This is My Story

(I bet it will sound familiar to you)

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One day, in the not-so-distant past, I looked up from my computer at 8:00 at night, nearing the end of my billionth day in a row working too many hours, and thought, “Is this all there is?"

 

"Do I just work and sleep and work some more?"

 

"Is that what happens when you get to the height of your career?"

 

"You just realize that it’s all work and you squeeze a little fun, family and friends in between?”

 

I even looked at other jobs, wondering, “Maybe it’s the job I’m in. If I do this work somewhere else, will it be different? Or is this just it?”

 

Then I told myself, "Self, this is what's expected when you're a Vice President. You work hard, super hard, for the money and the title."

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I was working 80 – 100 hours a week.

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I was running one, two, three departments (it was easy to lose count).

 

I was making plans no more than once or twice a week because I just had too much work to do.

 

Going out to dinner or brunch was a ‘break’, during which I would tick off the list in my head of all of the work I should have been getting done. 

 

I would accept nothing less from myself than my work being perfect, on time, serving all of the people, all of the time, above and beyond expectations, and all seamlessly executed and tied up in a pretty bow.

 

I took on more and more and more, and all the while, took on side gigs, resume writing, small business consulting, career coaching…

 

I was tired. And I was afraid, all the time.

 

I was worried that I would run out of work to do and ways to contribute if I didn’t keep volunteering for new projects, taking on new jobs and serving my side gig community.

 

I thought I wouldn’t be enough if I wasn’t everything to everyone.

 

And then I hired a mindset coach.

 

And I told my coach, “My only non-negotiable is that I work 80 – 100 hours a week, so we’re going to have to work around that.”

 

Now, I have a good laugh about that idea, because as it turns out, I was so clearly wrong.

 

Everything is negotiable.

 

We all have choices, and we all make choices.

 

I was choosing work over everything else, including my own well-being.

 

I finally learned that I could shift my choosing processes.

 

The only person I had to negotiate with was me. 

 

Now, I choose my work carefully and intentionally, and I have created and live by a new standard of boundary-setting (mostly – nobody is perfect!).

 

It wasn’t an overnight fix – real change doesn’t happen with a snap of the fingers.

 

But it was worth every minute of work to get to where I am now.

 

I am not special.

In fact, I probably sound like you.

Just. Like. You.

 

And you are probably thinking, “That’s great for Lauren, but I could never…”

 

You can.

 

And I am so excited to support you on your path to getting there.