[00:00:00] Christine: Okay friends. Tell me if this sounds familiar. You’ve taken the time to figure out what will help you thrive as a military spouse. You know you cannot pour from an empty cup. You know you need to take time to rest to get enough sleep, to fuel your body with healthy foods, to move your body, to practice mindfulness, to invest in healthy relationships. You have the knowledge and you know that all of these things are good for you that are going to help you.

[00:00:25] But your schedule is packed. You’re having trouble carving out time for yourself because you are just too busy. What do you do to actually prioritize taking care of yourself in a busy season?

[00:00:51] Knowing what you need to do is only half the battle. So today we’re gonna talk about putting knowledge into action and how to actually prioritize the things that are going to help you show up as the spouse, as the parent, as the amazing milspouse you wanna be. So what do you say let’s dive into the show.

[00:02:08] Friends, I think this is a topic that most of us can relate to, especially if we have littles in the home. Because it’s really easy to take care of yourself when you are the only person that you are responsible for. But when you are responsible for the wellbeing of a whole lot of other people, , it’s easy to put yourself on the back burner.

[00:02:30] And so how do we prioritize taking care of our ourself? When we know it’s a good thing to do, we know that we need to do these things, but it’s usually the first thing to go when life gets crazy. How do we prioritize taking care of. Okay. I’ve got seven things for you to do, because I know it’s really easy to think about this, but it’s really hard to put it into practice.

[00:02:57] And the first thing that we have to do is get clear on what matters to us. What is it that matters to you?

You need to get clear on your values, how you want to show up. Who you want to be and what your unique purpose is that clarity is going to be your guiding light, because that’s the thing that you go back to when life gets crazy.

[00:03:23] If you don’t have a why, if you don’t know who you are and. Who you wanna be and how you wanna show up. Then it’s easy to put yourself on the back burner because when life gets busy, you have to know why it matters that you take care of yourself. You need to know why you need to rest. Why do you need to get that sleep?

[00:03:44] Why do you need to work out? You have to have a reason for doing those things or it won’t happen. You’ll come up with some other thing that takes precedence that takes priority, unless you’re clear on your why.

 So know what it is that matters to you and who you want to be, because that’s the thing that you’re always going to go back to now, if you don’t know how to get started, the first thing that I’m gonna tell you to do is go download the free values assessment.

[00:04:16] Which helps you get clear on your core values and that’s at milspouse mastermind.com/values. The second thing I’m gonna tell you to do, and if you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you probably know this by heart by now, but you need to go get the growth wheel so you can analyze each.

[00:04:36] Specific area of your life and figure out what’s working and what’s not working. And that is available milspouse mastermind.com slash growth wheel. Those are the two things that are going to help you get started. Now, if you want that whole picture, you wanna get clarity and you wanna get clarity much.

[00:04:54] Sooner that I’m gonna recommend that you go through the whole mill spouse purpose, playbook. This is your framework. That’s going to help you see each of these areas of your life and help you get really clear on what your unique skills and giftings are, what your sweet spot is, how to start crafting a life with purpose.

[00:05:15] It’s gonna give you that clarity piece that you need to build out the life that you want to move. Who you are becoming. The second thing that you need to do to take knowledge and actually put it into action is awareness. You need to be aware of what you’re doing right now, and what’s not working. Why are you not doing the things that you know are going to help you thrive?

[00:05:46] You have to be aware that something is off and something needs to change. The first step towards change is awareness, but awareness without an action plan is a plan for failure. Let me say that again, awareness without an action plan is a plan for failure. We have this thing called cognitive dissonance, and as we become aware of the problem, we observe this chasm between where we are today and where we.

[00:06:25] To be, and that chasm grates on us. And if we don’t have a way to get from where we are today, to where we wanna be, we just get more frustrated and even more discouraged. And in some cases, even more depressed, we have to have a way. To get from point a to point B. So I’m gonna give you four more things to get you moving towards point B.

[00:06:55] And the number one thing is to decide what you want to work on. First, if you’re trying to work on every area at the same time, your progress is going to be really. But if you could develop one or maybe two or three key habits that could dramatically improve your quality of life, what would those be? and one thing that you can do is fi figure out where you are struggling with the most.

[00:07:31] When you do your growth wheel assessment, figure out which area is grading on you the most, is it that you’re not showing up for yourself that you feel physically exhausted all the time, because you’re not taking time to rest. Is it that your body just feels. Sluggish, because you’re not fueling your body with proper nutrition or you’re not moving your body on a regular basis.

[00:08:02] What, what feels the most off and what is something you can do to get yourself moving in the right direction? The next thing you need to be aware of is starting small. If you try to make a huge. All at once. It’s probably not going to happen, especially if life is crazy busy. This is what happened for me.

[00:08:30] In the month of July, I need to follow my own advice a little more often. I had this idea that I’ve been wanting to really work on my health and fitness for a while. So I was like, I just need to go all in. I’m gonna start revisiting my nutrition. I’m gonna start working out a lot more. I’m gonna do all of these things and really shift my physical health.

[00:08:54] But I was still in the middle of a crazy busy season of life. We’re still in the middle of a PCS and I just could not change all the things all at once. And I was like, okay, I can do something small. I can be more aware of which foods I’m putting in my body. I can start focusing on the nutrition part.

[00:09:14] Or I can start focusing on workouts and getting those in, but I cannot make both of those changes at the same time and do it successfully when I’m in a BA busy season of life. So if you feel like, Hey, I’m not moving my body, maybe that’s starting small for you is just saying, okay, 10 minutes, three times a week.

