Where’s the End?

I’m on the train back home from Paris to Brussels. This is my last day “on the road” (or “in the air”) for this year. I have been looking forward to this day for several weeks. While I enjoyed almost every day of doing courses and speaking at conferences, I could only enjoy my work because I knew there was an end.

The time I have at home, which starts tonight, will last for 4 weeks. Again, it has an end. After that another period of traveling will start. But the next period will be different from the period that ends now. (I will switch from training by myself to co-training with others.)

Every time I start something, I know there’s an end.

And every next period will be different from the last.

Some people have complained to me they get tired of being on an Agile team. They work sprint after sprint after sprint, for products that have no milestones or release dates anymore. They plan every week, they release every week, they evaluate every week. Basically, every week is the same.

And so people wonder, where is the end?

How is next time different from last time?

Most people need a sense of closure. They need to know things will end, and they want to know when.

My 4-month trip around the world was great. In just 4 months I’ve been to the USA, China, Australia, and a dozen countries in Europe. But it’s especially great that this awesome work life will end in about 15 minutes.