Up until 2000, I ate, drank and dreamed business. I didn’t know who I was apart from my work. When I thought about selling my business or not working, I felt a panic seize me. I didn’t know who I was outside of it. What would I do with my time? What would engage my interest? Sure, I had five children at that time, but it didn’t occur to me that I could be happy just spending time with them. I wanted MORE.
And then I met a coach who set me on a different journey — away from the 70-hour-a-week work-a-holism to becoming someone who embraces and enjoys life. Here’s what she taught me to do:
“Put time for yourself on your ‘to do list.’ Pat yourself on the back when you take time to enjoy your life, when you take time off work to relax, or when you spend time with your family. You’ve just accomplished something important.”
This shift in thinking — where taking time off was an item on a to-do list — was enough to set me on the path of recovery.
The second thing that came out of this coaching relationship was a passion for exploring my spirituality. I started SheLovesGod.com in 2000 as a result and I began exploring and expressing a part of me that didn’t revolve around work.
Why am I just now starting a blog about this?
- First, I think there’s a lot of over-achiever women like me who could benefit from my story.
- Second, I’m still on this journey! I’m still learning and recovering!
It’s not that I struggle so much with work-a-holism, as much as I’m rediscovering who I am now that work isn’t consuming my life.
When you spend years figuring out how to build a business, supporting a family, and keeping everyone else happy, it’s easy to lose yourself along the way. You forget who you are and what makes you happy. If it’s not practical, then you don’t do it. If it doesn’t serve some higher objective, you feel like you’re wasting your time.
In the end, you can come to this place where you’ve delegated and automated so much that your business runs itself and then you think “now what?” Rather than dive into some new project (which we are so prone to do as work-a-holics), I’m recommending something radical.
I’m recommending exploring the world around you, fully engaging in life, unplugging from the rat race and simply being YOU! In the end your deeds, accomplishments and awards will not be weighed on a scale to see if you’ve piled up enough brownie points. It is you who will be weighed in the balance — it’s your soul, your being, and what you’ve become that matters.
If you get to the end of life with a truckload of itemized checklists and goals crossed off, but you don’t know who you are, what does it matter? If you haven’t found what brings joy and peace to your soul, what’s the point?
So, all of you high-achiever women out there (and men too), come along with me on this journey. Let’s unplug together. I’ll be documenting my journey and I’d love for you to share yours too!
About Marnie Pehrson Kuhns
Marnie Pehrson Kuhns is a Certified SimplyAlign Practitioner™ who uses music and creativity to mentor you past barriers, fears and doubts to discover, create, align with, and deliver your soul’s song (the mission, message or purpose you are on this earth to live). Marnie is a best-selling author with 31 fiction and nonfiction titles. If you'd like Marnie and her husband Dave to work with you personally on Your Great Reinvention, get a FREE 20-minute strategy session with Marnie here.
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