Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.
American businessman and philanthropist Ray Kroc was born on this day in 1901 (died 1984).
As much as I’d like to think that Publisher’s Clearing House really does have a map to my house, I don’t believe in luck.
If you want something, you have to work for it.
Me? I want to retire (early) so that I can write and act (and maybe produce and direct) full time.
So, one of the things I’ve been doing is working seven days a week this summer. I’m making progress. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the writing has suffered.
It was already suffering because of a long stretch of theatre. We’ve talked about that and about the fact that I took a break.
But it’s also suffered due to my own procrastination.
I mentioned the other day that I’ve been binge-watching Mad Men on Netflix. Yes, I watched when the show was
The Write Side Shop
actually on. But in the spirit of multi-tasking and the 3 or 4 days that the shows I currently watch were not showing new episodes, I logged into Netflix and made my way to Madison Avenue.
On a side note. Don Draper may be cool. But the second time through I’m really seeing that he’s also very much a jackass.
And, did I really miss all of the uses of the f-word last time around?
I digress.
Which is sort of the point of this post.
Anyway, whilst I was checking in to see how many more episodes I “needed” to watch to finish the series I went over to IMDB. I had four episodes left.
Out of 92.
Ninety. Two.
That’s ninety two hours of basically lost productivity. Trust me, I wasn’t writing.
True, I did some graphics work during some of those hours. Most of the time I was not that productive.
And true, it wasn’t a full ninety-two hours when you allow for what would have been commercial time when they were broadcast.
Still. That’s a lot of time.
It’s not unlike the first time I checked the calorie content on a Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte, or on a pint of Haagen-Dazs. Or actually did the math on how much I would spend if I only made the minimum payment.
Would I have finished the script or the novel during those 92 hours?
Maybe. Maybe not.
My reality is that I’m already pretty tired from the seven day work schedule. So adding evenings to that is difficult if not impossible.
If nothing else my willpower to resist Netflix or Facebook or anything else is weakened when I’m so tired.
That’s no excuse. The writing and the acting career isn’t going to happen if I’m not willing to put aside the distractions and work for it.
And that might mean a little bit, or a lot of, sweat.
No, my gym schedule is not up for discussion.
Don’t get me wrong. There still has to be a balance. There still has to be downtime.
You know, all work and no play and all that jazz.
Which reminds me I haven’t seen Chicago in a long time.
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