Livin' the dream
As I wake up this morning realizing we have no groceries, our house needs cleaning, there are a ton of errands I didn’t get to last week, and emails I haven’t had the chance to answer yet, my husband yells through the house to me, “We are living the dream!” I think nobody ever grows up saying I want to ride horses, work for myself AND get enough time to rest and relax… somehow that last part is always left out.
It’s true I live a blessed life. Absolutely. I work for myself, which means I make my own schedule, I answer to basically nobody, and I call the shots! We have horses too, which, to be honest, we couldn’t afford if my husband’s family didn’t own a farm to house them. And we sure wouldn’t get to compete them if his business wasn’t based around them. So it really is awesome!
But what nobody tells you is that you will forever feel guilty for passing up work for fear of not paying the mortgage; even if the prospective customer wants to meet on your sacred day of rest, for that may be the last new customer for a while. You cram all your dentist appointments, grocery shopping and other life things into the one day each week you assign as your ‘day off’, but really it’s not a day off. It’s a day to catch up.
This is when someone pipes up with “Just do your grocery shopping after work like the rest of us,” and you’d be right: everyone is busy, everyone – even those with the normal ‘weekend’ have over-committed their life. If not to work obligations, then to volunteering, or kids commitments, or community events or any of the other things we all just can’t seem to say no to.
When do we get to free ourselves and say “no”! I can’t do that just because I need a nap – at least not without being condemned for it.
I heard someone say, “If only there were more hours in the day.” I say, “If only there was one more day in the week!” I would declare that my day off… but would I?
I love my life and wouldn’t trade it for anything, and maybe some people would say I’m spoiled, greedy or entitled to want a little more time to do nothing like watch the movie I bought 2 weeks ago. But that’s the honest truth of working for yourself – you’re never ‘off’, you’re always on call, and yet I’m still “Living the dream!”
