From Canon to Canberra

I called my blog “Journey to Canberra”. After 71,150 km and a 15 month journey, I post this blog from Canberra, NSW, Australia.

15 months ago today, I decided to turn my personal life upside down, in response to my professional world being turned upside down for me.

Instead of moving to London, I chose to stay in Amsterdam. Instead of following my previous self-chosen role of being “Mr Canon” I decided to work together with the Works Council and fight. Instead of going for another Canon-like job, I chose to write a book, travel and set up my own business.

Those decisions were personal – I never decried anyone who chose to go to London or stick with Canon and each had to make their own decision to suit their life at that moment. For me, the events co-incided with a time when I wanted to stir myself up. A few days after that decision to change on 5th November 2008, no matter what the consequences, I began writing a blog. I called it http://www.canontocanberra.blogspot.com/ to reflect my wish to turn my life upside down, shake out the bits and pieces of it, re-arrange them and see what pattern emerged as a result.

Somewhere in the depths of my confused and hurt subconscious mind 15 months ago, I knew I had to make a physical as well as mental journey. My whole life, at times when I've needed to change, movement has been the key – whether it's running half-marathons, doing a job which involves constant travel or making a world tour. All the attitude and mind-shifts I ever made have been together with the body getting on the move too. So the urge to move and travel has been strong. The phrase “you can't steer a ship that isn't moving” has repeated again and again in my mind, and I needed to get going to be able to make a serious change.

I started in early April last year with a visit to Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee – and since then I've been to Spain, Greece, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Hercegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, UK, USA again, Peru, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Easter Island, Tahiti and New Zealand.

And now Australia. Nicki and I arrived in Sydney two days ago and we head up the East Coast towards Brisbane and Cairns to cap off what has been an incredible trip so far. Canberra is 270km South of Sydney and we are heading North on Monday, plus everybody says “don't bother with Canberra – nothings special to see”. So no need to actually go there, right?

Wrong. I didn't call it Canon to Sydney. So I am taking the 5-hour train trip to complete the Journey to Canberra. It would seem like "unfinished business" not to.

(As I sit on the train at 7am, it reminds me of journeys I made in 2006, when working in Vienna and being head of the business in Hungary, Poland, Czech, and Slovakia. I regularly took 6am trains from Vienna to Prague or Budapest, frantically pumping the keyboard to catch up on emails and prepare for meetings and presentations in a desperate effort to manage the professional madness of being on the road 4 days per week. It is amazing to me that it is 3 years ago already. “Too funny for words, too close for comfort”...)

I am conscious of an incredibly priveleged life that enables such journeys to be made. The travelling has taught many lessons, but the biggest is the contrast between my own fortunes and those of others around the world as well as closer to home. It's been a huge advantage to have a platform of a stable society to grow up in – unworried by war or political constraints, such those growing up in Yugoslavia or the former “Eastern Bloc” faced. The benefit of being born in a part of the world where opportunity exists for most is inestimable – and in stark contrast to those I've seen in Peru and Albania. And growing up with caring parents who supported and encouraged education, ideas and wide thinking is of massive value. Any little achievements I ever made or will make are on the shoulders of this triple luck.

So my world, so safe and sure when I returned to Amsterdam in 2007, has literally turned upside down, as indeed have the lives of many of my friends, most of who were mostly working with Canon and living in Amsterdam. In the last year, so many of those friends have made hard decisions and big changes too. Babies have been born, companies have been set up, countries have been changed, new jobs have been started. It's a world in flux for all of us and we ride the changes and make them work for us – somehow, someway.

My plans for the future are becoming more firm every day – I'm so excited about what comes next. But today, I savour every moment of the end of the Journey to Canberra, and leave the journey back for another day.