Hello Reader,

It's great to be back and with a clearer head. Whew! What an adventure March has been. And not in the greatest of ways. The lessons learned however... PRICELESS. And I want to share this with you in the hopes that you can learn from my experiences.

It all started just past mid February, a few days short of my birthday. I had a call with my now friend Majeed from Expert speaker (www.expertspeaker.com), and I was sharing how I wanted to start a podcast, but that I had left it on the back burner for the past four years because...

1. I wasn't sure how to do it.

2. I didn't know if I could actually keep up with producing episodes.

He gave me some pointers to get me going and we agreed to set up a call for me to record the first episode. His instructions were simple:

• Don't make it complicated.
• Introduce the podcast
• Introduce yourself
• Explain what the podcast is about
• You're not making any promises to anyone. You don't have to do anything daily, or weekly or monthly...
• Just get the first episode out there.

So, I did!

But I recorded the episode a day ahead of our call. And I felt so proud!

If you want to check it out, you can listen on Spotify. Just click the button below.

Listen on Spotify

That lesson, I was talking about.... No one is actually expecting anything from anyone. People are too caught up in their own lives and in their own stuff to be sitting around waiting for the next newsletter, or podcast episode or product. Unless they have paid for something, you can rest assured that no one is sitting impatiently watching the clock, waiting for the next piece of content to drop.

You see, I was holding off on my podcast launch because I wasn't sure I could keep up with regularly producing content. And in my mind, that meant that an episode had to come out every Friday at 10 am for the enjoyment of future prospective listeners. That's a LOT of PRESSURE! Once the fear of that imagined expectation was resolved, then there was nothing stopping me from actually doing it. You see, most of the time, fear is what stands between where we are and where we want to be. If you take the fear out of the equation, then there's nothing standing in your way. The Hacking the Universe Podcast was launched on February 20th, 2025. So far, three episode sit on Spotify for your listening enjoyment. They are short and sweet and to the point. And its all me. Truly and authentically me. I think that's what I like the most about it.

That taste of authenticity was the catalyst for my next lesson...

I've been noticing, more and more, that my schedule seems to fill itself up with a lot of "have to do's" and very few "want to do's".

Can you relate?

Most of my "have to do's" relate to the random stuff that just seems to come up on a daily basis. I call them the little fires that I constantly need to put out. Most of them relate to my kids, things that go on at school and being a last minute taxi mom for all their transportation needs. But a lot of it was just me trying to be nice, or doing things because that's what I should do to succeed, or to appease someone else's temper tantrum.

Let me tell you... Bending over backwards just to avoid having to deal with someone else's emotional immaturity is exhausting. Even if it's your child and they are supposed to be emotionally immature. I was exhausted, frustrated and miserable. The worst part was that no one was going to come save me from this. No one even knew because I wasn't complaining (I was... but it was just dismissed as nagging). And I was doing it (translate to: I could handle it).

I was fine, until very quickly... I wasn't.

Here's what I did:

• Took out my brain dump journal and wrote down all the things I do and the things I want to do. There was four pages worth of bullet points.
• I took three coloured highlighters, yellow, blue and purple and assigned them as follows.
• Yellow — need to do (the unavoidable)
• Blue — have to do( the obligation, often self imposed
• Purple — want to do (the stuff I never got around to)

The exercise was quite eye opening. There was a lot of purple that didn't get done. Things I want to do but leave on the back burner so I can get the stuff I have to do taken care of. There was also a lot of yellow. Things that need to get done. The question is, why do I have to be the one to do them? There was less blue. But still, these were obligations I didn't even care to have. why was I giving them more priority than what I wanted to do?

The biggest problem with unending list of things to do is that they don't end... You never get them done and you never actually get to the part where you can do what you want to do. It was time to make changes. I couldn't go on feeling like I never had time for the basic things that were good for me and my family. My time was consumed doing stuff in my business or for my business, never actually catching up and getting frustrated at every one of the many interruptions.

Wait a minute... didn't I start this business so I could have more time for my family and the things I wanted to do?

I've since been busy eliminating things from my list.

• Things that aren't important. I remove all together.
• Things that have to be done, I delegate or get help when needed.
• I make it a point to schedule things I want to do in my calendar. This includes cooking, eating good meals, exercising and reading.

It has helped me stay on track so far.

The lesson here:.. Most of what we do we either do for the sake of others. And that's fine. As long as we aren't neglecting ourselves in the process. It's best to prioritize ourselves and let go of all that we "should" do or "have to do".

I'm now in the process of creating a life that centres more around me and my well-being. Take it from me, if you're not okay, chances are no one around you is okay. But if you make sure you're okay, somehow, things and people around you seem to become okay too.

Remember fill your cup first, then pour from the overflow to fill the cups of others.