Annie Dillard always says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” That is an easy statement to hear when we are in restful seasons driven by balance and simplicity. But what about those seasons that are full, busy, and can lead to feeling overwhelmed, mentally cluttered, and a cranky attitude?
It is important that we listen to our bodies and minds, and that we take it one day, even one step at a time. And it is freeing when we allow ourselves to become intuitive and make necessary changes and shift in busier seasons. Just know that everything is figureoutable and everything can be simplified. It is ok if you have to cut out or cut back on things. Life won’t end!
So let’s dive in and talk about how you can navigate the really busy, full seasons of your life well, and really show up well in those times of life!
In This Episode Allie Discusses:
Why it is important for you to intentionally shift your perspective from negative to excited when seasons get busy.
How brain dumping on paper will help you problem solve and delegate.
Knowing when to cut back and simplify or push through and keep going.
Things you can do to create space to recharge and mindlessly find rest.
Ways you can add self care into your everyday rhythm.
Mentioned in this Episode:
Are you in a busy season? Are you about to be in one? Maybe you want to prepare for the next one, whenever that is. I got you, friend!
I created a free downloadable pdf that’s going to help you feel empowered and equipped to implement the action steps from this episode in your next busy season.
Your Busy Season Prep Guide not only is full of reminders for you to have with you every day, but it’s also a workbook-style pdf where it has space for you to work through each of the steps I’m giving you in this episode.
You can braindump out what’s troubling you, what your stress points are. It has suggestions and prompts for you to take action on everything we’re talking about here and everything we’re going to talk about in the remainder of this episode. Space for you to come up with a plan for the busy seasons of your life. It’s really handy. Don’t miss out on this! I know it will serve you well!
Mom life. We are surrounded with the message that it’s the tired life. The no-time-for-myself life. The hard life. And while it is hard and full of lots of servitude, the idea that motherhood means a joyless life is something I am passionate about putting a stop to. I’m on a mission to help you stop counting down the minutes till bedtime, at least most days. I want you to stop cleaning up after your kid’s childhood and start being present for it. Start enjoying it. I believe in John 10:10 “that we are called to abundant life” and I know mothers are not excluded from that promise. Join me in conversations about simplicity, minimalism and lots of other good stuff that leads to a life of less for the sake of enjoying more in your motherhood. I’m Allie Casazza and this is The Purpose Show.
Hey, beautiful friend! Thank you for listening to The Purpose Show today! It means the world to me that I get to be a part of your day, your life, and your motherhood, if you’re one of my momma listeners, which most of you are.
Today we are going to quickly dive right in and talk about some secrets for how you can navigate the really busy, full seasons of your life well, and really show up well in those times of life.
While I am all for simplicity, rest, and balance, sometimes you just have a really busy week, a really full month, or a really busy season that you’re walking into and you know that it just has to be that way for whatever reason. I think it’s really easy to become overwhelmed, mentally cluttered, and get negative about the business you’re facing. And then you walk into it cranky and in this victim mode and it’s just not good.
That’s not what we want to do. That’s not how we want to end up living our lives. And we know…what do we know…what Annie Dillard always says, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” And so, if you’re spending all these seasons of fullness cranky and in victim mode, you know not only is that not good for you, you’re training your kids that that’s how you handle life when it doesn’t go the way that you want, when it’s busy. It’s just not good and this is not how we want to live our lives.
Sometimes life gets really full, thick, and busy and we don’t want to handle it in victim mode, right? That’s not what we really want. It’s just kind of what we naturally tend to choose to do and we want to not do that.
And being transparent with you guys, as always, I sometimes naturally fall into kind of a depression when I’m super overwhelmed. It’s my mind’s way of letting me know that it’s a lot, and I need to either clear some of it out of my way or have a perspective shift and shift my mindset.
I think it’s really beneficial to listen to your body, listen to your mind, take it one day at a time, one step at a time, learn to become intuitive, and make changes as needed, go with the flow in that way. As Marie Forleo, my favorite business teacher, always says, “Everything is figureoutable.” I also want to add, “Everything can be simplified.” Something can be cut, it will all be okay. It’s not the end of the world if you back out of something or make a change last minute.
