Last summer, I hit a wall with my business. I don’t mean a “I’m not inspired” wall like I do weekly, but something more significant.  I was consistently sitting down to work and blanking completely. I could hardly summon up memories of HOW I did the most basic things in my business—not to mention deeper creative work that I ALSO have to do on a regular basis.

I’m happy to say that that season was not a breaking point for my business.

I sat with what was feeling off and planned two weeks off of work that were incredibly rejuvenating and good (even though they were hard in some ways, too, naturally). However— I do wish that I had paid more attention to where I was personally (as well as in business) and taken a break a little bit sooner.

Here’s what I realized:

Burn out doesn’t always come from just too much client work.

Sometimes it can come from just general overwhelm.

I think that we don’t talk enough about how mental health can affect our businesses, and how what we’re going through in our family or church or personal life MAJORLY affects our businesses, too. That was the case for me last summer. I had a pretty normal amount of client work, but it wasn’t really too much. What WAS overwhelming me some personal griefs and realizations that were making my daily life heavy… and therefore my daily work almost impossible.

If you’re in a season of feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or burned out with your business and can’t figure out why, take a look at what you’re going through, separate from your business. Is there a crippling decision that is hanging over your head? Are you stressed about a family member’s choices? 

As solopreneurs or entrepreneurs with small teams, I think we often underestimate the impact our personal lives have on our businesses.

We don’t realize that they are almost always directly connected.

Of course we have to work even through tough seasons. Tough seasons of life are inevitable, and often we have to work even when we don’t feel like it. For today, though, let me just be a gentle voice saying that if you need some extra space to get through the tough season you’re in, you can take a break from your business.

A break doesn’t have to be permanent, or even very long. But allow yourself time to rest, grieve, heal, laugh. You will come back to your business inspired and ready to work again, this time with more compassion for yourself and the clients you serve every day.