How to Look Forward to Your Life
How to Look Forward to Your Life
It's Monday. I'm here for you.
The Pick Me Up is a Monday morning newsletter filled with advice, personal stories, and tips to help you get out of bed and jumpstart your week.
Greetings, friend! It’s me, Jen Glantz. A friend recently confessed to me:
Jen, I feel like I have nothing to look forward to in life.
I poked around that statement.
Did she mean no vacations planned? No happy hours with friends? No work projects? No hobbies…ps. who actually has hobbies?
So I asked her and she said:
No, no, just like the little things, the every day things, the things that make Monday not just feel like another Monday.
If you’re feeling bored, blahhh, or bewildered about your life right now, this newsletter is for you. Scroll on, friend.
In this issue: How to enjoy your life again, my signature must-haves, and a book I really loved this month so much.
Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 8-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.
Meet Pick-Me-Up Sponsor: Sunsama
Do you find yourself working after 6 pm, checking emails at the dinner table, or staying up late to work on that important project?
Most of the time, the culprit is not you, it’s your todo list. You don’t need a list, you need an assistant that keeps you on track and ensures you prioritize the right things.
Enter Sunsama. They’re the only “planning assistant” that pulls your emails, calendar events, and tasks from your favorite apps into one focused view for just today.
Super happy with the platform and hope you’ll give it a try and plan your day in Sunsama.
Instant Pick Me Ups
🍪: Text a friend. Ask them what a highlight of their month was. I know I always want to show up for my friend but don’t love asking them “hey, how are you?” for the 10th time that month. One way to check-in with people you love at the end of the month is to send them this:
Thinking about you! Ps. What was a top highlight of your month?
📚: I know I say this about every book but this one is a top three favorite. I read it every year. It’s so beautiful and maybe the most well-written book I have ever read.
🎧: This is still an album that I play on repeat when I need background noise to get work done. It never gets old. The other night, I played it while Adam and I cleaned out our entire kitchen. It helped keep our spirits high even when we found a pile of crumbs lingering under the trash can that had been there for…weeks.
How to Look Forward to Your Life...Again
STEP ONE:
👉🏻Forget everything you can about last March. Stop thinking about how stressed you were to stuff your life into a carry-on suitcase for a vacation abroad. Refuse to daydream about eating sushi 10-feet away from your personal legend, KESHA. Ignore the memories of hugging your parents, of riding the subway up and down Manhattan just for fun, of a last-minute dinner with a good friend.
STEP TWO:
👉🏻Stare at a blank calendar that says March 2023 on it. Pretend to write down plans with your favorite yellow pen. Scribble stars all over the calendar instead and put it aside.
Let yourself exhale the emptiness. Let yourself feel tiny inside the space of having time and having nothing to fill it with. Let yourself stare at the numbers on the calendar and drift as you remember what each of these days once meant, years ago, for so many reasons.
Fill the blanks in on the calendar with memories of years that feel ancient.
The 12th of March....oh the 12th of March.....
STEP THREE:
👉🏻Write down tiny little things you know you can look forward to - pizza Fridays, mailing “Thinking of You” cards, video chat dates with dear friends......
Fill the calendar with purpose, even if it feels like you’re trying too hard. Try harder. Fill it with tiny things, silly things, things you know you could do if you just let yourself do them.
STEP FOUR:
👉🏻 Think about the end of the month. What do you want it to be known for? How do you want to be a % better, stronger, wiser, kinder as a human? What do you want to say to yourself you accomplished? Write that down with the biggest and boldest letters you can.
STEP FIVE:
👉🏻Keep that calendar with you every day. Hang it up on the wall by your desk, near the shower, by your bed.
Look at it, love it, live it because even if you never had to work hard to look forward to your own life before - you will again - at some point again - so get really brilliantly good at doing it right now.
All my love,
Random Pick-Me-Ups
Scary things: Every month, on my to-do list, I write scary things I have to do - like ask for more money from a client or email someone at Netflix and pitch a TV show. Here’s how I pump myself up to do that.
5 of my signature must-haves: These are the things I swear by and can’t live without
Baby Lists: Putting together lists of all the items I bought for the baby. It took me a ton of research to figure out what to get - so sharing those lists with you right here.
Ps. Let’s work together - here’s how:
1:1 coaching // courses // company workshops & speaking
+ Random:
Books // Card Game // Podcast // Bridesmaid for Hire // Scared to Be a Mom
+Social:
I’ll be back next week with a new Monday Pick-Me-Up. Until then, I leave you with this:
You’re doing a really great job you tough, resilient, human. I see you, I adore you, I’m cheering for you, always.