The last weeks I’ve felt like if I was in a state of stagnation. The worst thing is that sometimes I really feel like it. It’s strange to see the tricks the mind plays with yourself while you have free time so I thought writing about it was a great exercise to let that idea go (for a while).
The definition of stagnation is:
Stagnation: To stay the same and not grow or develop
The first part of the definition is true. I’m waiting for some legal aspects to move to the next challenge and I’m excited about it, it’s going to be awesome, but the reality is that I’ve been waiting for some weeks already, a lot in my opinion.
So, I have a lot of free time and you’ll think, “Amazing, you can do what you want!”, and it’s true, somehow. I already have a great job waiting for me, so working or looking for a job isn’t an option right now. I can’t start a big personal project as I don’t know when I’ll have to be again working full time. So, the normal things that everyone put in the positive balance are discarded.
These thoughts and the part of stagnation definition about growing and developing are the ones that are wrong. And I have a lot of points to prove it.
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Reading: I’ve retaken one of my favorite hobbies reading both fiction, Ender’s Game for example, and technological, Designing Mobile Interfaces is currently on my iPad. It feels so good after closing a finished book or reading the latest page in your electronical reader.
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Technical development: I’ve been reading missing blog posts from great developers and experimenting with new paradigms (like Reactive Functional Programming) that I had forgotten when I was buried under a 10-12 hours job.
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Fitness development: More free time means that you don’t have to fit your workouts into impossible schedules. I’m ridding my bike, started running again injury free and even had time to Bodyboard surf in amazing spots. My fatty abs hate me right now.
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Starting old ideas: Redoing a personal page and start writing was hard and now I can make a habit of it.
Summing this up, I can say that I haven’t got stuck, I’ve grown, worked on self-development and I feel good, I’m just a bit eager to begin. I think that what my subconscious is trying to tell me is to keep doing all this things once I go back to the office. I’ve always thought that it should be the normal thing but I forgot it during the latest year.
Job-stagnation is the real enemy so it’s better to keep a note to myself:
“It doesn’t matter how amazing your current job is, you need to keep reading, improve technically, keep fit and continue working in personal projects”.