Small Business, Passion, and Free Time
Yesterday I realized that, despite working very hard to keep my work hours under 40 a week this year, my work-life balance didn’t feel quite right. I have a need for sleep which falls somewhere on the right side of the bell curve at roughly 10 hours a night, which cuts into the free time many lucky people who need less sleep get.
I started to think about the fact that I am a dog trainer because I enjoy helping other people and their dogs. It is a hobby and a passion that I was able to turn into a job that pays the bills. My passion. That’s what stuck with me. Most people go to work so that they can pay for their hobbies and free time. People go to work so that they can pay for their passions. My life is a little different than that. I don’t need a lot of money to be able to help people and their dogs, but I do need compassion, mental energy, and emotional strength. These, I realized, are the currencies that I need to save up in order to follow my vocation. As many of you know, I was diagnosed with depression about four years ago. Even with medication and lots of tools learned through books and therapy, these currencies that I need for my job don’t come naturally to me. I have discovered that I need to remind myself to “work” to earn those currencies by taking some extra time for self care. I need to schedule down time and free time so that I have more energy to “spend” at work.
This isn’t coming easily. There are stigmas I’ve mentally attached to putting myself first, such as the concept that I should be able to push through and feeling “soft” for needing a little more downtime than others. There are also some hard truths coming up regarding how I spend my free time- I’m seeing that I spend a lot of time “loafing on the job”, on Facebook or some other activity that isn’t paying my in my currency of mental energy and emotional strength. This is something that I need to address. Next time I’ll show you how I organized my time. Maybe you can give me some additional suggestions on balancing my free time in order to maximize my mental and emotional paybacks. What is your passion? How do you pay for it? What is your currency? Tell me in the comments.
