This week, Mother Nature is sending Chicago’s temperatures into the HIGH NINETIES and HVAC systems into sputtering overdrive 🥵

Bitch, the only nineties I am interested in belong in my Spotify Daylist. Thank you kindly.

The public pool a block from my house opens today.

Yet here I sit, Dearest Gentle Reader, feathers spewing from a henhouse full of chickens that have come home to roost after weeks of kicking deliverables cans down the road.

(So many idioms, so little time.)

And I enjoy the work I do. When I can get myself into The Zone, I actually love it.

💡 I’m experiencing lightbulb moments with coaching clients.
🎉 I’m writing content for businesses I believe in with humans whose beliefs align with my own (shoutout to ideological echo chambers).
💀 I’ve got a few prospects on deck who I would diiiiiie to work with.
📣 I’m refining my brand-voice discovery process and working out how to fold it into the messaging services I offer.

There’s so much to be excited about. I also have hella tasks to catch up on this week. And I will.

And yet…

My heart is also already at Jackknife Cove in Cape Cod, splashing in shallow, brackish water, attempting to believe the “every body is a beach body” mantra .

And in my imagination, I am already preparing a cozy dinner in the kitchen (currently a glimmer in my eye) as snow falls outside our window.

I want you to know that if Doing It All™ for your business in any season — including marketing — feels like pulling teeth or you’d rather be somewhere (anywhere?) else: It’s okay.

Maybe you’re a parent wrangling kids during summer break.
Maybe you’re living with or caring for someone with health challenges.
Maybe you’re tempted to quit your job, pick up the cello and work part time in a grocery store.
Insert your own reason here.

Whether you push through and do it anyway or let some things fall by the wayside, I see you.

The good and bad news: Folks probably won’t notice you’ve taken a break.

Few subscribers are waiting with bated breath for your next email.
Still fewer are refreshing your website waiting for a flash sale.
Or looking for your post in their daily doomscroll.

Your deadlines are likely your own.
The pressure is likely self-imposed.

I will side-eye anyone who unironically and with a straight face says:

• Create a life you don’t need a vacation from!
• Choose a job you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life!

For mortals like us, it just…doesn’t work like that. So:

It’s okay. It’s okay.

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P.S. Hello, privilege, you old dirty bastard. My reality is that if I stumble, I fall face first into a cumulus.

But  some folks actually can’t take the break. For certain businesses, it doesn’t feel okay to take the foot off the gas. 

If that sounds more like you, I see you too. And I hope whatever’s keeping you from that subsides sooner than later. You deserve the break.