Well, I can finally say that 2020 is behind me. Holy hell balls, that year was…well…something. there really are no words to describe what we experienced as a planet. There were ups and downs, and everything in between.
But as I weigh the lovely and the ugly, amongst it all I see a person who has grown exponentially. And I realized that many of you have done your own growing this year. Today I share my lessons and commitments for the coming year, because the lesson I’ve learned over and over again is that if you put it into the universe, magical things will happen.
2020 was chock full of epic lessons
Positivity is Contagious
I was not born a ‘look for the silver lining person.’ To be honest, I always seem to see the most extreme negatives of even the best situations. That being said, in January of 2020 I was introduced to Heather Vickery and changed how I view everything. The universe definitely knew we needed to find each other, so thank you Mason Aid for introducing us!
In March I joined Heather’s Intentionally BRAVE Entrepreneurs Group Coaching program and holy guacamole batman, my life changed in so many ways. Heather helped me realize that I needed to reframe my life so that I was focusing on all the positive things around me. This change in outlook made a world of difference. (So did all the rest of The BRAVE Method of coaching, but that’s a whole other post.) All that to say, the way my brain is wired is still the same. My default is still negative, only now I know that about myself. So, I choose to look for the positives.
To be clear, I don’t wash over my emotions, oh contraire! I have had many evenings where the stress of the day ended with a bottle of chardonnay and Ben & Jerry’s. It’s just in the morning when I wake up, I now see it as an opportunity to reset from the energy of the day before and look forward to the newness in front of me.
It Just Takes One
This was something I learned pretty quickly in 2020. In May 2019, I had just moved to Nebraska, and to be honest my stationery business was evaporating in front of me. I was perfectly ok with it, but I was feeling a little defeated. My B2B business had just launched I only had little projects for entrepreneur friends here and there. I need to plan out my year, and I need my biz bestie to help. So, I called Sabra and she and I parked our asses at Starbucks and got planning.
Sabra had just started as a Virtual Assistant in 2019 ( I was her first client!) and her business went from just me to fully booked super fast. She had done what many of us all do and prioritized her client work over working on her own biz. But she had big plans for 2020, (you know pre-covid thinking.) The Work-At-Home Boss Mama podcast was going to launch in March and between that and her niching down, she realized she needed a rebrand. She knew she could do it herself, but just didn’t have the time. So we chatted a bit, and we decided she would be my first BIG client. We did it all, colors, fonts, website, graphics, templates, you name it…we made it. At the end she was so pleased that she started promoting me everywhere.
Ok, I realize that’s some really long backstory, but here’s the lesson; from that project came a trickle of leads, that turned into a steady flow, that turned into a flood and they just kept coming. That rebrand snowballed into what is now a micro-agency of amazing womxn helping busy AF entrepreneurs get shit done.
Be open to the world around you, and trust in yourself to know what’s best.
So, if you’ve followed me at all you know I am 100% a nerdy, geeky, hamball. I challenge the status quo and look at all perspectives. If you’ve talked to me at length you’ve probably realized religion is just not my thing, and up until March 2020 I would not have considered myself spiritual.
That is until I met two people in 2020 that changed how I see spirituality. (Also, Glennon Doyle’s book Untamed helped with this realization too!) Now I almost always have an open mind, and have always believed that there was more truth to the concept of “the force” than there was to miracles. I don’t mean moving things with our minds, I mean that fact that there is this “force” for lack of a better word connecting each and everyone of us. So, as I listened to Dr. Kara Hanks (one of my clients who is a shaman) and Beth Chi ( a fellow member of IBE) began talking about energy and the subject felt familiar.
The more I learn about energy, quantum physics and everything in between the more “spiritual” I become. But it’s not a belief in what other people’s idea of my life should be, it’s the exact opposite. I am learning to trust myself, and turn to my intuition to make decisions. Because at the end of the day, I know myself more than anyone else. The more I trust my intuition in my business, the more I trust my intuition as an entrepreneur, as a parent, as a spouse, hell, as a human, the more clarity I find. The more I trust myself, and ignore the noise (read bull shit) of the world around me the more I grow and expand.
My word of the year is…
I have had words of the year in the past, but never really told anyone about them…and looking back I see why. The answer…manifestation. If you want something, you have to put it out into the universe. If it’s out in the world, people know about it, check in with you and now you are accountable. I WANT THAT!
So, when it came to finding the right word for me, it wasn’t some long reflective or meditative process to find it this year. I literally heard someone talking about their word of the year and instantly, “commit” came to mind. And I knew that that was my word. Now I have a tendency to downplay…well everything and I realize that I am committing to way more than just three things here, but I for the sake of summary I am committing to these three things.
Commit to myself.
This year, I am going to put myself first. I can’t be an awesome mom, spouse, entrepreneur…whatever…if I am not caring for myself. That is why I am going to…
- take off a day, when my body and mind feel down.
- use all the oils to help me heal myself.
- eat healthy because it makes me feel so much better!
- find new friends and grow my support circle.
Commit to my family.
This past year, I have had really poor boundaries. Mostly because I was dealing with so many moving parts, going all different which ways with the added sprinkles of the pandemic. I think you can probably relate. Boundaries were not exactly a priority as much as surviving this past year. So, that is why I am…
- keeping to my office hours so I can have quality time with my family.
- taking off the entire month of November because we all need a break sometimes
- building a home and not compromising on what we want for our family to have a happier life
- gonna be best partner and mom that I can be even if that means McDonalds and just a cuddle on the couch
Commit to YOU!
Our little micro-agency has grown so much, and many of you have seen some of those growing pains. But this year, we’ve got the systems down and now we are all about bringing you the resources you need and the experience you deserve. That’s why we’re going to commit to…
- bring you more advice, tips and resources via our blog twice a month
- send out newsletters each month recapping what we’ve learned, who we’re noticing and tools you’ve gotta try.
- launching an all new download shop to help you grow and expand your business without the hours of googling what you need to do
- creating a podcast experience where you can hear from other entrepreneurs like yourself that are struggling with biz tech and strategy and see how with a bit of business magic make shit happen
This year is going to be different, because I am going to make it epic. That means choosing to commit to having a wonderful year full of growth and opportunity regardless of the circumstances. So, I will choose the silver lining and learn lessons from what’s left. There is no chance I will let my anxiety and fear control me any longer.
So, hello 2021, let’s do this!
