“Success consists of…

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."

--Winston Churchill

I hadn't run across that one -- I think it's a good reminder for life, and a GREAT reminder for writers collecting rejection slips. :-)

Had a over-tiring day so far, mostly due to our fridge breaking (again), necessitating all kinds of dragging food out, defrosting, cleaning, helping repair guy, mopping up gross water, putting food back, etc. and so on. Thank god Jarmila was here to watch Kavi, who is also having a tough day, due to not napping long enough. When she's over-tired, she a) refuses to nap, and b) is prone to flopping on the floor wailing every time her will is thwarted in the slightest. It's sort of funny, but also sad. Poor munchkin.

But somehow managed to get a lot of work done nonetheless, mostly e-mails for DesiLit as I try to do a major reorganization this week, pulling in a bunch of new volunteers and training them to do well all the parts of the job that I've been trying to do half-assed-ly. I really do function best in Executive Director terms, which is all well and good, as long as I have an actual staff to boss around. When I try to do it all myself, chaos ensues. Also exhaustion and ball dropping. But if I have a staff -- it's glorious. Stuff gets done!

A friend of mine is applying for a real world Executive Director position and asked me to write her a recommendation. I have to admit, I felt a twinge of envy -- I'd like that job! And I think I'd be good at it -- although in truth, it's not as if I've ever been paid for any of the organizations I run. I was talking about this with another friend who is already an ED, and she said that didn't matter as much as I might think -- that if I saw a position that I was interested in, I should apply, and she'd recommend me. That being an ED was mostly about global vision and fundraising anyway -- the sort of fundraising where you can whip up a crowd into a frenzy of giving. Well, shucks -- I can do that.

I was briefly tempted to make a radical career shift -- but then reality kicked back in. We're thinking we'll try for a second kid -- if that happens, then my current part-time teaching plan for the next three years is perfect. If, at the end of that time, I feel like I want something more full-time, I should be mostly done with the baby/toddler stage, and can take a full-time position with less worry. And if I don't feel like academia at that point...well, maybe I'll be looking around at ED positions. It could happen.

Class tonight. Tomorrow, I write. Although I may also nap. Also my shoulder muscles are like rocks -- I need to schedule a massage before I pull a back muscle out of sheer stress. We figured that it's worth budgeting for a me to get a once-a-month massage -- nothing fancy, just squeezing the tension out. It was Beth's idea, and I have to say, it's a nice idea. I think everyone should get massages. Of course, if it were really up to me, I'd make them daily instead of monthly...

1 thought on ““Success consists of…”

  1. massages daily: one more thing your mother would remind you that you’d have access to if you’d have that arranged marriage when you were sixteen…

    for a while I was able to get monthly massages and they make a huge difference. Good for you!

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