- Thread starter
- #381
May 2, 2024
The New Normal
I’ve dealt with the 400+ emails that came in while I was gone and my work load is coming back to normal. The old rituals kick in…Up at 6:45. Wash and Shave. Check emails for emergencies. Breakfast. Work for 8 hours. Go for a nice walk with my wife. Work for another hour or two. Dinner. TV.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my life and I consider myself lucky. But having spent 30 years on the road as a consultant, I’m not sure I am completely comfortable in my new normal. There is a piece of me that misses the 4:45am Limos to La Guardia, the customer interactions, taking my teams to dinner, the thrill of closing a new deal, the working at all hours of the day or night during the week and sometimes weekends. The craziness of that existence made the moments with my loved ones, friends and hobbies dear to me.
I need to be mindful of not taking the joy of family, loved ones and friends for granted now that I am surrounded by them all week long.
I realized it had been three days since my last journal entry. I imagine this will be part of my new normal as well – carving out time for me in the middle of the work week. Since my last entry, I helped my younger son celebrated his 26th birthday, I helped my wife do her annual self-evaluation for work and I spoke to my parents every day.
I also did my own self-evaluation for work.
After being in the working world for over 40 years, what is there that I can say about myself that I have not already said? I like to think that I do good work, am reliable, profitable and am sought after for my expertise. I’ve generally received excellent feedback across my career. Like my daily rituals, my periodic evaluations have become something I need to be mindful of. While I am far from complacent, today’s world demands a type of periodic self-expression and self-justification I struggle with. Why do I need to regularly tell people how good I am or remind them of what I did for them. Should my work not speak for itself? I know the answer, but I don't love it.
And this, coming from someone who actually spends a good deal of time writing about his life and his feelings. I can only imagine how difficult such exercises are for others, less self-involved than I. My wife only has to do self-evaluations once per year. I have to help her every single time as she HATES talking or writing about herself. I have no problem writing about her, so maybe it's good that I am here to help.
I will say that my SOTD, and taking the time to consider and write about it, breaks up the repeating nature of each day. These past few days, I have been shaving with my La Faulx + with a Feather Pro blade. Outstanding shaves. Out of curiosity, I put one of those blades in my Hawk OC to do a comparison this morning. They are both excellent, not overly aggressive razors. But the difference between them is quite notable. While the La Faulx is a bit less aggressive than the Hawk, it can provide just as close a shave, though it does require a bit more touch up than the Hawk. The Hawk, on the other hand, did a superb job of clearing away the stubble quickly, but left my face a bit red. I’m sure I was pressing too hard, but still…Also, there is a good differential in balance between them. The Hawk has most of it’s head weight about a centimeter in front of the axis of the handle. That tends to pull the head more than with the La Faulx, whose handle balance is more closely aligned across the razor’s head. With the Hawk, I kept having to check the razor to see where the head was before bring the razor up to my face. Furthermore, the Ti handle that came with the Hawk was too slippery. I swapped it for a beautiful handle from Chiseled Face. While both are good razors and yield a good shave, there really is no comparison between the two. Winner by knockout - La Faulx +.
While I no long have the level of entropy I’ve come to expect in my daily existence, I am able to inject a bit of change and challenge in my morning routine. For now, that’s enough.
The New Normal
I’ve dealt with the 400+ emails that came in while I was gone and my work load is coming back to normal. The old rituals kick in…Up at 6:45. Wash and Shave. Check emails for emergencies. Breakfast. Work for 8 hours. Go for a nice walk with my wife. Work for another hour or two. Dinner. TV.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Don’t get me wrong, I like my life and I consider myself lucky. But having spent 30 years on the road as a consultant, I’m not sure I am completely comfortable in my new normal. There is a piece of me that misses the 4:45am Limos to La Guardia, the customer interactions, taking my teams to dinner, the thrill of closing a new deal, the working at all hours of the day or night during the week and sometimes weekends. The craziness of that existence made the moments with my loved ones, friends and hobbies dear to me.
I need to be mindful of not taking the joy of family, loved ones and friends for granted now that I am surrounded by them all week long.
I realized it had been three days since my last journal entry. I imagine this will be part of my new normal as well – carving out time for me in the middle of the work week. Since my last entry, I helped my younger son celebrated his 26th birthday, I helped my wife do her annual self-evaluation for work and I spoke to my parents every day.
I also did my own self-evaluation for work.
After being in the working world for over 40 years, what is there that I can say about myself that I have not already said? I like to think that I do good work, am reliable, profitable and am sought after for my expertise. I’ve generally received excellent feedback across my career. Like my daily rituals, my periodic evaluations have become something I need to be mindful of. While I am far from complacent, today’s world demands a type of periodic self-expression and self-justification I struggle with. Why do I need to regularly tell people how good I am or remind them of what I did for them. Should my work not speak for itself? I know the answer, but I don't love it.
And this, coming from someone who actually spends a good deal of time writing about his life and his feelings. I can only imagine how difficult such exercises are for others, less self-involved than I. My wife only has to do self-evaluations once per year. I have to help her every single time as she HATES talking or writing about herself. I have no problem writing about her, so maybe it's good that I am here to help.
I will say that my SOTD, and taking the time to consider and write about it, breaks up the repeating nature of each day. These past few days, I have been shaving with my La Faulx + with a Feather Pro blade. Outstanding shaves. Out of curiosity, I put one of those blades in my Hawk OC to do a comparison this morning. They are both excellent, not overly aggressive razors. But the difference between them is quite notable. While the La Faulx is a bit less aggressive than the Hawk, it can provide just as close a shave, though it does require a bit more touch up than the Hawk. The Hawk, on the other hand, did a superb job of clearing away the stubble quickly, but left my face a bit red. I’m sure I was pressing too hard, but still…Also, there is a good differential in balance between them. The Hawk has most of it’s head weight about a centimeter in front of the axis of the handle. That tends to pull the head more than with the La Faulx, whose handle balance is more closely aligned across the razor’s head. With the Hawk, I kept having to check the razor to see where the head was before bring the razor up to my face. Furthermore, the Ti handle that came with the Hawk was too slippery. I swapped it for a beautiful handle from Chiseled Face. While both are good razors and yield a good shave, there really is no comparison between the two. Winner by knockout - La Faulx +.
While I no long have the level of entropy I’ve come to expect in my daily existence, I am able to inject a bit of change and challenge in my morning routine. For now, that’s enough.