Pushing Forward and Pulling Back

Photo Credit: Elisa Ventur on Pixabay

 

“Don’t push yourself.” This was advice I gave to a friend who wanted to go for walks in spite of her ongoing bouts with dizziness.

 

It’s advice I had to follow this week, as well.

 

Writers are known for pushing forward in order to meet a deadline, finish writing a WIP, or to get to that next chapter. We go without food, sleep, water, exercise, and social gatherings in order to meet these goals.

 

And that has been something that I have been doing this week, as well.

 

For the most part, I had daily writing goals to meet: Work on at least one of my WIP, get some writing done in a certain article that is due at the end of the month, work on the SPARREW Newsletter. And so far, I met those goals.

 

But it was rough going.

 

Part of the recovery process from my eye surgery includes using eye drops several times a day. At first, it was four times a day, and with three different eye drops to use at five-minute intervals, that took some time out of my days. Now it’s three times a day for just two of them. They still require some time away from the work I am doing. Even so, I am certainly investing that time in the post-op care for my eye, as it is very important and contributes to the overall healing process for my eye.

 

I also had to take time to rest when I was dealing with headaches. (Yes, unfortunately, I’m still having those darn headaches! I guess they weren’t a result of my vision problem after all.) There was also a day I had a really bad dizzy spell, which also required rest.

 

These are times I pulled back from my drive to Get Things Done. I was out of commission. Unavailable.

 

But there were times that I pushed forward, too, in spite of everything going on. I pushed forward to get writing done in books. I pushed forward to read manuscript submissions. And I pushed forward to finish writing one thing or another.

 

Yes, as writers, we tend to push forward to meet obligations, but sometimes, we gotta know when to pull back too. If at all possible, pull back if you need to. Your health is more important than the writing or attending a con. Your mental health is especially important and should not suffer all for the writing cause.

 

Make sure you know when it’s okay to push forward and when you need to pull back. And if you really do need to pull back, then do so without guilt. Step away, slow down, and rest. We aren’t machines that can operate 24/7. We need breaks, we need rest. But, ultimately, we need to take care of ourselves. If we don’t take care of ourselves, then the writing suffers. So push forward if you are able to, but pull back when you need to.