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We are about to find out if podcasting is like riding a bike. We are coming out of a season of not recording for The Goal Digger Podcast because I was on maternity leave, and to prepare for those three precious months away from the mic and with my baby, we recorded dozens of episodes of the podcast in advance.
For my first episode back from maternity leave, we’re diving into a classic Ask Jenna Anything. You asked, I’m answering, there might be a baby cooing in the background… It’s going to be great!
We’re digging into an update on my 2022 goals, how I’m navigating this new season with two little ones, and exploring your questions about resting without guilt, and what I learned in the last four months. So do we still know how to do this podcasting thing? Let’s find out.
Maternity Leave #2
This was my second maternity leave and while there are definitely some similarities between round one and round two, I approached this leave with the experience of my first one and made some changes.
One thing that I loved about this time around is that I gave myself more gray area. I am very much an all or nothing type person. I think the Enneagram 3, that achiever in me is like, you go all in. But this year one of my goals, which is going to sound so weird, is more shades of gray in that I’m just honoring my intuitive spirit and asking myself: do I feel like working, is this a good time to work?
It was honestly a really, really enjoyable maternity leave in that I wasn’t telling myself I cannot log in, or that means that you’re a bad mom or you can’t dip your toe into the water because I felt like I had this really good balance. Now my brain is really turning on and starting to get going.
Organizing My Life with Two Kids
I am someone who used to hate structure, like having things on my calendar used to actually give me anxiety. I am very free flowing. I love to honor my energy. However, in this season of life, having structure and knowing with certainty that certain times are reserved for work, other times are reserved for family – that is giving me so much peace.
I was sitting down with Drew and my mom who helps out with the girls and I was like, can we come together and for the next few months, just pick out a few days where I can record, or I can feel confident booking meetings or things like that? Because so much of my life and my work is happening in the same place, under one roof. I don’t have a dedicated office space. I don’t have a studio. I knew it would really help me to be able to prepare and get into my flow states and plan for those days.
So my goal coming out of maternity leave is to work part-time, and I think for me that would look like three to four hours a day, five days a week, if possible.
Rest without Guilt
@honeytoastblog on Instagram asked: How do you overcome guilt while resting?
When is the last time that we allowed ourselves to just be? For maternity leave, I would get these feelings of I’m not doing enough, or I need to be more productive. Or if I just strap Quinn onto my chest, I could do this load of laundry or I could do these things. And we get so consumed by our output that if we’re not producing something or doing something, we honestly feel uncomfortable.
But I think about this all the time – Learning to rest is like a Couch to 5K program, but in reverse and training yourself to slow down. So whether that is taking 10 minutes to do a slow yoga flow (I found that that works better for me than trying to sit and meditate) and how can you start incorporating smaller pockets of rest so that you start to get comfortable with the idea again?
My 2022 Goals
A listener asked if I set any goals for the year in the traditional sense, and my answer is yes and no. With yet another year of uncertainty I found it really hard to approach goal setting in the ways I have previously. But what I ended up doing is creating a secret Pinterest board of things that are really inspiring to me. That visualization exercise has been great for guiding my year.
My family and I have a really big year. We’re building our first house, I have my book coming out. My word this year is vibrant and I’m really focusing on dialing in my health and my nutrition because I know it’ll get busy and it already is busy with two kids and work and everything, and so I really want to feel vibrant and healthy.
My Pinterest board is maybe 10 Pins deep, but it does hold a lot of visions that I have for this year. So much of this year I’m just leaving open because I really want to get this book out into the world and get it into the hands of readers, and I want to just see what happens and where that takes me. I’ve never done it before, so I don’t really know what to expect. And it’s beautiful.
More from This Episode
This is an off-the-cuff Ask Jenna Anything conversation that weaves between work and life in the most beautiful way possible. Press play for the full episode and if you ever have a question to ask me on the podcast, DM me at @goaldiggerpodcast on Instagram so I can add your Q’s to the next session.
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