FALLING BACK

You ever do that exercise where you have to fall backwards and allow someone to catch you? Why don’t we do that when it comes to ourselves? Fall back and trust that you will not allow yourself to hit bottom.

I don’t know if that made sense but….

It’s okay to take a break. It’s okay to fall back. Your business will be fine. If you’re doing the right things your business isn’t going anywhere. You won’t lose your creativity. You won’t wake up and suddenly forget how to do things you’re good at and have been executing for years. I see a lot of people trying to play catch up when there’s nothing or no one to catch up to. You’re not down by 20 points in the 4th quarter. There’s no need to create as if you’re panicking. Don’t play keep up with your art or gifts. It deserves care. Not dismay and constant chaos. The world doesn’t end if you take a break. Your goal is set. Your goal isn’t moving. The only thing that needs to move is you but it doesn’t have to be at this frantic pace where you feel you have to have everything done by a certain time. Now I preface that with the expectation that you have a lot of living to do. God willing. I just want everyone to understand that whether you’re a chef, writer, entrepreneur, DJ, etc that if you decide to fallback and take a break that your brand, business, whatever you like to call it will not be burning down when you come back to work. 

I know everyone in this era want things quickly and as soon as you release your work to them they’ve moved on immediately but I promise you’re okay if you fallback to collect yourself. Running yourself tired just to keep up with shit isn’t cool and never will be. Art is great but YOU come first. Your job is cool but YOU come first. Creating things is cool but YOU come first. You are the foundation of whether you will succeed or fail. It’s predicated on that so your decision making should be based on that also. 

This happens to me too. I place this unnecessary pressure on myself to release a blog post 4 times a week. Sometimes it’s easy because I planned and prepared the right way. Sometimes it’s grueling because other factors like my jobs and my podcast shows took up a lot of my writing time. I’ve probably written over 1200 blog posts. Once I thought about that number I figured people would be okay if I didn’t release anything for a while cause they can read my old shit. But creeping in the back of my mind is that thought a lot of people have and that’s if you stop posting things everyday you’re forgotten instantly. Out of sight out of mind. All the things you’ve done before are a distant memory. You start the feel that all your work was a waste. It’s a microwave society that has influenced this train of thought that we have. Nobody truly cares. People move onto the next topic or gossip of the day so you falling back and making sure that you’re okay is always a great decision. The only people who care are the people that actually support what you’re doing by having conversations with you about what you do and understanding that you move at your pace. 

When you don’t take a break it’s like leaving the lights on in your car overnight. You come outside the next day and your car won’t start. Even if it starts it’ll be a matter of time before the battery will give out and the car will stop moving. I know you hear famous and successful people tell you that they didn’t take any breaks to get where they are but there a lot of people who did fallback and are just successful as they are. Not sleeping is not the wave. Not eating properly isn’t the wave. Sometimes we feel we create our best work when we’re under duress. I’m one of those people that used to think that but when I actually sit down and work on something day by day and compare it to what I created when I was working against the clock. The quality isn’t even close. That’s like me being an all pro athlete only practicing the day before games. If I’m depending just on my gifts and talent then yeah I may still do great but the higher the levels become the more that shit won’t cut it anymore. The bigger the stakes the more preparation becomes everything. Staying ready so you don’t have to get ready. Those are the types of people who make an impact. Falling back and taking a break is part of preparation. 

There’s different levels to falling back. 

SOCIAL MEDIA CLEANSE - I do this randomly. That social media shit overloads your mind because of the traffic. It’s always congested and you’re constantly seeing people, opinions, things. I usually like to take a week off and sometimes a month. This type of break gives your brain a rest from dopamine and using it in a better capacity than social media can give. 

VACATION - Like an actual thought out vacation. I don’t like running around on vacations where I’m constantly doing shit every minute cause it feels like I’m working. I like my vacations full of eating, margaritas, dancing, and reflection. I’m not thinking about my company. I’m just thinking about being refreshed. 

THE NO WORK DAY - This is Sunday for a lot of people. But some people actually work on Sunday’s. It’s always good to have one day where you have that day to yourself and you’re not doing any work. You need that day to recharge yourself. 

THE “DAMN WHERE THAT NIGGA GO?” BREAK - When you take that break that’s 6 months or more. Those type of breaks really put everything in perspective for you if you’re serious about them.  You like Ace in Paid In full after he got shot except you ain’t get shot. Your mind different. You walking different. You talking different. 

Somebody might read this and say “Benny I already feel like I’m behind. I can’t afford to take a break.” My response to that is what are you behind in? I’m willing to bet you’re behind in everyone else’s expectations. What about your expectations though? That’s what counts. That feeling you feel is just imaginary pressure from society that has no implications on your life at all. So what if you 43 years old. You’re seeing NFL Quarterbacks compete at that age right now. It’s not over. No matter your age you’re not behind. No matter the setback you have in your life you’re not behind. I’m seeing 50 and 60 year olds start businesses and they’re happy. Just focus on being present and being grateful to try. I’m seeing people who took losses that would break a lot of people down come back even harder than their fall. They didn’t break. If you don’t wanna break then take a break. Fallback then when you ready, move forward. 

Peace

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