Downshifting again

Last week, I called it a day on a contracting gig – my main external work – which made up over half of my not-exactly-massive monthly income.

In many ways, it was a great job (and I’m not just saying that because I know three people from the company are probably reading this… ;) ) – I could do it from home, I like the team, it wasn’t exactly mentally taxing – but my heart wasn’t in it, it felt like a just-a-job-job, it was taking up more mental space than I would like from a part time job and I felt it was holding me back from making the best of my own projects.

I feel like I did when I first downshifted, when I left full time employment in 2006 – a little anxious about money and the future, but largely hopeful. Back then, my job was leaving me in tears of frustration and anger every night: I left to preserve my sanity and have a couple of months off to think about what I wanted to do next. We had lower-than-now living costs and the plan was to give myself a tight stipend from my savings each month to live on. As it happened, coincidentally, a couple of hobby projects took off the next month and they paid my way – and continued paying (and evolving to include other projects) for another 3+ years. It was when the main earning project started to tail off last summer (damn recession) that I took on the position with the company I’m now leaving.

I’ll still have a little money coming in but not much. I’ll have to rely on John a little more than I would like. I will though have some more time on my hands – to hopefully drum up some new exciting projects but also to downshift again – more time for baking, for growing, for making, for doing in general. Having the time to, hopefully, save us money and improve our Really Good Life.

(Photo by GiniMiniGi – does it remind anyone else of the Judd Nelson freeze at the end of The Breakfast Club? The Bearfast Club. The Breakfast Cub. … I’m sorry, I’ll get my coat.)

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