What’s Working Wednesday: Except It’s Thursday (And Here’s Why)

It’s Thursday.

If you’ve been following along with my new “What’s Working Wednesdays” series, you already noticed. And if you’re new here…well, you’re getting a very on-brand introduction to how things actually go around here.

This week’s topic was supposed to be something upbeat and useful. Instead, I’m flipping the script entirely and talking about what isn’t working. That list is a little full right now.

It Started With a Summer Cold

Nothing derails a week quite like getting sick in June. There’s something almost insulting about a summer cold. Like, this isn’t even the right season for this. Thankfully, mine started on the weekend, so I was sort of getting better by Monday, but by late afternoon, I was trying to answer client emails with a foggy head and a to-do list that wasn’t shrinking.

This week is also SoulQuest week, a camp at our local Christian university, and I like to attend the evening worships because there is nothing more inspiring than 600+ teenagers worshiping God together, and we also get to hear a great guest speaker. So, I’m gone for a few hours in the evenings, and add in the general noise of home life, because working from home means the home is always right there , and Wednesday came and went without a post. Which, honestly, felt like one more thing not working.

But here’s the thing I’ve been sitting with: the cold and the full evenings was just the tipping point. The juggle was already real before I started sniffling.

The Mental Load Nobody Talks About

Running multiple revenue streams sounds exciting from the outside. And it is! I genuinely love the variety of what I do. My writing, the retainer clients and new design clients, the longer-term ideas I’m slowly building toward. There’s always something to work on.

The problem is, there’s always something to work on.

When you’re wearing that many hats, your brain is never fully off. Even on a good day, there’s a background hum of: Did I respond to that message? Should I be updating something right now? When did I last write something just for me? Is the blog getting enough attention? Am I spreading myself too thin? Do any of my clients feel ignored?

That hum is exhausting in a way that’s hard to explain, because it doesn’t look like exhaustion from the outside. You’re still showing up. You’re still getting things done. But the mental load is real, and some weeks it tips the scale.

This has been one of those weeks.

The Comparison Trap (It’s Always Lurking)

I’ll be real honest here. Sometimes I spend a little too much time looking at what other creators and business owners are doing. You know how it goes. You pop onto someone’s blog or feed and they seem to have everything running smoothly. Consistent posting schedule. Beautiful photos. Multiple income streams that all appear to be thriving simultaneously.

And for a minute, you start doing the math on your own situation and coming up short.

The rational part of me knows that’s not the full picture. Nobody posts about the weeks they lost to a summer cold or the afternoons they couldn’t focus or the revenue stream that’s growing at a pace that could generously be called gradual. We share the wins. That’s what works on social media.

But knowing that doesn’t always stop the comparison. This week it landed a little harder than usual.

And Then Perfectionism Shows Up to Help! (It Doesn’t Help)

Here’s the part that really gets me: even when I sat down to write a post, I stalled. Because it didn’t feel ready. The thoughts weren’t quite organized enough, the angle wasn’t quite right, I wasn’t sure how to end it.

So Wednesday passed.

Perfectionism is sneaky because it doesn’t feel like fear. It feels like standards. It feels responsible, even. Like you’re just trying to do good work. But there’s a point where “not ready yet” is just another way of saying “not done,” and not done doesn’t help anyone, including me.

The Wednesday post wasn’t going to get more ready by waiting. It was just going to get later.

So Here We Are

It’s Thursday. I have a summer cold, a full plate, a brain that compared itself to the internet this week, and a perfectionist streak that tried to keep this post from ever existing.

And I’m posting it anyway.

Maybe that’s the most honest “what’s working” I’ve got right now. The part where I do the thing even when it’s late and imperfect and I’m not totally sure it’s good enough. That part is working. Barely, some weeks. But it’s working.

See you next Wednesday. Probably.