5 years

It has been about 2 weeks since I completed 5 years of working on my own. I started a series of annual posts, trying to recount what the year has been like with this post.

As I was telling some friends this morning, in the first three years, I was often told that by people that they admired my decision to quit a comfortable job, etc and that they wish they could do it sometime. In the last two years, this has changed. Now, most people who discuss my decision to quit my job are surprised that it is possible to make a living out of doing what I do. I suppose this is partly due to the number of people with similar backgrounds who are now working for themselves. I am still not aware of anyone who is an engineer and a management graduate, who quit a consulting job to coach people to run.

Another sobering realization is that I am now less inclined to work for myself than I was in Sep 2011 or for that matter 2012 or 2013. This is perhaps due to the fact one of the main goals of quitting my job then was to have a lifestyle that supported training hard, etc. Since I qualified for Boston and got a place to run in the race in 2015, I don't have any major life goals that are consuming passions like Boston was. I do want to run Comrades sometime but I am in no hurry. I don't think it helps that I am 5 years older now. I was also unmarried till 2013. So the variables have all moved.

I have now set myself a certain financial target to be hit by Apr 2018 (when I turn 40), failing which I may go back to sucking up and working for money. Besides one line of reasoning I gave myself when I quit in 2011 was that I could always try to get back to working for money even when I was 40, but I couldn't perhaps have as much fun as I did in the last 5 years.

One of the reasons this post is a little late is that I was sort of race director for a running event in Chikmagalur over the last weekend. I have already renamed myself D-factotum to commemorate that occasion. This was something new to me and quite a demanding assignment and one that I am happy to report went without incident with a lot of happy people.

So I continue to mark each year with something new and I am learning something new. There are a lot of fundamental items in my life that I am examining with fresh perspective, that would shock some of my friends from over 2 decades if they only knew what I was thinking today.

A big part of the gratitude for the interestingness goes to my dear wife, who has been a great source of support for my passion. While she labours away in her cubicle, I am usually taking one of my morning naps!

I have read much less than I have in the previous years, but I will discuss that in my annual post on books. I resumed solving the ET cryptic crossword and have done so for every day of 2016 and intend to keep it up till end of the year. My running stays ok. I started swimming this year and it has been a source of much pleasure. Quizzing has been worse than even 2015 but I am not that bothered by it as I am by the diminished reading. I have also written much less as the no of posts on my blog shows. I don't tweet as much or post on FB than I have in previous years, either but I have been more "social" in the real world and I am happy about it. About 3 months ago, I was knocked back by dengue for about 2 weeks. That was a scary time although it is less scary now than it was to get dengue 5 years ago or so. It also served to highlight how lucky we can be and how it doesn't take much to upset our lives. But then again, it also helped underscore that being mostly healthy is quite nice too and almost nothing can take its place.

It has been an interesting journey so far and I hope it stays so. Thanks as always to a lot of people who have made this possible.

As in the previous years, if you got here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been.