Are you a business owner and a mom? Or a business owner and someone who is taking care of a loved one? Because I do. I kill myself trying to be both a great parent and a great business owner. I watched P!nk’s Amazon Prime Special The line, “I kill myself trying to do both” came from P!nk's Amazon Prime Special about her going on tour and bringing her two kids with her. If you haven't seen it, it's a good one. Not just for the fact that you get to see P!nk, her music, and the behind-the-scenes, but you see how she tries to be a normal parent in a life that's not normal. My “normal” life I consider my life normal. I'm a working parent, but I have a business. It is hard, and people without children don't understand. Case in point, I was asked to be on the board for an organization I'm a part of. My answer was, “I can't. I'm just too busy and I don't have the bandwidth to be able to do it.” The reply I received was, “Everyone is busy”. I get that everyone is busy, but when you have children you’re on 24/7 needing to:
Your time is not your own. As I'm trying to build my business, I've got two children who depend on me. That's why I stopped trying to do it all because it's a lot. It's one thing when you think they're at school for most of the day, or they’re at camps. Well, over the summer, I dealt with kids being at home all the time because they don't want to go to camps, and it's the summer, so I try to continue to build my business with kids at home. Now, I will say that I do have support. I have two virtual assistants, Kristine and Karissa, who are absolutely amazing, and who do so many things for me, and that's probably why I haven't completely lost it. That's part of how my business continues to move forward, but the reality is, that you cannot be an ideal parent and be the perfect business owner doing it all alone. You can't have both at the exact same time without help. The same goes if you're caring for an aging parent or a loved one who needs your constant care and support, you are with them probably all the time. You get maybe a little bit of respite, but it's the same situation. Job of a parent: me as a mother When I heard P!nk say she tries to be perfect at both, and she'll kill herself trying, I completely related. On the parent side, my background is in teaching, education, motivation, and empowerment, and I thought, “When I’m a Mom, I'm going to have the greatest children. I'm going to organize crafts and personal development and teach them about having a business and all this”. To be honest, sometimes I’m just keeping my head above water:
But honestly, my house is a mess. They don't always do what they're supposed to do. They're learning to talk back now, and I am having a hard time with it. When I was a new mom, my daughter at the time was about nine months old. (My daughter is the eldest. I have two now they're 8 and 11.) At that time, I was building my business, and I was a mom. I would be listening to books or podcasts as I hiked with her. I would have my computer open as I was nursing, trying to learn new things, trying to reply to emails, or posting on social. Those sorts of tasks while I was also being a mom. It kind of worked. We did our best, and I didn't have too high expectations for myself. While she was sleeping, I would work the business and when my husband was home, I would work the business. I had coaching clients right through this. I took like three weeks off after she was born, which is basically Christmas and New Year's because she's a December baby. One of those days, I was nursing her because my husband wasn't home yet. I thought, “Okay, I'll nurse her before my client call.” I never book clients unless I knew my husband would be home. There was an accident on the highway, and he was stuck. I wasn't able to hear from him to know when he would be home. I thought, “Okay, he's just going to be an extra five minutes, no problem”. I nursed her as much as I could and then I put her in her crib, but she didn't want to be there. She actually didn't even want to nurse either. She wasn't hungry. I put her in her crib and she cried and I thought, “Okay, well, my husband will be here soon. Her dad will be here in just a few minutes, it'll be okay”. I jumped on the call with my client. Wanting to be the perfect business owner, I didn't delay it. I started on time and I did my best at that point to focus on the client, but the truth is, she kept crying and crying and crying. My husband wasn't coming, and I couldn't call him because I was with a client. When I finished coaching the client, he still wasn't home and she was still crying. I ran in there, and she was red-faced. At that moment, as she was screaming, and I'm holding her, and she was exhausted from crying for like an hour. I broke down, and I started crying because I thought, “Wow, look at that. I chose my client. I chose my business. I chose to look like a great professional business owner, rather than the honest truth of where I was at. That I couldn't coach because no one was going to take care of my daughter.” She was safe. She was in her crib, but she didn't want to be alone, and I left her alone. That reality really sunk in, and I was hugging her and kissing her and saying I'll never do this to you again. That's the reality of being a mom and a business owner. Even being a mom and a career woman and having other things that are happening, you don't always get to be there, and you