A few weeks ago, I worked a 15 hour day on Saturday (including commute). That’s a long freaking day, and weddings require lots of time on your feet while carrying around heavy camera gear (& I almost always come away with bruises on my knees somehow lol). Wedding photography is very physically and mentally demanding. After a day like that, you’d probably want to take a rest day, right?

Right. So I planned to … and found myself filling my “rest day” with chores and errands and — yup, you guessed it — WORK.

I’m not sure why I have so much trouble resting. I can rest when I’m with family, friends, my boyfriend … but I can’t seem to let myself rest when I’m by myself. Why watch a movie for two hours when I can probably bang out 100 edits in that time?

But rest is vital. And I’m learning that. Excruciatingly slowly, but I’m still learning. Repeat after me: IT’S OKAY TO NOT BE PRODUCTIVE. In fact, I would argue that rest itself is productive because it allows you to be refreshed for when you do need to focus. (I’m preaching to myself here, y’all.)

I’ve found that I need to be proactive with rest — I need to rest before I collapse. Just like how you should fill your car with gas before it dips below the E. Or how you should keep up with oil changes before the oil change light comes on. Yes, you can do these things for a while without any noticeable effects … but it’s detrimental to the lifespan of your car. Being proactive with taking care of your car prolongs how long it runs well. Likewise, being proactive with taking care of yourself prolongs how long your business runs well.

I’m trying to be better. It takes a long time to break habits, so I need to have grace with myself. And I also recognize that I’m in the beginnings stages of running a business which naturally requires more time working to make sure it gets off the ground running. So there’s a give and take for sure. But from here on out, I want to air on the side of rest.