Learning to Say No

One of the hardest parts of owning my own company is learning to say no. There's always some cool new thing coming down the pike, and there's a part of of me that's worried about missing the next big idea. But at some point, there's simply not enough time and/or energy to do everything I want to do.

 

Of course, the hard part is figuring out which offers to take up and which ones to leave by the wayside. Let's start with my current situation. Darling Husband and I just moved into out new house over the weekend. We haven't totally cleaned out the apartment yet, mainly because my comic collection is a bitch to move, and I trust third parties to touch it even less than my couple of pieces of nice diamond and gold jewelry.

Add to that is the upcoming holidays. Even though there won't be a huge gathering of the family, Genius Kid has three weeks of leave, and he plans to come home for Yule and Christmas, assuming his car is fixed. (That's a story for Friday.) So everything is already chaos at Casa Harden.

I've got my regular publishing schedule, which the December release has to be moved back two weeks because of the aforementioned move. I tried to get everything done on time, but there was too much packing to do at the apartment.

And in the middle of all that, I got an invitation to participate in an anthology for next year. I was going to graciously decline, but as I lay in my recliner, eating pizza while watching the Steelers-Washington game and waiting for the naproxen to kick in, an idea for the anthology sparked in my brain.

Then yesterday, a friend sent a proposition concerning his new venture. As much as I wanted to participate, I hit a wall. My own work was languishing. I still hadn't read and returned a novel someone else asked for comments on back in June.

And dammit, I really needed shower!

I should have said no to some other stuff much earlier than I did. I'm achy and exhausted. And I have to admit I can't do things or stay up all night to complete a project like I could in my twenties.

So, learn from my experience. Decide what's important. You can't do everything. And that's okay.

Your mental health and physical well-being are more important than anything. You can't do anything if you've burned yourself out.

Happy Yule!

It's the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. So let's light up the night!

Random Thoughts on December 24th

For those of you who don't know, our family is interfaith. One of the things we've tried to instill in GK is respect for other people's beliefs regardless of his own or ours.

Which means at some point, the in-laws will find out that GK has declared himself an atheist. And damn, will that be entertaining!

But my in-laws' heads exploding wasn't the point of this post. While getting last minute groceries yesterday morning, I had a lot of folks wish me "Merry Christmas!" I'm not Christian, but I'm not offended. The greetings were sincerely meant.

But a lot of folks get pissed off if someone says "Happy Holidays!" I don't really understand why some people feel this is a personal attack. Christians aren't the only ones that have a holiday this time of year. There's Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, and more that I've forgotten. (My sincere apologies to those I didn't name.)

I name a specific holiday greeting to a person if I know their religion. For example, I wish my friend Kat "Merry Christmas," and she wishes me "Happy Yule."

But I don't always know a stranger's religion, it isn't obvious (like wearing a yarmulke, a hajib, or a cross), and frankly, their religion isn't my business. So I go with my favorite standby, "Happy Holidays!"

And when I did that to a customer years ago at the last Day Job, he went freakin' ballistic and accused me of being anti-Christian. At the end of his tirade, I asked him how I was supposed to know his religion. He blinked several times before he answered, "This is Christian nation!"

"But not everyone in the U.S. is Christian," I said.

That prompted another tirade. Again, I waited patiently for it to end before I asked, "Should there be a law that everyone in the U.S. wear the symbol for their religion?"

"Yes!"

"And how did that work out for the Jews in Germany seventy years ago?" I asked quietly.

The blood drained from his face, and he marched out of the store.

I never saw him again, and he never filed a complaint with my manager (I half-expected it). I hope I made him think. I hope he now sees those of us who aren't Christian as people and not enemies. I hope he realizes that a sincere non-specific December holiday greeting is just that--a greeting, not an insult.

Since today's the last day of Hanukkah and Christmas Eve, I wish everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

Happy Yule!

Currently re-reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Today's Yule, aka the Winter Solstice, aka the first day of winter.

Was anyone able to see the lunar eclipse early this morning?  Normally, our backyard would have afforded a perfect view (North America had prime seats), but the #*$@ Houston cloud cover didn't cooperate. 

Wonder Dog and I checked several times between 1:30 AM and 2:35 AM.  Nope, nothing but city light pollution reflected off low, scudding cumuli. *sigh*  We finally gave up and crawled into our respective beds.

It's not often I wish for a cold front.  But if the last line of winter storms had drifted farther south than Huntsville on Sunday, last night would have had crystal clear skies.  Gotta love the funky orange color reflected light from Earth gives our favorite satellite.

Granted the coldest weather here in North America is yet to come, but on the plus side, our days will start getting longer again.  Enjoy the Yule spirit!