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My husband is the worst...😣⁣ 

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Ever been in one of those mommy groups and someone dives down the husband hating rabbit hole? 🙋🏼‍♀️ It takes one vent to start the “my husband is worse than yours!” tumble to oblivion. And it has to stop.⁣ 

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It’s not a badge of honor. It’s nooooooot something to brag about. And, really, when you dive down that rabbit hole what are you looking for? Other husband haters to surround yourself with? That doesn’t benefit you AT ALL. I promise.⁣ 

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The more I examine the success rate of my clients the more I see the correlation between an all-in partnership. Moms- you cannot run, clean, AND steer the ship by yourself.⁣ 

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Here are some tips for forming an all-in partnership with your spouse:⁣ 

☀️Ask. Ask him to help you. Begrudgingly picking up, doing dishes, folding laundry and rage cleaning... doesn’t serve either of you and only builds resentment.⁣ 

☀️When he does it imperfectly- let it go. Done is better than perfect.⁣ 

☀️Understand it’ll take time. He won’t remember to unload the dishwasher right away- keep asking. For the love of God don’t “just do it” because it’s “easier”. Keep going. Keep asking.⁣ 

☀️Help him understand WHY you want and need these help with things. If you haven’t heard of 🧹🧺🧼chore-play... look it up. Then tell him about it. 😉⁣ 

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If we are really honest with ourselves- we’re a bit to blame in this “I’ll do it all” mentality. 😣 Harsh truth, #sorrynotsorry. I trust your spouse loves you, wants you to be happy but may have fallen in to patterns that you’ve both given in to. Time to break those patterns, mamas!⁣ 

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You really have ✌🏻 choices- continue to do all the things but choose a better attitude about it OR ask for help and let it be done imperfectly. What will you choose?⁣ 

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This won’t happen overnight, but it will be worth it. Drop the ball, ask for help picking it up. An all-in partnership is KEY to your happiness, the happiness of your marriage and your success in life.♥️⁣ 

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Do you want help getting to this all-in partnership with your husband? Then The Mom Strong Method is for you. We work on YOU first and then help you create an all-in partnership that supports your goals, your family, your life. Drop a “I want all-in!” below 👇🏻and I’ll message you with some information! 

This one comes to you from me filling my water bottle.

Yep. Inspiration strikes everywhere, right?

Recently, I’ve been focusing a lot on gratitude. One of my favorite business books The 10X Rule talks about how new problems are good problems. If you’re recycling the same old problems, that means you have the same old issues. New problems = new issues = new growth.

And that, I can be down with.

So, today I was filling my water bottle up and getting impatient at how long it was taking. Have you ever been there?

I can’t be the only one. As my water bottle was taking PAINFULLY long (insert world’s smallest violin) to fill up, I laughed aloud. Jennifer, be grateful. Be grateful you found a water bottle you love. Be grateful you have clean water. Be grateful your hands work. Be grateful you’re hydrating.

Fill the cracks with gratitude.

Here are some tips for making those seemingly small moments matter:

I know, these can feel SO ANNOYING when you’re minded to be grateful. But… what is the alternative? To whine, add stress, stomp around, let the uncontrollable control you? Yeah, that ain’t no life to live.

So, find the cracks. Be grateful for the inconveniences, the good things, the bad, the joy the sadness.

Upcoming Craft Your Life happenings: The Mom Strong free Facebook group is now open! This is a no bullshit group for working moms who want health tips and tricks and mindset support. Search for Mom Strong - health, weight loss tips & mindset support for working moms and join us!

As always, find me at jennifer.t.johnson on Instagram!  Got ideas for future topics? Questions you want explored? Email me at [email protected] 

Legit just jumped out of the shower to write and record this podcast. I am sitting here, wet hair, bringing some hot off the mental presses stuff. 

You’ve seen me talk about how I believe balance is a lie. Balance implies that all the balls are in the air, your splitting time evenly, every plate is spinning. This. Is. Bullshit.

The working moms I talk with every day struggle so hard with this concept of balance because it leaves them always feeling like they’re doing everything fine, but never great- and rarely with time for themselves.

Have you been there? Me too.

I want to chat today about the concept of being present - over being balanced. This is a tough lesson I have had to learn recently (and many times before) and I am SO GRATEFUL that Ryan keeps challenging me in this area.

Here’s a little back story - I am finally feeling like my coaching business has legs. It’s incredible. I’m able to serve more women at a higher level and I am on Cloud 9 about that. The issue is, I tend to get very focused on what’s lighting me up, to the detriment of those around me. Ryan and I had a heart to heart recently as I was explaining what my business would need to be successful during this Mom Strong Method launch (i.e. more time away from the family) and he challenged me in a beautiful way.

