“How the hell do I keep doing this?”

On navigating challenging seasons in our business...

Photo credit: Unsplash

“How the hell do I keep doing this?”

That’s the question I asked myself a few weeks ago, partly from a place of spiralling overwhelm and partly from a place of: no but seriously, how do I keep doing this?

I was also in the luteal phase of my cycle so, that may also help explain the spiralling overwhelm.

But here’s the thing: I have deeply shaped and designed my business around the challenging realities of living in a chronically ill body.

I work 8-10 hours a week, the majority of my work is delivered asynchronously, I have lots of time off to rest and recharge throughout the year, all whilst being the breadwinner for my family too.

I have already done so much work to create ample spaciousness, breathing room and flexibility in my tiny business.

And also, if I’m truly being honest, I’ve already adapted to letting go of certain goals, desires, and timelines that feel wildly inaccessible to me in my chronically ill body too.

So imagine my deep disheartenment and frustration on the weeks where it feels like even all of the deeply spacious decisions that I’ve made in my business aren’t enough to hold me through the challenges that my health can bring.

And that’s the thing about being a human being: life will continue to throw us curveballs.

In September I had a mild bug that led to a really nasty flare of my chronic illness. All of my most challenging symptoms were flared on the other side - my least favourite being 24/7 internal vibrations alongside exhausting brain fog too.

And then to top it off I caught a really nasty flu at the end of October that I’m still recovering from and preparing to see how much it continues to aggravate my chronic illness too.

In my most disheartened moments it can feel like it’s utterly impossible to function in this body of mine.

And I know that’s not true. On good days I can get in close to 10K steps a day and I can work through my to-do list with ease and play with my son and hang out with my friends and lose myself in a good book for hours before bed too.

But for the past month or so everything has just felt kind of extra hard in my body. I’m deeply fatigued, I’m symptomatic, and this flu has really wiped me out too.

And work has just felt hard in a way that I haven’t experienced in a while.

All of the spaciousness and flexibility I’ve created for myself just hasn’t felt like enough some days to meet the demands of my health right now.

And also: that’s okay.

Because when I pause the spiralling I can remind myself: this is just a moment in time, just a season you’ll look back on soon and laugh and think: damn, that was a rough time wasn’t it.

And most of all, when I pause the spiralling I can then start to make intentional choices to support myself through this challenging season instead of feeling stuck in circumstances outside of my control.

Here’s what this has looked like:

I stripped back my launch plan for my recent enrolment of YS&SB

This flu hit our household around a week into my recent launch and it meant that I really had to remove some tasks from my to-do list for the final stretch of the enrolment window (like podcast episodes I wanted to record) but that I just didn’t have the capacity to do. And that’s a-okay with me - I still welcomed some awesome humans into the program and I just let it be okay to not do all of the things that I wanted to do.

I’m reducing my content creation schedule overall right now

I’m not planning on recording any episodes for my solo podcast for the rest of the year unless inspiration and energy strikes, and I’ll record for LFAHC and Business Besties when me and my co-hosts have the energy to do so too. I’m still aiming to write a newsletter each week to my email list (and write for my Substack here whenever I feel inspired to do so) but also being okay if I need to skip a week sometimes too.

I’m protecting my energy for the two things that matter most in my business: my clients and customers

As long as I use the energy I do have for my business each week to pour into my clients in Voxer and pour into the resources and support inside YS&SB, that’s good enough for me. Anything else I get to on my to-do list is just a bonus.

I’m resting a lot and leaning on my support system

I’m taking lots of naps, going to bed early most nights, and leaning on my very supportive village of my parents when it comes to navigating all this alongside having a very energetic 4 year old to take care of too.

And I’m being okay with not ‘ending the year strong’

My biggest priority for the rest of 2024 is just to take damn good care of myself, to give my body what it needs even if it feels frustrating some days to be going extra slow right now. There are a few ideas and projects I won’t get around to now for the rest of the year that I had hoped to and that’s okay: those ideas aren’t going anywhere and I can revisit them when energy and capacity allows.

So, how the hell do I keep doing this?

I keep doing this by doing what has always supported me: by listening to my needs and finding a way to honour them in my business, even if it means going a lot slower than everyone else around me.

And I share all of this to say: you’re not alone if you sometimes wonder how the hell you’re going to keep doing this too.

Perhaps you’re navigating back-to-back sickness bugs, inconsistent childcare, a challenging chronic illness, an unexpected health crisis, or anything and everything that makes showing up for your business harder in this season.

And the other thing I keep reminding myself? I don’t have to keep doing this if I don’t want to.

If your body is telling you right now that your needs are shifting, if you are seeing ways that you need to create even more flexibility and spaciousness in your work moving forward, we’re allowed to explore how we want to make that our reality too.

Also: I have a free deep dive kit all about shaping your business to work best for you if that can be supportive for you.

And that’s what I think a lot of 2025 will be for me, exploring and experimenting with the ways I want to create even more space for my humanness in my business and listen to the quiet whispers within me that are asking me to make some changes, big and small, in this next season of my work.

And if you just need a moment to give yourself permission to say this sucks, this isn’t fair, and why does this have to be so hard right now? That’s okay and I’m right there with you too.

Until next time,

Jen