The Seven Year Itch

It has been 7 years since I quit my job. 

It has been an interesting year to say the least. 2018 has been so good that I sometimes worry about reversion to the mean:)

The themes for this series has been running, reading, freelancing, writing, gratitude in general, etc.

When I wrote last year's post, I had alluded to my attempt at the Malnad Ultra 80K. That was a great experience at running my longest distance in one event. The running part was off to a rollicking start in Jan of this year when I won a half marathon, for the first time in my life, contributing to my most popular tweet till date. A little after that, I had a rather forgettable outing at the Mumbai Marathon. I turned 40 this year and that was made super-sweet by my setting a 5K PB, sharing the podium with people around half my age and some celebrity overdose as well, just the day before my 40th birthday.

My coaching is on its way to not being the major contributor to my income for this financial year (if current trends continue). I've increased the time I spend at The Fuller Life as a consultant and we have made some modest progress in the time I have been there. The pool of people I coach, have showered such affection on me that I sometimes consider doing it for free, but that bank balance alert every Sun morning takes care of such thoughts ;)

It has been really far more fulfilling than I had expected to be a coach and I am infinitely grateful for that.

I have tried at least 2 big bets and they have bombed quite embarrassingly and am surprisingly pleased about that. At least one of them was thanks to my work.

I have read more fiction in this year but more on that in my year end post. But hey, if you need a recco - try Factfulness by Hans Rosling. To say it will change your life (if you are like most people and not some yogi) will be an understatement.

And I finally managed to write again this year after quite a hiatus, with a review of a book by one of my favourite writers on running, no less! Don't you love Canadians?!

Perhaps the one sad note to the year was the passing away of a dear uncle :( All the equanimity in the world can't help alleviate the grief at least at that moment. It was a big blow to my mother (and hence to me) and a lot of my family.

And one more thing - the new theme for this year (and as one of my friends and trainees wagged - perhaps for the next 15 years!) is parenting! We became parents to a lovely boy a few months ago. That has overridden everything else in my life (quizzing among those). It was one decision that was taken after quite some deliberation and one, perhaps one can only assess reasonably only in the long term. Amongst others, if you didn't already respect the role of women in your life in general and mothers in particular, parenting is an eye-opener to that path.

While writing this post, I discovered that the title of this post comes from a persistent skin disease and not the Marilyn Monroe movie (based on a play)! Who knew?

And no, I am not going to back to the rat-race any time soon although some addition to my bank balance is more than welcome. 

I continue to be grateful for so many good things in my life. I only wish the same and more for myself and for you, my dear reader.

And as with the last few years, now that you are here, say hello, write in and let me know how you have been and anything else you have been perhaps meaning to say :)