I’m changing my status to “self-employed.” I believe I’ve earned that description even though I don’t earn an income from what I do every day. Anyone that is home all day and not at a job for someone else is self-employed in my opinion. We have work that needs to be done. It’s just that the work we have is self-imposed…mostly. And just because that work is self-imposed, doesn’t make it less important!
Yesterday, I created yet another new schedule for myself to get the things I want to do done every day. My day is like that puzzle game with the cars. I loved this game as a kid. I still have one! The goal is to get the red car off the board by maneuvering the other cars out of the way, without lifting them off the board of course!
I have several things I want to get done each day, week, or month. That’s the red car! The number of hours in the day are the playing board and each activities requirements (uninterrupted quiet, wide awake, not too hot, etc.) are the other cars on the board.
In the game, there are cards to show you how to set up the board and then you move the cars around to get your red car out. My circumstances are those cards! When I was younger it was a job I was working around and family life, boyfriends, friends, and school. Then I added my husband, my children, and in-laws. It’s changing again now that my children are almost grown and on their own…mostly.
Over the years I’ve added things I want to do too. It used to be just getting through the day alive was the goal! Well, I guess that’s always been the goal really. But the things I’ve been interested in have changed over the years; read this book, write this story, knitting, gardening, a cool job, a new friend, etc. The cars on the board of life are constantly changing!
I get overwhelmed at times, trying to sort through what I want to do, prioritize, and organized my day so I feel like I’m making progress in the world. I usually run through a cycle of building up ideas, trying to put them into practice, starting to feel like it’s all too much, and then ditching some things and finding a nice balance. It always cycles back to building up ideas again though! The book “Essentialism” by Greg McKeown helped me put that into perspective and made it a lot easier to let some things go. The playing board is only so big. Only cars go on it, not tugboats, cats, trees, and chess pieces.
Removing the obstacle cars is not an option. Even if it were, what would be the point? Just moving your car off the board in one direction isn’t any fun, which reminds me of the book, “The Obstacle is the Way” by Ryan Holiday!
Right now, I want to read for at least two hours every, write for two hours (or at least sit at my computer) five days a week, do my yoga practice four days a week, and get an hour’s worth of house cleaning in daily. There are other things too, like being there when my family needs me, making dinner, and spending time with my main squeeze.
And here I am now tapping away, right in the middle of my new schedule, and new things pop up. My son is sick, my mother-in-law needs something, my husband is on the phone. I’m sticking to my schedule. I promised I’d sit here and write for two hours, from 8 AM to 10 AM. Sure, I may need a cup of coffee and my big baby boy of a seventeen-year-old might need ibuprofen and a glass of water, but I go right back to the writing. The only way to get better is to spend the time practicing, right?