The Other Side of the Hump

A work colleague returned from Turkey yesterday. He’s bought a yacht which is moored out there, and has a plan to quit work and sail around the Med next spring. Yeah baby! Have you seen the Med recently – it’s bloody awesome. As far as I can tell, they’re financially in a fabulous position to do it too (money still being the ongoing taboo it is, I’ve not compared spreadsheet sizes with him…).

The yacht needed some fettling, as he tells me yachts do, so he’s been over to look her over, sail her a bit, and get her taken out of the water ready for winter. He dropped me a line with a photo of the boat; she still looked magnificent even stood vertical stranded on the quayside. Utterly alien to me mind, with masts, booms, ropes and other things I  would have no idea what to actually do with if landed on her mid ocean in Quantum Leap fashion.

His email mentioned a possible change in plan (did I detect a note of frustration written in between the lines?). His wife’s work are very busy and want her to stay on. Maybe they’d just take a couple of months off and come back. I shuddered a bit. This had prompted a grim thought in my mind, a dark shadow lumbered into view. The shadow cast by: The Hump.

Dun dun derrrrrnnnnn.

The Hump is the final hill/mountain/hillock to tackle when exiting ‘normal existence’ to go and do something quite different for a long time. I have to wonder how many folks never make it over the thing, sitting in its lee quietly and pretending its not really there. Everyone’s Hump is going to be a different height and will be made up of different things, but I imagine they’ll have few common elements. For example, my Humps have been made up of these challenges in the past, and I’m tackling them all mentally at the moment:

1. Making yourself unemployed
2. Leaving behind friends, colleagues and loved ones
3. Stepping outside of familiar routine
4. Persuading yourself you’re doing the right thing
5. Peering out into the unknown mists ahead

If you’re planning on renting your house out too, there are likely a few more Hump contenders, which we’ve tackled in the past:

1. Shedding tons of excess stuff
2. Breaking the emotional attachment between you and your home
3. Making the house ready for legal let
4. Arranging for tenants to let the house
5. Telling the tax man so he can send you some nice tax returns to complete

There must be an almost limitless list of Hump Factors. Children, pets, money, fear of being abducted by Somali Pirates in the Channel, you name it. They’re all quite reasonable things to hold you back (except the Pirates maybe), and my feeling is they’re a very effective test. If you really want to do the thing which your Hump is in the way of, you’ll get yourself over the Hump no matter what’s in it, no matter how tall it is, how slippery or annoyingly shape-shifting. You’ll also have something in common with everyone you meet who’s doing a similar thing to you: you’ll have all defeated the Hump.

A weird thing is: the peak of the Hump is typically very close to whatever it is you’re dreaming of doing. Maybe only a month or two from your ultimate goal which maybe you’ve been chasing down for years. I’ve about got on top of my latest Hump, with a couple of weeks to go before we head off again. I’m still climbing it though, and aren’t likely to be sliding down the other side until I hand in my pass and step out of the office door. Which is on the evening  of Wednesday 30 Sep if you’re interested. So if you see me about in the next couple of weeks, and I’m not looking ecstatically happy despite the obvious fun times ahead, forgive me. It’s because I’m still climbing my own personal Hump folks.

Come see me again on 1 Oct. I’ll be the other side of the Hump, and from past experience, there lies a place of beauty.

Cheers, Jay