The Changes I’m Surprised To Be Making To My Work Schedule + What Prompted Them Leave a comment

In this episode, I’m sharing the unexpected changes I’ve made to how I work – and why I’m making them now, after years of having more structured work hours.

I talk about why my usual work structure (that helped me so much) started feeling restrictive, the power of making aligned updates to routines that have served you well and what to consider if you’re entering a new season of life or business.  

To dive deeper: Want an easy way to find out if perfectionism is stopping your business from growing? Take The Perfectionism Quiz today – it’s free, takes less than 3 minutes and gives you a personalised report that lays out the simple steps you can take to get out of your own way. Take the quiz now at samlaurabrown.com/quiz.

For more advice: Follow me on Instagram – I’m @perfectionismproject – for more behind-the-scenes insights and support with getting out of your own way in your business.

For full support: Ready to get out of your own way in your business? Join the waitlist for my productivity program – Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) – at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. Inside PGSD you’ll master our simple, proven process for getting shit done without burning out so you can finally get your business off the ground.

Listen To The Episode

Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 535 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!

Subscribe To The Perfectionism Project Podcast

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction

Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.

Sam Laura Brown

In today’s episode, I’m gonna be sharing some of the changes that I’m really surprised to be making to my own work schedule. So my work schedule, just for context, for the last four years, I’d say, actually, probably even five years before I had my daughter Lydia, who’s almost four, I started reducing my number of workdays even though I’m full time in my business. I make a full time income from my business that and I had the ability to be working seven days a week if I wanted to be. But I just really noticed that for myself, having the ability and the desire to work twenty four seven didn’t mean that I should and that I was actually much more productive when I had a lot of constraint around my work hours so that I then needed to learn prioritization. I needed to learn how to get shit done within that.

I could actually get a lot of clean rest, all of those different things. So my work schedule for the last good few years has been three days a week. There have been some variations in that, which I talk about in this episode. But three work days per week has been what I have done. And I’ve loved having the boundaries around that and being clearly on or off, and I’m making changes to that.

So in this episode, I’m sharing why. I hope you find it really helpful and insightful. Okay. So I just feel called to pick up my microphone and talk about this. I’m not sure exactly how this will end up being delivered, but I just wanted to catch capture my current raw in the process of it figuring it all out thoughts as I think it’ll be helpful to listen to and to just hear how they develop.

So what I’m thinking about at the moment is really shifting the way that I work or, like, the parameters around how I work. And this has been really born from being in a high place of self trust that has been something that I’ve been actively working on building for the last year after feeling like I made decisions and just, like, acted in a way with myself that depleted my self trust, that I’ve now done a whole lot of things, and there’ll be episodes on all of this. I’ll be teaching this for sure. Imperfection is getting shit done, as well as my one on one coaching and the program that then emerges from that as well. But all of that aside, the self trust building process aside, I am now in a place where I am operating from, I would say, the highest degree of self trust that I have ever been in with my business, probably in my life as well.

And also just wanting to I was like, just feeling a a shift in life seasons. So as it currently stands, when I’m recording this, I’m thirty six weeks pregnant with baby number four, and I’m already a mom of three, as you can guess, if you didn’t know. If I’m up to baby number four, that means I have three. So I have an almost four year old, twin two year old, and then this baby. And so I have been in a season of motherhood, having babies, etcetera.

But I feel like this, basically, like, I’ve talked about this with the twins that it felt like such an identity crisis when I went from being a mom of one to a mom of three and that it really called in to question how I did everything in my life because everything I couldn’t just do anything really on autopilot before, like, with how I was doing it before. I couldn’t just pop my baby in the carrier and go out. I now had two babies, and I just had to operate very differently with that. And it has just felt like, essentially, a two year period of rebirth and, like, reinvention and figuring out all these different things. And so it feels like having this fourth baby is, like, clicking in so many of those, identity shifts that began probably long ago, some of them, but really that I feel like over the last two years, things have been falling apart, not in a bad way.

