Passion vs. Practicality

CHAPTER 4

I’ve told you a bit about How I got Here, the Heroes & Villains who shaped my thinking as well as some of the Ideas & Books which turned my head as I thought about the next phases of my professional life.

Thinking time spent with these sources, along with conversations with my wife and with friends, led me to the conclusion I no longer had the gears or the desire for corporate life: the center would no longer hold.  

That desire was already sitting on a beach somewhere, enjoying the sunrise, while I was back in the office, slogging away.

Whatever I chose to do next had to engage mind and spirit while not running the body into the ground.

Passion vs Practicality

In the quest for meaningful work, popular culture suggests we should “follow our passions”. 

Hmm.  Maybe.  But . . .

My “passion” would have me playing second base for the Kansas City Royals Baseball Club.  

Sadly, the market for a 57 year old Major League rookie devoid of athleticism (my last athletic movement occurred circa 1990 and involved an unfulfilled promise of free beer) is not as big as you might think.

Rather than focusing on my “passion”, I began exploring instead the intersection between interest (what did I like to do, what gave me energy) and aptitude (where is there evidence of a modicum of competency on my part?).

What gave me energy?  

While I waited for the Royals to come to their senses, I spent a lot of time thinking about where I could create meaningful work at this crossroad of interest & aptitude.

During my company life, I loved coaching and mentoring younger professionals.  There’s nothing so enriching as hearing from someone that your words or actions made a positive difference to them in their own growth and development.  

WE HAVE A WINNER!  Maybe then I could do some  professional executive/leadership Coaching. 

I also liked leveraging my experience and leadership skills to tackle interesting challenges with teams.  

BINGO:  Hey, sounds like Consulting.  

Having settled on a general direction of travel (coaching/consulting), I began to plan the steps necessary to re-introduce myself to the professional world as something other than my current self.

To be something new, we must learn something new.  For me this meant 20 weeks of night classes, taking a virtual and accredited Coaching Course.

It also involved educating myself by talking to piles of people who were kind enough to offer insights on their own coaching and consulting practices or who otherwise offered encouragement then and since. 

Still, stepping from a world you know and which knows you comes with risks and tradeoffs.  

In my case, the first consideration was financial:  could we swing it if I stepped away?  Neither starvation nor penury sounded appealing as long term goals.  

The “golden handcuffs” of a steady paycheck can be terribly real.  They can also be a mirage.  

So my wife (who is fabulous and totally onboard with me doing something new) and I did the hard, spreadsheet work to ensure we had a grasp of our financial situation.  

It took less than 2 minutes to understand our biggest liability was a 60 year old house in Connecticut.  Though we loved the place, it felt like we were rebuilding bits of it every year, an expensive and tiresome process for two people totally lacking practical life skills.

And we were only in Connecticut because of proximity to the company office.

So, we could sell the house and resize our life, allowing me to take on the risk of becoming unemployed.

Which is what we did: selling out and building a new place in a nearby state where the cost of ownership and living was lower.

Downsizing the house (along with my 3 children being mostly off the payroll and already traveling by their own lights) made the decision to take the long step into the dark room of something new easier to take on.

Which is where I’ll pick up next time.

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Be well everybody,