How to avoid drawing comparisons between our professional life and our day-to-day experiences?
For those of us in the technology arena the Expectations Curve in Technology by Gartner Group may be familiar. This curve essentially shows the life-cycle of a new technology from the moment it is created through its maturity. It is shown below.
It may be a little bit theoretical or even esoteric. Furthermore, how is it related to this blog? Well, it relates to everything and nothing. Here I don’t talk about technology; I talk about a life decision that has taken us through a very “interesting” –to say the least- process. And the likeness of the curve and our process has been eerie.
As those of you reading these entries from the beginning would know (see: When a decision is made), certain events in our life and a decision-making process made us start walking this path. That point in time can easily be equated to the “Technology Trigger”. Once the decision was made and we started working towards it we started climbing the Peak of Inflated Expectations, which had been inflated a lot by us dreaming of creating opportunities and triggering change. And, as the curve predicted, we are now at the bottom of the Trough of Disillusionment. Right here:
We have had bad experiences, there are times when our professional goals seem completely and utterly out of reach, there are some other times when this city’s culture and way of living clashes head-on with ours, and also times when it seems no change is possible. Times when all that is left is for us to think: What was I thinking? Who was I kidding when I made this decision? Was I high?
Fortunately we set aside a large window of time to invest in this effort, and we hope there will be light at the end of the tunnel. I hope we will start climbing the slope of enlightenment at some point in time, and eventually become productive. But meanwhile, where can I get whatever got me high while I was in Australia?
