Fucking hell, that rest section hit home. It was like a bloody checklist. Anxiety? Check. Guilt when relaxing? Check. Lack of authentic rest? Ding ding ding. Strike three.
I somehow managed to get to the point this year where I downed tools on the Friday before Christmas, having finished everything I needed to. Some of the holidays was spent doing some quite mundane things that I’d nonetheless been putting off for ages. It felt great. Importantly, I also spent a good chunk on family time and read a bunch of books. For over a week, I felt… normal. Just normal. I *remembered* that this was what normal was.
Then, on 29/12, the “weight in your stomach” returned with a glint in its eye. So while I’m not really big on resolutions, I’d very much like 2025 to be a year in which I find my way to feeling normal being normal. I owe myself that much. Although I fear it’ll be easier said than done.
Happy new year, Ian. I hope it brings you and yours all the very best. And that Thanos gets all the head skritches he could ever want.
There are a lot of truths in this post. Thank you.
I can attest to the 40s being a time of change. I started studying medicine at 47, and it was the best job choice I ever made. It was also the right time to make the change. I would have been a shit doctor when I was younger; I needed life experience to do the job properly. I was very lucky to have a supportive partner who looked after the financial side of things while I made the transition, and I am trying to pay her back now.
And I agree with 6 am, except that, for me, it is 5 am.
I changed career when I was 48 – went from journalism into university teaching and a late-in-life doctorate which allowed me to reflect on life to date. Now, after winding up 20 years in that second career, I am very aware that my choices from here will be a last act. Time is very definitely not infinite.
Love !!!! I get all the anxieties and gut churn has been ruling my life. Yes I am cutting back on alcohol. Yes I want to lose weight (so mundanely predictable). And yes I will organise working on That Book I’ve been messing around with for over a year. But the 6am shift is key. The happiest and most rested mentally and physically I’ve ever been is when I’d get up at 6am to do Couch25k. Not just the running/exercise - It was like being free. Pure time for myself before work. Having time to think things through. To enjoy the trees and river and birdsong mostly by myself. Seeing the world fresh and new woke up optimism and hope in my life. I will take the Dunt Diktat to heart this year. Happy 2025!
Nice post, really enjoyed it. Really cool to hear about the 40 year old completely changing careers. I work in the video game industry, which effectively died in 2024. Do I hope it revives, keep my good salary, and make use of 15 years of passion and experience? Or do I pivot, earn peanuts, and hope that I enjoy whatever it is I pivot to? Shits hard to decide. Resolving this is my mission for 2025. Feels very out of my hands in so many ways.
So at least I can work on my six pack and look hot :P
I changed roles in my late '40s (46 to be precise). I moved from being a company director, literally flying all round the world, driving all across Europe, and dealing with issues back home where 50 employees needed to be paid every month... to working as tech support in primary schools.
I changed from working weekends, having customers standing over me looking at their watch, asking when their very expensive equipment would do what they were told it would do... to 8.30am - 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, where people appreciated that I was on hand to change their printer cartridges, and that I could find their planning that somehow they'd saved in the wrong place on the server.
It was a wonderful thing. I then had 'head space' to being writing, something I had wanted to do since I was at school, and something which I have been doing ever since, and something which brings me huge joy.
I left the video game industry in 1999. Mostly because the company I was working for went bust, but also because the game industry was, once again, dead. It had died in the early 1990s, when CDs came out, players demanded games full of hi-res artwork, and only big studios could afford it. Then it died even deader in the late 1990s, when video games became so popular that there was no room in the distribution channels, controlled by Gamestop, Sony, and Nintendo, for anything they thought would move less than 100,000 units. There was no way to sell anything that wasn't a clone of some other game that had sold well.
Then the video game industry came to life again, for the first time since 1990, with Steam, small studios, and independent games. To me, it looks healthier than it's been any time since 1983. Maybe not /literally/ healthier. I suppose they still work on regular death marches. But you can, at least, make and sell good games. They won't become blockbusters, but you can make a living if you're lucky and persistent.
Lovely words, Ian. I started changing career 5 or 6 years back at the end of my 30s - got incredibly lucky in retrospect, as I used to be in tv/video post production, an industry where most of my old peers have been mostly unemployed for the past 18 months. Have now got to the point where I'm making beautiful bespoke kitchens and wardrobes for people, and have never been happier in my work. Doubly lucky, I guess, because we left London and I had no real idea whether the new career would pan out as well as it's currently doing, and god knows what else I'd be able to do.... though I was certainly encouraged by my parents, who had a very successful career change in their mid-late 40s to start a business together.
There's always going to be 'what ifs' in life, but when you spend 70% of your waking life in a place you don't enjoy, surely the best time to change that is right fucking now?
This was good for me to read this morning. I stopped and sat on the stairs and read the whole thing. Post-Christmas blues and knowing I need to progress goals
i’ve set myself this year or i’m going to be furious at myself
Thanks mate. Collaborating with a friend to write a script for a pilot, working with someone else will help! Just gotta get my routines right and set hard targets. Happy new year!
