Corona Crashed My Vacation But I’m Happy About It Now
Tomorrow we would actually be in Barcelona after we would have been in Marseille yesterday. Instead, I’m sitting in front of the computer and working. The trip was canceled because of Corona.
Last night I was sitting on the terrace with my wife. It was raining, and my wife looked at me, depressed. “We would be on the Mediterranean now if it weren’t for this stupid pandemic,” she sighed.
I nodded and stroked her hand. I, too, was sad at first when our trip was canceled. We had been looking forward to it for a year.
But I was not honest with my wife. When I looked into the rain yesterday, I realized that there was nowhere I wanted to be better than at home at that moment.
Of course, I didn’t tell her that. Firstly, it wouldn’t have comforted her, and secondly, she wouldn’t have understood.
Why am I so happy to be at home instead of on a cruise ship on the Mediterranean? It’s not that I don’t like holidays. I love lying lazily in the sun, sleeping in, and exploring foreign cities. I am by no means incapable of relaxing.
But last night, I realized what it would have really meant for me to be on a journey now.
For one thing, my new book is not yet finished. Maybe I would have managed to finish the book before the trip if it had been clear that it was going to take place. But I doubt it.
On the other hand, I have published an article every single day since the first of March. There is no way that I would have managed to write fourteen articles in advance, in addition to the work on my book, to have them published automatically during my trip.
Both my books and my work on Medium bring me money to live.
I would not have been able to advance the book or my work on Medium during the trip, which would probably have cost me a lot of money overall.
I know that I now sound like a workaholic who puts money above the joy of living, but it is not that simple. In any other year, I could have easily put in a holiday without interrupting my work too hard. Only this year, things are a bit different.
I am in a phase of my life where I am repositioning myself. My success as a Kindle author is becoming more and more challenging to achieve, so it has become necessary to take different paths.
Medium was the first new beginning I dared to make. I will probably never earn as much money here as with my books, but I still see my work on this platform as a second mainstay. This second mainstay is still weak and needs a lot of work and time at the moment.
Two days ago, I reported in detail about the second change I am currently making. It is about changing my marketing strategy for my books.
The details are in this article:
This step is also very labor-intensive and must now be taken consistently.
I recognized all this last night on the terrace. Right now, I am in the process of completely redesigning my professional future. A journey at this point in time would not have been a rest for me, but pure stress. I don’t think I could have enjoyed this holiday if so much immensely important work had been left at home.
This is an entirely new experience for me. I used to run away from work as fast as I could at the slightest sign of it. Fun and relaxation were always much more important to me than work.
But that has changed. Since I quit my job to be just a writer, work is no longer only what pays my bills. It has become an integral part of my life, especially of my future.
In the past, when I was sick for a few days, I couldn’t go to the office, and I sat at home on the sofa and watched Netflix without regret. It didn’t matter whether I was there or not. The company ran without me, my pay continued, and I didn’t care about the work anyway.
But today I am my work. No part of my life can be separated from my existence as a writer. As a writer, I cannot simply stay the way I am. I cannot maintain the status quo and get away with it. I have to keep developing myself, go new paths, and use today to have still the life I love tomorrow.
Maybe that makes me a freak in your eyes. I don’t care. As a writer, you have to agree to be a freak. We have to leave the ordinary to others.
René Junge a published author writing on ILLUMINATION.
Do you want more of this?
Receive weekly emails, and don’t miss any of my articles.
subscribe here http://bit.ly/ReneJunge
Read also