Last year, I wrote a post called “My Year of Living Dangerously” and I called it that because I was starting the ITP (Independent Television Producer) program and journeying into the world of self-employment. The ITP program provided a bi-weekly stipend until August.

But with the stipend being absent for almost four months, I realize that NOW is the year of “living dangerously”! There is no safety net and I need to find ways to generate income or… Get a job…

It’s funny because to actually work in an office would seem so foreign now, but also remarkably easy. For the last 12 months, I have been spending a minimum of 35 hours, often closer to fifty hours, on my business. But that was focused work, not distracted work from being trapped in endless meetings or responding to hundreds of emails or being pulled away from my priorities to focus on other people’s priorities.

My “business” is primarily focused on my writing. And it is easy to spend lots of time on something that feels worthwhile. Now, if I could just get some of the bucks to start flowing…

I had proposed some ways to generate revenue in my business plan. And I’ve followed through on some of them — I definitely would not have published my book Laund-o-mat at the End of the World if I hadn’t been on the ITP program. I need to do more, though, and follow through more effectively with other ideas.

And maybe it’s time to look more closely at some other types of work.  But I will document that journey on renurg.com — which is my other, even more, sporadic blog.

On this blog, the year of living dangerously is over. For the time being…

© 2014 Peter Gruner