have to make hard decisions. That day, I made a decision that I regret, but it was a really good learning opportunity for me. I thought I'm never going to do this again because at that exact moment, I was a crappy mom, and a crappy business owner. Kids need you way too much. That was a really hard day for me. That was like a low. I've had other lows since then and continue to learn. Job of a business owner: me as an entrepreneur Now on the business owner side, I can remember meeting with my business advisor. I told her about how I'm watching all these other people get ahead and get opportunities and do more with their website or their social media or whatever it was. I couldn't, and I wasn't. I was asking her, “Why am I not reaching my bigger goals faster? Why am I not doing this and that? Why am I not getting ahead as quickly as so-and-so?” Then she said, “Well, Diane, can you count up how many actual working hours you have?” I counted them up, and it was like five hours a day. That's all I had and I had no help. She said, “So five hours times five days, that's only 25 hours. How are you going to build an empire and reach all of your goals on part-time hours?” Maybe you're busy. Maybe you have other things going on, and you have to build your business in part-time hours, but do you have the same expectations of yourself? Because it is extremely hard doing it all by yourself. At that time, I was doing it all myself to do everything and get ahead at that speed, when I only had 25 hours to do it all from scratch. There is the idea of the four-hour workweek, and I've been able to reduce my time so that during the day…
Those are all opportunities for me because I have support now, but the key thing is, without help you will kill yourself trying to do both perfectly. What we can do Here are a few steps or phases you can take: Phase 1: Look at the actual usable hours you have Then think:
Because it's really hard to stay engaged with your family if you have work things to do and are trying to be both simultaneously. When they were little, I could do that a little bit, but now they know. They know when you're on your computer. They know when you're doing work. It's really obvious. Phase 2: Write down the things you need to get done and who needs to be doing them. Are there things you can pass off? If you're like, “Oh no, I need to write my own social media”. Do you? Because I don't. It all comes from my repurposing model. If you're listening to my podcast, it's actually done in video and put on YouTube. Then it’s also made into a blog. It's also then made into my social posts and my newsletter and everything is taken care of by this one piece of anchor content. If you want that to happen too, we can do that for you, with my Your Content Made Easy Program, we're still in the pre-launch period, and we still have some spots open at the special rate to get four weeks of content made every single month. We do it in-house. My team and I manage the people who are working on it for you, and you get everything: carousels, stories, short-form videos, etc. You get seven posts a week, one per day, plus five stories per week. Write down everything and then see who's going to do it. It doesn't have to be you. It could be someone else, and if you don't know how to figure that out, it's okay. I can help you with that. We got that covered. We have the systems and processes, training videos, checklists, and all the things that are needed. Passing things off to someone else is an amazing way to gain back time and reduce your stress. Phase 3: Set some goals Another thing to bring in is what I call the “perfect balance” for you right now.
Set some goals for those pieces, then plug in the tasks underneath them. Phase 4: Set boundaries around your work hours When will you work? When will you NOT work? I always tell my clients and my VAs, I'm only a WhatsApp message away. That makes me very, very accessible, but I don't mind doing quick responses through WhatsApp and setting up a meeting date for another day. That works for me, but maybe you need boundaries more around your weekends and your evenings, just so you can rest. The rest part is so important because those two pieces, your career/business, and your kids demand so much of your time and energy. If you don't already get to travel with work and have some time off, I suggest you take a night off. Once a year, I usually take myself on an overnight trip to Whistler. It's about an hour and a half for me. I'm sure you've got some places about an hour and a half from you that you can go to for one night. I leave the house early on day one, and then come back after bedtime on day two. That's what I found works great for me when I go to Whistler. I go to the spa in the morning then check into my hotel, have a chill evening, or maybe I feel excited to work on business strategy. Then the next morning leisurely breakfast, wake up whenever I want, and then move into a hike, check out the stores, and then an easy drive back. That 48 hours is so rejuvenating and life-giving. Speaking of life-giving, what other things are you doing to support your spiritual life? Is there prayer, journaling, meditation, or going to church? What is that piece for you? That could be what your soul’s missing, that would really rejuvenate you. Now I can continue on and on and on and talk about all the areas of life and all the things that you can do, but I hope from this, you get the idea that it’s hard to have these two full-time responsibilities. You're not expected to be perfect at both being a parent and a business owner. You're not even expected to be perfect at one. Know that you will do some crazy damage if you try to be perfect at both (even with help). I've been there. I've run myself into the ground, burned the candle at both ends and suffered for it with postpartum depression, and anxiety. What I'm going to do moving forward and continue to do (which I hope you do as well) is give yourself some peace, give yourself some grace, and let's look at who you want to be in these two areas in the next three to six months, and work towards that. BONUS FREEBIE: Grab my FREE GUIDE “Top 5 Tasks Busy Business Owners Should Pass Off Immediately”. Read my other blogs:
