Photo: Chanpipat
Tough, tough question.The great Stephen King once stated, "Life is not a support system for art. It's the other way around." With all due respect, I think you have to delete the "it's" and replace with "it should be" because I agree that Mr. King describes the ideal, but it's not always the reality.
I saw this quote pop up on the Goins newsletter I receive, a recent blog post I read, and heard the words rattle around in my head as I head a mini-breakdown this week when I realized that my book publishing future is probably going to better off if I take the self-publishing route (which honestly terrifies me, but that's for another post).
Right now, my life is definitely supporting my art instead of the other way around. I work most days 10-12 hours, feel guilty if I'm not working, and never take a whole day off (even though I keep promising myself that I will start taking Sundays off completely--no computer, very little phone, lots of movies). Obviously, this has been hard on the relationships in my life.
There are two main reasons for this imbalance:
1. We need to pay our bills.
When we quit our jobs last June, we stripped down our bills a lot. Renters in our house to cover the mortgage, us bouncing from my parents to friends houses, sold a car...but there is still X amount of dollars that have to go out each month. We are definitely a paycheck to paycheck family right now, and I don't want to be.
2. I want to work my ass off now so I can reduce the number of income streams I need (read: simplify).
I have 7 (sometimes more) companies that pay me any given month--3 clients, two steady local/regional publications, a couple (low-paying) travel writing gigs, and usually one or more "extra" articles in different magazines or newspapers. All this to just barely make what I formerly made as a high school English teacher most months. Now, I am 100% blessed to have these different jobs, and I love almost all of what I do, but it's a lot of balls to have up in the air. And if just one of those balls goes away, well...see #1.
So, yes, I know that I have to continue to strive for a better balance, be more available for loved ones, and still squeeze in some all-important "me time" to maintain my sanity and sunny disposition :) But for now, I'm going to have to keep plugging away until I break through to the next level--whatever that means. I feel like whatever "it" is, it's right around the corner, and something extraordinary will happen soon.
I have no choice but to believe that, right?
What about you? How are you balancing your art/life?