Like, just to have that real identity shift in reinvention, you have to let go of how you used to do some things or how you thought about things or, like, you have to have there be things that no longer work so that you figure out a better way to do it or a more aligned way. So hope that makes sense. Anyway, so I’ve been in that process of figuring that out and just, like, being on that journey. And where I’m at now, and this came up a couple of weeks ago now when I made a decision about mat leave. I had just been feeling like telling myself I need to have a defined period where I’m not allowed to work.

It just felt very restrictive, like I was having my hands tied behind my back by myself, and I didn’t actually have the desire to have that plan. And it didn’t make sense also based on how I operated with my previous two postpartum periods that I had the desire to work. I had the brain capacity to work. Yes. I was very sleep deprived, but I also had so much capacity as well.

And so it’s different for everyone. But for me, what it looked like was having that desire to work, having lots of inspired ideas, just, like, really being in that time where I’m wanting to work, and I was just, like, telling myself I’m not allowed to just because people who are employees in a job don’t do it. So I shouldn’t basically, telling myself I shouldn’t want to work when actually I do. So I made a decision to not have a defined mat leave period, to not have a defined, like, wrap up date or restart date, whether it’s a week after birth or three months after birth or a year after birth to just actually be like, I trust myself to work when I want to work and to not burn myself out. I haven’t burnt out now in quite a number of years.

I really trust myself to be able to navigate it and to do that in a really self supportive way. I also have a lot of supports in place as well with that kind of thing so that I feel like I am not on my own in figuring that out. Like, I have a life coach. I have a business coach as well. Like, I have places to turn when I’m like, wait.

I I can’t see clearly right now. Like, what like, can you help pull out the wisdom for me on this thing? So, anyway, with that decision, what that has opened up is, okay. How do I actually want to work in this season of life in business? It’s not one size fits all.

And, also, I think there’s, like, different seasons in your personal development. So for me, for example, having strict, for lack of better words, or, like, boundaried work time really supported me to solve for the actual problem when my brain just told me the problem is not having enough time. So particularly in 2023 when I felt like I was struggling with things, I was like, I need more time. I need more time. I don’t have enough capacity.

And then I worked, like, an extra day for quite a lot of the week, so I normally work three days. I worked a fourth day, But I could just tell I wasn’t actually making great use of that time, that it would take me instead of being able to record five episodes in a day, which would be my usual if I’m having a podcast recording day, I would record one episode and rerecord and rerecord. And I just was like, I know I’m not actually like, time is not the issue here. So, so there’s that. And being boundaried with my time really helped me solve for that sort of lack of time is the problem.

You’re cold, honey? Yeah. Yeah? Do you wanna get yourself a blanket? Okay.

Go grab a blanket, hon. Lydia’s just saying she’s cold. So it really felt supportive, and it was supportive to have boundaries around work time and clean rest, to develop out my hobbies, to, not consume business stuff all the time, like, to go through quite an extended period, many months, at least at this point, six months of, like, not listening to any business podcast in my time, not working. I’m, like, just really developing out the rest of my life a lot more and my identity to go a lot further than work. And I feel like now that I have done a lot of that work, that having such the same kind of boundaries doesn’t feel as supportive as it did and also because of the higher level of self trust.

It ultimately feels like I can now because I I know how to get really high quality clean rest. Even when I’m looking after my kids, I know how to switch my brain off. I know how to really prioritize my tasks and projects and what I’m working on so that the work time I have moves the business forward. I know how to create a sense of completeness even when everything isn’t done so that I’m not like, oh, no. I just need to finish this, and then I’ll be able to rest.

I know how to intentionally create that sense of completeness. I know how to identify the bottlenecks and the needle movers and what’s most important. And so much of that has been learned through having clear boundaries around when I’m working and when I’m not and sticking to those boundaries and solving for things within that rather than just adding more time from the thought that lack of time is a problem or if, like, I could just if only I could work twenty four seven, like, thinking that that would help it. Like, I could just tell that that was the growth I needed in that season, and now I feel like I’m really in a season of leaning into even more so the self trust of having it’s not even flexibility because what works really well for me, like, I don’t love being like, I’m gonna get to this two hours of work at some point across the weekend, and I have no idea when. Though maybe over time, just being able to be in that will be a good place for me to be mentally.

