It’s been a weird day for me, what about you?

I didn’t think I was going to be able send out my weekly FunLetter this week. That’s what I call my email newsletter.

​

I had sent emails earlier in the week but it wasn’t on Wednesday/Thursday, so my life just felt unfinished.

I love sending emails, do you? Highly recommend.

​

There’s a $3 sale happening today on a great resource I really want to let you know about.

​

Anyway, I woke up with no energy. I’ve taught 3 classes this week.

​

[[Sidenote, there’s another Be Your Own Best Friend Class next week, see below]].

​

Despite how depleted I have felt, I just got re-energized by talking to my pal Liz Wilcox,

​

she’s an expert on email, and is a future contestant on Survivor (!!! next season starts Feb 28!!!)

​

Amazing how some positive energy can really turn a day around.

​

Anyway she reminded me about her sale-

she’s offering her amazing email template membership for only $3/month until midnight EST tonight.

​that motivated me to share about it.

Do you want to email more?

Could you use ideas to make writing emails fun or effective?

​Check it out, I love it.

​

What are you celebrating?

​

Liz and I were also talking about our celebrations, what about you?

​​

It’s Friday, let’s give ourselves some credit.

​

What happened this week that was good?

​

For me — Wednesday, I finally updated the bio on my website, and I’m so happy with it!

​

​Read my new bio page here​

​

I have been meaning to give it an update for the last year.

​

I talked about this in my Bio Refresh Class over the summer. That brainstorm session gave me so many ideas (and the replay is available so you can update your bio with me),

​

But in the end, I still needed more time to get to the next chapter of my life so I could describe my life better.

​

NOW it feels official:

I am in a new chapter of life and this is documented in my bio page.

Man that feels good.

​

But what’s really crazy to me is that

I didn’t even mean to work on my website.

​

I was just watching a clip of this video from my dad’s first death anniversary.​

​

​

​

This video means a lot to me, to this day.

I put a lot of heart into it.

​

I felt called to rewatch it on Wednesday because I was feeling a lot of grief, as I do.

​

And it really helped me get inspired.

​

I let the music and the meaning of what I shared in my video inspire me to write about how my story has evolved over the past few years since then.

​

​

Writing has been an amazing tool for me to be a best friend to myself.

And it never stops giving.

I hope its a love you get to experience as well.

​

Because I use it for ME, my life, not just my career,

there’s a lot of writing that goes on behind the scenes.

​

You might not see every single word I write, but that’s why I have these emails to put extra energy behind the words I really don’t want you to miss.

​

Thank you so much for being in my email community —

sending these emails is one of my favorite things to do.

​

​

And if you want to send emails of your own–

if you are interested in pouring love into the emails you send, or

you want to start sending emails,

​

My pal Liz Wilcox has an amazing membership of templates to make things easier for you, while still expressing your individuality.

​

She’s doing a list-building challenge next week and there are many other bonuses.

You get everything for $3 if you sign up tonight.

​

Check it out if you like, or you can join us for the final session of Be Your Own Best Friend (below).

​

See you in my next FunLetter

xo

​

​

“Be Your Own Best Friend” Workshop Continues Next Week

It’s not too late to join us for the next live workshop!

Are you feeling:

​

-Overwhelmed and exhausted from constantly seeking personal growth without finding a sense of fulfillment? Stuck on a never-ending treadmill of personal development?

​
​
-Yearning for someone who can provide consistent, nonjudgmental support and understanding in your journey? Feeling isolated and lonely?

​
​
-Finding it hard to express your true thoughts and feelings for fear of being hurt, dismissed, or made wrong? Difficulty being fully honest and understood?

​
​
If so, these are all great reasons to come to my “Be Your Own Best Friend” Workshop to focus on

the most precious relationship you have:

​

The relationship you have with yourself!

It is the foundation of everything.

​
Ready to deepen your connection with yourself? Join me and my friend Kate in Paradise in our upcoming transformative workshop!

​
Discover the empowerment and relief that comes from radical self-acceptance and self-compassion.

We’ll dive into practical ways to do this and practice the tools together.

​

Inside the two live Zoom sessions and replays, you will:

​
– Embrace self-acceptance and feel understood without judgment.
​
– Connect with yourself on a deeper level and build resilience.

​
– Celebrate your achievements and feel a sense of wholeness.

​
Invest in yourself through this $38 workshop and feel the difference that comes from being your own best friend in a bigger way.

