I finally got sick of it last Thursday. I was going along, working on a writing project when the spring cleaning bug bit. The stacks on my office floor that looked like this picture here (well, actually worse than this) were driving me nuts!
So I started to clean. I accomplished nothing else on Thursday either. I didn’t watch the second-to-last ER, I didn’t watch The Office, I didn’t make dinner, I didn’t go to the gym or get the mail, I just sorted papers and files.
Fast forward to this week: It’s done and still looks mighty fine, I will say. I found John Reese’s Traffic Secrets 2 in the piles (been looking for that for a month now) and I have boxes of fiction manuscripts. If I write full-time from now until I’m eighty, I have enough work to keep me busy. (The key is to find a publisher willing to PAY me for all that writing.) And I vacuumed and didn’t have to dodge any piles. Nothing on the floor anymore. Nice feeling.
There are days like that as a moonlighting entrepreneur. You won’t get any paying work done, but you’ll clean something or you’ll organize better or you’ll just relax a bit and get your brain ready to work again. A moonlighter has a tough road to walk. You know that the more work you get, the sooner you can launch out on your own and you know that the more work you get, the less free time you have (no more House reruns for awhile).
It’s tough, but worth it, right? I mean, isn’t it worth bringing in that extra money every month to help your family? Isn’t it a nice feeling knowing that you’re creating a better future for yourself and your family? Isn’t it nice to know that if you lost your job tomorrow, you’d at least have a shot at something else?
I have been a moonlighter for almost two years now. Each year, I get closer and closer to the time when I get to do one or the other (don’t forget that I came to moonlighting from full-time freelancing, so my story is probably a lot different from yours). To you, the idea of having a full-time job any longer than necessary just kills you, but to me, I’m not sure I’m ready to let go of the benefits and paycheck quite yet. It think it’s a very personal thing, too. For now, if you need to take some time to get a grip on where you are (I can find my way in and out of my office so much better now), it’s okay.
Some days go like that.