You see, he believes in me, in my dream, wants me to be happy. He’s willing to give me space to grow this business which means more duties fall on his plate. I am SO LUCKY and never take that for granted…

…except I do.

What I was doing was taking more structured time for office hours but when I was with Zeke and Ryan, I wasn’t truly present. I was answering texts, emails, responding on FB, sneaking away to shoot off a voice text. You can only imagine how frustrating that is for my family who already is feeling like they’re second fiddle during this time of growth for my business. So, after Ryan lovingly but firmly letting me know that this wasn’t working for him and Zeke - I made a promise.

Be present.

That is my lesson for today. If you’re in a season of life where shit is going down at home or your job is heating up or your extracurricular activities are taking time - when you are at home, be present. The world CAN wait and WILL wait - if you train it to. How you let others treat you and interact with you is how you train them to continue to to do so.

Here are some of my tips:

Set boundaries with others. Let them know your response time, let them know that you do/do not check emails on weekends or nights. Let them know when they CAN reach you - and stick to that.

Inform your family. Do NOT go around sneaking in and out to respond to the world around you. Ask for structured time, stick to that structured time and when you’re not IN that structured time - be present.

Take time to check in with your family. Tell them what your goal with your business, work, etc. is and have them help you make it work. Half the battle is having them understand why you need what you need - and helping you get there. ALSO give them permission to say that does not work for them.

This takes TIME undoing habits, retraining those around you, reminding yourself and others how you need to be present. It won’t happen over night. The pull to do it all but never be present is strong. I am right here alongside you in the arena fighting this battle, too. I am cheering for you AND doing my best to be present with my family when I’m with them because they’re too important not to be.

That’s right, I love my commute.

Listen, all of us working moms have a commute. Some are long, some are short - but it’s something we do daily. Instead of dreading it, letting your stress hormones sky rocket, get to the office or home all frazzled….

Enroll in Drive Time University.

You’re already going to spend time in the car - may as well do it AND help yourself get healthier!

If you haven’t heard of Drive Time University, it’s the time spent in your car furthering your mindset. It’s the time you could be using listening to gossipy morning DJs and stressing out about the asshole who cut you off… OR you could put that time to good use.

Here are some ways you could choose to spend your commute:

Of course I recommend checking out The Mom Strong Podcast and if you like it, subscribe and give it a review. :) 

Here are some of my personal favorite podcasts - to get you started:

Download a few episodes of each and give them a listen! By working on your mindset, hearing things put in a different perspective, widening your worldview - you become a stronger and more resilient person. Plus, it’s FREE. 

Tag this episode and let me know what you’re listening to! I’d love to add it to my list!

Upcoming Craft Your Life happenings: The Mom Strong free Facebook group is now open! This is a no bullshit group for working moms who want health tips and tricks and mindset support. Search for Mom Strong - health, weight loss tips & mindset support for working moms and join us!

As always, find me at jennifer.t.johnson on Instagram!  Got ideas for future topics? Questions you want explored? Email me at [email protected] 

Anyone else remember that Jewel song? Am I dating myself?

Being labeled “sensitive” sucks. I always took it as a bad thing. I’m not sensitive! I’m tough! I’m strong! You won’t find ME crying in the corner!⁣ Except, you would.

I am sensitive. I feel other’s emotions deeply. I’m sensitive to loud noises and get very irratable around them. I am highly impacted by the moods of those around me. Careless words stick with me and fester. A well timed commercial can turn into a sob fest. When my clients are struggling, I cry and get frustrated for them.⁣

Recently I’ve been accepting my label of being sensitive. Trying to own it. Because, really- it is part of who I am and a beautiful gift. It is taking some reconditioning to own and honor this gift. ⁣I truly do believe that you can be mom strong and sensitive AF. They are not mutually exclusive by a long shot.

Here are some ways I’m learning to give my sensitivity space to breathe and grow:⁣

I coach a lot of my clients in to feeling their emotions again. It’s OKAY to get mad, be sad, feel joy, get angry. Bottling up those emotions never works. However, being able to FEEL that emotion and also give yourself space around it is so powerful. Feel that sadness, sit with it, where does it come up in your body? For me I feel anger in my chest - it feels like wet cotton balls, my face gets warm, my hands go cold. I’ve learned to feel these visceral sensations before the anger comes out as a yell, tears or shutting down. I literally think “oh, there you are anger, I see and feel you”.

What learning how your emotions FEEL does for you is gives you that second of being present. It gives you the precious pause between emotion and reaction. Many of my clients, myself included, are SO used to going from emotion to reaction over and over and over - with no space to process it or understand it. The kids forget their lunch again, we yell. The husband throws his socks two feet from the hamper, we stop our feet. These “little” things are frustrating, yes - but rarely worth the energy and reaction we give them.