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Have you ever felt like you had to fly under the radar or dumb yourself down or be less of yourself to make other people comfortable, or to not get a negative response? Oftentimes, strong, powerful, confident, and successful women have to or choose to fly under the radar, or hide who they really are, and it's really ticking me off. If you can relate, I am just like you. This topic comes from my personal experience as a woman who at times had to hide my true self, not speak up and choose to fly under the radar to fit in. I’ve also seen this with my coaching clients who definitely would raise their hand and say,
What flying under the radar means The idea of flying under the radar is to not be so high, so strong, so confident, so successful and win things so you don't get on other people's radar as someone to attack, cut down, gossip about, dislike or whatever it may be. I flew under the radar many times… This has been true for me most of my life. (In these blog posts, I'm going to be starting to share more of the vulnerable stories of what I've been facing and what others have been facing, and then the triumphant results of them.) It was true for me in sports when I was invited onto a boy's rep team for soccer, I was not accepted and no one would partner with me. In my coed soccer league, I had very harsh insults, swear words and derogatory comments thrown at me when I would take the ball away from them. I was just 12 or 13. As my daughter is 11, I can't even believe the things that were said to me that are probably still being said to girls today. In high school, when I ran for Student Council President, the other candidate tried to win by spreading vicious lies, attacking my character and making up sexual rumours. I still won, but at what cost? I had to repair my name, prove myself, and he continued to run his mouth about me even when I was doing a great job. When it came time to pick the class Valedictorian, I chose not to put my name forward (even though it was a dream of mine) because I feared I’d face the same from him, so instead I decided to fly under the radar. This has happened in so many areas of my life where I was cut down or felt negativity from others because I've been successful or confident. This is not me bragging. This is me speaking my truth in relation to you and hundreds of women I have coached on this topic. If you are a woman who has felt this, then I get it. Sometimes it's just so tiring. It's so frustrating because we're just doing our best. We're doing what brings us joy, and we're using the gifts that God has given us, and then people want to be hurtful because they are jealous or threatened by us. What I see in corporate, is women not putting their hands up for roles because if they do, they're potentially going to lose all of their friends that they're currently working with. They don't go for positions. They don't ask for a raise because of what people will say about them. Will they be treated differently? The answer usually is, “They will”. But we can’t let that stop us!!! A few years back, maybe four or five years ago, I wanted to interview a bunch of women. Some of the requirements were making multiple six figures or seven figures and some sort of leadership role. What I found is in these interviews, is this concept kept coming up over and over and over again: Life is just easier if I fly under the radar. This made me so sad and pretty pissed off! Life is easier and more enjoyable if I don't stick my neck out, or if I don't win things. That saddens me and it also scares me. It saddens me because these women are not living at their full potential for fear of what other people will say, will do, or the repercussions. There should not be repercussions to doing well. Yes, you win a sport, you win a game, you are the gold medallist, whatever it may be, there will be people who are jealous of you and there will be people who wish they were you. But to be in a workplace with coworkers, you may have other people treat you differently, or have it out for you or in my case, other people in the industry coming after me. What kind of world are we in where we can't just all do well ourselves? What if everyone just did well and stopped putting their negativity on others? Sad and scary It saddens me because people, specifically women, are settling and playing small, me included, because it was just easier. It's just easier to not be the one in the public eye. I feel like I've been pulled back the past few years. It takes a lot of stamina. I don't know how some of the famous people do it. It takes a lot