Who or what is ROI? Roi is a famous business acronym meaning Return on Investment. Every action or decision made is measured in ROI terms. Got a huge painting, will I get my time or effort back on it? Will that return be in money, attention, or respect? Got a customer at work who is upset, will the investment to appease them be better than the investment of giving them a flat no? Go through all that trouble for a show 500 miles away only to get exposed to a couple of people? Which habits are helping you rather than hindering you.

And boy-howdy, does that list go on and on. And its disciplined as all hell. Remember to make to for “living”.

And, to tell the truth, it’s probably not a bad way to run one’s life. When you start to proportion out which activities or people are worth your time and effort versus those who aren’t, proving your goal is life satisfaction, you start to come out ahead. Your friendships are more meaningful, your activities lend themselves to what’s important to you, your pleasures are measured and replenishing, not taking away from your peace. There’s some lofty vagaries in the word salad I’m using, but the concept is sound.

Now, ROI applied to me, mine, and this, specifically this art stuff. I’m a little lopsided in quite a few departments. Gotta round out some projects. I have way way too much product in a certain department and way too little in another. I have tons of drawings, not enough paintings. Good number of poems, not enough publicity. Not enough networking, either. I have two projects, both books. My direction towards getting them up and out is a little amorphous. Do I drive hard to the goal or meander? Both come with pluses and minuses and both bleed into the work made.

Or, maybe I can just stop overthinking it and relax a little. That seems like a great ROI.