Setting in place milestones and goals not only helps to motivate you as an individual, but it also helps to show potential investors that you are serious about the undertaking. Now, while I may not have to worry about investors, something I learned early on is that business plans are the difference between success and failure.
Everyone has ideas. That's human nature. Humans are inquisitive creatures, always striving towards the next level. And while not everyone out there is motivated to the same level as the next person in line, the difference between most successful people and those who are not is a simple plan.
Setting goals for oneself allows you to aspire to the next level. Aspiration drives you to succeed. Success breeds confidence, and with confidence comes the ability to tackle your projects head-on without reservations. Even if it's something as simple as, say, quitting smoking, or losing weight, having a series of goals to accomplish along the way to your finish line can help you achieve that feeling of success along the way, and each goal that you succeed in will give you greater confidence to overcome the next set of challenges along your path.
This probably sounds like some cheesy spiel from a life-coach, but it's a way of living that I really believe in. I honestly believe that the only person standing between you and success is you. And if you are timid about life, timid about opportunities, and have doubts in your own abilities, then you will never succeed. It's important to set goals for yourself, goals that are obtainable, but allow you to constantly better yourself. Call it motivation, if you like. Every little victory inspires you to the next, and gives you the morale to keep going.
Sometimes your plan might not look like wisdom to others, but whose life are you living? Yours or theirs? My mother-in-law, for example. She thought it was ludicrous to embark on a career with no previous experience, no education, and no prior contacts in the field. She still doesn't really see what I do as "real" work, despite the paychecks I bring in for her daughter and me. But people often fail to consider the motivation of a person who has the will to succeed. Back in January of 2008 I set a plan on paper. I set a series of goals. I started small, and I worked my way up. Every little success boosted my confidence, and I've met one of the major milestones along my initial plan, which was breaking the 4k a month mark in terms of income.
I'm a high school drop out. I have no college education. What I do have is a strong will and the desire to succeed at everything I put my mind to. Bill Gates, one of the most powerful men in the world, never finished college. He was busted for weed on occasion, a true pot-head nerd, and went on to be one of the richest men on the planet.
My goals are much less sinister. I have no desire for worldwide domination. The only thing I care about is providing for Evy and myself in such a way that we can live life the way we want. To travel anywhere, anytime, anyplace. To have a home that is comfortable, decorative, ours. To have my work read and enjoyed. It's happening. My fiction is selling, my content is being read, and appreciated. I'm on a roll.
This post is to toot my own horn. I decided to transition to full time freelancing for the next couple of months, just to prove to myself and to others just how real this job is, and just how capable I am. I landed a job last week writing for an MMORPG company, as my last blog post dictated. I am extremely happy about that. Then, today, I had a three thousand dollar project land in my lap, on top of the 1500 dollars worth of work I already had lined up. My hard work and diligence has paid off. I'm 17 months into this new career and I'm close to making what I used to make in construction, which was 6-7k a month, or 75k a year on the gross end. Only now, instead of getting up at the ass crack of dawn to be on a jobsite regardless of the weather or my health, I get to sit in the comfort of my home. I get to use my mind. I can drink a beer while I work if I so choose, take a day off when I want, take a break when I want, and work whenever I choose to work.
I am grateful, and I give credit where it is due. My wife has been extremely supportive of me since day one when we first moved here and she literally said to me, "You took care of me while we were in the States, now it's my turn. Let me worry about the bills while you work on getting your career as a writer going". It was because of her support that I am where I am today, and I owe her a debt of gratitude. She continues to be supportive, even when other people are not.
I recently pulled a short story that I was going to write for a publication because the owner of the magazine came onto an open forum and launched a hate-filled tirade against me because she disagreed with my opinion when I was giving another writer some advice on the life of a writer. Some aspiring writer asked a couple of questions, and I gave him my particular experiences. The owner of that particular publication happens to be a hate-filled femi-nazi who has had limited success in her career and believes that her version of reality is the only version that is allowed to exist, and everyone else is incorrect. I'm making enough money and I'm not so desperate for credits that I have to subject myself to editors and employers who are douche-bags. I chose to pull the story, and Evy gave me a hug and told me "No matter what other people think, you have always followed through on every thing you have ever put your mind to, and you have always succeeded at your goals."
Failure is not an option. It never has been. When I set a goal down, I do whatever it takes to meet and exceed those goals. So far I've met and exceeded every goal I set down, save one: I said I would have the draft of my first novel completed and sold sometime in 2010. It's the only one I haven't yet finished, but I'm still 6 months out, and I'm rocking and rolling in the other departments, so I'm really not worried.
To all those people out there who struggle in their daily grind: don't give up. If you honestly want to find success at what you do, then you will. It is as simple as that.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
New month, new ideas, new agendas
July is just around the corner. I've got two more days of "vacation", then it's back to work...only this time I'm about to step into it going full-time rather than just part time, at least for the next couple of months.
Ever notice how vacations never quite seem to be as blissfully free of activities as you originally plan them to be? I know the feeling. What had originally turned out to be a week or so off of work with absolutely nothing to do but get some chapter work done, write a short story, and finalize the outline for my cook-book...turned into a "do lots of around-the-house projects" instead. So, while I didn't get any chapter work done, I did get some editing done, and I actually should get a chapter written between today and tomorrow with my last two days off. Maybe :) I still have a Green Diva Mom article to write today.
Fiction is great, and it's my ultimate goal, but I've also got a lot of other irons in the fire as well. Writing for a living was something I wanted to do since I was a child, regardless of "where" I was writing. While I'm still working on building up the fiction resume, I'm well established in the freelancing world now, and I'm moving ahead steadily in that regards. On that note, it looks like I just landed a new gig writing for the MMO Life Network. I just signed the contract and I'm scheduled to write 4 articles for them in the month of July.