of emotional and mental stamina to be able to be in the public eye, to take criticism and have people cutting you down for no reason at all. They don't even know you. It saddens me that women aren't feeling like they can step up and step into these bigger roles and play big. It also saddens me for the women that are around them, that are watching them and thinking, “Well, if she is not going for that, and she's more confident than me, more successful than me, or more experienced than me, then I shouldn't either.” It's got this trickling down negative effect. Plus, not just women to women or peer to peer, but what about the girls coming behind us, the future women who have fewer role models to look up to? I know for me in the teaching side of things and coaching side, there are a lot of women. It's really easy for me to look to role models in that way. There are a lot of great female speakers, but not enough that we see. Not enough on the main stages. How many times has a woman gotten on stage, and I've heard people complain about her outfit, complain about her voice, complain that she's too confident? That's the sad side. Do you know what the scary side is? The scary side is gender equality and pay equity, these things are not going to get any better if we diminish ourselves. I know we're not doing this on purpose, but we're doing this out of survival. There's just so much going on. It's different for everybody, but we’re trying to be perfect:
We're trying to be the perfect everything. It's not just that we're always trying, but it's kind of expected. If we're making an effort to do all these things, how then are we also going to show up as our fullest in these places when we know that there's a chance that people will take us down? Don’t fly under the radar - I want to interview you! I don't want us to fly under the radar anymore. What I'd love to do is see us soar. BUT HOW? I’m going into research mod again. I want to interview maybe 10 to 15 women who are making six figures or multiple six figures or seven figures (I only say that because you've probably been established in your business or your company and have a lot of experience with this, and you're playing at that higher level). I still sometimes say to my business advisor, “I thought when I was more successful, brought in more money and had more clients, things would be easier.” But the truth is, new level, new devil. You don't even realize who's going to come out of the woodwork after you. I don't say this to scare the people who are starting their business and such, but I'm just given the reality of it. If you want to be interviewed, email me directly at [email protected]. You have to be in your position, your company, or your own business for at least a few years, not just in the startup stage, unless you've just come from having a business or something for more years. If you're in some sort of leadership position, or you’re on your own time, and you've had an experience where you felt, “Man, it would just be easier to just lie low a little bit, to not put myself out there.” I want to talk to you too. I want to have a conversation, doing some research for some really exciting stuff that's coming up. You will not only be part of the interview, but I'll share the results with you. I'm also going to bring all of these ladies who can be highfliers, but sometimes feel like it's just easier to fly under the radar. Stay tuned for what is coming with this and reach out if we can have a chat about it. BONUS FREEBIE: Grab your “Top 5 Tasks Busy Business Owners Should Pass Off Immediately”. Read my other blogs here:
Usually, my blog topics are “1,2,3 ways to…” or “5 steps to…”. But this week’s blog is different. There have been some changes over in my world… and I’m going to share the good and the bad. Let’s Look Back on the Hard Times Since 2019, I haven't fully felt like myself. Things have been off. It’s felt like I have been pruned. I have been changing, and things have been different for me. I know I'm on the verge of something big. You may have read or heard me share about the hard parts. COVID happened and I was in Ontario at a hotel about to deliver a whole week's worth of different events for my current paid clients, potential clients, people that we're at the start of their journey working with me, and also for my Dynamic Women Community. The year before that week was about an $80,000 week, and I was on target to be $120,000. I had to make the conscious and socially responsible decision to shut everything down, so I lost on the revenue. I was also there visiting my father who had cancer, and he wasn't doing so well. Then I come back home to BC and my kids were off school due to Covid, and I'm in charge of them as well as figuring out how am I going to adjust to this being only in a virtual world when I was in the in-person event space. I made some good changes, then summer comes, so my kids are around me full time. I do have a husband, but he's working outside the home. Then we visit my family in Ontario and my father goes into palliative care. Shock. Surprise. He had a blood infection, not cancer-related. He then passes away seven days later. I'm grieving, and I'm getting things back going into my business and then my Facebook account is deactivated, and I lose all of my Facebook ads. A lot of the stuff I built up in my business, including all of my friend connections and client connections. Many hits