So having said that, I want to quickly dive into this sort of pep talk about some really simple, pointed ways you can take ownership of your life and handle the busy times of life like the action-taking, problem-solving woman that you are.
# 1: Shift your perspective. This is an intent that you can set, okay? You can set your intent to go from negative, overwhelmed, “oh my gosh, poor me, this is so hard, this is so much. How am I ever going to do this?” You can shift it from that to excited, positive, and ready to show up well. It is all in your mind.
If you are not familiar with the power of the mind and the electric current that runs through your body, whether it’s a negative one or a positive one when you have a thought – research, get familiar, educate yourself on this. It is everything! For real! Shift your perspective about the busy season you’re walking into.
# 2: Act like a woman who owns her life and is a go-getter. Sometimes – I don’t care what anybody says – sometimes you just have to “fake it till you make it” and it just is what it is. Sometimes you have to just put a smile on your face. “No, I have to do these things. This is just a part of my life and there’s not much I can do about it. I am going to choose to change my perspective about this. I’m going to be a woman who owns her life and is a go-getter. I’m going to take this on the best way that I can.”
# 3: Brain dump out onto paper, in a journal, or whatever it is, what is bothering you. What’s troubling you about this upcoming season? Brainstorm possible solutions. Brainstorm some things you might delegate to someone else. Is there something you could do in this season? Maybe there’s certain things that you have to handle yourself that have to be done by you, but you could bring on a housekeeper for a month to help you with the stuff that you normally do yourself. Just in this season. Maybe there’s someone you could ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to hand things off. You’re not superwoman. You don’t have to do that. You can delegate. You can ask for help. You can get rid of some things that are normally on your plate that just don’t need to be on your plate right now in this crazy season.
Next, know when you need to cut back and simplify, and when you need to push through, regroup, come up with a better game plan and keep going. There is a difference. And you’re going to have to know. No one can tell you that. I can’t come on here and tell you which one you need to do because I don’t know you. I don’t know your life season. I don’t know your situation.
You’ve got to ask yourself, “Is this something that I can cut back on? Is this something that I need to back out of or do I just need to simplify my to-do list? Give myself grace, let go of perfectionism. Realize it’s not all going to get done perfectly right now and push through, regroup, come up with a better game plan and keep going.”
Hey sweet friend! I know we’re only part-way through this episode, but I have to tell you because this is going to make it more actionable and doable for you. My team and I have created a free downloadable pdf that’s going to be super helpful in taking action on this episode. That’s what I want for you. I don’t want you to just listen and leave. I want you to listen and feel empowered and equipped to implement.
I created something that’s called Your Busy Season Prep Guide. It’s a free downloadable pdf and it’s really awesome because not only does it contain just reminders of the tips I’m giving you in this episode so that you don’t have to go back and listen to this episode again, you can have it printed out somewhere, but it’s also a workbook-style pdf where it has space for you to work through each of the steps I’m giving you in this episode.
You can braindump out what’s troubling you, what your stress points are. It has suggestions and prompts for you to take action on everything we’re talking about here and everything we’re going to talk about in the remainder of this episode. Space for you to come up with a plan for the busy seasons of your life. It’s really handy.
I think that I would charge maybe like 20-40 bucks for this and it’s just totally free.
To snag that, go to alliecasazza.com/shownotes/110.
Next, have something to help you veg out during this busy, really full season. For me, it’s a funny show that I’ve watched a thousand times before, like The Office, Seinfeld, Parks & Recreation. It’s mindless. It’s a temporary escape. It helps me calm down and unwind, either in the middle of the day or at the end of the day. It helps my brain recharge. Just veg out on a funny show that I have seen a billion times. Find something like that. What helps you veg out? What gives your brain a regroup?
Next, fit in rest in between the busyness, in the midst of all the busyness.
Here’s an example. I am currently, at the time I’m recording this, I am in the middle of a launch season. When you launch or relaunch something in a business, it is go-time. It is all-hands-on-deck. I delegate a lot of it to my team, but there’s large chunks of it that have to be done by me because I am The Creative in my business, and I am the face of my business. So I have to show up. I have to go ‘live’ almost every day. I’m writing emails. I’m tweaking things. Fine-tuning things. Making things better. I’m looking ahead. I’m showing up for you guys. I’m hanging out with my audience, which is both a joy and an exhausting thing for me.
