I work six days a week, nearly 12 hours each day, in a career where the amount and quality of my people interactions determine the future success of my business. What do I do?
I am a resident barista at one of the greatest bakeries here in Cow Town! (<– THAT’S AN ANIME STORY RIGHT THERE!!)
What makes a great barista is not JUST the attention to put towards coffee but also the attention to put towards their customers. Baristas are bartenders and people go to baristas to enjoy a break from real life. Baristas provide cheerful personalized conversation, unique art, and beverages of comfort! Growing these relationships helps build a successful coffee business.
Unfortunately, this same concept is what’s killing me….
I am a textbook introvert – I thrive off environments that have few but well-developed, full of depth relationships that allow me to release all faucets of my personality. Environments filled with an infinite amount of shallower relationships that are more focussed on providing comfort, relief, and/or entertainment DRAINS my energy reserves. For 10ish hours nearly every day, I have to gather up all my energy into the right size of cheer for every customer, generate the right amount of personalized social interaction by opening the matching faucets of my personality and closing off others, and sending off each customer with a gift basket of “I’m so glad I came here” vibes.
IT’S EXHAUSTING!
My mental state is so drained from this daily struggle that I’ve lost track of time completely – today, I packed LOTS of equipment and supplies for a BIG event, hired in OT staff, arrived on location and unpacked only to discover that today is NOT the 26th (event day). In fact, today is the 19th …
MY FIRST BIG MISTAKE in all my years of mobile baristaing …..
All because I’ve given away all my energy needed to power my brain properly to so, so, so many people to brighten their days. I mean, I’m happy that everyone else is happy. I LIVE for making people happy. I love when people tell me their visits with me are the highlight of my day … but I’m an introvert ….this happiness doesn’t revitalize my health bar, like it would for an attention seeking extrovert.
I wouldn’t ever want to change my work ethic when it comes to customer & business relationships, but I do need to carve out more time away from people to replenish my health bar.
I really, really do wish that these smiles that I work so hard for would ACTUALLY replenish my health bar! One bright happy customer smile – BAM! 280 HP points! But no… for me, it’s like “I’ve defeated a Big Bad and took some crit damage, but your smile (!) made it all worth it! …. I may have to sit out on the next quest tho … my health regen right now is dead slow. “
Sadly, I had to pull out of a few of my favorite commitments as I try to regen my health. I am on hiatus from being the keytarist of Deja Brew Idols. I’m taking a BIG break from organizing things for CausePlay Cafe. Futhermore, I am stalling projects on Betsuni. My heart is breaking over the fact that it has come to such a point where I have to snip myself out of fun and meaningful collabrations just to gain back mental energy. It’s selfish, but it’s necessary, if I want to be more of an asset to my communities, instead of becoming dead weight or, even worse, a burden.
In the meanwhile, I am working on developing myself into an even greater asset and star, so I can return to the community as a even shinier treasure! Twinkle, twinkle!
Away from having to obey social etiquette…
Squirrelled away from the attention seekers of the world …
You’ll find me locked away in a basement studio practicing bubble pop music, learning wannabe idol dance moves, and obsessing over geeky crafting.
This is me in recovery mode ♥ Please be patient with me. I’ll be back to RL interactions soon. ♥