to me personally and to my business. These hardships and feeling pruned caused me to pull back a little bit and not be so in the public eye. When I was running the Dynamic Women Community's live events, we were doing eight different live events every single month in eight different locations. With these changes, I feel a little bit like I've been in a cocoon for a while. I haven't been as public. It definitely was public doing eight events a month, as well as lots of speaking engagements. I had a lot of stuff happening, and if I wasn't already feeling like myself, boy, was life really hard and I was in a bad place. I was gaining weight and didn't feel like I had the emotional or mental capacity to handle a lot of stuff, which is shocking because I used to have a lot going on, multiple events every week, and be packed all day. I’d be driving in traffic to get to an event and attending other people's events, hosting my own events, going to speaking engagements. Always on the move, and I realized I just don't have the same tolerance for stress and risk. Normal things for me like traffic started to stress me out to the point of not wanting to go. I wondered, How do I then navigate this world, coming from a place where I'm not myself, and I can't handle things at the level I used to be able to handle which was normal for me? Maybe you’ve felt some of this. Well I want to let you know, positive change is always around the corner. The Good Changes Yes, some great changes did happen: offering my programs at a higher level, celebrating over four years with the Dynamic Women Podcast, publishing another collaborative book and the Dynamic Year Journal and adding in the virtual assistant programs VA Made Easy and Your Content Made Easy. I'm currently in the process of releasing the weight and am already 30 lbs down. I'm feeling better, and am starting to get my voice back. I’ve been showing up at events and I am starting to feel the energy and spark coming back. I've been on this journey of keeping the business going and actually quadrupling my income, which has been really exciting. However, I know that where I'm at right now is not the next chapter and that the next chapter is just about to be opened. I've been investing my time over the past months doing some reflection and reading so I get more clarity on my brand and locking in what I stand for. The Turning Point I was asked by one of my clients in my Facebook group, the Dynamic Women Online Community, “What was the turning point moment for me?” It could have been the stand-up comedy class I took back at the end of 2022. I actually performed in two shows back to back in two different provinces, which is pretty crazy. I did one in BC with the class then I flew to Calgary to perform at the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) Convention Charity Night. It's not like they were paid gigs at a comedy club, but they were still so invigorating. This ignited something in me…I know there's something bigger. There's something edgier coming. Follow the Energy I know it's important for me to follow the energy. What I am in alignment with, invigorates me and excites me. That's what got the Virtual Assistant services going. I love when I can use my business strategy, life coaching, and love of efficiency all together to support my clients and really propel them forward. The Being Side In July, I was at the CAPS summer party, and was sharing with the other members that something big is coming. But I couldn’t say exactly what it is. This can be frustrating because I’m usually a doer. I am A-type. I am driven. I am the type of person that's like, “Okay, here’s ABCDEFG, I'm going to do all of it. Let's go, let's do this!” But to get the clarity, I needed to be in the BEING. The being and doing is the co-active coaching model I was trained in. I’ve never been super strong at the being side. I'm very, very strong, on the doing side. I've had to really tone that down so I could open up the being side, which is the listening, the intuitive, the asking questions, rather than the diving forward and getting things done. I do know this next iteration of me and what I'm offering, will still be in alignment with life coaching, business consulting, and virtual assistant services. Plus, supporting life balance, women's empowerment, business scaling and systems. I just haven't figured out what that one thing is yet and what that looks like, so I'm giving it space and that's hard for me because I want to jump in, and I want to DO. Right now, I'm just BEING. Being More Vulnerable My clients, audiences, and friends know that I wear my heart on my sleeve, I’m extremely transparent, and can be vulnerable, for sure. But often how I come across is polished, and put together. Maybe you’ve known the vulnerable side by listening to my podcasts, watching me on YouTube or hearing me speak for longer than a minute. You hear more, you see the walls come down and you're let in. You're going to be let in a lot more! The reason why I haven't before is not because I'm hiding, it's because I don't believe that everyone online should be completely open and transparent and vulnerable all the time. People who don't know you haven't earned the right to know these things about you. As I shared before, with my clients, in my close circles, in blog posts like this and even at my events, I am an open book. I share. I pull back the curtain and talk about the hard