How are you?

You might notice something has changed about this post

–I updated the header to match my new hair!

It’s a bit lighter and longer than it used to be,

something fun for my birthday season.

Sometimes I just need to mix up the colors and designs of things to keep it interesting!

When was the last time you mixed things up?

Obviously, it is not all new but I am putting a little spin on what is already working…

And speaking of that,

below is an email I sent out last year.

It just feels like a good time to pull out the duct tape!

Enjoy that below!

Read it and you’ll see what I mean.

And don’t forget that if you are having trouble being optimistic:

about your life,

your projects,

your writing,

your business,

You don’t have to do this alone.

You are welcome to join me on this journey to be more optimistic

with easy to use tools that have been making a positive shift for me this summer.

​Join me for the Live Optimism Event ​

Tuesday, August 27th

5 PM EST

When you join, you’ll get a free printable workbook you can use, and 14 emails that you can turn on whenever you need an optimism boost. (And the live event + replay!)

And now for:

Organized but not anal.

A story about duct tape & your ideas

(Originally written 2023-11-30)

Duct tape is all that holds up the plastic panel on the back of my dad’s truck.

I inherited it so I have the task of keeping it up.

Every so often, I’ve gotta check: how’s my duct tape doing? Is it falling off?

A few weeks ago, I cleaned and waxed the car, removed all the old tape, and put new tape.

If I’d waited any longer that back panel would probably have ripped off in the wind.

Hopefully, it’s good now until spring, but I’ll be checking.

​Previously I’ve said, my fix for stopping and starting with writing is to be really organized. (Read that here).​

Please know: I am not an anal person.

I have duct tape on my car.

And although I like to talk about being organized,

I didn’t become anal about being organized.

Despite my best efforts, life is life.

But I’m organized or organized enough

–because I have to do other things in my life besides organize and I don’t want to waste too much energy on being a perfectionist…

So sometimes I still feel like things are like that duct tape:

BARELY HANGING ON.

But the point is:

it is hanging on.

And some things quite well actually.

Life is always a work in progress and a balance.

I just wanted to say

if you feel like you aren’t organized and are hitting a wall

if you feel like the only way to be organized is to be anal or perfect about every single little thing…

My news flash is:

there is another way.

You don’t have to become anal to be organized, you can embrace the duct tape method.

Duct tape is not a one-and-done, forever solution.

100% it will fall off eventually, but for now, it works.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, being organized isn’t about one and done solutions.

Being organized is about habits and maintenance.

AKA periodic check-ups.

No, you don’t need to become anal.

You don’t need to be super organized every second of every day to be organized enough.

Your personal way to organize can be held together with duct tape and a couple of prayers, just don’t ignore it forever.

Every so often, take a look at how it is holding up.

In writing it looks like:

– Do I know where am I at in this project?

– Do I know what my past or original idea was for the project?

– Is all of this recorded somewhere?

And:

• Do I really, really know where it is?
• Is there a designated spot for it? – Even if I don’t work on this now, will I be able to find my documents and notes to remember what I was doing later?

If you actually check and the answer to any of these is no– it’s time to replace your duct tape.

You need to spend a little energy picking apart the system holding your project together and tapping it back together more securely.

The sooner you do it, the better…

but as we all know life can get in the way.

But if you can clear a little time and mental space, you CAN get that taped back up.

And boom, you’ll be back on track. For a little while at least.

You just have to remember, every so often to keep checking your duct tape.

And then you’ll be secure.

Focused and Clear on what to do for your writing yet again.

Able to find things.

AND IF YOU KEEP UP THE HABIT of checking your system’s duct tape,

your organizational system will get better and better over time.

Believe it or not: You don’t need to go super crazy to be organized.

You don’t need to be super human or totally anal, if that’s just not who you are.

Stopping and starting on projects does not even need to be eliminated.

But this is key,

You do need to check every so often:

Are things (your ideas) sticking together?

Are they falling apart when you aren’t looking?

Just assume that everything is regularly going to fall into chaos and stop kidding yourself.

It’s a fact. Accept it. BUILD AROUND IT.

Meet yourself where you are, you ain’t never gonna be perfect, honey.

But there is so much cool technology now that’s even better than duct tape (What! I know!)

and many ways to keep things organized so you can find them.

You can even stop and start, handle life, and

still end up with finished, satisfying writing

because you have a system to find and remember things over time.

Just make sure you remember to check on things periodically.

If you’re naturally organized,

including organizing all your ideas and writing,

this message isn’t for you

–you lucky dog we all wish we lived in your shoes.

But for everyone else

I truly believe you can find a system that works for you!

Even if it includes duct tape fixes

–

And by the way, if you want some help with that…

I can help you organize your writing and ideas with regular check ins.

Want to make sure you don’t forget to organize?

Don’t forget to check in with your organizational systems regularly!

Ensure you’ll always remember to organize your ideas with the

FALL round of the

3 Month Digital Organization Club

opens for enrollment next week.

