It’s that, sure I can hit rock bottom, but I just can’t let anything keep me down for long.
The world has never needed your light more than now.
Of course you need to take care of yourself
AND that doesn’t have to take away from your ability to help others; in fact, done right it can increase your capacity for generosity.
Today I want to share an interview I have done about an article that I wrote for On Purpose Woman Magazine.
This is about a personal health journey that started in 2021 with injuries in my hip and wrist that prevented me from doing basic things like sitting and writing without pain.
It took a lot of persistence to make it through to where I am today with a lot less problems, still some but a lot less.
I’d like to share what helped me to continue to keep going on this health journey,
in case you’ve gotten stuck in your health and need a boost of encouragement and optimism to keep going.
(I know I’m not an expert on health but I think I know something about persistence and optimism.)
Pg 60: How I Made My Health Dreams a Reality and Got Results Over 2 Years
And good luck on whatever goals you need persistence and optimism to tackle!!
health, mental health, work,
go for it, yeee haaa
Everything below is on sale right now if you need support xo
Want to make faster progress writing for your book or business?
Get 1-1 support from me at a huge discount until Dec 1.
Imagine waking up each day totally clear on what to do next to make faster progress on your writing projects or business marketing.
Whether you’re working on a book or business content, this is an affordable, high-impact way to move the needle in a big way by the end of the year. You can accomplish a lot, without burning out or having a life that sucks!
The Rapid Progress 2-Month Program Includes:
✅ Clarity & Prioritization: Sort through ideas with me so you always know what to focus on next
✅ Weekly Feedback: Check-in with Sofia via voicenote or email—no live calls required!
✅ Editing Support: Submit up to 6 pages of your writing per week for feedback
-unmotivated or overwhelmed in the face of your challenges
The Optimism program is designed specifically for you to gain the resilience, hope and drive you need to climb out of difficult situations.
✅ Feel Lighter & Stronger:
Feel more optimism and hope despite facing real challenges with a 1 hour class on somatic tools to sooth and shift your emotions.
✅ Clarity on What to Do Next:
Feel more alive and motivated on a regular basis by writing in the 28 page printable Workbook & discover what to tweak in your life to be more optimistic.
✅ Long Term Optimism Transformation:
Follow the step-by-step process through thick and thin to increase your long-term optimism by following the instructions sent by email over 30 days (that you can turn on or off anytime).
That must be hard to feel that way. I am sorry to hear that. I am here for you: I love you. I know you deserve to feel safe. I respect what you are feeling right now even though I want you to feel better I won’t tell you that you are feeling something wrong or unreasonable. It is ok to feel that way. I am sorry I don’t have the answers but let me know how I can help.
These are the things that I like to hear in my dark days. I do not appreciate people having a pat answer like just be positive, or dismissing my feelings because they don’t feel the same way.
You may not share someone’s feeling but you can shut up about that. Just help them. This is not about you. Helping is about the other person.
Just be there for them if you want them to be on the planet
I have cried through a million tissues, been angry, felt like exploding, and other a lot of nasty stuff.
Losing my father, the only parent I’ve had my whole life, in 2021 and officially being an orphan at the young age of 34,
was absolutely horrible.
But I am a fighter. I found the power, the ferocity to say:
👉👉🏽👉🏼 I am here to live. I will make use of the life I have. I will survive and I will thrive.
Full stop.
🔥 I will make art. I will find beauty.
🔥 I WILL EXIST.
Damn if I will not live!
I began to pound on the glass of my cage, shouting damn if I will not live!
Out of my grief, out of ptsd, out of the worst possible feelings that wanted to suck me dry and take me down so I never wanted to wake up in the morning, I chose this.
I chose this.
🔥 To live. Again and again and again I chose it over and over because it took so long for anything to really feel any easier.
My wedding wasn’t easy. The quote happiest day of my life was tinged with sadness that I lost my dad.
So many moments have been hard instead of happy. Days and years I can’t get back, like water I just had to tread.
If you think I’m someone who has always had an easy life then you don’t know the truth about me at all.
🔥 And if you’re struggling with loss right now, I’m speaking to you: you can do this.
