A Few Words About This Blog...and on Being Happy

This original post has been edited.
You may have noticed that over the past few months the frequency of my blog posts has diminished like a stone dropping from a cliff. Actually I'm not sure that is the correct analogy but you get the idea. I recently started wondering why it was the case. I'm not any busier than I was a few months ago. In fact I think I have a bit more free time these days. So I started looking back over my posts to search for clues. And then I realized that it all changed when I switched jobs. Now here is the really interesting part, but settle in with a nice cup of coffee, as this may take some 'splaining.

From the moment I began working for my employer I knew I'd made the right choice. We're a dynamic company with lots of fun and exciting things in the works. Plenty of fulfilling challenges with a broad scope of responsibility in two divisions. Every day I go home with a sense of accomplishment from tangible results of my team's efforts. The cool factor of heading up the international division really gets my juices flowing, too. I'm home at a reasonable hour and my weekends are generally free from stress. Yes, it has been an excellent decision.

Close friends continue to tell me they have never seen me so happy and relaxed- and I agree. I had forgotten what it was like not to not be so stressed. So why then with all my new free time, less stress and general overall bliss have I been blogging less?

Well I realized that my blogging has always been a creative outlet. Not to suggest that this is a highly creative work of art or anything, it's just a vehicle to channel pent up energy and ideas. Ah....I'm getting somewhere in the detective work.

My career is so stimulating and fulfilling that I have had less of a need to find an alternative outlet to find satisfaction. These days I feel satisfied and enjoy life again. Yes, that was it, I was entirely bored and tired before, only I never realized it. I was going through the motions, like a robot. I was also tired of fighting with a certain nitwit bully individual whose destructive behavior some seemed to tolerate and find acceptable. It was far too much negative karma from that individual than was worth being exposed to on a daily basis. His behavior caused a toxic environment actually. A year ago I knew I had enough- yet ever the diplomat I kept it all inside and repeatedly tried to press on with a smile. Looking back I now realize that the toxicity from that individual was more than it was worth.

Throughout the past five years, the coping mechanism I had was writing this blog as my outlet. Never to vent about work (although I did once in a post on September 23, 2009), but rather to find some lighthearted fun, and create things. About a year before I left I recognized in myself that I was no longer giving it my best effort, I knew I had to do something. Despite all that negative energy I enjoyed a fabulously successful career at a generally great company with mostly good people. I had been well taken care of, valued and rewarded along the way. When I left I walked away from some substantial potential financial upside.

Once gone, I quickly realized it was all worth the change in my life. That one low-life, idiot bully I mentioned suddenly became irrelevant! In fact I was amazed at how my mood immediately improved and the dark cloud was gone. All those years I had turned to my blogging to find peace, solitude and to escape...

These days I feel happy and sufficiently stimulated. I do plan to continue blogging, as it is important to me. I'm not taking a break, it has been a journey for me as I re-charged my batteries and started a new life with my new career.

My words of advice to anyone in a similar situation is to remember that life is short. Our time on this planet goes far too quickly. Should you find yourself in a situation that makes you exceedingly unhappy, do something about it. Don't just accept it. I'm not saying give up or quit when the going gets tough, but I am saying to realize that we should all be masters of our own destinies. Set the course you want and remove negativity from your life. Some other day I'll wax philosophic and expand more on this, but you get the concept.

Have a great weekend, I know I will.
-Rick Rockhill

note: this original post has been edited. I deleted several of my remarks that were misconstrued as disparaging an organization. This is mainly about my personal life lessons learned about the perils of having regular interaction with someone lacking morals, common decency and unwilling to respect peers. For more remarks, re-read this link.