Follow me on this one, because it’s a windy road.

1 — French Influence

We are obsessed with Escape to the Chateau, a British documentary series that follows Dick and Angel Strawbridge’s story as they buy, renovate, and redecorate a 19th-century French chateau while raising two children. If you think Chip and Joanna Gaines and family live the good life, you’ll fall in love with the Strawbridge’s on Peacock.

We’ve binged every episode and are holding our breath for the new season. …

I love Medium’s mashup. Try reading, clapping, and following topics and writers outside of your lane to link concepts that you might not have otherwise thought to combine. Inspiration is everywhere.

When we are in the midst of a growing period (like a pandemic, for example), it’s not always easy to see our reward, but it’s always there, waiting for us to grow big enough to reach it.

So how do we grow big enough (fast enough)?

The short answer is we do the thing we want to do, no matter the circumstances, no matter the timing, no matter what.

Success Primarily Comes Down to This: Do the Thing.

…

First, I’m literally asking, Are you the mom who needs to simplify or the mom who wants it all?

Because wanting it all is usually additive, and simplifying might mean cutting. How comfortable are you with either?

What does it mean to have it all, specifically to you?

To me, it’s getting fulfillment from multiple areas. There’s a lot of talk about multiple revenue streams. Every entrepreneur wants money coming in from different places in their business. I’d like that too, but do you know what I want more? Multiple fulfillment streams.

Fulfillment coming in from different areas of my life — from my marriage, my motherhood, my business, my friendships…

I had a life coach about 20 years ago challenge me to pick a job that matched the lifestyle I dreamed of. At the time, in my early 20s, I wanted to double my income, travel nonstop, and work for a company with status and strong leadership. That exercise led me to HBO for more than a decade.

Now that I’m a life coach, one of my specialties is lifestyle design. I love helping others turn their visions into reality. Lifestyle Design is taking your goals, environment, and passions and combining them in a way that gives you the freedom…

1. Your job is killing you.

Maybe your health or your marriage or both are suffering because you aren’t present or don’t have anything left to give outside of work. Perhaps you don’t spend time with your kids or are only at home when the sun’s not out, or you can’t even explain who you are or what you want without using the context of what you do or how busy you are.

What can you do instead? Consider other possibilities for your life, not just other jobs. Other options for how to live, how to have enough, how to spend your time, how to make…

1. Am I Happy?

We could go down an endless road debating and defining happiness, what it looks like for a modern mom, or if it’s even achievable. Or we could ask others: To our children, do you think Mama is happy? To our husband, do you think of me as happy? To our mothers, do you see me as a happy mother?

Either way, I’m not talking about the fleeting joyfulness that comes from a perfect moment, like seeing our kids laugh when they play or feeling relieved when you have money in the bank and a clean house; no, I mean the…

It’s been 17 days since we finally got to tear off the last page of the 2020 calendar, and it felt so good.

We are starting with a clean slate, in our minds anyway, with renewed hope for a brighter future. But life moves fast, even in a pandemic, and with behavioral fatigue and an undercurrent of divisiveness as think as molasses, it’s the year for a simple, uplifting plan. This one has just two steps (and a clever play with numbers).

1. Get Clear on What You Want.

Spend five minutes (max) visualizing yourself on December 31, 2021. You are happy, really delighted. …

“Infectious diseases are scary because they are immediate and personal. They radically and rapidly change how we lead our lives and are an immediate threat to our friends and families. They hit all of our “go” buttons.

Climate change seems to many an Armageddon in slow motion, and its dangers can feel impersonal. It’s easy to think, “I didn’t cause this” or that “it doesn’t directly affect me.”

But there’s another way to look at it. …