Putting Your Sucky Situation Into Perspective

Time has a funny way of putting things into perspective, and giving clarity to some super-sucky situations. I’m sure we’ve all heard the irritating phrase, “time heals all wounds” at one time or another, and generally when we least want to. But there is some truth to the cliche.

I’m sure everyone can think of a situation that happened a few years ago that SUCKED while it was happening. But, NOW, you understand the benefits of it happening, see why it had to happen, and so forth.

Perhaps it was a relationship breakup. Yes, it hurt while it was happening, but now you look back and think oh-my-goodness THANK GOD I’m not with that douche-bag anymore!

Or maybe it was a challenging experience that really, really sucked at the time, but it helped to turn you into a more disciplined, or grateful person. (The whole, going without to appreciate what you have thing.)

An example from my own life could include the recent years I spent in college. I was a full-time student at a challenging university, and I had to work 3 to 4 jobs WHILE being a full time student. No joke- I honestly worked about 60+ hours a week for a large portion of my student career.

It was hard. It was really friggin’ hard and it was oh-so-tempting to give up sometimes. But now that that period of my life is over, I’m thankful I did what I did. I’m glad I went ahead and took that internship job (which toppled me over to 4 jobs when I was in my final semester), because that job turned into the full-time gig that I still do today. I’m also thankful that I signed up for the student newspaper gig  right before that, because as many hours as the position required, it gave me lots of good experience. That experience is what helped me land my internship job… and you know the rest. ;-)

See how that works? We never know how things are going to turn out for sure, and yes, we’re going to make some bad decisions along the way. But even those decisions can turn into life-lessons that help refine us into better people.

So I want you to consider what is really sucking in your life right now.

Maybe it’s a a friendship going poorly, maybe finances are tight, maybe you’re struggling with a project at work. Whatever it is, delve deep and focus on that one sucky thing.

Then, I want you to envision yourself looking back on your current situation a year from now, 3 years from now, and 10 years from now.

What will your currently difficult situation teach you? How will it help to shape you as a person? What will you end up being grateful for? What will you be relieved happened even though you were resistant to letting it happen at the time? Try to be really honest with yourself here, and do your best to step into your future self, and gain some of that perspective usually reserved for the passage of time.

Experienced any revelations? Please share them in the comments below!

What situation are you dealing with right now, and how has envisioning how you’ll remember it in the future changed your perspective? You guise know I love hearing from you!

Creating White Space for Your Life

Graphic designers have something of a love affair with white space. We drool over the blank areas within a composition as if they were made of milk chocolate and lightly salted caramel. It’s the white spaces that make the design, really. Of course we love it.

Uh… Megan, what’s a white space?

In case you’re unfamiliar, I’ll give you a brief lesson of design. White space doesn’t necessarily have to be white, but it refers to the negative areas within a design without other elements demanding our attention. It’s the white space that draws our focus towards what’s important. For example, check out all of the beautiful white space in this design:

White space, almost as good as chocolate.

Or this design, where the white space isn’t necessarily white:

The white space in this design is actually a pale yellow, but I think you get the idea.

Now, watch what happens when we fill up the white space with other elements:

Ew, this looks gross. Plus, the text is hard to read now.

Lesson #1: White space in design helps us focus on the important elements of the design.

Lesson #2: White space in our lives helps us focus on the important parts of our life.

You just knew I was going to get all deep and sentimental on you, didn’t you?

The same white space principal applies in life as it does design. If we are intent on filling up every spare minute of our time with something, we won’t be able to focus on the important things. Instead of always trying to be busy for the sake of being busy, schedule yourself some white space. Leave a few time slots in your daily schedule with nothing filled in. Use this time to meditate, read, think, and focus on what’s important. Use this time to visualize your goals and consider whether or not your daily activities are helping you achieve them. Leave some time for yourself to breathe, to relax, and to recharge.

White space can be a beautiful thing.

How to Keep Your Energy Levels Up

Running a business can be pretty draining. Especially if you’re trying to do so while simultaneously taking care of a household, working a day job (or two – if you’re me), and maintaining at least SOME manner of a social life. Running a HANDMADE business can be even MORE draining because you have to, you know, MAKE the shyte that you are selling. So there has to be time for creating squeezed in-between everything else.

So how does one retain the steady level of energy needed in order to do all of these things? Everyone is different, but I can tell you how I attempt to fill the required quota.

Stock up for later.
When I am feeling especially creative in a certain area, I’ll utilize that energy to build up a “reserve” for when I’m not “feeling it.” This might be the urge to write blog posts, in which case I might draft several posts in a single day. I’ll have enough to last me a week on my blog (in case I can’t come up with anything new during that time, and if so, they’ll last even longer than that), plus my guest posts to put on other blogs.

This also means adding a bunch of draft listings to my Etsy shops. I’ll simply upload the photographs, and save the listings to be filled out later. Having a bunch of draft listings almost ready to go makes it easy to add a new listing to your shop everyday without having to do all of the meticulous work. It’s also better exposure for your shop than adding all of those items at once.

I can also “stock up” on creative Facebook and twitter postings by using the Buffer App. I can write several posts at once, add them to the app, and it will space them out for me throughout the next few days. It’s nice to have a break from social media while letting it still work for you!

Stay inspired.
Artists and crafters may have a “fun” job, especially according to outsiders, but the pressure to be constantly creative can be a HUGE energy-sucker. In order to maintain high levels of creative energy, we have to keep ourselves motivated through inspiration. This could be looking at pictures of beautiful art, taking a nature walk, reading helpful business tips (like this post!), and checking up on other successful sellers (to remind ourselves it CAN be done and there is a point to keep trying!)

Take a friggin break.
If you are feeling utterly exhausted and there is just no way in heck you have the energy to finish that goddamn scarf before tomorrow… set it down. Eat some chocolate. Have a glass of wine. Read the next chapter in that book you’ve started but can never find the time to pick up. Take a hot bubble bath and sing along to your favorite music of choice.

Taking a short breather to get our minds off of our work can be exactly what we need to get our minds back INTO our work. Before you may have just been focused on need to get the thing done, without thinking about why you enjoy doing “the thing” so much in the first place. Stepping away for just a short while can help us remember why we are so drawn to our craft in the first place.

Drink espresso.
Okay. So maybe this isn’t the healthiest bit of advice. I suppose I should tell you to start exercising more, but I promised I would tell you what >>>>>>I<<<<<< do to maintain my levels of energy, and I must confess, caramel macchiatos are my drug of choice.