Recently, Klee and I took some time off to get organized. Honestly, it was not easy for me to stay focused on getting organized. Over the last year, I formed a habit of running around stressed out and constantly putting out fires. As many of you know, we moved at the beginning of 2022.
Along with moving across the country, buying a new house, making repairs, and introducing ourselves to our new community, we brought a boatload of project deadlines. The demand became a little too much, and things fell apart quickly.
Trying to navigate life and all of its hurdles can be hard enough. When things go wrong, they can compound everything else on your shoulders and suddenly feel like an overwhelming burden.
Klee and I are artists, which makes our life and income unpredictable, so it didn’t help that expensive repairs needed to happen before we could open our art studio, our primary source of income. I also had two books in the works that were already six months past their deadline, not to mention the audiobooks that were past their deadline as well. We also run a few YouTube channels which were falling to the wayside, along with a community of awesome artists from around the world that are members.
As things mounted and more responsibilities fell on our shoulders, we felt like days weren’t long enough and we would never catch up. It took a toll on us emotionally, physically, and creatively.
The truth is, we didn’t stop. We hit the ground running and took on even more challenges and added them to our plate. We ended up volunteering on committees and taking on more responsibilities than we had room for. Meanwhile, we were buying furniture and getting our new place up and running to be our new creative playground.
Now, Klee and I are used to juggling crazy, but at this point, it had gone beyond crazy… it was stupid.
Our days were filled with home repairs, plumbing issues, new electrical, building an art studio, trying to manage our art business, running a YouTube channel, recording and releasing podcasts, running an online community, publishing books and audiobooks, holding a large exhibition, releasing music, and navigating all the other little things that come up daily. It was exhausting.
However, it was avoidable.
Many of us are afraid to step away for a while. The perception is that things will fall apart and you will never recover. So, instead, we try to juggle an unsustainable way of living… and for many of us, it is killing us.
Being in the YouTube world, you see this all the time. There are plenty of people out there who, on the surface, have it all and do it all. But many of those people are incredibly unhappy and are putting on a front all day while still feeling depressed and empty when they take any time to reflect. Unfortunately, I was heading in that direction because I was too afraid to walk away from my “work.”
I moved to my dream house, I live in a beautiful town, I am married to the most amazing human I have ever met, and I am doing what I want for a living. However, I wasn’t giving myself the time to enjoy it. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t miserable, but it is hard to keep your spirits up when you spend every day killing yourself to get somewhere only to find that you are no closer than when you started that day.
The truth is. When you’re on your deathbed, you won’t think about the hard work. You’re going to meditate on your relationships and how you lived your life. It’s a hard realization, coming to the end of your days only to find that you spent all your time obsessed with juggling stress instead of just living.
So… Step back now, while you can. Take time off to reevaluate, get caught up, sort things out, and relax… take as much time as you need. Those that matter will be waiting patiently. Those that are demanding of you and don’t understand that you need time to yourself can wait or take a hike.
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