MMORPGing is something I don't talk about on my blog a lot, mostly because I haven't found the right place to showcase my passion for the genre. I've been looking for several years for a place where I could write articles regarding my foremost hobby, and last week I stumbled across an ad looking for writers for a new MMO gaming network. The pay was decent, and while I generally don't apply to jobs these days due to an influx of work from my two primary content providers, it was good enough pay and an intriguing enough article that I sent off a query letter with my gaming resume and writing background. Less than a week later, I'm stepping on board.
I've been playing MMORPGs for just over 15 years now, starting with MUDs back in the early 1990s. I've played most of the major ones, starting with Shadows of Yserbius, EverQuest 1, EverQuest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Star Wars Galaxies, and Lord of the Rings: Online, just to name a few. Currently Evy and I are playing LOTRO a few nights per week. It's cheap entertainment, and it's a great way for two people to do something together that's not only affordable, but fun. And outside of MMORPGs, I'm just a gamer nerd anyway, so it's just a fraction of what I do.
In any case, I'm going to be swamped for July and August. I don't plan on getting a lot of creative writing done in the next 6-8 weeks, but we'll just have to wait and see. I have a goal, and as long as I meet the goal I'll be dropping back to part-time in September, taking a trip to Rome with Evy for a relaxing vacation, and then getting back into the novel work. I don't have any plans to write any further short stories this year. I've got 5 that are in circulation, and that's really all I care to worry about at present. The majority of my time will be seeing if I can't get this rough draft finished up by Christmas, or sometime this winter. The beauty of making a steady paycheck as a freelance writer means that I'm not relying on my fiction work for the income; it's just a passion that I work on when I have the time, and eventually it will be the main focus...but I don't have a hard deadline for it.
In any case...that's the update for the month. I'll be linking articles as they are published, and now that I found a good MMORPG network to write for, I'll finally be able to cover so many of the topics I've wanted to cover in the past, but just never knew of the right place to worry about pitching the ideas to. There are literally dozens of lifestyle articles that can be written about the MMORPG genre, from the social aspects of the games to the rise of the MMORPG as a modern-day honest-to-God sport that people are getting paid (millions!) to play at tournaments. There's a lot of info out there that many people still don't have a clue about, and that's what's fun about writing: educating people :)
Ever notice how vacations never quite seem to be as blissfully free of activities as you originally plan them to be? I know the feeling. What had originally turned out to be a week or so off of work with absolutely nothing to do but get some chapter work done, write a short story, and finalize the outline for my cook-book...turned into a "do lots of around-the-house projects" instead. So, while I didn't get any chapter work done, I did get some editing done, and I actually should get a chapter written between today and tomorrow with my last two days off. Maybe :) I still have a Green Diva Mom article to write today.
Fiction is great, and it's my ultimate goal, but I've also got a lot of other irons in the fire as well. Writing for a living was something I wanted to do since I was a child, regardless of "where" I was writing. While I'm still working on building up the fiction resume, I'm well established in the freelancing world now, and I'm moving ahead steadily in that regards. On that note, it looks like I just landed a new gig writing for the MMO Life Network. I just signed the contract and I'm scheduled to write 4 articles for them in the month of July.
MMORPGing is something I don't talk about on my blog a lot, mostly because I haven't found the right place to showcase my passion for the genre. I've been looking for several years for a place where I could write articles regarding my foremost hobby, and last week I stumbled across an ad looking for writers for a new MMO gaming network. The pay was decent, and while I generally don't apply to jobs these days due to an influx of work from my two primary content providers, it was good enough pay and an intriguing enough article that I sent off a query letter with my gaming resume and writing background. Less than a week later, I'm stepping on board.
I've been playing MMORPGs for just over 15 years now, starting with MUDs back in the early 1990s. I've played most of the major ones, starting with Shadows of Yserbius, EverQuest 1, EverQuest 2, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Star Wars Galaxies, and Lord of the Rings: Online, just to name a few. Currently Evy and I are playing LOTRO a few nights per week. It's cheap entertainment, and it's a great way for two people to do something together that's not only affordable, but fun. And outside of MMORPGs, I'm just a gamer nerd anyway, so it's just a fraction of what I do.
In any case, I'm going to be swamped for July and August. I don't plan on getting a lot of creative writing done in the next 6-8 weeks, but we'll just have to wait and see. I have a goal, and as long as I meet the goal I'll be dropping back to part-time in September, taking a trip to Rome with Evy for a relaxing vacation, and then getting back into the novel work. I don't have any plans to write any further short stories this year. I've got 5 that are in circulation, and that's really all I care to worry about at present. The majority of my time will be seeing if I can't get this rough draft finished up by Christmas, or sometime this winter. The beauty of making a steady paycheck as a freelance writer means that I'm not relying on my fiction work for the income; it's just a passion that I work on when I have the time, and eventually it will be the main focus...but I don't have a hard deadline for it.
In any case...that's the update for the month. I'll be linking articles as they are published, and now that I found a good MMORPG network to write for, I'll finally be able to cover so many of the topics I've wanted to cover in the past, but just never knew of the right place to worry about pitching the ideas to. There are literally dozens of lifestyle articles that can be written about the MMORPG genre, from the social aspects of the games to the rise of the MMORPG as a modern-day honest-to-God sport that people are getting paid (millions!) to play at tournaments. There's a lot of info out there that many people still don't have a clue about, and that's what's fun about writing: educating people :)
Friday, June 26, 2009
Fresh ideas
I recently had someone send me some links to some really interesting websites regarding other people who have taken the approach my wife and I took. That is, moving to a country/area where the cost of living is nill in comparison to your country of origin. Take a gander at this and this.
Some people question the stability of such a move. I'd like to point out the fact that we are making a fraction of what we made back in the US, but we have far more money to spend every month, we put more money in the savings each month, and we take far more vacations per year then we ever would have been able to do if we stayed back in the States.
One in particular was from a UK couple who moved to Thailand. Their cost of living is 500 pounds a month vs. the 2k+ pounds per month that it used to cost them living in the UK. They do websites and consultations. And, similarly to my situation, her hubby lost his job 2 years ago due to redundancy, and when they were stressing about how to find a job in the recession market and panicking about the mortgage and other costs of living, the thought suddenly dawned upon them: why do we need to stay in the UK to have the life we want to live?