​

Afterward, you’ll have the tools to feel more supported anytime, even if no one can answer the phone to talk.

​

Don’t miss out – reserve your spot now!

Final Live Class on Wed Feb 21 at 3 PM EST

​
​

​Click here to join the Be Your Own Best Friend Workshop

Hi! How are you feeling today?

​

I heard that Elmo asked this question online and it got a really big reaction.

​

Why?

I think so many people have feelings that they don’t have space to share.

Maybe a little bit here, and there, but not all the time.

​

It turns out Elmo and I share a similar philosophy.

​

I want these emails to be fun

(in fact, I’m going to start calling them FunLetters!)

​

AND real emotions always have a place here.

Feelings are okay, even difficult ones.

​

When you feel heard and understood, it can instantly change your life —

so those parts of you need to be allowed to be here, as well.

​

Picture this: The worst moments of your life aren’t so bad anymore. And you didn’t have to spend all year changing your life.

​

There’s something that happens to ruin your day, it may not be new, but it’s at it again.

​

Whether it is out of your control, or you can’t even face dealing with it, yet, this time something is different.

​

Instead of feeling only the weight of it all on your shoulders, that you have to figure it out, you feel an additional presence —

​

it is another part of you, the wiser part, the part that has perspective, the part that is so above all of this.

​

It knows whatever happens:

• You matter.
• You are worthy of love.
• You can do this.
• You are special.
• Your feelings are reasonable and understandable

​

Now this is a safe space where you can cry,

you can rage,

you can feel anything,

​

and whatever you feel is totally accepted and held without judgement, and only love.

​

And when you are ready and not a moment before, your guide will lead you forward to the next thing you need to do to take care of yourself.

​

But you feel relief because now you are not feeling so alone, on your own, you against the world…and sometimes that solves 90% of the problem.

​

Because that’s when you remember that you are capable,

and that this situation doesn’t mean anything about you necessarily,

you are just a human.

​

A human who knows how to be her own best friend.

​

If you want help to stop feeling alone with your problems, and

have immediate access to the feeling of being supported even when no one can answer the phone —

​

Join us for the Be Your Own Best Friend Workshop workshop coming up Feb 14!

& check out the replay of my latest interview & article on the topic.

​

​

1. Interview: Having a Better Relationship with Myself

My Goal in 2023 was to Have a Better Relationship with Myself. Here’s How it Went.

I talked to Ginny Robertson in an interview about my goal last year to have a better relationship with myself–

and here is the replay!

​

This goal is so important to me as I grieve my father’s death.

​

It’s been two years, but there’s still grief and not enough support,

​

which is why it’s so important to be my own best friend. But it’s been so good I want everyone to hear about it.

​

Hear what I learned by making my relationship to myself my priority for a full year.

​

I talk about the two important key elements of this process needed to make a change happen:

​

​Watch the replay of this interview ​

​

​

2. “Be Your Own Best Friend” Workshop Starts in 1 Week

​

Valentine’s Day is coming up–

and what is the most precious relationship you have?

​

The one you have with yourself!

It is the foundation of everything.

​
Ready to deepen your connection with yourself, join me and my friend Kate in Paradise in our upcoming transformative workshop!

​
Discover the empowerment and relief that comes from radical self-acceptance and self-compassion.

We’ll dive into practical ways to do this and practice the tools together.

​

Inside the two live Zoom sessions and replays, you will:

​
– Embrace self-acceptance and feel understood without judgment.
​
– Connect with yourself on a deeper level and build resilience.

​
– Celebrate your achievements and feel a sense of wholeness.

​
Invest in yourself through this $38 workshop and feel the difference that comes from being your own best friend in a bigger way.

​

Afterward, you’ll have the tools to feel more supported anytime, even if no one can answer the phone to talk.

​

Don’t miss out – reserve your spot now!

Live on Wed Feb 14 & Feb 21 at 3 PM EST.

​
​

​Click here to join the Be Your Own Best Friend Workshop​

​

​

3. Article: How I Finally Reached My Potential

​

I have always felt like I had untapped potential and recently I began to think I am fulfilling that potential at last.

​

After a year, this goal of providing myself more support and being my own best friend has really paid off.

​

Our successful fundraiser last week made me feel so accomplished! Thanks for all your support.

​

Click here to read the article!​

​

​

​

Have a cool day

Update to the post below: We did it!

