Fall is in full swing and life has been busy lately causing me to neglect this blog more than I care to admit. I wish I could say the same about my Inner Mean Girl (IMG)! Now way! She’s been out in full force this week challenging me to feel snowed under in obligation.
If you missed my summary posts of Weeks 1 and 2 of the cleanse you can find them here:
Week 1: My Week without Gossip
Week 2: Kickin’ Comparison to the Curb
And if you’re still not sure what this IMG Cleanse is all about, check out my Kick-off post here:
Inner Mean Girl Be Gone: Kickin’ It All Off
We are all guilty of “shoulding all over ourselves” as the saying goes. I cannot even count how many times each day I say, I need to draft a blog post, I have to market my cooking classes, I should really schedule that teleclass. By the end of the day, the pile of “should” that builds up gets pretty disgusting.
Launching a health and wellness coaching business while working a full time corporate job is a labor of love. The long evening and weekend hours can be taxing but even at the worst of times, the experience has been rewarding. That being the case, this was the perfect platform from which to practice turning my Inner Mean Girl on her head.
The cleanse this week has challenged us to approach our daily tasks from a place of love and re-name our to-do lists our “get to do list” or something equally as inspiring. This was a no-brainer for me when it came to my business because the work I do to support it doesn’t feel like work — I enjoy it, have fun with it and it fulfills me beyond measure.
But, the rest of the challenge wasn’t so simple: “Do it from Love, or don’t do it.” Don’t do it. Don’t do it? This was a tricky one for me.
In addition to my full time job and part time work as a health coach, I am involved in several volunteer and networking groups in my personal life. I’m the type of person who likes to do it all and do it well. Over the years, I have found myself in various leadership roles with these organizations and the obligations have amassed, some of which have become more burdensome. Their associated to-do lists have literally had me shoulding around all over NYC and thanks to the cleanse, and after deep introspection, I finally took action.
Deep down, I knew I needed to put myself first. I work with my clients to help them achieve greater levels of self care and I realized I wasn’t walking my talk. Collevtively, all of these external obligations were leaving me little time for myself and draining my energy both physically and emotionally. Once I really dug deep and contemplated which roles were serving me and which were not, I let one go. This was a difficult decision because like most overachievers, giving something up always comes with a sense of failure to me. But at the end of the day, my well-being takes the front seat and my IMG hits the road. I emerged from the experience feeling, well, cleansed of obligation – even if was just that one.
I’m still not finished giving up obligation, but baby steps are the way forward for me.
Sneak peak at Week 4: Ditching Perfection
I am participating in the Inner Mean Girl 40-day Cleanse as a Self-Love Ambassador. To thank me for my participation, I will receive a self-love gift from the founders of the Inner Mean Girl Reform School.
[…] Week 3: Obligation in Overdrive: Puttin’ the Brakes On […]