I have always been that Go-Getter Girl who wanted to say Yes every single thing that came her way. I’ve always wanted to be the Yes Girl who pleases everyone who comes her way.
But this year I have really had to learn how to say NO and self accept that I can’t possibly to on every request!
I have had to learn that by doing Less I can actually achieve MORE, especially when it comes to my own Health and Happiness, and managing my Spa it Girl Blog Site and Community, Career and everything else that comes and goes with the flow of my life.
This year my Spa it Girl Blog www.spaitgirl.com really started to take off!! more than I had ever dreamed of! with the spike of Bloggers and Influencers being in demand I was fortunate that I had already been blogging and writing on-line content for well over 8+ years.
At the start of the year – I WON and was named one of Australia’s Top 50 Influencers which was totally amazing and it was the first time in Main Stream Social Media that a Spa Blogger had ever been recognised and one such an award as normally it is the likes of Bikini, Food, Travel and Fashion Bloggers getting all of the Mainstream Media Attention! But not this time for the very first time in my life and in History!
I finally achieved what I had set out to do which was to bring the Spa Industry and Spa Therapy to that very next level! which was getting it the recognition it deserved as I had always truly felt and believed that visiting a Spa and having a Spa Treatment was much more than a Beauty Treatment it was a form of healing and that it not only worked on your SKIN, it worked on nurturing your Body, Mind and Soul and deep from within.
After that night the news got out on my Social Media Instagram Page @Spaitgirl and via the who’s who in the Media Industry!! I was instantly flooded with so many opportunities it wasn’t funny! plus I was flooded by people discovering for the very first time that there was actually this down to earth Aussie Girl who was an Actual Spa Blogger, who had made her dream of travelling the world reviewing Day Spa’s become a reality – so this within it self had inspired so many other girls who also wanted to live their own dreams, from that moment on I become their inspiration and hope!
While it all sounds like a fairy tale winning such a remarkable Australian Award, the reality is that I already had thousands of followers on the Spa it Girl Blog and Social Media and I was in the mix of writing my very first book: It Starts with Me, I was in the process of setting up hosting my very first face to face Spa it Girl Wellness Event, plus I already had my wonderful established writing, sales, marketing career, plus so much more that I do behind the scenes! and more! and more! and more! that’s not to mention making time to roll out my Yoga Mat and connect with me inner self.
I had so many incoming work requests, collaborations, photoshoots, writing gigs, people wanting me to be a brand ambassador for them went through the roof – on any given day I would be over the moon! but perhaps if I had a PA in place and about 8 to 10 staff running the show!!
I am going to be completely honest there was a time in all of this when I thought: Oh My Goodness how am I going to get this all done!!!
I wasn’t sue, how I would manage with the sudden growth and the rise of the Spa it Girl Blog Fame! It was something that I always dreamed about and wanted but when it happened, even I didn’t know what to expect.
I had gone from being the girl behind the computer screen to now being the girl in the spotlight! and at times it was rather intense as everyone did know my every move because yes I was already posting it but the difference before was those in my local community or Australia wide were not following me! but now they are.
I started out as an Alias blogger! as well in an era when no one cared even what a writer or blogger looked like but as you know times have changed and it is all eyes on us! and if we are a Public Figure then with that comes great expectations on how we possibly should be, or look like and in my case I had so many people saying I don’t know how you do it! how you managed to fit it all in and I have to say at times I even agreed with them!
But I have to say now sitting down and reflecting on one of the busiest times in my life I have to say I know I got through it all – through exercise, rolling out my yoga mat and making time for myself through my yoga and meditation practice! eating as best as I could, taking time to sit out in mother nature when I could! and being grateful that I had a choice to either let the stress get on top of me or to change the way I felt inside by opening up to others to let them know what was going on! as well as choosing my own thoughts of: I am feeling so stressed out – to I am Calm, I am Well.
I remember one day looking at my in-box and I nearly had 2,000 emails that were sitting in there waiting for me to answer them! and that wasn’t even counting all of my Social Media Inbox accounts that receive so many personal messages of people reaching out from around the world to say hi I love your page and vibe or what the Spa it Girl blog has shared, or they want to collaborate because they think you are great, or they want to ask your advice because they value you so much.
I am so grateful to receive so many heartfelt messages, however I must admit when I added both my in-box and social media messages! the number was in the thousands and totally nuts!
One of the things that really got me through this very busy time was my morning walks up a very big hill with my Workout Bestie! she truly was the best person at the time to lean on and I remember when I told her how many messages I had coming in and I would say what do you think I should do? and she said it like this: go home and write your to-do list and then from there work out your priorities and work away at it step by step.
