It’s often hard to gauge how life is supposed to look when it is hidden behind the filters of social media and untold secrets from women who look like they have it all together. But that isn’t real life and it doesn’t do anything for women everywhere who are trying to figure it all out. This month I hit a huge month in my business while holding down the fort at home so Blaine could take on new work adventures…with sick kiddos at home. Come along as I peel back the filters and give you the goods on what I did, and didn’t do, to get everyone through a fun, hard, rewarding month. It’s all about how to deal with sick kids and still get things done at home and work. Let’s talk about reaching our goals while in survival mode and thriving.

Listen below for the entire episode on The Systemize Your Life Podcast

When I sit down to look back at the month I can be overly critical oftentimes. I love to celebrate all. the. things. but when it comes to my own accomplishments, I’m not great at being my own cheerleader. So, this month, it feels really good to sit down and be like yeah this month was amazing. It was extremely challenging and super hard but it was great. Then I want to reflect on the following why so that I can take that feeling forward into the months that follow.

What were your goals?

I start by reflecting on if I reached my goals by writing out what needed to happen and what didn’t. Then I compare it to what did happen and, if there is a gap, what got in my way.

This month I just get to write a big fat YES to reaching my goals. Which I’m really excited about. The previous month wasn’t necessarily a big huge yes, but I can tell you why and by what percentage I missed the mark.

When I sit down to do this I look at three areas:

• Routines
• Time Blocking
• Fundamental Needs

What were my time blocks like? This month, they were really really good.

Fundamental needs? I am super recommitted to these, especially home.

Routines? Those were thrown out the window this month for me.

What did I need to give up this month?

It’s also so important to look at what you gave up in order to get what you got. Even when you are working towards the smallest goal, the reason you obtained those things is that you let go of something else.

If you look over your goals and find that you’re not reaching them, take some time to journal. See what systems are and are not working and come up with ideas of what you could give up next month in order to find breathing room.

What I looked at and decided to give up at the beginning of the month was strife. Interesting and unexpected as that answer may be. As a 1 on the enneagram (or perfectionist) strife was slowing me down. I have to keep at the forefront of my mind that some things just don’t matter to other people and they don’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Blaine and I value self-discipline and teaching that to our children but sometimes I have to look at “Is this really worth it right now?” We have been focusing on peace in our home from the Biblical perspective within the Fruits of the Spirit and that was what I had to focus on this month.

It has helped, and I have gained back a lot of time and energy in my day. When you take those little things out of your life they add up and you become more effective, efficient, empowered, and energized so I challenge you to do the same thing.

And then there are our four pillars

• Motherhood
• Home
• Marriage
• Business

Write each of these out, and what happened in each one.

Let’s dive into the first of those pillars in my life.

Motherhood

Motherhood has been really good, not great. I lost my cool one time. I’m not proud of it but I’m happy to say without a shadow of a doubt we have really established what it looks like to ask one another for forgiveness and say “I’m sorry.” We teach our kids to take responsibility for what we say and do in our lives and how we treat each other. So outside that one thing, everything was great.

I’m actually really really proud of my kids. Baylie is four and she made her bed for the first time without being asked to do it. That is something that we’ve been working on for two years and it’s something very important to Blaine and me because it goes with self-discipline.

It’s just so neat to see when all your hard work becomes worth it. You know as moms we don’t see what is actually happening in real-time when it comes to our children. We don’t see the fruits of our labor for years and years and years to come.

Home

Last month I dropped the ball in my house and it carried over for a short minute into this month.

It is not possible to just set up your home and then it just stays that way. You cook, you make dirty dishes, you clean. There’s a cycle that happens there over and over again and if you break that cycle you feel the brokenness all over your home.

So this month I had to reset my systems. We started from scratch; I honored my fundamental needs. When my house is not operating where it needs to be it kills my productivity in my work block.

I did this by talking to Blaine and continually communicating with my family.

Our children and husbands don’t always understand why things are falling apart unless we are communicating with them. I had to say “I can’t show up and support you and go to work. I have to go to work. And my work may be five steps to the left and shut the door but I can’t go there if my house is a mess.”

“Systems have allowed me to have one of the best months in my business. Systems will change everything for you. I am a woman in the thick of it just like you. I can say I am doing it because of systems.”

Marriage

Marriage has been so crazy but good. Blaine transitioned to a new fire department which came with a five-week-long Academy. That meant he was getting up at 3:30 and he wasn’t getting home until 6:30 every weekday, for five weeks. Then on top of it, my kids got sick.

To support him I put extra focus on giving him the protein and calories that he needed every single day because he was doing intense physical labor. And I took on a lot of the work at home so that he could have this experience.

Blaine wasn’t capable of supporting me at home the way he usually does but the systems were there to support me. Being able to support him felt so amazing.

I communicated very clearly the one thing that I needed, and that was just for Blaine to be appreciative. Just say the words “Thank you for dinner, for cleaning the house, taking care of the kids.” Because it was a lot, I was working really hard too.

It just was a beautiful time in our lives even though it was really really hard. It wasn’t all butterflies and rainbows there were nights when I was crying because of how hard it all felt at that moment. But in the end, it felt so good to get through it and know we made each other and our family stronger.

Business

All this happened while I had one of the most incredible months of the entire year in my business while in survival mode. I’m so dang proud of that. It all happened because of grace and systems.

Did I reach my goals?

Yes! Yes! Yes! and YES! What’s been happening is just so crazy!

I was able to have the second-highest month in sales, the second-highest month in student growth, and a massive bump in podcast downloads. We are just about to tip into 300,000! My goal for the year was 100,000 you can’t even imagine the mind-boggling that happens when I come to realize that’s 200,000 more downloads than I really wanted this year, so crazy!

Systems have allowed me to have one of the best months in my business. I’m just crushing projects left and right which is really so fun for me because I’ve struggled with productivity in my work block. Yes, even I struggle with productivity in my work block from time to time.

So I just kind of looked at what really needs to happen. I wasn’t tackling my projects like I wanted to. I sat down and I gave hard deadlines to every single project. My big goal is to have all of the projects that I laid out for myself at the beginning of 2021 done by the end of the year.

There are a lot of reasons that we all deal with this unproductivity. The art of overcoming it is by determining what is causing it and knowing how to adapt in order to get back to where you need to be. I think it’s just a skill I’ve realized that needs to be honed and there’s no magic wand for it.

It’s all about systems

Systems will change everything for you. I am a woman in the thick of it just like you. I’m in motherhood with young children, I want to do my best in my marriage and my house…while running a successful business. I can say I am doing it because of systems.

If you’re really hoping and wishing to be more productive and you want to be able to pour into your four pillars: home, marriage, motherhood, and business, you don’t have to do it alone. You can just hop into the Systemize Your Life Academy right now. Get started now and next time your family needs to adjust for a big day, week, or month, you will have the tools to hit your goals.

If you’re not already inside our Facebook group, go over there. I’d love to support you. It’s all about finding a community where you can plug in and grow. We want you to know you can reach your dreams and have hope. I hope to see you over there and look forward to joining you on this journey!

Frequently Asked Questions

Still feeling overwhelmed or not in the know?

Definitely check out my past blogpost with all the intel on how to use a brain dump and what’s needed to make one! When you don’t have a lot of time and a million things to do, it can be so helpful to write out a brain dump to discover your priorities. If you need extra help on that too, I have a free fundamental needs workbook that can help you figure out what those are! And as always, come join us (free too!) Systemize Your Life Facebook group with any questions!