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Does it Feel Like Your Year is Flying By?!

July 17, 2018 By Stephanie Leave a Comment

17 Jul

Hey there!

I hope you are doing great! If you are like me you are probably feeling a little crazy lately. How are we already halfway through July?! The last few months feel like they are flying by. We are more than halfway through the year. And, I hate to say it, but 2019 is going to be here before we know it.

How do you feel about that?

In the past, I have struggled with the thought of the year ending because I knew I wasn’t any closer to accomplishing my personal goals and the things that I wanted to in life. Each month that went by made me sad because I was that much closer to another year ending where I didn’t do the things I wanted to do.

See, there were major changes that I wanted to see in my life. I had big dreams, but that was it. They were just dreams. I didn’t really have goals in place or take the real steps that I needed to in order to make them happen. And, as long as I was doing that I was never going to experience those changes that I was looking for. My personal goals were never going to become reality, they were merely dreams.

What I learned in 2017 that changed all that

Well, that all changed in 2017 and it has made 2018 a blast (with challenges of its own)!

In 2017 I experienced the following:

  • My husband and I sold our house (which we wanted to do for YEARS!)
  • We moved out of Michigan (which we also wanted to do for YEARS!)
  • I quit my outside job and transitioned to working as a solopreneur
  • I began homeschooling my daughters which gave me the time with them I had desired their entire lives

There were a lot of other changes that happened, but these are the main three and I learned a LOT along the way. Here are some of the things that I learned or changed in 2017 that made the year different for me:

1. I took some risks and made some hard decisions

At the start of 2017, I was working for my local church, working as a freelance writer, and working as a travel agent specializing in Disney World travel. I loved all of the things that I was doing. But, it was too much. I was burnt out. I realized that I would never be able to really succeed in one of these areas because I was having to divide my time between too many things. So, I needed to make a choice and get focused.

I spent a lot of time praying and the answer was not what I expected it to be. I felt like I needed to focus on my content writing. So, at the end of April, I stepped down from my position at the church. It was an emotional, but it was the right decision. After I did this, the church actually offered me a better position. If this would have happened a few months earlier, I probably would have taken it, but I knew it wasn’t right. I knew I needed to step away from my work there so I stuck to my guns and politely declined. Remember, just because a door opens does not mean it’s the door for you to walk through.

Once I made this change I was able to start focusing more on growing my writing client base which led me to taking on some of my favorite clients.

2. I invested in myself

Towards the end of 2017, I decided to invest in myself and my business. I joined a membership group that is for female entrepreneurs. I’m a pretty cheap person that doesn’t like to spend money so this was a tough decision to make. But, once I did it I started to take myself more seriously as a business owner. I started to learn new strategies, tips, and tricks and have been able to connect with some amazing women from around the world. My world has expanded greatly. In fact, this blog would have never started back up again if it weren’t for me joining that membership group.

3. I moved from dreaming to planning and taking action

Dreaming is good, but it’s never going to get you anywhere unless you make a plan to go with the dream. My husband and I had wanted to sell our house for years. In fact, we had even tried to sell it a few times but we never had a real plan of what would happen after that. In 2017, we created a plan. The funny thing is the plan for our move turned upside down completely (which I will share more in detail in the future), but I don’t believe it would have happened at all if we didn’t start somewhere.

We can make our plan, but God guides our steps. I have found this to be very true in my life, but I also believe that many Christians use this Bible verse (Proverbs 16:9) as an excuse not to take action. I think some people wait for God to do it all and think that they shouldn’t take any action until God has shown them a clear path. Well, I haven’t found it to work like that in my life. When I was sitting around, praying for direction, and not taking action, nothing happened. But, I started making progress towards my personal goals when I was praying and taking action.

God gave us brains for a reason and it’s our responsibility to use them. If you are going the wrong way, he will correct it. We were moving to Florida in 2017. We actually did take our moving truck and family to Florida for a night and then ended up living in Kentucky. But, if we hadn’t taken action to get to Florida we would still be in Michigan right now. It didn’t end up being what we originally thought, but something was able to happen because we took the steps to get going.