An exercise for you to try is think of an emotion you have that you’d like to understand better. Maybe it’s frustration, anger, sadness, anxiety. 

This takes TIME but once you learn to recognize that feeling you can anticipate the reaction better. It gives you space to think, learn, sit with it. It’s worth the work and expect to “fail” the first dozen times you try but that’s why we call this a practice. Working with your emotions instead of against them is so freeing!

To all of my sensitive sisters- you can be both. You can be sensitive AND strong. Sensitive AND tough. Sensitive AND not cry (or do!) at all the things. Your gift to this world is your sensitivity. Thank you for that.⁣

Do you belong to the clean plate club?

No, not the one our mom rewarded us with for eating all our food… the clean LIFE plate club. That beautifully efficient life you dream of having!

I got so much great response from the finding vs. making time episode that I thought I’d share how I take my clients through cleaning up their life plate. I hope you find this useful, too!

The majority of The Mom Strong Method is about creating awareness. So often we are on autopilot in our lives, never questioning why we do what we do. It’s all habits based. One night you had a glass of wine after work, then the next, then you’re now someone who has a glass of wine every night after work - sound familiar?

Until we begin to track where we’re at and actually become aware of our habits - we’re sunk. You’re leaving it up to the human brain to remember you in fact DID eat that donut earlier and probably should NOT have the nachos “because you deserve it” (so many other things I could dive in to there, but that’s for a later episode). Tracking in black and white is the only way to create awareness - which is why I also give away my free Habit Tracker!

Now, before you lose your shit and reject the idea of tracking because 

A: it feels like a pain in the ass and 

B: it takes too much time

…let me stop you right there. First, the REAL pain in the ass is not knowing why you gained 45lbs this year, never have energy to workout and keep yo-yo dieting. Second, I have had my clients tell me how much time it takes them to track and NONE of them have said more than 10 minutes a day. This is where you get to choose - track or forever be lost to your habits. It’s your choice. Choose wisely.

I’m going to pretend you’re on board with tracking and move forward!

The clean plate club is for those who have tracked various things about their life to raise awareness. Perhaps it’s time on social media, perhaps it’s time sleeping, perhaps it’s if you pooped today, maybe it’s your food journal. Once you raise awareness around areas you want to change in your life - THEN you can begin to make the actual change.

Track something for one week - raise awareness. At the end of that week look back and decide if you’re happy with where that habit is taking you, or not. If the answer is yes- awesome! Keep it up! If the answer is no, it’s time to make small changes.

Let’s say you track your pooping. You see that you poop 1-2 times a week and you want to get on this pooping daily train that people always talk about. One action you might take is drinking more water. Another is lowering your stress level. Another is eating more fibrous foods. There are MANY ways to change a behavior - start small, track THAT and see if it gets you to your goals.

Tracking shines light on the areas of your life that you need to declutter. It helps you see maybe it’s not as bad as you think OR it’s WAY out of control and you “had no idea”. Either way- it’s beneficial.

I hope this overview helped. I’d highly recommend grabbing my free Habit Tracker off my website and begin to raise awareness with that. You can track ANYTHING you want and once you see how beneficial it is- you’ll be addicted. Being the Sherlock Holmes of your life is extremely empowering!

I thought I’d take some time today to share how I find the time to:

Workout

Eat well

Get sleep

Drink water

…hint - I don’t FIND the time. I MAKE the time.

Whenever I hear the question “How do you do it all?!” I shoot right back…”I don’t”.

I don’t do it all. I never have. No one can and if they say they do - they’re lying to you.

Time, especially for us working moms, isn’t just lying around waiting to be filled. You’ve got kids, a job, laundry, cooking, shopping not to mention sleep and trying to squeeze in a moment to yourself. Time isn’t just precious it feels like a luxury. I’m SUPER fortunate to have Ryan who is always helping out and yet I STILL don’t “find the time”.

Listen - you know I’d never bullshit you… and this one may sting a bit, you’ve heard it before. You find a way or you find an excuse. It’s the same with time. The #1 issue I work on with my clients is not ADDING to their plate but CLEANING it up. Removing things so their time can be filled with other more important things.

Here are some tips to “finding” time (you’re not gonna love these…):

Think of your biggest energy draining things, the time-sucks - start there. Maybe it’s scrolling your phone, maybe it’s cleaning the house, maybe it’s TV at night. Pinpoint what is truly not getting you any closer to your goals in life - and find a way to remove it or pawn it off (hint: I once got a housekeeper and I’m still glowing from it). 

Remember, just because you can’t find the time now doesn’t mean you never will be able to. This is especially true if you have kids under 2 years old… give yourself GRACE. Your #1 priority is keeping them alive, getting SLEEP and drinking WATER. Start there and you’ll feel 100 times better.

