So where have I been..

Well, I’ve been here but I’ve been swamped. Not that it’s an excuse or anything but it’s been a bit of a reality. Things are starting to slow down. It’s funny how in this position I was supposed to be “on platform” (that is, teaching in front of customers) about 35% of my time. Between the teaching (50%) and other stuff I’ve been doing a lot beyond that. It’s part of why I feel so exhausted the last few months and I’ve started now to try to adjust this a bit. One of the things that has been taking up a bit of time is a book. Not a novel (although I still have the desire to do that) but rather a technical one. I can’t quite talk about all the details of it but I will say that I have a whole new respect for those who write books, especially novels. With a novel you have to think up all the content and imagine it. With a technical book, like the one I’m doing, I can easily pull a variety of info from a variety of sources (e.g., existing documents or actual product use) and don’t have to really create material. I have to “translate” from dry to something exciting and understandable. But holy shit! It’s hard.

I think my biggest challenge is focus. I can certainly talk about the product in question but focusing it into a topic that makes sense based on the proposal I gave the publisher is a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I’m still working on some chapters and have to redo some of the screenshots but focus is still something I need to work on.

<insert long pause from August to today>

Ya. It was that busy. I did well over 93,000 airmiles this year.

That’s not a typo.

93K in one year in just the US and Canada. I didn’t even go across the water, in either direction.

If I had gone home (home in the sense of back to New Brunswick to spend the holidays), I would have hit the highest level of American Airlines elite status. As much as I missed family, I’m very exhausted. It’s nice to visit cities but the challenge I run into is that I often have work to do after I do whatever has me visiting that city (e.g., teaching a class, meetings, etc.). So my day goes from a 5am to 5pm to a 5am to a 10pm. And then add on additional work on the weekends.

I found one way to address some stress and that was with an app I got from the Apple Store: Simply Being (the developer website is here: http://www.meditationoasis.com/ ). It’s a meditation app that helps you meditate. I use it to help me relax before going to sleep and helps me sleep deeper because it helps me rid my mind of all my thoughts and worries of the day.

As I had mentioned earlier, I’ve been spending part of the year writing. And I’ve learned how difficult that is. There are so many distractions out there in the world. I suspect that part of it is my mind trying to sort through how to put the material down. Once I get going, I’m good and usually can a fair amount done. But then life interferes. Thankfully, I’m getting close to the end of the core writing and will have some last bits to finish up on. I think if I get asked again to do a book, I will say no or limit myself to doing a chapter or two rather than the whole thing (especially as a soloist).

And on that note, back to the grind.