A Note From Kim

I really hope you’ve learned something from our sustainability series. My desire to share about it was fueled by your need. And mine. 

Many of us find ourselves swimming upstream in a culture that praises “busy” and don’t know how to stop for fear of drowning. But busy isn’t effective, and it doesn’t allow for taking in the view and enjoying the life we are working so hard for. 

I initially started thinking about sustainability for a speaking engagement, and as I prepared to teach, three memories came to me. 

The first was that when I was a teenager I didn’t express emotions often. I thought emotions equated to being dramatic and my perception was that nobody liked that, and so I shoved a lot of them down. This only meant that roughly every six to twelve months, I would be sitting in church or doing something simple and all the sudden I would be hit by a wave of emotions. I couldn’t tell you why but I would just start crying and couldn’t stop. 

The second memory was from 2009, when I was working my first job after college. It was a cubicle job in a property management office, and I started getting these really weird headaches. It went on for several months, and they were strange enough that I ended up seeing a doctor. (I should mention that this was a big deal because I NEVER went to the doctor.) It ended up being nothing serious; basically my body had simply started manifesting stress in the form of these headaches. I didn’t understand, because I didn’t feel stressed at the time. It was then that my friend told me, “Yeah, so… you live in such a constant state of stress that you don’t even recognize it anymore.”

The third was from 2014, about a year and a half into starting this business. I had my first panic attack. I was stressed about a wedding that I was helping out with. The night before I was overthinking the whole thing when friends who I hadn’t seen in a long time showed up. I quickly went from being very anxious to very excited. Within minutes, I was sinking to the floor in sheer panic thinking I was dying. I’ve only had a few since then, but I have noticed a pattern. They all happen in moments when I don’t fully process an experience or how I’m feeling, and then I move from one extreme emotion to another. 

These are three pictures of burnout in my life. During each of these seasons, I didn’t deal with things in the present. I bottled my emotions and dismissed how I was feeling, and I did what I was good at. I powered through with an “I’ll deal with it later” or “I’ll rest when I’m dead” attitude. I would have called it coping, but in reality it was killing me. 

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 “We push hard to the point that we have nothing left and 

the stress releases itself somehow. It’s a pay now or pay later situation. 

And the cost of paying later is always higher.”

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Each week I sit with people and talk through their dreams and goals, and we discuss strategies and steps for how to achieve those goals and pursue those dreams. And most of those discussions are about eliminating unnecessary stress and making changes in personal habits and mindsets that don’t allow for hard things to get swept under the rug. Building the life and business you dream of is often more about subtracting than it is about adding. 

My hope for you is that you find ways to foster sustainability. Fill your calendar, but let it be filled intentionally (which includes both time to fill up and time to rest.) Don’t ignore stress and anxiety; find healthy ways to process and get support. 

Ultimately my hope is that you live out the best version of yourself in every area of your life. And that takes steady work over time. Let’s stop wearing the badge of “busy” and build sustainably.   

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If you have more questions or want to learn more about coaching, you can reach out HERE. We would love to stand in your corner!