Be Bold!

Been a while since I blogged which is partly due to the crazy life I lead.  When I decided to leave the corporate world and join the ranks of the self employed, I did not now how much work would be entailed.  Please do not get me wrong, I love every minute of being self employed.   I am grateful for every patient who walks through my door and every catering gig I get.  Still I now work three paying jobs and one unpaid job every week. Oh, and a couple of one off catering gigs.

I know this sounds crazy but part of being self employed is finding ways to make ends meet.  My favorite job of course is my acupuncture. I am still blown away every time I see something shift for a patient.  I am honored that people place their trust in me and find relief from the work we do together. To date, I have three pregnancies and 2 healthy babies who I have been lucky enough to be part of creating. I also have many patients who have come to me for anxiety, depression, IBS symptoms, joint pain, neck pain and all sorts of other types of pain and other diagnoses who have found very good outcomes. It is an amazing job and adds so much to my life.

Then I have a job where I run the business end of a computer consulting company.  We are a small company but in the 5 years I have been working there we have seen significant growth.  I love the man I work with who does the computer end of the business.  He is a huge hearted guy with a crazy work ethic.  I think we get along so well because we both work harder than we should and both love working for ourselves. I have had this job since I left corporate America.  I took this job because it could work with my school schedule when I was getting my masters degree in acupuncture.  I stay because it is fun to help in someone else's success.

My third job is assisting the steward of a private club in downtown Baltimore.  I work most of the bigger events and evening events.  We host law clubs and speakers and cocktail parties for the members. I have a great time at this job for two reasons: 1. I work with a very dear friend of mine and that makes it all a lot more fun.  2. It is physically very challenging.  I spend most of my time there going up and down stairs.  The living room and main dining room are located on the second floor and the kitchen is on the first floor.  So when it is time to serve dinner or dessert, all of the plates must be moved up and down the stairs.  Not to mention all the extra alcohol, silverware, etc. is downstairs.  My friend and I call that the exercise portion of our evening and that it is.  When I finish a night at the club I am always tired but very proud of myself for being able to do so much physically with my body at the ripe old age of 50. 

Those are just my paying jobs.  I am also running my parents organic farm, as my dad died this spring and my mom can't handle it.  It is a labor of love.  We have a farm hand who takes care of the animals, fence lines, mowing and farm upkeep.  We also have companions for my mom who keep her as independent as they can.  So my job is to plan, harvest, put up foods, market, and financially maintain the farm.  Though it may not sound like much fun, it is.  I am providing a safe place for mom that she loves which is the most important thing and I get to have the most amazing ingredients at my disposal. I also have a profound sense of pride when I sit down to eat a meal of all farm foods.

So you are probably thinking at this point, this is all nice and all but why am I reading this?  What's in it for me? Well here, my dears, is my point...you can change your life.  You can make things better for yourself and the people around you.  You can find a way to enjoy your work no matter how many jobs you need to have to make ends meet.  You are in control!  You do not have to be a victim of your own circumstances.  
                              Be bold! Take control!  Find a new Path!