The Work Will Still Be There

...an interesting, puzzling, and a bit of a sad phone call...

PHOTO JOURNAL 2026

James Bradley

9/3/20269 min read

The Work Will Still Be There

The Work Will Still Be There

I recently had an interesting, puzzling, and a bit of a sad phone call from a very close friend of mine.

He owns a thriving business and he's busier than just about anyone I know. From the outside, it looks like he’s done everything right to get his business to where he has it today. I’ve had a ton of fun watching him make it grow over the last six or seven years. Hell, I even worked for him for a bit. He’s a machine. He has one of the most powerful work ethics I’ve ever seen. Sure, he’s built something successful, but he's also created a massive amount of work for himself. He’s built a huge client base and he manages to keep the whole machine moving. It's impressive to see.

Here’s the problem. He's built a perpetual motion machine. The business never seems to stop.

It’s become a monster that consumes all of his time. It demands all of his effort, which means there’s almost nothing left for his personal life. The work comes first because it has to. There’s always something else needing attention. Another problem shows up. By the time he gets through everything that supposedly can’t wait, there is no day left for him or his family.

I get it.

Our phone call started with him asking me if I could give him some insight. At first I was confused because he always seems so self-sufficient and capable. Why would he be calling me for insight on anything? He told me he’d seen a noticeable change in me since my accident. He wanted to know what I had changed in the way I look at life that makes me do things so differently now.

I was honestly a bit stunned by the inquiry. I had to stop and seriously think about it. It’s one hell of a question to answer during a phone call. I’m not even sure I was able to do it. I’m not sure I gave him the answer he was looking for or if he was even looking for something specific. I just didn’t know.

I tried to explain it the best I could, and I have been thinking about the conversation ever since.

I started with this. The truth is, I didn’t wake up one morning after my fall, all “new and improved”. I’m still the same old shitshow.

It wasn’t like some dramatic movie scene where the music started playing, the clouds opened, and I suddenly understood the meaning of life. I vividly remember it. The moment came when I was on the table at the radiology clinic, right after they informed me that I had a substantial blood clot in my lung and if it broke loose it had the potential to kill me. I was stunned to say the least. I also remember my first thoughts immediately after fighting back the tears. I told myself I needed to maintain my shit and be strong for my family. It didn’t matter how something like this would affect me. How it would affect them does. I remember walking out into the waiting room. I remember the doctor telling my wife what the deal was and her bursting into tears. She was scared, I was scared and we were both seriously shocked. Our lives had officially changed in seconds.

But, guess what. I’m still stubborn. I still get overwhelmed. I still take on way too many projects. I still have shitty days. I still get pissed off when something doesn’t work the way I think it should.

Something working out the way I think it should rarely happens.

Here’s what changed. Now I make a conscious effort, every day, to try not to let the garbage moments destroy everything else. The reality is that I have zero control over pretty much anything in my life, so I slow down, breathe, and look at what I see around me. I think about what matters in my life. I smile at the little things because I see a lot more of them now.

Don’t Let the Bad Own the Whole Day

I told him that I do my best not to get too excited when bad things happen. Let me rephrase. I really don’t like the phrase “I do my best”. I make an effort to not let shit get to me. Because, for the most part, it really is exactly that. SHIT.

I know it probably sounds strange.

I don’t ignore problems or operate on the assumption that everything is just peachy. Sometimes things are serious and problems need to be fixed immediately, if possible. More often than not, you face an issue or a problem that can’t be fixed right now with good vibes, positive thinking, a cup of coffee, or a walk around the yard. I know it's hard to believe, but it's true. Brush it off and move on. You’re not fixing anything. It is what it is.

What I mean is that I don’t give the crappy situations and bad attitudes any control over the rest of my day. I know that sometimes it is unavoidable. It happens. Not to sound repetitive, but I slow down, breathe, and look around.

When something goes wrong, and it always does, my natural reaction is still there. I get irritated, frustrated, and I know you might find this hard to believe, I swear…a lot. Weird.

Another thing that changed is that now I try to stop before that frustration and irritation change the entire trajectory of my day. It will, if you let it.

