June 9th, 2008
Have you ever come back from a big
event out of town, loved it so much that you found it very hard to appreciate
your home upon your return?
Take for example consultants who travel
abroad for consultancies of all types. These people rarely stay in the
office of their home (main) company for long periods of time between
assignments. They're used to going in-and-out to different locations.
But what if they come across an organization
during a consultation wherein the atmosphere, culture and sense of self-being
came across as more majestic, more mystical and welcoming than the place
they regularly call home (professionally)? Or, to take it further, what
if that organization is out of town or province/state?
The exposure to new cultures and ways
of living open the eyes of the newcomer pretty intensively, especially
if the culture is more benevolent than the one that person is used to.
On a business-based model, perhaps
the culture of the client company is productive but more laid-back.
People seem happier and contented to actually be there doing their work.
Or perhaps the communication between people is more open and less binding.
Compare that to the consultant's homebase
where he works. People are stressed, the culture is hostile and imposed.
Deadlines are frantic and morale is pretty non-existent.
This could be because the city in which
the consultant's present company operates. Perhaps the culture is fast-paced
and extremely capitalist. But maybe the other city where his client
operates isn't.
It's like visualizing Toronto and Montreal.
Toronto is purely about money and a fast cosmopolitan lifestyle. Montreal
has a financial centre and a supposed "rat-race", but it's
not as frantic nor fast as the one in Toronto. People in Montreal seem
to go to work simply because they have to. But that's as far as they
take it. It's more slower out in Quebec (even further east towards the
Maritimes), mainly because they value life more than money.
Family, friends, culture and art all take precedence above any capitalist
motive in this city.
It practically feels like Europe in
North America simply from this short transition of location.
To the overwhelmed business practitioner,
the life in Toronto may seem as though this is the only way to live.
Yet once they're exposed to the glory and slower-pace of Montreal, for
example, then the perception of life takes a drastic turn to a more
calmer and recollective state. Spending even a night in this Quebecois
city would definitely soften the soul, making the return to Toronto
quite unbearable, with less of a desire to stay in it for as long as
you have.
To the consultant above, perhaps exposure
to the client company serves as an opportunity of sorts. Perhaps his
sudden exposure to a slower yet productive kind of corporate lifestyle
may be enough to trigger thoughts of a career transition and change
of location.
Why would you stay in a place where
you're not truly contented?
Everyone deserves to live a life or
have a career where they feel contented with themselves, their surroundings
and their capabilities. It may seem like the joy to happiness is through
a 9-to-five job with totally unrealistic criterion in the present state
of mind in society, but it may come as a surprise that nothing is holding
you to achieving or maximizing your life experiences.
If you feel the desire to change, then
by all means, give it a go. You never know unless you try. It could
very well be the change that delivers more happiness, rewards
and possibilities than the one you're enduring right now.
Everyone has those days where they
peer out the window, wondering what their life would be like somewhere
else.
Maybe this is the time to do it.
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