About two and a half weeks ago, I made a casual comment in the ClickTrackProfit Telegram group chat that my schedule for the next two weeks was clear, so I was going to spend more time on Steem related tasks. I went to bed in the wee hours that night excited. I woke up a few hours later to find that the universe had other plans.
One of the greatest joys of having a hobby business run from home is that you can dedicate spare time and effort into making some extra money. Of course, since you are at home a lot of the time, your family and friends love dropping by to chat. They see this "service" as part of their familial or friendshiply duty.
“Oh look, there’s Ian, playing on his PC, let’s just pop in and say hi, he must be so bored!”, you can just imagine them saying to themselves! Three hours later, and totally distracted from whatever you were so engrossed in doing, you find yourself at the stove-top cooking them some food.
“Yep, this lot’ll be here for a-whiles yet. Darn, got more visitors later, just as well I’m not busy”, musing to oneself!
Our social hive instinct means that we spend a lot of the valuable time we'd dedicated to our online activities engaging with real life persons. That in turn leads to invitations to attend a variety of events, where we can make more friends; our cycle of distractions seemingly grows every day.
So what can we do to keep our offline family and friends close to us, and continue with our online passion?
Well, what I do is simply to accept that the best laid plans will not cover every situation. I spent almost five years employed as a legal clerk in the New Zealand Public Service, working as part of a team that included the legal secretary and six solicitors. A common law principle we came across almost daily was force majeure.
You’ll see that principle headlined in insurance policies and commercial contracts. Force majeure is an important clause as that relieves or suspends a party from an obligation often owing to a chance event or unavoidable incident. As laypersons, we just say “Act of God”, accepting that sometimes we luck out.
So, adopting the principle of force majeure, these days I just go with the flow. Yes, you may be exceedingly desperate to post an article on the Steem platform, or gamify your earnings, or PTC your time away, and a multitude of other ways to monetize your time and effort. For me, I enjoy the company of people, those known and unknown.
I love travelling, especially to new places, making new friends, experiencing different lifestyles, having a good - perhaps not-so-good on occasion! - time, and living life my way.
Perhaps that’s just a Kiwi aspect on life. Here in New Zealand, we have access to a myriad of external adventures. The sea is always close, no more than about 200 miles away at our farthest location, lots of rivers and lakes, mountains galore, beautiful beaches, rugged forests, bridges to bungy, and so much more.
I suppose the way we react to distractions and other unforeseen events helps define our character, making us more determined than ever to succeed in all our endeavours.
Here’s a simple truth: no matter how bad your own life seems to be, there’s always someone in a worse way than you.
Distractions are a normal function of our life. If we switch off distractions and other annoying intrusions, we switch off our very lives! Best to just accept that no matter how hard you try, or how close the finish line seems to be...what will be, will be.
Que sera sera...
Ian Ballantine
Wellington, New Zealand
November 11, 2019.
Playlist:
You don't have to accept the status quo: a boring dark green box. Painted electricity sub-station outside our apartment, October 30, 2019.
