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How’s my life audit going so far? · Many Things with Steph Libby

Hello.
Hello.
Welcome to another episode of Many Things.
I'm Steph.
I am figuring everything out in life.
I'm a multi-passionate, I'm trying to make time for everything in my life that, uh, feels meaningful and I'm documenting all and I'm, and I'm documenting it all on this podcast.,
All the highs, all the lows.
So thanks.
For joining me, I thought today I wanted to focus on, I did a life audit or wheel of life exercise, depending on what different people call it.
I did that exercise at the end of last year to help organize my planning for 2026.
I did it because I was feeling, uh.
I didn't know where to focus my energy.
Like everything felt the same level of important on the surface.
But through this exercise, I got to examine everything a little closer and look at everything, um, all at the same time and get to sit with it for a few days.
Normally when I plan, there's, the thing that's like on top of my mind right then and there in that moment, and then I lean into that or I prioritize it only to feel like the next day that I got it wrong.
so putting a rating on these nine areas really helped me figure out tiers so that I could focus my energy and, and be able to prioritize and know that like over time I'm gonna.
Put different levels of energy towards different areas of my life.
so I did that exercise at the end of last year and part of doing the life audit is like, it's just, it's not like a one and done sort of thing.
You have to do the exercise, set your priorities, And then like a lot of people review it quarterly.
So since right now it's the end of March, I thought I'd review and talk through like what I've learned in this first quarter of 2026 and how my life audit, is going so far.
Like how those goals that I set for my life audit are going, for a refresher.
If you've never done a life audit exercise, you take, uh, nine to 10 areas of your life.
They're usually, um, people, a lot of people do like a lot of the same areas, so my areas were.
Body, creativity, fun and hobbies, career, money, home friends and family love and finally mind.
Usually people have some sort of version of those areas.
Um, some people have like a 10th or 11th area, um, depending on how they categorize stuff.
But, um, you put a rating one to 10, like where you're feeling currently in these different areas and, and then from there, you're supposed to be able to figure out like where you want to invest your time and energy So you have these different areas and then you rate them one to 10 of where you are at that moment when you're doing the exercise and you ask yourself like, am am I feeling like a one? Am I, am I a 10? Where am I on this? Scale, how would I rate this area of my life currently? Um, areas that are like 7, 8, 9, 10 are probably areas that you don't need to focus a ton of energy into right away.
Like, there's still things you wanna work on, but that's maybe not the area that you wanna throw all your weight behind, you know, and then areas that are lower.
You wanna look at ways of how to address that.
And you also ask yourself a lot of detailed questions.
So everyone has different questions that they ask themselves.
Um, but for instance, some questions that I ask myself is like, okay, um.
Say I rate myself a, a three in creativity.
Okay, well, what would a level 10 look like? What would a level 10 creativity look like in my life? How would that look like in a day-to-day living? How would I feel when things are a 10? What things would I be doing? What habits would support that level? 10, things like that.
So, um, I went through this whole exercise.
There are a million sources out there.
We can find one different questions to ask.
Um, I know a lot of people use like chat, GBT and, and Claude, however you get it done.
So I did all of that and, after doing the exercise, I landed, I kind of prioritized my stuff as I wanted body creativity and fun and hobbies to be like my top tier, the areas I was gonna focus the most in, initially, and then career money was second and, and so on.
I should also say that underpinning all of this, that I'm calling 2026, my year of curiosity.
I wanna explore and experiment.
I'm basically giving myself permission to try things to fail, that I don't need to be a hundred percent all in on something in order to give it a try.
And if it works out and I love it, awesome.
If it doesn't, no big deal.
Moving on, we're gonna learn something from it.
I can just move on without like a bunch of guilt.
I wanna feel and live like someone who tries and doesn't confine herself in any particular box.
And I think that is part of what being a multi-passionate is.
I just am a curious person By nature I love learning about different things.
So this year is my year of curiosity.
It's just a give myself permission to explore, experiment, dabble, whatever It can be hobbies, it can be different reading, different things that I wouldn't normally read.