The short answer? You don't. When your living expenses are 500 a month you can literally work a fraction of the hours, for a fraction of the pay, that you would have needed to survive in the Western world. And ironically you can live like a king vs. living like a pauper, despite the fact you are making less money than you used to! In our case, Evy and I are able to enjoy part-time work schedules and still have more than enough money to go out all the time, take vacations 4-5 times a year, and have all the nice little toys we want...all of it without having to stress about a 40 hour a week job and someone breathing down our necks.
I've touched on this topic a few times in other posts, so it was really awesome seeing someone else's website focusing on the exact same things that we discovered when we made the transition.
So far my favorite read is the Location Independant, or LIP, website. Amazing stuff there from the UK couple. They are a bit more "business" savy than Evy and I are currently, but it's a nice look at someone who came to the same conclusion we came to about living a nomadic lifestyle and still achieving all the same goals that the "rat race" aspire towards.
The bonuses of being Location Independent? As I've discussed in previous posts, there are a *lot* of them, not the least of which is the ability to put more money in the savings, take more vacations, and enjoy our lives to a greater degree than we ever could have staying back in a society where 40+ hours a week is the only way to even barely survive.
Take a look. These are a couple of good sites that I plan on fully perusing over the next few days of my week off work :)
Some people question the stability of such a move. I'd like to point out the fact that we are making a fraction of what we made back in the US, but we have far more money to spend every month, we put more money in the savings each month, and we take far more vacations per year then we ever would have been able to do if we stayed back in the States.
One in particular was from a UK couple who moved to Thailand. Their cost of living is 500 pounds a month vs. the 2k+ pounds per month that it used to cost them living in the UK. They do websites and consultations. And, similarly to my situation, her hubby lost his job 2 years ago due to redundancy, and when they were stressing about how to find a job in the recession market and panicking about the mortgage and other costs of living, the thought suddenly dawned upon them: why do we need to stay in the UK to have the life we want to live?
The short answer? You don't. When your living expenses are 500 a month you can literally work a fraction of the hours, for a fraction of the pay, that you would have needed to survive in the Western world. And ironically you can live like a king vs. living like a pauper, despite the fact you are making less money than you used to! In our case, Evy and I are able to enjoy part-time work schedules and still have more than enough money to go out all the time, take vacations 4-5 times a year, and have all the nice little toys we want...all of it without having to stress about a 40 hour a week job and someone breathing down our necks.
I've touched on this topic a few times in other posts, so it was really awesome seeing someone else's website focusing on the exact same things that we discovered when we made the transition.
So far my favorite read is the Location Independant, or LIP, website. Amazing stuff there from the UK couple. They are a bit more "business" savy than Evy and I are currently, but it's a nice look at someone who came to the same conclusion we came to about living a nomadic lifestyle and still achieving all the same goals that the "rat race" aspire towards.
The bonuses of being Location Independent? As I've discussed in previous posts, there are a *lot* of them, not the least of which is the ability to put more money in the savings, take more vacations, and enjoy our lives to a greater degree than we ever could have staying back in a society where 40+ hours a week is the only way to even barely survive.
Take a look. These are a couple of good sites that I plan on fully perusing over the next few days of my week off work :)
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Going Paperless
My latest article is up at Green Diva Mom. The focus of this particular article was a brief introduction into what it means to "go paperless". The follow-up article will be focused on the terminology "carbon footprint" and what that really means, and how you can effectively combat your own footprint on this planet.
To put it into perspective, I was not a "green" thinker until about 2 years ago. It took Evy really pushing me to get me to believe in it. I didn't actively look into things like global warming, the melting of the polar ice caps, the deforestation issues, and the wastefulness of humanity. I was very much your typical American, only focused on consumerism and consumption, never worried about the potential side effects of my wasteful lifestyle.
Now, I get the urge to growl at people when I see them just dumping their trash without bothering to sort it out and recycle it. Especially in Bulgaria, where the city provides recycling containers along the street every 100 meters or so, it's impossible to *not* recycle unless you are a complete and utter douche-bag. Nothing gets my goat up more than some imbecile who dumps his beer bottle into the paper bin, for example, or someone who will bring their all-in-one trashbag and dump it into one of the cardboard or plastic bins.
A really big problem in Bulgaria is littering. A *really* big problem. You cannot walk down the sidewalk without seeing someone flick a cigarette butt, drop a coffee stir-stick, a candy wrapper, burger wrapper, or some other piece of offensive materiel onto the sidewalk. It's almost as if these certain individuals just don't care about their own living environment. It's also incredibly lazy because there are literally trash receptacles every 15-20 feet, with the recycling ones spread out a little further. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of people I've seen who are literally one step away from a trash can but rather than put their cigarette butt/trash into it, they simply let it fall to the sidewalk.
My wife commented that when she went to Paris last year, the city was spotless. I look forward to the day when Sofia can be the same way, but it takes the people *wanting* to better themselves before you can get to that point. There is still a very big problem here in that most people just don't care. They don't care about the environment, they don't care about their city, their living conditions, or the effects their laziness are having on the environment. In America it was the extreme wastefulness that galled me; here, it is the extreme laziness and lack of character that most people seem to have.
Still, it's getting better. I've noticed that in the last few months the glass container is always close to full when I go to throw out my wine bottles or beer bottles. That means people are actively using it. I'm actually starting to see people come out of their house with three separate bags rather than one, and putting them into the proper containers. There are people out there who care, and that number is growing, thankfully. Evy called it the domino effect, and I have to agree. When one person sees someone doing something, they go "ok, sure", and they follow suite. Then, another person. And another. And hopefully, eventually, everyone will be actively recycling. Now all we need to do is get people to stop littering and actually give a shit about what their city looks like, and the effect their littering has on the environment.
