I won a massive copywriting project a few weeks back, and it’s going to run through February. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I can’t take time for reading and personal writing in the morning — I have to hit my work desk as soon as I can.

Missing this “study time” in the morning has really affected my mindset and my mood. I knew that easing into my day with study time was a good thing, a powerful thing … I just didn’t realize how powerful it was until I had to choose to give it up for a while.

This is just another example of how important it is to carve out time for the things that feed our souls. I’m incredibly privileged to get to choose (for the most part) when I take this time — but I still have to take it. The world isn’t going to hand it to me.

A friend recently commented on how impressed she is that I’m able to do so much in my life — and I had to laugh. I don’t feel like I’m “doing it all” at all. I’ve chosen to give up certain things to make time for the things that matter most.

That’s the sacrifice we all have to make — to give up some things to have time for other things — because we are human beings with finite lives. We can’t do it all. And the myth of “having it all,” or even the myth of work/life balance, can be harmful, I think. We can’t have it all. We have to make choices. And there is no such thing as work/life balance. We are perpetually out of balance in some areas of our lives. It’s up to us to decide where we let ourselves get out of balance in the service of giving more energy to something important. (Gary Keller’s The One Thing is a treatise to this.)

I think I’ll hit a stride with this project and be able to get back to my structured morning time at some point, but right now I’m trying to just breathe through it and remember that it’s serving my client and the growth of my company — and right now those things are important.