Time seems to just evaporate and before you know it, you forget what you are striving for. At least, that is how I have let myself feel in the last week or so. But it’s ok! I have managed to drag myself out of the pit and as of today, I have regained my strength and am determined to be even more focused.
A few weeks ago, I went to a talk at The Escape School – it was a taster session about their Escape Tribe. They describe it as “a community experience combined with an expert education in career change. Accountability, inspiration, and confidence to move you from thinking into doing”. An opportunity to “find direction and transition towards more fulfilling work”.
It really sung out to me and I loved the session. I felt really connected and inspired and truly believed in what they were saying. It was like they had experienced everything I was feeling. God forbid, they had been there too! Joining the Tribe would have been amazing, but alas, I don’t have the funds. I have no doubt the benefits would have been priceless but I really need the money for my escape fund.
This is all a bit chicken and egg, and it’s all rather frustrating. Even sitting and writing about this situation makes me feel all weird and overwhelmed. I feel anxious. I’d rather just not think about it, but the not thinking doesn’t help the situation, so I am forcing myself. The more uncomfortable I am about doing something, the more I clearly need to write about it.
I have an idea of what I want to do when I escape from my current job, correction, I know what I want to do and I know how much money I need to do it. So you may be thinking, what’s the problem? Why would I need the tribe? Well, my escape plan seems a little flawed. I want to leave my current job to do a 6 week _SocialStarters immersion programme as a Social Enterprise Consultant, but that’s as far as my plan goes. I am adamant that I don’t want to return to my current role so am not even entertaining any form of sabbatical. But what happens after?
This is where I become overwhelmed with information and I end up doing nothing in order to just make it stop. I think being part of the tribe would help me focus and help alleviate some of the anxiety, but I am getting desperate to leave my job, so much so I am reassessing dates and budgets. Money spent on the tribe would have negatively impacted the escape fund, but it would have had a positive impact on the planning and anxiety. For me, the escape fund won, rightly or wrongly, this is where I am at. On my own!
Small Steps
Via The Escape School’s website, you can sign up to a whole host of inspiring emails. I think I have signed up to all of them! Yesterday’s carried a link to: Should I worry about….Not knowing what I want to do with my life? podcast. I listened to it on my way into work and it’s given me a new lease of life on chasing my escape goal. It was like being gently kicked up the backside. I feel a need to get organised again. Things went a little bit awry last week, so I am addressing that by making my plan more granular.
The Plan
As it stands the plan says:
- Commit to _Socialstarters programme for February
- Start a blog
- Offer my skills via online volunteering
- Leave job end of January 2016
- Save £x each month
- Attend some meetups to network and meet more people
I think you will agree; it’s pretty broad. So far, I have interviewed with _SocialStarters but am yet to commit. This is partly down to having a few other major commitments that need sorting first but it’s in motion.
I am volunteering my skills via pimpmycause and have consulted with several organisations already.
I have attended one meetup, see previous blog and I have booked to attend a masterclass on 1 August about Conversation, social skills and influence.
I am saving. And yes, I have started my blog; you’re reading it, in case you hadn’t noticed.
Although I am ticking things off my list, I don’t feel like I am making any progress, making enough impact, so as of today, I aim to set myself smarter goals and the goals will be set per week. I need to be accountable to myself and I will use this blog to track my progress. The steps were too big, so I’m breaking them down.
Anyone who knows me will tell you I am very goal driven. Set me a goal and I will do whatever I can to achieve it. When I am goal-less I am like a lost soul out at sea, just drifting.
The guys from The Escape School published an incredibly useful book The Escape Manifesto. I devoured the book in a few hours. It’s full of practical things you can do to make the escape happen and as it is written by people who’ve been in the same situation as I am now, they get it, they really do.
The benefit of reading it through a Kindle App meant I could highlight all the things I needed to do and refer back to them easily at the end. I will refer back to the list this evening and address what needs to be done this week.
Finally, my list for this week:
- Go back and review The Escape Manifesto to do list
- Go through Meetup options and identify at least 3 more talks to attend before end of August
- Create my perfect job description – this one has been on my mental to do list for ages. I need to write it down as it may provide some clarity for post placement.
Destination: Unknown 