Just keep fighting you guys
To reach from the edge of the cliff to the security of grounded land.
🌿 If you are feeling bad
Please remember:
You are needed here.
Stay with us, keep shining.
Even if no one else sees and your light is just for you.
💜 Feel free to retreat into yourself if you need to,
Goodness knows I did.
Many of the words above are ones I wrote over the last few years that I keep coming back to.
I kept them private for a long time. I just was not ready to hear anyone’s thought on it yet, although I am happy to receive thoughts on it now.
-unmotivated or overwhelmed in the face of your challenges
I hear you.
Here’s the good news:
we can cultivate optimism even in challenging times.
Don’t ignore things happening around you, but figure out a way to thrive in spite of it.
Imagine having a lighter feeling when you wake up,
a greater resilience to challenges that you face.
You could even feel a sense of joy and inner fire, &
be motivated to take action and make positive changes.
The Optimism program is designed specifically for you to gain the resilience, hope and drive you need to climb out of difficult situations.
✅ Feel Lighter & Stronger:
Feel more optimism and hope despite facing real challenges with a 1 hour class on somatic tools to sooth and shift your emotions.
✅ Clarity on What to Do Next:
Feel more alive and motivated on a regular basis by writing in the 28 page printable Workbook & discover what to tweak in your life to be more optimistic.
✅ Long Term Optimism Transformation:
Follow the step-by-step process through thick and thin to increase your long-term optimism by following the instructions sent by email over 30 days (that you can turn on or off anytime).
Here in the USA we have our election coming next Tuesday and tension is in the air.
I’ve been really anxious about the future because of it. Like since July, but yes definitely now.
CREATIVE DISTRACTIONS are the order of the day for me.
My dishes are clean, my laundry is done, my car is hand washed and waxed, my floors are vaccuumed, my taxes are done.
I have A LOT of work as a writer, writing coach and editor keeping me busy right now.
I am volunteering to canvas in my community because my Dad taught me that voting is important, especially where I live in a swing state.
And… I AM SO PROUD OF THIS:
My recent cool distraction is sewing and mending.
And I made a Halloween costume!
My husband and I made a skirt by hand which took over a week to make. Our backs are still recovering from being hunched over the sewing machine!
I also I thrifted at several stores to find a yellow top to go with it.
I am Cher from Clueless!
Here are some pics
Happy Halloween!
Below I share a piece about how I use mending as medicine in this election season.
Please take care of your mental health this week.
& Please consider making a plan to vote if you live in the USA.
Hugs!
ON MENDING AS MEDICINE FOR ELECTION ANXIETY
I put this on social media a few weeks ago, if you didn’t see it!
Written October 12, 2024
I know this has nothing to do with anything. It feels weird to share about this mending job I did on my jeans in wake of the crazy in the world today. It’s small. It is perhaps random. There is no purpose in this other than I am happy with this. But it feels like a good time to be honest.
Social media has become a 🤢 sort of place when we are literally arguing about if the government is controlling the weather to make Helene even when scientists have been warning us of our impact on the globe since the 90s. Climate change means more storms, as well as more droughts and more weirdness in general. We knew this years ago. We keep seeing it.
I feel old and a bit jaded and definitely wary of being on social media. I don’t want to make people mad and have them attack me for disagreeing as they so often do. And virtually no one changes their mind anyway. So I am trying to keep my mouth shut to seek my own peace. I don’t want to be mad. I don’t want to be sad. I don’t want to be scared.
I do want to be connected…but this is why I have been mostly quiet on social media for months. Been peaking on here a little bit every so often. Lately it feels like a mule kicking me in the chest to see how misinformation can spread and actually be believed. All of this is why I have been embracing the art of creative distraction.
Mending broken things with a little (preferably cotton) thread. Polyester is necessary sometimes but it’s just one more plastic thing we have no idea how to get rid of. I hope to mostly disappear from this earth with as little trace as possible. Plus cotton feels nice.
These jeans were ripping and I like them a lot. Didn’t want to lose the knees like I did with another pair. Didn’t want an in your face patch job for these as they are “fancier” jeans in my mind. So I hand stitched 2 color threads about a million times over the whole area that was weakened. The patch is a bigger spot than the rip for strengthening but it is sort of camouflaged, my husband didn’t notice it. I am wearing the pair right now and it is 100% comfy.
