The Full Time Job Apple

Especially in times of economic slow down, theres nothing more tempting to a freelancer than the prospect of a full time job.  The benefits, the consistent pay, the consistent hours, the joy of not having to obsess everything business related are all fairly attractive especially when your hanging on by a shoestring and wondering if your going to be able to pay rent or rely on your girl friend to front the money this month.  Not that my life is anything like that.

Recently, I came across a job in the want ads for a full time retoucher.  The pay was $30-40 an hour, full time with benefits.  I thought about it a lot.  I was way over qualified for the position and the pay was far more than what i was used to.  It was the apple of knowledge in the garden of eden, so tempting and rational.  It would certainly fix a lot of problems financially, i would have more money that i'd ever had in my life.  The hours would be horrible, the commute would be hard but still worth it financially.  So why didn't I do it?

If I took the job i would have to stop assisting, I wouldn't have time to be in my new studio, everything i would do would be helping somebody else get ahead.  My own business, my own dreams would be traded in for  handful of money.  A life of stability in exchange for everything that i've worked for for the past 6 years, in exchange for knowledge that i didn't give up, but that i went out there and gave it go and did it 100%.  If i took that job and gave up my freelance life, i'd certainly die with box of regrets and questions at my bedside.

The key is trying to keep a schedule

One of the hardest part about being an assistant is the ups and downs in work.  There are months where there will be no work at all and then the next two months might full of work.  This makes it almost impossible to keep a regular schedule.  Having a regular schedule, I believe and so do many others, is a key factor in a happier and more stress free life.  

I'm going to try and implement a schedule for myself.  The key factors are a regular sleeping regime that involves exercise.  I was thinking of waking up at 6am, exercising and going to work and them going to sleep at around 10pm so that i can get a full 8 hours.  Having set meal times are a good idea too.  This might sound pretty straightforward stuff, but in this business it's really easy to stay out late and sleep in late, miss a few meals and wind up not getting anything done, especially since most of the work year no boss is waiting for you to show up at work.

Don't let you business fail because of your bad schedule.