Friday 16 August 2013

The Runner's High "As Good As It Gets" Career List

Love this card I found at Details in Alliston. For more on the artist Susan Mrosek visit www.ponderingpool.com. (See? This is the shopper in me sharing great little finds and promoting local retailers and artists at the same time.)

Are you the kind of person who needs "everything taken care of" (pardon the dangling preposition) before you can follow your passion? I am. Which means that writing a daily blog probably won't happen for me until I'm around 80. Maybe.

I get the sneaking suspicion, after being a "grown up" (in the legal sense) for almost 32 years now, that "everything taken care of" can be a form of procrastination. For example, do I really need to put all my DVDs in alphabetical order and then organize the shoes in my closet before I sit down and write? No, of course not. 


Working out and running can also fall to the wayside in the same way. For example, here was my morning thought: "What a beautiful morning. It is still early. I have nothing pressing on my schedule right now. I should go for a nice, long run. But wait -- I haven't blogged for about a month. I should write something, and THEN go for a run." That's a professional procrastinator in top form.


But I decided to blog anyway, because I am happy to report that from Sunday to Wednesday I managed to "squeeze in" two decent runs, one 10K and the other 12K, which is saying a lot after all this summer's "rest days." Fall is around the corner, a time of year when many of us start thinking of change and fresh beginnings. In our house, we have two going to university this September, and one child left at home entering grade six. And being the third child and seven years younger than his closest sibling, he has grown up fairly independent in his thinking. Which means to say, he would be totally fine if mommy went back to work. 


Which leads me back to the "everything taken care of" thing and how it relates to my running. When I get lost in thought while out on a run, I can't help but think of all the great possibilities for this fall, for me. Me me me. What a concept. And while I have been extremely lucky that my husband has had a career that has enabled me to stay home and raise our kids, while just "dabbling" in some freelance work over the years (which I loved and love) we are at a stage right now at home where a few extra bucks on a steady basis every month would be helpful. University is awesome and not cheap. Running is cheap, but running one's own business (which my husband now does) is not. I feel ready to contribute. And while running, I feel SO ready it's like I'm on drugs. I get so excited about the prospects. Gotta love the runner's high.


This list is probably more for my personal benefit than for anyone else, but it is a little crazy, and therefore if it hits your funny bone, or perhaps even inspires you, then great. If not, then, oh well, on to the next blog. 



Ideas for How to Make Money 
Garnered During My Runner's High 

(Note: Some ideas are solid and sane, others are completely flaky. Somewhere in-between is the real me. And yes, when I do this kind of thing, I can't help but think of that Oscar-winning movie, As Good As It Gets, specifically the part when Jack Nicholson's character says to all the patients in his psychologist's waiting room, "What if this is as good as it gets?" Well then, at least I wrote the list and made a couple of you smile.)

1. Freelance write for publications that interest you. Seriously. Not just for one publication, which would be fine if you just had to look after yourself and live on the street in a cardboard box, but for several. You've been saying this to yourself since you began your "stay-at-home-mom" venture 20 years ago.


2. Freelance photograph. People. You love them. Offer to do candid portraits because you hate posed portraits. Sports photography maybe. God knows you've taken hundreds of pics at Girls on the Run events and you've enjoyed yourself immensely. Event photography at mud runs, etc. That would be a blast! (And maybe you could get a discount on your entry fee...) Oh and learn Adobe Photoshop.


3. Be a personal shopper. You love to shop. (How does one do this? Must research.)


4. On the photography note: How about candid portraits of moms with their new babies or young children? At home, just doing their thing. Stay an hour, tell them to just carry on like you aren't even there, and snap away. This could work for any "day in the life" stuff. My husband would tell me to hit up big companies that make lots of bucks. (A "day in the life" at Honda, for example?)


5. Travel around to little towns and hamlets in our area, "shop" them, photograph them, and write about them. Who pays for that though? Must research.


6. Help artists promote their work. Most of them suck at it. (NB: Spend some time volunteering for local arts council, like your flaky self keeps saying she will do some day. Might lead to a job...?)


7. Help husband write architectural design proposals for potential clients. (NB: Could lead to divorce. Plus he can't afford me.).


8. Learn more about nutrition and fitness and then help people somehow. (This is really loose but thought I'd just jot it down. I like the idea of helping people find happiness. No idea what kind of career that would be. Not looking to go back to university for four more years either.)


9. Work at Walmart while deciding what the hell I want to do. (Or maybe a Canadian store would be better. Tim Hortons. How much does a franchise cost? Oh Canada...)


10. Finish writing that children's novel you started several years ago, if only to make your artsy children proud of you, who, once in awhile, will ask you in all sincerity, "How's that story coming along?". (It's the cash flow thing though. No-one's paying me to do that. But come fall, less laundry means more creative writing time...)


11. Be a "test runner" for new running routes. Ha ha. Is there such a thing? I just made that up.


12. Knit stuff for people. Hahahahahaha. (Too newb at this one. But my friend Janis is awesome at it and has just started up her own little business. So if you want a sweet little baby cap, for example, I can connect you. In fact, I could promote quite a few artistic friends...)


13. Get paid to blog. (NB: Must blog more often and shamelessly promote oneself.)


14. Be a proofreader. (This is when a real proofreader will laugh and point out all of my mistakes in this blog.)

15. Do all of the above on a steady freelance basis. (Get to work on that business card....)


That's it for now. My half-flaked career list runneth over. I really should go out and run.