Where we aim to be just organized enough LOL

so you can find essential notes, ideas, and documents necessary to write for your book or business.

We meet every two weeks so you remember to do a regular check-in.

It’s less anal than checking every second but still keeps it from all falling apart.

Sign up for the waitlist to get notified:

Look out for an email on Thursday, August 29th

(This will be the 1st announcement of the sale.)

There will be an early bird special for 1 week only.

Get on the waitlist now!

How is your week going?

I am so excited and lit up right now about some things I have cooked up.

Last week I had the best birthday I’ve had in 4 years, I think.

The 7 day optimism challenge worked.

What about you?

Did you miss it? It was an email list Exclusive–

​Click here to see the optimism emails I sent out!​

I am definitely not DONE being more optimistic,

but I’m absolutely moving in the right direction.

And I want to keep going.

So I am thinking of ways to do that

Something helping me lately:

designing worksheets and printing them.

For instance, I made a cute chart for my health goals. I wanted to go to the gym once a week.

​I put this in my GET FIRED notebook that I’ve shared about a few times this summer.​

It’s a ring-bound notebook I try to look at daily to stay motivated and feel less stuck.

My worksheet has little bubbles for each day of the week, and I can color them whenever I go to the gym.

Last week I went to the gym 2 times, including on my birthday, and

I exercised MOST days over the last 2 weeks!

Including 6 days in a row.

There’s something about physically seeing a record of my progress and having that satisfaction of coloring it in that gets me hooked.

And let me just say

I really love taking notes and writing,

in a combination of both DIGITAL and PAPER.

BOTH.

BOTH.

I love them BOTH.

These days, I don’t choose just one.

Eventually I want to do a really big show and tell video to describe how this can work beautifully together.

— because digital notes can be printed, and

hand written notes can be transcribed or typed or photographed.

And then printed again….and written on and highlighted. Rearranged.

God, it feels so good to have both!

Sidenote, there is some effort and a learning curve involved to make this combo work.

Moving important hand written notes into my digital space, or vice versa and

reviewing all the things that really matter to me periodically to honor & uplevel my ideas.

It’s all about having a REGULAR habit.

Recently I started a Digital Organization Membership and it really helps me walk my talk on this front…

because we have coworking time to play with and organize our notes every 2 weeks.

IT KEEPS ME HONEST.

Creating an event or class is a way to ensure I show up.

And when I show up, it feels good and I build momentum.

Having people involved always helps infuse some energy into the things I want to practice myself.

(BTW A fall chapter of the Digital Organization Club opens soon – keep an eye out.)

BUT ANYWAY

BACK TO BEING MORE OPTIMISTIC

New idea = Printable worksheets for my Optimism Challenge.

This is a spontaneous idea,

& the whole Optimism Challenge has been very spontaneous.

This has all come together in the last 2 weeks.

My personal goal to do a 30 Day Optimism Challenge…

​and suddenly I decided to send you a free 7 day free challenge by email last week.​

This was very unexpected as I had OTHER STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLANS for fall.

I was going to do a “business intensive” for business owners to write together, connect to the soul of your business, get a bunch done really fast for 6 weeks…

so I almost didn’t share about the optimism challenge because of my previous plan,

but to be honest, I know that if I didn’t tell you about the challenge,

I PROBABLY WOULDN’T DO IT MYSELF.

My previous idea was good… but then I had a new idea, a louder one.

I have to say something big here

Although I “own” my businesses and write books, I believe I’m not alone in it,

I really do believe our books and businesses have other plans than we do sometimes,

and as an artist, it’s just my job to listen to what they want and try not to get in the way.

(Holds hands up to the sky in surrender because I know no other way to do this…

and I don’t know if I want another way, just guide me, oh creative muses…)

I’ve helped many other people take this approach of listening to the SOUL of their book or businesses,

and they’ve said it’s brilliant

so I know I’m not the only weirdo that finds comfort and wisdom in this philosophy.

So all I know is

the Optimism Challenge is on.

It’s what my soul wants, &

-what the soul of both of my businesses wants and

-what the soul of all the future creative projects, that desperately want to stream out of me, want

(including music, books, videos, and so much more.)

SO I GOTTA LISTEN.

Optimism is everything.

How can I do anything if I don’t think some of it is actually going to be successful??

This focus on Optimism isn’t how I thought this month was going to unfold because I had plans.

but…whatever I’m going with it.

The best things in my life have always come from listening to what wants to come through me.

As a result of just a few days of focusing on optimism:

I’ve already had the best birthday in years, and I’m noticing more happiness in my days than has occurred in a while.

My stress is going down, I’m singing again and playing guitar, I’m going to the gym, I’m cooking more, I’m feeling more lit up to write…

So I’m jumping in and have no idea where it’ll lead, but I’m positive it will be something good.

And isn’t a story better when you don’t know how it will end?

I’m doubling down on this optimism thing.

