La Bene Vita

So I'm a planner.

I've just plotted out the next fourteen years of my life, which, incidentally, takes me to age 50. That was not a specific target when I started planning, but it's convenient. It's also scaring the Unicorn Poop   out of me. 50? Really? That should be so far away, but seems closer when you tabulate it like this:

2013 (age 38): Open Store #2.
2016 (age 41): Open Store #3.
2019 (age 44): Open Store #4. Buy a bigger house on lots of acreage.
2022 (age 47): Open Store #5.
2025 (age 50): Retire, live off of owner salary and excess profits of stores 1-5, and start a new career as a professional author.

"First world tour as famous musical act" didn't make the list, in part because I don't want to be discovered drowned at age 48 in a hotel room bathtub the night of a high-profile pre-Grammys party. (Was that crude? Sorry - I just don't want to be that girl.) In fact, I don't even want to attend a high-profile pre-Grammys party. I'm too down-to-earth (read: lazy, couch-potato-ish) to be a celebrity. I don't spend enough family (video game) time as it is. After all the introspection, I've decided I want to be rich, but not famous. So I've crafted a plan that I hope will get me there.

Now that I have a solid fourteen-year plan, I know that I'm not going to seriously pursue a new career as an author until 2025, after I retire from my first lucrative business endeavors (hey, if Terry Brooks can do it, so can I.) That lifts a burden, because for now, writing can officially and without guilt take second place to the other priorities in my life. I'll keep casually pumping out shorts and snippets, and each November, converting one to a novel. Then, when I'm ready for my new career, I'll sort through my own personal slush pile and find the nuggets of gold that will launch my new career, upon which I will embark from the comfort of my plush library with big picture windows overlooking a rolling, wooded Ohio landscape (the acres of which belong to Yours Truly.)

I'll keep performing, because I love it, but I'll stick to venues that advance my music school business. I'll keep writing songs every now and then, but it's not my primary focus. I'll keep writing blog posts because it's good for business, and because it will help me continue to develop my writing skills. I hope to be quite an accomplished writer by 2025.

Yay. I'm tired of stressing myself out over a list of goals I can't quite meet. I want personal time, family time, and time to focus on my health. And video games.

Focus. It's all about focus.

Peace.