Sunday, April 10, 2011

Disappeared!

Mini Militant and I are on the road to... somewhere good!

I'm so sorry to have abandoned this blog for such a long time. Normally I've highly motivated to post on Militant Ginger at least once a day - but life has gotten ahead of me a little in the last few weeks and I've had to let it get shifted onto the back burner.

When it comes to bloggers, I've always had the theory that the less they blog, they more they're actually doing in real life. That was certainly true in my case. My personal writing projects have exploded; and that extra work fell simultaneous to a mammoth extra effort at my day job which saw me working 70+ hour weeks. Throw in a sick kid and time suddenly had a distressing habit of disappearing far too fast.

It was good, though. Sadly I still find myself one of those people who does their best work on a deadline. It's a great way of inspiring you - forcing you - to prioritize.

And it made me prioritize at home as well, and start really thinking about what I want out of life; and how I can go about achieving it. One thing I realized is that I'm never going to be happy - and never going to be rich - working for somebody else. That's why I've decided to throw myself into creating my own little business empire with abandon.

Early days yet, but I set myself a goal in March and one of the reasons I never seemed to blog is because I spent so many hours actually achieving it.

For April, I've doubled that goal - with the wildly ambitious thought of doubling my independent income each month from here-on-in. The really crazy thing - the truly frightening thing - is that such lofty goals actually appear to be achievable.

Whether or not I'll achieve them is yet to be seen.

But therein perhaps lies the thing that I've always found most exciting about America; opportunity. It seems that "impossible" is only a limit people set for themselves here. This month saw me lay out my opportunities on the table like Tarot cards - and realized that the lofty goal I set for myself was only lofty in my own estimation.

This country really is a place where anybody can achieve anything, if they put their mind to it. That actual putting of the mind isn't easy; but if you can swing it, you're going to win no matter what. It's a dramatic difference to the attitude in England; where you're relegated to your socioeconomic "box" practically at birth and it's considered wildly gauche to ever have aspirations beyond it.

No, this month I realized the opposite. That my dreams were out there for the taking; and I took a lofty step towards grabbing them. From this point on, any shortfall is mine and mine alone; you can't blame it on your upbringing, your parents, your education or anything else.

It's an exciting time; like walking a tightrope with no safety net. That means that although I seem to have even less free time than ever, I should make more of a concerted effort to blog than ever before. Because perhaps, finally, I'm on a chapter of my life worth reading about.

3 comments:

Susanne said...

Great post - very inspiring! I wish you well in your endeavors. May your hard work pay off as you seek to be all that you can be. Ha...I seem full of slogans today. :)

The Dirty Scottish Bastard said...

Excellent! I can't wait for you to reveal your "empire". :-)

I find myself in a similar situation. The twist on mine is that I don't necessarily need to work for myself, although I could in the career I'm transitioning to, but my 2 main goals are to get out of corporate America (stop being a cubicle prairie dog) and to actually enjoy what I do.

I have ralised another benefit to my transition however. The equipment is reasonably priced when buying wholesale and I can take it anywhere literally.

I know that you know of my new endevour and I have to say that it's going very well. I have been meeting other professionals and will be attending a few cons this year to network and meet even more artists. I've picked up 2 new clients just this last weekend and will even be going on the road this summer for some out of town work.

I wish you the best in your new venture and look forward to updates.

Andy said...

Yo, Roland! Congrats on your biz, and early success. Go get 'em, Tiger!