Busy is a Season
Busy season comes and goes as an independent contractor. I find that October to June is jam packed with students and clients returning for services in addition to new inquiries. After the uncertainty that has been 2020 AND 2021, I am grateful to be busy. I am someone who thrives under pressure, with the ability to meet deadlines and plan ahead even when the workload seems unmanageable.
However, being “busy” isn’t always best for everyone.
I put a quick poll up on my Instagram stories today, asking if anyone else was all of a sudden very busy and very tired. And within 10 minutes, 30 people had answered YES. This may not seem like a lot of responses, but I don’t have a massive following. For people to respond as quickly as they did, I knew it was a universal feeling..
No matter what your field of work is, it is so incredibly easy to get overworked, burnt out, and stressed out. These are all things that tend to get overlooked as admitting to feeling this way can come across as “weak”.
It is most definitely not weak.
With no end in sight from the ever-changing rules of the pandemic, the burn out and the stress keep piling up on top of each other. It is no secret that feeling stressed over a long period of time (for example, *ahem* since March 2020) impacts our immune system negatively. We cannot function to the best of our ability if our systems are constantly working on overdrive with no rest.
How are we supposed to keep up with being “busy”?!
I used to never say no to clients or students. I would find a way to fit them into my schedule in order to gain some more experience, and I also felt incredibly guilty for having to say no. I was busy all the time, because I never gave myself the necessary rest and indirect client time to better prepare myself for the next week. It wasn’t healthy, and I ultimately got really sick because of it. I recognize now that that approach to practice doesn’t allow me to best serve my clients and students - how can I be an effective music therapist/teacher/supervisor if I am mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted all of the time?
The answer is, I can’t. I know I can do anything, but I cannot do everything all at once.
If you are feeling the same way - it’s okay. Deep breath in, deep breath out, and take a minute to refocus. Busy is a season, and you won’t feel so busy once you get through the initial stages of getting back to work. The routine will settle, and you will handle anything that tries to disrupt it. Move a meeting, change a deadline, push pause on a project to better prioritize the busy.
It will all get done.