It’s that no man’s land between Christmas and New Years, the first one where I am self-employed. It’s been tough setting boundaries for myself work-wise. I’ve been busy putting things together to launch the first episode of Group Therapy, among other tasks in preparation for my upcoming trip, and it’s been difficult to set aside time to just relax and just be.

QUICK I DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME. T-MINUS 27 DAYS TO LAUNCH GROUP THERAPY PODCAST & 28 DAYS TILL I GO TO ASIA FOR A WORKING VACATION. I have so much shit to do and thank god I’m having such a blast doing it. I feel like I have my dream job, but even dream jobs are stressful.

Most of my time has been preoccupied with the podcast I’ve been coordinating - it very much is like a full time job, and seriously wonder how many people do this thing solely as a side hustle. I have been going at it alone for a while, although the idea started out with a few other hands. When I realized I was the only one working on it anyways, I was like ‘f*ck it, let’s do this thing my way and not worry about asking for permission’ - which has been a huge problem for me in the past.

Last week I did a live Q&A with a friend @unattachedandunbothered, and we discussed all the stuff people are normally afraid to discuss in public, no shame. It was so much fun. So fun, in fact, that I’m adopting the format of chatting in bed with a guest on my new podcast ‘Group Therapy’.

I spent the better part of last week working on outlines to the third, and hopefully final, version of my book. It’s a humour memoir with actual advice on how to reclaim your voice and show up in the world, rising above what’s expected of you. I’ve needed to write this book in 3 waves; that’s why there are 3 versions.

We live in a world of constant buzzing and distraction at the tips of our fingers. I’ve stoped to write this 5 times already to check my text messages. Not even because it’s dinged, but because my monkey mind is anxiously awaiting a response, if not hoping and praying for a distraction. Writers (at least, this writer) are lazy. We are human like the rest of the world that works, and our work happens within the mind. Creative work is, at best, exhausting even without the constant distraction from phones, facebook and instagram - the tools that digital writers rely on for distribution.

I’ve been pondering past and present me more since I’ve been out in the world on my own. I’ve had a lot of time to review past work these past few weeks. About 18 journals with random thoughts, and a whole Google Drive & Dropbox of unpublished works - not to mention the unpublished 2nd draft of the book I’ve wanted to put ‘out there’. These pieces, written over time, tell me a few things that I’d be a goddamn fool not to take seriously now that I have the time and opportunity to bring these things to fruition.

It’s been a week since I’ve been laid off, and having time to decompress for a day at home with my Mum and my dog, I’ve jumped right back into creative projects to keep myself more than just a little busy. The biggest challenge for me has always been sitting down and focusing. I suspect we all have a little bit of ADHD, and mine feels a little like a bouncy castle full of puppies, glitter, and bourbon. I am a fun times magnet. Freelance life, for me, will need to be semi-structured if I don’t want to be homeless living under a bridge by the time my severance dwindles out. So, I’ve taken precautions!

So the adventure begins! After working at Bell for almost 7 years (4 years at Virgin Mobile, and 3 at Bell Media), they finally did it - they pushed me into off the ledge and into the blue sparkling waters of freelancing below.