The 18-Hour Days I Don't Miss (And What They Taught Me)

19 Dec

I'm writing this from my sofa with a cup of tea and the kind of gentle afternoon light that only happens in December, when the days are short and the world feels like it's naturally asking you to slow down (whether you planned to or not. 😄)

I've noticed something happening this week that I didn't expect. I'm slowing down, and instead of fighting it or feeling guilty about it, I'm just letting it happen, which is such a different response than I would have had years ago when December meant something entirely different.

The Wisdom That Comes With Time

Back in the days of Utterly Horses, my model horse business, August through December was our season of absolute intensity. We would work 18-hour days without question, packing and wrapping orders to make sure they could reach their destinations on time. We were Santa in the model horse world, and it felt like our responsibility to make the magic happen.

We would start at 5 or 6am, work through the day fuelled by copious cups of coffee and shortbread rounds from those fancy metal tins, stop at 6pm for a quick microwave meal or fish and chips, and then push on until the twilight hours and beyond. I vividly remember working some nights until 1 or 2am, when the world was quiet and dark and the lights of the warehouse still burned into the night like a beacon, boxes stacked high around us, the rhythm of tape guns and pop of bubblewrap the only sound for miles.

Nowadays I think back to those times and wonder how I did it, and the answer is simple. I had youth and bundles of naivety on my side, but I also had a bigger vision. We were working that hard to build something beyond the retail business itself, saving and strategising towards the day we could create our own model horse brand, and that vision made the 18-hour days feel like an investment rather than a sentence.

What Different Business Models Require

What I understand now that I didn't fully grasp then is that business model (pun also intended 😂) required that intensity. Retail businesses, especially back in the 2000's and 2010's, made their real profit in the final quarter of the year, so getting it right wasn't optional. It was survival and strategy wrapped into one relentless push.

Would there be a way to run that business differently now? My honest answer is no, because some business models come with structural demands that can't be tweaked into submission. They simply require what they require.

The hard work did pay off. We created our own brand of model horses: Copperfox Model Horses. The vision became real. I learnt something crucial in those warehouse nights that I still carry with me, in that, hard work can absolutely pay off when it's pointed towards something you genuinely want to build. But saying that, hard work looks radically different in different business models, and the cage that serves you in one season might suffocate you in another.

What Slowing Down Reveals

Now, with a service-based business I've deliberately designed to allow for a different rhythm, December feels like an entirely different season. Instead of ramping up, I'm slowing down, and my body and intuition are telling me that I need to recharge. I'm basically a battery. 🔋 I need space to think. I need the kind of gentle percolating time where thoughts can bubble up and come to the surface when they're ready rather than being forced into shape on a deadline.

This slower pace is what allows me to look back at those warehouse years and extract the wisdom instead of just the war stories. It creates room for thoughts about next year to drift in naturally through questions like: what do I want next year to feel like, what rhythm serves me now, what does my bigger vision require from me at this stage of the journey, and crucially, am I building something that allows for the life I actually want or am I just accepting a cage out of habit?

The Questions December Is Asking

December is teaching me that looking back with wisdom and looking forward with intention both require the same thing: space to think, permission to slow down, and the willingness to listen to what your body and intuition are trying to tell you about what comes next.

If you find yourself slowing down this December too, I'd encourage you to look back at your own journey and see what wisdom is waiting there for you. What did those hard seasons teach you? What business model are you actually in, and does it require the cage you've built around it or have you just accepted one out of habit?

What does your body need now that it didn't need ten years ago? What's the bigger vision that makes the work worth doing, and is what you're building actually moving you towards it?

These aren't questions that need immediate answers. They're the kind that percolate and marinate and surface when they're ready, but you have to create space for them first. December's natural slowing down might be exactly the invitation you need to start listening. 😌

Onwards and Upwards
- Becky :)

About the Author: Becky Benfield Humberstone helps Quietly Disruptive founders escape the cage businesses keeping them from their real purpose. If you're so busy surviving that you can't remember why you started, or the impact you actually wanted to create, she gets it. Using The Two Questions Framework, Becky works with established entrepreneurs to move from trapped and silent, to free and making the impact they know, deep down, they're meant to create. Based in the UK and working globally via Zoom, she's walked this path herself.

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