In launch season there’s multiple launches back-to-back. We had two launches and a webinar back-to-back-to-back in a row. And so, I knew that I was heading into a really, really full season, so I planned periods of rest and recharging and I sprinkled them everywhere.
Here’s an example. I had two straight weeks of very long days prepping for the first of these launches in this launch season. Two straight weeks of constantly looking at my computer. Really long days. I normally only work a couple hours a day. Sometimes I have little spurts of four-hour days, but I normally don’t work really long days. And so, it was two weeks of just straight up, super long days. Very draining, draining work. Pouring my heart into the computer.
After that I took three days. I had a three-day weekend that I intentionally planned no phone, just taking a break. Then the next Monday started the ‘live’ launch. This is when now I’m done planning the live streams. This is where I show up. I’m actually live. I’m talking with you guys, hanging out with you guys, telling you guys, “I want you in this program” and all that good stuff.
Then I had four days off for my birthday getaway and when I came back from that, I geared up for the next launch. We finished that launch and I’m going to be going on a week-long vacation with my family. Then I come back and I have a Webinar. So, you see I’m inner-spurting (not a word) rest within the busyness.
When you know that you’re going into a really busy season, like if your kid is starting a sport or your work is going to be really crazy or something like that, you know ahead of time, look ahead, fit in rest in between. When are you going to have a no-phone day? When are you going to give your eyes and your head a break? Where can you head to the beach with your family and just veg out? When can you have a ‘nothing day’ where you literally just sit at home and sit on the couch in your pajamas and just relax? How can you fit in rest? Self-care and rest needs to be a part of your every day during the really, really busy seasons too.
That every day looks like getting good sleep at night. Sneaking in a nap if and when you can. Going for a drive by yourself. Getting away for a second.
It also has to be a part of your busy season. So every day rest would look like those examples. Getting good sleep, sneaking in a nap, going for a drive, sneaking in a half-hour coffee date with a friend in the middle of a really busy day.
Fitting in rest and self-care in your busy season would be more of an example that I gave like the four days away for my birthday in the middle of a crazy launch season.
So, balancing that daily and weekly rest. Does that make sense? Look ahead and ask yourself, “How can I fit in rest?” Because if you don’t rest, you’re not going to have the energy and focus that you need to take on all that this busy season is requiring of you.
You are not required to be superwoman. We often do this to ourselves and make our lives harder. We exhaust ourselves. We make ourselves miserable. And we are showing our family, this is what you’re worth to me – me running myself ragged and then freaking out on you because I’m desperate and exhausted. What would happen if you just said, “Okay, this is a busy season we’re walking into. I’m going to look ahead. I’m going to be an action-taking, problem-solving woman and I’m going to sprinkle in rest and self-care. Just little things like a drive by myself, taking a quick nap, making myself a yummy latte at home before I go sit down and do all this work.” Little things and big things whenever the season that’s busy is really, really long. Ask yourself, “Where can I fit in the rest that’s going to equip me to do what I need to do?”
And you guys, self-care cannot be understated ever, but especially in these really full, busy seasons. This is when you need to get your morning ritual under control. I will link to that episode on my morning ritual and the show notes for this episode. It is a life-changing episode. It’s one of the top 10 episodes ever. You’ve got to listen to it. This is no time to try to overwork yourself and use every minute to be productive. This is the time to mix productivity with intense self-care and inner quiet and calm so that you can handle the extra busyness.
This was an episode of The Purpose Show. Did you know there is an exclusive community created solely for the purpose of continuing discussions surrounding The Purpose Show episodes? And to get you to actually take action and make positive changes on the things that you learn here? Go be a part of it. To join go to facebook.com/groups/purposefulmamas.
Thank you so much for tuning in. If you are ready to uplevel and really take action on the things I talk about on my show, and get step-by-step help from me, head to alliecasazza.com. There are free downloads, courses, classes, and ways to learn more about what the next step might look like for you and to focus on whatever you might need help with in whatever season you are in right now.
I am always rooting for you, friend! See ya next time!
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