Hope Writes

The last few days have been quite stressful for me. I’ve found myself with some “down” time (in more ways than one). I realized that not only do I not handle my off times very well, but I don’t like them either.

When my plate isn’t full-to-running-over, I get nervous. I feel unproductive. Most of all, when I have extra time to think about my personal goals, I realize how little I’ve done to work towards accomplishing them.

Even though these breaks seem to live up to their name and literally break me, they’re good for me. They are like little wake-up calls to myself. Sometimes we just all need a break.

Here are the top 5 reasons why everyone needs a break sometimes…

Taking a well-deserved break opens our eyes to things we usually don’t want to see. In my case, a break forces me to stop and look at myself and my goals. Where am I? Am I even moving closer to my goals? How far have I come (or not)? Often times, we need to stop and/or slow down for a little while and allow ourselves some breathing room to access where we are, in terms of where we’re going.

A break gives us time to rest. We all need rest. Rest is almost always the one thing we freelancers rarely give to ourselves. We make excuses that we’re too busy or have too much to do to rest. But getting decent rest recharges our batteries. It gives us the “juice” to get up and try again.

A break gives you fresh perspective. As a writer, there are many times when I work on a project and get so frustrated I can’t write anything else. It’s almost like I get tangled up in my own words and thoughts. When I reach this point, I step away from the work. I take a break. When I return later, I can almost always immediately pinpoint the problem, fix it, and finish what I’m doing. Sometimes you just need to walk away or step back for a bit and come back later.

A break plugs you back into reality. Just as your batteries need recharging from time to time, sometimes you need a good jolt back to reality, too. Taking a break pulls your mind away from what you’re working on and brings it back around to the present. It’s so easy to get lost in the details of your work and forget about the real world. A break can rope you back into the here and now of your life.

A break helps you realize what is truly most important. All too often we get so wrapped up in our work that life passes us by. Whether you are a freelancer working from home, or you work outside your home, it can happen to any of us. Taking frequent breaks lets us remember who and what is most important in our lives. And most of the time, it is those very things that suffer because of our lack of perception.

Have you had a break yet today?

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 12th, 2007 at 11:58 am and is filed under Care and Feeding. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.