One of my favorite lines from any movie is Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman when she says, "I'm more of a fly by the seat of your pants kind of gal. You know moment to moment." Yep that's me.
You might imagine that with 5 young boys and 4 jobs this is exactly how my life rolls. I'd like to say that I adapt to change well, but I think that might be a lie. I write out a list everyday of my life. There are things that HAVE to be done and some things I just like to see get done. Some days the list is all crossed off by the time I got to bed. Other days that list carries over to the next day and the day after that. But I'm doing what I want to be doing and that is chasing my dreams and along side me I have my family.
This could easily be looked at in a different way. Fly by the seat of your pants easily translates into the multi-tasker, which also could be classified as the person who can't keep their attention on one thing at a time. (There is a reason I have 4 jobs.) I find that, as my dad says, I like to put out fires. The moment I sit down to tackle a task there is something else that could use my attention. By the end of the day I have efficiently started a million different projects, but my mind won't focus on one long enough to finish it all the way through.
I once went to a Life Coach to learn to achieve the goals I'd set out to achieve. I wanted to know how people did this. Step one: write out your goals. Well I'm great at that. Step two: make a plan. Another list! I can do this. Step three: focus on one step at a time. Well Crap!
Each week she would give me a "homework" assignment. I was able to do this, but when I'd go back to her and tell her I'd made all my contacts for the week and I'd scheduled all the meetings I'd needed and while I did that I typed up a proposal and I cleaned my house while on a phone call... she quickly realized I can't function the way I wanted to. I needed to function like I liked to make myself happy.
Hmmmm... so I'm a multi-tasker flying by the seat of my pants. I'm a hair stylist with a clientele I fit in between my many other jobs. I'm the mother of five active kids who forever need me in 5 different places at 5 different times. I'm a publisher who has, at any given time, five manuscripts, five authors, and a multitude of emails and edits to attend to. I'm a writer with a list of twenty-six story ideas, of which twelve have been penned, to attend to. Not to mention the edits my editor sent me last week and the publicity I'm doing for the current books I have out. Then there is they paying job I try to attend to each day at my family's business. My husband would like to have a few moments of my time as well, (sadly I push him aside more than most.) And I have a 2nd degree black belt I'm training for that needs my attention to.
Okay... writing it all out just made me tired!
In every day there is a part of that to do list that gets crossed off because its just not important. Some days, those edits are set aside to accommodate another author's dream because I know how it feels to get that first book out. Some days it's to color my mother's hair and spend an hour with her. There are times karate is side tracked so I can spend a moment at home with my kids. And every once in awhile my office hours are canceled so I can lay in bed with my hubby and watch an NCIS marathon.
Yep... I fly by the seat of my pants. And sometimes they rip. But sometimes they swing me in just the right direction of where I need to go, even if I don't know it.
Happy Swinging by the Seat of Your Pants!
Bernadette Marie
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