ready for and deserve a
delayed mid-life crisis.
So how should I approach this? I already have the motorbike, I am happily
married, and I cannot afford a Porsche!
I have decided that it is time to reinvent myself. And I have a feeling
that the blog that I am staring today will be my reality check as I go along. I
therefore wouldn’t mind if, in the end, I am the only reader of my blog. On the
other hand, I am hoping that there will be followers out there who would be
willing to stay with me and help to guide me as I venture into the unknown
territory of reinvention. I can do this on my own. But it will be more fun with
far better results if others could observe me, perhaps walk with me and even
cheer me on or point out the mistakes that I make as I go along.
So, part of my blog will be about progress during my reinvention. On
the other hand, I may also offer other, hopefully interesting snippets and even
some of life’s lessons that I have learnt as I went along to now reach my
delayed mid-life crisis. And, I can think that my motorcycle will feature now
and then in what I will be writing as this machine has become a big part of my
life.
I will be retiring from my formal job at the end of April 2014. I chose
to retire and I deliberately choose to use the word “retirement” as this is
what they understand back at the office. But, between you and me, it is not
about retiring, it is about starting fresh. It is about a new beginning!
I do not know the road ahead and, frankly, I do not really want to know.
However, I do have a broad plan, a direction which I am starting to follow.
This direction has something to do with having the time and the flexibility now
to undertake specific assignments of interest to me (in my book travelling is
also seen as an assignment…) and, more important, to start a vocation in freelance
writing, something which has been on the back-burner for too long now.
Although I cannot see the road ahead, I do know that it will become
clearer and more exciting as I go along.
Yes, my first attempt at blogging is rather daunting. But then, if I do
not start, I will never know what fun I may be missing out on if I do not do it at all.
And I have a feeling that this also applies to the process of reinventing
myself…
No comments:
Post a Comment