"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it." -- M. Scott Peck
Taped to my computer are two fortune cookie axioms by which I try to live my life:
Family is more valuable than money.
Keep an eye open for an opportunity.
There should be a third:
Learn to say no.
In keeping an eye open for opportunity, I frequently forget that I don't live in an endless expanse of time in which everything is possible. This is partly due to the basic reality of living life as an artist. To do the art I enjoy making, I have to accept that it isn't necessarily going to sell. So, I teach, write, curate, jury, lecture, design and administrate. Soon my time becomes so filled with earning an income that I have little time left to make my art, let alone hang out with my daughter, tend to my garden, and enjoy long walks along the lake with my dogs.
There is something to what Mr. Peck says. It is important to value one's time. I need to learn how to say no, because if I don't, I always end up losing touch with what is most important to me. And that turns me into a very grouchy person. I don't like being grouchy. Grouchy is definitely not good.
grouchy is bad for everyone. no is a really good word. I am so bad at saying it but when I do - and everyone gets used to it - me included - there opens up a nice big sigh of a space. oh - we all need to do that more.
good luck with it - the world will all still be there when you have walked the dogs and hung out with the girl - nothing more important!
Posted by: katie | October 09, 2007 at 12:22 PM