When was the last time…

When was the last time you told a friend they sucked and were a failure?

Never? Maybe only in jest?

When was the last time you said that to yourself?


I know I can be tough on myself for not reaching goals, getting sidetracked instead of getting something done, or any number of other reasons.

But I’d NEVER say those things to a friend.

I guess I’m not a friend of myself??

It certainly can feel like that.

It takes time to unlearn those habits.

It takes practice, but you can get better at noticing when this is happening. You can learn your patterns and make adjustments. Watch for your insights and write them down. Then to remind yourself, put them on sticky notes where you’ll see them (like on your monitor).

Next time you get sidetracked, don’t reach a goal, or any other reason you might be mean to yourself, take a step back and treat yourself the way you’d treat a good friend.

And take opportunities to celebrate your wins. That might be reaching a goal. It can also be celebrating that you did the work, showed up, and did the things, regardless of the result.

They don’t know when to quit

Nate (my husband) and I spent Saturday at my parent’s house. And my sister was staying there for the weekend with her dog.

My parent’s got their dog right before Christmas. As you can tell from the picture, they both have Boston Terriers (and I love them both to pieces!).

When we arrived Saturday morning we were immediately greeted by the dogs. They were so excited to have more people to pay attention to them!

However, they quickly grew bored with us and started playing with each other.

After a few minutes, they were separated and I said something to the effect of, “Let them play! They were being good.” And my sister said, “they’ve been playing all morning—and they’re Boston’s.”

I immediately understood.

Boston’s don’t know when to quit.

You want to throw the ball 50 more times, they’ll run and get it until they literally make themselves sick.

Another dog wants to play, LET’S GO! And then keep going.

It reminded me of us entrepreneurs and our businesses. There’s work to be done, so I’m going to KEEP ON DOING IT!

Something unexpected has happened in my personal life, but I’m still worrying about ALL THE BUSINESS THINGS!

Sometimes we’re like those little Bostons and we don’t know when to quit, when to take a break.

Which brings me to this week’s Wednesday LIVE with Evie topic: Work/Life Balance.

Let’s talk about what it means and how to “achieve” it (catch the replay to see why that’s in quotes).

​​​​​​​What are your thoughts or frustrations with work/life balance?
Comment below and let me know.

And you can see the Wednesday LIVE with Evie here.

PS. The photo credit goes to my sister, Cindy. It was taken Sunday morning on one of the super rare times they were calm in each other’s company.

When you’re sick

A friend from out of town was in Chicago-land this weekend so a group of us went out for lunch on Saturday and hung out for a bit. It was so much fun!

It was good for me to get out of the house. You see, on Thursday, I developed a sore throat.  I went to a networking event on Friday and hung back a bit. Normally, I’ll stand and mingle until the event officially starts. That day I didn’t. I found a seat and let people come to me – and it worked out great.

Friday afternoon I had a project I wanted to work on, but I was tired.

In the car, before I left the parking lot I wrote down 4 things that I wanted to do when I got home and none of them where that project.

I had 2 confirmation emails that I wanted to send, I wanted to plan the following week (this week) and either read or nap.

Can you guess which one didn’t get done?

In the past, it would have easily been the reading/nap that I gave up on. However, on Friday, I postponed planning. I knew I could do it on Sunday afternoon instead.

So, Friday afternoon, after sending the 2 confirmation emails, I took a 2+ hour nap.

It was fabulous!

And I think I would have felt tired and icky on Saturday if I hadn’t done that.

I’m still not 100%, so I’m cautiously optimistic about this week. AND I know that if my plans get changed due to not feeling as well as I could be, that’s okay too.

In the comments below share how you handle what you want to get done when you’re not feeling 100% or how it trips you up.

You can see the Wednesday Live with Evie I did on this topic here.

Don’t forget to like me on my Facebook page here to get a notification when I go live next.

How you do your best work

A couple of friends and I went to see Kyle Cease at his two-hour version of his 2-day event “Evolving Out Loud.” He went long, and we couldn’t have been happier. It was a great show.

So, it was a bit of a late Saturday night, followed by an early Sunday morning.

And it reminded me that sometimes we forget about aspects like sleeping when we plan our days or weeks.

Last week I shared how to create your Ideal Week.

This week let’s talk about another aspect of your day – how you work your best.

This includes physical (your workspace), mental (when you work best), and body aspects (taking care of yourself).

And energy leaks (that chip in the wall that bothers you every time you see it).

You can watch the Wednesday Live with Evie I did on this topic here.

Don’t forget to like my Facebook page here to get a notification when I go live next.

How can I possibly prioritize?

But everything I need to do is important! How can I possibly prioritize?

How do I easily start keeping track of my to do’s when I haven’t been for a while?

I’ve read both these things over the past week in various places (or versions of them).

Let me share a story about a woman named Anne with you.

She wanted to have a successful business, be involved in organizations she believed in, and spend time with her family.

And she believed that it was super important to be super productive. How much could she get done in a day?!

She worked in her business during the day, attended various committee meetings in the evening, and spent the remaining evenings with her husband.

Anne productively drove herself right into the ground.

She started to dread going out at night to any committee meeting. And anything that needed to be done for those committees? She complained to herself all the way through it. They were cutting into her family and business time! How dare they!

But it was all so important. And they were counting on her. And she secretly felt that no one could do the job as well as she could, so it was important for her to continue – despite how frustrated she was with it all.

And it got to the point where she realized something needed to change.

So, Anne looked at everything she was doing and realized that she wanted to be doing a better job. But her heart wasn’t in it. Slowly, Anne stepped down from various committees and commitments. Keeping only the ones she was most passionate about.

Anne looked forward to the free time that would now appear in her schedule, but it never appeared. She still was super busy and everything was still important.

And she was spending more time procrastinating, and then beating herself up for procrastinating when there was so much to do! And she was so very tired.

Again, she realized something had to change – and she had a strange thought – What if instead of asking, what’s the next thing to do, she asked, what will support my productivity? And when she did that, sometimes she was surprised that the answer wasn’t the next thing on her to-do list, but getting a glass of water, going for a quick walk or meditating.

My point? Sometimes we make it so much more difficult than it has to be. We think we have to do it all and we don’t. And if we try to, we’ll end up frustrated, overworked, and oh-so-tired.

So, a quick answer to the questions we started with:

  1. But everything I need to do is important! How can I possibly prioritize?
    What on your list will bring you income? This includes tasks 2 or 3 steps away from generating income.
    What on your list has to be done in the next 24 to 48 hours?
    Tasks that meet both of those criteria are your highest priority tasks.

  2. How do I easily start keeping track of my to do’s when I haven’t been for a while?
    What are your three most important tasks to complete this week? Write those down.
    At the beginning of each day write down what your most important task is and a task to be completed after that one.
    This will keep you moving forward and making progress.
    And keep a blank piece of paper under your daily list. On that piece of paper write down things that need to be done as they pop into your head. Keep it under your daily list so you’re not looking at a long list of things to do.

These are quick ways to start to get a handle on everything we have to do.

You can watch the Live Stream I did on this topic here.