Very nice post with elements of profundity. I hope that's a word. I changed career (ish) at 43 and I think it a good thing and it was very do-able. However I don't think Ian needs to do that. Carry on writing your brilliant stuff, as my Dad would have said 'I need to read Ian to know what to think' (For Ian substitute Manchaester Evening News)
I absolutely applaud the sentiment here, and I'm horribly familiar with that feeling of life slipping/dashing away. A few years ago, when I was 55 I decided it was time to actually fulfil a couple of ambitions and learn both German and to play the guitar.
I can now hold a conversation with my teacher and have just started to learn to play the long medley from 'Abbey Road'.
It's hard at times - especially after a lesson entirely in German, when a recovery nap is required - but it's SO rewarding. Oddly, fulfilling those ambitions gives me a sense of having given myself something that I was denying myself: denying myself by not getting on with it.
PS I watched 'Happy Go Lucky'. Great recommendation!
Control is the key to any stress or burn-out I’ve ever felt; break down the problem and get back control is the key. As for time, it’s taken me this long to figure it out; it’s finite.
Moved from journalism to marketing at 26. Marketing to consulting at 32 (halfway through an OU MBA). Started a sports photography business at 42 and my own consulting business at 46. Took up competition cycling at 48 and rode the World Masters at 49. Began editing a car magazine at 52 and started a podcast (still going 5 years later) at 54. Just about to start a Design Thinking course with Harvard Business School... always something new to learn and do.
Gym visits still peak in the second week of January, though!
I would highly recommend Jenny Odell’s ‘Saving Time’. She also writes wonderfully about doing less shit with more attention and gaining a sense of time by ‘filling out’ moments rather than trying to gain time longitudinally, as it were. It’s something I’ve really begun to take note of when I’m either rushing through a week and feeling super strapped for time vs limiting my to-do list and feeling like I’ve gotten so much more ‘time’ out of it. Thank you for yet another great post, Ian. Reading you is one of the highlights of my breastfeeding internet wormholes!
Fucking hell, that rest section hit home. It was like a bloody checklist. Anxiety? Check. Guilt when relaxing? Check. Lack of authentic rest? Ding ding ding. Strike three.
I somehow managed to get to the point this year where I downed tools on the Friday before Christmas, having finished everything I needed to. Some of the holidays was spent doing some quite mundane things that I’d nonetheless been putting off for ages. It felt great. Importantly, I also spent a good chunk on family time and read a bunch of books. For over a week, I felt… normal. Just normal. I *remembered* that this was what normal was.
Then, on 29/12, the “weight in your stomach” returned with a glint in its eye. So while I’m not really big on resolutions, I’d very much like 2025 to be a year in which I find my way to feeling normal being normal. I owe myself that much. Although I fear it’ll be easier said than done.
Happy new year, Ian. I hope it brings you and yours all the very best. And that Thanos gets all the head skritches he could ever want.
Predictably brilliantly written. That weight must be killed. And you definitely deserve it. Good luck man x
There are a lot of truths in this post. Thank you.
I can attest to the 40s being a time of change. I started studying medicine at 47, and it was the best job choice I ever made. It was also the right time to make the change. I would have been a shit doctor when I was younger; I needed life experience to do the job properly. I was very lucky to have a supportive partner who looked after the financial side of things while I made the transition, and I am trying to pay her back now.
And I agree with 6 am, except that, for me, it is 5 am.
I changed career when I was 48 – went from journalism into university teaching and a late-in-life doctorate which allowed me to reflect on life to date. Now, after winding up 20 years in that second career, I am very aware that my choices from here will be a last act. Time is very definitely not infinite.
This is pretty inspiring though.
Thanks! It’s good to hear. I always feel I haven’t done enough.
“The key to most resolutions is 6am.”
Did… someone temporarily swap you out for an American?
I turned 50 and realised that none of it matters anyway, so just enjoy whatever you do (but change it if you don't) and mainly try not to be a dick :)
Love !!!! I get all the anxieties and gut churn has been ruling my life. Yes I am cutting back on alcohol. Yes I want to lose weight (so mundanely predictable). And yes I will organise working on That Book I’ve been messing around with for over a year. But the 6am shift is key. The happiest and most rested mentally and physically I’ve ever been is when I’d get up at 6am to do Couch25k. Not just the running/exercise - It was like being free. Pure time for myself before work. Having time to think things through. To enjoy the trees and river and birdsong mostly by myself. Seeing the world fresh and new woke up optimism and hope in my life. I will take the Dunt Diktat to heart this year. Happy 2025!
But… all I’ve got is a 6 pack xD
Nice post, really enjoyed it. Really cool to hear about the 40 year old completely changing careers. I work in the video game industry, which effectively died in 2024. Do I hope it revives, keep my good salary, and make use of 15 years of passion and experience? Or do I pivot, earn peanuts, and hope that I enjoy whatever it is I pivot to? Shits hard to decide. Resolving this is my mission for 2025. Feels very out of my hands in so many ways.
