I’m wrapping up at my current day job this week, and it got me thinking about how I personally like to finish. I’ve spoken with folks about this topic over the years, and many say that as soon as they give notice, they feel completely checked out and mostly cruise to the finish line.
I intend to cast no judgement when I say that, for some reason, I just can’t do that. There’s something in me that wants to treat it more like the end of a race; I want to go all out for those last few minutes and finish feeling strong. As with running, that effort is mostly for me.
The reason that I want to finish strong is to support a team of people who I care about, to be clear. When I say that it’s mostly for me, I mean that I want to prove to myself that I’m the kind of person who does care in that way. The only way to prove it, of course, is to actually do it.
The most joyful part of work for me is having wonderful collaborators. In fact, work is only joyful when I do have wonderful collaborators, and I try hard to be a great collaborator in return. That’s the impression I want to leave—and why I want to finish strong—because when it’s all said and done, work is just people all the way down.
I never get quite as much done as I hope to in those final days, but I always leave feeling confident that I tried really hard to do as much of the right stuff as I was capable of. I want to wrap up on my last day with the feeling that I’d made a good go of it; that I’d pushed myself a little further. All we can do—all we can ever do—is earnestly try our very hardest.
I’m sure some part of it is just ego, or maybe I’m just being a try-hard, but the thing that motivates me in the first place is the team of people I collaborated with most closely. I’m doing it for the company, sure, but what is a company if not those who… well… keep you company, even during the most challenging stretches of an important project.
After a good sprint, you need a rest day. I haven’t been good at taking those over the years, but I’m taking one this time—a few of them, actually. I’m going to make art, write poetry by a lighthouse, and prepare for my next thing. I’ll update you on that, but first, I’ve got to finish this run.