NOTHING IS STILL A THING - Brittlestar’s Weekly Newsletter - Issue #53
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NOTHING IS STILL A THING
I’ve made over 2500 videos.
That averages out to about 1 video EVERY SINGLE DAY for 7 years. I’ve been making videos for social media for about 9 years now, so there were some days I didn’t get a video done but I’ve still been hustling every day.
Thinking. Planning. Emailing. Bookkeeping. Writing. Editing.
My job is weird. My job is occasionally hard. My job is… fun.
I’ve been fake tackled by a group of young female rugby players. I’ve driven cars worth two times more than my house while I chat with some super smart people. I’ve woken up with an idea, went into my studio in my pyjamas, written a song, got dressed, filmed a video for it and had hundreds of thousands of people listen and watch within a few hours. I’ve even been fake punched by Alan Thicke and impersonated Gordon Ramsay to Gordon Ramsay.
And that’s my problem.
I’m motivated and I enjoy the work. So I rarely stop.
That’s no good.
I’ve quoted the saying many times, if you don’t decide to take a break, your body will decide for you.
It happened to me in 2018 in Vancouver and I ended up in hospital for the day.
It happened this past Monday too. I’m fine. No hospital this time. I’ve learned how to help myself relax and how to handle my racing pulse, high blood pressure, etc..
How do I help myself and handle my symptoms? Giving in to it and doing nothing.
I’m a write-off for at least a day.
For a guy who panics at the thought of falling behind, being forced to take a day or more off to do nothing feels horrendous… at first. Then I realize that I could have scheduled downtime, actually rested and enjoyed it to get the same results. Minus the drama and literal headache.
It’s all too easy for us to think we can’t stop or we’ll somehow lose. While that maybe true for some instances, it generally isn’t.
The truth is, our productivity, creativity, happiness, relationships and health all suffer if we don’t just stop every now and then.
For an hour, a day or a month… whatever.
It’s difficult (for me at least) to get past the initial guilt of doing nothing because it feels like I’m doing… well, nothing.
But sometimes doing nothing is still doing something very important.
Take some time off and come back stronger.
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Pictured: Author "working"