Me + the Optimism Challenge are in it to win it.

So to assist me on this journey, I put a workbook together for my 30 Days of Optimism Challenge

>>And of course I wanted to share the workbook with you as well.

​Get the new 30 Day Optimism Challenge Workbook ​

​when you sign up for the Optimism Event.​

Take a look inside

​Sign up for the Optimism Event and get instant access to the workbook! ​

​After payment, check your receipt to find the link to download it.​

Then you can fill it out on your computer or print it out in black and white.

FAQS

What if I’m too busy right now?

That’s okay, I’m creating these materials so you can use or reuse them anytime.

You can have a self paced experience.

Isn’t there a live event? What if I can’t come?

Yes there is a 1 hour live event: a zoom call on August 27th at 5 PM EST.

If you can’t come live, watch the replay.

What about the bonus emails?

​Unlike the emails sent out last week, ​you won’t automatically get the bonus 14 emails in your inbox.

You’ll get access to a special feature, and

the 14 emails will only be sent to you when you trigger them.

When you press play on the email sequence, you’ll begin to get a 14 part process of prompts, tips and reminders to be optimistic.

You get to choose the timing!

So it can be later.

These will be available starting next week.

In sum:

If you are busy now…

do the Optimism Challenge, anytime!

At your own pace

NOW ME…

Right after I finish this email,

I’m going to get this workbook printed stat!

I can’t wait to start filling it in.

And if you are eager to get your hands on it, too,

you now get instant access to the Optimism Challenge Workbook

Sign up for the Optimism Event.

The link to download the workbook will be in your receipt details.

Sign up here!

Now you know what I am off to do!

Hope you have an awesome day and, as always…

Thanks for reading!

Hope you are doing well today.

​Like I shared last time, I’m working on something new ​

​around the theme of increasing optimism. ​

This is personal to me and I’ll explain why today.

Several months ago, I realized I had a problem.

We were walking in the park and my husband said,

“I feel really happy. Like everything in my life is going in a good direction.”

And I said, “Yeah, I’m not. I really don’t feel that way. It’s great you do, though.”

It was just a fact. And I hadn’t realized it until he showed up as the opposite.

My position was nothing new, I’d been feeling deflated for a few years by that point.

But his star was rising all of a sudden.

And I knew after that conversation, that I needed to get up to where he was somehow.

This conversation was the wake up call.

I thought, “Gurl, get it together. You better not drag his star down, time to get happier. Get to it, chop chop.”

This is easier said than done and it is not like I haven’t been trying and succeeding to some degree.

But he’s set a new, higher bar.

And I’m going to catch up because the last thing I am going to do is drag him down or mess up our vibe. Don’t get me wrong–my husband hasn’t said a word about it, this is all me.

Like hell I’m gonna fall behind.

So after that convo around the end of spring, I wanted to step up my joy level. Somehow.

This summer I realized the missing link, the thing that was making my husband so happy, that I didn’t have, was the feeling that

Things are good and getting better…

A feeling I haven’t had since 2021, when my dad died.

I lost my trust in good things happening, just too many bad things had gone on.

So like why even bother. I did my best not to feel totally blah and unmotivated every day but still…

Feeling optimistic? Haha why would I?

But I have been really working on it because

I’m not just going to stay stuck here for the rest of my life,

especially not while my husband is flying around the moon high on life.

I want what he’s having.

And I definitely don’t want to be the one dragging things down.

Nope. I’m going to get there, too.

And the fact that I can even say that with confidence and hope and trust, or faith that this is even a possibility for me

(or better yet a certainty)

is a huge deal for me.

Being optimistic isn’t something that I can take a pill for.

I work on it DAY BY DAY.

And I am starting to see some progress which is really fun.

Recently I had the idea to focus on it every day for 30 days and invite people on the ride

Why? because it would make me happy and more motivated to follow through with company,

Could you be more optimistic?

Do you want to be?

Starting Sunday August 4th,

I’ll be sending 7 free daily emails about optimism;

one email a day with tools and thoughts to help you feel more optimistic.

And if you read them, and shoot me a reply back about your thoughts on optimism in response to my email

I’ll give you a $15 off coupon.

You can apply that coupon to my upcoming Optimism Event

A zoom call happening August 27th at 5 PM EST (yes there will be a replay) to increase your optimism with me.

Plus if you sign up for the Optimism Event, you’ll get 14 additional daily emails to increase optimism!

So you can see if you like the free emails coming up, as a taste.

Just don’t forget to shoot me an email back next week with your thoughts on optimism to get a coupon.

Without a coupon the Optimism Event is $45, so with a $15 off coupon, the event and 14 bonus emails will be only $30 total.

I could cite all the studies showing that optimism has benefits health wise, relationship wise and work wise – you will have less stress, and more energy and motivation. Plus everyone likes to hang out with happy people.

But sometimes you just have to feel that click of yes–I want this.

