Every now and then I find these thoughts rolling around in my head that really have no beginning or end. I’m sure the thoughts must have started somewhere, but I don’t ever remember a clear moment of inspiration.
Many of you know that after I had my second little boy I just felt unmotivated, tired, lost in regards to what the heck I needed to do with my job. I’m lucky in that I never had postpartum depression, but the lack of sleep really took its toll on me in a really important growth period in blogging. So many things changed, but I just stayed tired and uninspired and unmotivated. My blogging friends exploded into cookbook writing, many while having babies or moving or traveling outside the country. They pursued their dreams and grew their blogs and businesses, all the while I sat nursing a baby that had his days and nights confused. I spent every spare minute trying to keep up with the demand of recipe development, most of it not for my actual blog, and hoped for the best.
You will never ever hear me blame my kids for the little downward spiral I went through, and you will never hear me complain about having gone through it. It wasn’t easy, no, but it also helped me to narrow down what I want to accomplish and what I don’t care about as deeply. For example, writing a cookbook isn’t on my radar. I realize it’s the goal for many food bloggers, but I’ve seen and heard about just how difficult it is to write and photograph a cookbook. I won’t rule it out, but it’s not for me right now…and that’s OK. I also know a lot of my blogging friends who have written e-books or come up with some kind of class or tutorial or coaching business, and you know what? I’M SO PROUD OF THEM. But it’s also not for me.
The hard time learning to mother two kids and work from home at the same time also helped me to hone in on the things I really want to accomplish. I want my boys to see me working hard and accomplishing big things that fulfill my dreams and help provide for our family. I want them to see me struggle and fail and succeed at finding balance, because they too will have to do figure that out. God used the hard postpartum time to ready my heart for even bigger things (for me) than writing a cookbook or starting a coaching business. He honed my desires to see stories in my life that unexpectedly will shape the future for me and my family. There’s not a minute of the hard times I would change.
So back to today’s post title – there’s no such thing as a perfect time to start. The kids will always need things, I will always be distracted, the house will always be a work in progress. We will never have all of the answers, and there will continue to be ebbs and flows. But in the midst of the crazy we can still pursue the things we feel called to, little by little.
When I was in the middle of the craziness of newborns and toddlers I desperately needed to start something. I thought that something would be a design business, and so in the middle of the crazy I opened an Etsy shop. I didn’t know how long I would be “in business” but I knew I needed to do something. So I did. And it didn’t go very far – but I started, and it was exactly what I needed. After I started to come out of the hormonal fog post-nursing I felt again that urge to do more than just food blog, to take hold of something beyond that. So I said YES to Beautycounter and started that business, and it has been exactly what I needed.
My hope for you in reading this is that you will come to realize the big dreams you have, open your heart up to the ones you didn’t know you had, and be willing to push play and START!
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