Its been seven months since I stopped working for the man and according to the Doc this morning my blood pressure is now officially normal. Thats after over 20 years of stage 1 hypertension. Coincidence? Not a chance! But the interesting question is why? Im certain its not the obvious, i.e. less stress, as the amount of work Ive been doing since has been considerably higher and (arguably) more stressful. Speculatively, I think its down to three factors. Firstly, the stress is now mostly within my sphere of control. I can do something about it and know that working harder will bring an end result, not just lead to more of the same. And (within boundaries) I can turn it on and off. Secondly Im much more active and therefore much fitter. Not sitting at a desk for 90% of the day and being on my feet most of the time has made a huge difference! Thirdly (and probably most importantly) what Im doing now has tangible meaning and delivers real results that Im proud of. In my last life of political game playing, mis-matched ambitions/budgets and general ineptitude I had pretty much forgotten what that felt like.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 10:39:59 +0000