There’s a saying: “A change is as good as a holiday.”<\/p>\n
I posit that the reverse is also true. A holiday is as good as a change.<\/p>\n
I have been absent from publishing these IQs for several weeks now. I have such beautiful readers that have sent me “R U OK?” type emails, for which I am wonderfully grateful.<\/p>\n
The reasons for my absence are several, and I owe it to you to explain what’s been happening and why I fell off the face of the virtual world.<\/p>\n
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Firstly, life has been insanely busy, and I have had to prioritise my priorities. As it stands currently, they are (in order):<\/p>\n
– my personal health & wellbeing
\n– quality time with my family
\n– the financial security of me and my family
\n– our businesses and their clients
\n– the build of our bus
\n– preparation for our Australian trip
\n– preparation for our (current) USA holiday<\/p>\n
I feel as though I have, for the most part, been simply putting one foot in front of the other and keeping just ahead of my to do list.<\/p>\n
Finding up to an hour each day to curate images and quotes, and take time to write my own personal insights and philosophies, was beginning to impact my ability to meet my prioritised priorities. As such, I felt I needed to take a rest.<\/p>\n
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Secondly, writing IQs and publishing each day is something I feel requires time to reflect, and find insight in my own daily experience.<\/p>\n
I have felt for some time as though I was running on empty. I was struggling to find new and interesting images, and I was also struggling to find\/make time to reflect and come up with something valuable and\/or meaningful.<\/p>\n
It could be argued (and often is, by my darling wife and closest friends) that I put too much pressure on myself and set standards that are too high.<\/p>\n
I agree, to a point. I set very high standards, and I do put a great deal of pressure on myself. This is because I know in my heart what I am capable of, and I rarely “settle” for anything less than my best. This is who I am, and how I work, and I don’t think it constitutes any kind of reason to stop striving to produce the best work I can, or stop producing if my standards cannot be met.<\/p>\n
Hence it was a simple – and necessary – decision to pause, when I felt I could no longer keep up my standards, or provide value and meaningful contribution to you.<\/p>\n
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Thirdly, I have been feeling for some time as though there is a glut of inspiring quote type graphics on the interwebs. Mine are unique and – I believe – valuable, and so I have been happy continuing to produce them to date.<\/p>\n
However, after the best part of two years producing these IQs, I am beginning to wonder if the value in what I produce comes from the images and quotes themselves, or rather, what I write about them each day. The IQ images give some focus to what I choose to write about each day, but in some respects they also limit or constrain what I write about.<\/p>\n
I also wonder if I am producing my best value by publishing daily, or if I might be better publishing a deeper missive less frequently. I have several friends who publish beautiful email newsletters \/ blog posts once a week, which enable to them to provide a deeper slice of what they’re currently learning or thinking about, and it’s a suitably-long interval that I’m completely ready and excited to read it each week.<\/p>\n
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Change. Holiday.<\/p>\n
The last piece of significance that ties directly to my recent experience is that I’m writing this from Las Vegas, USA. My family and I are on a 17-day holiday to the USA – Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hawaii – which is a celebration of a dear friend’s 50th (think Hawaii 5-0) and a celebration of my wife and my recent 10th wedding anniversary.<\/p>\n
Taking a holiday somewhere – especially the period of travelling to reach the destination – is a wonderful tool for providing perspective and allows time for reflection. I certainly feel this is the case for me on our recent 23-odd hours of transit from leaving home in Sydney to arriving at the Paris hotel in Las Vegas!<\/p>\n
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