moments, over the past years. But maybe not enough. I want to Provoke! I realized I've been doing a lot of teaching, and a lot of training. Instead, I want to really step into the being side more, do more storytelling and really let out more of the edgy side of me. That part fires me up. I just heard our CAPS National President, Lorne Kelton, speak about how speakers should be persuading or provoking and if they're not doing that he asks, what's the point? I want to provoke more, and I feel like you want to be provoked. You want to feel something. You want to have something said that causes you to get into action and pushes you to feel motivated and inspired with your goals, in your life, whatever it may be, and I'm in for that ride. Imagine being in a raft on the rapids. I want to be your guide, so you can jump in confidently. Let's have a wild ride. This is the change that's coming. I don't know what it looks like yet, but I'm here for it. I'm excited! BONUS: I have a new FREEBIE “Top 5 Tasks Busy Business Owners Should Pass Off Immediately”. Grab it today! Read my other blogs here:
Are you enjoying your summer? Do you love vacation time? Or even just like long weekends or a day off? But then you feel like, “Ah, how do I get back to my regular routine when my routine has been so thrown off by summer/vacation?” This is also true after being sick, surgery, supporting someone else and being busy.” This was a question that was asked in my Dynamic Women community. You could list a billion ways that your routine gets thrown off. The key thing is you know you want to get back to things, but how? Follow my 3 Phases to Bring Back Routines After Summer!!! For many of us, now is the time that kids go back to school. Or at least if you're not a parent, you're thinking that summer is winding down, and you’ll need to get focused back on your life, on your business and back to routines. Phase 1: What is your routine? First, I invite you to think about your routine. What is your routine? What are the things that, when you're off of routine, you want to get back to? I'm going to list some of the things that I've heard from my clients as we're ending summer. A lot of them have said to me,
For the moms, dads, parents, or caregivers out there, you're probably thinking, “As soon as the kids get back to school, I'm going to get myself back into my routine.” Ask yourself, what are the parts I want in my routine? It could be:
Soccer is my hobby and passion and it starts up again in the fall, so exercising is part of my routine that needs to come back in. Maybe you have a hobby of painting, playing the piano, or rock climbing. Whatever it may be, you want to get back into the swing of things. How do you do this? The first questions should be, “How do you prefer to do it? What's your style?” Phase 2: Find Your Best Approach Approach #1: All at Once You can go all in and bring back all your routines at once. Does that feel good for you? Let’s look at the pros and cons or the costs and the joys of that style. Now, you might already be thinking, “I don't want to do them all at the same time.” The cost here could be that by doing all of them at the same time, it feels overwhelming. If you are a highly sensitive person, anxious, or someone who has trouble with change, then this might not be the best option for you. But the joy of this approach is that when you tell yourself, “I'm all in. I'm doing this. I'm committed.” The joy of being committed and going all in is that you can habit stack. One habit will trigger another positive habit. For example, going to bed early is going to support you getting up early and going to the gym. But if you decide to get up early to go to the gym, and you don't to go to bed early, the night you is screwing over the morning you. Think of it that way. Approach #2: Piece by Piece The other approach, as you can probably guess by now is piece by piece. Think, “What's the first habit that I need to bring in”. This could be the first habit that's the easiest to bring in. It could be that habit that is the fastest to bring in. It could be the habit that you are looking forward to the most. It might be something like a walk in the morning. If a walk in the morning is the first habit that you want to bring in, then you get up and go for your walk. Maybe you spend the first three days making the walk 1st thing in the morning. Then after you have a little bit of time getting that walk in, you bring in the second routine or habit. That could be, “I want to have my healthy green smoothie” so then you start making the smoothie. The cost of this approach is that it's going to take you a long time to really get it all going. Because if it's bigger habits, I would say you only do one habit and you don't learn anything else until you're actually doing it, and you're sticking to it. Look to the Five Stages of Change, to help you to move through this process a little bit easier. If you don't know what the five stages of change are, it’s in my Dynamic You book. Plus, you miss out on the opportunity of one habit supporting another habit. Some things might be harder to do because you haven't done the other habit that really goes well with it. Then the joys of this are that if you’re a person who has trouble bringing on new habiys/routines, your willpower is terrible, or you're not able to be committed, then this can be an easier approach. Approach #3: Bring a whole bunch of habits