A piece I did for Freelancing Females a while ago. Self care is so fucking important, it’s easy to lose sight of but you simply MUST take care of you. Always.
I've been self-employed since my late teens and have spent roughly the last decade building and running a company I funded myself. One of the hardest lessons has been realizing that exhaustion and commitment are not the same thing.
For a long time, I treated rest as something to be earned after everything was finished. The problem, of course, is that for entrepreneurs there is always one more email, one more idea, one more responsibility waiting.
What I appreciate about this piece is that it shifts the conversation away from self-care as a luxury and toward self-care as sustainability.
When our work is deeply personal, it becomes easy to confuse productivity with worth. But eventually the body starts asking questions the mind has been avoiding.
"Burnout is not a badge of honour."
That line landed heavily with me.
Some of the most important decisions I've made in business came not from pushing harder, but from stepping back long enough to hear myself think again.
Oh wow thank you so much for this comment. This bit especially “What I appreciate about this piece is that it shifts the conversation away from self-care as a luxury and toward self-care as sustainability.” Because this was my aim exactly so Thankyou🥹 I agree completely with everything and I think for women especially it’s even tougher! Some of my best work has actually come from when I’ve taken care of myself and actually set aside time out for it. Thankyou again🙏🏻💖
Soooooooper good reminders! I had a pet sitting and dog training business from 1997-2010. I literally went three years without a day off. I went back to school to be a therapist but it didn’t quite work out so here I am trying to write professionally for the first time. My sister, pen name Mishell Baker, figured it out. She wrote a fantasy trilogy, The Arcadia Project and her first book, Borderline, was a Finalist for the Nebula Award. Sadly, she now has terminal cancer, but she gets chemo every two weeks and she’s already exceeded her “time”. Do you know what she did with her “time”? She just turned in a complete draft of her fourth book! She does get self-care. She has to. She has chemo every two weeks. Then she feels HORRIBLE for 5 days. Then she gets 9 days to write and spend time with her husband and girls. My personal goals now are find the writer inside me and have a business with actual customers where I need self-care.
I've been self-employed since my late teens and have spent roughly the last decade building and running a company I funded myself. One of the hardest lessons has been realizing that exhaustion and commitment are not the same thing.
For a long time, I treated rest as something to be earned after everything was finished. The problem, of course, is that for entrepreneurs there is always one more email, one more idea, one more responsibility waiting.
What I appreciate about this piece is that it shifts the conversation away from self-care as a luxury and toward self-care as sustainability.
When our work is deeply personal, it becomes easy to confuse productivity with worth. But eventually the body starts asking questions the mind has been avoiding.
"Burnout is not a badge of honour."
That line landed heavily with me.
Some of the most important decisions I've made in business came not from pushing harder, but from stepping back long enough to hear myself think again.
Thank you for this reminder.
Oh wow thank you so much for this comment. This bit especially “What I appreciate about this piece is that it shifts the conversation away from self-care as a luxury and toward self-care as sustainability.” Because this was my aim exactly so Thankyou🥹 I agree completely with everything and I think for women especially it’s even tougher! Some of my best work has actually come from when I’ve taken care of myself and actually set aside time out for it. Thankyou again🙏🏻💖
🙋♀️
Soooooooper good reminders! I had a pet sitting and dog training business from 1997-2010. I literally went three years without a day off. I went back to school to be a therapist but it didn’t quite work out so here I am trying to write professionally for the first time. My sister, pen name Mishell Baker, figured it out. She wrote a fantasy trilogy, The Arcadia Project and her first book, Borderline, was a Finalist for the Nebula Award. Sadly, she now has terminal cancer, but she gets chemo every two weeks and she’s already exceeded her “time”. Do you know what she did with her “time”? She just turned in a complete draft of her fourth book! She does get self-care. She has to. She has chemo every two weeks. Then she feels HORRIBLE for 5 days. Then she gets 9 days to write and spend time with her husband and girls. My personal goals now are find the writer inside me and have a business with actual customers where I need self-care.