What Happens When Life Gets In The Way?

The past three weeks have been dominated by work work, which I affectionately call my day job as a project manager. I have three high profile projects running right now, with two of them under executive scrutiny.

To say that I am stressed is putting it mildly. More often than not I am working through my lunch break, which is usually when I do my hour of writing each day during the week. I’ve only written eight times in the past twenty-five days.

I feel the difference in my mood and general disposition throughout the day. My mind is still working and thinking about my story, but I am not putting the proverbial pen to paper. It’s really frustrating. I know that work work is a responsibility I can’t ignore, because without it I wouldn’t be able to live, let alone write.

However, writing is just as important if not more so to my emotional wellbeing. Especially since I started my writing routine almost two years ago. It’s a daily recharge of my batteries that I’ve grown accustomed to.

It’s hard as an artist to balance my passion with my job that pays my bills. Why is it that every time something has to give it is always what I’m most passionate about?

But that is the nature of the beast, this is what it means at its core to be an artist with responsibilities. I’m not in my 20s where I can live in a crap apartment and have a diet that consists of Ramen. I have a wife, two kids, three dogs, a cat, and a mortgage. All of which depend on me.

This is the case for a lot of artists and writers. Our passion often takes years or even decades to solely sustain our lives, if ever. So often we are all forced to make this choice.

Do I do what I love or do what will put food on the table?

Yet, I still show up every chance I get. The past five days I’ve started writing in bursts on the IA Writer app on my phone. Five minutes here, fifteen minutes there just hammering out sentences that eventually became a chapter.

As writers and artists with a full-time job this is something we have to do sometimes. Steal tiny moments from the chaos of the world to find solace in what feeds our soul.

These tiny droplets of time are getting me through this rough patch until I can return to my regular routine. It is enough for now. We all need to find an anchor to creatively survive the chaos of life.

What do you do when life gets in the way of your passion?