In any case, enjoy the article! I'll keep writing :)
To put it into perspective, I was not a "green" thinker until about 2 years ago. It took Evy really pushing me to get me to believe in it. I didn't actively look into things like global warming, the melting of the polar ice caps, the deforestation issues, and the wastefulness of humanity. I was very much your typical American, only focused on consumerism and consumption, never worried about the potential side effects of my wasteful lifestyle.
Now, I get the urge to growl at people when I see them just dumping their trash without bothering to sort it out and recycle it. Especially in Bulgaria, where the city provides recycling containers along the street every 100 meters or so, it's impossible to *not* recycle unless you are a complete and utter douche-bag. Nothing gets my goat up more than some imbecile who dumps his beer bottle into the paper bin, for example, or someone who will bring their all-in-one trashbag and dump it into one of the cardboard or plastic bins.
A really big problem in Bulgaria is littering. A *really* big problem. You cannot walk down the sidewalk without seeing someone flick a cigarette butt, drop a coffee stir-stick, a candy wrapper, burger wrapper, or some other piece of offensive materiel onto the sidewalk. It's almost as if these certain individuals just don't care about their own living environment. It's also incredibly lazy because there are literally trash receptacles every 15-20 feet, with the recycling ones spread out a little further. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of people I've seen who are literally one step away from a trash can but rather than put their cigarette butt/trash into it, they simply let it fall to the sidewalk.
My wife commented that when she went to Paris last year, the city was spotless. I look forward to the day when Sofia can be the same way, but it takes the people *wanting* to better themselves before you can get to that point. There is still a very big problem here in that most people just don't care. They don't care about the environment, they don't care about their city, their living conditions, or the effects their laziness are having on the environment. In America it was the extreme wastefulness that galled me; here, it is the extreme laziness and lack of character that most people seem to have.
Still, it's getting better. I've noticed that in the last few months the glass container is always close to full when I go to throw out my wine bottles or beer bottles. That means people are actively using it. I'm actually starting to see people come out of their house with three separate bags rather than one, and putting them into the proper containers. There are people out there who care, and that number is growing, thankfully. Evy called it the domino effect, and I have to agree. When one person sees someone doing something, they go "ok, sure", and they follow suite. Then, another person. And another. And hopefully, eventually, everyone will be actively recycling. Now all we need to do is get people to stop littering and actually give a shit about what their city looks like, and the effect their littering has on the environment.
In any case, enjoy the article! I'll keep writing :)
Monday, June 22, 2009
*pant*
5 more articles to go and I'm done for the month.
Ever notice when you are getting to the end of a project, you can literally feel the load sliding off of your shoulders? Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but that still doesn't change the fact that work is work, and sometimes there are projects that, when they are done, you literally heave a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back.
It's been a good run. I've had steady work since December. I haven't had to browse a single job board. I've got a steady source of income from my two UK content providers, my on-going work for Green Diva Mom, and my fiction subs. So far 2009 is exceeding my expectations according to the business plan I drafted back in January of 2008 when we first arrived here and I started down a new career path. I'm ahead of schedule on everything except for my novel, which is fine.
A lot of other irons in the fire. If you pay attention to Evy's blog, you'll notice she's been getting a lot of interest in her china-wear and other hand-made projects. We are hoping to have her Etsy shop up by the end of July. That means we are going to be making a few more china sets, some random trinkets, some boxes, wall plates, and a lot of other stuff. I'm just about done rough-drafting my cook-book, and I'm going to start working on doing the design and layout. I have the recipes, and I have about 70% of the photos I need. The rest is designing the layout and getting it all put together. That will likely take me a couple of months, but I'm hoping to have a polished cook-book ready for the printer by late September.
All the rest is stuff I talk about all the time on my blog :) Short stories to write, chapters to work on, and ongoing work. I'm bumping up to full-time for July and August, as my request for additional work was OK'd. They are supposed to be shipping me some open-ended projects, which will be nice.
Next Green Diva Mom article should be out in a few days. This one focuses on what it means to go paperless and how to incorporate the concept into your daily life. Will get a link up to it when it's live. I've also got a draft that I'm working on dicsussing the concept of carbon foot-print, with a little more detail than your average green-freak.
I made a great spaghetti sauce over the weekend, completely from scratch. I normally just buy a stock tomatoe paste and add my own spices, but this time I didn't even buy the paste, I just bought a couple kilos of tomatoes and I blanched and prepared them myself. Ended up with about 2 litres of tomatoe juice on the side, plus a huge pot of spaghettie sauce that we proceeded to devour over the weekend :) I love cooking from scratch. Yes, it takes longer, but it's sooo much healthier in that there are no preservatives and it's all natural. Sure, I got up at 6:30 to get it started, and the sauce wasn't done until 3 p.m., but damn...it was worth it!
Ever notice when you are getting to the end of a project, you can literally feel the load sliding off of your shoulders? Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but that still doesn't change the fact that work is work, and sometimes there are projects that, when they are done, you literally heave a sigh of relief and pat yourself on the back.
It's been a good run. I've had steady work since December. I haven't had to browse a single job board. I've got a steady source of income from my two UK content providers, my on-going work for Green Diva Mom, and my fiction subs. So far 2009 is exceeding my expectations according to the business plan I drafted back in January of 2008 when we first arrived here and I started down a new career path. I'm ahead of schedule on everything except for my novel, which is fine.
A lot of other irons in the fire. If you pay attention to Evy's blog, you'll notice she's been getting a lot of interest in her china-wear and other hand-made projects. We are hoping to have her Etsy shop up by the end of July. That means we are going to be making a few more china sets, some random trinkets, some boxes, wall plates, and a lot of other stuff. I'm just about done rough-drafting my cook-book, and I'm going to start working on doing the design and layout. I have the recipes, and I have about 70% of the photos I need. The rest is designing the layout and getting it all put together. That will likely take me a couple of months, but I'm hoping to have a polished cook-book ready for the printer by late September.