It can be learning new skills, whatever it is, whether it's practical, impractical, fun, career, it doesn't quite matter.
It's just like giving myself permission to do it all.
I think, I guess like.
A lot of people will call it like the year of yes.
But I, I hate that because it makes it seem like you have no boundaries.
I call it my year of curiosity because like it's my year to be curious.
It's not necessarily my year to say yes and pile on a bunch of things for me to do or think about or commit to.
It's more just like, I just wanna dab a little bit.
I wanna find, I wanna find what makes me happy.
I wanna find like what makes me click what, what gives me energy instead of taking away all my energy.
I don't want to be the thing that's always holding myself back.
It's really that simple.
So whatever other people call it, I'm calling it my year of curiosity so here's what's happened in the last three months.
Well, before I go into that, I wanna say that the reason why I landed on Body Creativity and Fun and Hobbies as my top tier was because of that year of curiosity.
Um, I really thought that, um.
I, part of what I was thinking is like, okay, well, when I was doing the life audit, I was really trying to figure out, like my career, I had been facing a lot of burnout.
It's March now in November.
Prior to doing this, this experiment, I was feeling really, really burnt out.
I was feeling aimless, I was feeling directionless.
I was feeling like I was forcing myself into.
Done a career path that I really didn't wanna go down.
So I'm a project manager at a marketing agency by day.
And as much as I love a lot of the things that come with being a project manager at a marketing agency, we, I work for a small agency.
I don't wanna work for a giant agency.
I don't really love working in agency life anymore.
Working agencies.
Um.
Are really easy to get burnt out on because of like high client demand, high volume, long hours, um, big expectations, and constantly changing deadlines and all this stuff.
So it's really easy to get burnt out.
In general, but then I was exploring my project management professional certification and I thought that that would be like the next great step in my career and maybe that would open up some other fields that I could move into instead of just focusing in like a marketing agency field.
Like maybe I could go work in publishing, maybe I could go work.
In healthcare or, I could go maybe work in tech or whatever.
Like I could, I could explore maybe like another field that fueled my fire a little bit more.
Um, but the more I was studying for that certification, the more and more I just felt like out of alignment.
Like it felt like I was just doing the certification to do the certification.
And the more time I invested in it, the more.
Pressure I was putting on myself, the scarier it was feeling, and I could tell that like I was really not like wanting to commit to this, that this was like not what I wanted to do.
I did not wanna be a project manager.
It didn't feel fun.
It didn't feel, um, something that was like driving me.
It felt boring.
Um, I don't wanna just read about process all day.
I couldn't bring myself to study and, and I was really coming up against the clock and it's like, okay, you've been doing this for a year, what are you gonna do? You have to, you can't just like keep spinning your wheels.
You either have to like commit to this a hundred percent and move forward and take the test or.
Admit to myself that that's not something I wanted to do, and ultimately I decided it wasn't something I wanted to do.
I was tired of feeling burnt out from it.
Part of my burnout, I think, was forcing me to do all these things that like just did not wanna do.
I didn't have a passion for it.
I wasn't driven to do it.
It was wearing me down.
So.
Um, so I decided not to pursue it anymore, and it was probably the best decision I ever made.
Um, honestly, like I trusted myself, I trusted my gut, I trusted my intuition.
That in and of itself was a win.
But on top of that, I've spent a lot of time just like doing the practical, the thing that feels practically impractical.
So like I was struggling with, finding a job and finding something I was passionate about when I was in my twenties.
So I decided to go, like, go back to school.
That was probably a horrible idea because it just got me in more student loan debt and I'm not, I went to school for teaching, I'm not teaching.
So it felt like a lot of wasted time, energy, effort, and money.
Um, now will I say that like it eventually helped me land a job because.
The guy that was hiring came from a family of teachers, so he just has a soft spot for people who love education.
Yeah.
So it paid off in that way, but I probably could have gotten that job without having that passion for teaching.
Um, anyway, and so going off on a weird tangent, but all that to say is that I was feeling really burnt out and that's what prompted me to take this test, um, to do this exercise.
And it.
Was really eye-opening.