​

We managed to raise enough money between us all to send Ismatu to university on Monday.

​
You can still send an additional donation to Her Future Foundation, the nonprofit in Sierra Leone that is helping girls get an education using this link.

(This will go to their general fund as they are waiting for grants to be approved. This is an older fundraiser that I created but you can still donate here!)

together we raised over 90% of the yearly fees including everything due on Monday 2/5/2024.
​

It has been a pleasure to see all the energy behind this support for Ismatu.

​
I think many of us are world weary and it is refreshing to be a part of something so good.

​
So that is the update! A happy ending.

​

My previous post is below in case you missed it and have no idea what I am talking about lol or who Ismatu is.

​
This is a big deal. We are all so amazingly powerful, don’t forget you can do more than you even know you can!

Xo

—

I was on the phone last year with an amazing young girl from Sierra Leone.

She told me that she used to be scared.

​

Ismatu is her name–

She said as a young, Muslim, indigenous girl, it was scary to visit communities where she knew no one.

​

But she wanted to talk to the women there.

She wanted to talk to them about traditions that hurt women like FGM, and why it must stop.

​

Over 90% of women there have already gone through FGM.

She wants to change the cycle.

​

So even though it was scary and uncomfortable, Ismatu had a mission to help women and girls.

​

So she kept going. That fear did not stop her.

​

Where she is from 90% of women cannot read a sentence.

​

Not only did she finish high school,

but she won a regional high school debate on the topic,

​

“Why Girls Deserve an Education.”

​

We want to see her succeed.

We want to see her shine brighter.

​

We want to see a girl like her, blooming out of rough soil, show everyone in her country what girls can do.

​

We want to amplify her voice.

​

I am a part of a movement to support girls and women in Sierra Leone,

​

in a place where it is not unusual to marry girls as young as 8,

​

and to require FGM of all women.

It never heals right. It’s awful.

​

Over 50% of women are scared of their husbands.

​

Don’t get me started on the rates of women who believe violence is deserved.

​

Sexual assault of minors is so common,

it’s been declared a national emergency.

​

WE NEED A MOVEMENT OF CHANGE

​

What better person to lead a movement of change than a girl, like Ismatu?

​

There is a Problem and an Opportunity

​

We believe in Ismatu.

​

But this brilliant, rare girl, doesn’t have $500 USD to go to university.

​

I just found out that she needs it by Monday, Feb 5.

​

AND I THINK WE CAN DO IT

WE CAN HELP HER KEEP GOING ON HER MISSION.

​

To end FGM, violence against women and ensure a good future for all girls.

​

How?

If 17 amazing souls donate $25 –

that’s $425 right there.

I can donate the rest ($100).

That will cover her schooling and the fees to get it to her.

​

But it has to happen by Monday.

​

The good news is some people have already raised their hand.

Me + them = $400 pledged.

​

$125 to go.

We just need 5 more volunteers to send her $25.

​

Are you one of them?

​

Do you want to help us ease the path of this gorgeous soul who wants to advocate for girls and women?

​

So she can be a shining example to them all?

God, I want to see that.

​

(Note: This fundraiser has ended! But you can send donations anytime to this fundraiser to Her Future Foundation, the nonprofit advocating for girls like Ismatu.

Put your money in girl power.

​

DONATION LINK:

​Donate to Her Future Foundation​

​

Thank you + please spread the word,

you can forward this email or

​share this youtube video!​

​​

This video is also on facebook.

Even if you can’t donate, it would help if you commented, liked or share this video on facebook​

​

Thanks!!

How do you feel as January turns to February?

I’m feeling lighter and excited for what is to come.

​

I have a lot of goodies for you today –

a sale, a workshop, an article & a video.

​

FYI Today is the last day for a sale on basically my favorite service–the personal writing mentorship.

​

It shocks me how helpful this kind of support can be across writing, business, and life:

​

Flow, authenticity, and personal expression all abound by the end of the journey.

​

If that sounds good, check out the sale below!
​
Other things to explore today:

​

-Check out the low-priced workshop happening Feb 14th,

​

-click the free link to read the “Pranks My Husband Pulled on Me in Japan,” or

​

-enjoy my latest video, “Why I’m Not on Substack.”

​

​

1. 12 for 10 sale ends today!

​

-You want to heal your stories and be more yourself. Less fear. More flow.

​

-You want to write your book.

