There’s no pause button on client work. No off-season where I can redesign everything from scratch. I’m figuring out and improving service offerings while delivering them. Refining positioning while having conversations. Testing pricing while closing deals. That’s how most small businesses get built. You don’t get to stop completely and perfect everything before you launch.

But I’m learning the value of pulling into a bay occasionally. Not a full winter layup. Not months away from the work.

I think most of us sense the current. We feel it when something is working — when the work feels less like pushing and more like being carried. And we feel it when we're fighting it — exhausted, stuck, paddling upstream against something we can't name.