Why You Don’t Have to do it All.

Contrary to the title of this post, I am currently trying TO DO IT ALL. I’m in the process of burning out, I can feel it. I’m really trying not to, especially since Chris and I are taking another trip soon. I love our road trips but they aren’t exactly relaxing the entire time, but I still want to be able to enjoy it and not feel burnt out after that either. So why am I burning out? Let me tell you a little bit about what I’ve been doing since September started.

LIST OF CRAP I’M DOING

• Took on a second store at work to help out.
• Started hiring for that store + others around
• Finished writing a children’s book
• Been more consistent with my blog
• Worked on photography/learning how to use the camera better
• Found out we were doing a popup shop in my town + started hiring for that
• Kept my cats alive and myself breathing
• Edited children’s book
• Completed two inventories (exhausting)
• Wrote a story for a competition entry
• (maybe) Found a children’s book illustrator
• Increased my social media presence for my blog
• Read 5 books
• Trained + continually training people at work

This is only a few things I can come up with off the top of my head, but let me tell you, the amount of energy some of those things take is crazy enough on it’s own. I know that sometimes I say yes to things that I know I can do or know I can learn from, even when my plate is already overfilling.

Now don’t get me wrong, this is not me complaining. I would rather be a busy body that knows how and what to do so don’t assume this is woe is me. I’m just writing this blog post at 2 in the morning because I can’t turn my brain off. I need to take a step back so that burn out won’t happen.

Seasons

I don’t think that this is going to be a “forever” thing, but I do thing that we have seasons of busyness. Sometimes opportunities come at us faster in groups instead of one by one. I think that there are steps that I can take in order to prevent burn out, and to even rely on my coworkers and associates a little bit more. I also think that saying “No” needs to be in my vocabulary a little bit more.

Focus on Myself

So I absolutely love my job, but I think that I need to start focusing more energy on myself and on my personal projects. Even though those personal projects consist of putting in more work, I think that they also nourish my soul in a different way. I enjoy it because it’s a passion of mine, like writing or reading or writing about reading. That’s another reason that I feel like crap when I spend my entire day off in bed. I don’t have weekends off so I get the random weekday off and if I don’t utilize it in a productive way I tend to beat myself up about it. I don’t think that’s healthy easy so instead I’ve given myself permission to use one day for personal projects and one day for relaxing. So far this has gone really well.

No

I mentioned how I think I need to utilize the word “No” more in my life. Things I wish I would say no to more: additional workload, going out with people I barely know in an attempt to make friends, going out to dinner/shopping when the writing bug hits me, eating unhealthy cause its cheaper, etc. I think that sometimes I feel guilty when I say No, as if me turning something down is going to ruin that other persons entire day. I also think that it’s incredibly important to no hide yourself away when people want you to be social.

But I have had a hell of a time writing. I think that writing is probably one of the hardest things to do. First of all I overthink character development to the extreme. I’ve overcome a lot of that but it seriously hindered me for a couple years of my life. I find that writing blog posts on my computer is super easy and pretty fast, but when it comes to writing out a story line, I need to have all the facts and character development and notecards laid out in front of me, physical pieces of paper for me to touch and edit. I’m really glad I realized this about myself otherwise I may have never written another story.

So that’s all to say that when I say No, it’s because I have given thought to what you’ve asked me and decided that it can’t fit on my plate anymore. I’m not trying to be harsh or hurtful but as I’m aging I need to start looking out for me. Am I alone in this or do you guys struggle with saying no? How have you managed to find a balance, or not lay blame on yourself afterwards? Asking for a friend.

Didn’t have a lot of photos for this one so here’s some picture of the cats.

Gemini being sassy.

Fluffy Luna