The end of the story is the rips in this fabric have been nullified and my fears have been put to bay. About one thing at least.
You, too can have a creative distraction…
Writing is another one of my favorites!
Writing is a powerful way to connect, be yourself, serve others & feel the love.
Don’t forget about this opportunity available this month only…
Perfect for you if you want to write a nonfiction book or content to market your business
Write with the 2 Month Rapid Progress Program
💥 Only 2 spots remaining
Imagine waking up each day totally clear on what to do next to make faster progress on your book, writing projects or content to market your business.
Whether you’re working on a book or business content,
this program is an affordable, high-impact way to move the needle in a big way by the end of the year.
The Rapid Progress 2-Month Program Includes:
✅ Clarity & Prioritization: Sort through ideas with me so you always know what to focus on next
✅ Weekly Feedback: Check-in with Sofia via voicenote or email—no live calls required!
✅ Editing Support: Submit up to 6 pages of your writing per week for feedback
🎁 Bonuses: Get access to the Optimism Challenge E-course + 2 months of the Video Vault packed with resources to support your business and writing goals.
‘Sofia is an amazing editor. She’s helped me in the past and is currently helping me. I highly recommend this talented woman. This is a quote I texted Sofia the other day “Your work is amazing. I love what you’ve done for me and the book!”‘
Melissa Feick, Spiritual Teacher & International Bestselling Author.
…
“Sofia masterfully guided me to tune into my own wisdom to discover what my business was telling me. It was such a unique and empowering experience. Sofia’s approach is unique and highly effective.”
Keasha Lee Ince, Striking Statements
…
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week.
Warmly, Sofia
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P.S. Take EXTRA GOOD care of yourself this week, please.
My husband and I have been working on hand-sewing a Halloween costume.
We’ve been learning how to sew clothes over the past few months, which is pretty cool. It is a useful hobby.
Deciding to make a costume really put us into power drive.
Are you going to wear or make a costume?
I’m not going to give away what my costume is, but I promise to include a photo next week.
Speaking of photos, I have been taking a lot of them.
Over the weekend, we went to an event for my husband’s work team held at a local farm.
I took a bunch of photos as a way to make friends.
People liked the photos but I realized afterwards that I hadn’t taken that many of myself.
But it’s never too late!
Yesterday as I was treating myself to a hot cocoa topped with pumpkin whipped cream, I ran into the perfect spot for a solo fall photoshoot.
Scroll all the way down to see one of my new autumnal photos!
If you haven’t treated yourself to a fall selfie session, go find a good spot for it!
And I would be remiss if I didn’t spread the word about a new article I published last week.
It’s about work-life balance.
That is below.
There’s a lot of heart and soul in this piece because it is a culmination of my learning over the last decade.
I’ve always wanted to make rapid progress in my career as a writer and business owner, but it’s important to have a life, too.
Read on for a clip.
I hope this article helps someone else avoid the struggle I have grappled with.
From Workaholic to Conscious Creator
Lessons in work-life balance after 10 years in business…
As I sit here on my cozy couch, reflecting on my journey as a writer, coach, and entrepreneur, I can’t help but smile at the twists and turns that have led me to where I am today.
My name is Sofia Wren, and I’ve spent over 25 years writing and publishing online, as well as more than a decade as a business owner.
But my path hasn’t always been smooth or balanced. In fact, for many years, I was the quintessential workaholic, hustling non-stop in pursuit of success.
My journey began in childhood, when traumatic events led me to hide my true self, including my creativity.
Writing became my secret outlet, starting with a blog at age 10 in 1997.
As I entered my twenties, I realized I was suffocating in a box of fear, giving up a huge part of my soul. I knew I had to change.
In 2013, I took the leap and started my own business. It was exhilarating and terrifying all at once.
I threw myself into my work, showing up at events, building connections, and using my writing online to keep people updated.
Success followed – I was recruited as the head copywriter for $10,000 marketing campaigns, ghostwriting jobs and editing books. I was living my dream as a professional writer!