But currently, I just still love having decided ahead of time, like, okay. I’m planning to do that while the twins are napping on Saturday So that the rest of the time, I’m not like, when will I do that, etcetera. So there is area for growth there, like, room for growth. But I want to be able to not feel like, well, if I’m working outside of my usual hours, then I’m doing it wrong. And currently, the strictness I have around it does make it feel like that instead of being like, I trust myself to work when I want to work, and there’s also no rush.

I’ve done so much work, so much, like, emotional capacity work. I did all kinds of different work to really not be in a rush to build my business, to not be in a rush to get things done, to notice when I’m physically in a rush, like, feeling it in my chest, slowing myself down, zooming out, seeing the big picture, I know that when I’m doing things in a rush, it only creates a mess that takes more time to clean up than if I just slow myself down, zoom out, remember the bigger picture, decide things from a calm, grounded place, and all of that. So what I’m wanting to do now is to be able to work when I want to work. And it obviously, like, it’s quite a simple thing to do. I just work when I wanna work.

That’s what I what I’m gonna be doing. There’s no, like, big plan I need around that. But, also, it is a real shift in how I have been working and thinking about myself and my identity and self image and, like, just being able to be like, I can actually do what like, I can post something on Instagram, and but then I’m not then spending like, I don’t have this mental tab open of, like, I wanna check back or whatever. Like, I just am able to work in the way that I normally work, but with lots of different, at lots of different times of day or, like, things like that, if that makes sense. So I’m just kinda, like, removing the structure and doing so in a way that increases self trust.

I think there’ll be a learning curve or, like, just a a self awareness time that I will especially with my power planning, I’ll still definitely be power planning. It very much supports flexible structure in this kind of way of working. So I will be using that really in such a powerful way to reflect on what’s working for me and when are those times that, doing some work is coming from a place of self trust, or is it coming from rush or things like that. So, I’m gonna be doing that, and I’m just kind of, like, figuring out what I want to do. It does feel like untying my hands from behind my back, which I did a whole episode on that concept.

And it has been so powerful for me in my own life to identify that feeling of, like, essentially unnecessary restriction when I am creating a rule. And sometimes as in in this case, the rule supported me really well in a certain season of business life personal development. And now that rule just feels a bit out of date, that it needs an update to actually reflect where I’m currently at and what my current work is. And so I don’t wanna have that rigidity of like, well, this worked so well for me last year to think this way, so it should still work now. Like, actually, I’m a very different human now to this time last year.

And just because that was what I needed then isn’t doesn’t mean that’s what I need right now. So that’s what I’m up to. And a big part of this has just been, like, allowing myself to record things without even knowing which specific podcast episode it will be for for if it’ll ever even be published or things like that to just actually let things flow through me. So that is what I’m doing with recording this. I just felt called to pick up my microphone and talk about it.

So, yeah, I’m just in the middle or, like, even just in the beginning stages of starting to be like today, for example, I had a friend come over this morning. We had a catch up. I Steve is working, so I’m looking after the kids. The twins are currently asleep. They still have, like, a two, two and a half hour pretty solid like, their solid nappers nap.

Lily is awake, and she doesn’t have naps anymore. And she was in here before, like, coloring in things like that while I was doing stuff. She’s currently watching TV. She’s watching some Blippi on YouTube on the TV. And just being able to be like, I can actually work on a non workday and if I want to.

And today, I was like, I would really like to do that. And, also, that I have the capacity to do that. As I mentioned, I’m thirty six weeks pregnant, and I also actually need to get an iron infusion, which will be happening very soon. My not to get into the weeds, but my ferritin is low. My, like, hemoglobin or whatever is normal, and I’m not feeling super tired.

But, also, like, my body has a large a large baby inside it that I’m still growing a lot each week. And so it’s easy to be in the story of, like, no. I definitely need to nap or, like, not even nap. I haven’t been napping recently. But I definitely need to, like, have a very restful time while the twins are asleep so that I have energy for the afternoon to actually change my thoughts to increase my capacity.

