Operation Achieve Anything: Day One-Hundred-Sixty-Seven, Dateline 6-16-2018

All things are difficult before they are easy.
— Thomas Fuller

Good morning crickets. Welcome to day number one-hundred-sixty-seven of Operation Achieve Anything. It’s Saturday, I’m starting to feel run down, so I’m going to make this one quick in order to rush back to bed to lay around for another day in hopes that this bout of weekend rest will finally work out the back pain that’s been contributing to my low mood. Thankfully, I don’t feel that I’m slipping into another bout of depression, I just feel like I need a bit of a recharge as I continue to find the right life balance since my schedule’s been shifted thanks to my new gig.

Also, as I keep pointing out, this gig pays only once a month and being that I just started, I’ve put in nearly two months' worth of effort and am just now about to receive my first paycheck which only adds to why I feel so on edge. Though I know payday is right around the corner, with the confirmed knowledge that the check is actually in the mail, the short wait for it to get here is almost more anxiety-inducing than when I had weeks to wait.

Right now, I am so excited about the things I will be able to accomplish with this new steady stream of a reliable income that I just can’t wait to move on with the next phase of my life. This new phase probably won’t lead to a noticeable change to an outsider because it’s not like I’ll be earning enough to venture back out on my own, or even live more than a paycheck to paycheck existence but the steady work has already eased my nerves from not having to constantly hunt for freelance work and can only imagine the additional nerve settling that will come when I finally get to partake of the fruits of my labor.

More exciting than anything, I can’t wait to finally be able to afford the tools and services to upgrade this blog along with my writing in general up to the next level in my attempts to make my own content the sole source of my pay. Yeah, the idea of being self-sufficient is awesome but what excites me even more than the idea of money coming in is envisioning the improvements to this page that will come with the tools and services that the paychecks will allow me to afford.

Alright, enough rambling about my payday dreams, let’s get on to these assignments. For yesterday, I was supposed to explore the idea that it’s easier to get into something than it is to get out or it and how that can often leave us feeling stuck. The book’s example was someone who started a business before they were ready but with loans already approved and workspace already rented the example person was stuck in a situation where they had to either throw more money at the situation or figure out a plan to walk away.

My life is an example of this where I pretty much became pot committed to making it on my own terms as a writer from a very early age. I actively avoided any job that would cut into my off-hours life in any way while also avoiding any employer’s attempts to talk me into start thinking of a source of income into a career. I was so stubborn/confident that I’d eventually figure something out or die trying without a single thought of ever settling into a life where I wasn’t the one in charge.

Granted, I’ve struggled my ass off for years and am only slightly further along than I was at the start as far as an audience goes, but as far as how I feel about the quality of my content and commitment to my life goals, I’m pretty proud of where I am and am also sort of happy to be stuck in this situation where I will have to continue to dig my way up until I see sun or until it all comes crashing down because I’d rather travel an uncharted path than walk one that is clearly labeled and filled with tourist attraction.

This sort of plays into the lesson for today that focuses on the quote up above about how everything is difficult before it becomes easy considering how struggling was hard for me at first but now, even though I may avoid many things that I don’t want to do but when push comes to shove, I can get through any discomfort that comes my way. I think that it helps that I learned the quote, “It takes ten years to make an overnight success,” at a very early age and have always used it as a battle cry whenever I tasted failure.

Sure, it’s a little rough now that I’m older and have been writing long enough that I should have been an overnight success at least twice already so far, but I still live by the “stick to it” sentiment of the quote. Of course, I’ll delve into this more when I check in with tomorrow’s update. Until then, it’s now time for me to wrap this thing up as usual by saying, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.

Talk to you soon.

Sincerely,

The Wicker Breaker

P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.