2022 (I): A Half-Year of Unemployment/Leisure
On July 1, I completed five years of freedom from the corporate world. They have been five fantastic years where I have been able to live my life pretty much entirely on my terms. I wrote a bestselling nonfiction book (published by the world’s largest publishing house) and a few children’s books. I acted in a global big-budget multi-lingual film. I became a pioneering actor-presenter for the world’s largest edtech company. I wrote synopses for the word’s largest OTT platform. I voiced audiobooks for the world’s largest audiobook company. Pretty sweet, right?
The first six months of this year, however, has run very differently to the past few years. Almost a counter narrative of sorts.
a. Netflix terminated my contract after completing only two-thirds of the contract; we just weren’t working well together. This was a tough end because I really thought this was the start of my next level, leading on to bigger and better things.
b. Ominously, many items around the house broke in quick succession — a drinking glass, a glass container and two lids, a ceramic plate, a cooking pan lid — all by different people. In May, a 70-ft eucalyptus tree on the plot adjacent to ours came crashing down in the rains. It bounced off our roof causing significant damage.
c. I reached out to many people, pitched many ideas, wrote many proposals. Nothing has yet converted into paid work. I was ghosted many times. This seemed to be the opposite end of the spectrum to the fantastic fortune I had had the previous few years. My income was rent and royalties, no new income.
d. I tried to bring new energy into my life. I signed up for a screenwriting workshop across Jan and Feb that got me writing and exploring an idea I had. I churned out a shitty first draft by March.
e. I also tried to lean into all the free time I had by doing leisure activities. We spent a weekend in Yercaud and then ten days in Himachal. I cycled, around the outskirts of Bangalore. I worked out, participating in the CrossFit Games.
It’s been a very strange six months where many things haven’t worked out. The energy has felt very off and I have felt creatively empty and tired. I have a low-key screen addiction and my writing/working discipline is shot to pieces. Where I was juggling two to three large projects, I am now unable to initiate even one. I have too much time and no direction or purpose, and hence no energy.
It’s tempting to lament about this period as a “bad time” where nothing has worked and all my work has shut down with no replacement. But I’m trying to see it instead as a gestation period, where the universe has simply been collecting the energy around me to launch the next successful phase of my artistic career. I’ve met some amazing people and experienced incredible acts of kindness in these six months. I’m excited about the new horizons I will get to explore and all the ways I will grow as an artist and person.
Kindness — to others and to myself — suddenly gives meaning to my day.
Read my previous annual musings below.
2017: Sabbatickle
2018: My Best Year Yet
2019: The Greatest Hits of My Greatest Year Yet
2020: A Year of Bigness
2021: A Year of Huge Names
