I am starting my journey to become a full-time writer. There is a lot of anxiety about this decision. I’m not ready to quit my day job. I need the money. I need to contribute to my family’s household with my limited income so that The Hubs can focus on the bigger picture of caring for his mother who is unable to take care of herself.
I recently read a Medium post by August Birch, The Book Mechanic, on how he uses his day job as his motivation to create his writing career. He has admitted he hates his job. I relate to that feeling. The majority of my career has been about supporting others and their goals. The time has come for me to support my own goals.
I’m tired of the 9-5 life. I’m over to answering to others. I want more work/life balance.
The past few months I have been prepping for my career change. I’ve been reading blogs and Medium posts about becoming a writer. I’ve read craft books. This website is part of all that research I’ve been doing.
Then this week, I was hit with the cold from hell. It’s been over a week and I’m just coming to the end of it. During the worst part of it, I laid in bed and watched TV. I couldn’t focus on reading. Worse, I couldn’t sit up long enough to write anything down. No word counts for nearly a week and a half.
It was during this time I had a freak-out.
What if I get sick? My plan is to be my own boss. Do I work while sick? I don’t know about you, but my creativity tanks when I’m sick. When I am not feeling well I usually lay in bed, sip tea and watch cartoons.
I am lucky that The Hubs is the main breadwinner. My smaller income helps our family have a life outside of work and taking care of elderly parents.
Of course, once I moved past this freak-out, I did start to plan out how to handle situations like this.
The first thing I need to do is to create a financial plan. I need to have a plan for savings as well as providing for my family.
Being a writer, I tend to focus on the “what ifs”. What if I can’t make a living as a writer. What if I never get that following that other big writers on Medium and other platforms have? What if I fail?
I live in my own head way too much. I need to break the cycle. I need to move past the fear and just do it.
The “what ifs” will still be in my thoughts. I can’t let those issues stop me, or I’ll be sitting at this laptop next year still hating my day job and still longing to be a writer.