Balance, Business, and Being a Wife

“Striving for success without hard work is like trying to harvest where you haven’t planted”

David Bly

Back in November, in my first month of delving into this venture, I met mild success with my first two sales.  One for a simple pillow, and the other for a full custom wedding order complete with a bridal bouquet, two bridesmaids bouquets, and matching boutonnieres.  Fast forward to February–I have finished those orders, gained a good many since, and have learned a thing or two about balance.

In the final weeks of finishing up my first big order I was also busy working on other orders, trying to blog, network, and be a wife (not to mention working FT).  And, I failed at more than one of them including being a wife.

No, I’m not a horrible wife, but I could and should have been doing a better job.  I failed because I lost sight of time and space and didn’t realize I had holed myself up into my little world of go-go-go without taking a moment to breathe.

In the rush of excitement I sorta, kinda, maybe wasn’t being the most attentive spouse.  More-so, I was zombie-spouse, fully “alive” and functioning, but brain-dead and not very interactive (AKA Mrs. Preoccupied).  Fortunately, our communication skills are fairly solid and my lovely husband kindly brought the issue to my attention and I learned a little bit about being married, running a business, and finding balance.

So, today I am doing my best to find balance; a balance that will save me from myself.  You see, I have this problem where I often take on more that I can handle.

My overly creative mind is continuously racing from one idea to the next with a constant and innate need to express itself.  It often makes me wish I were two people so that I could process all of the ideas I have stewing in my brain. But, I am not multiple people and have decided that I need a schedule to help keep me balanced.

Being a newlywed and starting a new endeavor is no easy task and success doesn’t happen without a little hard work.  So, to ease up on stress levels and continue to be present for my husband, we’ve decided to work together.  Craig has offered to learn how to do some of my prep work so that we can spend more quality time together.  Yes, it will be a learning process and it will take time, but I have faith that we’ll make it work.

Have you ever struggled with finding balance in your life?  What have you found to work best?

And, because I believe you’ve so patiently followed along, here is your reward.  Photo porn of my recently finished custom order.

Photo by Sarah Griffin

Photo by Sarah Griffin

Any thoughts?