As I sit here to write this, coffee and rusk alongside me, I am reminded of how I’ve come in my journey to understanding ME and learning the art of ‘self-management’. I’ve thrown this word around a lot lately, mainly because after years of working on myself, and learning to accept and love all of me, I am finally in the starting stages of my first book, and as I have written, the words ‘managing myself’ have shouted-out from every page. You see, as I journal all that I have discovered on this self journey, I have realized that all I have done, is merely learnt to manage me; a combination of self love, positive self talk, learning to live and deal with negative emotions constructively and work towards bursting with passion for the life I live.
Just today, I had one of these self management moments. Up at 5am entertaining the kids, as it’s a Saturday and H is out running 30km’s. In my pre-kids life, I would have been out running with him, but gone are those such luxuries. H walked in the door at 8am, beaming. Like seriously beaming. His positivity literally bouncing off the walls, fueled by his endorphin rush followed by coffee with the guys. He was amped for the day. And I was happy for him. Well, kind of…like, deep deep down in my heart I’m sure I was, but my face was yet to find out. I welcomed him in, in my gown with dry skin and having already downed 2 cups of coffee. And I said “How was your run?”, knowing the answer already, it hit me. I could mope around and complain all morning, playing the woe-is-me-mummy-role; or I could shift my emotions by doing something that empowers me and my headspace. My options at this point would be: A run, a walk with the kids, a hot bath, coffee and a rusk, a visit to a local coffee shop, organizing something, working on my book or designing my new brand. Yes there a quite a few options there but this is all a part of my journey; having learnt what it is that I need to shift various differing emotions.
Today, I went with the later, and here I sit, playing on Pinterest and designing my new website look and branding, whilst H watches Se and Noah sleeps. I’ve asked for 30minutes of me-time. That’s all. Just 30minutes. It isn’t selfish or bad mommying, I’m not sulking or resenting H for doing something that I love too; nope, instead I’m doing something that I LOVE, that makes me feel ALIVE and PASSIONATE about the life I live.
And ultimately, this is what I do with my client’s everyday. I help them, too, to self-manage. We dig deep into who they are, what their common emotions are and their current go-to’s for escaping negative emotions {Less be honest, our go-to’s aren’t always pretty}. And then we work together for 5 weeks creating a life that they LOVE waking up to, every damn day. It’s fun, it’s empowering, and I too am busy walking this road, which I love, as it really is a combination of mentoring and coaching that I get to do.