Be a Cyclebreaker

Author: Harrinei Kumaravel

It is a grey day as I look out from the balcony at a metropolis that sprawls beneath me. It is strange still, I am yet to get used to the plumes of smoke that drifts up, the trill of the bell from the nearby school every morning at 8 and the fact that I have to walk 5 garbage bags to the distant public bin to keep a clean house. Habits are different, and so is my reality here. I have shifted 2 jobs within a year, jumping from a disengaging to an innovative one. Have moved into a city from a town and built a small personal space. Having broken probably a dozen family decorum, I am here. It strikes me as clearly as a bolt of lightning. I am a cycle-breaker.

What is Cycle Breaking? Is cycle-breaking liberation? Not necessarily, it is simply initiated change. Change that we create and hence own. A transition that stems from an awareness of one’s life state and underlining the very innate factors that define our life in invisible ways. To quote a simple example, growing up in a restrictive household with a certain set of dictated values can inhibit decisions like career choice, way of life and desired progression. Or breaking a cycle of mental illness that runs untreated among generations. It requires relentless drive and immense dreams to help one release and pick out a cycle that seems to hold the ropes. It is not easy to acknowledge a detrimental cycle as it has taken root over years, creeping into your environment. We would rather face familiar problems than face a new inconvenience that we know, in the long term, bears great fruit.  Recognition is key to cycle breaking.

Why do you need to break a cycle? Let us look at a universal scenario to understand its imminence of it. As a global collective, we went through a 2-year-long pandemic. We were required to modify our activities, and our mental rhythm to accommodate this rather unfavourable change. This change became essential, a survival habit. But what does one do when the pandemic draws to an end? Stick to the minimal survival mindset? Follow the same cycle and mindset that taught us to play safe? No. We eventually broke the cycle and adapted to a world of active rigour. You need to break a mental cycle to move on. Crop this example into personal and professional spaces, to understand cycle-breaking.

How can cycle breaking accelerate your career? It is a crucial aspect of workspaces as it enables you to go above and beyond. It gives you the brevity to switch jobs at the right juncture, switch up a work practice or reach within and find the courage to try out new roles, and take up initiatives. This helps avoid burnout in the long run and enables better career progression. Opening up the realm of ‘what could be is the motto of a true cycle breaker.

It is not a crime to be in a cycle, it only matters that we transition from it when the time is right. It means living life as it flows. So here’s to a life well-lived; here’s to cycle breaking!