After we wrapped up a recent podcast recording, Stephanie and I started talking about what it felt like to accomplish my latest writing goal, completing the (third) full draft of my memoir. I decided to hit record again in case something good came out of it. I equated the way the progress of writing felt to riding a rollercoaster and more specifically, the initial steep climb.

On Friday evening, Ember (my 5 1/2 year old) and I had a glow stick dance party to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour recording. Taylor talked about how the night would feature songs representing 17 years of songwriting and album releases. She highlighted that the songs represented feelings she had "at one time". 

Today’s recording took me by surprise. There was something in Angela’s description of her podcast mission and intent around grief, trauma, and giving voice to the typically silent suffering that pushed me to share a raw and vulnerable story.

I’ve had two major goals or habits I’ve been building since the start of the year: making major strides on my rewrites and book edits and bringing back strength training into my exercise routine. With my work schedule and childcare responsibilities, these two endeavors often compete for the same small windows of my time.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked on the phone to my sister and ranted about how I was no longer going to follow productivity advice from men. So many of the habit building books (Atomic Habits, Tiny Habits), business productivity advice, and even workout plans come from people who aren’t accounting for a woman’s hormonal cycle. What do you mean I don’t get more rest days on my period?

We’ve all heard about goal setting a million times, and I’m sure we all think we know every aspect of good goal setting. Well I recently met with an upcoming podcast guest, Amanda McKinney, who is a fellow podcaster and accountability coach. Boy, did I have some new things to learn.

At the dawning of the new year, I took some time to look back over my journal entries. What I saw on those pages surprised me.