Creating a new normal

I love big changes in life that give us the feeling of a blank slate – that wonderful prospect of being able to re-create our everyday life according to our new priorities and ideals.

When I closed my shop in January 2015 and moved my workshop to home, I suddenly realised that I could re-shape my days. I began to ask myself…

~ will I work from 8am-4pm, or perhaps 10am-6pm?
~ will I work longer days, but have Fridays off?
~ will I take up a class and learn something new?
~ will I go for a bike ride each morning before getting into the workshop?
~ and can I spend a day in the garden every so often?

The possibilities were suddenly exciting. With the concept of work life balance at the forefront of my mind, I let my imagination drift, and started writing a long list of all the things that I love doing, the things that nourish my soul. My reasoning was that I didn’t want to just get bogged down in ‘normal’ and forget to include more of the things that make me happy in everyday life.

The truth is, I don’t really know what work life balance looks like. To make my business profitable, my instinct is to work harder and longer hours. To make myself happy I know that I can’t just work all the time. Even though I love what I do, I can’t do only that to feel fulfilled.

So I guess this is an experiment. My theory is that by including more of the things that I love doing in each day and each week, I hope to find a balance. A new normal, where I spend enough time on my business to let it grow, while spending more time feeling like a well-rounded human being, rather than one with tunnel vision.