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The first rush

I was offered another job yesterday, in addition to all the other jobs that I've already said I would do.

The initial reaction is pleasure, ego, dopamine and reinforcement.

You are offered it by someone you respect, and then you think, 'How can I fit that in?'

This job is on the board of an organisation whose annual budget is around £100 million, and I would be a board member of that organisation—blimey! 

It's the second such job I've been offered in the last three or four months, which seems quite extraordinary, and I'm not entirely sure why. 

When something like this happens, it's worth considering what it will be like after the first rush.

It's great to say yes, to tell people that you do it, to stick your chest out and imagine that you're respected and well thought of. Then there's the work that needs to be done—the meetings, all the paperwork, all the stuff in the middle of winter when it's dark and wet and you wish you were spending time with your family instead of with people that you don't really know for an organisation that isn't yours.

Once you get through that period of considering those things, if it still seems worth it and you still think you're making a difference (these positions are always unpaid), then take it and go and do it (I'm talking to myself here clearly). 

But if not, then focus on what you're already doing because the funny thing is you already went through that process with the things that you're already doing, and you already told yourself that you would commit to those things and do them well, so why is the shiny bright object, the new thing better or more important than the thing you already have Colin?

By Colin Campbell on 19/06/24 18:00