![]() ![]() All the while, bouncing from bank, to contractor, to architect, to realtor, to radon mitigation, to roofers, to hvac, to… you get the picture. In nailing everything down, in the months of May, June, and July, I found myself with a mortgage payment for our current house, a mortgage payment for the new property, and a lease for the apartment for the interim. The only option: move into an apartment during the renovation. To make matters even more complicated, we would plan an extensive renovation to the small house on the new property - a renovation that we, working from home, would not be able to live through. Then, we would move on to getting our current house up for sale. ![]() Our predicament would be to buy the new property, and lock that down. January is not a good time to put your house on the market. So we pulled every string we could to be able to make an offer on the property, but we would have to keep our current house in the mean-time. However, if we were going to buy this property, we would have to act quickly. Every thing we had hoped that our life could be someday seemed possible on this ten-acre piece of land near our town. In the third week of January, my wife and I found a “dream property” that we could only wish for. I wanted to stretch myself to the limit, in hopes of pushing that limit – getting out of the year more capable than I began it. I started the year, in January, with a goal to put my head down, and to take on and complete as much work as I possibly could. The paraphrased version of my year is this: Since the general tone of this blog is design-oriented, I’ll leave the specifics out. I could bore you with all of the details in another post. The hurdles I’ve jumped through for the past eight months have tested every aspect of my personality, and more specifically, how I manage to complete my work. This year, 2013, has been the most transitional year of my life. So, as firm as I may hold on to my ideals, I also realize how fleeting they are, and that my stance, however solid, is only temporary. Anything that I thought I knew would soon be replaced by a new perspective. I’ve also come to my own conclusions and basic philosophy, that I’ve also watched evolve over time. This positive outlook instantly manages stress better, and is more effective at calculating an otherwise chaotic and overwhelming to-do list.ĭays may look less like a row of fires to put out, and more like the privilege that we began these careers with – that, while others toil through jobs that they hate, we get to be creative for a living.Īfter doing consistent design work for over a decade, I’ve observed many phases of the career. ![]() Meeting with people you enjoy or doing things you love can put you in a positive frame of mind that’s more equipped with managing a heavy workload. The solution? Move happiness to first on your priority list. On paper, I’m experiencing the most successful time of my life – in reality, I can’t remember the last time I sat down with a friend for coffee. More success, for me, has led to a very reclusive lifestyle. This grind keeps me in my cave, churning out work, giving myself little to no interaction with the outside world. The quest for “better” is admirable, but also tortuous. The well of ideas threatens to dry up, and we put more and more pressure on ourselves to stay afloat. Being creative all day, every day, gets more and more taxing. It’s possible that continued success in a creative field has an adverse reaction to one’s happiness. After doing freelance design for over a decade, I have set goals and achieved them – only to set a higher goal for the following year, and thus put myself right back to the grind – glossing over any chance to pat myself on the back. It is also our assumption that that level of success will bring us a wealth of happiness.Īchievement of our goals only prompts us to set a new goal, instead of taking any time to enjoy reaching a milestone. We assume, early on, that if we work hard enough, we can achieve a certain level of success. The biggest problem that I have running my freelance operation is maintaining a balance with my social life, and happiness level in general. Take a listen here.Īlso, Heather Sakai at Go Media asked me to contribute to her article over at GoMediaZine on “ My Biggest Challenge Running A Design Business” Below was my response: They referenced my previous article, “ Lessons Of The Grind,” and good conversation followed. I sat down over Google Hangout with Joel Beukelman and Aaron Irizarry of The Blnce Podcast. Two media outlets caught up with me last week – both inquiring about similar topics. ![]()
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