“I can’t get anyone to buy from me!”

“Did you ask anyone to buy from you? Did you offer them something to buy?”

“…No.”

I might chuckle about people missing these basics, except I know I’ve missed them, too. For example, I would always fall behind on my bookkeeping—like doing an entire year’s worth two weeks before the tax deadline—and I wondered why. The reason was incredibly simple: I wasn’t making any room on my schedule to do this work.

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After months of being too bummed out to even look at the numbers, I started budgeting again properly in January.

Of course, numbers are numbers. They are what they are, without emotion. Whether I choose to examine them or not doesn’t change their reality. But if I didn’t pay attention too closely, I didn’t have to deal with them. I didn’t have to deal with reality.

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Ali, an eight-year-old piano student, was having trouble keeping her wrists level. She kept resting them on the piano case while she was playing, thus creating tension and restricting motion. Every few seconds, I had to either verbally correct her or gently nudge her wrists up.

Because I secretly desire to be a mean piano teacher rapping knuckles with a wooden ruler, I did this:

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For years, I did my most important work in the nooks and crannies of my life.

I was so busy serving clients during the workday and into the evening that key activities, like curriculum development and building a website, took place during weekends and (shudder) holidays.

I also had little time for non-career-related self-development (like hobbies, exercise, friends, and fun).

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We’ve seen the moving TED talks where kids in Kenya or India talk about how desperate they are to have an education and how grateful they are to be able to go to school. But to kids who already have the amazing privileges of speaking English, living in the United States, Internet access, and literate parents, formal education doesn’t carry as dramatic a promise of advancement. It doesn’t feel like an incredible gift — it feels like a burden and a bother.

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