When You’re Too Busy to Take a Break is When You Need it the Most

Warren writing on the trail I have too much to do.

(Can you relate?)


A book deadline is looming, though with my heavy release schedule for the next year, you could pretty much say that any time and it would be true. Registration for our popular decluttering course starts soon, and we have decided to add some free webinars to advertise it, which means a whole new set of content creation and scheduling. And we have a limited amount of time at our house this year to finish big projects before my parents come to visit. (Remember, I’m the woman who just bought a bathroom mirror more than a year after moving into my house. That’s how far behind I am.)


Throw in Spanish lessons, flamenco lessons, one major long-distance hike to plan, a business mastermind group, plus a big personal project, and my days are pretty full.


You know exactly what I’m talking about because your days are probably just as full, if not more.


So why is it when we get so overloaded, so busy, and so in need of a break that we keep pushing through? Is it some kind of macho torture to show that we’re tough?


I dunno. But I can tell you I’m done with it.


No more.


Nada mas.


Done-zo.


I’m Outta Here

After a few weeks of twelve-hour workdays and middle of the night meetings thanks to timezone differences, I recently decided to take a full day off. When you work as your own boss this is incredibly easy to do – no permission slip required – but it also means that nothing gets done while you’re gone. (That’s why I rarely take a full day off, even when we’re traveling.)


Warren and I left the house at daybreak for a three-hour walk through the hills around our house. The further away we got, the more relaxed I felt. As we pushed up the first hill, we started talking about some of the overwhelm in our life and business lately. What could we do to make it better?


Like most people, we first started thinking of workarounds. We could shave some time off here, drop a task or two there. But it was all fine tuning, nothing revolutionary. Then Warren got smart and asked:


What if you had no restrictions in time or money, how would you improve your life?”


Well, that’s where the conversation got interesting.


As we continued walking in the sunshine, through fields of colorful wildflowers thanks to the recent rains, we got wild and weird with our responses. Those outlandish ideas then surprisingly morphed into “do-able” answers. And a couple of solid new ideas with less effort and more return.


Before we finished our walk, we stopped to write down the flow of ideas, seriously good ones that will positively impact our lifestyle, business, and cash flow. (The picture you see above is Warren taking notes on the closest “desk” we could find.)


If I’d stayed in my office working, we’d have never gotten those ideas.”


When we arrived back home, we showered and left for our favorite sunny terrace in the village, sharing paella and wine with neighbors and friends on a perfect spring day. Later at home, I took a nap. Read a book. Watched a movie. Painted my toenails.


I never looked at email, my calendar, or my current projects.


The next day, I woke up energized, ready to tackle a new day. I got my line count done in half the time as usual. HALF. The rest of the work flowed. I even mastered a tricky step in my flamenco class. I felt like a new woman.


It might be the macho way to burn through the pain, to always be crushing it and churning out work. But I’m not the macho type. Decidedly not so. The more feminine way of regrouping, giving time and brain power to better ways of doing things, is what works better for me.


Sometimes I forget that. But a walk in the sunshine with a man who wants to share joyful life together is a pretty good reminder.


Are you ready to follow the adventures of The Late Bloomers? Click here to find out what you have in common with these five, forty-something women who are ready to make big changes in their lives!


 

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Published on April 06, 2015 07:11
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