So you have friends that work from home, right? I mean, come on, everyone knows at least a few people that either work for themselves from home, or work remotely for whatever company they work for. Thier lives look kinda glamours, even. You scroll through Facebook, seeing that they get to work from home, so that means that they can sleep in, get up whenever, kick back and drink thier coffee, ease into thier work day right?  Self care? Nah. Not quite.

They want to take off at four, go sit for happy hour with friends every day? Sure, why not. Some days, yes, that’s true. Which of course is whatyou see in social media, and think, Damn. Must be nice.

Here’s the thing.

It is like that sometimes. Sometimes.

You are seeing parts of our daily lives through our business’, and if you’re anything like some of the people I know, you think that we’re being ridiculous with phone photography, or, if you’re like me, I drag out my DSLR that I use when I shoot weddings. (seriously, that thing is attached to me, or within arms reach at all times, and I LOVE IT.)

We are incredibly good at cultivating and know ins what it is that people want to see. (do people really need to see that I STILL have laundry that’s folded on the couch, and no idea what we’re going to do for dinner tonight, have about 6,000 (yes, you read that right) photos to cull through and edit? NOPE.)

Everyone has that part of thier life, the adult to do list is NEVER ENDING. Let’s celebrate the happy.

That social media, the instagram posts that it feels like we are ALLLLLLWAYS doing, and then sharing it across everything else, or when we post a blog (which is no small amount  of time in and of itself) and then try to make sure that we build our shares and traffic the way that we need to, that’s us taking care of the marketing. Which any big company that pays a salary has AN ENTIRE DEPARTMENT FOR.

So yes, we’re constantly on our phones, constantly on social media, and that means that we are working. We are hustling to grow our business. Which is what brings the money in. (Which is what we are all striving for, and believe me, it’s what we NEVER lose sight of, even if it doesn’t look like it in the moment).

We’re going to pause that discussion for a moment, and address this. I promise, it will help (I hope) bring it a little more into focus for those who have not ventured down this crazy road.

 

Two things for this, first, creating art through my lens is a way of life for me, it’s not something that I can turn off and then flip back on light switch. If it was, I’d have been just fine, happy, and fulfilled working at a 9-5.  Not my scene. Not even a little bit. I can’t close it off like that, and I wouldn’t want to if I could.

Secondly, photographs are one of only two ways that you can physically hold a moment of time if your hands, freezing it forever. Who has thier families photo albums from the generation before them? What about before that? What does it feel like to hold them in your hands, to know that someone else cared so much about these moments in time that they preserved them, knowing that they’d be one day in your hands?  That’s a big kind of love.

The downside of that, is we feel it ALL.

So here’s what happens with that.

As creative entrepreneurs, we LIVE it. It’s all the time.  And it can be exhausting unlike anything else. When we hit the wall, we hit it like a freight train.  And when that happens, our energy just drops.

And drops beyond getting to go home, bitch about your day to your significant other, pour a glass of wine, and ass out in front of the tv. We choose this, every single day, and we love it, which is why the lows are so much harder.

Let’s talk about self care.

Self care is something that I struggle with, and I struggle with it daily. The to do list is NEVER ENDING. I think mine has taken on a life of it’s own and kill me.

And when I say struggle with it I mean I stick my heads in behind the curtains in the living room and pretend that if I ignore it long enough that it will simply just go away. Didn’t work when I was three, and it doesn’t work now.

I saw this post on Eponis|Sinope today, and immediately knew that I had to pass it along. It is SO. GOOD. [Want it? Click HERE] I sure as hell needed to see it, and to ask myself ALLLLL of the questions, so I know that there is someone else who does as well.

I walked myself through this list. It helped. And it helped.  A LOT.

Do I feel absolutely 100% like myself, ready to  better, sure as hell getting closer.

And some days, that has to be enough.

 

Eponis|Sinope’s Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Ok

Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to ask before giving up