I sometimes feel––as a freelancer––that Mondays, Fridays, and holidays are a sort of non-days..days when I fall to the bottom of the list in the pecking order of other people's priority. While I am working (or trying to), others overlook me––my e-mail Inbox seems oddly-devoid of missives, my phone sits silent and lonely. It makes me feel a strange sense of loneliness and irrelevance. I am left wondering what is the cause of the silence...have they gotten my e-mail? Are they ignoring me? Do they have any intention of contacting me? When will they respond? How will they respond? Is this a true and accurate representation of my importance or lack there-of?
Really, if you sit down and take the time to think logically rather than emotionally, a silent phone or empty e-mail is no indication of anything beyond the fact that other people have busy lives, too. They're trying to get their business taken care of, much the same as you are. You are not necessarily the low man on the totem pole...it's just their totem pole is pretty stacked, and they just haven't worked their way through all those men––high, low, or in-between.
Other people could be wondering the same thing about you right now. That phone call that came last week while you were on the other line...did you return it yet? Have you hit the Reply button on every e-mail that has come in over the past few days (or months, for that matter)? Even if the answer is No, that you still have to get back to whomever it was who is now possibly waiting with baited breath, it's not personal, is it? You've been taking care of other things. You've been living life and trying to get everything done that needs doing.
I need to realize this more often in my own life...it's not personal. It's not all about me. There are only so many hours in the day, and so much time people can give. So if my own world seems a little too eerily quiet and lonely, I just look at the calendar and remember that tomorrow is another day. And the phone will ring again.
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