But something was still missing in my personal life….
Read on for 3 lessons about work-life balance in my latest Linkedin newsletter.
“Sofia masterfully guided me to tune into my own wisdom to discover what my business was telling me. It was such a unique and empowering experience. Sofia’s approach is unique and highly effective.” Keasha Lee Ince, Striking Statements
…
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a great week.
I normally run this writing program 2 times a year, but I’m skipping it.
Why? At the beginning of this year, I acquired my family business, and am working hard to juggle that with the writing + coaching busness I’ve had for 10 years.
I have to streamline my offerings for the moment, although I will probably teach it again in the future.
What is happening:
We have two major things on the docket for the next few months.
There will be a Winter series of live organization classes:
the Winter Session of the Digital Organization Club will be dedicated to Notion Classes.
If your ideas feel scattered it can slow down your writing progress. The Digital Organization Club will help you get your ideas in order.
I’ll tell you more about the Winter Digital Organization Club and our Notion focus as time goes on.
If you need help with writing for your book or business in the meantime, I also have something else for you.
2. I’m excited to announce that doors are open for a limited-time offer:
the Rapid Progress 2-Month Program!
Here’s What You’ll Get
This Rapid Progress program is designed specifically for busy people who need extra support in their writing journey.
Imagine waking up each day totally clear on what to do next to make faster progress.
Whether you’re working on a book or business content, this is an affordable, high-impact way to make meaningful progress before the end of the year.
Clarity and Prioritization: We’ll sort through your ideas so you know what to focus on next at every turn.
Weekly Check-ins: Get my personalized weekly feedback via Voxer or email—no need to schedule live calls.
Optional Editing: Submit up to 6 pages per week for feedback, or 3 pages for line-by-line edits.
Bonuses: You’ll receive access to the Optimism Challenge E-course & 2 months in the Video Vault, packed with resources to support your writing goals.
Only 3 spots are available
at the discounted price of $300.
(That’s $200 off my typical rate.)
“I definitely am so so happy that I reached out to you because I feel like you have helped me motivate myself and helped me to boost my confidence and self-esteem when it comes to my business ideas. You helped me with the process. Since we’ve talked, I’ve literally built an Instagram network, built a Tiktok network. I’ve been more comfortable with posting my things on LinkedIn, and Facebook. Oh and my website, you’ve helped with that. Just from April, when we started talking, I’ve literally built an entire website and I have over 1000 followers on social media, which I like never thought that would happen.” – Kristina
Why Now?
This offer is only available from now through December 1st.
If you’ve been waiting for the right time to push forward with your projects, this is your sign.
Imagine starting 2025 with your writing well underway…
—whether it’s a book you’ve been dreaming of or content that will grow your business.
This program is for you if you want to make progress writing,
but feels stuck or overwhelmed by too many ideas
It’s time to move from stuck to unstoppable.
‘Sofia is an amazing editor. She’s helped me in the past and is currently helping me. I highly recommend this talented woman. This is a quote I texted Sofia the other day “Your work is amazing. I love what you’ve done for me and the book!”‘ Melissa Feick, Spiritual Teacher & International Bestselling Author.
Sofia masterfully guided me to tune into my own wisdom to discover what my business was telling me. It was such a unique and empowering experience. Sofia’s approach is unique and highly effective.” Keasha Lee Ince, Striking Statements
Hi! How has your week been? My husband and I have been sick.
I’m finally feeling on the mend but not quite there.
Here’s a few things we’ve been doing to wait this cold out
Shows:
90210
I never watched the show when it was on TV. But I started watching the series from the beginning on Paramont. I love all the 90s vibes, very nostalgic for me.
In Vogue: The 90s
Speaking of, this documentary about the fashion industries in the 90s just came out as a Hulu Original. Loving all the looks and faces I remember, with extra history I didn’t know.
Bob & Bill
This documentary was recommended by my husband. It’s about the real story of Batman, and the creative mind behind the comic that never got recognized during his life-time. It’s incredible and emotional: the story of how they got Bill Finger his proper credit as co-creator.
