I used to teach business practices at the Potomac Massage Training Institute. I stepped away from it when I felt myself getting kinda stale as an instructor but I've never stopped thinking about the class, contemplating ways to improve it or reorganize it, fantasizing about getting to teach it again. I loved teaching that class.
Recently the school asked me if I'd be interested in teaching it again. I said no.
I was planning to do some major writing today. Got deadlines coming up, I'm thisclose to being ready to look for an agent for a book, really excited to write that last chapter. I didn't do it.
Why? I have no emotional bandwidth left. I've been hit with too many major emotional upheavals in my personal life. A mother with increasing dementia. A dear friend on suicide watch.
But isn't work in a whole 'nother realm? And doesn't it just have to get done? Shouldn't I just "suck it up" (to quote another biz blogger) and get down to business?
No, I shouldn't.
Our work is personal, intimate, and requires a certain amount of our emotional resources. Not just the touching but the related work -- teaching, writing, etc. The best stuff doesn't come just from the mind; it also comes from the heart. And if your heart is depleted or at the edge of what it can process, you have to acknowledge that.
You can't always put your work on pause. Clients are still on the books. Meetings still need to happen. Classes have been paid for.
However, if you want to be a wise business owner, make sure you're checking in on and taking care of your key business assets, including your heart.
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