Joyfully Jendependent

Not Time, Energy, Management Tips

“Time management” is a concept that I’d always struggled with. Not in the sense that I couldn’t meet deadlines or that I was late to meet friends. In fact, if you talk to any of my friends from my 20s and 30s, they’ll tell you I’m obnoxiously early to places just to be sure I don’t make anyone else wait.

No, my struggle comes from something else… never feeling like I have enough time to do everything I want to do.

After a lot of personal development work and self-reflection over the last several years, though, I realized that it’s not “time management” I had to work on. Instead, it was something that you’ll hear people call “priority management.” That is, it was deciding where I want to spend my physical and mental energy. Now I want to spend the majority of my energy outside of work on fitness, family, and friends. It wasn’t that way as of 2.5 short months ago though.

All I Know So Far…

A couple of years ago, Pink released a song called “All I Know So Far.” It was essentially advice to her daughter. I found it inspirational and lately have been thinking about… if I had a daughter… what would I want them to know? What wisdom would I pass on?

This might not be ALL I know so far, but in honor of my 40^th birthday, I thought I would share 40 life lessons I’ve learned and would want to pass on to a daughter, or any young person who needs to hear it.

The Last Summer of My Thirties

Today begins the last summer of my thirties.

WOW.

I dislike cliches but… time flies! Does time fly when you’re having fun? Sure, sure we’ll go with that.

My thirties. I experienced more loss, more heartbreak, more fear, more anxiety in this decade than any other time of my life. I’ve also experienced more growth, more kindness, more understanding and compassion, more self-love and acceptance in this decade than any other time of my life.

6 Years

6 years ago, shortly after I started my current job, I started feeling like I wasn’t quite on the right career path. I was seeing that my college classmates and closest friends were excelling in their careers, or at least knew without a doubt they were in the right field, and I didn’t feel like I “fit” in my career in the way I was “supposed to.”

I started exploring what a different career would look like. I investigated becoming everything from a Librarian or High School Guidance Counselor to Dog Trainer and Pediatric Occupational Therapy Assistant. Then, 2 years ago, I thought I figured it out—I wanted to work in HR!

I went all in on this goal—I joined HR organizations, attended the CAHR conference, started studying for and took practice tests for the aPHR. In the meantime, I was plugging along at my current job, and my employer happily supported my newfound career direction (Shoutout to iMarket Solutions!)

Maintaining Mental Health: My Personal How-To Guide

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I’ve spent the last 6 years writing on a topic I never saw myself really understanding the intricacies of, even as a homeowner. HVAC maintenance! I’ve become quite experienced at explaining what happens during maintenance, and the benefits of such a service–such as improving efficiency, and ensuring powerful performance.

I’ve also spent a significant part of my 30’s focusing on my mental health–and recently I realized that a lot of what I write about for work can apply in the mental health space.

Bear with me…

While March of 2020 and beyond showed me what true anxiety was, I was experiencing it long before then. With that anxiety came stress, and as a result I was no longer being the productive (efficient), confident (powerful) woman I knew I had been before, and could be again… with the right habits. Habits to “maintain” my mental health, like sleeping 8 hours a night, eating right for me, getting movement every day, and journaling. Curious about how I made this all happen? Read on!

Do We Really Need “Self-Improvement”?

Do we need self-improvement? What if we aren’t things to fix?! I think we are enough as we are. This is a lesson I’m constantly relearning, through my own personal development journey over the past 7 years.

My path to where I am now began long before that though, and traveled through many seasons of not feeling like I was “enough,” and instead feeling worthless, undervalued, “just average,” etc.

A Twist on the Golden Rule

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Treat others as you would like others to treat you.

We’ve all probably heard this phrase many times, in one way or another. It makes sense—by treating others the way you want to be treated, you’re showing compassion and empathy to other humans.

I have a question though—are you showing compassion and empathy to yourself?