Before that moment, if someone tried to tell me about optimism. I would have rolled my eyes…

If you’re NOT feeling it, you don’t have to participate.

And if you are Interested in being more optimistic?

Make sure to sign up for my newsletter this week

Then you’ll get some free emails to inspire optimism.

Just look out for emails from me starting Sunday August 4.

So yeah…hope to see your replies in my inbox once the 7 day free optimism series starts!

Thanks for reading!

Are you having a good week?

For me – I just added some highlights to my hair.

​Since I will not be on social media today (taking a break like I mentioned last week), ​

I’ll share it here-

I am feeling really pretty today…

and sometimes embracing feeling pretty is hard for me.

I have a lot of emotions around it because growing up,

anytime I felt like I was shining someone came around to beat me down emotionally.

Childhood bullies, and an adult woman I had to be around for 10 years.

That was 20+ years ago now but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t come up.

For years it felt easier to “fly under the radar” as someone not that pretty, not make waves, and remain invisible to stay safe.

But in the aftermath of my dad’s death in 2021, and

how much that emotionally crushed me,

rather than fall back into the same crappy feelings day in and day out,

I wanted to change.

I started changing my appearance as a way

to demonstrate that I was crafting a new identity for myself.

(My hair grew out during this time–and my short pixie cut that I had through my 20s was totally cute, but I just needed something different.)

Every change was a way to step into the future,

whoever I was turning into was someone new, too.

It has not always been easy to change but I was really unhappy before,

so there’s no way I’m looking back.

I don’t want the past to determine my future anymore.

This summer, I have been releasing the grip on the past in a lot of ways

to be more optimistic.

And I have been feeling a little bit better.

This summer, I have been releasing the grip on the past in a lot of ways

to be more optimistic.

And I have been feeling a little bit better.

This past week I actually felt happy for a chunk of the day, several days in a row.

In 2022 the days were nearly all terrible.

In 2023 I started seeing glimmers of something else.

Now in 2024 those glimmers are becoming more tangible.

So like I said last week, even if I have a million bad experiences to tell me

-things don’t work out,

-dreams don’t come true and

-a lot of bad things can and DO happen…

Including that it’s not safe to shine and feel pretty…

(and there’s a part of me just waiting for some nasty person to come at me again)

I AM CHOOSING THE COURAGE TO SHINE ANYWAY.

Because it does take courage.

I have learned that optimism is about courage,

courage to face the facts even when they suck,

but being able to lift my head up and

look into the unknown.

To give the future a chance before I decide that the worst is certain to happen.

The future is uncertain most of the time.

And it takes courage to open yourself up,

step into it and hope to be surprised by something good.

But without it, we’d never even give ourselves the chance to find out.

​Like I shared last time, I’m working on something new ​

​around the theme of increasing optimism. ​

Could you be more optimistic?

Do you want to feel more optimistic?

If you say yes to both of those questions,

I’m coming up with a cool free thing

starting Sunday August 4th…

More info is coming.

I’ll be sending you some emails about it so keep an eye out.

Make sure to sign up to my free email newsletter to hear more about increasing your optimism.

Hope your weekend went well. Anything fun?

I went to a waterpark with friends and it was really refreshing.

I’m emailing because I got a sudden idea and I just have to tell you about it ASAP.

But let me back up a bit.

As you may know, I have been working to feel less unmotivated and more fired up.

On June 5th, I read chapter 1 of Brendon Burchard’s Motivation Manifesto.

Burchard says motivation requires:

A. Ambition (a choice to do more) and
B. Expectancy (belief that what you want is possible).

That second one, expectancy really jumped out at me,

because that is something I have been struggling with.

WHY?

Don’t get me started.

There are a million pieces of my life,

pieces of evidence, that I can point to that show that:

-things don’t work out,

-dreams don’t come true and

-a lot of bad things can and DO happen.

And while I’m a big believer in being prepared for the worst,

being REAL about problems rather than pretending they don’t exist…

I know it doesn’t help me to be pessimistic.

And Burchard was a big shout in my ear to CHOOSE to change my focus.

To work through what I need to work through, and move towards optimism.

Not blanket positivity, but

optimism that things can

(and will)

get better, and

it’s possible to get what I want so it’s worth trying for change.

So it’s been two months, and I have been working on being optimistic.

What’s changed?

A few days ago, I started to feel a shift,

to feel the COURAGE to look towards the future +

see the future as a bright place where things can get better, and

release the fear that I’m caught in a cycle of repeating a lackluster past.

It takes choice and intention and work but…it’s getting easier.

This morning I was reading an email from my vitamin company, Caring Sunshine, and

it had a whole section on optimism:

“A ​number of studies ​have shown that optimists enjoy higher levels of wellbeing, better sleep, lower stress and even better cardiovascular health and immune function. In fact, ​a recent study ​has shown that being an optimist is linked to longer life.”