I think it was all this to say that like I was feeling really burnt out and a big part of that was career and money.
And so that might seem strange that that was like, I ended up putting that in my second tier.
But my thought process was I make okay money.
I am struggling, but it's not like struggling and I have an okay career.
It's not my favorite, but I'm also like, not.
Completely floundering in that area either.
And my thought process was if I focus on body, creativity, fun, and hobbies, maybe by doing those things, by give, doing the things that give me energy by, um, building up my stamina and working out gives me energy and taking care of my body and fueling my body.
Focusing on creativity and fun and lightheartedness and giving myself a break and some grace, and like paying attention to the hobbies that I'm driven to and the things that I'm driven, I'm naturally drawn to.
Like maybe that'll help me figure out what I want to do for my career.
Maybe that'll help me figure out what direction I need to move in.
So I just wanted to like touch on why.
If you've heard me talk so much about career, okay, well, like, well then why wasn't that your, like, your top priority to tackle? I just thought there's a better way through because I've been trying to force my thoughts around my career so much for the last, like, especially the last like two years, and it was getting me nowhere.
So maybe it was just time for like a different approach.
Maybe it was time to not take my career so seriously and instead just.
Think about myself and think and embrace, um, newness and embrace new hobbies and try new things and stepping outta my comfort zone.
And maybe that would, provide a way forward.
So I just wanted to like, go over that a little bit.
I talk a lot about, uh, burnout and other episodes, and I talk a lot about this life audit in a previous episode too, so you can always check that out.
But, so here's what's happened in the last three months.
Just some like quick highlights.
Well, nothing with me is ever quick, but here's some, here's some highlights.
So my podcast, like I feel so invigorated, uh, doing this podcast.
I am learning a lot of new skills.
I'm learning about analytics and exploring sound quality and engineering, and I'm still very much a lightweight obviously, but I wanna make sure that I give myself credit for things that I don't often acknowledge.
And doing this podcast is.
Big, huge deal for me.
And in order to make my podcast better, I'm listening to a lot more podcasts and different hosts and different formats and different styles, and that is opening me up to a wide range of experts and opinions.
And I'm learning about a lot of different topics, and that's really peaking my curiosity and it's fun and it's such a better way to spend my time, um, than how I had been.
And so, um, my podcast is one thing where like, I feel like I am.
Making headway, but it also is, I would not have been doing this, I don't think.
Um, if it weren't for some of the burnout I had been feeling and needing an escape creatively.
And, um, I also love writing, but writing just doesn't always give me that like quick instant gratification.
The way recording a podcast done, I can does, I can like report a, record a podcast episode in a night and, and edit it and all this stuff and like put it out into the world and it took a couple hours of effort as opposed to like.
I am still working on a novel that I've been working on for like years.
You know, like there's just like a more of an instant gratification from it that like really helps keep me going, um, and makes me feel like I've accomplished stuff, other new skills that I am exploring.
Um, I'm learning and using Gen AI a lot.
Um, I still battle like the implications of it and the morality of it pro like politically, environmentally, um, and.
I don't wanna see humans be dependent on it, and I don't wanna see humans be like replaced at the numbers that they are.
Um, I don't wanna see it eradicate original thought, but I also work in a tech adjacent space right now.
Um, the marketing company I work for is very Tech B2B focused, so while.
In a shitty economy, um, and an even more dismal job market.
So it's not like I can just pivot into another role or field and avoid AI altogether.
Like I just really can't.
So like, if I don't at least keep up with it and understand the technology.
One, because a lot of our clients are developing some of the technology that people are using and we're helping market it.
To know how it works is to be a better marketer, but also like I'm gonna be left behind in not knowing these tools.
And building these skills is just like, not knowing these tools and, and not building these skills is just a non-starter in my job, at least for the current one I have.
And honestly like for the market as a whole, like it is kind of a paradox.
Like I don't wanna give into these things that are.
That are bad, but it does also make my job a lot easier.
And honestly, leaning into AI for certain tasks in my day have helped alleviate some of the burnout I've been feeling.
And it has helped me like, organize my thoughts and get ahead a little bit.
