Your New Future: Welcome to the Overextended Class

My good friend @toddschnick – whom you may recognize from our ongoing series “He Said, She Said” – sent this blog post by Hugh MacLeod a.k.a. @gapingvoid to me this weekend and I sent it to my family immediately offering it up as the perfect explanation for why I am the way I am these days.

And by that I mean crazed. Perpetually sleep-deprived. Borderline delirious.

You get the picture.

Cartoon by Hugh

In his post Welcome to the Overextended Class Hugh writes, “In my last blog post, an interview with Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine, Chris had a brilliant thought:

“If ever there was a time to be overextended, this is it.”

I agree with him completely. I know what it means to be over-extended all too well. Recently I made a list of all the projects I’m currently working on. The next book. The road trip. The prints. Blogging. Consulting. Drawing cartoons. The list goes on…

All in all, it came down to ten items. Ten. Each one interesting and potentially lucrative enough to be taken on as a full-time job. Ten.

Ouch. Even for me, that seemed like WAY too much.”

Um. It’s like he was inside my head when he wrote this post.

My list as of this very moment which is always subject to change grow longer is:

1. Finalizing a strategy to brand myself + my company now that I’ve completely redefined what I do so people will understand just what it is that I do
2. Client engagements
3. Launching Dream Job Radio – show format, logo, website, marketing strategy, legal requirements…
4. He Said She Said #HSSS
5. Blogging seven days a week on Radiant Veracity
6. Contributing to six other blogs
7. Completing interviews requested by other bloggers
8. My Examiner column
9. Preparing for upcoming youneedajob.org Job Search Interventions
10. Development + execution of strategy for paid speaking engagements
11. Preparing for upcoming training and speaking engagements
12. Publishing two books
13. Planning + execution for events I’m putting together with several different colleagues
14. Multiple joint projects in the works with several different colleagues

And this list does not even include the continual tweaking and general ongoing “maintenance” of the four websites I have/am responsible for or my responsibilities as President of Women’s Finance Exchange or attendance at Tweetups and other such networking events several times each week.

Hugh states, “I’ve not had a proper vacation in ten years, either. Nor am I planning one.”

Copy that.

I can’t even imagine planning a vacation right now! Just the thought of taking a few days off to see my family at Christmas is incredibly stressful and basically induces heart palpitations and the need for copious amounts of Xanax and / or oxygen.

In fact, I haven’t taken a single day off in 2009 – not a weekend day, a holiday; nothing. And I don’t see that changing any time soon. And I definitely can’t remember the last time I had a “real” vacation.

Seriously.

I think it was in the 90s.

I think Hugh is right when he says “Welcome to the Overextended Class, People. You may opt out of it if you want, but over time it’s going to get harder and harder to make ends meet, let alone be successful, if you do.”

I’m a firm believer in creating multiple streams of income. Whether you choose to do that in the form of a salary for your “day job” and supplement with income from other sources – turning hobbies into something profitable, etc. – I think we can all agree that this current recession and nightmare of a job market has been a much-needed wake-up call to the fact that we have to look out for ourselves because no one else is going to.

NEWSFLASH.

There is no longer any such thing as “job security.” Drop that phrase from your vocabulary.

I think people who are currently unemployed in particular should be looking at many options for their future including freelance or contract work, juggling two or three part-time jobs, or having a “day job” plus other income-producing activities as their New Future.

Because it is. This is our new reality, people.

My interns are an excellent example; they are juggling various internships, entrepreneurial ventures, freelance work, and “day jobs.” Our New Future is the only future they’ll ever know.

Welcome to The Overextended Class!