So in addition to being more motivated to deal with problems or go for my desires…

And make me feel happier…

Optimism will literally extend my life.

So what about you?

Could you be more optimistic?

Do you want to feel more optimistic?

If you say yes to both of those questions,

I’m coming up with a cool free thing

starting Sunday August 4th…

More info is coming.

I’ll be sending you some emails about it so keep an eye out.

​

Interested?

Sign up for my weekly Funletters

to get some free emails to inspire optimism.

Just look out for emails from me this week.

Thanks for reading!

How is your week going?

Have you ever found a system that worked really well for a while, but then you got bored?

Causing you to move away from a tried ‘n’ true, effective system?

Well, I have done plenty of zigging and zagging in my life. There’s also plenty of things I’ve stuck to.

But recently, I started to feel bored.

And this time, I thought, “Oh, we might have a problem, because I’m really reluctant to let go of what’s working.”

So lately my mission has been to

figure out a way to satisfy the part of me that feels bored

so I can keep doing what is working consistently instead of quitting.

​If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, recently I’ve been sharing my journey to get motivated via a system I created.​

First I collected my best thoughts and inspirational pieces of writing to help me feel more fired up to do things.

Then I printed these motivational words and made a physical notebook with them.

I could leave it on my desk to open up each morning to be inspired and motivated (without being tempted to go on social media).

Feeding myself with inspiration daily was really making me feel fired up for several weeks.

And for a time, l even looked forward to the practice each day.

But over the last week I began to notice a sense of boredom creep in. Noo!!!

And I’m really not okay with it. Because feeling more motivated is super important to me right now.

I have a mountain of things that I’m trying to accomplish in the two businesses and my life.

This system has been working to get things done!

I don’t want to lose what is working but I can sense my willpower losing a battle to boredom.

So how to solve this?

First I figured, okay if I’m feeling bored, let’s mix things up.

I thought that what I really needed was a sense of novelty.

So I found ways to combine something new with what was already working.

Some of the things I did were:

-move everything around in my notebook so the pages were in a new order.

-find fun, artistic printables from other creators that I could add to my book, like coloring pages and templates from Canva.

(BTW apparently, you can type anything in Canva and find a worksheet that you can print out or customize.)

-set new little goals like writing gratitudes each day, and going to the gym once a week. I made a cute worksheet for each one using canva (see above).

All of that was kind of fun.

But I still felt a bit bored.

Next, I started to intentionally set up the next day up the night before:

-put sticky notes on certain pages on my notebook to direct my attention there the next morning.

-set up inspirational podcasts the night before on my computer, so all I had to do was just click play on that episode.

-dug up inspirational books I hadn’t looked at in a while and set them on my desk.

I was really committed to making this practice of motivating myself each day stick.

I am really committed to making this work because I have been getting fired up, getting things done and I don’t want to lose that.

However, even though I made all those changes, sometimes the whole thing still felt more like a chore

and less like a reward like it used to be.

This is the point where usually I’d just giving up.

And yet it’s been so effective, I cannot possibly let it go.

I’ve just got to figure out how to make it work.

One reason I’m so attached to my system is because now I’m regularly reviewing those priority thoughts that I don’t want to forget.

These thoughts came up in my journal, ended up in my digital archive, and then I printed them because

they’re just THAT important that I want to put them under my nose daily.

Ideas like:

-feeling safe is important to me making progress.

-I’m allowed to rest and I deserve it.

-I should track my time and delegate more in my business.

These are all ideas that I could have and then forget for another few years.

Correction: I have had them and then forgotten them for years already at this point. Probably more than once.

But now they are entering not only my thoughts, but my actions on a daily basis.

If I didn’t remind myself of them daily,

I am sure that I would be relearning the same lessons over and over again for years to come.

But instead they’re actually starting to become a part of my everyday life…

SO I AM NOT GIVING UP!!

This Monday was particularly productive and I was referencing a list of priorities in my notebook all day. I had to teach a class in the evening so it was a long day.

And then Tuesday morning I saw the notebook sitting there and was like, “UGH I’m so bored.”

And I realized, you know what,

what if this feeling isn’t actually boredom?

What if this feeling is being tired, or rundown?

Or maybe it’s from being overstimulated, coming down from way too much excitement?

The last week in American history has been insane, actually the last few weeks.

It’s been like a pot of hot water about to boil.

I felt like I had to check on it every five minutes to make sure it’s okay.

I’ve been on social media more than usual

to keep myself abreast of what’s going on and see what other people think.

I don’t find social media to be good for my mental health in general. And the news has been very intense.

So this was a lot.

I think that that’s why

when I try to sit down, get focused and do things, I feel ‘bored.’

But maybe I’m just tired or burnout and

I’m craving all of those exciting emotions that I get from social media and news crises.

It’s like being addicted to a stimulant and expecting that rush every day, and then crashing when it’s gone.

If it’s not there, things feel boring,

but at the same time, I’m kind of burnout from it.