My take on it is that AI has like left the station and there's no stopping that train now though.
And I feel like people who don't learn about AI are just pushing themselves out of their jobs in a different way than the way.
That they are thinking they're getting, they're going to get pushed out of their job is, you know, so it's like, um, it's not great all around.
I'm just doing my best, honestly.
Like I said, it does help, like it has helped a lot in the career pivot I'm doing.
It has helped me build a feasible career path when I didn't have time or energy to do all the hours and hours of research and mulling and, it's been a good sounding board when I haven't really, I don't really have like a career coach in my life.
I can't afford one.
I can't really talk to like my parents or some of my friends about my job because it's like.
It's boring.
Like no one wants to hear about your job for two hours.
Um, and also like no one can help me sort through my thoughts necessarily.
So, um, so anyways, I don't think AI could replace the experience I would get with a career coach, but it does well enough to like get me going.
But again, I'm getting off track.
But that's like another, that's just another big curiosity point for me is, is AI and using the skills, but also like using them in a way that help me.
Have stamina be by being able to like, focus on areas that are worth more of my time and energy and thought than like some low level tasks in my job.
And it has allowed me to clear up administrative work so that I can actually focus on the stuff that's like helping me pivot into a new, into a new role.
So that's also like really exciting.
I wouldn't be able to do that or make the time for it if I was still doing all these other.
All these other like, low level tasks.
Another skill is baking.
I've been doing a lot of baking.
I just find it kind of zen and meditative.
And I like having a little sweet treat on hand.
It makes me feel accomplished creating something from scratch.
It pulls me away from the TV a bit, which is always good.
And I.
I don't know.
It's just, it, it's just something a little bit different for myself.
It's not anything earth shattering or revelatory.
Um, but it, it has been nice.
Like I've, I've just really enjoyed baking and, um, other skills are leadership, hr, employee culture that is.
Um, I've been reading a lot about all that stuff.
I am, I'm putting together a plan for myself at work to basically create a hybrid project manager and, um, culture employee program sort of role that doesn't currently exist at my job.
I have a better idea of that trajectory I wanna see in the next three to five years, and I haven't had a solid five-year plan probably ever.
And so that's been really exciting.
It feels like I have something to look forward to when I go to work now.
It feels like I'm excited to get up in the morning and see what I'm gonna tackle for the day.
I'm excited to like learn a new skill.
I'm excited to read these HR books.
I cannot express enough about how much I hated reading.
All the project management books and I thought it was boring and it was all about process and it was like tactical and there was no, it just didn't feel very human.
They talk about like how people need to have connections with teams and bring people together, but like that part just like never came through for me, for the project management.
Training, like they would say it would be something that was important, but you didn't feel it, you know? And so I'm really loving this culture, um, stuff a lot more.
I've been doing a lot of really cool things at work for the past couple year, for the last year or so, and now I'm like really starting to expand that and look at, um, how I can do more of it.
So that's, so that's like really exciting.
It's crazy how much things can change in a few months.
'cause in November, like, I think I mentioned this on the last episode, like in November, I was like crying in my bed.
Not sure like what I was gonna do and feeling completely disoriented and distraught and hopeless and, um.
Now I feel like I am really finding a path forward.
I feel like I am getting myself together.
I feel I just feel better all around.
I'm reading a lot more, speaking of fun and hobbies and, and creativity.
Like I'm reading books for work.
I'm reading books for fun.
I'm listening to audio books.
I'm reading.
Different newsletters that come through that I've signed up for, for work.
I'm actually reading them instead of just like signing up for them and, and never looking at them again.
I'm reading industry reports, which is also very interesting.
I'm reading books about leadership and employee culture, which is really exciting.
I am, um, reading biographies.
I'm reading like different types of things I might not normally read.
Um.
And so all of that is like very exciting and it just feels new.
And I'm trying to read every night before bed.
I am reading on the weekends during the day, which is something I used to do a lot of and haven't for a really long time.
And that feels really good.
It also feels like, it feels like I'm connecting to like an old version of myself that I haven't spoken to in a while.
Um, because I used to read constantly all the time and reading used to be my favorite hobby.
