Off the Grid - Week 12 10 Operating Principles

I have to use a calendar to count the weeks now, which probably means I've acclimated to my new life. The other day I checked with my doctor to see if I should take some mood stabilizers, but since my appetite is sadly unimpaired and I fall asleep easily (though wake too early, but that's middle age, isn't it?), haven't isolated myself (any more than usual), he really didn't think I qualified for any of the better drugs. What was I hoping for? A magic pill that would keep my energy levels high and my creativity on a constant buzz? Not gonna happen.

Here's what has to happen to survive this life or any other. The thing about a job, especially in a cube, is that it takes up your day, sucks your energy and belittles your soul. People with jobs get laid off. People with work do not. Or am I still in denial? I've come to know plenty of people who would argue that they loved what they did and are still minus a paycheck, the illusion of security and health insurance.

I still don't know how I'm going to hold on to my condo, my car, my health once the unemployment insurance is up and the COBRA is over, the savings depleted. I'm scrounging for work and getting some but for how long.

Ok, here's my next list of 10. It's for the immediate long haul.

1. Respect your rituals. Rituals regulate the anxious heart and help you to breathe evenly, which lets the imagination operate as it must.

2. Pay attention to the buzz kills. But only long enough to identify them and get off the phone.

3. Pay attention to your self-deception. Treat it like sugar...a little goes a long way.

4. Get the make-up back on. You don't want to wind up on "What Not to Wear."

5. Take the damn naps.

6. Pay attention to the advice you get from people doing the job you want (or think you want.) I've found the most positive people are the public relations professionals. They need writers, want writers and know there's work out there. I don't think they're lying.

7. Learn something new. Tonight, I twitter. Tomorrow, I figure out why.

8. Move something forward every day.

9. Spend a day reading everything you've downloaded and digest it.

10. Do your job. It's easy for me to say this. I'm a writer and writers don't need to get paid to work.