​

-You want to use writing to promote your service-based business.
​
​
Does any of that sound like you?

Want help?

​

(You can get 12 months of mentorship for the price of 10.)
​

​Read more about the Mentorship Program here​

​

​

2. “BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND WORKSHOP”

New Low-priced workshop:
​

Maybe you know you have some trouble supporting yourself through challenges, or

maybe you know your relationship with yourself could be BETTER.

​

You could feel more held, more loved, more understood, more cherished.

​

More nurtured, more nourished, more gotten, more precious.
​
​

And maybe this feeling would help you knock out a few big goals that would change your life for the better this year!
​
​
I’m so excited for this upcoming class with my friend Kate in Paradise.

​

Writing has helped me to improve my relationship with myself.

I’ll share my favorite writing exercises for this and a whole bunch more!

​

We’ll teach you how to be a better best friend to yourself through writing and somatic tools.

February 14th & 21st

$38

​

​Read more here: The Be Your Own Best Friend Workshop is now open for enrollment!​

​

​

​

3. New Japan Article “Pranks My Husband Pulled on Me in Japan!

​

A little slice of my life:

My husband pulled a lot of pranks on me in Japan…

​

Egads!

This article cracked me up. Hope it cracks you up, too.

​

Click here to read the article.​

​

(Please clap or comment for the article, if you can. It helps more people see it!)

​

4. “Why I’m Not On Substack” Video

​

Wow, Substack has become a very popular place for writers,

but I’m choosing not to hop on and play there.

​

​Leaders, entrepreneurs, and writers all have to be judicious with our time,

including what platforms we go on.

​

I don’t judge other people if they use Substack,

and who knows, I may change my mind,

​

​But here is a video on all the personal & philosophical reasons I am not on Substack.​

​

​

​

And that’s it!

Have a cool day

A friend was asking me about my goal to have a better relationship with myself in 2023 and in 2024, and

​

I realized there’s a general misconception about this sort of thing.

​

The misconception is that me wanting a better relationship with myself,

​

including accepting myself in all ways,

​

meant that I did not accept myself in some way.

​

Not necessarily.

In fact, that’s not really true at this point of my life.

​

But I sometimes feel an intangible sandpaper feeling.

It’s inside. I won’t know why.

I have to sit down and be with it.

​

Everyone can be MORE accepting…

but there is more to it.

​

Finally, I was able to articulate this truth:

​

The relationship you have with yourself isn’t really about you.

​

-Feel anxious about life in general, you will feel anxious about yourself.

​

-Feel out of control, you will try to control yourself.

​

-Feed sad, you may feel sad about yourself.

​

Or at least, this is true for me!

​

This is the #1 lesson I’ve learned by making my relationship to myself a priority over 2023:

​

It’s symbolic and not always about me.

​

So turning it back to you, it’s the same:

your relationship with yourself is symbolic and not always about you.

​

Wanting to accept yourself more doesn’t mean that you need to reject something specific about yourself

in order to benefit from that sort of focus.

​

It’s so much more complex than that.

​

And I’ve also learned that you can reverse this principle:

​

You can improve your relationship with yourself as the ground zero to feel better about everything else going on in your life.

​

“…Being at home, in the core of ourselves, is the foundation that gives us the security…to be in full relationship to life.” Bud Harris

​

Get me?

​

Today, as you go about your day, check in with yourself, and ask:

How am I feeling?

How do I feel about things generally?

​

Maybe journal about how you feel about things in general and notice if that affects how you feel about yourself.

​

It’s an interesting thing to notice, for sure!!

​

Your feelings do matter and it is worth it to spend time with them.

​

But don’t BELIEVE that a temporary feeling means you don’t like yourself.

​

Taking those feelings and what they say about you less seriously will be such a gift, I promise.

​

That said you can always be more accepting, and compassionate with yourself, too.

​

Self love is not an Off-or-on switch. It’s complicated.

​

And if this intrigues you, be sure to check out my upcoming Be Your Best Friend Workshop!

​

​

Do you ever feel:
​
-Like you are on a never-ending treadmill of personal development?
​
-Like you don’t have a nonjudgemental person to talk to consistently?
​
-Like you can’t be fully honest, or fully understood, 365 days a year and 24/7–
​

Because when you try to share your whole self, you sometimes feel hurt, wrong, or dismissed?

​

It’s great to have goals and want to grow,

but if you (or others) are always making you wrong,

then you can’t move a muscle!

