Those of you who follow this blog will know that I was recently promoted in my field of work. It was a pretty big step up and, in this company, it’s usually a fast-track toward more promotions. They really weren’t kidding; I received some excellent news yesterday that I’m scheduled to attend their first management training of the new year in their Atlanta headquarters. This is a huge deal, and I’m extremely stoked to have the honor. It’s a thirteen day trip and, while there will be a lot of training and work to be done, there’s also a good deal of fun and networking involved, as well, and the company pays for travel and room and board. It’s a great chance to meet new people and hone my skills as a manager in the company, and hopefully speed up my transition in the next big step.
When I started working for this company two years ago, did I expect I would be making a career out of it? God, no. But it appears that it’s happening all the same. I’m glad for it; I like the product and the company and I really do enjoy a management position, as stressful as it can be. My only real gripe is the fact that all this success in the retail business has caused my progress in the writing business to take a huge blow. Between holiday retail madness and all these new responsibilities, the training course and the hopeful eventual next step, when do I find time to write? When do I find time to market my book? How in the world do I balance it all?
It’s going to be interesting. I was thinking about it yesterday and how, if I want to really strive to be everything they’re molding me to be, I need to really have my head in the game and focus on that job. This is the complete opposite position I was in last year, when I decided to drop one of my two jobs due to the first promotion, and really focus on my writing with the other job as nothing more than income. I can no longer do that. They’re paying for me to go and be a better person for their company; it’s the least I can do to dedicate myself to it a little more.
So what does that mean for writing? I’m certainly not going to quit; for me, quitting writing would be like quitting breathing. It’s just not possible. Even with the crazy holiday madness, I’ve been ensuring that I still manage to write at least a page of any given manuscript in progress every day. On days like today and tomorrow, which I blissfully have off, I hope to do a little more, as well as catch up with blogs and whatnot. But my dreams of pumping out two to three manuscripts a year are definitely going to have to go on the back burner.
And that’s okay. Life is all about accepting the changes that arrive and rearranging things to suit it. The writing will still happen; the books will still come. There’s plenty of time while I explore this unexpected but exciting journey my job is taking me on. Wish me luck!
