A Reminder That Rest Can Be Productive

I’m a few weeks into our trip to Senegal to visit family. Our daily rhythm is completely shifted and I’m offline more than I’m online.

And honestly, it’s been great.

PRESSURE TO PERFORM

As a business owner and mama, I put this pressure on myself to always be working in any spare moment.

Full transparency: I haven’t stopped that urge entirely while we’ve been in Dakar. But sometimes pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone allows us to finally take a step back and breathe. And I’ve done just that.

And even during these 5 weeks away from home with so much more rest, I’ve still been able to:

✧ speak on a summit panel

✧ have a discovery call and book a VIP day for January

✧ prep to work with a podcast launch strategist

✧ schedule some networking calls and interviews for when I’m home

✧ keep up this newsletter

✧ plan a joint venture group intensive (details to come!)

✧ update my lead magnet

✧ fill out a brainstorming workbook to work with a business strategist

✧ reflect, journal, daydream a little

On the flip side, I’ve taken a 90% hiatus from creating content for social media. We’ll see if the almighty algorithm punishes me, but I’m guessing nothing in my business will change from this month-long pause.

 

USING THE FLEXIBILITY I TRIED SO HARD TO CREATE

This trip also has me thinking about digital nomad-ism.

In my early 20s, that was the life I imagined for myself. (I’ve traveled a LOT. Let’s swap travel tales sometime!)

But the older I’ve gotten, the more I like the idea of roots. Maybe not to a specific place, but more in spirit.

Still, my husband and I are homebodies through and through. And I live by my dad’s mantra of “Everything in its place and a place for everything,” which is hard when you’re lugging around suitcases and baby gear and don’t have storage for all your daily items. Having my stuff in chaos definitely makes my brain feel scattered too.

But there’s something so energizing to my soul when I travel. I see new things. Hear new languages. Observe new cultures. Eat new foods. Stumble upon new beautiful corners of this world. Experience new creative solutions and expressions of ideas. Receive new acts of kindness from strangers.

It just feels good.

My husband and I talk about floating between home bases to be able to see more of BOTH our families who live across 3 continents, plus travel more in between. That flexibility is one of the main perks of running an online business like I do.

It’s a lot more complicated with a little one in tow. But also, we always adapt and we grow together as a family. So we’ll see what the future headquarters of Ashlee Sang Consulting LLC will be. For now, home is still Central Illinois ~11 months of the year.

 

I’d love to know: where’s home for you—either physically, or in spirit?

 

This is an excerpt from Toward Purpose & Progress, my newsletter where I share business tips, good news, shoutouts to Founder Friends, and other juicy snippets. Subscribe here for more rants, reflections, and resources.