How Easy Is It To Take a Month Off as a Creator?
I’m back to writing after 35 days.
I’m that full-time writer and creative entrepreneur who has a hard time taking an entire weekend off writing. It’s something I’m not proud of, but I owe you honesty.
One year into creating, while I am increasing my income, I still don’t have a stable source of income.
This means that at the beginning of every month, my brain and I sit and plan how we’re making money this time. It’s exhausting. And even though I know I’ll be okay (because I’ve always been), it triggers my anxiety big time.
Luckily, I have several sources because I’ve aimed for diversification since the beginning.
But a month off with zero work? Um, that still hits business… or does it?
Last year this time, I was anxious about this self-employment thing. I was only two months old into quitting my 9–5 after nearly ten months of side hustling and still didn’t know if this writing thing would work out.
Today, my entire life has changed.
All because of putting in the reps and not giving up for one year. Starting with freelancing, to branching my writing on other platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, to digital products, and a cohort-based course.
The creator economy is endless.
But what the creator forgets is that their limits aren’t.
And you have to stop putting yourself through shit to keep pushing through.
I travelled for four weeks in August across several cities in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, and Switzerland. I had zero contact with my work during this time.
Addressing the elephant in the room, here’s why I wasn’t worried about money:
- The platform you’re reading on pays me
- My digital products sales are doing well
- LinkedIn had to pay me $2000
So I was safe. Extremely safe.
But I couldn’t have done this a few months ago.
And if you’re reading this till here, chances are you too want to do something like this someday. Create some sort of streams so you don’t have to work day in and out.
And it’s all a result of compounding.
Keep putting in the reps without giving up even when you don’t get results. Your future self will thank you for it a year later.
Because creating is directly proportional to how much you earn for a long long time. Until it doesn’t have to be.
During my holiday, there were several realisations that I felt. I wasn’t journalling or meditating, but they were shower thoughts and thoughts that popped in while walking or just sitting on the train.
I’m travelling across the continent with my mother.
We’ll probably never do this again.
How many people get to do it, anyway? Now, that is something I must cherish and be grateful for wholeheartedly.
In several instances, I was also grateful for the small things in my country. And I do plan on writing more travel and cultural articles.
I also want to re-strategise my work. More quality, less quantity.
More:
- saying no
- delegating work
- filtering out people
- being conscious of my energy
Less:
- worrying
- taking advice
- being bothered by negativity
I enjoy my creator journey. That’s what it is, after all, a journey.
What I thought would be a freelancing career became creative entrepreneurship. And also one thing I’ve always wanted — teaching.
I cannot wait for what more comes in.
I’ve also realised that a lot of my anxiety is because of my doings. I can avoid it by putting away a few habits like:
- Checking my email as soon as I wake up. It gets me so anxious!
- Hell, I’m guilty of checking Twitter and LinkedIn DMs too. This makes me want to reply when I’m barely awake.
- Opening my email tabs often while working.
Please tell me I’m not the only one who does this?
With this, I worry about work during my morning routine and overthink through out the day.
Completely avoidable, right?
It’s funny how random train rides where I’d just look out at bright blue lakes or beautiful mountains made me think of this.
I mean, I got my first ever 20+ white hair in the past year. Surely the self-sabotage needs to stop, yes?
There’s something I need to tell you before we end.
Please prioritise living over creating. I know it's easier to say when you have at least decent income coming in, but the bar of ‘decent’ keeps going up with time too.
Being mindful of this can help.
My ‘stats’ on one platform (the one you’re reading on) are down by 70% but my LinkedIn got over 17,000 followers in a month.
But it doesn’t matter. I won’t remember stats a year from now.
While all this sounds like a self-improvement and inspirational article, I must come out to share my single biggest failure.
I get affected by negativity.
And with the traction across platforms increasing, the love is too.
But so is the opposite.
I’m consciously working hard to ignore it and not care about it. Even small progress on this front feels freeing.
I’m excited to write again.
To share my travel experiences.
And life.
And everything in between.
Life over everything, always.
