Yesterday was my birthday, and, as we all probably know, birthdays that aren’t milestone aren’t typically that exciting for those us in the working world. It’s another day of hustling and getting things done. I opted against even doing my birthday dinner last night because there was an event I wanted to attend after work and I knew an early AM workout class was waiting for me this morning (don’t worry, I am doing my birthday dinner this weekend – finally trying Supra which I’m SO psyched for).
VEERING OFF SCHEDULE
Well, yesterday ended up going a bit off my intended schedule, which is a struggle for someone who is super Type A and typically has no less than 8 to-do’s on her daily personal and side hustle calendar. After a super productive week where I’d gone through everything on my to-do list – checking off taxes, booking several wedding vendors, finalizing our wedding website, cleaning out several spots in our apartment that had been bugging me, blogging each day, even chugging through the administrative aspects of running a blog – I found myself on Thursday with a migraine, a super busy day with work that didn’t allow for what I hoped was a slowish birthday, and then, late in the afternoon, my phone stopped working. Like no going back stopped working.
If there’s any way to through a wrench in someone’s schedule who works entirely digitally and whose side hustle relies on social media, it’s to take their phone out of commission. Add in my birthday and I was feeling totally lost. Not to mention I wasn’t sure the last time my phone backed up, so I was risking a loss of all my photos from our recent travels.
SLOWING DOWN
What I ended up doing was taking the phone as a sign, calling the night a wash, putting my to-do list aside, and deciding to relax and go to bed early instead. I still went to the event I had planned on going to, but afterwards, Adam and I walked up the street to a Mexican restaurant, ate tacos outside to enjoy the ridiculously nice weather, then we came home, indulged in some birthday cake, and promptly went to bed by 10:30 PM.
The event I went to was all about self care for entrepreneurs and creatives and the panelists told their stories of how they make sure to take care of themselves so that they can stay on their A game and avoid burnout. While burnout isn’t something that I tend to deal with (a textbook upholder right here), I can have brief moments where I suffer from mini-breakdowns and last night was definitely one of them. The broken phone forced me to slow down, put my laptop and planner away, take a step back, and be spontaneous rather than powering through like I normally do.
AN UNEXPECTED MOMENT OF SELF CARE
Which is all to say that yesterday was a lesson in self care in all its forms. It doesn’t always mean a face mask and a relaxing bath – those types of self care I’ve got down pat because I can write them down on my to-do list, of course – sometimes it means setting aside your set schedule and doing what you actually need at that moment without guilt and without worrying about what you’re supposed to be doing.