So being in the thoughts of, actually, I can work, and I can have that work energize me and have even more energy in the afternoon work and doing this. Even if I’m making decisions or doing things that require mental energy, this isn’t depleting me for the afternoon. This is actually energizing me. And so I’ve just been doing a lot of work on capacity and increasing my capacity through changing my thinking and other things as well, but primarily changing my thinking. And so I just found myself before this been like, I wanna work, then do I need to, like, take it easy?

I’m like, no. I can actually just work in a really energizing way, and that is energizing for me. Like, the story that work is energizing for me is really supportive, and it’s not my whole life. And and it’s not to say it’s wrong for anyone who’s like, and it is my whole life, and I love that. But for me, I have kids that I wanna spend time with, a husband I wanna spend time with, friends I wanna spend time with, home projects that I really wanna be doing.

It’s just one facet of my life, and it is a facet of my life that energizes me. And just because it energizes me doesn’t mean I wanna do it all of the time. But, also, I can do it when I want to do it, and that will probably look quite different to how other people might do it. And I will have my own work rhythms and things like that that other people might not understand or they might completely understand, but it’s not going to look probably like fitting into a nine to five situation. And it’s just gonna look like how it looks for me.

And so with the mat leave decision, that took a lot of self trust as well to be like, I’m actually gonna decide something that I haven’t really seen anyone, at least in my personal life, decide. And the same with this and as well, like, I just wanna wrap up by saying being willing to update your approach is so powerful because it would be so easy for me to be like, oh, no. I really teach, like, having those boundaried work hours and clean rest, but I’m not in the season where I’m learning those lessons, that those things are there to teach. And I deeply believe in that philosophy and that approach when someone is needing to learn the lessons that those things teach. But then at some point, you’re not needing to learn those lessons anymore, and you need to update the approach to catch up with where you are now.

And I see this as well because PGSD is lifetime access, that we have a lot of PGSDers who have been in PGSD for two years or three years, and they’re still actively engaged in the community. But, also, they will then be applying things. Like, they’ve already gotten the result of PGSD long ago. They’ve already been able to be getting shit done without burning out and know they’re not perfect at productivity. But they have, like, they have got such an incredible transformation, but then they just kept applying things that were no longer, like, without updating them, that were no longer serving them for where they are currently and reflecting that they’ve actually grown and evolved.

And this is part of why I started doing the one on one coaching and I’m developing out the thing to come next after PGSD because I just noticed as well, especially as perfectionists, were like, oh, no. Until I’ve completely mastered all of the fundamentals, I can’t actually move on. Like, you have to actually allow yourself to graduate even when you’re not perfect at it. Like, I’m not perfect at the boundaried work hours. I’m pretty damn good, but I’m definitely not perfect at it.

But, also, in this season, that isn’t the approach that’s most going to serve me, and it’s time to learn a new approach because I am not needing those lessons anymore. I have learned mentally switching off and the clean rest and not believing my brain when I think I just need more time. And I’m not changing my work structure because I need more time to work. I’m really changing it to support the lifestyle that I wanna have and the season that I’m in. And also in the business, like, I’m just enjoying instead of working three days three full days and then having four days doing nothing work related.

I’m loving this, like and I did this back in the beginning. It was, like, touching your goal every day, like, doing something related to what you’re working on in your business. So for me, that was, like, before I went to my full time accounting job, I would be, working on my business for, like, an hour in the morning. I woke up very early to fit that in. I woke up at, like, 4AM, do, like, an hour on my business, my blog, and then I’d also go to the gym and I’d catch the train at, like, quarter past seven to go into the city and do my full time accounting job.

And because just I had learned as well, this is part of, like, reflection, that I had learned that if I tried to get shit done at the end of the day, I just actually like, my brain was so much more tired from working all day. And, also, I wanted to hang out with Steve. Like, there was other things I wanted to do, and it just felt like an uphill battle instead of, well, actually, I could just wake up in the morning, do something for myself before I do something for my boss at the accounting firm. I could do something for myself. I could touch my goal every day.

So it was like really creating that identity that I have a business. I have a business that’s gonna be successful. I have a business I’m committed to. And so it’s almost like a return to that in a sense because I’ve really just been in this, like, creating momentum for the last six months. And I’m really in a season of, like, I would just really enjoy being able to do like, to think about the business every day, but not for the whole day.

