My 31-Day Challenge to Write Every Day

This is going to be an intense year.

Not only am I growing my coaching business, but I'm growing myself first and foremost.

The short version?

I'm learning to stop overeating and to face my own emotions.

I feel very much like I'm at the whim of my external circumstances right now.

My moods, my sense of happiness and gratitude, my satisfaction with myself and my life, are currently pretty wrapped up in how many clients I have, how much money I'm bringing in, how "successful" my business is...

You get the picture.

I can't control how successful my business is.

I can influence it.

I can put in consistent effort.

I can do what I want to do to grow, experiment, learn, and help people in really valuable ways.

And success will likely come from being willing to keep showing up.

I don't have any control however, over when that happens, if people like what I say or write or share, what people think of me, and whether they buy or not.

And ultimately? I'm realizing that's a lot of pressure to put on others and a lot of stress I'm holding for myself.

I am becoming the type of person who experiences satisfaction, regardless of what my business is doing, what my loved ones are thinking and feeling, whether I've "accomplished" what I set out to do, and all kinds of other things that really don't have to do with me and my internal sense of "enough."

I'm becoming the type of person who shows up for myself, no matter what, so that I don't have to be at the mercy of other people and outside forces.

I can take care of you by taking care of myself so you don't have to.

Waiting for others to give you what you want is just a recipe for anxiety, stress, and disaster.

What I HAVE control over is myself - my attitude, my thoughts, and the actions I take to care for myself on a deeper level.

And to this end, I'm on a new nutritional protocol with no sugar and flour products.

Why is a "diet" relevant?

It's been far too easy for me to lean on food for comfort, celebration, solace, entertainment, companionship, and frankly? to just numb out when things feel intense.

I've become so attached to food and feeling good from it that I've become disconnected from my full range of emotions and experience.

I'm not doing that anymore.

I'm on a journey to feel ALL of my emotions, especially the uncomfortable ones I've been stuffing down for so long.

I'm allowing anything that happens in my internal world to be okay.

It's okay to be bored.

It's okay to be hungry.

It's okay to be hurt.

It's okay to be sad.

It's okay to be angry.

It's okay to be guilty.

It's okay to feel the whole host of uncomfortable emotions I've been avoiding.

And I'm doing that by not escaping into food.

Here's the relevant part to this post.

I'm learning to become the type of person who shows up for myself, even when it gets tough.

I am the type of person who can handle discomfort and follow my dreams and goals and vision anyway.

And I WANT to communicate.

I LOVE sharing information and trading ideas with people,

Part of the reason I became a coach was to use my gifts to CREATE and COLLABORATE on new, exciting ideas with amazing people.

And that means sharing my thoughts (messy, uncomfortable thoughts and emotions) with others.

And that's scary!

I want you to like me.

I want to belong.

I want you to think I'm really cool and smart and a lot of other "positive" things.

And those desires are keeping me from making true, meaningful connections by being vulnerable and taking chances.

I had to see Glennon Doyle and Marie Forleo and Denise Duffield-Thomas and Brooke Castillo and many others being vulnerable and uncomfortable to believe that that's where the magic happens.

If I'm playing small and staying cozy inside my head, I never get the opportunity to share and grow and learn with others.

So, I'm going to prove to myself that not only can I face my discomfort in it's many MANY forms, but I can put myself out there, on a blog, that may live on the internet forever.

And it's OKAY for you to see me growing and learning and messing up and sharing it.

Because maybe you, like me, need to see someone else doing it to imagine it for yourself.

I'm proving to myself right now that I'm capable of communicating and writing and being in the world, even in my small corner that has a small group of people who see it.

And how will I prove it to myself? That I can keep showing up through the discomfort?

By writing a blog post every day for the next 31 days.

I'm working on an amazing goal-achieving workshop, and all of that information can be explained here.

I'm changing my habits and getting deeply uncomfortable - on PURPOSE.

I'm going through a major habit and lifestyle change.

And all of those things might be helpful for you to learn more about too.

I always get new insights from someone else's journey.

Maybe seeing me go through this process, step by step, will help us both.

I'll have accountability that even if my loved ones never read this, my website will log whether I did my writing experiment or not.

You'll know whether I miss a day or hit my mark.

And maybe seeing someone else going for it, even thought it's NOT polished or pretty or perfect, will inspire you to take a chance on yourself too.

Day 1? Complete.

See you tomorrow.

xo,

Steph