This picture of my cat buried in laundry is a good illustration of my life.

When I was younger, I had no interest in self-help books. I felt like I could figure out everything on my own. But now that I’m pursuing a career as a dancer and I’m not currently working one-on-one with a mentor, I’m finding that books fill an important niche. There are a few experienced artists I can go to for advice, but rather than constantly pestering them with questions, I get recommendations from them on books and systems that helped them, and I try to see which ones work for me.

Anyway, today I was thinking about it, and I realized that there are plenty of books for tapping into your creativity, managing and maintaining your creativity, handling the business/money side of being a creative professional, but what I really need is a book about how to juggle being a creative professional and having normal real-life responsibilities too. It seems like I’m doing a pretty good job of staying on top of all of my responsibilities as a dancer, but my personal life is a wreck! My house is dirty, and I keep misplacing things, and I almost never see my friends who aren’t also dancers.

I’m imagining a book called “The Artist’s Practical Guide to Real Life.”

Chapters would include…

“How to Remember to Wash the Dishes When You’d Rather Create All Day.”

“How Clean Does the House REALLY Have to Be When Company Comes Over?”

“How to Schedule a Date Around Rehearsals and Shows.”

“How to Organize Your Supplies.”

“How to Stop Yourself From Buying ALL the Supplies.”

“Setting a Reasonable Class Budget.”

“How to Travel to Festivals and Still Take a Family Vacation.”

“Yes, You DO Need to Remember to Eat.”

I wish I could sit down and write this book, because I think it would be a bestseller. Unfortunately, I would have to read the book first in order to know how to organize my life and make time to write!

But seriously, if you know of a book that would help me balance my dancer tasks and my normal human being tasks, please tell me in the comments!