Change is good: a case study.
Changes at work.
2011 was a turbulent year for me. My life had undergone some massive changes both professionally and personally, and retrospectively I think the changes have been a good thing for me. So much so that I've moved from utterly fearing change to actively seeking it out.
Let me take you back to the early part of the year. I was employed at a privately owned company that produced online software for security screening. Answering directly to the MD, my job was to produce all of the company's visual design. Whilst I enjoyed many aspects of my job it had become quite mundane and repetitive. This, combined with the lack on control over the workload and my working day pushed me to the point where I had to wonder if my five years with the company were coming to an end.
Having been quite settled in this role I began searching for similar positions in my locally. What I found was that there was almost no call for visual designers in my local job market. Companies were only looking for developers who could design and a developer I am not.
After a great deal of job searching my wife sat me down for a frank chat. She put it to me that swapping out one job for another identical one might not be the best move. She encouraged me to really consider what I wanted to do as if nothing stood my way. This was even scarier. In addition to my job i had also been freelancing for a couple of years and there was a big part of me that wanted to know if this was something I could make a career of. Filled with a sense of dread I reluctantly handed in my resignation and took the opportunity to see what I was capable of.
Making the announcement on Twitter that I was leaving my job was the first move I made and as it turned out the best thing I could have done. All of a sudden my friends and colleagues were spreading the word and encouraging people to work with me. Within a matter of minutes I'd had offers of freelance work and sense of immense relief.
I'd initially planned to take a week off between leaving my job and starting freelancing, but as I came to learn, freelancers are normally called in when the work needs doing immediately. I was asked to work for a five days on a marketing campaign for a major electrical brand, which was new territory for me, and after that first week I was asked to come back again for a further week. The biggest shock however was in those first five days I'd earned the same amount of money I'd have earned in a month at the previous job!
As time went on I took the opportunity to get out of the home office and into a shared office with two very good friends and things progressed so well that I'm now a a director of my very own company, doing work I couldn't have dreamed we could have landed in our first year. I now have complete control over my workload and my time, and it has given me an immense feeling of taking back control of my life. I'm no longer working two jobs and I can end my day feeling creatively satisfied, meaning I'm able to spend quality time at home.
So as it turns out, the biggest and most fear fuelled change I'd made in five years was a fantastic one. Although I do have to admit that without the support of my wife it would not have happened.
Changes at home.
During this year I made a number of other less drastic changes that I thought I'd share with you too. For starters I have made some changes at home. I removed my home office and rearranged my living room. We've been making some home improvements gradually over the year and it's really made us feel great, like we have a whole new home. More importantly we've been extremely ruthless and got rid of anything we don't need or use so we've got so much more space and less clutter staring at us all the time.
Changes to me.
I've changed my appearance. I've bought all new clothes and changed my hair. I'd fallen into a trap of niot taking care of myself for a long time and I've made a really big effort to change that. This is a work in progress and this year I have plans to take this a few steps further.
Changes in technology.
I ditched my iPhone! Yep, I've made the move over to Android and I've got to say that I'm impressed. There are obviously things I miss about the iOS experience that Android still hasn't managed to deliver for me, but on the other hand Android has many more perks over iOS than it does pitfalls so I'd definitely recommend giving it a try to anyone that's curious. I won't go into too much detail as it's a whole blog post in itself but for a iPhone fanboy like myself this was a big change.
I am a traitor to my kind... I now own a Mac. Having been a PC user all my computing life, and a sincere mac hater, I found this particularly difficult to swallow. I made the move out of necessity rather than desire, which I confess made it easier, although the Apple store staff did say I was the first person they knew of to purchase a twenty seven inch iMac reluctantly. Having now spent a couple of months on a Mac i can admit that it is a great piece of kit and I find myself missing it when I'm not in the office.
So I've gone from an iPhone wielding PC user to an Android advocating Mac lover... Oh the shame :)
Case in point
I have a new career developing my own business, an improved home life and improved self esteem. 2011 started badly and has ended better than I could have hoped for, and all because I found the courage to make changes. Now obviously I'm not saying change is good for everyone and I'm certainly not saying you should up and change your entire life, but try and think about what changes you could make, it could be the change you need.
