After more than three weeks of amazing vacation, I am now gearing up to get back to work again. And that, of course, means returning to posting on my blog as well. This summer was really good for me in that I completely disconnected from work, email, paper reviews, writing, PhD student supervision, research center management, board work, angel investing and everything else that I normally spend time on.
One key enabler for disconnecting so well is that the day I started my vacation, I left for northern Sweden and Kungsleden. After one hour on the trail, I lost all network connectivity and didn’t get it back for a full week. My take-away is that this is the best way to start any vacation as the forced isolation allows one to forget about anything work. There is nothing you can do anyway.
Of course, this post is not to regale my summer vacation experiences, but to share a few reflections that I was chewing on after I came back from my travels and summer activities. There are three thoughts that I was hoping to share. Specifically, what can you rely on, why do we do what we do and, third, the importance of creating.
First, as social animals, we need to rely on others. As we get back to work, we collaborate with others and the question often is whether the others can be trusted to deliver or not. I came to think of this as we climbed Kebnekaise, the highest point of Sweden, via an alternative route. Those that have been to Kebnekaise will know that there is an eastern route that requires a guide and a western route that is longer but can be done without a guide. Few know that there is an alternative trail to connects to the western route and that provides the least amount of detour from Kungsleden.
The challenge with the alternative trail is that you spend hours on rather hard to cross rock plateaus and climbs where the smallest mistake can cause you to fall and break something. As I was traversing these rocks, I realized three things. First, even the biggest rocks that look, pardon the pun, rock solid, may start to move when you step on them. As rocks are piled on rocks, it can easily be so that the rock that you step on is balancing on other rocks and your weight will shift the balance and cause the rock to move. The same is true in the rest of our life: even larger than life individuals as well as large organizations may fail to support you once you start to depend on them.
The second realization is that small rocks, when placed correctly, can support outsized loads and be incredibly stable and reliable. Especially as it rained as we were coming down from Kebnekaise and the rocks were slippery, stepping on small stones that looked wedged solidly in position proved to be the safest bet. In life and work, this is an important lesson as well. In many cases, it is not the tallest and most visible folks that save your bacon, but rather the less visible, perhaps more introverted people that deliver results when you need them the most.
Third, for all the careful walking on the rocks, occasionally I simply slipped off rocks. If I had not used my hiking poles as well, several of these slips would have caused accidents, but thankfully, I was able to keep balance and stay upright thanks to the poles. Similarly, in professional life as well as privately, for all the entrepreneurial encouragement to risk it all and to avoid hedging, having backup solutions and options is important for times when things don’t go as planned.
The second reflection is on why we do what we do. This summer, I also had my birthday. I turned one year older (which typically happens on birthdays) and I am one year closer to my death. Especially since I turned 50, I have become increasingly selective in what I spend my time on. I feel I have less and less time left to do the things I want to do and have the impact I am hoping to have. That means I can’t simply say yes to everything.
One of the things I realized is how much I am driven by fear. This sounds crazy as I have little to be afraid of, I feel. And yet, the fear of losing what I have now. The fear of being rejected. The fear of not being recognized as a valuable member of the community. The fear of becoming irrelevant. Even as I try to be selective in how I allocate my time, I realize that I often say yes to requests out of fear, rather than out of a genuine desire to do what I am asked to do.
Even more, I do NOT do things out of fear. This can easily translate into “not now” or “once I have reached that point” or some other formulation, but in general it is fear that is speaking rather than it being a rational and objective choice. So, the coming year, I am to evaluate everything from the point of “what if it goes right” rather “what if it goes wrong”. Or, as one author that I read this summer said: what would you do if you could not fail.
The third reflection is on the importance of creating. Modern society is focused on consuming. Even in the newspapers, journalists write about consumers. Companies write about customers, who are of course consuming their products. The amount of specialization means that more and more of our lives are organized around consuming what companies and others make for us.
This summer, I engaged in a small construction project in the backyard of my house. And I got to experience first hand the joy of simply building. Setting a fundament, building up a frame, adding all the parts that make the structure usable, etc. The result is far from perfect and is clearly done by a well intended but inexperienced recreational amateur, but still I am proud of it. I built it (together with one of my sons).
I got reminded that also in my work, I enjoy the act of creation. Models and frameworks for my research papers. Blog posts. Etcetera. One of the books that I read this summer (not done yet though) is “Slow Productivity” by Cal Newport. His mantra is (1) do fewer things, (2) work at a natural pace and (3) obsess about quality. His point is that we would all be better off if we focused on creating things that we are proud of in a timescale that is natural. One of my hopes for the coming year is that I can make that real for myself as well.
Concluding, I am happy to share that I have had one of the best summers in several years and that I completely disconnected from work and the rest of world. That allowed me to recharge and get ready for another exciting year of work that I am actually looking forward to! As post-vacation reflections, I shared some thoughts on what can you rely on, why do we do what we do and the importance of creating. I hope your summer, dear reader, was even better than mine and that you feel as excited about going back to work as I am! As Henry Ford said: “There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we accomplished something.”
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