One of the things I find myself saying quite often is, once I get this done, then I can rest and take some time off. What I have found over the years is, I am lying to myself. Seriously, unless you schedule time off, unless you make yourself take a break, those of us who are OCD, A-Type workaholics, will never rest.
I was talking to my wife, Terri, this morning about how we were already tired when we first got up. She, like myself, is a workaholic who never stops moving. Even on our so-called days off, we have other chores and work to do that we could not do on our scheduled workdays. Even though we both own our own businesses, we are not as free as one without a business may imagine. In fact, I would argue those who own their own small business are far busier than someone with a typical nine to five job.
Today, for example. We had a terrible ice storm here in Northern Michigan, which is no big deal, however, the schools were shut down today, which means may shop doesn't open, and my wife could not get to her scheduled job which is quite a distance from our home. So what do we do? She starts working around the house, and I start doing website maintenance, and of course, writing this blog post, which actually has two purposes today. The first is the actual topic of the blog, the secondary is to test the new script to ensure the blog updates are shared to our Facebook Page, Arthur Francis Studio.
I remember at the beginning of 2021, out of frustration and working hard, I proposed to my wife that we must ensure we take a break during the summer. In fact, we made a laundry list of imaginary breaks and travels we would do. Do you know how many vacations and breaks we did during 2021? Absolutely zero. We had plenty of weddings and funerals and birthday parties, family gatherings during the holidays, etc. But those are not vacations, nor are they to be considered a break. It is work. Pleasent as they may be to see family and loved ones, if you think a family holiday gathering in your home is restful, you have never hosted one.
We have a beautiful bike trail that goes for miles, both North and South of us. We purchased bikes three or four years ago to ride this trail. We have done so two maybe three times. We haven't touched our bikes in a couple of years.
Will 2022 be any different? I propose yes!
Why, how? Well, for starters I sold the antique mall I've owned and operated for nearly 8 years now. I started there creating my leather art, and mastering the craft. Over the years my wife and I had the opportunity to purchase it, and at the time I did not want to do my work elsewhere, so we did. During that time I became quite well known in our town, then our county, eventually getting a contract for designing and creating purse straps for custom Louis Vuitton purses, which was a very fine job.
The responsibility of owning and running a mall on top of my personal artwork is a lot. With many renters and nearly sixty consignment vendors, the paperwork itself was taking many hours each week. Selling will greatly reduce my time spent on paper and on computers managing numbers and writing checks.
I expect that once the sale is complete, I will be literally gaining 25-30 hours each week! This will free me to return to my artwork and writing as well as give me more free time to plan relaxation and maybe even a vacation or two each year.
Considering it is only January 6th, these are big plans and still imaginary. My hope is to make them a reality!
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