4. I started overcoming my fears

2017 was a scary year, but it was also a learning year. I learned that the more I face my fears and take action the less scared I am. I cannot even begin to explain in this one article all the fears that I have overcome since 2017, but there are a lot of them. Fear can keep you safe in some situations, but most of the time it just stops you from making progress in your life. You are smart enough to determine if the thing you are afraid of are actually life-threatening or things that you need to face and overcome. You were not meant to live in fear.

5. I connected with some really smart and motivating people

In 2017 I started connecting with people that help me to grow my confidence and follow through on the tasks I needed to do to reach my personal goals. Some of these were my clients and some were women I met through the membership group. Through conversations with these people I learned how to grow my confidence, set personal goals, make plans to follow through, and I found the accountability that I needed.

The 2017 changes have made 2018 so different

All of these lessons learned and actions that were taken in 2107 have made 2018 so different. I no longer dread the end of the year because I know that I am making progress towards my personal goals. In fact, I can’t wait to review my year and set my goals for 2019. The things that I have done are not exceptional or things that other people haven’t already accomplished in their own life, but they are huge steps for me.

Make sure you aren’t comparing yourself with others. My 2018 isn’t better than everyone’s 2018, but it’s better than my 2017 and that’s what matters. If you are ready to start making changes this year to make your 2019 so much better I would love to help. I have found accountability to be one of the things that hold many of us back. We lack the ability to keep ourselves accountable towards our goals so we don’t make progress. Or, we try to get accountability from friends and family, but that never works before they let us off the hook way too easily (or we end up hating them if they try to get stern with us).

If you are looking for accountability, I would love to help. You can find out more here. And, another great way to start making progress is to create a plan and stick to it. If you want to try the daily planning strategy that I use you can check that out here.

You can change the rest of your 2018 and set yourself up to make 2019 your best year yet!

Filed Under: Personal Growth Tagged With: goals, personal goals

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Stuck in Your Rut - Stephanie


Today has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very
Today has been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. 

Some days are like that.

And sometimes those days are our fault.

My day was caused by a toxic client. As much as I would like to blame her, I take responsibility because I knew from the beginning that I never should have worked with her.

When we go down paths we shouldn't go down, we usually have painful consequences.

Several valuable lessons were learned today and I would like to share them so I don't have to relearn them again in the future and maybe I can spare you some future pain too.

1. Be careful when doing business with people whose values don't align with yours

2. When you feel you should get out of a situation, do not delay

3. Never do any type of work that leaves you feeling your values were compromised

4. Toxic people can play nice... for awhile... But their true colors will always show through in the end

5. Trust your instincts

6. When you turn a situation over to God, it doesn't mean the way out will be pain free

And finally remember, some days feel like terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days, but it doesn't have to stay like that.

Happy Friday!

I've been pondering this a lot in the past week.


I've been pondering this a lot in the past week.

I do a lot of work in the mental health space. I believe in the benefits of therapy and medication as needed. 

But as I help people share this message that "therapy is for everyone," I'm starting to wonder if we are spreading the wrong message.

Yes therapy can be for everyone. And there are some people who absolutely need the support and guidance of mental health professionals. But does everyone actually need therapy to be mentally well? 

That seems to be the trend we have taken as society.

Therapy can play an important role in helping people heal and live healthy, but are we becoming too dependent on believing we ALL need therapy? Have we lost the ability to process through difficult situations on our own or with our own support system?

I'm not sure. I'm still pondering. But I would love to hear your thoughts.


We see what we look for.

In our first house, we h
We see what we look for.

In our first house, we had beautiful sunrises and sunsets over farm fields. A few years ago we lived by the ocean where we saw stunning sunsets regularly over the water. 

