"How is ErdeGora going?" is a question I get asked quite often. Most of the time, people are being kind. They know I have been working on this little dream of mine for years. They know I design products, write blog posts, learn Shopify, think about SEO, create ideas for videos, and try to build something that feels like mine. I appreciate the question, but sometimes I also don't know how to answer it without laughing a little.
Because the honest answer is: ErdeGora is going as fast as the energy I have left.
And some weeks, that energy is very small.
When people hear that I work 30 hours a week, I think some imagine there is a magical pocket of free time waiting for me. Like the moment my paid work is finished, I enter a peaceful creative studio with perfect lighting, hot coffee, and unlimited motivation. In reality, after those 30 hours comes the other shift. The groceries still need to be done. Dinner still needs to exist. Laundry does not fold itself, no matter how long I ignore it. Appointments need to be remembered, school things need to be prepared, and someone has to notice that we are almost out of toothpaste, fruit, clean socks, or patience.
That is the part nobody really sees. The invisible work. The work that does not show up on a payslip, but somehow keeps the whole household from collapsing into chaos.
I don't think this is only a motherhood thing, although mothers often carry a huge part of it. It is also a household thing, a partnership thing, a modern life thing. We are all trying to do too much with too little energy, while pretending we are fine because everyone else seems to be fine too. Spoiler: most people are not fine. They are just very good at looking functional in public.
For me, the frustrating part is not that ErdeGora takes time. I knew it would. The frustrating part is that I can see what it could become if I had more space to give it what it deserves. I have ideas waiting in my notes. Products waiting to be designed. Blog posts waiting to be written. Videos waiting to be filmed. Little pieces of a bigger world that I want to build slowly, properly, and with love.
But ErdeGora does not live outside my life. It lives inside it. It lives next to my job, my family, my health, my responsibilities, and all the tiny tasks that nobody notices unless they are not done. It competes with tiredness, back pain, dinner planning, laundry baskets, grocery lists, and the very real need to sometimes just sit down and exist.
For a long time, I felt guilty about that. Guilty that I was not posting enough. Guilty that I was not growing fast enough. Guilty that I was not doing everything the online business people tell you to do. Be consistent. Show up daily. Build your brand. Create content. Sell your products. Learn the algorithm. Improve your website. Make reels. Write emails. Optimize everything.
Lovely. Wonderful. Very inspiring.
But when exactly?
At midnight, when my brain has already left the server?
At 6 in the morning, before the house wakes up?
During the three minutes between cleaning the kitchen and remembering we need bread?
There is a point where "just be consistent" starts sounding like advice from someone who has never had to plan dinner while answering emails and stepping on a toy dinosaur.
And that is where I come back to one of the core ideas behind ErdeGora: balance. ErdeGora was never supposed to be another reason to burn myself out. It was never meant to become one more thing shouting at me that I am behind. The whole point of the brand is to remind people, especially gamers, techies, creators, parents, and overthinkers, that we are allowed to go AFK.
Not because we are lazy.
Not because we are giving up.
Because we are human.
Rest is not a reward you earn after everything is finished. Everything is never finished. Rest is maintenance. It is part of the system. You would not expect a laptop to run forever without cooling down, updating, or being plugged in. Yet somehow we expect ourselves to keep going on low battery while pretending the warning signs are just decorative.
I am learning that I cannot build a dream by destroying the person who is supposed to live it. I am not allowed to collapse like a castle of cards because I tried to balance too many responsibilities on top of each other. My family needs me, yes. My work needs me. ErdeGora needs me too. But I also need me.
So when people ask how ErdeGora is going, the answer is: slowly, honestly, imperfectly, and still with love. It is not moving at influencer speed. It is not a shiny overnight success story. It is a real-life project being built between work shifts, parenting, household chaos, health limits, creative bursts, and necessary pauses.
And maybe that is okay.
Maybe building slowly is still building. Maybe resting is not falling behind. Maybe going AFK is exactly what keeps us from crashing.
So if you are also building something while carrying an invisible shift, please remember this: your dream deserves your energy, but it does not deserve your burnout.
Go AFK when you need to.
Not because you stopped caring.
Because you plan to keep going.
💛👾🎈
