Hi, ladies, and welcome back to the Ashlee Jaine show. I am your host and guide Ashlee Jaine sharing advice and actionable tips on how to become the very best version of yourself. And because that is literally the theme of this entire podcast channel, I am going to be talking about just that in this very episode with you here today, we are going to be discussing how you are showing up in this world because honestly, it is so important, and I think it's something that not a lot of people realize or take inventory of. But when you start to become aware of how you're showing up in various capacities of your life, you realize where you're living up to your potential and where you're just kind of dropping the ball, maybe just floundering a little bit treading water, if you will. Or maybe you just have like some really extreme fatigue or burnout in some areas, too. So I'm going to walk you through some legitimate reasons why you need to be doing this and also just kind of bringing some questions and some self-reflection to the forefront so that you can really just get a good feel for where you're at, how you're showing up, what areas of your life do you need to improve on and things like that so that you can become the very best version of you because that is what the Ashlee Jaine show is all about. Life is just way too short to not be showing up as the best version of ourselves, to not be working towards our potential and to not be living it to the fullest of our capabilities.

So with all of that said, and out of the way, let's go ahead and just dove into today's episode. I think that as a society are exceptionally busy people. I feel that sometimes we just get caught up and we have so much going on that we really forget to take a step back and look at how we are doing it, how we are handling all of it, all of the things that we're responsible for. In fact, I actually took inventory the other day of I was just running through my head. All of the things that I had to like that I was responsible for that. I had to make sure happened and that I had to carry out. And it was a lot. It was very overwhelming. And I think a lot of you ladies can probably relate to this list, but I literally took the time to type it out because because I wanted to make sure that I was truly capturing it all. And of course, each and every single one of these subjects has multiple different umbrellas of areas and things like that underneath it that were also responsible for taking care of and remembering to do as well. So let me know if you ladies can relate to this, but these are the things that I came up with that I really have to take responsibility for.

Be aware of or do on a day to day basis and starting with grocery shopping, household supplies, meal planning, cooking, cleaning, picking up the kids, dropping them off at school, homework help. Of course, the after school events practices extracurriculars for the kids, staying on top of the bills, the car maintenance, the house maintenance birthdays, social events and social gatherings. Make sure that the dogs are fed and cared for, spending quality time and reconnecting with my husband. Skincare haircare routine. Throw in self-care and exercise every once in a while and none of this that I've mentioned so far includes everything that we're responsible for in the role of our jobs or our businesses. And the list literally goes on and on and on. So I was a bit overwhelmed as I was thinking about everything that I actually have to be responsible for on a day to day basis. And it really made me wonder how I have made it this far in life. But I have. I'm here, and so are you. So clearly we're doing, you know, somewhat of a decent job staying on top of all of our adult responsibilities. But my point being that we wear a lot of hats, we play a lot of roles and we do a lot of things and we are responsible for a lot of things on a very consistent basis, whether that's daily or weekly, whatever that looks like, it's fairly consistent for you, sometimes monthly, because like bills and things like that, that's obviously usually a monthly thing.

But we are responsible for doing so much. And it's like if you are like a single parent on top of that, I cannot even imagine. I don't know what I would do if it was just me flying solo. Actually, I do know what I would do because there are times when Nick goes out of town and it's just me and the kids, and it's a lot. It's a lot to take care of. It's I mean, it's so convenient having that partner to help with the practice drop offs and the practice pickups and things like that and helping you get dinner ready and things like that. So I can't even imagine for you, single moms out there like my heart is with you and you are my hero. Ok, so listing out everything that we do, maybe you have more. I'm sure that we all have, you know, different things going on in our lives. But how are we showing up for those things? That's the question. That's the concern. That's what we're here to really think about, to take inventory on and to figure out how we can better ourselves in these roles and in these responsibilities. Are we showing up as fatigued or disengaged or unenthusiastic or careless or sloppy? Probably, yes.

And that's OK. If you answered yes to one of these things, I want to emphasize that that is A-OK because I think we can all relate. We have all been there at some point or another, and it's OK. It's OK to feel that way. It's OK to have that burnout. And I want you to take a minute to reflect on everything that you do and everything that you have going on and how you are showing up, whether that is positively or negatively impacting those things. It's a harsh reality to grasp, but we need to do it for the sake of bettering ourselves and being a better wife, mother, employee, business owner, Inter X, Y or Z here. So and one of my previous podcasts, I actually talked about the myth that is balance between life and work because I don't think that that exists. I think that is some sort of unicorn that maybe somebody somewhere started and gave women like us hope that it existed and that it was out there and it was possible to achieve. But I can tell you from my personal experience being a business owner for years and the mother for years, I've never been able to find the balance between work and life. It's just a matter of seasons and flow and fluidity with your schedule. And really just being adaptable and rolling with the punches. So balance of work in life is nonexistent, but that doesn't mean that you can't show up as the best version of yourself in work and in life.

So it's a matter of just eliminating the stresses around it. It's a matter of just eliminating the anxiety around it. Well, anyways, I talk about this in the episode. You can go back and listen to it. It is parked on my podcast on whichever app it is that you are tuning in on. You can go back and find it. I think it's literally just called like work and life balance or something along those lines so you can go back and check that out. But I don't want you to let the the stress and the anxiety and everything that you have on your plate, all the balls that you have in your ear to stop you from showing up as the best version of yourself on a day to day basis. So it's unrealistic to think that we all operate at the same capacity, at the same efficiency, and that we can individually do everything at the same capacity and efficiency every single day. And I want you to understand that. So while you may see someone who is like training for a marathon while you're struggling to get on the treadmill for 30 minutes a day, understand that we all operate at very different speeds in life. And you can embrace your speed as long as you're showing up, as long as you're doing your part to be the best version of yourself in that capacity on that treadmill or whatever the analogy that you have in your head might be, I really try to throw out examples here because I want you to like grasp the idea and the concept of what I'm sharing with you because it's so important.