A mistake doesn’t mean everything is falling apart. One less-than-stellar day doesn’t mean I have a terrible life. Quite the opposite. When I think about it, in the scheme of things, these flashes of irritation in life show me some contrast to the good things.

It sounds obvious when I write it down, but it’s way harder to see when life is piling more crap onto the already existing pile. Trust me, I know how to build a pile of crap.

Before the accident, I allowed my environment to dictate how I felt. My work problems, unfinished projects, bills, schedules, obligations, and whatever else happened that day often consumed all of my attention.

I’d carry the problems into the next part of the day and then into the next part of the day and eventually into the next day, week, month...you get the picture. At the end of the day, my head would still be stuck in that loop trying to solve the old issues from hours or days earlier. Bring on the sleep deprivation.

My crash and burn blasted me in the face with how quickly life can change. It showed me how much time I had wasted waiting for everything to slow down before I allowed myself to enjoy anything.

I’m here to tell you it never settles down. There is always another job. There is always another problem. There is always something that needs to be fixed, answered, paid, moved, finished, started, or figured out.

The work will still be there.

The question is whether I’m going to let it own every minute between now and then.

Find Something That Belongs to You

Another thing I told him was this. You need to find something that you can do every day that’s just for you.

Not for the business.

Not for a customer.

Not because it earns money.

Not because someone is waiting on it.

Something that belongs to you.

For me, that became photography. I explained to him why I do the daily photo challenge. It gives me a reason to stop every single day. It’s a self-imposed reset. It’s necessary.

Some days Susan and I go somewhere and we spend a good bunch of time taking pictures. Other days we walk five or ten minutes out onto the back of the property and see what we can find. We compare photos, we laugh, we do goofy stuff, and most of all we reset.

It doesn’t always have to be an adventure. It doesn’t have to be some epic sightseeing trip. We don’t need a perfect sunset, a rare bird, dramatic weather, or some wall-worthy photograph waiting for us. Sometimes we just walk outside, breathe, look around and take a few pictures.

For those few minutes, work and life aren’t in charge. The phone isn’t in charge. The unfinished projects aren’t in charge. Our never-ending list of things we should probably be doing is not in charge.

We are.

This small break was unintentional in the beginning, but it has grown into a meaningful and absolutely necessary part of my day. It matters way more than I expected when I started the challenge. To be truthful, I’m not sure I even saw the relief coming.

When it first started, the goal was simple. Take a photograph every day and improve my photography. That’s still part of it, but it’s become something bigger. It gives me time to decompress. It forces me to pay attention. It gives Susan and me something. We do this together every day, even when the day is busy, frustrating, or completely off the rails. We even do it on the days when we don’t feel like doing it. When the weather is crappy we find a way to make it happen inside the house. We make it work because it creates a small space in the day that’s for us.

Everyone needs something like that. It doesn’t have to be photography. It can be literally anything. It could be walking, woodworking, reading, fishing, gardening, drawing, cooking, sitting outside, or doing absolutely nothing for ten minutes without feeling guilty about it.

The physical activity actually matters far less than the decision behind it.

For those few minutes, you are choosing to step out of everything the world expects from you.

You are reminding yourself that you are more than your job, your business, your responsibilities, and the problems waiting for you.

Ten Minutes Still Counts

It seems to me that one reason people don’t make time for themselves is because they assume that time slot needs to be a major event. It doesn't.

Your “time” doesn't need to be an entire afternoon, a weekend away, expensive equipment, or a perfectly organized schedule.

Although this would be nice, it's not always realistic. Some days, all you have is ten minutes. That's ok. You'll learn to love those.

A short walk behind the house doesn't solve any problems in my life. Taking a picture doesn’t make the bills disappear or finish my work, but it does interrupt the noise. It gives my mind a chance to settle down.

It reminds me that the world is still there behind whatever problem has my attention at the moment.

The light is still changing across the slough.

Herons are still wading around.

Things are still growing, moving, reflecting, and changing right outside my door. None of it stopped because I had a bad day.

I’d just stopped paying attention to it.

My photography gave me a reason to see it all again. Truth be told, I'm not sure how much I saw before.

