My Mind's Ink

I was fired from my job more than a year and a half ago, although I was asking myself, “What now?” before that. I wanted something else, but I didn’t know what that looked like, so I was excited about the prospect of finding out. My search for a dream job didn’t wrap up into a neat result like I thought it would. It’s been eighteen months, and my temporary retirement has altered my ideas about a number of things, like long term retirement (no longer a goal), and a dream job.

I put significant effort and time into figuring out what I was looking for. What am I good at, have skill in, and enjoy? I wrote a mission statement, a one page resume, and then I talked to employers, agencies, friends, contractors, consultants, CEO’s, and one man shows. What came out of all that writing and talking was a confirmation that my dream job is not a destination, but an ever changing target. When I thought about it, I’ve had a number of jobs I loved, but they changed, or I outgrew them. So I threw away the idea of “finding” a dream job and focused more on the notion that its creation is an ongoing process.

The other more interesting thing that developed was the realization that I wanted a more unified approach to life. When I had finally written down my values, skills, goals, experience, and mission, I looked at these lists and wondered why I wouldn’t apply all of that to every aspect of my life. A dream job seemed short sighted now, what I wanted was a dream life.

It struck me that I was applying radically different approaches to creating happiness in my job and the rest of my life, based on the arbitrary distinction that I made money at one thing and not the other. Thus was born my notion of taking a more unified approach to life. In practical terms, I’m not entirely sure what that means yet, but the idea feels promising.

In related job news, my wife and I are opening a restaurant. Restaurant ownership has always appealed to us, but starting an independent restaurant sounded like a fairly good way for me to lose a lot of money. We are opening a franchise restaurant you Canadian prairie folks might be familiar with. It’s an upscale pub; good food and beer.

Opening will be in the fall (September?). I’ll be managing, for a couple of years, and then I’d like to turn the reigns over. So, if you know of anyone in the service industry, who lives in Victoria, BC, let them know I’m an awesome boss and I’m shopping around for someone to eventually replace me in that role.

One of the other things I looked seriously into doing was home construction. Legos were my favourite toy as a kid, which lead to a Civil Engineering degree, and then a decked out workshop. I like to build stuff. I had some specific ideas of the type of projects I wanted to be involved in, but could find no way to get into that work, so I’m going to do it myself.

I have sketchbooks dating back to high school with clippings of house plans, sketches of rooms, and random architectural details. I’ve wanted to design and build my own house ever since I realized that’s something a person could do. So, I am going to, and I’m giddy about the idea.

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