[00:09:36] I’m gonna get outside and take a. It’s something that’s going to be simple and is a small change that can grow over time and you can do more later on, but you have to start. Small. Okay. So decide what it is that you wanna work on first, then start small. And then I want you to create a list of your core commitments or these are habits that you can commit to over the next 90 days.

[00:10:08] Not a bunch of things, cuz you need to start small, but what is it that you can commit to over the next 90 days. In your crazy busy season of life, what can you add infuse into your weekly rhythms to help you show up as the person that you want to be? And once you figure out what those core commitments are, you got to put it.

[00:10:36] Into your schedule, your planner, your calendar, whatever you are using to keep track of your life on a weekly basis. It’s gotta go on there because if you don’t carve out the time for it, it will not happen. So you have to ask the question. When is this going to happen? In my schedule and you put it in and you make a commitment to yourself that you’re going to do that commitment.

[00:11:03] And in seasons where it’s not as crazy, you can do more of those things. And in seasons where it is really crazy, really busy. You may be only able to do a few things, but you gotta figure out what those things are and then add it into your schedule. And then the last thing that you wanna do is to actually go back and assess your progress is the thing that you’re doing.

[00:11:29] Moving the needle. Is it helping you, is it going into your schedule? Is there a reason that you’re not keeping that commitment that you’re not making that a priority? Go back and assess yourself on a regular basis. Right now I assess myself on a weekly basis. Okay. Here’s the things that I needed to do for myself to show up as the person I wanted to be.

[00:11:54] How did I do in each of these areas? What got in the way, why did I not prioritize this thing? Why did I let this other thing happen? And what can I do to prevent that from happening again? So. Continually revisiting those things on a regular basis to say, okay, what’s working, what’s not working. What needs to shift and how do I get myself moving in the right direction?

[00:12:18] Because if you don’t take care of yourself, then you’re not going to be able to show up for the people in your life. You’re not going to be able to navigate that busy season without falling into that cycle of overwhelm and burnout. You have to be able to prioritize yourself and it’s gonna look different in a crazy busy season.

[00:12:40] Then it is in a normal season, but you gotta figure out what those core commitments are and you gotta put it on your schedule and then you have to assess your progress. So let’s start at the beginning and go over those seven things one more time. And then I’ll give you a couple of examples of how that might look in your daily life.

[00:13:00] So, number one, you’ve got to know what matters most to you. You gotta figure out what your values. How you wanna live, who you wanna be, what your unique purpose is. You’ve got to get clarity on the things that matter most to you. Then you need to develop a sense of awareness what’s going on. What’s not working, what feels off, what needs to change.

[00:13:26] Then you decide what you want to work on first. You can’t change everything about your life overnight, but you can choose where you want to begin. Then you wanna make sure you start small, develop your list of core commitments, put them on your calendar and then assess your progress. All right. Let’s talk about what that might look like for you in your life.

[00:13:53] As a military spouse with young kids, wanting to show up as a better version of yourself, wanting to be there, to be able to give your kids what they need to give your spouse. What. They need and to really live filled, fueled, and full of joy. So maybe you decide that, Hey, I’m really noticing that I’m off in my area of health and fitness.

[00:14:20] So what would it look like to start small? Well, I know that moving my body is important, but I’m. A hard time, carving out the time to do a full workout video. Okay. But how can I still make sure I’m developing a habit of moving my body? Well, maybe it’s taking the 10-minute walk three times a week. Okay.

[00:14:47] Now I gotta put that on my schedule. When is that going to happen? All right. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings, before the kids get up, I can get out the door, get that 10-minute walk in and really make sure that I am prioritizing this in my life. Okay. Now I’m gonna assess that. Did I do that? Why or why not?

[00:15:08] Okay. I overslept. Okay. What do I need to do to shift that I need to go to bed earlier, whatever it is to begin work, shopping your life and fit in these small things that are really going to make a difference in the long run, maybe for you, it’s adding in that mindfulness meditation time, or let’s take the example of knowing that you need.

[00:15:33] Set aside time to rest because you are working from sunup to sundown every day until you are exhausted and you know that you feel overwhelmed and you’re headed towards that place of burnout. I have an episode I’ll link that below in the show notes of how the signs to know if you were headed towards burnout.

[00:15:54] But that’s a really good sign that you need to create that time for rest. We need that rest for our mental, emotional health, for our ability to pursue our purpose and to pour into others because we can’t serve from this place of burnout. So the questions that you would then say is, okay, what does rest look like?

[00:16:18] For me, what’s really restorative. When is a window of time, I can do nothing, not like veg out in front of the TV, but really do something that restores my soul. Okay. I’m gonna put that on the calendar and then I’m gonna assess, did I take time to rest this week, maybe for you? Spending time just reading a book or going outside to lay on the hammock and not do something for 15 minutes, whatever it is that really is restoring your soul and truly allowing your body some downtime.

[00:16:57] Did you carve out a little bit of time for rest this week and if not, what got in the way and what could you do to prioritize that time moving forward? So those are just a couple of examples of small things that we can do to care for ourself in a crazy busy season of life. Now, I would love to hear what your big takeaways from this episode.

[00:17:22] Where are you specifically struggling? How can we support you? Let’s continue this conversation. Just make sure you pop inside our Facebook community. It’s free. Just go to milspouse mastermind.com/community. That will take you right there. Pop in, let us know what you’re working on, what you’re struggling with, how we can support you.

[00:17:47] I think this is something that we all deal with and it’s so important that we continue to take that time to care for ourselves so that we can show up for the people in our lives. I hope that this episode was meaningful to you. If it was please share it with someone in your life, um, have that conversation, let them know about our community and how we are here to help military spouses thrive, get unstuck and find purpose in their current season of life.

[00:18:12] am cheering you on hoping you have an amazing week until next time that you live filled, fueled, and full of joy.