My family and I just got back from a trip to central Oregon to visit my grandparents and this trip reminded me of all the reasons it is important to sometimes step back and take a pause in life.
As a business owner, teacher, parent and wife...my roles and responsibilities are never-ending. Dance studio ownership is a job that never seems to stop - I find myself forever saying "next week will be better", but next week always has something else going on! I am forever thinking about all of the things happening at the studio - here are just a few things on my summer to-do list:
Update the website with refreshed photos, staff bios, add meta-tags to all photos, work on SEO boosting, update our studio calendar and important dates page, and add fall marketing.
Begin our Welcome Guide for 2024-2025 that will have all of our policies, classes, dress codes, expectations for the year and more. This is a big one! It'll take me a while to get just right.
Order items for our dancewear store (did you hear that this is coming to PDC?). Getting registered with wholesalers, ordering inventory, tagging and getting merchandise on the floor takes a lot of time and effort!
Work on our social media marketing for the next month. Yes, I do this weeks out at a time!
Booking reservations for our Master Class teachers that are visiting in July.
Work on incentives for the 2024-2025 season (hmmm - what could this be?)
Birthday parties are coming to PDC! Need to get those packaged up and on the website.
Schedule our recital for 2025, photoshoots and more....
And then the day to day of answering emails, returning phone calls, keeping up with budgeting/bookkeeping, staffing, registering for 2025 competitions already, actually TEACHING classes (the thing I love the most)...plus home stuff of laundry, cooking, cleaning, running Emma Clare to and from camps - the list is truly never-ending.
In the spirit of transparency: I was insanely anxious for our trip last week. Summer dance has just started, we've had two weeks of summer camps, Company auditions were last weekend and things were in full swing. It was hard to force myself to take a step back. But, I made a promise to only check my email twice per day on vacation - when I woke up, and before bed. I set an out-of-office response and (mostly) stuck to that promise. I knew my staff would contact me if they needed me. I came back to a full inbox (77 to be exact), but I gave myself space to "get to it next week" while I was gone, and I needed that.
The result was incredibly fulfilling. I slept in (until 7:00 - which is late for me!), I spent an insane amount of time outdoors, we walked and explored more than we have as a family in years, I smiled and laughed a lot and it was truly a great trip. The weather was beautiful, we ate yummy food, I read an entire book for the first time in 6 months and was able to dream about the future and completely unplug.
I am an Enneagram 3, Wing 2 - have you heard of these? My key characteristics are often described as outgoing, friendly and gregarious. I am seen as someone who is determined and goal-oriented, and is also warm and supportive. 3W2's are "driven by a sense of purpose and a desire to contribute to something greater than themselves, finding fulfillment in making a meaningful impact on the world." I love setting goals, achieving them, checking things off my to-do list and I hardly ever sit still. I am forever thinking about what is coming next for the studio - routines, special events, new ideas, changes to our programming, what's happening on social...my brain never stops.
Jon and I spent a lot of reflection time while we were on vacation discussing our plans for the future, what we want to do in the next 3-5 years of our life and how we wanted to make sure that opportunities like the one we had last week are taken more often. This trip showed me that I have the ability to take time for my family and things will still be operational while I'm gone, and that it is okay to just let things "be" for a bit. The world - and the studio - will not crumble if I just rest, which is something I need to remind myself about more often.
All of this to say - if you are someone that is like me who also has trouble just taking time to pause for a minute (or day, or week)...do it. Force yourself to take the time off. Put away your laptop. Pick up a book. Go outside. Get in the sun. Move your body. Spend time with your family that is focused on just your family. The rest and recharge will be worth it - I promise (even if you are tired from the time change when you get back!). Also, find yourself a partner that will do all the vacation laundry as soon as you get home so you don't even have to think about it - that's the icing on the cake!
P.S. This trip showed me that I can "book the trip", so I booked the trip! I'm heading to London in August to visit my BFF and her newborn baby. I'm going for 9 days and so, so excited! Baby snuggles and bestie time, here I come!
Please enjoy some of my favorite photos from our week with no humidity and lots of vitamin D! The terrain here was wild - snowcapped mountains surrounded by high desert vegetation. The temps started in the 50's on Sunday and ended at a "really warm" 83 by Friday.
I'm excited to get back to the studio this week rested and recharged!
Ms. Lindsey
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