And I, it was how I would spend a lot of my free time and I haven't really been as focused on reading as I have been.
So that's really exciting.
It just feels like, okay, I am like getting back to my roots, I guess like a little bit.
I'm doing less doom scrolling and more micro learning.
I'm trying, you know, I'm trying to spend less time looking at social videos.
That deplete me and make me sad.
I know enough about what's going on in the world.
I don't need to see 400 videos of it.
I'm following content creators who talk about actual skills and like, like there's a guy that teaches me about dinosaurs and another guy that who teaches me about like this day in history.
And that is all so fascinating, I learned the difference between like a lagoon and a cove the other day.
It's just like all these little things that just, I was, I went into a rabbit hole about what a continental shelf is the other day, and then that got me thinking about how, what's the deepest part of the ocean that we've explored.
And then I started going on a tangent about like, well, what's the earth's core made out like all this stuff.
And it's just like I went down this whole rabbit hole.
I don't even know where it started.
I, I could not tell you why.
I started looking up about a continental shelf and realizing that I didn't know a damn thing about a continental shelf.
It's just like I am, I'm just embracing being curious and I'm learning a lot of cool things and a lot of cool facts, and clearly some of the facts aren't sticking with me, but at least the open-mindedness I think is nice.
If nothing else, you know, i'm also following more people who talk about local and regional politics instead of just what's happening at a national level.
Spoiler alert, it's all awful.
But, seeing everything that's happening at the national level really made me realize, like I, I do know about some of like the, the big stories of the day, local and regionally, but not as much as I would like to know.
And so that's been.
Refreshing is not the word, but it's been, eye-opening.
Interesting.
I guess it's made me feel dutiful, like, and like I'm a good citizen because I don't just pay attention to these national stories, but how these national stories are also playing out and, affecting us at like a, on like a state and local level.
Um.
Which I think a lot of times we lose sight of.
I know I have like, you get caught up in the national stories and it's like, I don't know the bandwidth to even hear what's happening in my town.
So that's all been really, really good for me and made me feel a little bit better about, I don't know, I guess not made me feel better about anything, but other than me feeling like I'm doing my part, which is I feel like all we can ask of ourselves lately.
So those are some of the things that I've been really diving into, that are just sort of like top of mind for, those areas that I was gonna focus in on a lot, body, creativity, fun and hobbies.
And my hypothesis like was right, I loosened the reins on the career stuff for a little bit and just said like, take some time.
It'll come to you, you'll figure it out.
Just like trust the process basically.
And I focused on fun and hobbies and things that I naturally gravitated towards.
And when I stopped forcing it, I learned a lot more about myself and I was really able to like find a career path.
Very quickly put like some ideas together and figure out where I wanted to go.
And, um, and I sent it off to my, I talked and I've already talked to my boss about it, and I've sent him a plan.
And we're talking about more, we're talking about it more this week and all this stuff.
And like, I'm actually making more, I feel like I'm making more progress with this new career pivot into, a people cultural role.
Within the last six months, then I had the entire year, year and a half that I had spent studying for this p and p certification.
I've, I've, I've gotten so much further into it.
I have a better grasp of it.
I feel so much more confident about it.
I am excited about it.
Like I never thought I would be someone who's like looking forward to going to work to do more work.
But it's because I enjoy the work that I'm trying to do and I enjoy feeling like I have more autonomy and I enjoy feeling like I'm coming up with ideas and strategy and I'm trying to solve problems at work.
And I feel like it is pulling together a lot of areas of my life that, um.
That I've, I've always known, have fueled me and, um, have interested me and called to me and I get to do it.
And even better on top of all of that is that I don't feel like I'm limiting myself.
I feel like by making this career pivot, I'm actually like opening myself up to.
Pulling in inspiration from different areas of my life.
Like I had thought about becoming a therapist at one point.
Well, like there is a bit of like therapy and empathy and coaching that comes with this career culture, this like cultural role and.
