When Working is Your Self-Care.
What if working is your self-care? It may sound counterintuitive but hear me out. I’m not talking about slaving away at a 9–5 job or staring at your computer for 16 hours straight. I’m talking about discovering what you love to do so you don’t feel you are working a day in your life. In other words, the effort in the work feels worth it because you have pleasure, purpose, and passion for the experience.
An experience where work feeds your soul.
I was on a business retreat where a respected colleague asked me about my projects. As I shared all the creative pursuits I was working on in 2020, she asked about my end goal. I paused. I reflected. I panicked. I was at a loss for words! I didn’t have an answer for her. Why didn’t I? Isn’t having an end goal an important building block of business strategy?
I’d made the decision to reflect on it further when she messaged me to share she thought she owed me an apology. She went on to explain that she’d thought about it further and saw my passion and love for creating and projects as restorative for me, meaning the end goal shouldn’t matter. She named that her question about outcomes was in line with current business culture and didn’t do right by me or my experience. The gift? She helped me put into words that the process of creating was invigorating for me, and therefore could be named as self-care. It’s the journey, not the destination. The process, not the result.
How many of us are out there, working in ways that energize us as part of our self-care?
Are they also subject to misunderstanding when not having an end goal in mind? Like artists, does society focus on the end product instead of the experience of creating? Do we miss the mark, miss the point, and move away from mindfulness in our desire to succeed and steamroll ahead?
This realization gives me greater understanding and compassion for creatives, people who struggle with articulating an end goal because they choose to focus on the present moment. The same group of creatives who might feel lost when they work less, go on vacation, or retire from the workforce. They love to work! Not because they are addicted or a workaholic, but because the work itself is fulfilling and energizing. It brings them joy!
So how does this stand against workaholic culture? Are we mislabeling people who love to work as workaholics? To ask creatives to work less is to force them into a place of mental distress. Inauthenticity. Instead, we must pursue balance and boundaries as keys to our success. If you are a creative entrepreneur, I want to encourage you to:
· Notice when it’s time to take a break
· Recognize how much down time you need
· Set boundaries and structure within your day
· Give yourself permission to just be once in awhile
I feel energized by this discovery in recognizing my own edges and potential as a driven and creative entrepreneur. My hope is that together, we can change the conversation on workaholic culture and recognize the diversity of self-care in ourselves and others. For some it might be decompressing and vegging out. For others, it’s the satisfaction of building or creating something new that fills their cup and feeds their soul.
