Our Lives Continue To Be Busy

​I don’t normally think about it but I sure like talking about it. I’m talking about the answer I like to give when I get asked about what we are doing now. I had an opportunity to do that just the other day in the checkout lane at the local grocery store. I had gotten in line and shortly after I unloaded my shopping cart at the till a fellow I knew as a former customer of mine got in the lane behind me and unloaded his groceries. We shared pleasantries and some small talk.
 
Then he asked what I’ve been doing.
 
This was a local business owner who used to advertise in our newspaper when we had it and I used to have as a client when I worked at the local radio station. I proudly announced that I am a full-time ghostwriter and that my wife and I also vend her business out-of-town at the Oliver Indoor Flea Market. He seemed somewhat impressed and made a comment about how much more relaxed his life had become once he got out of business himself.
 
I explained that I’m probably busier now than I was when I had the paper.
 
Then he said something I often hear when I get into this kind of conversation. He said that it’s a lot different when you are busy doing things for yourself. I knew what he meant by that and I had to agree. There is a lot to be said about having control over your future and not being tied down to the schedule of something that you can’t control. Brenda and I ended up discussing this further in the days that followed. I know we are at that place, but it is nice to be reminded.
 
Although the ghostwriting and vending fills our days, it’s because we are letting it.
 
We are not being forced to meet certain timelines or commitments and that is easily the best thing we have identified about having home-based businesses. Where it becomes even more fun and relaxing is that our home-based businesses fell into place as we entered our third quarter transition. We were not pushed into making career changes, we changed with the closure of our business and discovered other opportunities that presented themselves to us.
 
Sometimes we really do have to remind ourselves of what we’ve done.
 
I think that is probably why I enjoyed the short conversation I had the other day in the grocery store. It gave me a reason to explain what we’ve been up to since we closed our business. It also gave me a reason to more or less celebrate our accomplishments. There is much more to celebrate than just getting through a third quarter transition. We made it on our terms and converted hobbies into new careers. And it actually worked.