My Old Ass
This is in theatres. and I actually saw it when I didn’t feel sick. But it was a must-watch. You might not relate to the main character but the universal message about change and appreciating what we have now, is so profound.
Other activities
Cooking soup
My husband is addicted to my chicken noodle soup. We already made 2 batches, and will probably make a third.
Sewing and mending
Making clothes is a skill we both want to learn together. Also, I’m into mending my stuff. Lately, I’ve been on a personal mission to mend my jeans so I can wear them longer this fall.
Mindset
Now getting to a more serious topic…
I have to watch my mindset when I am sick.
To be able to rest is something that I’ve had to work on over the years.
I have a t-shirt that says, “Resting is productive.”
That’s something that has taken me a long time to learn. And I have to remind myself.
This week, there have been times when I’ve felt frustrated to be sick.
This month I’ve had so many unexpected roadblocks to the things I need to do, that I want to accomplish.
It feels like it has wasted a lot of valuable time. It makes me angry at times.
But you know life isn’t all in our control.
It is what it is.
And the fact of the matter is that I need rest right now.
Learning by Tracking Themes
Recently, I was talking to someone about tracking important, ongoing relationships with things like rest. We all have these ongoing themes. Maybe you never thought about tracking them?
The woman I was talking to was going through years of old journals.
Why? To get the written contents into their computer so some notebooks can be discarded. Paper journals really add up over the years. And it’s heavy.
I get it because it’s one reason I got into digital organization, as well.
I recommended that they track one of the themes they’d found in an old journal. (You can do this in the free app we both use, Obsidian, that I teach in my Digital Organization Club.)
Every time you notice yourself talking about the topic in a journal entry, you link that to your main theme.
Tracking these themes and relationships is something I’ve been doing now for years in what I call my Encyclopedia of me.
You may have heard of my “Encyclopedia of Me” if you saw
I’ve got a whole section in my digital archive dedicated to RELATIONSHIPS to things that I have been tracking across my journals.
Examples:
relationship to your body
relationship to money
relationship to work
One of the relationships most fascinating to me lately is my relationship to time.
Over time, I started to notice that the theme of time played a lot in my psychology:
feeling rushed,
feeling like I didn’t get enough done in the time
the clock is ticking…
Time has been a recurring source of stress for me.
And that’s a problem.
One of the things I’ve been working on this year is to take my time more, take things slower.
And leave that hustling, speed demon, stress energy behind me. It’s for my mental health.
I’ve been carrying around that need for speed for a long time and it’s hard to quit.
But because I have been tracking this theme across all my journal entries and notes,
whenever it comes up in my journal,
I’m able to revisit my history with it and my insights,
explore it in more depth, and try to learn the lessons I need to.
What I discover by going down the rabbit hole to explore all the information I’ve connected around this theme can surprise me.
I’ve been so wise in the past.
Sometimes it can take us a while to learn our lessons.
We learn them over and over again, forget them, and then learn them again, yes?
Well, I do my best to shorten this learning curve, but I am human all the same.
In 2017, I wrote
feeling a sense of rush or not getting there fast enough is related to not wanting to feel my emotions, like grief, or not wanting to rest, and instead, just push on to some “destination”.
In reality = faster progress equals faster letting go
Letting go means letting go of control.
Just being with whatever feelings I am trying to avoid.
Just being at rest and taking care of myself.
That doesn’t seem like a “solution” or
like “doing anything”
but it can be really powerful and effective.
Sometimes just being with the present moment is the hardest thing for me to do
especially when my feelings are intense, I’m scared or things are really uncertain.
In 2017, I had an emotionally hard year because we anticipated my dad was going to lose his house.
And although that situation is long gone now, (the house, too),
there are new challenges I face today that bring up the same theme.
And my goal is always to learn from the past.
To try to shorten that learning curve.
So even though, I would like to make progress quickly on things that really will move the needle in my life.
And it drives me crazy to have constraints on my time and then on top of that to get sick…
Sometimes you just have to be sick, drink your fluids and wait to feel better.
I know that if I don’t, then I’ll probably just be sicker, longer.
And that’s that.
Hope this message means something to you.
Not only is it safe to rest or pause
but, ironically, sometimes that is how you make the fastest progress in the end.