So at least I can work on my six pack and look hot :P
I changed roles in my late '40s (46 to be precise). I moved from being a company director, literally flying all round the world, driving all across Europe, and dealing with issues back home where 50 employees needed to be paid every month... to working as tech support in primary schools.
I changed from working weekends, having customers standing over me looking at their watch, asking when their very expensive equipment would do what they were told it would do... to 8.30am - 4.30pm, Monday to Friday, where people appreciated that I was on hand to change their printer cartridges, and that I could find their planning that somehow they'd saved in the wrong place on the server.
It was a wonderful thing. I then had 'head space' to being writing, something I had wanted to do since I was at school, and something which I have been doing ever since, and something which brings me huge joy.
This is just brilliant.
I have been baffled by the state of the video game industry this year, it's jsut an absolute shitshow. Good luck this year Sam.
Why do you say it died in 2024?
I left the video game industry in 1999. Mostly because the company I was working for went bust, but also because the game industry was, once again, dead. It had died in the early 1990s, when CDs came out, players demanded games full of hi-res artwork, and only big studios could afford it. Then it died even deader in the late 1990s, when video games became so popular that there was no room in the distribution channels, controlled by Gamestop, Sony, and Nintendo, for anything they thought would move less than 100,000 units. There was no way to sell anything that wasn't a clone of some other game that had sold well.
Then the video game industry came to life again, for the first time since 1990, with Steam, small studios, and independent games. To me, it looks healthier than it's been any time since 1983. Maybe not /literally/ healthier. I suppose they still work on regular death marches. But you can, at least, make and sell good games. They won't become blockbusters, but you can make a living if you're lucky and persistent.
Lovely words, Ian. I started changing career 5 or 6 years back at the end of my 30s - got incredibly lucky in retrospect, as I used to be in tv/video post production, an industry where most of my old peers have been mostly unemployed for the past 18 months. Have now got to the point where I'm making beautiful bespoke kitchens and wardrobes for people, and have never been happier in my work. Doubly lucky, I guess, because we left London and I had no real idea whether the new career would pan out as well as it's currently doing, and god knows what else I'd be able to do.... though I was certainly encouraged by my parents, who had a very successful career change in their mid-late 40s to start a business together.
There's always going to be 'what ifs' in life, but when you spend 70% of your waking life in a place you don't enjoy, surely the best time to change that is right fucking now?
That last sentence is where it's at.
This was good for me to read this morning. I stopped and sat on the stairs and read the whole thing. Post-Christmas blues and knowing I need to progress goals
i’ve set myself this year or i’m going to be furious at myself
You're going to absolutely kill it mate.
Thanks mate. Collaborating with a friend to write a script for a pilot, working with someone else will help! Just gotta get my routines right and set hard targets. Happy new year!
Blwydden newydd dda Ben x
Very nice post with elements of profundity. I hope that's a word. I changed career (ish) at 43 and I think it a good thing and it was very do-able. However I don't think Ian needs to do that. Carry on writing your brilliant stuff, as my Dad would have said 'I need to read Ian to know what to think' (For Ian substitute Manchaester Evening News)
I absolutely applaud the sentiment here, and I'm horribly familiar with that feeling of life slipping/dashing away. A few years ago, when I was 55 I decided it was time to actually fulfil a couple of ambitions and learn both German and to play the guitar.
I can now hold a conversation with my teacher and have just started to learn to play the long medley from 'Abbey Road'.
It's hard at times - especially after a lesson entirely in German, when a recovery nap is required - but it's SO rewarding. Oddly, fulfilling those ambitions gives me a sense of having given myself something that I was denying myself: denying myself by not getting on with it.
PS I watched 'Happy Go Lucky'. Great recommendation!
Glad you liked it. It's such a strange, affirming little film
Control is the key to any stress or burn-out I’ve ever felt; break down the problem and get back control is the key. As for time, it’s taken me this long to figure it out; it’s finite.
Moved from journalism to marketing at 26. Marketing to consulting at 32 (halfway through an OU MBA). Started a sports photography business at 42 and my own consulting business at 46. Took up competition cycling at 48 and rode the World Masters at 49. Began editing a car magazine at 52 and started a podcast (still going 5 years later) at 54. Just about to start a Design Thinking course with Harvard Business School... always something new to learn and do.
Gym visits still peak in the second week of January, though!
I would highly recommend Jenny Odell’s ‘Saving Time’. She also writes wonderfully about doing less shit with more attention and gaining a sense of time by ‘filling out’ moments rather than trying to gain time longitudinally, as it were. It’s something I’ve really begun to take note of when I’m either rushing through a week and feeling super strapped for time vs limiting my to-do list and feeling like I’ve gotten so much more ‘time’ out of it. Thank you for yet another great post, Ian. Reading you is one of the highlights of my breastfeeding internet wormholes!
A wonderful and thought-provoking piece, thank you Ian, and a very happy new year.
really great piece! :)