Before the Holiday Crazy Begins… Take Care of You.

Can we talk about September for a second?

Because somehow we went from summer vacations, and trying to keep our kids entertained to suddenly realizing the holidays are basically five minutes away. And if you’re anything like me, a mom, an entrepreneur, and a woman who somehow believes she can fit 37 things into a day that realistically holds about twelve, this is usually when life starts getting a little crazy.

We have companies to run. Kids who need us, meetings, church, emails, events, school schedules, family, friends, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, we’re supposed to start thinking about Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving plans, and Christmas presents.

Meanwhile, I’m just trying to remember if I drank water today.

Here’s what I’ve been learning: we have to stop putting ourselves at the bottom of our own to-do lists.

I love taking care of people. I love building businesses. I love creating things and having a million ideas going at once. I genuinely love the beautiful chaos of it all.

But I’ve also learned that I cannot pour from an empty cup. Actually, forget the cup. Some days I can’t even find the cup.

And wellness doesn’t have to mean becoming a completely different person overnight. You don’t need a 5 a.m. routine, a perfectly organized refrigerator, or a perfect meal prep plan.

Sometimes wellness is taking a walk. Sometimes it’s yoga. Sometimes it’s random dancing. Sometimes it’s sitting in your car for ten extra minutes because nobody is asking you for anything there.

Sometimes it’s going to dinner with your friends, laughing until your stomach hurts, getting eight hours of sleep, or simply saying, “No, I can’t do that this week.”

That counts.

As entrepreneurs, we spend so much time thinking about how to grow the business that we forget the business needs a healthy human running it. Our bodies need to be able to keep up with our minds.

So before the holiday madness officially begins, I want September to be our reminder:

Take care of yourself now.

Put yourself on your calendar.

Schedule the massage. Play your favorite game. Take the afternoon off. Go outside. Move your body. Read the book. Drink water. Eat an actual lunch sitting down.

Your emails will survive.

Your family will survive.

Your business will survive.

We spend so much of our lives taking care of everyone and everything we love. Maybe this season, we can remember that we belong on that list too.