Everything Must be Done, All the Time!

My daily "to-do list" is always long.

It is long because life of the self-employed is often such that your ability to eat tomorrow depends on what you get done today.

Self-employment is a wonderful thing, in the sense that it affords a sort of freedom you can never have, if you are working for someone else. But it also leaves you beholden to the reality that there's no regular paycheck coming... and — unless you happen to be in a business that is raking in loads of cash (rare!) — there's a "cost" associated with simply not working when you don't feel like it... in the form of late notices and empty bank accounts.

Not that such a thing doesn't hold true for lots of people who are actually employed by others.

Life is expensive, and in my world that means thet "Everything Must be Done, All the Time!"

I have spent most of my life trying to find ways to cut costs, but it is surprising how much is actuall outside of our control. That is, unless you're OK with just living in a cave somewhere...

Communications tower on our local beach

All things are relative.

I often talk to my friends who are "off grid" and they talk about articles they read online and getting their cars fixed, and a good deal on their latest smartphone, and all the usual stuff of life.

You're not THAT "off grid," are you?

All things are relative.

Honestly, my motivation in becoming self-employed never had anything to do with rejecting the system, and everything to do with the fact that I hated the idea of being obligated to someone else and having to commute in the city and being beholden to the clock, when I knew (and know) myself well enough to understand that my creativity and energy levels have nothing to do with clocks.

One of the things on my to-do list today was to write a blog post, here on Blurt.

I guess it is as much a mental health item, as anyone. I enjoy writing, and the social blogging scene... without too much of a sense of obligation. My old niche blogs *(late 90's and early 00's) always ended up feeling like obligations, because I had them monetized in various ways... and stopping for even a couple of days meant you had to work for a couple of weeks to get back to where I was when I left off.

Maybe it's just laziness.

Maybe it's the workings of the ADHD brain: I would much rather "dabble" in dozens of different things (concurrently) than dedicate myself to always be applying 100% effort to just one thing, all the time.

I accept that the "opportunity cost" may be that I'll often struggle financially. It's hard to make your mark by being OK at everything, but excellent at nothing.

But so it goes!

Thanks for stopping by, and have a great week!

How about YOU? Do you ever feel pressured to "get everything done?" Are you — or have you been — self-employed? Do you find it difficult to stay focused on just ONE thing, ever? DO leave me a comment — engagement matters! Communities are built because people INTERACT with each other through the content that's created! This is SOCIAL media, after all. So share your opinion, be part of the conversation! I do my best to answer all worthy comments!

Sequence: 086 — Timestamp: 2025.02.11 - 11:56 PST

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