I don’t really want more of it, but a part of me wants what isn’t healthy.

Trying to sit, calm down and look at my little notebook full of familiar wisdom feels boring

even though it is 100% the healthiest thing I could do for myself.

But this made me realize that the solution to my problem isn’t ADDING novelty, it’s about SUBTRACTING something else.

Sometimes we need to add a new ingredient to a recipe to make it taste better, but other times you just need to remove an ingredient.

So I think I need to cool it on social media and scrolling.

I need to take a breath and just get reconnected with slower pace of life to calm my nervous system down.

Then perhaps it will be easier for me to find joy in the little things again.

So that’s what I’ll try next for a few days or even the whole week.

That’s my update. Perhaps it is relatable?

Maybe you can add novelty or subtract overstimulation to help you do something.

​If you’re in the digital organization club. I’ll be seeing you very soon.​

Hi, how are you?

I’m having a good day, and it’s always a pleasure and a privilege to write these posts.

In addition to blogging, emailing is fun and it feels like a safe space.

I encourage other writers, entrepreneurs and creators to embrace it.

​(Get this free “Fun Email” ​ ​Resource Hub if you haven’t already)​

I need safe space because the world or USA feels intense lately.

Last week I spent less time on social media.

A little more time making fun plans,

​coloring art printables from this creator, ​

rewatching movies (Netflix “Do Revenge” and Office Space on Peacock),

reading (just finished the Weekenders by Mary Kay Andrews) and

​Playing in my digital notes and common place notebook (what is that? I explain here).​

Now let me ask you….

What helps you stay calm and carry on these days?

Anything making you happy?

Hit reply and let me know.

Happening this week:

There’s two exciting things coming up!

And you can enjoy both of them for free.

3 Keys for Stop & Start Writers

I’ll be a guest teacher in the Brave Healer Writer’s Circle on Monday, July 22, at 8:30 p.m. ET.

Class description:

Bestill your self flagellating hand!

If you are stopping and starting on your writing project, it is time to explore other options besides beating yourself up about it.

Meet yourself where you are!

Attend this class to learn three keys to having a better relationship with yourself and a more productive writing practice.

​Join us in the Brave Healer’s Writing Circle by clicking this link​

Click “Try one month” and then enter the code CircleFREE to see my class for free.

This group has dozens of classes on writing and coworking sessions so you might want to stay long term!

Free Business Event

Are you a small business owner tired of hustling & doing all the things?

Are you ready to do less marketing and actually get more clients once you do?

​My pal Sarah Michael is hosting a free event July 22-26 dedicated to keeping it SIMPLE to run a profitable business.​

(Side note: out of all the money I’ve spent on business coaches,

Sarah’s the only person who ever helped me actually make my money back.

And not by doing something weird or scammy, either.)

If you’re filling your time with the wrong stuff, this event will help you and your business get back on track.

One of the things Sarah’s GREAT at is getting to the heart of exactly what to focus on in order to easily magnetize clients and money.

Whether you’re a mission-driven entrepreneur, coach, speaker, healer, or expert…

…you’ll find all the strategies and insight you need to get MORE clients from LESS marketing.

And don’t worry if your audience is small,

Sarah is asking each speaker for their advice on

“what they would recommend to someone trying to grow their revenue when they still have a small list?”

>>​Get your free seat at the online event to simplify your business and marketing ​

Have a great week.

How is your week going?

I’m doing ok.

It’s finally sunny after a month of rain, which is a nice change.

Today I have some words to share about

-a show that brought me to tears,

-a class I teach today &

-an interview on ungoaling.

Oh my goodness, upon writing this I have just finished watching the show Geek Girl on Netflix.

I recommend it,

the story of a neurodivergent girl going through bullying who takes an unexpected job as a model in order to change feeling disliked.

It brought me to the edge of tears a few times and made me feel really emotional. I relate to the main character’s struggles in little ways, and it rang a chord for me.

The main character is not labeled with a diagnosis, but she feels like she is different, like she can’t keep up with her peers or doesn’t belong.

At times, the movie had me internally shouting and rooting for the main character:

“When bullies bring you down, you get back up!”

I was hoping for a fire to light inside of her to keep her going, even when people were just mean.

It relates to some thing I work on daily, getting fired up.

Each morning I crack open my little notebook

with the intention of lighting my own fire, courage, inspiration, motivation and energy to do hard things in the my life.

And also I really like looking at fun fashion, hair and makeup things. So that was an extra win for Geek Girl.

Have you seen Geek Girl?

What are your thoughts?

I hoped you like it as much as me!

If you didn’t, maybe don’t tell me lol.

Today we have another class for the Digital Organization Membership.

(It’s not too late to join us!)

Do your ideas ever fall in the cracks?

Mine used to all the time.

I have now have a safety net to capture the hundreds of ideas I have.

It’s part of my digital organization system.

They don’t disappear and remain at my fingertips whenever I need to write articles, emails, posts, or books.