​

Without self love and acceptance, it’s harder to do everything.

​
Loneliness and isolation are super common these days, but you still have one perfect best friend at the ready:

Yourself.

​

Give yourself a safe space to land.

​

Be your own best friend–the kind that knows when to push, and when to love.
​

What if you could have a conversation with someone where you could share everything you’re thinking and feeling, and they’re totally holding space for ALL of you?

​

You can! And she is with you every second of every day, for the rest of your life.

BE Your Own Best Friend!

Learn Writing and Somatic Techniques over two sessions.

​

Benefits of this two part workshop:
​🤍 Time to celebrate yourself
​🤍 Feel more wholeness
🤍 Grow from a solid and steady foundation
🤍 Tap into your future self to get guidance on your goals and desires
🤍 Feel more understood, heard, and seen without judgement
🤍 Meet yourself where you are and feel more connected

​

Get access to the replay:

​

Only $38

​

Come join us:

​Read more about “Be Your Own Best Friend” Workshop​

​

Have a cool day

Hanging in there?

I dunno ’bout you, but this month has been kicking my butt.

​

My latest win is finishing a HUGE excel sheet to budget for a nonprofit I help in Sierra Leone, called Her Future Foundation.

Hopefully, it helps them get a grant to help women and girls escape violence and FGM!

​

That was a big deadline. There have been a bunch of other things I’ve been juggling as well.

​

And then of course there is my ultimate priority:

My relationship with myself.

​

What are you focusing on right now?

​

With ALL. THE. THINGS…

You didn’t forget to pay attention to yourself, did you?

​

I used to always do that when I got busy, but I’m getting better at building new habits.

​

My big goal in 2023 was to have a better relationship with myself–

so far so good!

​

In fact, I’m keeping the same big goal in 2024.

​

If you know something is important, sometimes it pays just to stick with it.

​

These containers of “years” that we put our goals into are arbitrary.

Some things take longer, and some things take less time.

​

Shrug. Don’t let it limit you.

​

Here’s some stuff going on that you might want to know about:

​

1. Interview: Ginny Robertson interviews me on How my goal went for 2023, developing a better relationship with myself.
   ​
   More below.
   ​
   ​
   ​
2. 12 for 10 Sale on Writing Mentorship: Work on your relationship to yourself, or develop writing for your business.
   ​
   Ends 1/31/24. More below.
   ​
   ​
   ​
3. Free Feel Good Goals Event: Feel bad about your goals? Anxious, resistant, overwhelmed?
   ​
   Check this out. More below.
   ​
   ​

& Keep an EYE out

Be Your Own Best Friend Workshop:

Use writing to have a better relationship with yourself on Valentine’s Day.
​
Because it’s the most important relationship of all!
​
​
​
​(Keep an eye out for a future announcement all about the workshop—
or get on my newsletter to be emailed!)
​
​COMING SOON

​

1. Upcoming Interview

​

“Forget the other goals, if all I do is end the year more self loving than I began, then I will consider it a success.” ~ Me in January 2023.

​

I wrote about how my goal went in this free January edition of On Purpose Women Magazine.

​

And I’ll be speaking more about this journey to unwobble the wobbles and accept every part of myself

in the upcoming interview with Ginny Robertson on Monday, January 29th at 5 PM EST

​

Want to watch?

​Watch the interview live in this facebook group. It’s free!
​
Note: If you are not a member of the On Purpose Woman Global Community facebook Group, you’ll have to join first.

​

2. 12 for 10 sale

​

“…Being at home, in the core of ourselves, is the foundation that gives us the security…to be in full relationship to life.” Bud Harris

​

The Personal Writing Mentorship program with me will help you if you resonate with either of these tracks:
​

1. Personal Track:
   ​​
   You want to heal your stories and be more yourself. Less fear. More flow.
   ​
   You want writing to feel more fun and authentic. You want to feel good, and above all, you want to write for yourself first.
   ​
   You want to feel like you always have your own back no matter what.
   ​
   And since your relationship to yourself is the basis of all others, you know this will help you feel more loved in general.
   ​
   ​
   ​
2. Professional Track:
   ​​
   You want more clients, fans, or followers; the kind that GET you.
   ​
   You want more clients and connections because it can assist you in your career as a writer or business owner.
   ​
   You want writing for a website, content, emails, salespage, book, video, or something else. Maybe you are writing or publishing for the first time. Or maybe you want to reinvent yourself.
   ​
   You want to write so you will get a positive reaction when you share it.