All the rest is stuff I talk about all the time on my blog :) Short stories to write, chapters to work on, and ongoing work. I'm bumping up to full-time for July and August, as my request for additional work was OK'd. They are supposed to be shipping me some open-ended projects, which will be nice.
Next Green Diva Mom article should be out in a few days. This one focuses on what it means to go paperless and how to incorporate the concept into your daily life. Will get a link up to it when it's live. I've also got a draft that I'm working on dicsussing the concept of carbon foot-print, with a little more detail than your average green-freak.
I made a great spaghetti sauce over the weekend, completely from scratch. I normally just buy a stock tomatoe paste and add my own spices, but this time I didn't even buy the paste, I just bought a couple kilos of tomatoes and I blanched and prepared them myself. Ended up with about 2 litres of tomatoe juice on the side, plus a huge pot of spaghettie sauce that we proceeded to devour over the weekend :) I love cooking from scratch. Yes, it takes longer, but it's sooo much healthier in that there are no preservatives and it's all natural. Sure, I got up at 6:30 to get it started, and the sauce wasn't done until 3 p.m., but damn...it was worth it!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
The little things, Part IV
Last night Evy and I stayed up far past our bedtime, simply talking. Both of us were extremely tired, but we were discussing how lucky we are to be in the situation that we are in, and how happy we are with how things are going for us. A lot of people thought we were crazy for wanting to move to what they considered a "third world country", but people who have that opinion about Bulgaria really don't know what they are talking about.
Sure, the countryside can be a bit backwards, but so can the countryside in France, in Greece, or Italy. Hell, even the backwoods of Alabama can be Deliverance-style scary if you get right down to it. Every country out there, no matter how technologically and economically advanced, has its backwoods areas. Places were technology is scarce, and where the people are viewed as "dimwits" or "hillbillies" because they lack the sophistication of the city-bred folk.
We live in the city. Cities are the same, world-wide, for the most part. We have all the amenities we had back in Greeley, Colorado, but our cost of living is 400-500 USD a month rather than 4500 USD a month. To us it was a no-brainer. 4 thousand dollars a month difference in living expenses, for the same amenities?
That's neither here nor there, I suppose, as I've talked about it a lot in other blog posts. Last night in particular we were talking about the little things that make us happy. Her work is going good. She might be upset with me for discussing it here, but I will anyway :) Evy is a very passive individual. Very passive. She made a mental choice last month to stop being so passive when it came to work, and the results are already paying off. And she was talking last night about how refreshing it is to be in charge of her work, rather than just keeping her head down and doing what everyone else tells her to do.
I have always found taking initiative to be invigorating. I am a firm believer in taking charge of your own destiny. The only person standing in the way of your success is...you. The sky's the limit. The world is your oyster.[insert cheesy upbeat phrase here] And while I may not have always used the best means in order to motivate her (she has sometimes gotten quite irritated at me for what she says is "riding her butt" about being more aggressive), even she admitted last night that she is seeing a big difference in the quality of her life after she made the conscious choice to start taking life by the horns instead of only taking what was dished out to her.
Co-workers are complimenting her on a daily basis now. Evy walked in and took what was a chaotic mess of an accounting system and single-handedly fixed the other guy's mistakes within a week's worth of time. The girls she works with have taken notice, and are extremely happy. They are coming to her now, instead of the other guy. She has been introducing herself to new clients who walk through the door, earning their trust and doing their procedures for them, transitioning from simply the desk girl who does an occasional procedure to "one of the girls", who also happens to take care of all the accounting as well.
The hard part has been she is part-time when school is in session, but she has a good 4 month run right now to really establish herself more than she did last year, and I think she's finally looking forward to it. Where her job was just kind of "meh" last year, now it has turned into an exciting time for her, and that's a "little thing" that should be taken note of.
We were also talking about the little things we still have left in my sister's garage. Last year shipping was outrageous, and the boxes were going to cost 500+ USD per to ship, and it's just stuff like DVDs, books, random coffee table accessories and sentimental objects. But prices are down to 200 USD per box at the moment, and looking to get even cheaper, so I put in a request for full-time work to my clients for July and August, to make an extra few thousand. The goal? Well, we still have a 2 thousand dollar credit card to pay off. Then we have 5 boxes to ship, so there's 3k we need. Above and beyond that we were talking last night about taking a nice little 4 day romantic trip to Rome sometime in late September, or perhaps going down to the Lecce region of Puglia to take part in the wine festivals that Cinzia talked about over on her and her sister's website. Late fall, when the weather has cooled off some. We both loved Rome, but hated going in July. It was 42 degrees at 9 a.m. and by 3 p.m. it was 46 degrees, which is just mind-bogglingly hot.
So there's a few things we'd like to get accomplished this year, and there's a motivation for us to do so. As a result, she's going to push extra hard at her work, and I'm going to put my novel work on the back-burner for a couple of months and focus instead on transitioning into full-time freelancing for a couple of months, rather than just 3-4 hours a day.
We also have been talking about a car. We don't need one. Not in the least. The tram is right out our front door. The subway is a 5 min tram ride or a 10 min walk. We live on the main strip through downtown Sofia, so transportation is not an issue. However, there is also the downside that, for example, if we want to take a weekend trip to the seaside, we have to take a bus. And neither one of us likes taking a bus. It sucks. So we have been debating buying a little Audi A3 or a Volkswagen Golf or Polo. Something that's like a 2002 or so, for around 3-4k Euro. A little something that won't matter if it gets a little dinged up (impossible to avoid living in a city like Sofia; the people drive like idiots here, there's nowhere to park, people slam their car doors into your vehicle because you have to park so close, etc), that we only drive once a month or so for those special occasions when it would be convenient to have a vehicle. The only thing that we know for certain is that we won't be worrying about one until we can afford to buy it in full. We are so close to being debt-free that the last thing either one of us wants to do is turn around and strap ourselves with another debt.
