“If you are working on something you really care about, you don’t have to be pushed.
The vision pulls you.” —Steve Jobs

 

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• Ruthless (and Loving) Prioritization: 2021 has slapped me in the face and forced me to get super clear on where I spend my time and energy. Anyone else? As some of you know, I’ve been working on finishing my book this past year (eek!) and now I’m moving into the stage selling it (double eek!!). The tentative title is Flawed: Feeling Worthy in a Society that Demands Perfection, which I’ve been describing as, “part memoir, part cultural criticism where Lori Gottleib’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone meets Leigh Stein’s Self Care.” It blends my own experiences with perfectionism with my research on burnout and perfectionism from graduate school. I thought writing the book was the hard part but I’m finding navigating the publishing world to be even more difficult!

It got me thinking: In order to give my book the love and care it needs to find a good home, I’ve decided to move Monday Vibes to a monthly (instead of weekly) newsletter. This community means so much to me, so this was a really hard decision. I’ll still be sharing life lessons and regular posts on Instagram and will give my all to creating the most magical, potent monthly newsletters. Please note: the next issue will come out Monday, March 1.

• Honoring Your Needs: For most of 2020, I felt like I was inside a tornado. Working on a million projects at once, pretending I was a machine that could run at 100 percent 24/7, hustling for my worth like there was no tomorrow. Even as someone who researched burnout and perfectionism for several years and knows all the things I should do to avoid running myself into the ground, I still do it. What can I say? I am, in fact, imperfect. I’m starting to realize that part of being imperfect is accepting you are not actually a robot, but a human being who has needs. To that end, I’m really excited to switch up the cadence of Monday Vibes to a monthly newsletter to honor my own needs and consequently, the needs of the community.

Dear Self,
When I can show up fully, the rest falls into place.

• Asking for Help: I thought I was good at asking for help. It turns out that I’m good at asking for help for others but not very good at asking for help for myself. It feels scary AF. I interrogate myself with questions like: Am I wasting their time? Am I going to disappoint them? Who am I to pretend I can break into this space? What if I make a fool out of myself? What if this doesn’t go anywhere and I run out of chips? But, you can always tell when something is bigger than you and you’ll do anything to make it happen. So in the spirit of chasing after your dreams and embracing vulnerability, I’m putting myself out there.

WARM AND FUZZIES

 

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Morgan Harper: Never Alone (Spoken Word): Love this sweet reminder that it’s okay to go at our own pace, that not everything that happens in life makes sense, and that the Universe gives us what we need, not always what we want.

OBSESSION OF THE WEEK

 

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Peppermint Halo from Saje Natural Wellness: I’ve been getting a lot of headaches lately, spending too much time in my head. Loving this roll-on yummy-ness to alleviate some of the stress and bring me back into my body.

MONTHLY HAPPENINGS: FEATURES + EVENTS

Leading People First: Podcast episode on cultivating compassion

Be. Podcast: Podcast episode on embracing transition

Women in Our Town: Unsilent Women podcast episode

XO,

Elizabeth