May
Weekly Theme: Giving Up - When to Throw Up Your Hands and Quit
Hello all! Welcome to the week. As I noted in my diatribe against burnout last week (and invitation to submit your thoughts - a standing invitation of course), I’m instituting a weekly theme here at the QRW. This theme will be the loose guide for all the rest of the week’s posts, which go as follows:
Monday: Creative Kick
Tuesday: Freelance Frenzy
Wednesday: Publishing Aspirations
Thursday: Marketing Maven
Friday: Word Porn and Rant
Weekends: An occasional Lassoed Links and Bookwormy goodness
This week’s theme: giving up. When it comes to freelancing and creativity, we’re always told - never give up, never back down, never turn away opportunities, etc. etc. But sometimes that just doesn’t work. Sometimes we have to be quitters. We have to eschew the rules of positivity and optimism, and be very real and pragmatic. In a way, sometimes the smart (and quietly rebellious) move is cutting your losses.
So get ready to look at quitting in a whole new light. Sometimes, contrary to what our gym teachers always said, quitters win.
Love the word “eschew.” It’s always been one of my favorites. However, when I try to incorporate it into casual conversation, no one knows what I mean. Half the time, people think I’m talking about “chewing” something. This is why, as you’ve mentioned in previous blogs, we resort to commonly-understood, dumbed-down words. There the currency of most communications. It’s a shame you can’t elevate conversation with $10 words, but you can’t. That’s my two cents for the day. I’ll get off my soapbox now!
May 12th, 2008 at 12:46 pm@ Sherree: Tell me about it. My sister-in-law is the worst about not having a decent spoken vocabulary - a lot of conversations come to a halt with a “what’s that word mean?” from her and my follow-on scramble to try to figure out the six-to-eight word phrase that that word captured. Irritating - stop texting and read! Passing the soapbox…
@ Amy: I’m in a big quitting kick right now, at least until I get a phone call from my Guard bosses offering paid jobs for the summer. So, on the one hand, I’m wanting to quit and start/complete other projects (on my blog, perhaps - oh, yeah…my dissertation), but on the other, turing down an income that’s 4 times what I currently make is very, very hard.
I’ll be interested to see what you say in the future posts. I’m glad the Rebel is back!
May 15th, 2008 at 9:22 am@my two favorite fans: you two rock. And I’m glad I’m not the only one that has to stop and explain my vocabulary on a regular basis. Urgh.
May 15th, 2008 at 9:35 am