Future Work/Life is my newsletter in which I explore the changing relationship between work and our personal lives. Every week, I share something I’ve written, a few things I’ve enjoyed reading, and something great to listen to. If you find it interesting, please share it!
The Writing:
It’s a bit of a different newsletter this week.
Since it’s the summer holidays and the usual plans and routines go out the window - at least in our house - I’ve had to adapt how I’m spending my time, including when it comes to writing this and producing the podcast. So, while I’ll continue to share my ideas with you here over the next six weeks, it will be a little more sporadic than usual.
I’ll also be using the summer as an opportunity to reflect on the lessons that I’ve learned over the past couple of years.
The danger of consistently searching for and sharing new ideas is that you don’t have the opportunity to actually apply the best of them to your own work/life. With that in mind, last Friday marked a pretty significant day for me. I handed in the final manuscript for my first book, Work/Life Flywheel. After many months spent researching, interviewing, writing, editing and generally being obsessed with the thing, it’s done.
During that time, there were moments when I wondered why I’d started the process in the first place, and plenty of people asked me the same thing.
So, as a reminder to myself and an explanation to you, here’s a glimpse into the book, with the introductory few paragraphs setting the scene on why I’ve ended up creating the newsletter, podcast, book and a new career focused on the future of work.
It’s already getting some positive reviews, including from one of the best authors around, Daniel Pink, who’s written:
"Creating new opportunities requires fresh thinking. With the Work/Life Flywheel model, Ollie Henderson gives you the system you need to make bold changes in your career and the motivation to share your ideas with the world.”
I hope you enjoy it (and if you do, make sure you pre-order a copy of Work/Life Flywheel, HERE!).
Have a great week,
Ollie
The Reading:
It's January 2020, and I've just negotiated my exit from the digital agency I founded and have been running for over ten years.
After a decade in advertising and media, I'm ready for a fresh challenge, but I'll admit, I have no idea what. The money I've made has bought me a little time, but given my hefty monthly mortgage payments and an ever-expanding family (three kids and counting), I reckon I've got about six months before I have to be earning again. I'm pretty sure that when you pivot your career, you're supposed to have a clearer plan, but I figure if I take some time off to relax and rejuvenate, before too long I can have a new business up and running, that will launch me back into the world full of vim and vigour.
If only it were that straightforward.
Two months later, the world is in lockdown and Covid-19 has thrown not just my plans but those of almost every business in the world up in the air. Not ideal timing.
Feeling the pressure to work out a plan of action, I take the advice of a friend who'd been through a similar experience a few years before (minus the global pandemic). After exiting his first business, he built another start-up before this time selling to a larger marketing services group. He wishes he'd documented his journey setting that business up, capturing the emotions and breakthroughs he'd experienced along the way and suggests I write about the process I'm going through. Memories fade all too quickly.
High up on my list of priorities is rethinking my relationship with work.
For ten years, I've been anxious that I'm neither spending enough time at work nor at home. I've never been able to achieve the perfect balance. After burning out a few times, I know something has to change, although this doesn't involve getting a regular job. I've been my own boss for too long.
Whatever comes next, I'm determined to be in control of my own destiny.
I soon discover that whether you're making a sideways step in a familiar industry, going solo as a freelancer, or setting up a new business, there are so many variables to consider when going through a career transition and it can quickly become overwhelming. If you have dependents – whether a partner, kids, or other family members – to support, then not only do you have the pressure of making the 'right' decision in this next critical stage of your career, you have to make sure you can pay the bills while you do it.
Add the increasing pressure of achieving the perfect work/life balance, and you can understand why it puts most people off and how they end up stuck in jobs they hate.
Stepping back from the day-to-day pressures of running a company, it hasn't taken long to realise that the concept of work/life balance is an unattainable myth. We use metaphors to help visualise an idea and, in this case, well-meaning intentions have created an impossible one – a perfect equilibrium between the time you spend at work and the rest of your life.
The more I speak with others and reflect on the future, the clearer three things become:
I'm not the only person attempting to reimagine my career while juggling the pleasures and pressures of a young family.
The ability to clearly communicate ideas will only get more important in the future, so I need to get over my reluctance to ‘put myself out there’ and start sharing mine.
Aspiring for work/life balance is not helping me achieve my goals and I need a new approach.
I start considering what I can do to help others, like me, feel less like they're failing to live up to unrealistic expectations.
How can I help people think differently about the relationship between their work and personal lives?
Is it possible to develop a model that others can use to reimagine their work/lives?
The Listening:
In the same spirit as my reflections in this newsletter, the new series of the Future Work/Life podcast has launched, focusing on the top twenty lessons I’ve learned since the show was launched in October 2020.
You can listen to the first two lessons here:
Lesson 1 - Embrace being different, featuring Christopher Lochhead
Lesson 2 - How failure can lead to growth, featuring Glenn Elliott and Justin Welsh
I’ll be releasing three more episodes this week, so if you’ve not already, make sure to subscribe on your podcast player of choice!
Fancy learning how you can learn and apply lessons from people like Christopher, Glenn and Justin?
Sign up to the Work/Life Flywheel Career Acceleratory - my new cohort-based course on Maven.