The Thrill of Having Options

Options are the new ego boost for job seekers. You can choose to work here, there, or nowhere. Kinda/ The economy is kinda shitty right now, which means that employers have all the power, which means they will make you jump through 800 hoops before hiring you, but they are still hiring.

However, I do not need a full-time job. Or a part-time job, for that matter. I run a business, and I had to remind myself that entrepreneurship is as valuable as being an employee, even if it carries more responsibility.

You know that sick feeling when you really want a job, and you need to bring money into your household. When you are tired of looking for work, you begin to apply, apply, apply for any and every job you see?

Yeah, I have been there too. But I also know I don't have time for a job. Embrace the thrills of having options!

Kyla, I say this to you with love: SIT DOWN!

You do not have the time or energy to work another full-time job because you are managing a household full-time.

• Laundry and grocery shopping? That's you.

• Chasing after the kiddo when she is dancing in the background of your husband's Zoom work meeting? That's you.

• Figuring out when, how, and if you will move into a new house? That is you, because you also handle the household's finances.

The above list is particularly true.

My husband is more particular (picky, even) about the house we want, so I let him search for months, narrow the list to the top five homes, and then show me the ones he's really interested in. And we found a house we liked, toured it, and decided it wasn't right for our family. Our realtor asked us about a different house, one that my husband and I had independently looked at and decided against, and we toured the house and fell in love with it. We have lived in that house for three years now. We have the thrill of options in where to live: an apartment or home.

I do not wash all the laundry, but I fold it all. My husband loves to wash and have huge mountains of clean clothes, which irritates me because I care about my clothing not being wrinkled. So he will wash everything and bring it to me, and I will fold it up. Now that our daughter is five years old, she helps wash and fold the clothes as well. Not because we want her to enjoy labor, but because I think it is good that she knows how she always has clean clothes conveniently in her drawer. And surprise, surprise, the kiddo enjoys rolling socks. Win-win!

Yes, I used to chase the kiddo around the apartment while my husband was working. But in all fairness, my husband was working full-time with an org that he loved, and I chose to leave a law firm to chase our kiddo around. I was sitting on the floor, chatting with my team and watching my kiddo pull herself to standing as January 6 unfolded, and I realized there had to be more to life. There was a thrill to working from home during the pandemic, and being able to watch my kiddo. Daycare is valuable, but we didn't need it for 18 months of the kiddo's life. We celebrate options!

So I chose this life and every stage in this life, and then I started to complain about it. Silly me.

So you tell yourself, sure, I will do x, y, and z if they pay me a ridiculous amount of money, and you get offered the wild amount of money and find that you still cannot do the job because that much money means that it is gonna be a shitton of work. Why work hard when you can work smarter? This only matters when you can see the thrill of having options!

I currently run a business and work for myself, working full-time with flexible hours. My kiddo is in school for six hours a day, so I work for six hours a day and a few hours in the evening when she goes to sleep. My job is editing podcasts and videos, scheduling content, and pitching new leads for my clients. Most of this work is done at night when I can schedule the emails to be released the next day. But the reason that running a business and working 40 hours is different from working for someone and working 40 hours is that I am in control.

Once you sit down and think about it, you can only control yourself, so knowing that I will get everything done because I always get everything done is empowering to me. The tactics that offices would use to make you work more urgently would just stress me out and who needs that? Me and my evzema do not need that.

Until the next blog,

Kyla