“The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.” – Molière

Two weeks ago the side of my face started to hurt. I dismissed it. My wisdom teeth are still coming in and figured that they must have been making face sore. This week I could barely do anything. I slept all the time and I was too lethargic to get anything done. After a few hours of being awake I’d be so tired that I’d have to take a nap. Falling asleep at nine and waking up the next morning wasn’t too uncommon. In the past this wouldn’t have been that bad, I could have skipped class or called into work. Unfortunately, I no longer have that luxury. Working for myself means that I have to come up with the money. Jobs were still coming in and work needed to get down.

I ended up devising a strategy to get me through the week.

Solve the problem

The week before I hadn’t cared about my sore face. I figured that I would deal with it later. Now I wish I’d taken care of things right then and there. Because I hadn’t addressed the issue, it grew out of control. While I could have gotten treatment and not missed a thing, I ended up pretending that nothing was wrong and suffering the consequences. While I got the issue resolved now, it cost me a lot of time, pain, and money.

Cut back on non essentials

Since I kept nodding ff, I needed to conserve time. I didn’t blog as much, I postponed my Fiverr gigs, and I used my free time for work. I tried to be productive whenever I was awake. While it wasn’t a great way to do things, it did allow me to still get things done. I won’t lie and say that I still made good money, but I was able to cover all my bills.

Give people a heads up

I hate flakes. Nothing makes me more mad than when someone ditches at the last second. Because of this I decided to give my clients a heads up. I warned them that their projects might take a little longer to be completed and I offered them a discount because of this. By being honest I saved all my accounts and everyone understood. The reduced rate also gave customers a greater sense of trust and all of them were nice enough to not make good on my offer.

Stay healthy

There’s a blogger I follow who tweeted this gem yesterday:

“Funny how when sh*t goes wrong in a mans life, he turns to masculine virtues to correct himself. Primarily, lifting weights.”

Because I was sick I made sure to eat clean. I had juice twice a day and still did some basic exercises. It wasn’t great, but it did help me out a little bit.

Find the best solution, not the one that fits your ideals

At the beginning of the year I swore off all drugs. In addition to narcotics and supplements, I also black listed medicine. I’d had a very romanticized vision where I’d spend the whole year being all natural. I had to break my promise. I ended up using medicine which is something that I usually detest and mock. Unfortunately I was past the point of no return and felt that medicated ear drops were the best immediate choice.

Conclusion

Being sick, or facing any problem for that matter, sucks. It sucks even worse when you have to be responsible for yourself. When I could skate by I use to use sick days after partying to hard. Or I’d take a nap in one of the building’s more obscure bathrooms. Now I actually have to fend for myself. While the week sucked I did learn some valuable lessons. I went back to the basics, communicated with clients, and sought out the best possible solution. By doing this I was able to recover quickly and get back on my grind.

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