How Do I Get Back Into Gear After a Wild Ride?

This is me wondering where to take the bike as I stare at the vast landscape of possibility.

Where I’ve been lately is on an unlikely and audacious trek over an intense three months to win a seat in Congress, where, on the upside, I had a singular focus unlike anything I’ve ever experienced, a clarity about what I was supposed to do with every hour of every day, a daily obstacle course of cognition and analysis where I got faster and faster and faster and more agile at as I went, and I met amazing people along the way, and where, also, on the downside, I barely saw my family, hardly earned any income, didn’t sleep enough, coped by inhaling food, alcohol, and smoke, and all but stopped communicating with you (except to ask for money - I’m really sorry about that).

Before the campaign, my professional life included a wide range of pursuits. In any given day, I might have produced some writing, studied issues for a city council or committee meeting, met with constituents, delivered a motivational talk, mentored or coached a person, and served a non-profit. Work was a set of intersecting roads, each competing with the others for my attention as I left one for another and then the other and the other and took a roundabout back home.

It seemed to be working well enough at the time. But now, a month beyond the campaign’s end, with the grit of the campaign trail still in my teeth and my clothes still somewhat disheveled from that wild ride, I’m staring at the bike remembering the fresh velocity that came from driving hard toward one thing.

I feel the pressure of the clock and the calendar. Do I return to a career of five or six intersecting roads, or do I narrow it down to a few, or even one? I want to know. The waiting makes me uncomfortable. And I’ve never been a wanderer.

I think I’m not just asking myself where to go next, but who I am. Not in a bad way, but in a way that is profound.

Maybe you can relate – you’ve been through something huge, and it’s over (for good or for ill) and you’re straddling your bike but can’t kick it into gear because you don’t know which way to go next. If so, comment below with the ways in which you’re stuck. Or maybe you have lessons to offer from your own journey? It’s always great to be in it with someone!!

xo

🤗 Here’s a hug for anyone trying to figure out the next portion of their journey.

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