Hello 2017! Happy New year month friends!
I honestly feel like I should be popping champagne and watching a count-down or something right now.
You may have guessed by how quiet my little corners of the internet have been, but 2016 melted right into the start of this year in a beautiful baby blur and business has, well…let’s just say “taken a bit of a breather.”
The last 11 weeks with our little guy have been FULL to the brim with life lessons that I can’t even begin to put into a blog post yet, but if I’m sure of one thing, it’s that my words for this year couldn’t be more apt this time around.
Nope. No big bucket list goals were set this year, no resolutions made and no big waves of hustle happened to kick off the business year. For a change, I’m trying to keep things simple.
SIMPLICITY
We all know just how MUCH we have to constantly juggle these days, no matter what our lives look like there is always something else to buy, another aspect of life to manage, another level to reach.
Many of my clients and friends speak about how the wedding industry makes you believe that you absolutely, positively NEED to have all these things in order for your wedding to be perfect (*spoiler alert: you don’t, they’re nice, sure, but you don’t need them all!)
Because I know this, I thought I would apply it to the baby industry too. Because honestly friends, it’s crazy overwhelming. So between the moms groups, the mountain of baby books this mamma barely read, and figuring life out with our little…I’m just here, striving to keep things simple.
Spring “nesting” is in full effect, my workflow systems are getting a massive overhaul to make sure my clients are well looked after moving forward and if something starts to stress me out or cloud my vision for this year, it’s getting simplified…with a whole pile of grace thrown in too because letting go of perfection is going to take some serious practice in this camp!
SAVOUR
Can someone tell me how it’s possible that each year just flies by even faster than the last?
The final weeks of my pregnancy came with the added bonus of completely numb hands, making it near to impossible to do anything except think..and oh boy, think I did! In between the thoughts of the possibility that I could, indeed, be the first ever woman to be pregnant forever, I thought a lot about how life was going to look like with our little. I did a LOT of social media scrolling and couldn’t stop noticing just how fast the first year goes and how quickly the little ones grow. It made me excited and a little sad all at once.
So i decided that along with simplifying things, that I will be consciously slowing things down to savour this season. Logging out of social media when I feel the need, staring for hours at our crazy cute kid and putting down my phone and picking up the hobbies I convince myself “I don’t have time” for. Not nearly as easy as it sounds when my business is SO much of my heart, but we’re working on it!
SURRENDER
For the final six weeks of the 41.5 weeks of baking our baby, I tried to prepare for growing my business baby right alongside our real one. Like I said, the last few weeks have taught me many, many lessons. The biggest so far is surrendering expectations for acceptance.
“Accept the division
Accept the chaos
Release the ideas that parenthood and business are supposed to look and feel a certain way.”
~ Charlie Kingsland-Barrow (http://worklessrevolution.com/)
While sifting through my inbox yesterday, in an attempt to simplify my subscriptions and really savour the ones that are going to move me in the direction I want to go this year, I read this. Then I ugly cried! If you’re a business-owning, “work”-from-home mamma, please tell me you feel this too.
The business/baby dance.
Oh friends, it’s going to take me a little while to learn the steps I have to admit. But you can bet, that each morning you’ll see me arriving for dance practice…messy hair, yoga pants and the huge possibility of puke on my shoulder. I’ll be there, surrendering to the chaos and thanking my lucky stars every day that this is real life, my real life. The one i wished on, hoped on and waited on!
SO WHAT’S NEXT?
What’s next is that I’m popping in today to say hello and I’m back…well, as back as can be right now! I’ve “officially” taken maternity leave until May when my wedding season kicks in, but of course, we all know it won’t be that official. Over the next few months I’m excited to share some shifts I’m making in both my businesses, I’m determined to get back to blogging and of course, I’ll be preparing to tell some beautiful stories along the way. My 2017 couples are just some of the loveliest souls ever! Thank you guys for being just the most understanding of this brand new season in the Christine W timeline. I appreciate you all so much!
What are your words for the year?
Whether you’re building up to your big day of saying yes to a forever with your love, waiting on that babe baking in your belly or chasing down some seriously big dreams, what are the words you can use this year to help you feel like you’re creating your best life? I would love to hear from you in the comments below, or pop over to my Instagram to say hello there!
Happy 10am, Happy Wednesday, Happy March, Happy everything & anything!
Over here, cheering you on!
xx