But to have that every day rather than have three longer chunks on my three work days and then nothing on the other day. So it’s just ultimately updating it to reflect where I’m currently at, and it’s really important to just notice for yourself when you are in that, and, like, the approaches you’re taking to things. Like, am I needing the lessons that this thing specifically is here to teach? Because I as I said, I still wholeheartedly believe in the power of really boundaried work hours and clean rest when you don’t want to have clean rest. That’s for someone who is, like who doesn’t yet understand the power of clean rest, who is just working all the time because that’s their whole identity, and they feel guilty when they’re not rest they’re not working.

They feel guilty when they’re not being productive. They’re working from a place of I’m behind, and I need to catch up. If that is you, you do need to have some, like, structure there so that you don’t just work all the time and keep perpetuating those thoughts. But then once you have actually cleaned up how you do things in the sense of, like, you’re able to have clean rest, where you’re not feeling guilty, where you’re not feeling or working from a place of being behind and constantly trying to catch up, and I should already be successful by now. And, like, in that entitlement when you’re actually just in the place where you can rest and take time off, You don’t feel guilty about it.

You’re happy to just not be in a rush with your business. Like, it’s such a powerful place to be. When you’re in that place, then it’s like, okay. Now that you have learned how to operate in those boundaries and solved for the thought that I just need more time. Like, if you still believe I just need more time and that would solve my problems, having that really boundaried approach that we teach in PGFC, so important.

Because adding more time will only make you more tired and more frustrated because lack of time is not the issue. So you’ve gotta actually do that work. And I have done that work well and truly. When I really wanted to add more time, I didn’t let myself because I wanted to solve for the actual problem, and now I have solved for that with the mindset and emotional work. Now it’s like taking the boundaries off and or taking them away.

And it makes me think about we didn’t actually do this with the twins, because we had Lydia when they came. But when Lydia was what’s the word? An infant? Basically, when she was starting to learn to crawl and we hadn’t yet baby proofed the house. And also, we wanted to be able to, like, go and, like, be in the kitchen and not have her, like, crawl up into all different places.

We had the playpen up, quite a big one, but we had a playpen up in our living room, which was the boundary for her to be in. And then, obviously, at some point, we said, like, okay. She doesn’t need this boundary anymore, and so we’re going to remove the playpen. And we didn’t even have one with the twins because by then, a, we already had a much more baby proofed house because we already have Lydia go through it all. Plus, also, Lydia couldn’t go over the playpen, so it just meant if we had that, it would create too much separation and just not be practical.

So, again, updating things of not just well, because we did this with Lydia, we have to do this with the twins of, like, what actually makes sense now to do? And I can choose something different to what I chose before. Yes, Lydia? Yeah? We don’t have any apples, honey.

You can have a mandarin or a banana. Plum. Or a plum. Yeah? Okay.

I’ll come cut it up for you in two minutes. So anyway, it’s about what makes the most sense now in the season that I’m in, and I’m willing to make a different decision to what I made before in similar seeming circumstances or even exactly the same circumstances. And especially once you have elevated your self trust, doesn’t have to be perfect, but once you have elevated it, then you can have less boundaries with when you do certain things and when you don’t. And it’s just really tuning into, like, what really supports you and what like, I love that concept of untying your hands behind your back because it is really about, like, where am I unnecessarily or unhelpfully restricting myself, and what decision can I make now so that I’m not feeling that? So, for example, in that, I talked about with the PGSD launches that in 2022, we had, like we just have PGSD open for enrollment for and that’s the only thing we’re selling.

We don’t sell anything else. We don’t sell one on one coaching even though people were asking for that. We only sell perfectionist getting shit done. We do four launches a year. We ended up doing a launch in December right before, I have my twins.

But we have one a quarter. I planned out all the dates at the beginning of the year of 2022, and I wanted to solve for how to launch like, how to really solve for how to have those launches have us achieve our goal. And I did like, I made so much progress that year from having that approach. And then in 2023, when we were in a different situation, I was like, well, we still need to only have PGSD launches and only have them once a quarter. And the circumstances were different, and it meant, actually, what would serve the business is being able to sell other things if we wanted to and also not having to have it be just, like, once a quarter because we had a few launches.