​

Read more about the Mentorship Program here​

​

On sale until 1/31/24

Contact me if you want to discuss it with me and get it on sale.

​

3. Free Feel Good Goals Event

​

Are you thinking about your goals?

​

Jacqui Acree, is an EFT practitioner/ potty-mouthed angel who helps you “Move through emotional shitstorms with as much grace as possible.”

​

She’s been my secret weapon in 2023 to help me have a better relationship with my humanity and the full range of my feelings!

​

Including feelings about goals…

Because if I feel stress, anxious, overwhelmed, resistant or scared, those feelings will stop me from taking action.

​

A lot of people teach about goals, and I just don’t resonate with it at all, but I really enjoy her take.

It is so self compassionate and she helps you actually move through the feelings that keep you paralyzed.

​

Check out her free event, happening now!

​Click here to join the free Feel Good Goals event​

​

​

AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THE VALENTINES DAY WORKSHOP COMING SOON!

Be a better best friend to yourself through writing

​

​

Have a cool day

P.S. Even when you are busy make sure to give yourself some care and attention <3

You matter.

“…Being at home, in the core of ourselves, is the foundation that gives us the security…to be in full relationship to life.” Bud Harris

​

Early 2023, I nearly dropped my e-reader. “This is so where I am at right now!” I noted next to this passage above.

​

My word of the year for 2023 was Foundation – specifically, shoring up the real foundation to everything: my relationship with myself.

​

All year, I had decided, I would be unwobbling the wobbles around accepting every part of myself. I didn’t want to feel at odds with myself anymore.

​

It was a drastically new kind of goal for me: I’ve always been a speed demon set on tackling my business projects, writing books and articles, serving people through all that and a nonprofit, plus a million other things.

​

But losing my father took my mind off all that, and my 2023 goal felt less tangible and obvious; the kind of thing that falls in the cracks. An Honorable Mention type of goal, not really worthy of a gold prize.

Basically not worth the time and energy to focus on if I had anything more important and urgent to do. But that is why it had to be the top priority of all.

​

​

My biggest task is to meet myself where I am, moment to moment in my life, especially when life gets busy.

​

If I have any goal that consider to be more important, as soon as I feel that urgency, this relationship with myself will play second fiddle…heck, it’s the triangle in the back.

​

In order to really take things up a notch, I had to to say, “Forget the other goals, if all I do is end the year more self loving than I began, then I will consider it a success.” 

​

So how did it go?

​

​Read on in this free January edition of On Purpose Women Magazine!​

​

​

​

Are you thinking about your goals?

Check out these resources to help you do stuff:

​

1. 6 Month Winter Writing Group – write for your book or business so you can serve others.

Enrollment ends on January 15th:

​Join us to attend the upcoming digital organization and writing workshops.​

​

2. Personal Mentorship – write to bring healing to your personal story.

Email me about a year of deep work writing your story, book or for business &

get 12 months of coaching for the price of 10!

Special ends January 31st:

​Click here for more on the personal mentorship program​

​

3. Feel Good Goals – Move through feelings you have about your goals.

Jacqui Acree, is an EFT practitioner/ potty-mouthed angel who helps you “Move through emotional shitstorms with as much grace as possible.”

​

I personally recommend her work in helping me have a better relationship with my humanity and the full range of my feelings in 2023! Including feelings about goals…

​

A lot of people teach about goals, and I just don’t resonate with it at all, but I really enjoy her take.

It is so self compassionate and she helps you actually move through the feelings that keep you paralyzed.

​

Check out her free classes coming up (a great use of your time, I promise):

FREE!

January 23-25

​Click here to join the Feel Good Goals sessions​

​

Hope you are having a nice week, how has it been for you?

​

I have been hanging out with my husband at home, which has been really nice.

I still feel pangs of that common seasonal loneliness and grief for my parents, but it’s pretty good over all.

Been loving that I can make my husband watch some movies with me, he usually doesn’t have the time.

​

Today we are talking about my favorite book of 2023:

​

” Everyone has perfectionistic tendencies about something. When those tendencies (the desire to bridge the gulf between an ideal and reality) present more often than not and are accompanied by the impulse to actively strive towards bridging that gulf, you can consider yourself a perfectionist. “

​

Katherine Morgan Schafler’s book The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control is a must read.

