Seven years ago I made a massive personal decision. I was fifty five years old at the time. I deciced to stop working as a freelance IT consultant and concentrate my time on my musical interests. Although the studio has been running for 45 years, for the first fifteen it was a musicians collective and didn't make a profit. In 1994, I bought out my former partners, restructured, got a new business partner, who managed day to day stuff, whilst I carried on with a well paid IT career and made strategic decisions with my managers. The plan was to build the business into a lucractive venture that was at the heart of London's community of professional musicians. We set a date of 2004. Sadly, when my partner contracted pancreatic cancer in 2000 and passed away six months later, it deraled my plans. By 2017, I thought I was ready to finally bite the bullet.
When I first stepped back from the world of IT, I carried on spending as if I still had a well paid IT contract. I managed my time badly, so I got nothing done, despite having more time on my hands. I'd go through manic spells of working on pointless, unproductive projects, which didn't get finished. I'd neglect the things that needed to be done. I felt I had to fill my time.
Seven year on from leaving the world of corporate IT, I have realised that I've only now properly adapted. I am almost spending the time on my music that I intended to do in 2017. I am spending the appropriate amount of time on the business. We've sorted our spending out (which sadly has meant no expensive holidays recently). I was speaking to a friend who recently retired from a high pressure job. He said that it wasn't his intention to retire, he couldn't get his head around the idea of having nothing to do, but his job finished and he had nothing lined up. His partner suggested he took the summer off. She also booked a long holiday. When he got back, his head was in a different place. He now has a raft of new hobbies, such as fishing for whiting from Clacton pier. He says that he no longer has any desire to work and is feeling happier and more chilled. I realised that to sort out your work life balance, you need to get your head in the right place.
However the biggest change is that my head is in the right place. I am doing the right things at the right time and before I launch headlong into random schemes, I take a raincheck and think about them properly. As a result, the last eighteen months has seen a positive transformation of the studio. Rather spending months putting together grandiose plans, we've sorted out the basics of the studio that had been neglected, to make it work properly now, not at some distant date in the future. We've redeveloped the website, and we've paid attention to detail. I am spending less time on the business, but spending it more productively.
Since I finished my IT career, I am watching far more football, as I have time on my hands. I'm drinking much less most of the time, as I'm not constantly getting waylaid on the way home by friends I met on the train. I have a better balance on this blog! I am writing about things I enjoy far more regularly. I am still keeping an eye on Barnet Council for the blog, but I am trying to focus on the big issues, which need sorting.
In hindsight, I am not surprised that I had a brush with cancer. I was living an unhealthy and a stressed lifestyle for the best part of 37 years. I dealt with the stresses of it by drinking a bit too much, not all the time, but often I'd get home and all I wanted to do was have my dinner and a stiff drink. I don't feel like that at all. It would have been impossible to change my lifestyle, without changing my circumstances, but I couldn't change my circumstances as my lifestyle wouldn't permit me.
I have come to realise that winding down from a high pressure situation is not like turning off a tap. You actually need to plan it properly, something I did not do. If you have a significantly smaller pot of money, you need to manage your spending accordingly. If you are used to having no time and suddenly you have all the time in the world, it is easy to fill it with unhealthy or anti social pastimes.
What really made the difference for me has been finally getting my band to be the vehicle I always dreamed it would be. Somewhere that I can create music I love and that gives me the odd night out a month that I thoroughly enjoy. I've written songs of a quality that I formerly could only dream of. I play them to industry friends who tell me "If you were writing this sort of stuff in 1979, when you were not fat and old, you'd have smashed it". Sadly they are not interested in old geezers playing Ska and Punk, but we've built up a small following of people who get it and that is just fine by me! This year we've played the most gigs we've played in any year in the history of the band. Unlike 1983, we are not waiting for the big break, just having a great time and enjoying the moment. Its called having your head in the right place.
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We all have different passions, mine are music and football. I can honestly say that having time to indulge both is the best thing in the world.
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