Savings With Jess

How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?

I am SO guilty of this. This journey of breaking that habit is a work in progress but that is part of growth and bettering my life for myself and my family.

Before I was a parent, I had goals that I was actively working towards. I was done with college and was running my first successful blog that brought in a nice income. My husband was in the military and he was gone a lot, which gave me many opportunities to focus on my blog and get serious about continuing to work with affiliate companies and collaborate with brands. I worked HARD. I was up at 3:30am every morning planning out my posts and going through emails, searching for coupon deals for that category of my blog, etc. I would stop around 7pm with breaks in between. Because I was laser-focused on my success of my blog, it almost turned into my identity. I wasn’t anything or anyone without the success of my blog. I said “no” to a lot of things. If I missed a day of writing, I was practically freaking out and worried about what that would do to my job.

I think I was getting burned out after a while, but living in a new state and alone for a lot of the time while my husband was gone for military training and other work duties meant my blog was all I had. I am an introvert and I don’t actively go out seeking new connections. So I kept working. My love and passion eventually returned, but what was when I had a heart-to-heart with myself about the importance of self-care in the way of downtime. I started saying “yes” to days off and “yes” to more outings with my husband when he was home. It was such a great start to a more healthy life, but that changed soon after.

When I became a mom, I think I lost sight of those goals. We tried for so long to have children and endured two very painful and devastating miscarriages. I gave up my blog for a while once my son was born. I was solely focused on him which meant I wasn’t really doing anything for myself or working toward any personal goals. My purpose now was to take care of my child and that was it. That was my job. I said “no” to a lot after he was born because I was doing it alone (my husband was deployed) and I had postpartum depression and anxiety.

Now that my kids are not babies, I am seeing the importance of not saying “no” to things and not worrying if those things will interfere with my current goals. I have come to realize that saying “yes” not only benefits me, but it benefits my family as well. Because I said “yes,” we have been on several media events for my blog that cost us nothing financially (except for off-site parking) and gave us a lot of happiness and new memories to carry with us. I take days off. If I don’t post for three or four days, I am not stressing. I am spending time doing other things that matter and I feel refreshed and ready to work again after that break.

Saying “no” kept me in my comfort zone. I still say no sometimes but I am trying to be more open-minded and experience new things because that’s the kind of mom my kids need and the kind of wife my husband needs.

I think I have blabbed enough and it you have made it to the end, thanks for sticking with me!

Leave me a comment with your answer to the question! I would love to hear about it.