Sell Out With Me Oh Yeah

As an angsty teenage punk rocker, I learned that one of the worst things you could do was sell out. It meant you had no soul, that you only cared about money and not your ~*~*art*~*~ or whatever.

I'm not sure exactly how I was defining the phrase, or where the line was that you crossed to become a sell-out, though. Was anyone who made decent money doing something a sell-out, or was it only if you compromised yourself for it? Where did natural changes that come with age and maturity factor in?

I was a teenager, so I didn't really have answers.

What I knew was that selling out was bad. It made you an awful person who only cared about money, etc.

What I know now is that I really, really want to sell out.

Maybe it's age, maybe it's time spent not being able to pay my own rent or have any luxuries, but I no longer feel the need to live in poverty to prove anything. I want to have my own life with rent and food and pets and nice things.

I'm working on a PhD. Hopefully that will lead to a job that pays well. I am not ashamed to have that as my goal. A nice, comfortable life is important, and there's nothing wrong with seeking it.

Creating Structure Where There is None

Something that is tricky about unemployment for me is the complete lack of structure or schedule. Sure, it's nice to be able to sleep in and do things at my own pace, but this also means it's easy for me to languish and spend all of my time doing absolutely nothing.

So I've decided to try something out. I'm going to set small daily goals for myself that will keep me motivated to do something beneficial. I'm not going to far as to try and schedule every aspect of my life, but I think having a few things to do will help me out.

I'm not going to use a planner, because I'm not scheduling exact times. I'll just list my goals in a notebook, like so:

 And when I complete them, I'll mark them off in a different color and add any notes I want, like this:

I may try to use this blog to keep myself honest and motivated, so bear with me. Or feel free to join in and set yourself some goals as well.