The fear of failure is becoming such a hindrance on me, on my business, on what I want to create in my life because I want everything to be lined up, everything to be structured, everything to be perfect before I open the door and say “Hey world, this is what I’ve done”. And I can’t do it anymore. I’m blocking myself from creating my own work, blocking myself from being the best version of myself, I’m blocking myself from building the business I want to build. Because I’m afraid of failure.

Isn’t that the most bizarre thing, that I’m so afraid of failure that I don’t want to move? And then I wondered, I can’t be the only one, someone else must be wanting to move in their life too!

What is blocking you in your life?

Is it the fear of failure? The fear of success? Is it just avoiding everything that might actually bring you a piece of happiness?

What is it, that is blocking you?

What do you need in your life to help you remove those blocks? Is it, to feel good enough? Is it to know you will succeed? Is it knowing that your fear of failure will bring you one step closer to your dreams? Is it to know, that you will be the best version of yourself?

What is it that you’re requiring to know that you can go forth and be the best EVER! For yourself, or maybe in the world, whatever it is that you’re fulling desiring.

For me, it was just putting it out there…to actually open the door and saying who cares. If all I do is put it out there for myself and I’m the only person who listens to my podcast or reads my blog, then that is all I need to do.

But, you might be in a different place. What do you need to feel like you have more balance, more of yourself in your every day life? What do you need?

Design your life assignment
Take a moment this week to write it down and explore. Sit down, create a space in your home/at work/during lunch and really figure out what is it that you need to be able to move forward.

Please feel free to share your discoveries in the comments below!

To listen and download the original podcast: ♪ Fear of Failure

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The other day I had a conversation with one of my classmates, I’m currently taking the Project Management course at UBC, and I asked “What are you going to do after this?” and they had no idea what he was going to do. I looked at then and I thought you’re missing the whole purpose why you’re taking this course, this course is probably going to give you an easier chance of being employable, but this is your opportunity to create a job and a career out of something you love and do. I just jumped at the chance and said “Well, if you envision your life a year from now, how do you want to feel, what does the environment look like…in a year from now, what are you doing?”.

They looked at me, and it was like this lightbulb went off in their head, and they said I’ve never thought about that before. I responded most people haven’t. This is a great opportunity for anyone who as a crossroad in their life or a decision has to be made, in a year from now…how do you want to feel?

When you wake up in the morning, you put on your clothes for the day, put on your make up/do your hair, you’ve had your latte and you walk out that door…where are you going? What does it look like, what tasks are you fulfilling, what activities are you doing and who are you surrounded by? Are you inspiring them, are they inspiring you? What are you doing at lunch hour? Are you out with them or are you in front of your desk? Are you going for a jog (are they allowing that), are you working working late into the night or do you want to come home and spend time with your family?

Or perhaps:

In a year from now you envision yourself working from home doing something that you’re just as passionate about as you did going to that job, but you’re spending it with your family and creating craft time.

Again, what are you doing? What are those tasks?

Tell me, figure it out. Work through it and visualize what it is that you’re doing a year from now.

And also.

How do you feel when you’re doing those tasks? What does it look like when you’re with your classmates, colleagues, family, or your friends. How does it feel?

Does it feel invigorating, peaceful, or inspiring, does it feel adventurous or wonderful? There are so many more words that you need to start looking at to know what does it feel like and what does that mean to you?

There is so much more to your career and life then “I’m just doing this because I feel like I should”.

Design your life assignment
Take a moment this week to create a space where you can envision what you want to be doing by this time next year, and when you write out each activity/task also describe how you’re feeling when you’re doing them. You’ll have a clear vision by the end of this what exactly you’re working towards.

Please feel free to share your discoveries in the comments below!

To listen and download the original podcast: ♪ Envision your life

Original Photo

Getting a good night’s sleep is extremely important for my productivity and sanity. I need a good night’s sleep, I’m sure you do too, but how many of us make it a priority to make sure we’re getting the correct amount of sleep our bodies require, and making sure that sleep is steady and not interrupted? Now before you leave saying, boring, I have something to tell you.

I am an insomniac.

In the twelfth grade insomnia crept up on me before I even understood what happened. One night I was sleeping soundly in my loft bed in my parent’s basement and the next night I spent the whole evening tossing and turning that eventually just lead to me staring at the ceiling until the sun rose. It lasted for almost 10 months. Nights would go by and I wouldn’t sleep a wink; I had so much on my mind and going on personally that the only way my body was able to handle the stress was to stay awake. I ran the dark streets with my dog by my side or did laps around my backyard when she was too tired to run with me. I’d skip in my bedroom if it was raining and I didn’t want to get wet. I would lay on my bed and count sheep, count my breathing, or say “sleeeeeep, sleeeeeep, sleeeeep” in the most calming voice.

I’ve been dealing with seasons of insomnia for over 10 years now and I can’t tell you how wonderful a good night’s sleep means to me. Mister makes fun of me for how much I love to linger in bed, but it’s mostly because I just never know when insomnia will come back again and sleep will be hard to find.

Because sleep is so precious to me I’ve learn to maximize my time with it to make sure it’s fulfilling my body’s needs. Here are a few things I’ve learned to make sure sleep comes and maximizes my productivity:

Write it out
I keep a moleskin notebook with me at all times, because I never know when an idea will strike or something on my to-do list will pop into my mind. But I can guarantee, nighttime seems to be my brain’s favourite time to fill me with ideas (blog posts especially). So I write it down, whatever is going through my head just before I go to bed, to allow some room for my genius.

Calm your body down
Just like when you are training a child to prepare themselves for bed, you must do the same. Dim the lights, turn down the noise in your house, read a book or take a hot bath. Do whatever that calms your body down to prepare you for sleeping.

Invest in a good bed
Investing in a good mattress is overlooked by so many people. They’ll easily purchase a $40,000 car but will balk at the idea of spending $2000 on a mattress. We spend 1/3 of our life sleeping, we should invest in a good mattress that protects our bodies while sleeping as well as making sure we get uninterrupted sleep. Mister and I invested in our mattress about four years ago and love it. When we were living in Europe we would lie in our ‘rental’ bed at night and talk of our bed back home. We missed the mattress we picked out that was just for us.

Know how many hours you need
Everyone is different, but really check in with your body to see how many hours of sleep you need to function properly and productively. Knowing how many hours you need will help you make sure you go to bed at a reasonable hour and set your alarm to wake you up, if your body isn’t already doing it for you. I require between 8-9 hours of sleep, Mister, however, requires between 7-8. Since we’re on different schedules someone is usually in bed longer than the other (me!) so we’ve learned to make sure to give the other person their space.

Get an eye mask
This is hands down a life changer for me. I’ve been sleeping with a proper eye mask for six years now and will never go back. My sleep has been fabulous since I’ve slept with one! The one I use is a $6 investment from Target – has a satin outside for a bit of luxury but the inside is plush with a soft mound to fully cover your eyes and is all black to block the light. When you’re dealing with a sleepless night, having a sleeping mask tricks your mind into thinking it’s super dark out so it must go to sleep. If you don’t have one, go, get one now. You can thank me later!

Do you struggle with sleeping or have any tips to share on how you get a good night’s sleep? Please share in the comments, I would love to hear about them!

Original Image by Andrey Ivanov