#45 Choosing to jump

Thought for the day: sometimes you need to go all in.

I know that's an increasingly unpopular opinion. I know "balance" is a thing that I should cultivate, and yet, I seem to always find myself here. Standing on the precipice, and choosing to jump.

Or to put that in the more accurate tense: I choose to jump.

Yes, a somewhat dramatic start. But before you think that I’m talking about something far more hard core, don’t worry, it’s just me thinking about work …

Spiky

The kind of contracting work I gravitate towards is typically "spiky". I even have a joke that I make sure I drop during job interviews which is: "I'm not a BAU girl."

The reason I make sure I say this is because it's actually not a joke. It's actually just a FYI dressed up as a joke. Because if everything is sorted and there's no crisis or fires or things to wrangle then I'm probably going to be bored and – as my partner can well attest – a bored Hannah is extremely annoying, disruptive, and should be avoided at all costs (I nod solemnly as I write this).

The good thing is that I know this about myself and I feed my adrenaline habit by self-selecting challenging gigs – the kind that will keep me interested, engaged, and challenged. As a result the kind of contracts I do aren't usually smooth sailing and happily logging off at 5pm sharp. Sometimes it's work until you crash to the wall as we tackle something gnarly ...

The last month has been peak chaos.

Peak chaos

Since I last wrote to you 4 (!) weeks ago, the priority direction for my programme shifted, the governance structure was completely upended, and I took on the product owner role for the programme (I get to prove that Outcomes Engineers can do product too!). This meant I had a couple of weeks to completely reorganise our backlog, kickstart the analysis on the immediate (new!) priorities, get a bunch of delivery and development scaffolding in place, sort out a number of fires, and prep for 2 full days of planning. All with a new leadership team and some new colleagues.

It was a lot.

But here's the thing I've been mulling this morning over coffee: it didn't need to be a lot. I didn't have to take it on. I didn't have to say yes to the role. I didn't have to work so hard or dig in so deep. I did this. I chose this.

I chose it every time. I chose it last time. I chose it the time before that. And I have little doubt I'll probably choose some version of it next time, too. I know that I'm good at this chaos bit.

But before you mistake this missive as me advocating for you to throw yourself into work like I did/do/will like a productivity-bro selling you on a 5am cold-plunge, here's an important caveat:

All of this is me choosing what I'm going all in on. It is me choosing the chaos that is the most fun for me. Emphasis on the "me" part. I've found a custom Hannah blend of big dependencies, high stakes, complex integration, smart designers, and politics that I enjoy. (The fact that it is remunerative doesn't hurt either).

Your custom-blend might look entirely different from mine. It might even be entirely non-work related.

Whatever your thing is, my point is – don't half-arse it.

Go all in on your thing.

Yes, take that jump.

As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on this (or anything else), so do reply to this email, DM me on LinkedIn, or send me a letter via pigeon. 

I cannot tell you how much I like hearing from y'all!

And until next time, stay excellent! 💖
Hannah

PS: And now that the peak has past, expect return to regular nattering!