I used this system to publish 25+ articles last year, in addition to my weekly FunLetters.

I will share my system for capturing ideas and then we will do some cowork time working on our own projects.

Ready to find your ideas more easily? And make better use of them?

​Join us The Digital Organization Club and get all the classes + replays

​

Last week I had the pleasure of recording this interview with Ginny Robertson, from On Purpose Woman magazine.

(This took a few re-schedulings; our original date was the 10th…but it was worth the wait!)

The topic was UNGOALING

As you may know, the past few years I have been reevaluating everything.

Before my father died, my work was my main focus.

Now my priorities have changed.

Although I still have passions, desires, and responsibilities I spend time on, I no longer see work as more important than my personal life or my health.

I’ve UNGOALED in a sense, or become more loosely attached to my goals.

​I talk about this in the interview​

If you don’t want to watch or listen right now,

and prefer to read:

you can read the article that inspired our interview.

This interview is a follow up to my written article,

​“Ungoaling: Not Hanging on Too Hard to Your Goals” in the May/ June issue of On Purpose Woman Magazine​

(It’s free to read online at the link above)

Have a great week.

Thanks for reading!

What do John Locke, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thoreau, and Octavia Butler all have in common?

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How do you develop thoughts and writings that are so GOOD that they continue to live on after you?

I’ll tell you about the tool they all used…

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Hi, happy 4th of July!

How are you?

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There’s been a lot of happenings the USA and

if you’re feeling intense, anxious, sad, mad,

anything getting in the way of your writing, work, or mental health

​

​–check out this meditation I created to help you get grounded in a crazy world!​

​

I’ve been experiencing a lot of change for many years, and

I know how upsetting things can be when the future feels uncertain.

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But I’m feeling more grounded lately,

more fired up,

more connected to the work that is mine to do,

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and I want to tell you how I got there.

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​This particular kind of meditation is one tool I come back to again and again.​

​

That’s just the beginning of this post…

I share a different, more literary tool with you below.

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Before we dive into it,

can I just express my gratitude for DEMOCRACY?

I do love it, and I love America.

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​
Americans can get weird about 4th of July…

Personally, I’ve lived in multiple other countries, and

all of them have their problems!

​

America can do better, yes, but it also has many things to be proud of.

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​
​And let’s hear it for John Locke, one of the names I mentioned above:

Everyone living in a democracy owes a great deal to him.

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Who is John Locke?
​

Here’s an overview from the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy​

John Locke (1632–1704) is among the most influential political philosophers of the modern period.

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“In the Two Treatises of Government, he defended the claim that men are by nature free and equal against claims that God had made all people naturally subject to a monarch.

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“He argued that people have rights, such as the right to life, liberty, and property, that have a foundation independent of the laws of any particular society.

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“Locke used the claim that men are naturally free and equal as part of the justification for understanding legitimate political government as the result of a social contract where people in the state of nature conditionally transfer some of their rights to the government in order to better ensure the stable, comfortable enjoyment of their lives, liberty, and property.

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“Since governments exist by the consent of the people in order to protect the rights of the people and promote the public good, governments that fail to do so can be resisted and replaced with new governments.

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“Locke is thus also important for his defense of the right of revolution. Locke also defends the principle of majority rule and the separation of legislative and executive powers.”

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Hmmm…does that make you feel empowered?

It does me.

​

​Here are some of his top quotes, he was a really smart guy.

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How did he get so smart?

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I’ll tell ya. He was a fervent advocate for a particular practice and tool.

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I started using the same tool.

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I’ve been using it as part of my personal journey to motivate myself,

to get fired up, get out of feeling sluggish and low

so I can do hard things I want to do.

​

Quick Recap:

If you missed it, I’ve been sharing recently about my motivation journey:

​

1. ​First in late May, I was struggling to feel motivated, and instead feeling sluggish or low
   ​
   ​Things rapidly changed after that.​
   ​
2. ​By two weeks later in mid-June, I learned that I need to work on motivating MYSELF with inspiring resources every single day. To feed myself motivation instead of expecting it to appear.​

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You can catch up on what I wrote about those with the links above.

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But the point is that I realized that, while feeling my feelings is important, I also need to GUIDE my feelings in the direction I want to go.

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I want to be fired up more often…

so I decided to expose myself intentionally to my past writings, books, ideas, etc. that get me fired up.

Daily.

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Before I might have bumped into a quote casually, now it is a point of concerted focus.
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Instead of stumbling on my inspirational words accidentally, I’ve made it a science.

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Since then, I have been CHURNING over certain ideas, pieces of writing, topics to self-motivate.

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It’s been over a month since I started working on this intention and…

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I AM LOVING IT.

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With my daily practice of reading, reviewing and engaging, what I call, my “Get Fired Up” resources,

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I am coming to understand why John Locke says…

“Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge;

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it is thinking that makes what we read ours.”

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My new daily practice is making me think more DEEPLY.

