Free PERSONAL GROWTH GUIDE
My favourite books about
Gratitude, Contentment, Time-Management, Anxiety, People-Pleasing, Self-Awareness
and more!
Wife, mum of 4, entrepreneur, author, student of Psychotherapy and Counselling,
recovering perfectionist and busy person.
I’ve always been driven by achievement. Busyness was my way of doing life for as long as I can remember, and it helped me reach some big goals - but it also led to burnout.
Overnight, I went from doing it all to completely crashing for more than three months, and it took nearly a year to fully recover. For a long time afterwards I resolved not to overdo it, but in reality I ended up right back where I had been. It was like I had learned nothing from the experience of burnout.
Frustrated and wanting to change, I went to therapy, and started diving into countless books, articles and podcasts. What I learned was that the reason I hadn’t been able to change my life was that I lacked insight into myself, and I didn’t have the skills and tools I needed to navigate my internal world.
As I write in my book Breaking Free of Busy
‘...I still had a giant to-do list because I was uncomfortable with how it felt when I said no. I had to do everything myself because I was too anxious to risk other people not doing things well enough. I had to keep up with what everyone else was doing because I didn't trust my own judgement. I couldn't follow through with time-management strategies because I didn't know how to motivate myself. I didn't ask for help because I needed other people to think I was on top of things. And I couldn’t stop and rest because I didn't really believe I had permission to simply be.’
I was being driven by things I wasn't aware of and didn't know how to manage. Keen to know if it was just me, I started interviewing and surveying countless women from Australia, the UK and the US. As I suspected, I was not alone.
You see, many of us have never learned how to be self-aware, or manage our thoughts and feelings. We were taught how to get a job, organise our home, manage money, help out our friends and play our part in our communities. But most of us didn’t ever learn how to navigate our internal world. And so we fall into traps like feeling overly responsible, stuck in loops of worry, needing to please others, or driven by unhelpful beliefs and expectations.
What I saw in my own life and what other women were sharing with me was that the lack of these skills was robbing us of the ability to take control of where our time and energy was going.
As one woman told me, she would rather have a bursting to-do list than deal with how uncomfortable it feels to say no.
None of this is to say that mum life isn't hectic and demanding. It is. But what I have come to believe is that lasting change starts on the inside. It starts with better understanding and managing ourselves.
Free PERSONAL GROWTH GUIDE
My favourite books about
Gratitude, Contentment, Time-Management, Anxiety, People-Pleasing, Self-Awareness
and more!
I’m on a mission to equip women to improve their self-awareness and learn the skills we all need to be in control of where our time and energy goes.
I’m passionate about this work because it equips us to align our lives with our priorities and our limits, and to bring our best self to what matters most. I want for you and for me to feel rested, grounded and well, to live in a way that’s life-giving, sustainable and that models the kind of life we want for our kids.
What our families need most isn’t home made muffins and amazing holidays. They need for us to be emotionally healthy, grounded women who confidently follow our priorities and live within our limits.
I’m very much a fellow traveler and a work in progress. My kids are moving through their teens but I still feel as though I’m in the trenches. Each day I work imperfectly at managing myself, my energy, my time and priorities.
I love connecting with people, growing in my relationship with God, laughing and sharing the ‘ah ha’ moments when things make sense. I’m especially fond of a big salad and sharp pencils – preferably coloured, but not always.
I’m currently working on my Masters Degree in Psychotherapy and Counselling
so I can dig deeper and serve women better.
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