Rat Race

Loosing a country

By Olive L. Sullivan

Maybe there is no such thing as balance.

I spent nine months bemoaning the lack of it while I was working my real corporate job, and now that I’m back running a freelance business out of my house, everything is out of balance in a different way.

I seem to have plenty of work to do; that’s not the problem. But the very things that I complained about at the real job seem to look pretty useful from this point of view. For example, back at the home office, I recall that one of my ongoing problems is lack of structure.

At the real job, I had lots of structure—which, you’ll recall, was one of my complaints. I’m able to get my assignments done, but only because I have a deadline. I get the invoices sent out, only because I need the income. But things like exercise, which was so much a part of my real-job routine, seem to get left out. When I had an hour and a half at noon everyday and nothing else to distract me, it was no problem to get in a couple of miles at the walking park or a quick weight routine at the Y. Here, I have all day to get in my miles, and so most days, it just never happens at all. My friend Becky and I are trying to walk together to encourage one another. Instead, I wake up thinking, “Oh, gee, I hope she doesn’t want to do it today.”

Sure enough, she calls and says her allergies are acting up and can we do it this evening? Of course, I say. And by evening I’m off with Spike, having forgotten all about the walk. So here I am, all the time in the world, and STILL no balance in my life. Some people are never satisfied. As Spike commented, “Geez, with you it’s just one thing after another, isn’t it?”

Well, yeah. That’s kind of the way life is. One thing after another. With luck, some of them are good things!

I decided I would never be a success in my own business if I didn’t hire an assistant. I’m not really at the point where I can afford one, but I’m not going to get to that point without help. I know many people manage to pull themselves up, but I think I would benefit dramatically from help. So I hired a young college graduate on a very part-time basis. We’re starting with 10 hours a month, and hopefully things will grow from there. He will take care of basic office management skills and help generate clients, story ideas, and research, while I concentrate on the parts of the business that only I can do: editing, writing, and coaching.

One of the first things he did was take my recycling pile off to the local center. Yesterday, we were sorting through the financial documents and other piles of paper that make up my office décor. I said, “Oh, this goes in the England box.”

“You have an England box?” he said.

Of course. Doesn’t everyone? Seriously, though, I’m working on a novel set in medieval England, and I had collected all sorts of research info in this box, everything from maps to notes to postcards that gave me ideas for setting. Not everything was in the box; I have a great many books scattered around as well. But a lot of stuff was there. It was probably the most organized thing in the entire house.

So, looking around the room for the box, I noticed the sparkling clean corner where the recycling had been overflowing its bin. “Oh, you took the recycling in,” I said bleakly.

“Yes,” he said proudly. “I did that Thursday.”

“I think you took England.”

There was glum silence. “I took England to recycling?”

“Yes,” I said sadly. “I think you did.”

Mike’s girlfriend, who was filing a set of notebooks, turned to look at him incredulously. “You lost an entire country?”

Sigh. The corporate office would never have gotten to this point. Someone would have known where England was. Someone would have emptied the recycling before it overflowed onto another continent. Someone might even have gotten the darn book completed and not needed the notes in the box. On the plus side, the office is beginning to look organized, and I was able to find the notes I needed for today’s deadlines. On the down side—well, you got that part. England is gone. I just don’t quite know what to do next.

Maybe it’s time for a walk.

My column "Back to the Rat Race" appears every two weeks in Joplin Tri-State Business. This edition was published on August 24, 2009. JTSB is now available online at www.joplintristate.biz.