So...lots of little things this month. Some to be happy for, others to look forward to. June has been a good month so far :)
Sure, the countryside can be a bit backwards, but so can the countryside in France, in Greece, or Italy. Hell, even the backwoods of Alabama can be Deliverance-style scary if you get right down to it. Every country out there, no matter how technologically and economically advanced, has its backwoods areas. Places were technology is scarce, and where the people are viewed as "dimwits" or "hillbillies" because they lack the sophistication of the city-bred folk.
We live in the city. Cities are the same, world-wide, for the most part. We have all the amenities we had back in Greeley, Colorado, but our cost of living is 400-500 USD a month rather than 4500 USD a month. To us it was a no-brainer. 4 thousand dollars a month difference in living expenses, for the same amenities?
That's neither here nor there, I suppose, as I've talked about it a lot in other blog posts. Last night in particular we were talking about the little things that make us happy. Her work is going good. She might be upset with me for discussing it here, but I will anyway :) Evy is a very passive individual. Very passive. She made a mental choice last month to stop being so passive when it came to work, and the results are already paying off. And she was talking last night about how refreshing it is to be in charge of her work, rather than just keeping her head down and doing what everyone else tells her to do.
I have always found taking initiative to be invigorating. I am a firm believer in taking charge of your own destiny. The only person standing in the way of your success is...you. The sky's the limit. The world is your oyster.
Co-workers are complimenting her on a daily basis now. Evy walked in and took what was a chaotic mess of an accounting system and single-handedly fixed the other guy's mistakes within a week's worth of time. The girls she works with have taken notice, and are extremely happy. They are coming to her now, instead of the other guy. She has been introducing herself to new clients who walk through the door, earning their trust and doing their procedures for them, transitioning from simply the desk girl who does an occasional procedure to "one of the girls", who also happens to take care of all the accounting as well.
The hard part has been she is part-time when school is in session, but she has a good 4 month run right now to really establish herself more than she did last year, and I think she's finally looking forward to it. Where her job was just kind of "meh" last year, now it has turned into an exciting time for her, and that's a "little thing" that should be taken note of.
We were also talking about the little things we still have left in my sister's garage. Last year shipping was outrageous, and the boxes were going to cost 500+ USD per to ship, and it's just stuff like DVDs, books, random coffee table accessories and sentimental objects. But prices are down to 200 USD per box at the moment, and looking to get even cheaper, so I put in a request for full-time work to my clients for July and August, to make an extra few thousand. The goal? Well, we still have a 2 thousand dollar credit card to pay off. Then we have 5 boxes to ship, so there's 3k we need. Above and beyond that we were talking last night about taking a nice little 4 day romantic trip to Rome sometime in late September, or perhaps going down to the Lecce region of Puglia to take part in the wine festivals that Cinzia talked about over on her and her sister's website. Late fall, when the weather has cooled off some. We both loved Rome, but hated going in July. It was 42 degrees at 9 a.m. and by 3 p.m. it was 46 degrees, which is just mind-bogglingly hot.
So there's a few things we'd like to get accomplished this year, and there's a motivation for us to do so. As a result, she's going to push extra hard at her work, and I'm going to put my novel work on the back-burner for a couple of months and focus instead on transitioning into full-time freelancing for a couple of months, rather than just 3-4 hours a day.
We also have been talking about a car. We don't need one. Not in the least. The tram is right out our front door. The subway is a 5 min tram ride or a 10 min walk. We live on the main strip through downtown Sofia, so transportation is not an issue. However, there is also the downside that, for example, if we want to take a weekend trip to the seaside, we have to take a bus. And neither one of us likes taking a bus. It sucks. So we have been debating buying a little Audi A3 or a Volkswagen Golf or Polo. Something that's like a 2002 or so, for around 3-4k Euro. A little something that won't matter if it gets a little dinged up (impossible to avoid living in a city like Sofia; the people drive like idiots here, there's nowhere to park, people slam their car doors into your vehicle because you have to park so close, etc), that we only drive once a month or so for those special occasions when it would be convenient to have a vehicle. The only thing that we know for certain is that we won't be worrying about one until we can afford to buy it in full. We are so close to being debt-free that the last thing either one of us wants to do is turn around and strap ourselves with another debt.
So...lots of little things this month. Some to be happy for, others to look forward to. June has been a good month so far :)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Possesions: Do you possess them, or do they possess you?
Life. It's meant to be enjoyed.
I find inspiration in the posts that Cinzia and her sister make over at Stile Mediterraneo. However, I had long been aspiring towards the "Mediterranean" style of life even before I was aware of their site. Only to me, growing up as an American, it was known less as the "Mediterranean" lifestyle and more of simply an idyllic way of life that I had no title for, but simply aspired towards.
There is has been raging debate going on over at the Freelance Writing Gigs website for the past week or so that is directly related to working smarter, not harder, and how to determine what your rates should be as a freelance writer. I think the debate is rather silly, because the driving factor behind the vast majority of writers is not their self worth, but the illusion of self worth directly related to their addiction to consumption and letting their possessions control their lifestyles.
"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." - Mildred Lisette Norman
This is the crux of the issue. There are a great many people who have devolved to the point that they no longer enjoy life simply because it is worth living; rather, they enjoy life only so long as they are able to have all of the gadgets, expensive cars, SUVs, wide-screen TVs, dinner's out, and so on and so forth. And it is this addiction to possessions, this addiction to consumption, that drives the debate as to what is an acceptable rate.
But how does rate of pay have anything to do with working smarter, not harder, or your standard of living?
Simply this: if you eliminate the addiction to consumption, the addiction to un-necessary possessions, and the addiction to all of the useless "things" which make up your life, you eliminate a vast majority of the things which were forcing you to work so hard in the first place.
Now, I'm not saying you can't have the finer things in life, or enjoy modern amenities. What I am getting at is too many people associate "success" (rate of pay/amount you make per year) with working "smart". They couldn't be further from the truth.
Working smart is done by eliminating those things which force you into a situation where you no longer are able to enjoy life, but are simply a slave to the wage. Everyone has to make a living, yes, but what is the cost?