Um, I love teaching and there's a learning and development portion that comes with this role, and I love strategy and solving problems, and there's a lot of that in this role, and I like that I get to feel empowered because I'm solving problems and helping other people solve issues that they have, rather than feeling like I'm a victim to the place that I work, or I'm a victim to this culture at work or whatever.
Um.
I get to actually like be part of solving it.
I get to have my voice heard.
So I mean, we'll see what happens, but I'm feeling like really positive about everything right now with how it's starting to unfold, and that's just so exciting and I can't believe it's coming together.
Like I really can't believe it.
I.
You know, when I've talked to like my friends and my family, I've told them, you know, hearing how I felt in November and just feeling depleted and then hearing the positivity in my voice, like professionally, personally, things were in the toilet for a lot of last year.
And to feel like I've come out on the other side of that.
Not because of a miracle, not because of a lack of hard work, but because I just like trusted myself, listened to my intuition, took a chance, and then let myself sit with that decision for a little bit and not force myself to immediately feel like I needed to have the answer.
But to live in like a good kind of limbo instead of living in a bad soul sucking kind of limbo.
So I'm really excited.
I, one of the things that like I think I'm supposed to do at this juncture is sort of, reprioritize, like where I'm feeling with stuff.
I'm gonna sit down and do like a more formal sort of, um, quarterly audit and kind of reassess where I'm feeling.
Um, though I'm feeling far more positive about my career approach.
I feel like right now I want to focus in on my body and career so I think that that's where I'm, I'm probably gonna be spending a lot of my energy in the next couple of months, because I do have so much momentum happening with my career right now, and I wanna make sure I can actually kind of see that through.
And I think the next few months are gonna be a lot of hard work of like really flushing out that career pivot and really trying to prove that, I can shift that role and, put a lot of pieces together in motion to prove like my, you know, my proof of concept, I guess.
And I'm also feeling like I really wanna.
Think about my body.
Um, not so much like losing weight.
It's not really like a weight thing.
It's more just like, because I'm putting in so many hours at work, I wanna make sure I'm also taking care of my body, that I'm, um, taking my vitamins regularly and that I'm drinking enough water and that I, I'm adding more movement into my day than I have been.
Um.
Because, you know, I'm, I'm working like some longer hours because of this career stuff and all the things that I'm working on and I'm training someone at work, so that's like taking some of my attention away.
But, so that's kind of where I have a feeling that that's where, um, I'll be focusing a lot of my energy for the next couple of months.
I don't know, I guess like it's, oh, it's, it's interesting and I'm, I'm, I struggled to kind of put.
Into words a little bit, but, this system of thinking, this approach to like prioritizing the stuff that we're doing, it's not anything particularly crazy, right? What I find so interesting about this way of this like approach and this way of thinking and this way of organizing my thoughts around all these different areas of my life is that I have.
I guess it is just like the organization of it.
Like I have, I'm always thinking about my body.
I'm always thinking about creativity.
I'm always thinking about my career, money, home, friends, hobbies, family, love mind, like I'm thinking about those things all the time.
And I think what the system does is it just goes, Hey, you know what? Just pick a couple of these things to put a little bit of energy, structured energy behind, and then like, it's not like the, you're not thinking about the rest of them, but we don't need to, those aren't the priority right now.
You don't need to.
Feel guilty about that stuff.
If you're not working on it, you're focused on these couple of things.
Like that is the path for the next few months.
And it doesn't have to be that way forever.
You're gonna reassess in a couple months.
You, if, if along the way I feel like I, this is totally misaligned and not working, I can shift gears.
I think it's just a little bit about like the, a little bit of structure helps to give yourself permission to say, that's not my, that's not my concern right now.
Um, that's not my priority right now.
Because I think I, I've always set priorities with myself, but then I, it's like that grass is always greener mentality where I'm like, shiny little penny.
I could go over here and work on this and like shiny little penny, I could go work on this thing.
And like, so you never make progress in any one area.
And I think what I'm trying to do this time around is really be like, Nope, I said that these two or three things were what I was focusing on.
I need to try focusing on these two or three things and see where that gets me and like actually put.
Money where my mouth is and put the time and energy into those couple of areas and not just like immediately give up and focus on something completely different in a completely different direction.