Beautiful sunrises and sunsets is one the things I've missed since living in a neighborhood in a suburb of Louisville Kentucky. The trees around us block out most of these beautiful moments every morning and night.

I was up early this morning and decided to sit outside and enjoy the cooler air and I had the opportunity to watch an incredible sunrise from this small little section.

It reminded me that we often get what we look for in life. If you want to see all the bad, you will. If you look for the good, you can find it. And just because we don't see good things happening at every moment (like I don't usually see the sunrises) doesn't mean they aren't still happening all around us.

#thankfulgratefulblessed #tuesdaythoughts #beencouraged


Wow! So true.

I came across this incredible remi
Wow! So true. 

I came across this incredible reminder in an email today from @lysaterkeurst and @proverbs31ministires.

Yesterday was a rough day. I got myself into a difficult conversation with someone and ended up saying things that I regret out of my frustration.

Too many times in life I have allowed my emotions to get the best of me which never ends in me feeling better than I did in the beginning. Carefully planned words are ALWAYS better than speaking in the heat of the moment.

Sometimes we need to say difficult things to people, but we can choose to do it out of love instead of frustration and anger.

So, I cannot control the actions of others or many details of this specific situation, but I can control my words in the midst of it, and I can control how much power I allow the situation to have over my life.

Sharing in case my failure can help anyone else do better.

#workinprogress #stilllearning


The power of our minds and the way we choose to th
The power of our minds and the way we choose to think is amazing!

A couple weeks ago on vacation, we had the chance to hold a baby alligator. There were grown people on the boat who were terrified to sit next to a person holding the alligator. Then there were those, like Macy, who took advantage of a new opportunity and gave it a go.

If we really think about it, this is exactly what happens in life too. Some people are too afraid to take a risk and try something new when the opportunity comes and others are willing to give it a try. 

Some are afraid to let their friends and family try a new adventure because their own fear is so strong so they discourage them from doing the thing even if that person really wants to try it.

Our minds and our thoughts are so incredibly powerful but the good news is that we get to choose our thoughts and actions. A new situation may feel scary, but that doesn't mean you can't choose to move past that fear and try something new.

#tryingnewthings #overcomingfear #chooseyourthoughts

Have you ever thought about how a click of a camer
Have you ever thought about how a click of a camera button has the ability to capture a moment in time? Pretty amazing!

We always make a point to take pictures of the big moments or the things we do when we travel, like our day trip to Nashville yesterday.

But there are so many day-to-day moments that make my heart happy too, like seeing my daughters cooking dinner (which they choose to do a lot - blessed mom right here!) or when my husband is helping the girls build garden planters for our veggies. I need to make an effort to take pictures of these moments more so I can be reminded of these simple joys. The days seem long but the years are going fast!

What is something you see in day-to-day life that brings you joy?

Do you ever just wish you had a quiet moment alone
Do you ever just wish you had a quiet moment alone?

I loved this little bit of time I had on our Tennessee vacation, sitting on the porch swing listening to the rain.

I'm guilty of filling my day too full and trying to do too much and tiring myself out.

This morning I was reminded of Luke 5:7 "But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed."

It's important to be intentional about creating space to withdrawal and pray.

Some days it looks and sounds pretty. Most days, it's finding the one quiet place in my house. All that matters is that we do it.

How do you talk about and think about yourself?

Y
How do you talk about and think about yourself?

Yesterday I had the pleasure of chatting with several different women. I'm getting ready to write website profiles for them and wanted to learn more about them.

I noticed something that got me thinking during one of the calls. 

I asked the question "Who do you enjoy working with?"

The woman gave me a long list of the people she didn't feel qualified to help. She shared her heart for people but would then explain the areas she felt she was lacking. 

I'm sure she didn't realize she was doing this. I know I struggle with doing the same thing. It's so easy to spot in other people what we miss in ourselves. 

So, how do you think and talk about yourself? Do you focus on where you are lacking and where you don't feel "good enough" or qualified? Or, do you acknowledge your skills and strengths? 

