My Own Little Reboot
Saw something pop up about Canseco’s ex, Jessica, the other day. You know, how people kinda get stuck with labels from way back when. It got me thinking, not really about them, but about shaking off old stuff in my own life.
It reminds me of this project I was on, years ago. Poured everything into it. Long hours, weekends, the whole deal. We thought we were building something really great. Then, bam. Management pulled the plug. Just like that. No real explanation, just gone.
Felt like a punch to the gut. Suddenly, I wasn’t the ‘guy leading the charge’ on that cool project anymore. I was just… the guy whose project got axed. Felt like that label was stuck right on my forehead every time I walked into a meeting.
So, what did I do? Sulking wasn’t paying the bills, right?
- First thing, I had to just let myself be mad for a bit. Can’t bottle that stuff up. Talked it out with my wife, complained to a buddy over beers. Got it out of my system, mostly.
- Then, I deliberately stopped talking about the old project at work unless someone specifically asked. Harder than it sounds. It was my baby, you know? But I forced myself.
- I needed something new to sink my teeth into. Found this internal training thing on a completely different system we used. Totally unrelated to my usual stuff.
- Signed myself up. Started spending my coffee breaks and a bit of time after work figuring it out. Just fiddling, really. Learning the ropes.
- Started offering small bits of help to other teams using that system. Just little things, nothing big. “Hey, I saw you were stuck on X, maybe try Y?”
Slowly, people started seeing me differently. Not as the ‘failed project guy’, but as ‘that helpful dude who knows the Z system’. It wasn’t overnight, took months. But it worked.
Shifting Gears
It wasn’t about forgetting the old project. Learned a ton from that. But it was about not letting it define me. Had to actively do something different, put my energy somewhere else. Build a new ‘label’ for myself, I guess. It’s like changing the channel when a show you hate comes on. You just gotta grab the remote and pick something else to focus on.
Funny how seeing a celebrity name can send your brain down these paths, isn’t it? Anyway, that was my little reboot practice. Just had to actively build something new instead of staring at the empty space the old thing left behind.
