Knowing when to step back and breathe

Hello reader,

It’s been a long time since I last published a post. I have no excuse, I just simply needed to take a step back from all the stuff I had on and breathe. Also, my beloved puppy Teddy was accidentally run over on Monday, a day I had planned to blog so I postponed to deal with it. My Mum and I are still sad about it as Teddy was nothing but a delight. Those who follow me on Twitter will know since I was always tweeting about him. “Teddaaaar!”

Teddy was on our Christmas card. He was very hyperactive so I had to give him a mielie cob to get him to look at the camera! Haha!

From the beginning of the year I took off running, taking on more than I could handle and tried to do a lot of things within a single day…by myself. I was so overwhelmed and I got stressed, really frustrated and then doubt started to creep in. I knew then, that I needed to take a step back from a few things.

I’ve been busy running my design business Allebasi Design and designing a new website for it, trying my hand at marketing, doing a lot of research and reading. I wasn’t reading books on my book list; either, I was reading a lot of resources on How to Market Yourself, 10 Steps to Freelancing Successfully…those kinds of reading material. Because of this, I had only managed to read one book from my book list in January. Last year I had read 8 books in January! Eight to one in a year!? Now, I acknowledge that I’m busier than I was last year and really, running a business is so, so hard. I’m doing everything by myself, with no help from anyone and it’s really hard to get clients as well. This month it’ll be 3 months since I officially launched Allebasi Design and to this day it’s still challenging. Sometimes I think whether I should just quit running it full time and get a job. It had been my dream to run my own business and I think that’s why I’m still keeping up with it to this day, that and the fact that I had learned so much!  I started out with a crappy website and I set up another one with my own domain name and it looks great! Through working on my website, I worried about other things that I needed to complete. I was spending far too much time working that I started biting my nails (a sure sign of stress!) and I needed to wear my glasses full time, I was getting headaches everyday and I kept bumping into walls and corners because my perception was off. I was spending a dangerous amount of time in front of my computer.

I needed to simplify things and concentrate on one thing at a time. Today I spend less time on the computer. More than 4 hours without a break is reaching so I make sure to keep my computer sessions under 4 hours or take regular, lengthy breaks if I’m particularly busy. I dedicate weeks to a couple of things at a time and I keep to it. For example I’ve scheduled this week for comic drawing and traditional illustration (which also means less time spent on the PC as I’m using pens and paper, yay!) and the next week will be Valentine’s Week, meaning I’ll dedicate that week to hand drawing Valentine’sDay cards for clients who’ve ordered them and also doing some Valentine’s Day photoshoots! 

When I feel myself start to get frustrated I immediately take a step back and remind myself that things will happen when they are supposed to and I can’t hurry it or that in the end things will work out. Every single thing that happens between now and then is a lesson. This is also a lesson in patience and by praying about things I want to happen and trust God to make them happen, I am reassured.

Taking a step back to breathe and simplifying things made it easier for me. I still get frustrated but it’s less frustration or frustration of things beyond my control. My nails are stronger now and growing. I don’t bump into walls anymore and best of all I have time to read. I’m currently reading The Book Thief now and it’s really interesting. Also, I’m learning German words like Arschloch from it, haha! I’m currently learning to work smarter instead of putting in a lot of unnecessary hours and I’m glad that I’m finally reaching a balance. 

If you have ever felt the way I did please let me know what you did to balance yourself. I’d really love to hear your thoughts!

P.S I will be blogging twice weekly here every Wednesday and Friday and once weekly every other day on my business blog (for all you fellow entrepreneurs and creative minds! :D) for the entire month of February and if it goes well, I’ll even keep it up for the next months.

‘Til next time,

-Bella