And I think it is also helping me make small changes in different areas of my life that helped me build a lot of momentum and.
I think like it's, I don't know why I, I'm not crazy.
I knew that like thinking about all these nine areas at the same time and trying to tackle big ass in each of these areas at the same time was not doable.
Was not feasible.
There's not enough hours in the day, there's not enough energy, whatever.
But it was hard.
It was the hardest thing to give myself permission to not think about all nine things constantly.
And something about doing the exercise.
'cause I'm a very like, data-driven person.
Even though it's like qualitative data, it still felt like, okay, this rating is a data point.
Now it's not, um, it's not a feeling.
I mean, it's technically a feeling, but like, this is data now.
It like, it, it just lets me switch on that analytical.
Part of my brain that says like, no, this is data now and this is a strategy.
It's not stuff just randomly changing her mind or trajectory at any given moment.
It just helped keep myself focused and I've had a hard time doing that and I think that that's why I always get in my way.
Um, or I second guess what I'm putting my attention and time into.
So this has been really, this has been really.
Really, um, really good for me.
I'm, I'm surprised that I really thought it would be hokey.
I just thought it would be something I'd do and like, we'll see what happens.
But it has been really, um, eye-opening.
What I'm really excited for related to this life audit stuff is that we, as part of.
So at work I coordinate all of our company lunch and learns and we try to bring in different external experts and we have a wellness coach that's coming in to do a series of things.
And then we also have a career coach coming in to do some lessons.
And then our company is gonna offer people some assessments and one-on-one, a one-on-one coaching sessions.
So, um, with the career coach.
So I'm excited for that.
So I am thinking.
And one of the exercises that both of them recommend people do is this Wheel of Life.
Exercise, this life audit exercise.
So I'm excited to see how, what other things I haven't really picked up on yet are going to reveal themselves and what that'll mean for me.
And, um, all these different things that I'll pick up on.
So, um, I'm really excited 'cause that'll happen in the next few weeks and over the course of spring and summer.
So I just feel like that'll help keep the momentum going.
So that's also very, very exciting for me.
And I just wanna say that like, even though my, this might seem also very strange, 'cause obviously, my boyfriend and I were going through a very hard time last year, and a lot of highs, lot of lows and a lot of things to work through.
So you would think that like relationship would be like my number one priority, but it was actually very low on my list.
Not because it wasn't worth my energy, but because it had already drained so much of my energy, I think, and I just felt like I needed to not give it any more energy.
And I think that's also like me working on my codependency is just like I need to set a boundary and like I can't let this thing drain me.
I've other things I'm trying to work on for myself.
And if I could focus on my hobbies and if I can focus on my creativity, if I can focus on my career and I can focus on me.
Maybe I can like let go of some of that codependency a bit and heal some of these wounds that have have happened in this relationship and some of the things that we've been through and actually be able to move on.
And I do think that like a lot of that has also been happening.
It's sort of like codependency.
I'm, I'm constantly trying to micromanage someone else and.
I can't do that to someone else's like recovery.
And, um, I've had to like, loosen up the brains and just be like, Nope.
That's like, not, not my problem, not my circus, not my monkeys.
Like I'm just gonna keep my head down and focus on what I'm doing.
And I think that that has also been helpful.
To my partner because it's given him some space to breathe and figure out his own stuff.
But I think it is also seeing how motivated I am has also helped him be kind of motivated and work on some of his stuff and, um, because I'm not.
Pissed off and angry all the time at work.
It gives me like a little bit more bandwidth to be, um, kind and show up for my partner and remember like why we're in this together and be able to enjoy each other's company.
And, um, it's hard if someone's like.
If you're still struggling with someone, still trying to figure out a way through to have all of this, like career anxiety and self-hate and all this stuff on top of it, um, it just made, it just compounded everything else I was feeling in different parts of my life.
So not feeling so confused about work, not hating my job, not feeling burnt out in a million other areas has helped me be able to like kind of see the light at the end of the tunnel.
In my relationship, which was actually probably like very draining me the last four or five years.
Um, so that's all been like very, very exciting.
