Written by And now for something completely different.
The day before Thanksgiving, 2024, I was given notice that my role was to be eliminated and my last day with the company I had been working for would be January 31, 2025. Given a recent public announcement on November 1, 2024 sharing that the company was cutting $50M in corporate overhead, I knew it was a ‘when’ and not an ‘if’. There was also an offer in another area of the company to stay on – but I elected not to take the role, and instead take a break and consider where I wanted to go next in my career and my life.
Since that time, I have watched announcement after announcement of individuals being laid off from both large and small businesses. Some found work immediately following the elimination of their roles, and some continue to struggle.
I made the choice not to look and to take a break from the corporate world. I am blessed and fortunate to have a husband who has been supportive of this idea and we have the means for me to be able to do so. At the time of my lay-off, I had been waitlisted for an epic cycling trip across the country with Trek Travel starting in Portland, Oregon and finishing in Portland, Maine. As I noted in a previous writing, I emailed the coordinator that weekend, and on the Monday following Thanksgiving and they had two open spots. I was offered one of those spots and said ‘yes’ immediately. Pausing everyday routine and life to spend 48 days riding a bike across the country isn’t conducive to searching for a job. The trip itself, however, is conducive to determining what it is you want to do next in your life.
In the last several years – and particularly the time since I committed to participating on this amazing experience that is to start in less than two weeks – I have listened to a number of podcasts and audible books. Spending hours on your bike trainer and a treadmill provides you with the time to do so, and the need for something to listen to or watch to help pass the time. I’ve opted to use the time for self-improvement rather than mindless passing of time. Some days call for mindless passing of time or binge-watching of streaming series. The majority of time, however, has been spent satisfying a desire to go deeper in life through self-understanding and reflection. I had started this journey over the last several years, but through this training have been afforded the time to do so.
At some point in the last couple of years, I stumbled upon an idea shared by Jesse Itzler – the idea of Misogi. It encompasses embarking on an annual defining challenge that pushes your physical and mental limits. Ideally, by doing so, you achieve a sense of accomplishment, self-esteem and resilience. While fascinated by the idea, I had never put the concept into action – until now. My Portland to Portland trip is my 2025 Misogi.
Well, it’s one of them. As part of the planning for the P2P trip, my husband and I pondered what he would do for the 48 days I was riding. He wanted to be part of it and support me somehow. We considered the idea of renting or even purchasing an RV. I woke up one Sunday morning inspired by what I thought was a brilliant idea – purchase a cargo van and complete the conversion ourselves. Convinced that he would say that it was a terrible idea, I was pleasantly surprised when he agreed to the concept. It helped that I had done my homework before sharing the idea with him and calculated the rough cost of the van and materials. We set ourselves a budget, and off I went!
Since mid-May, I have spent a significant amount of time working on the van conversion. I have installed windows, roof-top air-conditioning units, grey water tanks, interior shower rooms, solar panels and electrical systems, custom built benches and cabinets. Has it taken longer to complete the van than I anticipated? Absolutely. Do I care? Absolutely not. My goal is to ensure it’s ready for my husband and the dog when it’s time to embark on the P2P adventure. At the moment, it’s roughly 85% complete and I expect to complete it this week.
At some point in the last few weeks, I had an epiphany that the van conversion is my second Misogi for this year. It has been both physically and mentally challenging, and has had me building on skills I already had as well as taking on new ones along the way. I’ll write a separate piece about the detailed process and learnings along the way, but I realized that in undertaking one Misogi – I inadvertently undertook a second one for the year.
As I had this realization and considered those who were struggling as a result of lay-offs across the corporate world, I realized the value of taking on the challenge of riding my bike across the country as well as the van conversion – both required that I do something entirely different from what had been my day-to-day life for many years. While I haven’t yet embarked on the actual P2P journey, I anticipate it being life-changing in many ways and providing me with time to both contemplate life, but also the beauty of this amazing world.
The cargo van conversion has been a series of daily problems to solve using both my mental and physical capacity – and in vastly different ways that I had previously. There are days on my P2P training calendar that I’m to go to the gym and do strength training. Admittedly, there have been a few days along the way that I’ve marked them as complete on my calendar simply because my day of working on the van has required significant physical exertion including lifting and moving of heavy items – lumber, built cabinets, etc…
What it’s afforded me is the recognition of the value of stepping outside my comfort zone and doing something completely different. I expect that P2P will also do so, but the training to date has also made me comfortable with being uncomfortable. I hired a coach to help me prepare and she’s done an amazing job of ensuring that my training simulates the day to day fatigue and building the strength I need to power through and make it through each day.
Like many who have seen their roles eliminated, there can be a sense of a loss of a sense of worth and being. It’s easy to take things personally and think that the lay-off is a reflection of your value and contributions to the business. The feelings can leave one feeling depressed and despondent. It can be easy to be swept away in a wave of self-doubt and negative thoughts. Taking on something different and outside your comfort zone helps to assuage those feelings by taking control of areas of your life that help you bring back the self-esteem that may have been lost – and mistakenly so because lay-offs are not personal.
While I recognize the idea of pausing seeking an income-earning role to ride one’s bike across the country or convert a cargo van to a camper van may not be in the cards for everyone, I wanted to share the concept of taking the time while seeking what’s next to step outside your comfort zone in a small or very big way. Through this journey, I’ve learned more about what I’m capable of than I could have imagined, and challenged myself in ways that I didn’t anticipate that can only help me and benefit me for the future. It’s been a fulfilling and rewarding experience to do something different from the daily routine and see the fruits of my labor come to fruition. I’ve used my hands and physical ability in conjunction with my mental abilities – something that wasn’t part of my corporate life for the last 13 years.
I set out on the idea of both the P2P trip and the conversion of the van as cool ideas – the latter as a way to ensure my husband and dog could tag along and get exactly the van that I wanted. What I ended up with on the van, and soon to be the bike ride, is a very powerful Misogi.
What will your Misogi be? Maybe it doesn’t need to be a Misogi, but something small and manageable to start – or a series of small and manageable accomplishments doing things you didn’t imagine yourself doing.
Start small. But, whatever you do, just start.