Have a good week
Thanks for reading
-Sofia Wren
P.S. Are you interested in organizing old journal entries?
Want to whittle down your collection of paper notebooks, but get all of the good stuff out of them?
Get help organizing your ideas and get them off of paper, and into your computer so you can make better use of them. Soon you’ll be able to let those notebooks go.
experimenting with different homemade pumpkin drinks and
a little nip in the air when I sit outside in the morning.
My favorite ritual is spending time outside each morning to make the most of the months I can brave the weather! Here in Wisconsin winter is always quite the event. And I know it’s coming, all the more reason to step outside and enjoy the world as much as I can.
It’s been very busy besides that, but who wants to talk about that lol.
Better to talk about that fall world outside, there for me when I can pull away.
Today I had a really nice conversation with someone I’ve known for many years.
It got me thinking about everything that happened in the last few years, and how much I have grown.
This question of how well you relate to yourself is at the crux of everything I help people do.
That includes coaching people to write for a book or business, organizing their ideas. Editing books and copywriting.Helping with marketing, productivity, business and project management.
Not to mention helping people heal from things like trauma and loss, which I always seem to do along the way of whatever I do even though I am not a therapist (I do have a masters in spiritual care though). Helping you find clarity in your life or work, listening to your intuition and what you discover through writing and organizing.
Also, I don’t talk about my love of Tarot because I know may seem random…
I used to offer intuitive readings all the time and my intuition is spot-on, if I do say so myself. (I gave out free Tarot readings to people who donated to my fundraiser to send 2 young women in Sierra Leone, Africa pay for college this spring….)
The truth is, I got good at it by learning to listen to myself. And when people tune into a good intuitive reading they start hearing their own intuition, and things that have been lurking under the surface for a while that they just couldn’t articulate / needed to confirm. Trust me, for the last 15+ years everything I’ve done is all about helping you (and me) have a good relationship with ourselves.
AND IT IS NEEDED
Women especially have SUCH a hard time with this because we are socialized to think of ourselves last. But it affects really cool dudes, too.
My learning about this
This topic of having a good relationship with ME has been an ongoing focus of mine for the last few years,
and I’ve talked about it in various ways (as you can see). Here are a just a few more:
How it Went: My 2023 Goal to Have a Better Relationship With Myself
Part of having a good relationship with myself is noticing what makes me feel off.
In late July/ August I had to admit that all the craziness happening in the United State politically was getting me on social media a ton and thus more anxious and upset.
I worked to get the heck off –which was good…of course, lately I notice myself creeping back on at times.
It’s hard to eliminate completely because sometimes dipping a toe in is totally fine and fun. And I have so many good friends and contacts online I don’t want to lose, either. But of course…when I find myself mad about something I saw online or thinking about it at 3 AM that’s my evidence that I was playing with fire.
Anyway, this is not a new concept for me, but I need periodic reminders.
Here’s a clip of an email I sent in 2022 on the topic:
……
Are you spending a lot of time online, on your phone or social media?
Does it leave you feeling bored or off?
You might want to try this trick I used to make sure I am really filling my tank with what I really need, not just consuming crap that does not really fulfill me.
I noticed after I lost my father in 2021 that I was scrolling through social media and just feeling bad.
I had to ask myself, “Is this helping me or hurting me?” I decided to institute a new practice for a while called “microjournaling” which I heard about from a youtube video by Struthless talking about quitting social media in this video.
What I did:
For a month, every time I picked up my phone to scroll, instead I wrote a sentence about how I felt in a notes application.
I used one called Google Keep.
If you want to try it, you could do this anywhere you can keep a written or digital note, like Obsidian, Notion or Apple Notes.
What I learned:
I discovered I often picked up my phone and craved going on social media when I felt sad and just wanted a distraction. But this was problematic.
If I went on social media while sad, I could easily see something that would make me feel worse, or at the very least,
it wasn’t really going to make me feel better.
In this period of my life, distraction from my feelings wasn’t going to help me process them.
So I decided that when I feel sad, I will refrain from going on social media. I decided to take a break for about a month and removed pressure to post for my business. I just let people know I needed a break for a while.