And I’ve done, like, launch debrief recap episodes on these so you can go and find them. But we had a few launches that underperformed, and then it just put more pressure because we kept that same decision. It just put more pressure on the next launch, and that was twelve weeks away. So then we had no revenue no new revenue coming in, like, no possibility of that even happening for twelve more weeks. And then because of the pressure that was on that, then that also underperformed.

And then it just, like, was in this cycle. And so in 2024, I’m sure this is what I talked about in that episode, I was like, actually, we’re not just doing it that way anymore. We need an updated decision. And so then entered this period of, like, solving for what is that decision, and that was so powerful. So it just feels like that with this of, like, this was a really helpful way to approach work.

And now I’m actually in a different situation and solving for different things and have different lessons to learn. And I’d say for me now, the lesson to learn is how to work whenever I want to. And, obviously, sometimes it takes organization because I have kids and because I have other commitments and things like that. So sometimes I might want to work and it’s just not practical or things like that. But, also, how like, basically, I’m just thinking back to what I was saying.

So with the like, what lesson I’m learning is how to work whenever I want while maintaining being mentally switched off when I’m not working or not wanting to work and not having it just seep into all of my brain space. I feel pretty quietly confident with that that the lessons I’ve learned about mentally switching off, I can apply even with less boundaried work hours. But I think there will still be some figuring out of that, some coaching and self coaching and all of that. But I’m really excited to just be like, I’m now solving for this and just I know from, like, the lessons I learned from having such a boundary approach that I can coach in such a powerful way when someone’s like, I just need more time. They’re like, yeah.

You might need more time, but let’s investigate x y z first to actually see if you need more time because our brains just love to give us that one. If I just had more time, if I just didn’t have kids, if I just didn’t have this health issue, if I just didn’t have a full time job, like, oh my god. Like, for me, having my full time job, I was fully in the I just didn’t have a full time job story. And then I left my full time job and went to a different part time job that required a lot less mental energy as well. And I just productively procrastinated for five months because the full time job wasn’t the problem.

The problem was my perfectionist fears that had me getting in my own way, and they didn’t go when I left the full time job. So, anyway, there’s so many lessons I feel like I have learned along the way of different seasons of life and business and personal development, and this just feels like that next season for me. And really just being able to be like, I’m actually, like, owning the identity of I’m actually not someone who just follows the rules and does what everyone else does, and I’m willing to experiment with so many different approaches as well within my own life. But also, the Matly one particularly was just like, I’m not seeing anyone else do this. And instead of me being like, well, I should do what everyone else does even though I’m not an employee, even though I can work from my couch while having a contact nap and, like, having my baby sleeping on my chest, even though I love my work and a lot of people don’t, even though it energizes me and all these different things that I’m not actually in the same position as people who typically want to have a certain kind of mat leave, I’m actually just allowing myself to make the decision I wanna make.

It was just so good telling Steve, he’s like, well, yeah, of course. It makes sense for you to just trust yourself and work when you want. Like, you we know you’re gonna work anyway. Like, you love doing that. You love building your business.

And I don’t see like, he was like, your brain still works when you’re postpartum. Like, why why would you not allow yourself to work if that’s what you wanna do? I was like, yes. Thank you. That is exactly what I’m thinking.

And just telling one of my really good friends, she was like, yeah. Of course. Like, you don’t do what everyone else is doing, and I love that you’re just deciding what actually works for you and doing that. And I was talking with another one of my good friends today, and she is an employee, but she’s in a really high position in the company that she’s in. She has so much capacity.

Like, she’s so incredible at what she does. And we were just talking about for her situation and having kids in the future and just, like, the judgment that comes from deciding not to have a mat leave or to have a shorter mat leave than the year, which is typical here in Australia. And just how much pressure there is, just not even, like, intentional pressure, but just how much expectation there is and judgment essentially of, like, if your mat leave doesn’t look like this, then it either means you’re a bad mom or whatever and just, like, we actually and this is I’m saying this because you probably need to hear it, that if you want to create a new normal for, like, how it will be if you are a parent for your own kids in the future, like and all of that and to have your children not have the same kind of, societal judgment or pressure or whatever, then you need to be willing to be a trailblazer and to be an example of doing it differently, which means you need to be willing to be misunderstood because by, like, the very virtue of what you’re doing, you are doing something differently to how the standard is.

