Embracing The Quiet
As a huge introvert and homebody who loves nothing more than being in her own environment in the peace and quiet you probably would think that I love quiet in all aspects of life but actually, it's something I really struggle with. And I think this is a topic that nobody seems to talk about until a couple of weeks ago when I read a post from the wonderful Olivia Bossert and how she was embracing a quiet month in her business. For somebody who is self-employed to hear that said felt almost revolutionary and not something, I've ever heard before. Which led me to really having a good think about the reasons why I should appreciate quiet moments in life more instead of oddly craving always being rushed off my feet.
A QUIET BUSINESS
Having been self-employed for a good few years now I've experienced so many different stages of business. I've had times where the e-mails come flooding in and then nothing for two months. And the quiet periods are not what we want to share because it obviously makes us sound like failures but that isn't the case. Every single business is different of course, but for it to be constantly booming is not something I believe anybody experiences. When my e-mail inbox goes quiet I'm slowly learning to appreciate it, of course, my heart flutters when I get an exciting possible collaboration through and that will probably happen for as long as I run my business but there is something nice about the quiet too. First of all, it doesn't mean I'm lost in my inbox for hours on end and it actually gives me the chance to properly work my way through other projects without worrying about things pinging up and taking my focus. From now on this is how I'm going to try and appreciate a little lull in work;
- Work on passion projects.
- Work on getting myself organised and up to date with work admin.
- Work through ideas and brainstorm content.
- Work through the blog design and make sure everything is still relevant.
A QUIET SOCIAL LIFE
I don't have a huge amount of friends and that is something that I've spoken about time and time again on this blog. I have a small circle of companions and that is what I like, I'm not good in huge groups of people but when my phone all of a sudden goes quiet I start to panic. What if everybody suddenly hates me? Have I done something wrong? Are they angry at me and not saying anything? And the chances of those thoughts are being true are slim to none. I think one of the biggest downsides of being so connected with the outside work is that sometimes we can forget that people have things to do and we can't always be in contact. Whilst technology is a wonderful, wonderful thing sometimes I do wonder that it can be quite detrimental to us as we always feel the need to be in constant contact.
A QUIET PERSON
Whenever somebody is quiet it's mostly perceived as being rude and even snobbish. They're insults I've had thrown at me my entire life as I'm not someone who is incredibly loud or outspoken and generally prefer to be a little bit of a wallflower in social situations. Thankfully, being quiet and shy is generally a little more understood now but still not enough. There is absolutely nothing wrong with being quiet, it's just how some of us are and we should never have to change to fit in with social norms. If we were all incredibly loud there would be no room for anybody to talk and no conversation would ever flow. Whilst I may not talk a huge amount in social situations that doesn't mean I'm not listening and I think that is the same for anybody who tends to be a little more subdued, listening is underrated and something we could all stand to do a little more.
A QUIET TIME ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Maybe one of the things that I miss the most about Instagram being in chronological order is that I could grasp what people were doing at that time and I loved that. Now it's in the algorithm it always seems busy as new posts are at the top of your timeline whenever the app sees fit. However, when I see a little lull in either blog posts, people tweeting or jabbering away on Instagram stories I always wonder why. Like I mentioned earlier I think we've got so used to constantly being in contact with others that we forget that there is a life to led outside of social media. We all seem to talk about how busy we are but then we're all on social media so often that it's rare that it's actually quiet. We share everything from the moment that we get up to the moment we go to sleep and that's not the healthiest thing for anybody to do.
THINGS I WANT TO DO WHEN IT'S QUIET
Instead of the usual panic that ensues when things go quiet here are the things that I'm going to do instead;
- Work without pressure.
- Shoot personal projects.
- Make plans for the house.
- Potter around doing odd jobs.
- Read or listen to a podcast.
- Work on things that aren't related to work in any way.
- Make the most of time with my dogs.
- Spend time with my loved ones.
