Welcome back! I had intended to only take a week off between seasons, but I realized that I had placed too many expectations on myself. That’s what I’m going to talk about in this episode.

As businessowners especially we tend to set high intentions for ourselves. There’s a time and place for that, like tax season in my business, but there also need to be seasons of rest. 

Where have you been placing unrealistic expectations on yourself? Are you allowing yourself to rest? 

We cover ALL of this in the “Get Your Finance Sh*t Together” self-study course at confidentmoneypodcast.com!

Join our community at confidentmoneypodcast.com where we’ll share tips and resources, and you can suggest topics for future episodes.

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FTC/Affiliate Disclaimer: By using some of these links, at no extra cost to you, I may earn a small commission or referral fee, which helps me continue to produce content like this, support my business, and my team.

DISCLAIMER: I am not a financial advisor and this is not financial advice. My podcast is for educational purposes and is my personal opinion only. To make the best financial decision for your situation, please do your own research and if needed, seek the advice of a fee-based, fiduciary.

Music credit: Neon Fairies by Wolves 

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Hey, It has been a hot minute.

I think it's been six weeks since we've had fresh content.

And our last couple of seasons have had, you know, a theme to them or an

overarching topic that we're covering and breaking down into smaller

digestible details while that will absolutely be the case going forward.

We're going to have an intermission.

Probably one to three episodes.

And that's what this is today.

I'm going to chat with you about some, some things that are near and

dear to my heart and have kind of a candid conversation about what

I'm feeling is really important.

And what I think a lot of you probably need to hear right now.

So if you prefer this style of podcast, make sure to either send us

a message on Instagram or as always leave a review in apple podcasts

on Spotify, wherever you listen.

One, because we really want to know, I want to know how you

best like listening and learning.

And that's the whole reason that I'm putting this out there.

And to anytime you leave a review, you are entered to win a monthly session

that we do a drawing for where you get to have a call with me and we

get to chat about anything personal finances, how I'm running my business,

business, finances, whatever you want to chat about that time is yours.

So.

To be entered.

You'll have to leave a review and we choose someone every month.

So I'm going to dive in and I want to talk about expectations today.

Expectations that we set on ourselves expectations that we allow others

to set on us because I had well expectations and intentions, I

think would be more accurate.

I had intentions.

Of taking no more than a week off between the last season, which I

think came out on tax day, April 18th and starting the next season.

I had planned to do a mini season, which we were still

going to be doing on home buying.

And to be really honest, I overestimated the amount of

available time I was going to have.

In April to make that happen for a lot of you listening.

I, a lot of times record my podcast episodes sometimes the week that

they're coming out, but generally no more than a couple of weeks

ahead of time, I would love to be the person that can batch content.

And, you know, I may be working on that in the future, but for now

it's felt most authentic to do this.

Kind of more in the moment as I go.

And what that meant was April is a really busy month for me, for the

team, for our business it's tax season.

And we're a full service accounting firm, which means.

That I just had a lot less available time.

And we rolled from that into our team retreat.

Everyone flew out here to Boise and we hosted everyone at my house.

Had a wonderful time, got together as a team did a team photo shoot

recorded a bunch of tech talks.

It was wonderful and then rolled into the following week, which was my

birthday and then rolled into what looks like might actually be spring here.

For those of you that don't know I'm a sunshine person.

We moved in November of 2019 from a little bit outside of Portland, Oregon to

outside of Boise, out in the mountains.

And it was looking for sunshine for property.

And to get out into the mountains, we used to go play in the mountains

all the time, get away and enjoy being outside of the city.

And we now live where we used to go play all the time, which has been.

But something that I have noticed, is it very easy to not step away from my work?

Especially now, when I used to go to the mountains beforehand, we'd go, David

would pack everything up in the truck.

He'd get snacks, he'd have drinks.

And I would have to show up, which was amazing.

I would show up.

We would go out in the woods for sometimes to today, sometimes a couple of days.

And he would get me out of the house at least once a month, especially during

our busy season so that I could live and unplug and give my brain a break.

What I hadn't realized is between the pending.

Being at the house, more adjusting to living in a new area, living in

the place that we used to go play in and having connectivity, Starlink

a little bit of cell phone service.

All of those things are fantastic for my day-to-day life.

They're not as fantastic for maintaining what I consider to

be healthy work-life boundaries.

And I found myself getting through the end of a retreat and the end of tax season.

And feeling absolutely an utterly exhausted and drained

and.

The podcast is what could give, you know, we have client work that has to happen.

Uh, we have a wonderful human that is doing a killer job running social media.

Shout out to Katie.

You guys there's so much content.

She puts out so much more information and knowledgeable content

than I was putting out before.

So if you're not following us on Instagram at the freelance CFO, you should be.

And I realized that I could just take some time to exhibit.

And then that was probably what I needed.

I have a team, my team doesn't always need me, which is wonderful.

Um, it's, it's an interesting feeling to simultaneously feel relieved and then

feel a little bit like, oh yeah, they don't need me, but that's a good thing.

And that's what I wanted.

And that was the whole point of hiring.

Competent amazing compassionate individuals was to eventually

not be needed in the business.

And so I took some time really this entire month of may to do the

absolute bare minimum in my business.

I have a really exciting group program that you're all going to hear about

at some point planned to launch that May 1st, that has not launched.

