Where to from here???

[JWBIRONWORKS]

Mcraigl,
I have a full time job that supports my addiction. I work at that job 12 hr days, 3 days one week 4 days the next. I feel lucky because that allows me to feed the addiction on a more or less full time basis.
I have a plan laid out in my head and on paper. It's not set in stone and I reveiw it and change it constantly. I took the time to set up a legal business and I run it as such. By doing so it does pay for itself but barely.
If I want to take a day off I do, If I want to sit in the shop and talk with my dog I do. If I want to go eat lunch with the other characters at the local general store and have an ice cream I shut everything down and go.
Will I ever get rich? No. Will I burn out and give up? not likely. Do I enjoy myself and feel a sense of pride when someone I don't know says "Hey, aren't you the blacksmith fella that made Joe's......" ?Most definately.
I am as busy as I care to be and I try to avoid close dead lines. I don't like to be hurried when I am working for me. I fully realize that if my addiction was actuallly my ownly form of income that I would have to approach it completely different....I am thankful for my day job that allows me to have such a melancoly approach to my addiction.
I like to try new techniques and to use them in projects. I find I read more on the subject all the time. If I took my addiction too seriously and just watched the bottom line I fear I would lose the time to try what I want to try. I don't mind small production runs and I forge alot of stuff that if I didn't have a business I wouln't have forged for me. But in doing so I have learned more.
I have alot to learn and I only wish that I had pursued my curiousity about the craft much earlier in life. Of course if I had other things would have probably gotten in the way.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I have a plan. It is not an aggresive plan, I am not bound by it. I'm not as fast as alot of smiths, matter of fact I have a hard time thinking of any I've meet that are slower....But I have a plan and I take work I know I can do and I turn away work that I feel it better for someone else to do. I pay for everything as I go and if I don't have the money then I wait.That way it's not "eating any hay". This is my approach and I am happy and I wish you luck on your soul searching.

John

[mcraigl]

More sage advice. Thanks all. Going to a hammer-in / workshop this weekend. It'll be nice to see what other folks are doing, get a few beers in, and brainstorm with more folks. I really appreciate you guys giving me this kind of input. It does help guide my thought process. As John said, maybe I should be putting some stuff to paper. My memory sucks, so if I come up with some great idea and it don't get captured in my shop book, it's as good as gone.