I kept up the practice of journaling when I wanted to go on social media.
And then something changed!!
After a while, in my microjournaling I noticed I suddenly wanted to go on social media for the purpose of creating and sharing. That was new, and it seemed fun and creative, which was positive for me, rather than a negative thing. So I started experimenting with making videos and pictures to share my life in an authentic way just to connect with my people. That has felt really good.
These days I am not as rigid about microjournaling and sometimes I find myself scrolling for 20 minutes and still feeling bored—but I will notice and be like,
ok what’s going on here? What am I really wanting?
I don’t always know what I want or what I need
but stopping the scroll and doing something else usually helps me figure it out.
I’m figuring out how to balance everything along side you, but I thought I would share in case it helps you!
Next time you feel bored or off, try writing a sentence about how you feel, or asking yourself, “What am I really wanting or needing right now?”
It is okay to be with those feelings even if you don’t have all the answers quite yet.
I trust you will get closer to those answers in the end by being more connected to yourself.
…
Hope this inspires you. If you need more, look into the resources below!
Become the put together person of your dreams!
Want to get organized? Put ideas, notes, documents, + journals in order?
Make books, articles, emails, blogposts out of them? Achieve your goals faster than before?
If you are ready to put your random post its, notes, documents, articles, and ideas in one place
so you can make faster progress on your writing or business projects…
The 3 Month Fall Digital Organization Club is calling you!
This is a physical disc-bound notebook where I put important notes
that will get me fired up, help me advance my goals and other wise feel motivated to do things.
I call it my GET FIRED book. It’s supposed to be like a book version of drinking coffee.
I have collected these notes from my digital organization system
as well as written many things by hand.
I flip through this notebook daily so I spend time reviewing it every day,
thus reminding myself of things to help me get fired up and remain motivated.
Side note: although I have a high preference for things being digital because its so much easier to organize, archive and review over the long term…
When something is really important for me to focus on in the short term,
having it in physical form as well helps my brain.
That could mean printing it and putting it on my desk. I can’t look at a screen constantly and paper gives me pleasure.
So as I combine the benefits of the best of digital and paper worlds,
this has sparked me to attend to read my important ideas more often and
resulted in a pivotal change
The process
So what this looks like is picking things out to print out:
pieces of my notes and writing to read or review or highlight,
worksheets from classes made by others or things I make myself.
When I put printouts in my notebook
I add in my handwritten notes,
blank sheets to journal about things I want to dig into specifically,
handwritten lists like ideas for self care or
todo lists for the week for certain projects…
whatever inspires me, all in one place.
And every day I promise myself I will flip through it.
Because I am now looking at the right things, the right notes, each day,
it has helped me to move forward on whatever project I choose to arrange these things around.
I enjoy looking at it in the morning at my desk or outside on my balcony with a coffee.
It’s amazing to make something for yourself, like a book or a resource that you can hold on your hands tangibly.
We underplay how your notes or writing can be worth printing.
Paper and digital can be friends:
Using the best of your writings on your computer or phone, as well as things that you hand write, it can all come into one place.
And anything you have written by hand or annotate can go back on the computer later.
Print and digital work well together.
So they’re both intangibly part of my process.
This is my happy place.
What I’m Learning
And this is what my notebook sparked: a series of learning points.
Since I began my notebook dedicated to motivation, I added notes on Brendon Burchard’s book the Motivation Manifesto.
Burchard says motivation requires:
A. Ambition (a choice to do more) and B. Expectancy (belief that what you want is possible).
I saw these notes a lot through reviewing my GET FIRED Common Place Book and eventually I couldn’t deny that optimism was the main motivation ingredient that I lacked.
Over time I began to accept that this was the cornerstone of my motivation problem:
I didn’t really have optimism. And hadn’t since 2021.
I think for me, my normal level of optimism is pretty high, and so
even if I feel middling optimism, I probably seem sunny from the outside.
But inside it is not enough. It didn’t feel right.
I trust myself that I know best what I feel and what I need as a unique individual.
In July, I started using a page in my notebook to track my mood daily, giving each mood a color.
I could quickly see that I rarely felt happy. Like actually happy.