I Cannot Make the Decision for Him

Since my friend’s call, I’ve been thinking about how I can help him. Do I have a perfect answer? I wish. I don't. I can't rearrange his life for him. I can't decide which responsibilities he should let go of or if he should let go of any. I can't tell him how to run his business. Not that I'd want to. I can't make him take time for himself or his family. Those are decisions that are solely his.

I can listen,

I can check on him.

I can remind him that his life isn't something he should keep postponing until the work is finished.

It never will be.

There's always one more customer, one more problem, one more deadline, one more reason why today isn't a good day to step away.

At what point do we have to decide that our lives are also important enough to appear on our schedule?

I’m not suggesting that anyone abandons their responsibilities. I'm certainly not qualified to become someone’s life coach. Ewwww. Good hell, most days I’m still trying to keep the monkeys in my own circus herded in roughly the right direction.

I’m simply saying that all of us need something that reminds us why we are doing all the work in the first place.

Success isn't worth a damn if there is no time left to live the life it was supposed to create, is it?

What Changed After the Accident

He asked what changed in me after the accident.

I think the most realistic answer is this.

I stopped thinking I had unlimited time.

I started trying to protect small pieces of my day from the noise. I began to pay more attention to the people around me. I now do something every day that helps me stop, breathe, and notice where I am.

I don't let the bad moment become a bad day if I can help it. Sometimes it's unavoidable.

I try to remember that all the crap will still be waiting after I take a few minutes for myself.

Do I always get it done, hell no? But I make the effort. It's helped my whole outlook on life.

Sometimes the day gets away from me. I still get irritated, overwhelmed, distracted, or wrapped up in something that feels more important than everything else.

But I see it sooner now and when I see it, Susan and I grab the cameras. We go chase sunsets. Sometimes we drive or maybe we walk out behind the house. Maybe we only spend ten minutes looking for something to take a picture of. Sometimes we can't get a wall-worthy picture. But, that's ok, we enjoy the view.

It's not a complicated system.

It's just a small daily decision to stop letting everything else have all of our time. The work will still be there when we get back.

It always is.

The Work Will Still Be There

The Work Will Still Be There

I recently had an interesting, puzzling, and a bit of a sad phone call from a very close friend of mine.

Here’s the problem. He's built a perpetual motion machine. The business never seems to stop.

I get it.

I tried to explain it the best I could, and I have been thinking about the conversation ever since.

I started with this. The truth is, I didn’t wake up one morning after my fall, all “new and improved”. I’m still the same old shitshow.

But, guess what. I’m still stubborn. I still get overwhelmed. I still take on way too many projects. I still have shitty days. I still get pissed off when something doesn’t work the way I think it should.

Something working out the way I think it should rarely happens.

Don’t Let the Bad Own the Whole Day

I told him that I do my best not to get too excited when bad things happen. Let me rephrase. I really don’t like the phrase “I do my best”. I make an effort to not let shit get to me. Because, for the most part, it really is exactly that. SHIT.

I know it probably sounds strange.

What I mean is that I don’t give the crappy situations and bad attitudes any control over the rest of my day. I know that sometimes it is unavoidable. It happens. Not to sound repetitive, but I slow down, breathe, and look around.

When something goes wrong, and it always does, my natural reaction is still there. I get irritated, frustrated, and I know you might find this hard to believe, I swear…a lot. Weird.

Another thing that changed is that now I try to stop before that frustration and irritation change the entire trajectory of my day. It will, if you let it.

A mistake doesn’t mean everything is falling apart. One less-than-stellar day doesn’t mean I have a terrible life. Quite the opposite. When I think about it, in the scheme of things, these flashes of irritation in life show me some contrast to the good things.

It sounds obvious when I write it down, but it’s way harder to see when life is piling more crap onto the already existing pile. Trust me, I know how to build a pile of crap.

Before the accident, I allowed my environment to dictate how I felt. My work problems, unfinished projects, bills, schedules, obligations, and whatever else happened that day often consumed all of my attention.

My crash and burn blasted me in the face with how quickly life can change. It showed me how much time I had wasted waiting for everything to slow down before I allowed myself to enjoy anything.

I’m here to tell you it never settles down. There is always another job. There is always another problem. There is always something that needs to be fixed, answered, paid, moved, finished, started, or figured out.

