It’s been about six weeks…six weeks since I reached my limit, texted my husband and let him know I was giving my notice at work. I was DONE!
Prior to this frantic late night text home, I had spent the weeks and months leading up to this time obsessively searching phrases such as, Is this all there is?, mid life crisis, turning 50 and a number of other random search words and phrases in hopes of finding some insight into what I was feeling.
I was working 12 hour days in the slow season, working nights, with no schedule change in sight. I managed a team of 100 or so people when it was slow, and as many as 600 when it was on fire. During the busy time of the year I was putting in 16 hour days, six days a week…insanity. Two months a year was spent on this busy schedule, while the remaining ten months of the year was spent trying to recover from or prepare for the two busy ones! It literally stole an entire year of my life from me.
I know that sounds like a dramatic statement, but I simply never recovered from the change to a night shift. I had aways worked crazy hours, traveled for work a great deal, it didn’t sound like it would be a big deal. Let me tell you, to me, it was a very big deal. I just never recovered, never regained my spark or sanity each day.
It became very clear to me, I was ready for a turnaround….
Turnaround at 50 