So I missed out on writing last week because I … well … was so engrossed in work and/or writing my latest story that I put everything else on the backburner. Since the topic last week was happiness, I guess I was well entrenched in my own form of happiness to the point that writing about it … well … wasn’t necessary. 🙂

But here I am, back for more of Christina Katz’ 52 Qualities of Prosperous Writers and this week it’s about self-producing.

Some of you might go … hunh?

The point of her talk this week is that we make of ourselves, what we want. We are the captains to our ship, the pitcher to the baseball team, the king or queen of our personal countries. We can go one way and let it all go to pot or take another way and steer ourselves into the treasure chest of success.

I’m not sure where I am right now. Having spent the last 5 years trying to build a photography studio, but now backing off from that, I find I really want a mix of it all.

It’s interesting to me that Christina specifically says she “does it all” too. 🙂 Of course our paths are very different, but I thought about something as I was reading her thoughts.

When I worked corporate America, up that ladder, metal or rope versions of it sometimes, I found a new job nearly every 2 years. Why? Because I like variety and after a while I got bored with doing the one thing over and over and over and … okay, you get the picture.

So I started a photography business and did that on the side for 2 years.

Then I quit corporate America and did photography full time for … you guessed it … about 2 years.

And then I wrote my first novel.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t do tons of writing before then. Oh no, I wrote instructional materials, project plans, press releases, articles, etc. about my company and for other small businesses. But at that 2 year point, I found I wanted to do more … and so I did.

It’s been about a year since that point and I’m mixing photography, writing and corporate America again and find I absolutely love it! On any given day I have a steady income (that I didn’t when I worked for myself exclusively), get to plan out a photography session, write a piece of flash or a short story, write a blog entry, participate in a chain, write a new novel, etc. Oh and I’ve even started doing some photojournalism where I also write the article! My first front-page article will be published tomorrow!

As Christina says, embrace the challenge and I have. I love combining all the careers I’m “good” at into one solid great opportunity for myself that keeps me challenged, forward thinking, creative and interested. The fact that they are starting to merge into a mix of one is even better.

🙂

Have you found your “ideal” and if not, are you working to find it? Whether it’s writing or something else, go for it! 🙂