I have the podcast that has now taken six weeks off.

I.

Needed this break.

And what it reminded me of was we set so many expectations for ourselves,

artificial expectations and deadlines.

All of these were in my head.

No one said I had to put a podcast episode out of.

No one said I couldn't take six weeks off.

No one said that I had to launch a group program immediately after tax

season and following the retreat when I was absolutely burnt out and

exhausted, I was pressuring myself.

I was pushing myself to what end is the product that I'm going to put out, going

to be my best work, if I'm exhausted.

And I pushed through it.

And I didn't even know if I was going to record this today or not.

I'm recording this on Sunday, May 22nd.

And I finally decided because I was having a tough time.

I wasn't feeling inspired with an entire full 12 episode season right now.

And I really wanted to toy with the idea of talking about what was kind of on my

mind, on my heart at that moment in time.

And I had been spending time outside gardening.

Which if any of you know me, I had a focus of sustainable agriculture in college.

And so being outside, being in the garden, watching things grow

has been really nourishing for me.

And something that I look forward to in the seasonal cycles that

come and go throughout the year.

And I was working outside this morning and realized this was

exactly what I wanted to talk to.

I wanted to talk about letting those expectations drop, but not just letting

those expectations and those artificial expectations and deadlines that you've

put on yourself drop when you need to, but also dropping the shame around them,

because I absolutely have had some ups and downs over the last month of oh,

but you said you were going to do this.

You said you were going to do that.

You said you were going to get this out.

You said you were going to get that group program.

How could you not, you know, you're, you're lazy or you're

all these beliefs pop up.

Right.

Kind of those nasty things that, you know, you, you told yourself or

other people had told you, or you were worried about people thinking.

And what I realized was that wasn't serving my best good that wasn't serving.

We can say your highest self.

You can say whatever that wasn't serving my best.

Good.

And so I decided that.

Ignore it, push it away and let it roll through.

Yeah, I see that, but I don't hold that as being true.

I'm taking care of myself.

I'm walking, I'm eating food that makes me happy.

I'm getting outside.

I'm spending time in the sunshine.

I'm making my space, our house.

Which includes the garden, which includes doing all the chores with

the chickens yesterday and cleaning up brush that has been bothering

me and getting through my office.

I've almost finished decluttering my office.

I went through my closet.

It's been a season for me of arrest, but also decluttering.

And so what I want you to take away from this episode is

that where are you putting.

Artificial deadlines in place that are not actually serving you.

Where are you hustling for the sake of hustle?

For the sake of shame, for the sake of why I said I was going to do this, so

I'm going to, and don't get me wrong.

There is a time and there is a place for us that's tax season

and we get better every year.

We get better systems.

Every year we get better communication with our clients.

Every year we have.

Improvements year over year, over year, but that always still has

left us with tax time stress.

Those are the deadlines that matter.

Communicating, getting people's taxes, filed, getting all of that taken

care of is what is most important for what we do within our company.

A lot of the rest of them.

The content creation, the podcast, the group program.

But I want to launch that can wait.

That's going to be something that I'm really excited to work on probably

this week, because I'm tired of constantly looking to the next

thing and my intention for this one.

And beyond is to focus a little bit more on being in the now instead of on that

next mark, that next milestone, that next thing that I have to get done, but I

need to get done that I want to get done instead of appreciating where I am, where

our company is, what my life looks like, all of these things in my life that I'm

incredibly grateful for and slowing down.

I'm over hustle.

I hustled, I did it.

There will still be moments, seasons, days of hustle of getting shit done.

There is a time and a place I'm here for it, but I'm not

here for it all of the time.

I'm not here for it every day.

What I'm here for, or now.

I actually set that, um, in the beginning of may, I was talking with my trainer that

I worked with a couple of days a week.

And I told her that my goal was to try and nap at least a couple times a week.

And without fail, I have napped at least twice per week, every week of may.

And it has been wonderful half an hour to an hour nap.

And I'm so happy with it.

I'm so happy with napping.

I'm so happy with getting outside.

I'm so happy with the seasonality of life of where we're at in business of the

person that we're hiring of the growth of the team and the businesses, having

of the support that we're able to give our existing clients now, but also the

support we're going to be able to do.

After the summer with some things that are changing with some updates that are coming

through with some exciting improvements, but it doesn't all have to be done this

month, this week by a certain deadline.

So where in your life?

Personal business?

I don't care.

Maybe both.

Can you be letting go of those self-created boundaries?

Of those deadlines of those

stressors that are unnecessary.

And where can you be embracing more joy, more fun, more, ease, more laugh.

And not just for the sake, and I'm really passionate about this, but not just for

the sake of, so you can show up better in your business so you can show up

better for your employer, but because you deserve to find joy, to find contentment,

to have peace, to have ease, and to also unpack who you are outside of work.

I think so many of us get caught up in being.

That we make it our identity or that we lose some of the things and some of

the aspects that make us who we are.

We don't acknowledge those.

We don't shine light on them.

We don't nurture them and we could go full plant analogy here.

But what do you want to be providing more sunlight, more water, more

nourishment, more care to in your.

And what needs to be removed, weeded, pruned, et cetera, cleaned

what will bring you the most mental peace and the most mental ease?

Because I think we all need to be, if you're not already need to be

taking a little bit of a step back from the hustle from the exhaustion.