Let's not sacrifice joy...
Some things on Sunday | 5:30 Read
In my group chat the other day, I casually mentioned making something with dairy-free cream cheese and one of my besties hit me with, “I don’t know how y’all live without dairy.”
First of all, who is “y’all”? There’s no way she’s including me in that. Not I. Baby, I’m a Cheddar Champion. A Brie Believer. A Gorgonzola Gladiator. As my bestie, she should have known better!
Sure, I’ve cut back because this perimenopausal belly seems to grow like Pinocchio’s nose every time I even look at cheese. But eliminate it? Never. Unless a doctor tells me it’s life-or-death, I shall never abandon my love for cheese.
Listen, I hope they have cheese in heaven cuz honestly, how could it be heaven without it? If I get there and there’s no cheese, I’ll know for sure I’m in that other place. Yeah, I can’t see me sacrificing cheese. But anyway… speaking of sacrifice.
Something we shouldn’t sacrifice…
Yesterday, I was on a live coworking session with jobseekers who purchased my September Surge Strategy Guide, we started talking about our biggest life challenges right now.
One woman shared that she’s unemployed. She has money saved, but she’s hesitant to dip into it. She said, “I can’t do anything. I want to travel because travel makes me happy, but I just…can’t. And I’m stressed out and anxious.”
Her words landed heavy for me because I’ve been in that space too. These past several months, I’ve had to make sacrifices of my own. I’ve skipped travel, held off on decorating my home the way I’d love to, missed out on summer festivals and trips to see my friends, all because I’m focused on paying down debt and ya’ll know where that landed me…in a microdepression.
It broke my heart for her and for me. I told her “maybe we shouldn’t be sacrificing our joy. Not all of it, at least”
There must be ways we can have joy during the hard times. I brought up an example of when we were kids and our parents would be pinching pennies at the grocery store. They were still going to buy our favorite breakfast cereal. But they may not buy the name brand Fruit Loops, we might get the Fruit Rings instead. We still get a sugary kid’s breakfast but at a lower cost.
I asked her how can we apply that to our current situation? How can we infuse joy on a smaller scale so we don’t sacrifice it completely?
Maybe it’s not a trip to Bali or Tanzania, maybe it’s a trip to a town 2 hours over or maybe it’s checking into a hotel for a night, and acting like a tourist in your own city.
For me, instead of spending a bag redecorating my entire house, I decorated the two spaces I spend the most time in - the cooking area of the kitchen and my desk space.
This morning, I stumbled upon a video of a woman who talks about infusing simple joyful luxuries in her life like making cute butter molds to serve with her breakfast.
A Psychologist by the name of Barbara Fredrickson wrote about the Broaden-and-Build Theory which proposes that positive emotions expand a person's momentary thought-action repertoire, leading to the accumulation of enduring personal resources over time. These broadened mindsets then build vital personal resources, including intellectual, physical, social, and psychological assets, which serve as reserves to enhance resilience and overall well-being. What our girl Barbara is saying is that joy builds long-term resilience. Joy isn’t only about happiness in the moment; it’s about longevity.
Listen, sacrifice is wise. It’s mature. It’s responsible. It’s often necessary. But we only get to live this life once and regardless of our ups and downs, it should be a joyful journey. At the end of my life, I don’t want to be on my deathbed thinking “Well, I paid off all my debt.” Chile, ain’t no credit scores or debt collection in the afterlife..I hope. I want to be thinking “I lived this life joyfully, even in the hard seasons.”
Because joy is worth the investment. Sacrifice shapes us. But joy sustains us. Joy strengthens us and it’s what makes it possible to bear the burdens of sacrifice.
That said, as a reminder to me and to you, sure do what you gotta do and make the sacrifices you need to make to get where you’re trying to go but be sure joy isn’t one of the things you’re sacrificing.
Some folks are locking in on the September Surge…
If you don’t know, fall is the most active hiring season of the year. It’s called the September Surge because that’s when it starts but it really goes through mid-November. Companies are hiring heavily to close out their budgets and their objectives for the year and they want to do it before everyone starts going on vacation.
Now, I’ll keep it real the job market sucks right now BUT it’s still more active than any time of the year so I encourage you, if you’ve been wanting a new job, to take advantage of this time. I created the September Surge Strategy Guide to help jobseekers to be more intentional about maximizing this timeframe. It’s has a week to week plan with specific actions, targets, and resources to help you along. It’s only $27, you can check it out here.
Something I want to chat about today…
I posted my September Life update on Youtube this week. In it, I talked about what I’m focused on for “The Great Lock In”. One commenter mentioned that she loves that people are locking in but she’s been focused on helping people clear the energy that got them in a slump in the first place.
I was intrigued so I invited her to chat with me live on Youtube today at 4pm (ET) about what she’s doing to help people clear their energy and lock-in with a clean slate. I’d love for you to be there, you can join the live here.
That’s it, have a joy filled week friend!
-ya girl, Lib