And when was it last a regular feeling?
2020 when I fell in love with my husband, before my dad died.
Obviously I had every reason to feel bad after my dad died suddenly in 2021.
And I knew I felt worse.
But seeing it with your eyes is different.
I just thought, “right, that’s something that I want to work on.”
Given that any change requires me to do something and
That requires motivation and
motivation requires optimism…
Optimism seemed like a good place to start.
By the way not blindly optimistic. I really want to see whatever bad things I can avoid, because bad shit can happen.
Still it’s possible to think things can still go in a positive direction regardless.
The Optimism Challenge
To work on being optimistic, I set myself a challenge: a 30 Day Optimism Challenge.
For a while I was a bit aimless, but then I decided to announce it publicly in August.
Printing out the workbook and adding it to my notebook gave my personal optimism challenge structure.
I followed the process step by step (utilizing what I know about forming habits as a writing coach.)
And I just finished the 30 day challenge last week.
Over this past month, I tracked a noticeable increase in my optimism level.
I tracked my optimism levels every day and took notes.
In addition to daily tracking I also did a weekly review
specifically exploring what was hard and easy about being optimistic that week and
what I could do or change the next week.
If you’ve never had a practice of reviewing your week with a series of questions, it can be a wonderful way to lock in memories, and learn from your experiences.
Adding questions to that review week after week to inquire about the changes you want to make, is a game changer.
I even have transcribed much of what I wrote down and added it to my digital archive
so that I never forget the insights I have been learning in this process.
I especially like to transcribe my weekly reviews.
I usually prefer to read these out loud into a transcription app several weeks later because it helps me remember it better longterm.
I can remind myself of the powerful insights that I began to forget
(it is amazing how quickly that forgetting happens, none of us are immune!)
For instance as I went into the final 2 weeks of the challenge,
I transcribed the reviews from the first half as a way to remember what I had learned so far
—reviewing the written weekly reviews.
Reviewing your reviews is not overkill. It is smart.
There are always pieces that pertain to goals, action steps, themes or topics that deserve more attention.
I want to keep track of my insights.
Sometimes what I read from several weeks ago can be applied immediately.
Some of that information ends up being added somewhere in an archive.
In the Summer Digital Organization Club, I shared how I have a note that serves as a hub for all of my goals for the year.
(That class and all classes from summer are now a bonus for fall members)
I try to update this central goal hub note whenever I write about goals
in my daily journal or my weekly reviews,
as all of that is enduring information I don’t want to forget about later.
I may not think about every goal I have day to day, but I will see it regularly.
Each month I reread that note about my goals, as well as my review from the last few weeks, month or season. I periodically review that kind of stuff.
And it feels good. This is definitely coming along in terms of a system.
Takeaways
I know because of this system I have, I’m probably always going to remember this time in my life.
There are dreams that have been lurking for years and feeling impossible that I am slowly turning into action.
I have a growing feeling in my life that I actually have some power and control over things (crazy I know).
I really can choose want to focus on and I trust in time I will see it improve.
I’ve noticed more optimism, more spontaneity, more joy, less anxiety, more hope and purpose.
If you are trying to initiate a change
I will share what helps me in terms of a mindset to begin:
It doesn’t need to be neat, it doesn’t need to be cute.
I repeat, to start it doesn’t need to be cute.
Sometimes you do it in an uncute way for a while and then it becomes cute.
My notebook was something I bought years ago that I repurposed and
gradually I’ve been adorning it in pretty pictures to display how sacred it really is to me.
If you want to write, get organized, change, or start system or program of some kind…
remember it doesn’t need to be neat and doesn’t need to be cute.
It just needs to be there so you can get started.
You can decorate and embroider your ideas, your notes or whatever you are working on…later.
When I reread my writing or notes, I can highlight or add an idea.
When I transcribe them, it inspires me to talk more about something or add new pieces of information.
When I go through an experience like giving myself a challenge, I see what works and changes each week and what doesn’t.
I tweak as I go.
Nothing about my process started perfectly, but I got started and bit by bit everything is getting better then it was before.
…
Hope this inspires you. If you need more, look into the resources below!
