the Blog
Welcome! Find insights on building your business, priorities, motherhood, entrepreneurship, time management, joy, vision, magic, and, occasionally, food.
Use the tools, guidance, and real life examples to figure out where you’re heading and navigate a course you love. Even the messy parts.
Undercommit
A couple of weeks ago someone asked in one of my online communities, "What tips and tricks will you be implementing this summer to stay on track in your business?"
People had all sorts of great answers, ranging from creating marketing plans to setting up systems to automate more of their businesses and lives. I knew I could use just about everything they named, but my body rebelled and wouldn't let me declare one more action item or goal for the summer, no matter how big a difference I imagined it would make.
This is what came out instead…
Sometimes the wins aren't pretty
I realized something this week. It turns out that all this time I’ve thought that the “wins” in life, the things worth acknowledging and celebrating, are supposed to be pretty.
I was SO WRONG!!!!
It turns out that some of our biggest wins are hidden in big, messy arguments, somewhere underneath the yelling and the tears. Others are buried in moments of terror, self-doubt and pain. And still more of them are surrounded by everyday frustrations, overwhelm and mess-ups, which is why they’re hard to see, and why it’s hard for so many of us to believe we’ve collected more than a handful of wins throughout our entire lives.
Getting to an Effortless "No"
Yesterday I got an email from someone who wanted something from me that I didn’t want to give. She wanted my time.
I have become more and more fiercely protective of my time over the years, but apparently had not yet mastered the art of the effortless no. The moment I read the email subject and knew what the request was, I felt my stomach clench — first because I didn’t want to give time to this particular conversation and second because I knew that I probably would anyway.
This was a bad idea...
WHY do I sometimes think that something is such a good idea, and then it turns out to be such a bad idea but I keep going anyway, like if I can just force myself through it it will be totally worth it? This is what just happened to me, and some ways it might help you when your own brilliant ideas have you banging your head against the wall...
The Choose Joy Plan
People (smart people) have been telling me for a while to trust myself, to do what brings me joy, and to trust that the Universe has got my back. And to the intellectual, rational, socially constructed part of me THIS SOUNDS INSANE.
Are you telling me I can build a thriving business and life just by watching movies and eating chocolate all day?? That I can spend my time playing with my kids (who, in this fantasy, are never cranky and always want to play with me) and reading my YA novels and getting massages while money magically appears in my bank account and the laundry miraculously folds itself??
Um, no. But getting all snarky about it is a fantastic way for me to NOT LISTEN to what these people are really saying. On the other hand…