that support each other For me, I want to jump in full force to most of the habits and then add a few layers of habits and routines after. Maybe that's the approach you take. You bring in a whole bunch of habits that support each other. Then after that, you add in the other ones. For example, right now, I'm currently going to bed earlier so that I can wake up earlier. First thing in the morning, I'm reading, doing my daily devotions and I'm eating healthy food. What I'm going to bring in later, is my full morning routine with visualizations, affirmations, exercise, drinking more water, weight training, and journaling. With these three approaches, ask yourself, “Which feels better?” Phase 3: Get Started Now that you know the routine you want and the approach you want to take it’s time to get into action and have success with your routine. Step 1: Choose a start date: Decide for yourself, “When is my start date?” If you're doing everything at once, give yourself a day or two to prepare. If you're going to eat healthy and go to bed early, maybe you need to change your schedule. Maybe you need to go shopping to get this ready. If you want to do it piece by piece then choose which part will be first. Step 2: Prepare As I mentioned, you have to prepare your schedule and the things or tasks that you need to put in place before the routine can happen. If you want to start exercising again, maybe you have to go and join a gym, or you need to go get better running or walking shoes etc. To eat better, you need the right groceries. To start reading, you may need to go to the library and pick up a book because you've read all of yours. There are a few options here for how to prepare. Step 3: Have accountability You've chosen to do it, you've picked your date, you're preparing, then maybe you need some accountability. Accountability with a friend, with an app on your phone, with your coach, or someone to do it with. If you want to be walking more, you can have a walking buddy or a gym buddy, or you have a friend that you share prepared meals with. Step 4: Get into action You've got a bunch of options there for getting into action. That's actually the fourth stage of change. Start doing what you said you’d do, on the day you said you’d do it. It’s pretty simple. Make sure you don’t put off starting as it will make every day after harder. Step 5: Check-ins Congrats! You have a start day, you've prepared, you have some accountability and you got into action. Now you need some kind of milestone or some check ins. Maybe after a few days, you check in by asking yourself, “How is this going? Do I need to change anything?” Review where you've been. Evaluate and say, “Is this going well for me?” Then know that if it's not, you can just make changes. Maybe you need more accountability. Maybe you need a better plan. Maybe you need to add in another habit to support you. That's okay. Preventative Measures Let me tell you about preventative measures so that this doesn't happen to you. A lot of times we have things that we do in the morning that are part of our routine. But we go on vacation, we just don't have time. Maybe our routine in the morning was an hour and we don't have time, or we're running off to work and we just don't have time anymore. During that period of busyness or vacation, rather than completely scrapping the routine, could you do 10 minutes of each of those things that you normally do for much longer? 10 minutes of journaling. 10 minutes of reading. 10 minutes of running. 10 minutes of visualization. Whatever it may be. If you feel that's too long, can you do five minutes? How about four minutes? Instead of going for a 30-minute run, could you do a minute of jumping jacks or burpees, and then a minute of journaling, or one healthy meal a day? If you don't want to get out of your routines, let me encourage you that the next time you go on vacation or it's a busy season, that you still keep your habits in a minimal way. This doesn't mean you have to eat perfectly on vacation or you have to exercise every day on vacation, or during a stressful time, you have to make sure you're doing all of these things. However, if you do them just a little bit, you’ll remain committed to yourself and your routines. Your body is kind of committed and is remembering that “Oh, I like these things. I want to do these things” so that when you actually have the time, you can just extend or do it more. There are many benefits, and you’ll end up saying things like,
It's so much easier to do a little bit of your routines to stay on track rather than trying to get back into our routines. Now if you're coming back into September and want to get back into your routines and you feel like, “Darn it. I didn't do the preventative measures.” Not a problem just start at Phase 1. Wrapping Up Going through the phases at any time will work for you. It’s ok if you fell out of your routine. Just start again! If I can support you in any way to make this an easier transition or to support you in answering another question you have, drop them below or reach out to me by emailing me [email protected]. I trust this will help you to get back into the swing of things and back into your routines! BONUS FREE EBOOK: Learn the 3 dangerous trends that professional women face that keep them overworked, overwhelmed, and pulled in a million directions. Read my other blogs:
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