That's just chaos with better branding

Running a family business means you're always moving. But most exercise requires going somewhere else, changing clothes, and carving out time you don't have.

Rucking is different (and GORUCK is built different). It's one of my go-to workouts because I can walk our property while I think, write, and dream about the business.

I'm getting a workout and clearing my head at the same time. It's increased my core strength, back strength, and overall body health.

When you're building something with your family, you need rhythms that work for your life… not against it. Rucking fits. No gym. No complicated setup. Just load up and walk.

Check out GORUCK and find a ruck that works for you. Your back (and your business) will thank you.

This year has been chaos.

We had a baby in March. Tabitha has created 4-5 books since then. We did a live event in October that wiped us out. And then Black Friday hit, and we weren't ready.

Not even close.

We scrambled. Our small team scrambled. Tabitha and I both had to jump in and help fulfill orders, clean up messes, and keep things moving. It wasn't pretty.

We have four kids, nine and under. Any disruption to the schedule is real life for us. And this year? It's been one long disruption.

But here's what I'm learning: the problem isn't the chaos. The problem is we haven't built the rhythms to handle it.

Freedom without discipline isn't freedom

When you leave the W-2 world, you think you're getting freedom. And you are. But freedom without structure just becomes a different kind of stress.

Jocko Willink says "discipline equals freedom," and I think he's right. The irony is, we built businesses so we could have control over our time. But if we don't actually build rhythms around that time, we end up more stressed than we were before.

I can work whenever I want. Which means I'm tempted to work all the time.

Tabitha can paint late into the night to finish a book. Which means she often does, even when she's exhausted.

We can say yes to family dropping by on a Wednesday afternoon. Which means we do, even when we're behind.

That's not freedom. That's just chaos with better branding.

We're still figuring this out

Honestly, we're pretty new to this. Not new to running businesses, but new to scaling them while raising four kids… and while actually trying to build sustainable rhythms.

Adding another kid into the mix always throws everything off. Don't get me wrong— it's a sacrifice we'd make every single time. But there's always a trade-off.

And we're still learning where the boundaries should be for our family.

What we've learned so far

We've tried fighting against the traditional M-F, weekend structure. And honestly? It's hard.

The world is organized this way. Our employees expect it. Our customers expect it. Fighting upstream against that takes more energy than it's worth.

So in general, we honor weekends. We try to observe Saturday and Sunday as days off. More recently, we've been doing a Sabbath-type day on Saturdays. Shutting off from phones, disconnecting from the business, actually resting.

And on the days we actually stick to that? We find peace. Comfort. We stop worrying so much about what's happening in the business.

But we also break that rule. Probably too often.

The tension we're still working through

The thing is that we have the freedom to break the rules. And sometimes we should.

When family wants to drop by on a Wednesday at 2pm, sometimes we say yes. And that's the gift of what we've built.

But more often than not, we may need to say no. We need to stick to what we planned and not sacrifice the business for spontaneity.

Same with busy seasons. Right now, Tabitha just finished another book. That meant late nights for her. Me on baby duty from 6-8pm most evenings. Both of us tired. Both of us behind on other things.

Not ideal. But necessary.

The tension is this: rhythms aren't rules. They flex. They adapt. But if you break them too often, they stop being rhythms at all. They just become chaos again.

Seasons matter

I personally think it's important for our kids to see us work really hard in certain seasons and rest really well in other seasons.

There's never going to be perfect balance. Their lives won't have perfect balance either.

But they can see what it looks like to sprint when it matters and recover when you need to.

After our live event at Magnolia Market in Waco, we scheduled massages for the following Monday. We cleared the entire day. No work. Just recovery.

We'd worked probably 14 days straight (long hours on several of them) to make the event happen. But we planned the recovery in advance. And that made all the difference.

The big difference from (my old) agency life

Here's what I wouldn't trade: the control.

In agency life, there was this constant stress on weekends and off-hours that something could go wrong. That I'd need to jump on a call. That I'd be letting someone down if I wasn't available or doing more.

As an entrepreneur, there are still plenty of moments of feeling behind. But we have much more control over that stress. We're not letting somebody else down. We're managing our own business.

That's the difference. And it's worth it to me.

Rhythms, not rules

What I'm learning is this: you don't need perfect balance. You need rhythms that work for your season of life.

Rhythms that flex when they need to but don't break completely.

Rhythms that honor the structure the world runs on (M-F, weekends off) but give you freedom to break them when it matters.

Rhythms that include recovery, not just hustle.

And most importantly, rhythms that you actually stick to most of the time. Because if you break them constantly, they're not rhythms. They're just ideas you had once.

Here's what to do this week:

Take 20 minutes and map out your ideal weekly rhythm. Not your perfect schedule. Your rhythm.

Then, look at your next busy season. When is it? What's coming? Plan your recovery time now. Not after you're burnt out. Now.

For us, it's a massage Monday. A cleared calendar. A boundary we set in advance. For you, it might be something else. But plan it now.

Because busy seasons are going to happen. That's part of building something.

But burnout doesn't have to be.

Jordan 🤠

P.S. - Share this with a friend who's been grinding too hard and needs permission to plan a recovery week.

Jordan Schmitt

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