Love Your Life and Your Work Will Prosper
On the counterintuitive tactic of taking breaks and finding personal fulfillment
Do you struggle with single-focus or being a workaholic? Do you struggle with work/life balance?
Do you want me to talk specifically about the nuances relating to this topic and where it intersects with motherhood and what practices I’ve come to love and recommend? Comment “but kids” and I’ll make it a podcast.
But just to start, I’ve seen this concept played out time and time again. Yes, there are people who can look great on the outside while deeply struggling, but it works a lot better in balance. In fact, you really need to start with your personal life before expanding to your professional life.
This is a fact I have known for some time but I sometimes get out of the habit of keeping up my self-care when I’m focusing on something new, challenging or different in my work life. I have to remind myself to focus less on the struggles, and lean on the things that comfort me first.
The best way to do this is to start small. To niche down but without limiting myself too much. This means research. Research is the most important part of marketing in my opinion.
And research is slow. This means you take the time to connect with people, trends, your own understanding of things and synthesize your creative take on things.
Before you make a commitment to an idea, you need to make a connection with the audience for the idea. But before you even do that, make sure it’s something you can find love in and even before that, make sure you know what you love about your life already.
Make sure you put into place systems, routines and a schedule that helps you preserve the things about your life that keep you happy and healthy. And make sure you have support that will keep you accountable to yourself when things get crazy…and they will.
When I was last full-time in my business I had a great friend who kept me accountable and likewise. We’d remind each other to take that walk, take that nap, visit family, go on a date, buy the book, work on our music, meditate, whatever we needed to keep sane…even when things felt like we needed to dedicate every ounce of our being into our work.
You never need to sacrifice your well-being for your work. You never need to lose yourself in your work. You never need to get out of the habit of experiencing the love and joy of your life outside of your work. Don’t let that happen.
In fact, what my friend and I discovered was that (quite counter-intuitively) it was in focusing on self-love that difficult business decisions became less difficult. You could spin your wheels and make yourself sick trying to do something that is detrimental to you in the name of your profession, or you can refocus on yourself and come back to your work with a sound mind and make powerful decisions that could have otherwise broken you.
And it also might never get that dramatic. But wouldn’t you prefer to be prepared? So make sure you put in the time to nourish your personal life before your professional. Please learn from my mistakes.
Do you need permission to take a break? Please share below what you do in your work life to make sure your personal life doesn’t suffer.
P.S. Do you even eat bro? I’ve talked to too many women, specifically who skip meals because we just get too busy. It’s something I’ve been actively working on for a couple years (I’ve gotten much better). Tell me you eat!
You can also find other things I’ve written here!