Entrepreneurs need time away on those frustrating days
Right before I sat down to begin an email to you all, I got an email from an almost-client who wanted to move her start date from February 14th to March 15th.
Hardly enough to rend garments over, but it put me in a mood.
“Wordle,” my husband said from across the room.
“Eh?” (Sometimes I make believe I’m Canadian cause their country is so cool)
“Have you had your way with Wordle yet today?” he added.
WORDLE is my new obsession.
Do you play?
Real quick for the non-players.
It’s a word game. Here’s Wikipedia’s description; “Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word; feedback is given for each guess, in the form of colored tiles, indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position.”
I’m hooked. Good thing for me is, you can only play it once a day or I’d never be heard from again.
The other really good thing is, playing Wordle got me out of my ennui and back to my keyboard.
The simple act of distracting my brain allowed my creativity to return and mood to lift.
Then it was 1:45 and I was to have a telecall with my doc.
For 45-minutes I sat in front of my computer screen, logged into my patient portal, waiting. The pop-ups kept saying, “Sit tight, our team sees you’re here, we are a bit delayed.”
Anyone reading this will likely have been kept waiting by a dentist or doctor. It brings out the ax murderer in me, you?
At least I was at home.
I’d never take an ax to my computer.
So far, win-win.
When I call the office for the answer to WTF, the voice on the other end says “Dr. H called you and left a message, so did I” says the nurse, “we don’t use that online system anymore, I don’t know why you got a link sent to you.”
I’m sure there’s an ax somewhere.
The new appointment is one week from now. Thankfully, I expect to live ‘til then, but grrrr.
Then the mail arrived. Yay, a fun new pair of glasses from Zenni. This was a free replacement for the last pair they sent because I messed up entering the prescription.
Great customer service.
#soexcited
Once I removed all of the protective covering— hard case, plastic zip-lock bag, plastic on the arms, glass cleaning cloth wrapped around them like swaddling — I slip them on.
What I see is not the beautiful landscape outside my window, but an impressionist painting-like version of it.
My prescription is wrong again.
This time it is their fault, although they have a copy of the scrip as the doctor wrote it.
“Mark, where do you keep the ax?” I ask.
He responds with, “Why don’t you go for a walk?”
My inner 5-year-old is stamping her feet as she blurts out, “I can’t just go for a walk, I have work to do and besides it’s freezing.”
“It’s 50 degrees” he says almost inaudibly.
Suddenly, I have a great idea.
It’s really his idea, but I have made it my own.
In which case it’s a perfectly acceptable idea.
And one of the things I teach and lots of podcast guests concur.
When you can’t think, are in a funk and out of inspo, get up and get outside.
Research has proven that taking breaks can improve your mood, boost your performance and increase your ability to concentrate.
Besides, what’s the point of working for yourself if you can’t go for a walk when you want to?
Sneakers on, earbuds in, and the rare for February, 50-degree late afternoon sun, all conspired to take my mind off the frustrations of the day.
My playlist is a junk yard of musical styles and eras.
Favorites might last a month or two, some, a year of more.
One of the year or more songs, is Sing by Pentatonix.
That link will take you to their video, which means the 5-second ad first but it’s worth it.
Sing is on speed dial on my phone for those times I need a sprint, a lift, or reason to sing as loud as I can.
Back from my walk, looking at the email I’d started it was oh so clear it was time to start fresh.
Bashing templates and swipe file can wait.
Today, someone out there in entrepreneur land needed to be reminded that you can play word games, have midday doc appointments, walk or sing, whenever you want.
That some days will be meh, a mixture of ax murderer thoughts and inner child tantrums.
And others, many others, will blow by in a flurry of creating and selling, serving people in the way we design.
A junk yard of experiences full of treasures waiting to be found.