I know it’s long, but we have a lot of catching up to do.
I am a planner. My Google calendar is perfectly synced with my hand-written pocket calendar, and everything is planned out perfectly. Dinners, parties, bottomless mimosa brunches, client meetings, and vacations are all written and color-coordinated weeks to months in advance. But it wasn’t always this way…
12 months ago my life was in complete chaos. I didn’t know whether I was coming or going. After a slow winter professionally, I was also treading water in my personal life. I needed something to pull me out of my funk and get me back to kicking ass and taking names. So I created a plan.
After leaving my home and my relationship, I moved into a high rise downtown and started a new job as Marketing Director of a technology company, while still balancing 30 hour weeks for my own firm. I was convinced that keeping myself as busy as possible would help keep my mind off everything else in my life that seemed to be spiraling out of control.
It worked. My new job was equal parts challenging and fulfilling, and my own firm began to pick up speed. With the help of my amazing friends, I was back in the social world: traveling, dating, and experiencing all that this awesomespice city has to offer.
Now here we are, 12 months later, and it’s time to take take the next step. But, what exactly is the next step? It’s been months of arguing back and forth with myself. Should I stay in San Francisco or move to Europe? Expand my business or keep it boutique? Keep going at this pace or settle down?
Here, in no particular order, is the new plan (parts 1 & 2, and mostly 3 are complete):
FOCUS:
Quit my job, focus completely on my clients Studio 41. Instead of working 80-hour weeks, spend a human-size amount of time working, and spend more time drinking lemonade on my roof deck with the people I love.
SIMPLIFY:
Forgo the sky-high rent by moving out of the high rise and into an equally charming, but half the rent, house, 2 blocks from the beach. Also, buy less shoes, more plane tickets.
CONNECT:
Spend less time at the gym, and spend more time running on the beach trail, kayaking, surfing, and other sun-soaking activities.
So that was the new plan. Now that we’re all caught up…what’s new with you?
Later this week I’ll be writing about how I ditched the 9-5, again. I’ll also give you a tour of the new digs. Here’s a sneak peek: THIS is my new neighborhood: