Hey! Elliott here.
I hope you have had a great couple of weeks.
Yes, I took some weeks off from posting newsletters and even more weeks off from posting on social media.
Believe me; it was a scary thing to do.
But, it was necessary. And it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
My Twitter account didn’t go up or down much, and I lost maybe a net of 500 followers from Instagram.
The good news is that it was expected. I couldn’t expect growth to happen during this period of rest.
And that brings me to the topic of today’s newsletter:
Should I take a break?
Taking a break is a tough decision to take when you are having momentum, are growing, and doing things you couldn’t have imagined doing just one year ago.
So why would anyone sabotage any of these things by taking a break?
Well, here are my 3 reasons for doing so:
I needed the space to focus on my client work without sacrificing sleep and other priorities in my life.
In balancing being a parent, husband, part-time soldier, employee, and business owner, something had to be sacrificed. And the easiest thing to sacrifice was sleep. I was sleeping maybe 4 hours daily for a year (not including the frequency of waking toddlers in the middle of the night). This inevitably led to burnout.
With this period of rest, I have built a non-negotiable bedtime routine. Bedtime for me, moving forward, is 10:30 pm. It is my line-in-the-sand to prevent me from trying to make up for my procrastination from the day prior and working until 2:00 am. It turns out this helps with procrastination. Tighter deadlines mean higher focus.
I needed the space to re-prioritize and re-assess what is important to me.
Before blowing up on social media, I took fitness seriously. Being someone in my 30s, I don’t have much time left before testosterone production and other functions start to decline. I need to take advantage of my ability to develop & grow muscle now. Of course, another thing I sacrificed in the past year was fitness. Through this current period of rest & reflection, I re-prioritized and rebuilt my daily routine.
With my bedtime set in stone, I have been able to confidently say to myself that a 6:00 am wake-up is realistic and doable. I would be getting around 7.5 hours of sleep during gym days and would be able to win my day before the kids wake up for breakfast. It’s been fantastic. I go to the gym 3 times a week now to start. I have the intention of taking that up to 4 times a week soon.
I needed to rethink my content strategy, the purpose of my creations, and what that will look like in the next year.
I felt that posting every day was great for social media impressions that led to new followers & growth. But, it has become a bit…stale. There hasn’t been any strategy or real purpose to my posts other than to share what I learned from my experience and from reading books. I shared things I have tried for myself and worked reasonably well in hopes of helping others do the same. That’s all fine; however, I have the itch to build cool things.
I’ve come up with a few cool ideas in my time off that I hope to realize in 2023. This includes finishing a course I started a few months ago. I also hope to change things up a bit in a way that will help me to connect with my audience a little bit better. As of now, I feel a massive disconnect between my audience and me. Although I get high engagement on my posts, I do not get nearly as much engagement on my newsletter or my other attempts to connect with folks who have decided to hit the follow button.
I also want to learn something new to help me create better content. This may or may not have anything to do with Adobe After Effects. 🤫
The moral of the story is that, although I encourage a high degree of consistency in anything worth doing, sometimes breaks are necessary to re-assess, re-evaluate, and re-prioritize.
I see it as a short-term sacrifice for a long-term investment. And if it’s something I need to do once a year or so, I’m ok with that.
I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. Enjoy your time with yourself, your friends, and your family, and I’ll see you next week!
Cheers!
Elliott
It's really nice to hear your voice, Elliott. You sound absolutely great, so keep on recording 👏 Btw, love today's issue. Congrats on your wins and rebuilding your habits! I'm in the middle of the similar process, and currently amazed how rewarding it is
Aw Elliott, thanks for the massive plug! Loving your first voice note; you’re a natural 🥰
I deeply admire and respect you for taking this break to look after yourself and wellbeing, especially with everything going on in your life! Best of luck ✨
I am also doing the same! Short-term sacrifice to build long-term, sustainable habits seems to be the best way forwards 🚀