April: The Month of FUN

Apryl — I mean APRIL! is here!

This month means a lot to me because duh, I’m named after it (but just way cooler spelling), my birthday is this month, and it’s the first full month post-winter (although, sometimes winter tries to crawl its way back every so often in Chicago – it’s supposed to snow tomorrow!).

I have been running my business on monthly themes this year, and it’s been a blast – January’s focus was routines/time management (which I will admit have somewhat fallen by the wayside, but hey, I just launched a book!), February’s focus was relationships, and March was vulnerability. I had these grandiose plans to do something EPIC and crazy to kick off this month with the theme of FUN, but guess what? I was in a FUNK. The whole book launch process has been a really interesting one thus far, because although I have some sense of a plan, I couldn’t predict what feelings, opportunities, and feedback would come up as soon as my book was published. And it’s been a roller coaster for sure (see chapter 4 of my book for more discussion on FUN and my reference to roller coasters).

And so many unexpected things happened to derail me every chance I had; some freaking awesome, some not as awesome. I had to make some staffing changes on my team, my email marketing system went haywire and I had to replace it, my husband’s new job has him working insane hours which leaves us trying to navigate 2 busy schedules plus kids, the response from my publicity and marketing team’s efforts is overwhelmingly positive, our usual babysitting coverage is unavailable….and more. Lots of things on my plate, and I let the overwhelm get the best of me.

After talking with my coach on Monday (and let me tell you, these are EXACTLY the reasons why a coach is SO helpful), she helped me realize that I was perpetuating this feeling of overwhelm by letting it negatively impact me. Instead of being in gratitude for the many blessings on my plate, I was chasing my to-do list. Truth be told, many of the things I teach, I also still struggle with (#thestruggleisreal). As soon as that chat was over, within a day, I was back to giddy and excited, ALL by shifting my mindset. I feel adrenaline pumping through my veins, and my to-do list will get done when it will get done.

So the moral of this post and my challenge for you in this month of fun is: First, do a quick self-check. Are you finding yourself letting the overwhelm take over? If yes, how can you practice more gratitude for the many blessings you have on your plate? Second, focus on FUN. How can you instill more fun in your life each day? What is the ONE thing would make your day that much sweeter? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

And… if you’re wondering what the above picture refers to, here’s the backstory on one of the many things I did today that were FUN. This evening, I found an email from John Mayer (one of my FAVORITE musicians — any JM haters, please don’t judge!) in my inbox that said: “Fans have asked me for *years*, “John Mayer, when are you going to dance in a music video?” I did this for them.” There was a big button to click that said “Watch Video.” I had a ton of other important things to do, but I dropped everything clicked on it. And laughed. YES to dancing silly in a music video!!! And then I felt inspired to write this blog post.

Go have fun this month. I dare you! And let’s make this a little more fun: I want to start having people engage more on my blog, so PLEASE share any comments on this post throughout the course of this month and I’ll enter you in a drawing to win a free $25 gift card to Amazon and a signed copy of my book. (I literally just made that up.)

Have a FUN month of Apryl (err, April)!