I know, I’ve been away for a little while. I have returned from the mothership. Don’t look at the date stamps. DON’T LOOK AT THEM.
Get back here. Right here. Stay. Enjoy.
In this episode, I’ll pretend like I was just on a really long vacation, and get right back to work.
Unlike sticking to a regular writing schedule, when I made my full-time transition, I like to think that all of my carefully calculated preparations and due diligence made it silky smooooooth. Truthfully, the credit goes to my family, who urged, begged, pleaded, cajoled, and at times outright forbade me from rage quitting and setting fire to every last bridge on my way out.
Just like when I was wee little, and had to have the, “be on your best behavior” speech before being allowed into a store or restaurant (allegedly), every morning I would get the same, “be on your best behavior, don’t get fired, and no rage quitting,” before being allowed to step foot outside the house.
You see, the day job, my main squeeze for the previous 15 years of my life, had been the absolute joy and highlight of my entire life’s purpose, and a rescue mission in its own right from an unhealthy graphic design job prior to that. Like the inescapable repeating cycles of the history of Mankind, my dream-job, too, eventually descended into a spiraling toxic waste heap of toxicity that sucked the creativity and joy out of the very marrow of my bones. Remember how last time (I know, we’ve slept since then) I said the day job hadn’t reached maximum toxicity at that point yet?
We have arrived. I am holding back a bit and not quite describing how I *really* feel, because if I’ve learned anything from my journey to change my mindset for the better, it’s that continually re-telling certain stories serves no positive purpose for the here-and-now.
In fact, if you’re not careful, you’ll reactivate all of that negative energy you’ve worked so hard to yeet out of your life, and open the door for it to waltz its ugly self right back in. (See, this has been sitting in draft for so long, “yeet” was still a word that could be found in common vernacular.) Nobody wants that - negative energy or the word “yeet,” so… moving on!
The rest of the credit goes to the influence of my other consistently positive voiceover colleagues who stayed the course and led by example. Coincidentally, they’ve also provided the kick in the pants I needed to dust this old thing off and start writing again. Back then, as I watched more and more colleagues finding their success, one by one making the shift to full-time, I knew my turn was coming.
That’s the funny thing about the Universe. It’s easy to get frustrated when you see everyone else around you getting the very thing you want. So close and yet so far away.
Rather than give in to frustration and little pangs of jealousy - a very human thing to do, by the way - that’s the time to rejoice! It’s the Universe’s sneaky way of giving you a sneak peek of what’s to come.
Change can be a frightening thing, and fear of massive change can be a good thing. That fear keeps us from doing something really stupid, like rage quitting an infuriating but stable day job that pays the bills, provides health insurance and a decent retirement plan. But when the idea of change is more exciting than scary, and the thought of not having a safety net under the arse no longer causes heart palpitations, that’s when the time is right.
Ok ok, all that esoteric woo woo stuff is fine and dandy, and kind of like watching the Titanic (unpopular opinion, I hated that movie), we know how this story ended. I’m happily talking to myself in a tiny padded room every day.
What about a schedule? What about time management? After being under the government’s thumb for 15 years, and someone else’s business before that, and college professors before that…
You’d think I’d be a stickler about carefully managing my newfound abundance of time.
I’d finally have all that time I said I needed to market. To follow lengthy, daily to-do lists down to the last check box. And to finally have time to play those video games I’ve been wanting to play. Hey, it’s legit research for a voice actor.
I had a couple of things working against me.
First, I learned about something called Parkinson’s Law. It’s a thing, and it came to kick me in the teeth real quick.
Since I suddenly found myself with THE ENTIRE DAY to be able to get everything I could possibly want to get done, done, weirdly enough, it wasn’t actually getting done. Why was I finding myself playing catch-up all day?
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the period of time available for its completion. Sounds like an easy enough scapegoat.
Second, and a confession: Bless me, Universe, for I am a “wolf” chronotype on a planet that revolves around “bear” chronotypes. Hah, you thought that was gravity, or physics, or math or something. No, it’s all you damn morning people.
If you don’t know what those chronotype things are, The Power of When by Dr. Michael Breus makes for some intriguing reading.
Basically, I’m a night owl trying to function in a diurnal society. Ugh. It’s after midnight as I’m working on this.
But working on it, I am.
And as late as I am with this post, one thing I will never be late on, is a job or a session.
You might have to wait another year for the next post, or my first epic fantasy novel (WIP), but I’d rather be an hour early to a job than a minute late.
Let’s chat about that next time, and in the meantime, I’d love to hear some of your scheduling and time management tricks and tips. Please. Send help.
If you'd like to book me for your next voiceover project, head on over to voicesbystorm.com or contact me directly at: storm@voicesbystorm.com