Tomorrow is my last day of work in my day job. For those that have been following the story much of my own personal application of the MAP has been turning MMSL into a viable income and leveraging that to leave my day job. It’s taken two and a half years to get to this point. I’m leaving on my own terms and having given plenty of notice and trained a replacement. I could have just left two months ago and watched it all pancake down behind me, but I have a few dozen staff people that I felt responsible for and wanted to ensure they were okay. I feel like I took the high road and there has been a lot of cheering me on as I prepare to leave.
Running the MAP is not easy, is not always quick and is not always a direct line of being better every day. It’s about what you can achieve as an end point. There have been several days when I have just wanted pack it all in and not write MMSL ever again. There have even been a tiny number of days where Jennifer and I have not done very well with each other as well. I’ve also had a handful of haters as well.
So if you’re struggling to run the MAP for whatever your goals are, and you feel like you want to throw in the towel… don’t. That’s very likely the sign that you are making actual progress toward your goal. Hearing a mixture of cheers and boos is also a pretty good sign you are making progress as well. Don’t fall back to where you were unless you can’t do anything about it.
***
Reader: How do you feel?
Athol: I’m feeling very strange right now. I’m tired from 2.5 years of pushing, but also suddenly the book is selling better and better and I need to do very little to manage that. All along I had been thinking “full time MMSL”, but it actually feels emotionally like I’m retiring. If I sleep until noon for example the books still sell. It’s totally bizarre. Like I fell of a cliff and discovered I can fly.
Many projects to do though, so I won’t be bored!
Reader: Awesome. Any idea what your typical work day is going to look like since the book is basically selling itself?
Athol: Well most of my work day is going to look like a dude sitting at the computer… which makes for a dull blog post. More writing the blog, more writing books, prepping speaking engagement material, forming a business and yada yada yada.
Let’s talk about my personal life instead…
In many ways I’ve been living a life totally out of balance. I haven’t exercised very much at all for months on end. Been eating like crap as well, so all that needs to be focused on more. Probably working toward 1.5-2 hours of exercise of some description a day to recover things.
Jennifer has done a lot more of the housework stuff than I have the last few years. I kinda miss it a little. I really don’t mind cleaning and cooking. So I get to take some of that back from her. I’m planning one of the bigger housework chores a day as a writing break just cycling through the whole house.
Reading. I’ve barely read anything new for the last two years. I’ve got around 30-40 books piled on my dresser to get through as a starting point. I’ve been meaning to get around to the Paleo reading for over a year for example. I typically read 60-70 books a year and don’t know if I’ve read more than 20 since starting MMSL.
I’ve also to a fair extent dropped out of keeping up with the other blogs. There’s just been no time to keep up and comment. Much of the early marketing and presence building I did with MMSL was reading and commenting everywhere. It’s something I’ve always planned on returning to once done with nursing.
Daddy duty. The girls will be 15 and 13 for summer, and largely run themselves, but it’s going to be fun to be back home with them during the summer. The last two summers Jennifer has had to run ragged back and forth from work to home and eat through her time off and play taxi driver. She’s very very relieved this year she doesn’t have to.
There’s some broken items around the house as well. I’m going to give serious thought about fixing them, and then probably play Star Trek Online instead.
Walkies and talkies with Jennifer. We finally have more time to just hang out together. We like walking together and now we’ll have lots more time for breakfasts or lunches together.
There’s a vacation happening in there somewhere as well. We still have to count the beans and see how far we can go. Usually once we find a place to go Jennifer takes over as her OTPD makes everything go smooth. (Obsessive Trip Planning Disorder) We want to go to Dallas to have a look around and see if we like it there as a possible relocation in summer 2017 after youngest is done with high school.
All in all, I’ve been a low Alpha high Beta husband for most of our marriage. The last few years I’ve been a very high Alpha and life support only Beta husband (while Jennifer has to carry the load of what I’m not doing). Now I’m going to try and find a more relaxed balance of Alpha and Beta. So as I pick up some of the Beta slack, Jennifer gets to give some of it up… which frees her up to have more time doing her Alpha thing and have more fun too.
I’m very grateful for Jennifer’s support and none of this would have been possible without her. I’m also very grateful for the support of all my readers who have bought the books and sold more of them through word-of-mouth. I realize some of this comes off as “look at me I’m freaking awesome!”… and… well I did work really hard… but also it’s improbable that I am experiencing such success so soon. I know I’ve had a lot of help and it’s greatly appreciated.
Tell mother I feel fine.
Jennifer: I’m really enjoying 2012 as our year of transition. I’m very proud of Athol and MMSL…it’s his full time job now which is still somewhat surreal. It’s a dream for both of us to be able to work together and spend more time together (we like each other….funny how that works out!) so I’m looking forward to what is coming!
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