When the Ball Drops
Episode 007
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Plan for Wonder Podcast. I’m Crystal, the talking head, founder, and creator of myLifePlanners.ca.
I had another topic in mind for today, but life threw me an oddly shaped ball so awkward that I dropped most of my other balls in the air so I could keep the most important one up: my health and wellness.
If you haven’t been able to tell already by my sexy Phoebe voice, yes this is a Friends TV reference, phlegm is my unexpected guest this week.
I’ve been wondering if my last podcast was predictive. You see, Tuesday night, after a day of feeling off and tired, I hit a wall and crashed. I claimed the bedroom for a solid night's sleep and gained some killer immunity cells that I missed out on the previous night. As I was sleeping, my kid came to bat for me, suggesting it was his turn to take the basement guest room. I love my guy, but he snores very well, and after a nasty ear infection, ear plugs are not my preferred option to get a solid sleep anymore.
When I had hoped a good sleep would be the magic I needed to veer away from getting sick, it turned into day one of a full-blown head cold. I managed to get a couple of things done at the desk, but by late afternoon I was done. Crashed in my bedroom for the next 36 hours.
I mean, you get sick, you stay in bed. That is the routine.
But when you are self-employed, it’s a much harder pill to swallow. If my head wasn’t aching and even thought of getting up didn’t have me feel drained, I’d have been feeling a lot of guilt and anxiety.
So I took to my own advice. I was honest with my clients. Between pushing timelines and meetings, I was so appreciative of getting no pushback. At All.
Self-employed people don’t have an inventory of ‘sick days’ to access. We don’t have the comfort in knowing that there are other peers who step up and cover for us when our health drags us down.
A comment by a client once I emerged got me thinking, and I was surprised I hadn’t considered it before. They were anxious enough that they reviewed our contract to see if I had an emergency contact listed just in case I died.
Yeah, pretty depressing to consider, but a legitimate one.
The past few years I have been blessed to be working with an amazing women building a new business. One so new, it’s unique. She is a certified Executor advisor and has started a company dedicated to supporting families and executors in all things regarding estates and wills. I have learned a lot that no one tells you.
So the past couple of years I have had this idea top of mind, who is my back up when things go south, and do I have all my ducks in a row so they can manage my client needs?
So, I have taken a few steps so far:
I have a couple of graphic designer peers I have been talking to, who I trust to get tagged in when needed.
I did some digital file organization with a lot more logic in both the order and naming systems. Hoping that this in itself would make it easier for someone new to manage to find what they need.
Building a project management system that doesn’t live in my head.
My passwords are managed in an app. I use Last Pass, and they have an Emergency Contact setting, so there is someone who can get into my system without me.
And that is where I am at. The bare minimum.
After this week, I am motivated to get a couple more things set up:
Creating a document to share with my emergency contact and my emergency designer backup so they have the necessary details.
Update my Terms and Agreement, so I have listed my emergency contacts.
And the thing is, this isn’t meant to sound all morbid, but planning for the unexpected helps me to focus on what matters when it matters most. My health and wellness. Knowing that I have a support setup alleviates stress and anxiety so I can use my energy where it’s needed, on healing and rest.
On that note, I’m feeling more human and myself today. So directing this energy into picking up some important balls that I dropped this week.
So enough about me. I’m more than sure you have your own take, and maybe today’s snack-sized podcast has given you some thoughts to nibble on. And at the least, planning for the not-so-fun part of life when you can’t be there is what you can do to be there where it counts.
Thank you so much for listening today.
The space you take up in the world matters, not just to me, but even more importantly, if you need reminding, you matter the most in your life.
