beyond the boundaries

The last couple of months have been incredibly busy for me. Things are just starting to settle down.

One night I was tossing and turning with all of the work that I needed to complete on various projects. All the while I knew that I still had to lay out the fourth issue of MerriMail. I honestly felt completely out of control.

Instead of laying there, I wandered through the living room and picked up a piece of scrap paper off of the floor and began scribbling. They were the rules that I had to set for myself, the boundaries that I needed to create in order for me to accomplish my goals. They just poured out. I set hours for my volunteer work. Prices for my freelance work. And my expectations of my clients. Plus additional fees for how to handle those easily avoidable recreations of projects. When I was finished, I stood the folded sheet up on its side and realized that it looked like a fence. What a perfect, but unintended, metaphor.

I went back to bed with my mind much calmer, but still at work. Now that I had solved that problem, all of these ideas poured forth. I had been thinking about revamping fortunehearts into a new business model. Part of the debate was a new name. With my mind clear, I could finally see my logo, an idea for a name and even a tag line.

So as soon as my editors were reading Issue Four of MerriMail, I started working on the logo. Today, I finally have a placeholder up on the Paper Notion web site. Plus, I put together my portfolio, updated my resume and connected my urls to a couple of other web sites. Those long lingering to-dos are finally getting checked off my to do list. Setting boundaries for myself feels really good.