We all have areas we can grow and improve but we are unproductive when those are the main areas we focus on.

#focusonyourstrengths #thoughtlife #positivethinking #buildconfidence


I was reading the book Friendship - It's Complicat
I was reading the book Friendship - It's Complicated by @andiandrew this morning and came across the saying "healed people heal people." It really struck me.

I've heard many times the old saying "hurting people hurt people" but this simple switch made it so different. 

It made me really reflect on my actions, words, and behaviors to see if I was helping or hurting others. It made me think about what areas of my life I needed to walk in healing so I could help bring others along.

I also love the way this shifted from the negative to the positive. "Hurting people hurt people" can be used as an excuse if you've experienced pain in your life. "Healed people heal people" is so much more of a calling to rise up out of painful situations to make a positive difference. It gives your hurtful experiences and pain a new purpose. 

Just something to think about.

#encouragement #movepastyourpast #womensupportingwomen

Let's talk about meerkats for a minute—stick wit
Let's talk about meerkats for a minute—stick with me here.  
 
On Thursday, I took my kids to the zoo for a few hours. We've had an exhausting couple of weeks. Things haven't gone as planned. Work has been hectic and I've been working long hours. We're in the middle of trying to make some big life decisions again (which seems to be the constant state of life).  
 
Can you relate?  
 
The zoo is one of our happy places, so we picked the warmest day of the week and took some time off to get outside and enjoy ourselves.  
 
Some of my favorite animals to watch at the zoo are the meerkats. 
 
If you ever watch a gang of meerkats, you'll probably notice that there is almost always one meerkat that is standing up checking the skies and looking around while the others are off doing their thing. Why? 
 
That meerkat is watching for danger. They are checking the skies and surrounding areas for predators. They remain alert in order to allow the others to find food and do what they need to do. 
 
On this trip, I could relate to that poor little meerkat standing up, not enjoying herself in order to try to protect her family—not realizing they are safe from predators. As a wife and mom, I think that instinct comes pretty naturally to us women. I've been so caught up lately in trying to figure out how to balance what the different members of my family need that it's been harder to enjoy the good things in each day.  
 
But I'm not a meerkat. There really aren't predators circling around me, trying to get my family. Yes, there are dangers in this world, but when that's all I focus on, that's all I see. I miss all of the good things that are taking place and the positive moments I could be enjoying. 
 
So, if you can relate to that little meerkat too, here's your reminder to take a break. Be present in the moment.

There are hard parenting days - which we've had qu
There are hard parenting days - which we've had quite a bit of lately - and then there are the days when your kid surprises you with a homemade card. 

The world is full of scary, hard things right now and it's easy when you focus on those things to forget all the good that is right around you.

I'm getting started so I can be organized and on m
I'm getting started so I can be organized and on my game for 2022 thanks to help from my new planner by @christybwright

Sometimes we feel stuck in life because of things
Sometimes we feel stuck in life because of things that are within our control.

You can't control what others do to you... but you can control what you choose to do after that. If you're holding onto unforgiveness towards someone, it's going to seep into all areas of your life.

Being easily offended and staying offended and angry gives things outside of your control power over you, your day, and your attitude.

If you're tired of not making progress in life and often feel angry, I encourage you to look inward. Sometimes I'm caught off guard by the things I thought I had dealt with and moved on from that I didn't.

#movingforward #dontbeeasilyoffended #inspiration #armorofgodstudy

There are few things I find as beautiful in nature
There are few things I find as beautiful in nature as a tree with fall colors on a bright sunny day. ❤️🍁

#fallcolors🍁🍂 #louisvillezoo

It can be so hard to ask for things that we want.
It can be so hard to ask for things that we want. The fear of the "what ifs" always want to get in the way. But what if we change our thoughts and expect the best instead of assuming the worst?

My dad has been an incredible example of just asking. He doesn't overthink asking questions to people and because of it, he learns all kinds of cool things. He doesn't worry about if the person says "no" or responds negatively. He doesn't let fear stop him. 

