I write for women business owners who are successful, capable, and quietly exhausted by how much they carry and still somehow wonder if it's enough. I'm Amanda. I'm not your hype girl. I'm the friend who gets it. Subscribe for honest, weekly notes on what it actually feels like to do a lot and still give yourself permission to pause.
Nobody thought I took a break on purpose
|
Hey Reader, After a 2-month sabbatical from emails and content, I sent a note to this list last month sharing why I'd gone quiet. The response surprised me. My inbox filled up. And almost every message said some version of the same thing: "I noticed you were gone and I was hoping everything was okay." "I figured something happened — I'm so sorry for whatever it was." "Were you burnt out?" Sweet. Caring. Thoughtful messages. And also... revealing. Because here's the thing: nothing caused me to take a break. My health is fine. My business is humming. I'm not burnt out. There was no crisis, no failed launch, no brick wall I finally ran out of energy to hit. I just... wanted to stop for a while. So I did. And not one person assumed that was possible. I sat with that for a while. The fact that the people who know me — who get me — couldn't conceive of a world where I'd choose a break before something forced one on me. That says something. About me, sure. But also about us. We don't stop until we have to. We push until a health scare, a breakdown, a hard season of life makes the decision for us. Taking a deliberate pause not as an emergency exit but as a choice barely registers as an option. I want to talk about this more. A lot more, actually. Because I think we're allowed to pause before s*&t hits the fan. I think we're allowed to stop something that's working just to see what happens when we do. I think the break doesn't have to be earned by suffering first. I took me years to figure that out. I'd love for it to take you less time. If this just clicked for you, hit reply and let me know. I'd absolutely love to hear from you. P.S. There's something I've been quietly building that's about exactly this. Small. A little old-fashioned and it's coming soon! Keep an eye out 😘 |
You're doing a lot...and it still doesn't feel like enough.
I write for women business owners who are successful, capable, and quietly exhausted by how much they carry and still somehow wonder if it's enough. I'm Amanda. I'm not your hype girl. I'm the friend who gets it. Subscribe for honest, weekly notes on what it actually feels like to do a lot and still give yourself permission to pause.
Hey Reader, I asked on Instagram recently how people were feeling about Q4. The answer: too much to do, not enough time. I get it. That feeling is real. We've piled a lot onto our plates and filled every open space. Going, going, going, and at the end of the day it still doesn't feel like enough got done, even though you were busy all day. Sure, we've overcommitted. But there's something a little deeper going on too, something I end up getting to with almost every client eventually. We all...
Hey Reader, Here's a little joke I often make: you can always tell who's an entrepreneur by how many URLs they own 🤣 Not because we ever use them all. Because we can't stop having ideas. A course we might build one day. A product we might make. A weird little side thing we're pretty sure could work. If you've got a domain sitting somewhere collecting dust for a "someday" idea, you already know exactly what I mean. Here's the thing about being a high-achieving woman with a lot of ideas: the...
Hey Reader, Happy September 1st. However you're spending today, there's a good chance some part of you is already feeling the pull to get moving on something. Here's the real-life math: you've got about 12 weeks of real "getting things done" runway before Thanksgiving flips the switch and attention turns toward family, holidays, and slowing down. After that, it's a different season entirely. So instead of a September to-do list, I'd offer one question: If you only let yourself make real...