When the view was doing more work than my five-year plan.
There’s this thing going around right now - people comparing 2016 to 2026.
It sent me down a very specific rabbit hole.
As part of a recent coaching session, we did this exercise where you write down your big professional milestones from the last ten years. Not what you felt or learnt in this decade. Just facts.
Jobs taken. Roles left. Risks. Pivots. Money earned. And there it was - 2016.
I was 26. Living in Dubai. Three years into a job that looked great on paper and slowly became something I didn’t enjoy at all. It wasn’t dramatic and I wasn’t burnt out. I was just…done.
So I did the very sensible thing you’re not supposed to do. I quit. No next job. No backup plan. Just a very strong feeling that I needed to get out of that company and away from that industry for a bit. I flew to Sydney to see my best friend from uni. We did Sydney. Then Melbourne. Had plenty of long walks and drives. Coffee. Conversations.
I came back and found another job. Life continued, as it usually does. At the time, it didn’t feel brave. It felt uncomfortable and slightly irresponsible and very confusing.
Fast forward to now. I’ll turn 36 this June. I run a business. I make decisions for a living. I spend a lot of time thinking about direction, not just ‘growth’. Looking at that 10-year list, without romanticising it, was weirdly so satisfying.
I don’t feel “proud of myself” very often. It’s not my default setting. But this exercise did something unexpected.
It made me pause and think, okay…that adds up.
Not in a “look how far I’ve come” way. More in a “huh, I have done a hell of a lot of good work” way.
And don’t get me wrong; life shouldn’t be about chasing goals endlessly or constantly moving the finish line. Ideally, isn’t life about evolving? Making slightly better decisions. Understanding ourselves a bit more. Doing fewer things out of obligation and more things on purpose.
And occasionally, very occasionally for me, looking back and being f*cking proud of ourselves. Not loudly. Not on the ‘gram. Just sitting in it for a minute. Without waiting for applause or needing someone else to pat you on the back.
The moment passes. You get up. And you move on to the next thing. C’est la vie.
M.
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xx
Manuja
Not for everyone. Never was.