The recent post Cinzia made regarding the siesta really brought it home for me. I may not live in the Mediterranean region (a few hours away, sadly), but my wife and I were having this very discussion last night because we feel that we very much subscribe to the Mediterranean way of life. We talked about how it's not important to us to make millions of dollars. We would rather spend time with friends, family, and enjoy life and the experience rather than being slaves to the clock, to the hourly wage, to the 40 hour a week work week with only 1 paid week's vacation every year. We were talking about how her mother is one of those individuals who is addicted to "worth". All she ever talks about is work. Period. There is no simple enjoyment of life. She never just goes to the park and enjoys the simple beauty of the flowers, the smell of the blooms, the comfort of the shade on a hot summer's day. Her world is a world of numbers, of business contracts, of whether or not the company is making a profit. (which it is; they recently opened their 16th store and the company is worth over 16 million Euro at present) And the writers I see over at the Freelance Writing Gig website are the same. They are consumed with an addiction to possess, to such a degree that they are unable to enjoy life unless they are working for X dollars per hour/article/whatever, just in order to make ends meet.
In recent months my wife and I have had people suggest that we are lazy. Her mother, for one, and several other writers I deal with at various community sites. I have seen people criticize the Mediterranean lifestyle because "those types of people never accomplish anything with their lives".
It is those kinds of statements which show me that the person behind the statement is addicted to consumption. Their possessions are possessing them. Their sole existence is based purely upon a need to have the next new shiny, to make X dollars per hour, to make more than their peers, to always make another dollar or another hundred dollars, just so they can say "look at me!"
How is simple enjoyment of life lazy? How can it be, when people like myself and others still enjoy all the modern amenities that the 21st century have to offer, but simply chose to work half the hours and spend the rest of our time enjoying friends, family, atmosphere, travel, LIFE?
Why is it lazy to have a siesta in the afternoon? Why is it lazy to go home, have a long, relaxing lunch with your friends and family? Why is it lazy to walk instead of drive a 60 thousand dollar SUV? Why is it lazy to aspire towards working only 4-5 hours a day rather than 8-10?
I would argue that it is not lazy, it is simply being smart, and working smarter, not harder. The Mediterranean lifestyle is about enjoying life. Taking pleasure in the simple things like friends, family, food, relaxation.
There was a recent post made by a writer (whose name I won't mention here) over at the aforementioned site where she said that "I'm sorry, but working for less than 30k a year just doesn't cut it for me. If I can't make at least 65k a year, then I'm doing something wrong, and there is no way in hell I would ever work for so little because I am worth far more than 30k a year".
The statement attached a self-worth to her identity. But where did she derive at the 65k mark? How did she determine that is what she was "worth" per year? The determining factor is her possessions. She cannot survive for less than 65k USD a year because she has placed herself in a position where the only way she can get by, year after year, is if she makes 65k. If she makes any less than that she can't afford the house she lives in, the car she drives, the Blackberry and the iPhone and the iPod and the 50 inch flat-screen plasma TV and the Starbuck's lattes (she admits that she does her work every day at Starbucks) and all of the trinkets and gadgets which make up her daily existence, and without which she would be unable to function.
Note that I don't say unable to live. I say unable to function. She is a person whose possessions have come to possess her, to the point that her self worth is directly related to the value of the possessions which she has surrounded herself with.
Now, understandably, some people's professions revolve around possessions. Some people can't work without a computer. I'm one of those people who can't work without the Internet, so in a way, I am driven by my need for a computer, and an Internet connection. But the difference is that I don't have to do my work at Starbucks. I can do it from home. I don't need a Blackberry and an iPhone to do my job; I get by on a home computer and a cheap little 100 dollar cell phone. I don't need to work a 40 hour a week job because Evy and I chose to move to an environment where we could pay for all of our expenses and costs of living by only working a few hours a day, thus leaving the rest of the day completely open to enjoy the little things in life, like siestas, fine wines, walks in the park, and daily walks around the city.
At the end of the day, take a good, long look at your life. Do you enjoy life to its fullest, or are you a slave to your possessions? Do you enjoy siestas every afternoon, or are you a slave to the 40 hours a week mentality that requires you to be in the office from 9 to 5 every day, with a 30 minute lunch break and a week's paid vacation once a year?
At the end of the day the only person standing between you and success is you. You choose to make your life what it is. If you choose to live in conditions that require you to make 80k a year to make ends meet, then that is your choice, and you have no one to blame but yourself if you are unable to make 80k a year to make ends meet. Your peers have nothing to do with your rates, or your worth. Only you can determine what your "worth" is, and how hard or how smart you decide to work.
Me, I prefer working smarter, not harder. I prefer to enjoy vacations year-round, not just once a year. I prefer taking siestas in the afternoon after a healthy meal with my wife, enjoying a nice bottle of wine before settling into a cozy little nap. I enjoy my possessions, but they do not control me.
I do not suggest that you have to give up the things which define you, or that you have to move overseas to find simplicity in your life. Simply be aware that if you let your possessions define who and what you are that you are no longer in control of your life, but rather are obeying the whims of your obsessions.
Do your possessions control you, or are you in control of your destiny?
I find inspiration in the posts that Cinzia and her sister make over at Stile Mediterraneo. However, I had long been aspiring towards the "Mediterranean" style of life even before I was aware of their site. Only to me, growing up as an American, it was known less as the "Mediterranean" lifestyle and more of simply an idyllic way of life that I had no title for, but simply aspired towards.
There is has been raging debate going on over at the Freelance Writing Gigs website for the past week or so that is directly related to working smarter, not harder, and how to determine what your rates should be as a freelance writer. I think the debate is rather silly, because the driving factor behind the vast majority of writers is not their self worth, but the illusion of self worth directly related to their addiction to consumption and letting their possessions control their lifestyles.
"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." - Mildred Lisette Norman
This is the crux of the issue. There are a great many people who have devolved to the point that they no longer enjoy life simply because it is worth living; rather, they enjoy life only so long as they are able to have all of the gadgets, expensive cars, SUVs, wide-screen TVs, dinner's out, and so on and so forth. And it is this addiction to possessions, this addiction to consumption, that drives the debate as to what is an acceptable rate.