And most people will be like, wait. Why are you doing it like that when everyone else does it like this? And so it doesn’t mean you have to tell everyone about what you’re doing and that anytime anyone asks you what your decision is, you have to tell them the truth about it and get into the weeds and have unnecessary debates. But just to actually be through your life an example of what it looks like to do things the way you want to do it and to do things in the non typical way is such a gift for so many other people who do need someone to go fast. They do need an example.

Or also future generations who need the wave of people to come in the generation before them who are willing to be misunderstood, who are willing to be judged for doing it differently, for doing it in a way that made more sense. That’s what actually creates change. And so we’re just talking about, like yeah. Like, if you if you’re going to go against the norm. And, like, we want to do that because otherwise, if we’re going with the norm but not actually wanting to do that it’s different if you want to do that.

But if you don’t want to do that, then you we are just perpetuating that norm by acting in accordance with it when we don’t have the desire to do that. And I love just being able to be an example of, like, you can actually work while having your fourth baby and do it without burning out and do it without being only focused on your work and that’s your whole life. Like, I wanna be an am, I think, an example of what it can look like to do both, and I’m not perfect at that. And that is part of it. I’m not meant to be perfect at it.

It’s through all of the contrast of experience, through all of the the lessons and the times that are really hard and the times that are easy and all of that that the lessons come and that the example is formed. So, yeah, that’s where I’m at currently with what I’m thinking about. It’s felt so good too to even just be like, I’m just gonna record an episode, which I was actually gonna record for ten minutes and have this I was thinking, like, it could be part of a compilation episode. But I feel like this is probably just an episode in and of itself, and I don’t have to publish it. I might never publish it, but, also, I probably will.

And just allowing myself to be like, if I just feel called to speak on a topic because it’s top of mind for me, I don’t have any notes. You could probably tell. I don’t have any notes whatsoever for this episode. I’m just sharing where I’m at and what I’m working on and hope that by doing that, it gives you permission. It gives you just more self belief, more connection with yourself and what is true for you by me connecting with myself and what is true for me and expressing that.

So that is my hope. That is my wish with my podcast, with PGSD, with my one on one coaching, with all the decisions I’ve made and things like that. And always, I feel like I’ve just been saying slash thinking this a lot lately because of conversations I’ve had. It’s never about, like, here’s a decision that Sam made or someone else made, so I should do the same thing. That thinking is not how we wanna be thinking as entrepreneurs or just humans in general because it’s easy to look at, like, a mentor you have or a coach or a friend and be like, oh, I should make the same decision.

Even with me with the mat leave when I’d first decided to have three months, that it was looking at, like, well, other people decided this decision, so I should make the same. Instead of, like, wait. What was their decision making process, and how can I apply that process? And when I apply that same process, I get a very different result because I am in a very different circumstance with a different mindset and different values and different things like that. So it’s like all of this and anything that you come across ever is like, who is this advice for?

What context is this in? And also the person giving this, what stage of life or business or personal development are they in or are they talking about or talking to? And also, what is their decision making process? So for example, for this, the decision making process is, okay, if I trusted myself, what decision would I make versus what’s the right decision or what is everyone else doing? So with that said, Lydia is calling, so I’m gonna wrap up.

But I hope you’re having a beautiful day, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Outro

If you enjoy this podcast, I recommend signing up for the waitlist for my program called Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD). This is a program designed to help you get out of your own way in your business. You’re gonna learn how to release your perfectionism handbrake by setting a growth goal for your business, planning properly as a perfectionist with Power Planning and getting regular guilt-free clean rest. You’ll learn the skills required to get out of your own way and be supported every step of the way to do it.  

While the doors to PGSD are currently closed, they will be opening again soon. So to find out more about the program and join the waitlist today, go to samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.