Over the years, my husband and I have learned to ask for things we want. We asked for work from a church without knowing if they would be interested. We asked to barter handyman services and home repair in exchange for lower rent. 

We've asked for some weird things that don't seem like they should have worked out, but they did. And we would have never had those opportunities if we hadn't been willing to ask for them.

Are there questions you've been avoiding asking out of fear?

This.

It's so easy to avoid growth and change bec
This.

It's so easy to avoid growth and change because it's uncomfortable and painful. But so many times the life we want is on the other side.

#motivation #thursdaythoughts #growthmindset #growingpains #pushpastthehardthings


What if you don't wait to get started until everyt
What if you don't wait to get started until everything is perfect? What would that look like? 
 
I'm giving you a sneak peek into what my incredible workspace looks like today 😜 
 
Today I have a few calls so I'm working with my messy bed as my desk so I can have a quiet space. Sometimes I work from my kitchen counter. My family of 5 lives in a small rental house right now. I don't have any space for an office, but I'm running a growing business by working like this. 
 
If I had waited to get started until I "knew everything" or had the perfect setup, I would have wasted the last 5 years. If I had waited until I "knew just a little more" or felt a "little more ready", I still wouldn't be doing anything. Even after 5 years, I still have LOTS to learn but I'm so much further along because I took the step of getting started.
 
It sucks to hear, but you have to get started before you're "ready". That's just the way it works. Don't let your circumstances get in your way. And - this might sound tough but - stop making excuses. Look for a way to make it work as best you can right now. 
 
 
 
#getstarted #femaleentrepreneur #makeitwork #midweekmotivation #takeachance #mompreneur #homeschoolingentrepreneur #overcomefear #buildyourconfidence

This quote rings so true to me. A little over 4 ye
This quote rings so true to me. A little over 4 years ago, I had such little confidence. I let fear control so much of what I did.

I was working to grow my freelance business and almost skipped an opportunity to take on work because the potential client wanted to schedule a phone call instead of just working through emails and messages. I broke out in hives just having to talk on the phone.

I couldn't handle ordering a pizza because I was too nervous about not knowing what to say. I overthought everything.

Fear controlled what I did and didn't do. It caused me to struggle in my thoughts and postponed my ability to go after the things I really wanted to accomplish.

Learning to overcome my fears took a lot of time. But slowly, I started to make progress. They were little changes at a time. I didn't even notice the growth as it happened. 

But then one day, that same client pointed out to me how much more confidence I had. And then another client mentioned how much I had grown in my confidence and ability to share my thoughts and opinions.

It ended up impacting every area of my life. 

But don't get me wrong, some days are still a struggle. Sometimes I still get hives when I have to talk on the phone or do a zoom call with someone I don't know, but not every time.

If you struggle with fear and confidence, know that you can improve and grow in this area. It doesn't have to be how you remain for the rest of your life. And so much of what you want is on the other side of pushing past that fear.

#overcomefear #buildconfidence #personalgrowth #growthmindset #motivationalquotes

Isn't it so easy to be happy and positive when you
Isn't it so easy to be happy and positive when you're on vacation? This picture is from over the summer when we did a mini vacation. It's easy when you get out of the routines of everyday life to start to think outside of the box and see new opportunities. 
 
But then we get back home. Clients need my attention. The house needs to be cleaned and dinner needs to be cooked. The kids have activities. And before I know it, I've fallen right back into going through the motions instead of really living each day. 
 
Here's your reminder for the day. I know it's Monday and it's easy to drag through the day. But choose to get outside of your comfort zone. Choose to look at things in a new way. Choose to start building the life you want to live, even if it's one tiny decision at a time. 
 
#mondaymotivation

Don't wait for the fear to go away. It's not going
Don't wait for the fear to go away. It's not going to. Choose courage and push past it and just watch as your confidence starts to build.


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