Getting Out
The phrase just entered my mind the other day and the next thing you know it came out my mouth. "I'm getting out of IT". There was an immediate positive effect, just like when you make the first call to the therapist and feel better before your first appointment. It is suddenly much clearer that I've been oppressed by this line of work. When I started, 18 years ago, the world hadn't fully embraced technology. The ubiquity of PCs was still ahead. Networks were in there infancy. There was a sense of awe when a person converted part of her work to a computer.

Until a few days ago, my work mindset has been static and I've been trying to make it operate in a very different world. But these days computers are glorified staplers. There's no real buzz left anymore. People just want the damn thing to work like it did yesterday so they can get things done and go home. PC techies are now like Xerox repairmen or plumbers.
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Another post-paradigm-shift phenomenon: coincidental encounters that resonate your new outlook. A day after my mindshift, I was talking to one of my clients in his office when, in the middle of my sentence, her blurted 'How old are you?'. I think I had just complained over the state of Windows PCs. After I responded, Michael told be about an acquantance who, after two successful business ventures, was writing about about a common need for meaning among men 45-55 years old. This conversation may result in a reading group. Just the kind of new experience I need because my new mantra goes something like this

Do things you wouldn't normally do
Read things you wouldn't normally read
Meet people you wouldn't normally meet.