Pooky bears,

I’ve missed you this week. It’s been… hectic.

Here’s a wee round up of this week:

• My new course program Sales Star started – most of my week was swamped with getting things sorted for it, and settling in all our new students.
• Had a three hour meeting with our accountants to do some planning.
• Started my new challenge of Deepening My Digital Declutter. Have been keeping a daily log-ish of it here.
• Got some big personal news that’s taken a while to emotionally process. (Don’t worry – me and my wee family are fine + healthy!)
• In the midst of a packed schedule, the software we use for EVERYTHING had a major email deliverability failure, and stopped emails from being delivered for our courses and mailing list. It’s been hugely disappointing – we’ve had a pretty much dream romance with Kajabi for the last couple of years. I’m not happy with how they’ve handled it, or their ridiculous new rules about inactive leads – it’s unprecedented in my experience with email delivery companies. We’ll have to move our email delivery system to Active Campaign and rebuild most of our sequences through there. I’m so frustrated that they’ve headed in this direction, and so disappointed when I’ve happily recommended them for so long. We will still have our course delivery system through Kajabi – which is what I think is their strong suit. It’s a bloody pain to not be able to use it anymore as the all-in-one system they market it as however.
• It’s been one of my biggest work weeks in a long while, and I’m exhausted.

Plans for the weekend:

• My youngest kid has her birthday on Sunday. She is animal obsessed, so we’ll continue her annual birthday tradition of a visit to the zoo. I think we’ve done it four years in a row now?
• My husband knows I’m pretty knackered however, so he encouraged me to spend tomorrow resting in bed as much as possible. And to keep the kids amused, he went to the cheap shop to buy them a couple of fancy dress outfits. They are THRILLED with their new outfits and are already disappearing into their own ImaginationLand with them. The girls are at an age when they pretty much play together for the whole day and only emerge to feed themselves. It’s pretty rad, really. SO MUCH EASIER THAN TODDLERS!
• While the kids are off in ImaginationLand, I’ll be in soul restoration mode. Reading a novel. Writing in my journal. Feasting on croissants and tea. It’s Very Important Work.

This month is shaping up to be full, too:

• Both my kids have their birthdays this month (clearly, Leonie gets clucky in winter)
• We’ll have special days with them on their day (zoo and probably go on a river boat trip for my eldest)
• We’ll also have a combined birthday party where they can invite a couple of friends for a special spa party. Usually I’m a basic 70s mum when it comes to birthday parties – here’s a packet of lollies! Run wild outside children! Let the adults talk! But I’m trying to make it up to my kids this time for last year since we were in lockdown for their birthdays.
• Finish our transition of email delivery service to Active Campaign from Kajabi (BOO HISSSSSS! #crankyLeonie)
• Finalise Sales Star course live round & do all live coaching calls
• I’ve got a big full day photoshoot coming up with my beloved Eyes of Love Photography.
• I’ve got a mini school reunion with some of the lovely humans I graduated school with. Our formal school reunion was cancelled last year because of that whole pandemic thang you might have heard about. We’re not sure if it will happen this year. So we’re getting in while we can now with a small meetup of peeps who are visiting or in driving distance.
• I’m speaking (virtually) at Heart-Centred Business Conference next weekend.
• I’m volunteering to help on an all-day school excursion with adorable early grade kids. They are basically the coolest people on earth. And I know I’ll be toast from it as well on a sensory level.
• Remember how I decided I wanted to create more ridiculous, random friend events? We’re starting off strong this month: going on a sunset river cruise WHILE dressed in the theme of Kath, Kim or Karen. Think: basic beeetch athletic wear, 80s chic, bobbled sweaters, normcore, leopard print, Speak To Your Manager haircuts and bad perms. I could NOT be more excited. I’ve also advised attendees that they are forbidden to speak about work, school or kids while we are there. For those hours, and those hours alone, we will be wild, young, free, unencumbered and emblazoned in tacky animal print.
• And in the midst, there are dentist appointments, equine therapy sessions, swimming lessons & all the rest of life happening too.

Holy smokes! It’s a LOT!

I usually lead a pretty quiet life, so I look at all this and think: OHHHH HOLY FUCKKKKKKKKK. It’s all stuff I want to do, and am excited to do, and most of it needs to be done this month. And I also know that it is going to fuck me upppp on the socialisation and sensory ASD front.

I am thinking of what I need to do in order to get through this without burning out completely.

Ideas so far:

• Scheduling LOTS of time in with my weighted blanket.
• Accepting I might not be able to get much else done for work this month apart from Sales Star and the photoshoot.
• All of my weekends have something on this month. I think I need to schedule either Monday or Friday each week as a day off completely, and just rest.
• I did a podcast interview with the Autism & ADHD organisation in the UK, and Annie shared that one of the things they teach their clients with autism is to colour their calendar red (for draining activities – things that will require processing after from) and green (activities that are nourishing and will fill them up – usually solitude related). And the trick is to make sure you don’t over schedule with red, and pack enough green into your calendar. So I’ve just done that:

• That was helpful! I realised I had WAY too many reds on my calendar – and I need to start blocking out some time out just to replenish my well with solitude and quiet time.
• I also realised I need to push back everything non-essential to a month that isn’t as littered with red.
• I wonder if some people look at my calendar and think: “That’s all? That is all you’ll do and you’ll be wiped out? TRY MULTIPLE MEETINGS A DAY!” The truth is, I used to wonder why my capacity for meetings, events and stimulation was sooooo much lower than most people. But I don’t wonder anymore. I have Autism. My brain is wired differently. I take in more detail visually and aurally than most. It also means I can create more than most, and see insights that others wouldn’t see. If given the option to be autistic or not, I would choose autism over and over. It makes my life vibrant and colourful, meaningful and beautiful. It makes me me, and I adore this vessel I’m in. So my job is to work out the operating procedures for this particular sensitive, autistic, creative entrepreneur + mother. And create a schedule that doesn’t burn me out.
• I’ve also enlisted my husband, my assistant & my closest mate in helping me pre-emptively protect my time and energy going through this month. I’ve told them I can feel the warning signs of burnout already and there’s still 4 weeks to go. I’m SO grateful to have supportive & understanding humans who will support me to set and maintain self care and boundaries.
• Writing this has helped me enormously. Journaling & blogging will be helpful for me to write out everything in my head and reduce the overwhelm.
• I might want to consider a list as well of things I’d like to do to fill my well. That would be fun!

Righto, I’m off to bed.

I’m so glad I got to talk this out with you.

Thank you for your love + support as always.

I feel very, very lucky.

Big love,

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