Happy Monday Canna Fam. I hope everybody is continuing to stay healthy and safe at this time. This week I want to talk about balance a bit deeper. Growing up with a father who rarely stopped working, I never imagined I would also have these same issues. However, after 2.5 years of being on the road, I still have not managed to learn how to turn off at the end of a work day. Now in “Slow Down to Live”, I wrote about really learning how to slow down and be present, but I did not really dive into the deeper issue of leaving your work at the door and learning how to set boundaries and keep balance between your work life and your personal life. I hope by writing about it, and for you reading about it, we can all improve our abilities to leave work at work and enjoy the time that we do have away from our jobs, even if they are ones we love.
Being a traveling sales rep, you get pretty used to making friends everywhere you go. More often than not, these friends I encounter end up being people I have met at hydroponic stores, grows, or at events along the way. The only downfall to this is you end up talking about work nonstop. You could be hanging out with somebody late on a Saturday night and find yourself caught up in a deep work discussion the majority of the time. Now, while I do enjoy talking to people in our industry about everything that is going on and about my nutrients; I also enjoy talking to people about other passions we might have in life. I think this just goes back to the importance of boundaries and balance. Sometimes when I am not around my family and non-industry friends as often, I forget how easy it is to just never stop working. I have really practiced lately to express to whoever I am hanging out with, after work hours, to keep the work talk to an ultimate low. Surprisingly, this has kind of helped remind me of the other hobbies I used to love and have tucked away pretty damn deep. It has also helped me to nurture myself in regards to self-love.
Self-love has been something I have really dove into these last couple of years. When you are traveling by yourself (other than my dog Copper, of course), you spend a lot of time with just yourself; and this has been quite the eye opener for me. I feel that I am finally, in 2020, starting to be extremely content with my alone time and who I am. Now, this is especially important for the workaholics such as myself. Without self-love, including the proper nutrition and exercise, it really takes a toll on you when you are dedicating all your time to your work. There have been days I get so distracted hitting hydroponic stores that by the time it is 6 PM, I realize I haven’t even stopped for a snack. Trust me when I say I am not proud of that fact; however, I am working on it and fully aware of where my weaknesses are. Self-love seems to not be the only challenge that comes with being a workaholic, as love in general can be pretty tricky when it comes to those who dedicate most of their time to their work.
Now to someone who is a traveling sales rep in this industry, I am sure you understand exactly what I am about to talk about here with the lack of stability we can offer a partner in a relationship. While I am sure this is frustrating to the people we choose to be in a relationship with, it is also just as frustrating for us out doing it. Everything is great in moderation, (unless it is cannabis, then I say go crazy with it) but when it comes to traveling and attending events, even us who love what we do get tired. There is something about having the same bed to go back to every night, and knowing where you are going to be 3 months from now that is reassuring to some. While I still managed to find love last year with such a chaotic lifestyle, it was much harder than I could have ever imagined. I quickly learned I was not quite far enough along on my self-love journey yet to be able to create enough balance within my time spent toward my career and toward my relationship. As much as I am so grateful to be where I am right now, I do wish at times I would have put a little bit more energy toward the person I was trying to build a life with as well. At the end of the day, your careers will only mean so much to you at the finish line if you have no one by your side to enjoy it all with.
I will be a little vulnerable with you when I talk about what I think is my biggest struggle at the end of the day when it comes down to me working so much. I tend to struggle with anxiety, as so many of us do on a daily basis. How mine seems to impact me strongly is on a work level. I tend to constantly worry and fear that I am missing something or forgetting about somebody, and therefore find myself on my email at midnight on the weekend working. It is almost as if working soothes the anxiety, but also is the source of where it comes from in the first place. Guys, this is why I smoke a lot of cannabis!! Balance is hard. Learning how to set boundaries with yourself is hard. I downloaded a fitness app this week because I have spent so much time on this damn couch with Covid-19, and I had to choose one I had to pay for just to make myself accountable to use it. It is not easy when we are willing to dedicate more time to our work, than our actual mental and physical health. Yet we are also human, so I choose to use this platform to talk about it with my readers because I know I am far from alone in this struggle. I hope that this allows people to come forward with their own suggestions for finding a work-life balance, and I hope that this maybe opens the door for those of you who haven’t started that journey yet.
As much as life is full of challenges and struggles we are tested with on the regular, in this being a workaholic, it is also full of opportunities. Every time I hit a milestone in life where I feel like I have shown growth, I cannot even explain how rewarding that feels. It is like when something that used to upset you so much can no longer get to you anymore. You feel free, like a whole weight has been lifted off your back. The more time I spend on trying to focus on me and my self-love, the more I feel like everything falls into place. I know exactly where my strengths are in this world, but I also know where I fall short. What matters is that we are constantly trying to better ourselves and set boundaries so that we can find balance easier in life. Moral of the blog this week is if you are a workaholic, at least make sure you love what you do and you are thriving for a life with more balance and clearer boundaries along the way!!
Please send any topics, comments, suggestions, or questions to ch*********@gm***.com. Everything will remain confidential, unless otherwise agree upon.
