They say if you want something done, give it to a busy person. I’ll attest to that. Our oldest child was 6 when baby No. 4 came along. Having four children in that short of a time span made for a busy life for a full-time mom but I was committed to being an active volunteer not only in our children’s school but in the community as well.
As life evolved and the kids got older, I began taking on various jobs that could be worked around my husband’s schedule so that for the most part, one of us could be in charge of the kiddos while the other one was working.
I did a brief stint working outside of the home part time when our youngest child entered second grade. Two years later when the business closed its doors, I made the decision to be in charge of my own destiny and work from home as a freelance writer/Jack-of-all-trades.
That led to a multi-faceted career which included writing for numerous magazines and newspapers, proofreading for various entities — including a local college, doing product testing for a major corporation, becoming a distributor for a network marketing company, writing product reviews online for big box retailer, copy editing books, acting in commercials and films, writing novels, and my latest foray — script supervisor for a major motion picture.
There’s been a lot of press lately about choosing one area in your life or career and giving it your complete, undivided focus if you truly want to succeed in that arena. My husband recently encouraged me to read the book, The One Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results.
The concept is fantastic and I agree with the premise. The problem for me is that I’m juggling a lot of balls right now but, to be honest, I don’t want to let go of anything at this point. So, what I’m striving to do is to give my undivided attention to the task at hand and to keep in mind each day what my top priorities are.
That’s not to say I won’t have several projects I’ll be working on during any given day, it’s just that I am determined to set aside chunks of time to work on the most pressing task, get a few minutes of downtime in between, and then move onto the next project.
The struggle lies in staying on task for 45 minutes or an hour on a project. Focusing has been an issue for me — I tend to get bored rather easily. At times it reminds me of The Family Circus cartoon when Billy is sent on an errand by his parents and he keeps getting distracted by the shiny objects. Yup, that’s pretty much me.
While I am succeeding in my ventures, chances are I could achieve more in any of these endeavors if it was my absolute focus. Who knows, maybe at some point I’ll push everything aside and devote several months to work on one project. But, for the time being, I’ll keep all these balls up in the air as long as I can. I’m enjoying my life, every day is different, I get to experience all sorts of interesting opportunities and if I’m willing to put the work and the hours in, good things will continue to come my way. Besides, I’ve got a pretty strong competitive nature — if anyone can defy the odds and see major success in more than one area of their life, it will be me. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know how things pan out!