Shout out to Jacqui Acree for the recommendation.

​

I’ve been chewing on it for months. It’s made the kind of long lasting impression on me that my 2022 book did.

​

(In 2022 my book of the year was Tiago Forte’s Building a Second Brain, which got me deep into digital organization principles.)

​

If you read one book in 2024, this is a good one!

​

And here are a few more quotes from it:

​

Thinking of yourself as a perfectionist is an enduring identity marker. We don’t talk about perfectionism episodically because we don’t experience it episodically. For example, a person may say something like, “I went through a depression after college,” but we don’t “go through” perfectionism.

​

Perfectionism invites a deep, unending exploration of who you are and what you most desire from this life. After you figure out what it is that you want, the attendant pressure of your perfectionism will be there to motivate you towards your goal. Unlike an idealist, you won’t be satisfied daydreaming; you’ll have to do something about it.

​

You begin to appreciate the drive inside you. You see that your drive isn’t there to hurt you, it’s there to usher you towards your potential. You shift from avoiding your drive to honoring it, which requires you to stop misdirecting your energy. Then you get to grow beyond your wildest dreams.

​

Perfection is a paradox—you can never become perfect, and you already are perfect. A perfectionist in an adaptive mindset believes both those statements are true. A perfectionist in a maladaptive mindset believes both those statements are false.

​

[G]ive yourself permission to embrace the energy of your perfectionism, and learn to work with it, not against it. The work is not about fixing anything, getting rid of anything, or correcting anything; it’s about connection.

​Enjoy

The 21 Day Heartfelt Writing Challenge has started!​
​
​And it’s not too late to join:

-Create a daily writing habit ​
-Unlock inspiration to write for your personal stories, book or business ​
-Feel the LOVE of the friends, followers or clients you attract​
​
​

​Sign up for all the free 21 day writing challenge announcements + resources here.​

There’s a free digital tracker to help you build a daily habit + a free facebook community,

with prompts and inspiration from me to help you know what to write to connect to your heart.

​

How you doin’?

I’ll try to keep this week’s update short because my wrist is aching today.

I have been working with a PT this year from a wrist injury I got around February where I fell while iceskating.

It has gotten a lot better except I started playing this watermelon game I like a lot on my phone and my wrist is mad at me now.

​

• Last week, I was interviewed on how to cultivate a daily writing practice.

Andrea Hylen, the writing mentor, and I did a second interview on writing. (I mention the first, here.)

This time, we dug into how to write more often and I share some of the tricks that have allowed my clients to write while juggling family, and a full time job. ​
​

​Watch here. Listen here (podbean) or here (spotify) or here (iTunes)

​

Today I also want to share about the gifts that money can’t buy:

​

• Self love
• Peace
• Groundedness
• Clarity
• An inner sense of your purpose
• Connection to greater meaning
• Knowing your life’s work is unfolding

​

That isn’t to say you can’t get your friend a wonderful present, but it’s important to have realistic expectations.

​

You can’t buy just ANYTHING by slinging it into your shopping cart.

There are some things that money can’t buy.

And that is just a fact.

​

But the amazing thing about writing is that I do think that you can achieve or obtain more of the things that I listed above and so much more.

​

I know writing has provided these priceless things to me which is why I am so obsessed with getting other people to write more as well.

​

Especially amazing because a cheap notebook and pen cost only a few dollars…or just use your phone or computer, whatever you have.

​

Bit by bit there is so much you can find in the pages of your own words, writing them, rereading them, and enjoying the process.

​

If you have the bandwidth, come join us in the free 21-day Heartfelt Writing Challenge.

​

Give yourself a present that money can’t buy every day that you write.

​

Too busy to join my free writing challenge right now?

Good news: it will be continuing into the first week January, so you can also join us later, in a week, if that is better for you.

​

Or share this post with a friend 🙂

​
Thanks!

​

​

​
​The 21 Day Heartfelt Writing Challenge has started!​
​
​And it’s not too late to join:

-Create a daily writing habit ​
-Unlock inspiration to write for your personal stories, book or business ​
-Feel the LOVE of the friends, followers or clients you attract​
​
​

​Sign up for all the free 21 day writing challenge announcements + resources here.​

There’s a free digital tracker to help you build a daily habit + a free facebook community,

with prompts and inspiration from me to help you know what to write to connect to your heart.

​

Have a cool day