Rebirth

Chances to reinvent yourself from the ground up don’t happen often. They usually come during difficult times when you are forced to make changes to your life.

For three years, I tried to make a living as a writer and investor. I live in a high-cost area with a wife and three children. Making under six figures a year would have been unsustainable for me, so, I quit writing and this year I went back to my old day job.

Then the Coronavirus hit. Everyone got scared. My kids’ school got canceled for the rest of the school year. I got sent home to telework while homeschooling my kids. Then my wife got furloughed. Life turned upside-down several times over, but I’m thankful that it seems to have settled right-side-up (for now).

You never know what kind of bumps you’ll encounter on the road until they come into sight. Sometimes you see a bump in a distance and you have time to slow down and go over it gently. Other times it’s foggy and you’re driving much too fast, and your car goes airborne and flips on its side (and you’ll need help getting your car back on the road).

I have a golden opportunity here to reinvent myself. I’m sure many of you do too. William Shakespeare wrote some of his best works when the bubonic plague closed the playhouses in London. Sir Isaac Newton also did some of his best work while under quarantine during the Great Plague.

Most people might say that constraints kill creativity. I say the opposite is true. Constraints nurture creativity. If I gave you a million dollars and released you of all responsibilities, do you think you would get a lot of creative work done over the next year? Probably not. But if I locked you in a room with pencils, a box of paper, and plenty of food, but no access to the outside world for a year, what do you think would happen?

I’m going to use this period of time as my rebirth. My day job and kids constrain me to use my free time effectively. But having a day job again also means that I no longer have to think about money while producing art. It’s worrying about money that kills creativity, not the constraints.

I’ve killed off my old pen names. I’ve wiped the past off the table. With this post, I’m setting a new table. It’s time to reinvent myself from the ground up.