Please for the love of all things good do NOT say you can’t find the time, because you can. As you find these micro pockets to add in things that make you truly feel good, they naturally expand. They grow. They evolve. Give yourself space, grace and start small.

You’ve got this. I believe in you. You’re worth it. You’re Mom Strong.

Happy Tuesday, you strong moms! Today I’m debunking the phrase “you can’t pour from an empty cup” and “fill your cup first”. I never knew why it bugged me but when I watched the Rachel Hollis documentary of her RISE conference - she put it perfectly. Pardon me while I butcher trying to explain this…

We hear over and over that you can’t pour from an empty cup, do self care, fill your cup first… which always implies that you then have to give of your full cup to others. Then fill it again.

That sounds exhausting - empty, fill, empty, fill, empty, fill.

The way Rachel put it was to visualize a vase. Now visualize doing ALL the things that fill your vase - that could be time with your kids, a massage, doing some work you love, a nap. As you do these things your vase begins to fill. If you KEEP filling it day in and day out - it begins to overflow.

To OVERFLOW.

Isn’t that cool? YOU fill YOUR vase and it overflows… but where does it overflow to?

Your kids. Your spouse. Your friends. Your coworkers. Strangers.

If you fill your vase SO damn full that you have so much to give… it overflows.

I like to think of this as those times when you go to Target, childless and without anything to do afterwards. Someone rolls up with their full cart and you let them go ahead of you because you’re at Target, childless. The. Best. You happily give up your spot in line so they can checkout first.

Not because you OWE them anything. Not because you feel guilty for taking up space. Not because you’re looking for anything in return - just because it truly feels good.

This is the overflowing vase. Doing things for others not out of shame, guilt, because you “should” but because you truly WANT to. It fills your vase even more.

What are some of those things you can begin doing that make your vase overflow? Here are some suggestions:

Notice these things are NOT major undertakings like taking a vacation, spending tons of money, taking a ton of time. They’re small but they make you feel FANCY (at least they make me feel that way!). Try to do something that makes you feel fancy every day - fill that vase UP.

Listen, if you give and give and give and then wait SO long to fill your vase up… it never works out in your favor. Keep that vase full with little things done daily that make you feel good.

I’d love to hear what your “little things” are- tag me and I’ll share them on social media!

Upcoming Craft Your Life happenings: The Mom Strong free Facebook group is now open! This is a no bullshit group for working moms who want health tips and tricks and mindset support. Search for Mom Strong - health, weight loss tips & mindset support for working moms and join us!

As always, find me at jennifer.t.johnson on Instagram!  Got ideas for future topics? Questions you want explored? Email me at [email protected] 

Get full show notes at www.craftyourlifecoaching.com/podcast/19

Who run the world? Working moms!Yea, Beyonce couldn’t quite rhyme that but I know what she meant. ;)Here’s the deal- I have a soul deep belief that if working moms are living their best lives, we all are impacted in a positive way by it. Everyone. Legit. If the working mom is taking care of herself first she can be a better person, wife, mom, coworker, employee, boss.Let that ripple effect sink in for a second…The truth is, sometimes it can be crushing to be a working mom because you’re constantly trying to balance life - and you’ve been sold that you can actually find balance. It’s not true, mama. What is true- it’s OKAY to not be balanced. Life has ebbs and flows. Some days you’ll be rocking your job but sucking as a mom and some days you’ll be the best wife ever but a shitty coworker. The key thing is to remember that at any point you’re DOING YOUR BEST WITH WHAT YOU HAVE. Some days that’s rocking your life, other days that’s caffeine until it’s time for wine.What I want to stress is that if you put yourself first (wait.. don’t zone out on me…!), you will change your world and the entire world with it. This was exactly my experience when I, with a shit ton of grit and frustration, began my health journey three years ago. It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t easy but holy cannoli it was worth it to change MY life and the life if my entire family.Here’s are some tips on getting started:Start SMALL. The life overhaul is total bullshit and NEVER WORKS. Where can you start today, to put yourself first? Is it five minutes longer in the shower with a luxurious body wash? How about eating your lunch at work ON A PLATE (ohhhh the self care!)?

It’s a myth that you can begin working on yourself AND keep all the balls in the air perfectly. Don’t let anyone sell you that BS. It is ALSO a myth, though, that your health goes last and HAS to be that way until things “calm down” and you can focus on it. Don’t let anyone sell you that BS.As always, I am here in your corner cheering you on. I never promise my clients that putting yourself first will be easy. However, if you do it, it WILL change your world and legit - the entire world. Women rising to their best selves, especially working moms who have INCREDIBLE influence, will change our world. 

Get more at www.craftyourlifecoaching.com/podcast/18