But how does rate of pay have anything to do with working smarter, not harder, or your standard of living?
Simply this: if you eliminate the addiction to consumption, the addiction to un-necessary possessions, and the addiction to all of the useless "things" which make up your life, you eliminate a vast majority of the things which were forcing you to work so hard in the first place.
Now, I'm not saying you can't have the finer things in life, or enjoy modern amenities. What I am getting at is too many people associate "success" (rate of pay/amount you make per year) with working "smart". They couldn't be further from the truth.
Working smart is done by eliminating those things which force you into a situation where you no longer are able to enjoy life, but are simply a slave to the wage. Everyone has to make a living, yes, but what is the cost?
The recent post Cinzia made regarding the siesta really brought it home for me. I may not live in the Mediterranean region (a few hours away, sadly), but my wife and I were having this very discussion last night because we feel that we very much subscribe to the Mediterranean way of life. We talked about how it's not important to us to make millions of dollars. We would rather spend time with friends, family, and enjoy life and the experience rather than being slaves to the clock, to the hourly wage, to the 40 hour a week work week with only 1 paid week's vacation every year. We were talking about how her mother is one of those individuals who is addicted to "worth". All she ever talks about is work. Period. There is no simple enjoyment of life. She never just goes to the park and enjoys the simple beauty of the flowers, the smell of the blooms, the comfort of the shade on a hot summer's day. Her world is a world of numbers, of business contracts, of whether or not the company is making a profit. (which it is; they recently opened their 16th store and the company is worth over 16 million Euro at present) And the writers I see over at the Freelance Writing Gig website are the same. They are consumed with an addiction to possess, to such a degree that they are unable to enjoy life unless they are working for X dollars per hour/article/whatever, just in order to make ends meet.
In recent months my wife and I have had people suggest that we are lazy. Her mother, for one, and several other writers I deal with at various community sites. I have seen people criticize the Mediterranean lifestyle because "those types of people never accomplish anything with their lives".
It is those kinds of statements which show me that the person behind the statement is addicted to consumption. Their possessions are possessing them. Their sole existence is based purely upon a need to have the next new shiny, to make X dollars per hour, to make more than their peers, to always make another dollar or another hundred dollars, just so they can say "look at me!"
How is simple enjoyment of life lazy? How can it be, when people like myself and others still enjoy all the modern amenities that the 21st century have to offer, but simply chose to work half the hours and spend the rest of our time enjoying friends, family, atmosphere, travel, LIFE?
Why is it lazy to have a siesta in the afternoon? Why is it lazy to go home, have a long, relaxing lunch with your friends and family? Why is it lazy to walk instead of drive a 60 thousand dollar SUV? Why is it lazy to aspire towards working only 4-5 hours a day rather than 8-10?
I would argue that it is not lazy, it is simply being smart, and working smarter, not harder. The Mediterranean lifestyle is about enjoying life. Taking pleasure in the simple things like friends, family, food, relaxation.
There was a recent post made by a writer (whose name I won't mention here) over at the aforementioned site where she said that "I'm sorry, but working for less than 30k a year just doesn't cut it for me. If I can't make at least 65k a year, then I'm doing something wrong, and there is no way in hell I would ever work for so little because I am worth far more than 30k a year".
The statement attached a self-worth to her identity. But where did she derive at the 65k mark? How did she determine that is what she was "worth" per year? The determining factor is her possessions. She cannot survive for less than 65k USD a year because she has placed herself in a position where the only way she can get by, year after year, is if she makes 65k. If she makes any less than that she can't afford the house she lives in, the car she drives, the Blackberry and the iPhone and the iPod and the 50 inch flat-screen plasma TV and the Starbuck's lattes (she admits that she does her work every day at Starbucks) and all of the trinkets and gadgets which make up her daily existence, and without which she would be unable to function.
Note that I don't say unable to live. I say unable to function. She is a person whose possessions have come to possess her, to the point that her self worth is directly related to the value of the possessions which she has surrounded herself with.
Now, understandably, some people's professions revolve around possessions. Some people can't work without a computer. I'm one of those people who can't work without the Internet, so in a way, I am driven by my need for a computer, and an Internet connection. But the difference is that I don't have to do my work at Starbucks. I can do it from home. I don't need a Blackberry and an iPhone to do my job; I get by on a home computer and a cheap little 100 dollar cell phone. I don't need to work a 40 hour a week job because Evy and I chose to move to an environment where we could pay for all of our expenses and costs of living by only working a few hours a day, thus leaving the rest of the day completely open to enjoy the little things in life, like siestas, fine wines, walks in the park, and daily walks around the city.
At the end of the day, take a good, long look at your life. Do you enjoy life to its fullest, or are you a slave to your possessions? Do you enjoy siestas every afternoon, or are you a slave to the 40 hours a week mentality that requires you to be in the office from 9 to 5 every day, with a 30 minute lunch break and a week's paid vacation once a year?
At the end of the day the only person standing between you and success is you. You choose to make your life what it is. If you choose to live in conditions that require you to make 80k a year to make ends meet, then that is your choice, and you have no one to blame but yourself if you are unable to make 80k a year to make ends meet. Your peers have nothing to do with your rates, or your worth. Only you can determine what your "worth" is, and how hard or how smart you decide to work.
Me, I prefer working smarter, not harder. I prefer to enjoy vacations year-round, not just once a year. I prefer taking siestas in the afternoon after a healthy meal with my wife, enjoying a nice bottle of wine before settling into a cozy little nap. I enjoy my possessions, but they do not control me.
I do not suggest that you have to give up the things which define you, or that you have to move overseas to find simplicity in your life. Simply be aware that if you let your possessions define who and what you are that you are no longer in control of your life, but rather are obeying the whims of your obsessions.
Do your possessions control you, or are you in control of your destiny?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