This is such a life changing opportunity, and once we start really focusing and being intentional on showing up as our best selves and all of the capacities and all of the roles, and with all of our responsibilities, things really start to shift and bend in our favor. So it's very important that we do that and most importantly, our quality of life, right? Because if we're showing up burnt out, if we're showing up as very disengaged or unenthusiastic, or maybe even just downright negative and dreadful about the things that we have going on in our life, it is lessening the quality of our life. It is lessening our relationships. It is lessening the time that we spend with the people that we love most. It is lessening the weight that we carry in impact that we can make. So what does it look like for you to show up as the best version of yourself? Are you present? Are you involved? Are you attentive? Are you being productive? How is your mood? Is it positive? Is it gracious to people? Enjoy being around you. That is what you need to be striving for and all of the roles and all of the responsibilities that you have in life.

And some days it might look different than others. Remember, I talked about different capacities and different efficiencies on different days. That's totally fine. There are some days when I feel like I'm operating at about a four instead of my desired 10, but I am doing what I can with what I've got going on. So maybe instead of, you know, getting dressed, doing my hair or my makeup and, you know, recording all of the outfits for my YouTube video that day, I feel like absolute garbage. Maybe I'm bloated, maybe I'm cramping, and I just cannot get into the swing of things. But do you know what I'm going to do? I may be wearing sweats. I may be sitting on my couch, but I am still going to do something in my business that can be productive and that can move the needle forward. I'm still going to. Maybe that's editing. Maybe that's responding to emails. Maybe that is, you know, communicating with my V.A. on projects that we have coming up. Maybe that's recording podcasts just like this. Instead of putting my face on the camera, I can sit here and I can record these podcasts in my sweats. I'm not wearing sweats right now, by the way. I am wearing workout leggings because I got my pilates in this morning and I just still haven't changed.

But I am wearing a. Quite sure if that counts for something, but I want you to understand that there are definitely things in ways that you can still show up as your best self, even when you're feeling crummy, even when you're feeling unmotivated or uninspired. Another great example would be like maybe you had plans to take the kids out to dinner and you wanted to go spend quality time with them out there. But maybe you're feeling under the weather, you're not feeling great. So you decide to do an at home movie night instead, and you're still getting that quality time with your kids. You're still being able to spend time with them, connect with them, communicate with them. And so you're still getting the same effect. You're still getting that connection and the intention behind what you are doing is there. You're just maybe not doing it as you had planned if you were operating at like a 10 out of ten. So my point here is that there's always something that can be done. There's always tweaks that can be made on those days when you don't feel 100 percent, but you still want to show up to the best of your ability. You still want to show up as the very best version of yourself in whatever it is that you are doing. You want to be productive with work. You want to spend quality time with your kids or your husband or your partner.

You want to just do the things that need to get done. Maybe instead of going to the grocery store that looks like ordering groceries online, which I'm actually going to talk about here in a second. So now let's go ahead and shift gears. Since I talked about grocery shopping and I hate grocery shopping, but it is a role. It is a responsibility that usually comes back on me. So if there is something in your life that you truly don't enjoy, it doesn't make you happy. Maybe it even bogs you down or tracks you down and takes you to a negative space. If you have to do it, give it up all you have to do. We live in this amazing world where you can outsource pretty much anything and whether that is grocery shopping or cleaning or doing the laundry. There's literally someone that you can hire for everything. And maybe if that's not in your financial budget, that's totally OK. You can work with your kids or your husband or whoever to maybe do a swap. So one week you clean, the next week your husband cleans, or one week you do the laundry. The next week your kids do the laundry, or maybe they start doing their own laundry. There's always things that can be done around a situation, especially if it's something that just really brings you down because it is not worth doing at that point.

In my opinion, that is time that you can fill with doing something that is more joyful, that is more impactful, and that can contribute in a positive way. So you can show up as the best version of you. You can feel like the best version of you. So try to be a problem solver and figure out how to eliminate those areas in your life, those roles or those responsibilities that you absolutely despise doing and how you can get out of doing that. Whether it's automated bill pay or hiring Instacart person to do your grocery shopping, or maybe even like taking your laundry to a drop off laundry cleaner or laundry mat or something like that, there's lots of different options out there. And actually, surprisingly, I think the laundry thing is fairly cheap for them to like, wash and dry it if you want to pick it up and drop it off. And I've even heard of people coming to your house and picking it up from your house and then taking it, washing it, folding it and bringing it back. So point being, there's plenty of ways to get around you not having to do the things that just are not for you, that just are essentially draining you and taking away opportunities for you to be doing something else that can help you be the best you. That can help you be the best mom, that can help you be the best business owner that you can be.

All right. So relieve yourself of the things that are holding you back from being as present and being as productive as possible in all areas of your life, especially the ones that matter most to you. Your friends will thank you. And most importantly, I promise you will thank yourself because you have given yourself the freedom to start showing up as the best version of yourself in every single role and responsibility that you have in life. And you will feel a weight lifted because you no longer have those things that you hated doing before dragging you down. So really, try to get creative, think outside the box and figure out how you can eliminate those line items in your life, those roles and those responsibilities that just are no longer serving you, or that take you to a negative space or keep you from showing up as the best version of yourself in any other capacity in your life. All right, that is it for my episode on how you are showing up and how important it is, I hope that you got the gist of this, but how important it is. For you to show up as the very best version of yourself. Thank you so much for being here with me, ladies. I really appreciate you tuning in and listening and of course, working on becoming the best version of yourself. And I will catch you on the next episode.