So you may not know but at the minute I have the dreaded Swine Flu. To be honest it doesn’t feel much different from normal flu but this seems to be unimportant when it comes to being told to stay in bed and not do anything.
Yes I know I’m here writing this when I should be in bed resting but this is an example of the reason for this post.
My clients have all been updated with the news that I am dying and in isolation/quarantine for the next 5 days (3 at the very least) and they are all fine with nothing happening on their sites for that long as it’s unavoidable…
…BUT I am not fine with it. Every time I lie in my bed and stop I can only see my work floating around in front of me, mocking me, letting me know that time is slipping away, deadlines are going to be missed.
Before I was working for myself all of this would be easy enough for me to ignore, it’s my bosses problem, it’s not my fault I’m ill, it’s not my fault I’m not allowed out of the house. But now I work for myself and from home, my boss is now on my shoulder 24/7/365 nagging me that stuff should get done irrespective of what illness I have.
However, this is one of the things you will need to get over if you are working for yourself. Yes I am not being productive at the minute, work is slipping, deadlines getting closer, but if I do not get well quickly how much more is that deadline going to be missed by? How much more annoyed are clients going to be?
When working for yourself you NEED to learn when to stop! Of all the things I would say are important when starting your own business this is right up there with them. The number of people I have known that have actually made themselves even more ill than they were before (if they were even ill before) by not taking the time to make sure they are ok, not taking time for themselves, not taking that little bit of time for themselves. One of my old bosses was told he had got gall stones because he was stressing too much and working too hard. That took 3 months out of his life as he was in hospital getting it all removed and recovering!
With all of this in mind. I am back off to bed now to die and feel like crap because I can. I won’t feel guilty, I won’t feel like I should be working, I won’t feel like I’m letting people down.
I am ill. I have a right to recuperate and I have a right to revel in my illness! Just make sure that when you have something seriously wrong with you that you have the same confidence to say “I need to stop, I need to concentrate on me before this gets too bad!”.
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