Happy new year friends! I did something a little crazy over the holidays...
I stopped.
I may be a little lazy at heart but I also like to be busy. I'm lucky enough that my passion for making is now my full time gig, and generally my brain is bursting at all times with not only the things I have to get but done but also the multitude of new things I can't wait to try.
I have also been known to overwhelm myself. Overcommit. Say yes when I should probably say no. I get excited and line up a million things but everything seems to end up happening at the same time and it gets stressful and stops being fun.
I can admit that I've also been known to get caught up in the "hustle" mindset. "How are you?' ... "Busy!" I catch myself seeking validation for my work or my worth based on how many orders I have on the go, how quickly I sold out, how many likes or shares on social media. And it's never enough.
The holidays are generally the busiest time of year for makers, and the last 3 years since I started have been intense. In 2019 I was incredibly burnt out by the time the holidays wrapped and it took a long time to recover. By 2020 I learned nothing and the massive wave of "shop local" support in the early days of the pandemic led to a huge business boom. I had never been so busy, and then I found out I was pregnant and soon experienced the most intense fatigue that made it difficult to get through the day. I cried on many days because it seemed completely impossible it would all get done in time. But it did, somehow.
This year, with a new baby in the mix I knew there were obvious limitations on how much I could take on. I made decisions and promised myself I wouldn't go back on them. My deadline was going to be early, and firm. I wanted to be done everything by mid-December and leave myself some time to enjoy my own holidays. No squeezing in last minute orders no matter how much I want to help.
I'll admit, it was a little scary how much trouble I had sticking to my boundaries. As I neared the end of my orders I found myself thinking "Well what if I made a ready-to-ship collection..." or "I could extend my deadline, it's only December 8..." Sometimes you don't realize you have an addiction until you try to stop!
And so, my order queue was soon empty and I found myself wrapping presents (not frantically on Christmas Eve), baking cookies from scratch and most importantly spending time with my family. Between Christmas and New Years we did nothing. We watched movies with popcorn, went for drives to see the lights, slept in (as much as young children will allow), made pancakes, stayed in our jammies all day. It was actual rest!
Things are starting to gear up again of course. I don't do New Year's resolutions but I do set goals. A big one for me this year is to banish the "hustle" mindset. I want to slow down, take my time developing new products slowly, make things for myself, make things just for fun. And, equally importantly, make time for rest!