You would think I would have already know this as I have written about to-do lists so many times before and throughout all of my Spa it Girl #GIRLBOSS Q & A’s the key ingredient for every #GIRLBOSS who is running a thriving business is that they keep a balance and things moving and their stress levels down by having a very good To-Do List to work through.
However Nevertheless when you have so much on your plate! and a workload load explosion even as a dedicated Yogi and Meditation student of the Universe!!
I seriously needed someone else like my workout bestie! to share her words of wisdom and advice so I could hear and see clearly away through my pile of mountains work!
I can see why so many companies and public figures yes have someone to do this for them FULL TIME as that is what Social Media is fast becoming a full time job in it’s own right! but there is still that blogger and writer in me that want’s to stay truly connect with my readers and followers direct and unlike so many Sites these day’s it’s very rare for the Founder to be the one who is really interested in what requests are coming in usually they have paid people to do that for them while they are swanning off travelling around the world living the ultimate I’ve got someone else doing this for me dream!
But there was one thing I learnt from working in the Corporate World for so many years! if you stop connecting with the everyday people who personally reach out to you – you loose touch with what is really going on, how they feel and what is really important and what matters to them! so still to this day if someone personally reachers out no matter what it is about I do my personal best to help them out – sometimes my advice me well received and other times it might not because I have to sometimes suggest they go and either pay for a Business Consultant to help them set up their brand business in a field and industry that I know nothing about! either way I still love connecting to each and everyone of you in whatever form that might be.
When I first started blogging I didn’t quite know what to do when someone would reach out to me and they were in such a big black dark hole but after many years of connecting with my readers I have learnt so much simply by taking the time to help others!
The Hype of Winning and Being Named one of Australia’s Top 50 Influencers has at least settled down for now however I have just found out I have been nominated for another Award which shall be interesting as to what kind of new work load and opportunities that might bring.
But Despite all the Awards and the Hype one thing still remains, I am simply the same – I haven’t grown a bigger head or ego! I am not superficial in any way – totally obsessed with my Body Image and Flaunting it for more likes or followers!
I haven’t turned in to the Blogger Girl who is the look at me, look at me, I just won and was award as one of Australia’s Top 50 Influencers! no instead I am simply ME a down to earth Aussie Girl, I am simply like you! Hard Working and a Girl who Never Gives Up who try’s her best! who loves to give more than she gets!
On that note, I am going to close this personal blog post tonight by saying that I have learnt to say no and I now make peace with others who also said no to me, because I have learnt whilst we would love to take on every opportunity, every possibility that we only have a certain amount of time in the day and night and it’s not healthy to work day and night (trust me) so in order to live our dreams we must learn how to pace ourselves just like a long distance race! to rest and recover when we need to and to self accept that sometimes by doing less we can actually achieve more.
If you have been feeling lately like things have been getting on top of you, that the weekend is never long enough, and you feel like you can’t possibly fit everything in, that your to-do list keeps growing and growing to the point that it’s even starting to stress you out, then I encourage you to take a step back, roll out that yoga mat focus inwards on your breath, take time out to sit in mother nature and simply be, to go for a walk and talk to your friend about it, or better still reach out to a family or friend or better still myself, through a personal social media message (because I know all to well what you are going through!!!).
Open up and talk about how you are really feeling and remember that it’s ok to say NO and even as GO-Getter Girl’s we have to learn that we sometimes can’t do it all because there is only so many seconds, minutes and hours in the day (& night).
I truly believe by doing Less we can achieve more! and more in the way of own Health, Wellness and Happiness. More in the way of having more time to spend with the ones we love, more as in having more ME TIME and nurturing our own Body, Mind and Souls.
I think as Light Workers, Therapist, Healers, Go-Getters, Girls who are on a total mission to build our own brands, to get our stories and messages out there that we are by nature always wanting to help others and give more than we get, we are always striving to please and say yes, we are highly in tuned to want to give more, more, more but I think now is the time when LESS is the NEW MORE.
When we are using Social Media either for ourselves or our businesses, we are told and taught that in order to keep your social media presence and audience you have to post daily keep, you have to keep your content fresh with brand new photos or things!
Which is such a different contrast to the good old blogging days when the expectation was the you only had to keep your blog up to date with posting one post a week and if you did that – you were actually a really active blogger totally worth following!
If you are feeling at times like the whole World is Getting on Top of YOU then the first thing I suggest you do is turn your mobile phone off, LET IT GO, detach from the outside world and simply be and focus on your inside world! just be and let go of needing to know what everyone else is up, let the whole world pass you by and simply focus on your inner self and honour your own heart and soul and do what it is right for you REST, RELAX, create space within and don’t worry what tomorrow will bring! stay grounded and in the present, by connecting to your presence which you can do by simply listening to your own breath and feeling your own chest rise and fall.
Love from Australia
Yvette xoxo