So big takeaways, um, has this been like a revolutionary overnight? You know, night and day difference.
No, and that's completely okay.
The really important thing is that I'm able to recognize and give myself credit for the things that I am doing and not making myself feel bad for the things that I haven't really committed to, because it's not like I'm doing nothing.
Um, I would love to spend a little bit more to have spent a little bit more time on my creativity that just like didn't happen.
But I think that's fine.
Like when I, I guess when I thought of creativity, I was just thinking my writing.
But i'm learning that creativity is a more like fluid open definition than how I had originally been Framing it.
Like me reading more is me working on my creativity.
Me listening to podcasts that spark my curiosity is feeding into my creativity.
So having a more of an open mind and open definition of, so how I categorize and define some of these things is, has also been kind of interesting.
I'm just doing things in a little bit of a different order than I had been hoping for originally, and I think that that's fine.
Um, and.
So, so I'm excited to keep going.
Um, so I'm gonna keep moving through and then, um, in three months I'll do like another kind of quarterly review and we'll see like where I'm at.
And that'll be fun too, because that'll be like right in summertime and, and all that stuff.
So, summer's where I kind of thrive.
So I'm gonna close out as per usual with Recommendation Corner.
There's one podcast I wanna recommend.
It's called, I Hate It Here.
Mostly for like HR and, and people, people managers.
It's, uh, hosted by Heba Yusef, and I love the podcast.
She usually does like interviews.
With other HR leaders, HR thinkers, they can be culture, it can be hr, it can be analytics.
It can be like how's gen AI impacting hr? All these different things.
But it just, I think it's, even if you're not an HR person, I think it's interesting to listen to if you're just like a leader or if you manage people or anything like that.
There's just like a lot of really good information and, she also has a newsletter that she, you can sign up for.
And I found the newsletter like super helpful.
They have a section of like, where people ask questions.
They call, I think it's called like their safe space corner or something.
They'll put, different questions in the newsletter and they'll have a couple of top responses to it and things like that.
So it's just a really nice way to like learn about, some of those areas if they're of interest to you.
And then another thing, which is gonna be kind of random, but John Mayer.
I kind of fell off the John Mayer train after the whole Playboy interview back in like 2010, um, 2011.
That whole thing, like when he was talking about like sexual napalm and weird stuff about his dick and he was just like ego tripping and all this stuff, but I.
But now I think I'm back on it.
I'm back on that John Mayer train.
T do.
I was a huge John Mayer fan when I was younger.
I loved all of his album.
And then after that interview I was like, I'm done with this fool.
But I have started listening back to some of his music.
He also like hosts a podcast, which I didn't know and he is.
I've been on a lot of different podcasts and I forgot how funny he is and he's been on like, watch what happens, live with Andy Cohen and, and all this stuff.
So I'm like back on that train fully.
I've been watching like so many YouTube videos and feeling like I'm getting caught up.
Like the fan girl.
I, I guess I am and was always meant to be.
Um, so if you haven't listened to any new John Mayer albums, I say go ahead.
He does seem very remorseful for all the BS he pulled, which is now like 10 to 15 years ago.
I also think it's just so refreshing in this culture to see a white man take accountability for being a douche bag and really own it and actually like, not just give like that apology, tour, manufactured apology, and then continue to act like a.
Total jerk wad.
It's really refreshing to see someone be like, Hey, you know what, like some of that stuff I said was crazy and I was ego tripping and I was acting a fool and I was treating people disrespectfully and I thought I was the shit and I embarrassed myself and I needed to get sober and then continued to just like.
Be remorseful and accountable.
It's just kind of refreshing.
So I think that's why I'm like endorsing.
I'm endorsing John Mayer again.
Um.
But yeah.
So that's the episode.
Thanks so much for listening.
Um, as always, check me out on Instagram at many things, Steph.
Um, I'm starting to post reels there, so if you want this, you want a little bit more.
If you love hearing this voice and just need more of it, um, I'm dabbling into reels, so I would love the support.
Check me out and I will see you, for the next episode in a couple weeks.
Thanks.
Bye.