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Plus it’s amplifying the feeling that I WANT to have, so I don’t remain in my daily default.

And it’s empowering me so I put conviction and action behind my ideas.

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Sometimes I feel crappy or low or unable to face the hard things on my todo list when I wake up, and I just don’t want to feel that way any longer.

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I LIKE feeling fired up and inspired and ready to tackle the things I need to do.

​

I’m starting to feel more powerful in my ability

to create my desired feeling of being motivated and fired up, and

it’s helping my mental health.

​

I feel more powerful and less powerless.

I feel less anxiety and more self trust.

I’m getting shit done and changing things.

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So what does this practice look like?

​

I use a mix of digital technology and old fashioned tools.

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That might surprise you to combine both because I am obsessed with digital organization technology.

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I started with just a digital database of all the inspiring quotes, and notes that help me to feel FIRED UP each day.

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In the beginning, I started collecting all these powerful words only on my computer.

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My goal was to log into this database in the A.M. and reread some of this inspirational stuff daily.

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But I CHANGED MY MIND

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Why? The thing is that I struggle with social media addiction!

Doing things on my computer or phone first thing in the A.M. is so dangerous.

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I can end up on social media so easily and often I end up either low or anxious.

Wasting so much time.

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So I decided that if I wanted to look at something in the morning, I needed to get it off my phone, and off my computer.

​

I needed a paper copy!

And I have to say, the combination is exactly what I needed.

DIGITAL + PAPER = FUN

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I hooked up my printer and began printing out curated selections of this inspiration material I had collected on my computer a few pages at a time.
​

I still keep a digital log of all text, don’t get me wrong.

But the paper really adds something.

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But it feels so good to have a stack of printed reading waiting for me,

laid on my desk for the morning,

all the very best inspiration picked out for me every day.

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I put the pages in a notebook which I aim to open and look at daily.

To read something, anything that speaks to me out of the pile.

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I highlight it and add my notes by hand.

And then I write things that end up being so profound that I type them back into the digital database I have, which I often print off, and so on.

It’s like a cycle.

​

​

It’s a ring bound notebook so I can rearrange, replace, and add pages.

(Like a 3 ring binder but with no risk of pinching!)

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It’s a beautiful mix of low tech and high tech.

AND IT IS DELIGHTFUL.

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Guess what this tool is called…

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Nope, it’s not just any kind of notebook.

It’s a commonplace book!

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Which is part of a very long literary tradition, shared by (you guessed it!)

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John Locke, Virginia Woolf, Oscar Wilde, Leonardo Da Vinci, Thoreau, Octavia Butler and so many more.

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What is a common place book?

This is a form of collecting material together: information, quotes, or other passages, like your own encyclopedia.

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It can be stark with just facts or quotes, or you can include your thoughts.

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Historically people would reread it, add notes, and even rearrange the material in different notebooks.

It moved around.

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You make one common place for things that were previously scattered all over the place.

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To commonplace is a verb. The act of bringing selections together is called “commonplacing.”

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They can be really general covering all topics, or specific like my Get Fired notebook for motivation.

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They can be paper, like my notebook, or digital, just like my digital database.

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Are you as fascinated by this topic as I am?

Do you want to hear how great thinkers and writers organized their thoughts, taking them to the next level?

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​Learn more about commonplace books in this podcast with Andrea Hylen:​

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​

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OR CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN!

– Podbean:

​https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/tsrz3ccu8gkvmmug/GMT20240624-154604_Recording.mp3​

​

-Spotify:

​https://open.spotify.com/episode/1lKoSeemOOjRVLNBvDImgn?si=0076414fbbeb4d4a​

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~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Let me know if you have any questions or curiosities about my “Get Fired Up” practice & commonplace book.

​

I’m really passionate about it and happy to share more.

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By the way if you want to learn more about the free program I use for my digital common place book

–the digital database I use for journals, messy ideas, quotes, class notes…
​

the program I use is called Obsidian.

​I’m teaching how to use it all summer in the Digital Organization Club. ​

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Here’s a peak of what it looks like!

I set it up to be purple because I like color.

​

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>>And yes! I am pulling out some Brenee Brown quotes (pictured above) to inspire me these days!

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Talking about shame, vulnerability, curiosity, open-heartedness, belonging and creativity….

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Yes, Please!

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That’s it for this week’s FunLetter!

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Ready to find your ideas more easily?

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Are they getting lost in documents, notebooks and other places?

Find peace and calm through digital organizing!
​

Your ideas could spur your next:
-life change.
-great idea for your business.
-article, email, book, or post.

​
Learn how to always find your ideas (because they are organized), and turn them into something GOLD!

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It is not too late to join us!

We still have 4 live sessions this summer and virtual support available.

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ALL BONUSES + REPLAYS FOR PREVIOUS CLASSES ARE AVAILABLE ON SIGN UP!

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​Where do I sign up or read more?​ Click here ​