I felt like crying one day this week. 

One of my employee’s texted me that she wasn’t feeling well and might not be able to come in for her closing shift. This is after 3 other employees called in sick over the last 2 weeks, and it was mostly me that had to cover for them. It was also after I worked 15 days in a row between Yoga-urt and my day job. 

It’s just too much and I felt like crying.

I’ve been working 70-80 hours a week for a year and a half now, between Yoga-urt and my day job, both extremely demanding with lots of responsibility.

My life is so out of balance, and the last few weeks, I’ve been questioning what I got myself into.  

For a very long time now, my life has been work, work, work. I barely see friends & family and have somewhat isolated myself because I’m either working or I’m so exhausted I don’t want to go out. I don’t know how to just relax anymore. I don’t know how to not work.

If I didn’t have Yoga-urt, I could actually go on some nice trips, go shopping (which I haven’t done since Yoga-urt madness began and I need new clothes!), see movies, maybe date more, take lots of yoga classes, have my weekends to be free, etc. 

But instead, the life I have right now is constantly dealing with problems from all sides. My title should be problem solver. Just when I think everything is okay for the moment, someone calls in sick or something breaks or a customer is upset, I have a deadline at work, or we run out of something, and the list goes on and on. It’s never ending.

So yes, it’s f**king hard and I’m tired and lonely and completely out of balance. 

So how do I get more balanced? To be honest, I don’t see it in my immediate future. They say starting your own business is hard and takes a lot of your time, and boy were they right. Then add in my demanding full-time job and it’s over the top.

But, I also know that this is the time for me to put in the work. I wouldn’t trade Yoga-urt for anything. 

I wasn’t even sure I should share all of this on my blog for the world to see, but I’ve chosen to share my journey and to try to dare greatly (which includes being vulnerable, thanks Brene Brown), so I decided it was okay.

Not sure how to fix the situation I’m in except to take 1 day at a time and do the best I can to take care of myself. To sleep. To exercise. And have fun. I need to have more fun.

I actually had a little free time this weekend, and although I was so tempted to rest, I felt I needed to take advantage and do something that’s been on my mind. 

During my business planning stage a few years back, I went to lots of different frozen yogurt stores to taste their products and see their spaces. 

In the last 6 months or so, I’ve heard about new places offering non-dairy soft serve options or fully vegan places, so I wanted to check them out. Kind of like taking a field trip, so that’s what I did. 

I hit 4 different stores this weekend, all over LA. If I’m being honest, my hope was that Yoga-urt would be better so that I wouldn’t have to worry about these places. And in most cases, that was true. However, they were all very unique and what is clear is that non-dairy options are popular.

There was 1 place in particular that was mostly dairy with 2 vegan options that I found interesting. I thought the 2 vegan options tasted pretty good, but I wasn’t in love with their dairy options. Or maybe I just don’t like dairy anymore? Hmm. 

But, they had nonstop traffic while I was there. Much more than we do at that time on a Sunday and I really think it’s because of their location. They are next to two busy markets, in a busy shopping strip, and a hip area. Good for them!

Then I think about our location, and how sleepy a neighborhood Kenneth Village is. I am convinced now more than ever that if we were on a high traffic street, we would’ve blown up big time. We are so fortunate to have people drive from all over LA to come to Yoga-urt, and although I knew this, Kenneth Village just doesn’t have that foot traffic. 

But maybe we are meant to build up slowly so that we can get through all of the kinks before things go crazy. Plus, this last year was hard enough and would’ve been even more challenging if we blew up right away since I still have my full-time job.

At the end of the day, I  made the best decision I could at the time and know that everything works out as it is meant to. I will continue to focus on Yoga-urt and what makes us special, and know that there is room for all of us.