The Summer Started Out Great...
Have you ever been chugging along in life, feeling pretty good, like you’re finally getting on track and heading towards your goals, when life throws you a curveball?
Maybe you can relate...
This summer started out like
and turned into
Rewind back to June. I was feeling on top of the mountain in the beginning of the summer. I had taken my kids camping solo (always a She-Ra Wonder Woman type of feeling), and I had pulled the trigger on organizing a networking event for the local women jewelers in my area. Something I’ve wanted to do for years, but have not felt confident enough, to be honest.
I was making stuff happen! I felt super excited and proud of myself for reaching out to people I didn’t know very well to get them involved in an ongoing meetup event.
Enter The Curveball
It was the morning of the first networking event and I went for a bike ride. Thirty minutes later I was in an ambulance on the way to the ER. I had flipped over the handlebars of my bike and hit the pavement with my shoulder.
I didn’t break any bones, but I tore all three ligaments in my shoulder. I was still in the hospital right before the event was supposed to start. I told the doctor I needed to leave. I had to be somewhere. He said “you’re not going anywhere but home”. I was so disappointed. I had to contact everyone and cancel the event.
The next few weeks were a lesson in humility. I injured my left shoulder. My dominant one. Having a birth defect on my right arm means I don’t use it for much. I basically do everything one handed. I had to have help with practically everything. Dressing, bathing, eating, driving. And after that, laundry, dishes, cooking. All things I normally do on my own.
Physical recovery was challenging, but mental recovery was in some ways harder. I felt like the opposite of She Ra Wonder Woman. I had to depend on so many people for help. I felt vulnerable and scared that I would never regain my previous level of independence. I couldn’t care for my children independently for almost a month, and I missed them terribly.
Things improved steadily and I was feeling more physically competent by the middle of July. Then my son came down with pneumonia. He got over it with antibiotics, but the virus that had morphed into pneumonia struck my daughter while we were on a family trip...sharing a hotel room for a week.
I bet you can guess who got it next...Yep. Me. That was at the beginning of August. It was a terrible upper respiratory infection that lasted for weeks. It took me and my daughter about 5-6 weeks to fully recover. Which brings us to now. The middle of September.
Now I’m not relating this to be all woe-is-me. I’m over feeling that way.
I’m telling you this because I have been almost completely absent from Falkora Jewelry, and whether or not anyone noticed from the outside is beside the point. I had to write this in order to get past what happened, accept it, give myself grace for falling off the small business bandwagon, and move on.
Have you ever fallen so far behind, that you can’t even wrap your head around where to pick back up and start again?
I think most people can relate to that sentiment, whether it’s work, chores, or starting a new habit like working out.
If not, then you have the iron will of my Dad, who seems to accomplish most things he sets his mind to the first time.
Anyway, there I was mired in the muck of not knowing where to start, having been absent from my business for months. On top of that I had been thinking of a couple other business ideas aside from jewelry. So that multiplied the overwhelm.
Enter the Bullet Journal
I happened to watch a youtube video staring someone with a rare disease. In it, they showed their bullet journal as part of their nightly routine. A light went on. After I researched more about bullet journals, it seemed like it might be a way out of my overwhelm and to keep some goals in front of me.
I went out and bought one the next day and within a week I had more clarity.
It really helps me because I can keep all my personal (single adult + co-parent), business, and other stuff organized and IN ONE PLACE. I used to have separate lists and notebooks for each aspect of my life, but that wasn’t getting me anywhere. And my planning apps like asana and trello quickly turned in to one long To Do list.
The bullet journal did take some time to set up, and maintain, but so far (and it’s only been a few weeks) it’s worked better than any other planner I have ever used.
Thanks in part to the bullet journal and it’s magical unmiring power, I have rescheduled the networking event for the local women jewelers, and I feel almost back on track.
My shoulder is healing up, and in another month, I may be discharged from physical therapy. It remains to be seen whether or not I’ll need a shoulder reconstruction surgery.
If you made it to the end, thank you for going on the journey with me! If you’ve ever had life throw you a curveball, or felt stuck, and found your way out, please let me know in the comments!
*Featured/Cover Image Photo by Matthew Henry on Unsplash
Thank you for sharing! 😘