The work will still be there.

The question is whether I’m going to let it own every minute between now and then.

Find Something That Belongs to You

Another thing I told him was this. You need to find something that you can do every day that’s just for you.

Not for the business.

Not for a customer.

Not because it earns money.

Not because someone is waiting on it.

Something that belongs to you.

For me, that became photography. I explained to him why I do the daily photo challenge. It gives me a reason to stop every single day. It’s a self-imposed reset. It’s necessary.

Some days Susan and I go somewhere and we spend a good bunch of time taking pictures. Other days we walk five or ten minutes out onto the back of the property and see what we can find. We compare photos, we laugh, we do goofy stuff, and most of all we reset.

It doesn’t always have to be an adventure. It doesn’t have to be some epic sightseeing trip. We don’t need a perfect sunset, a rare bird, dramatic weather, or some wall-worthy photograph waiting for us. Sometimes we just walk outside, breathe, look around and take a few pictures.

For those few minutes, work and life aren’t in charge. The phone isn’t in charge. The unfinished projects aren’t in charge. Our never-ending list of things we should probably be doing is not in charge.

We are.

This small break was unintentional in the beginning, but it has grown into a meaningful and absolutely necessary part of my day. It matters way more than I expected when I started the challenge. To be truthful, I’m not sure I even saw the relief coming.

Everyone needs something like that. It doesn’t have to be photography. It can be literally anything. It could be walking, woodworking, reading, fishing, gardening, drawing, cooking, sitting outside, or doing absolutely nothing for ten minutes without feeling guilty about it.

The physical activity actually matters far less than the decision behind it.

For those few minutes, you are choosing to step out of everything the world expects from you.

You are reminding yourself that you are more than your job, your business, your responsibilities, and the problems waiting for you.

Ten Minutes Still Counts

It seems to me that one reason people don’t make time for themselves is because they assume that time slot needs to be a major event. It doesn't.

Your “time” doesn't need to be an entire afternoon, a weekend away, expensive equipment, or a perfectly organized schedule.

Although this would be nice, it's not always realistic. Some days, all you have is ten minutes. That's ok. You'll learn to love those.

A short walk behind the house doesn't solve any problems in my life. Taking a picture doesn’t make the bills disappear or finish my work, but it does interrupt the noise. It gives my mind a chance to settle down.

It reminds me that the world is still there behind whatever problem has my attention at the moment.

The light is still changing across the slough.

Herons are still wading around.

Things are still growing, moving, reflecting, and changing right outside my door. None of it stopped because I had a bad day.

I’d just stopped paying attention to it.

My photography gave me a reason to see it all again. Truth be told, I'm not sure how much I saw before.

I Cannot Make the Decision for Him

I can listen,

I can check on him.

I can remind him that his life isn't something he should keep postponing until the work is finished.

It never will be.

There's always one more customer, one more problem, one more deadline, one more reason why today isn't a good day to step away.

At what point do we have to decide that our lives are also important enough to appear on our schedule?

I’m not suggesting that anyone abandons their responsibilities. I'm certainly not qualified to become someone’s life coach. Ewwww. Good hell, most days I’m still trying to keep the monkeys in my own circus herded in roughly the right direction.

I’m simply saying that all of us need something that reminds us why we are doing all the work in the first place.

Success isn't worth a damn if there is no time left to live the life it was supposed to create, is it?

What Changed After the Accident

He asked what changed in me after the accident.

I think the most realistic answer is this.

I stopped thinking I had unlimited time.

I started trying to protect small pieces of my day from the noise. I began to pay more attention to the people around me. I now do something every day that helps me stop, breathe, and notice where I am.

I don't let the bad moment become a bad day if I can help it. Sometimes it's unavoidable.

I try to remember that all the crap will still be waiting after I take a few minutes for myself.

Do I always get it done, hell no? But I make the effort. It's helped my whole outlook on life.

Sometimes the day gets away from me. I still get irritated, overwhelmed, distracted, or wrapped up in something that feels more important than everything else.

It's not a complicated system.

It's just a small daily decision to stop letting everything else have all of our time. The work will still be there when we get back.

It always is.

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