“If you can find gratitude even during this uncertain time, you will ease your anxiety immensely.”
Life has changed a lot lately. Let’s talk through how to survive & thrive during this time.
IN THIS EPISODE, I SPECIFICALLY TEACH HOW TO DO THINGS LIKE:
- How to work from home (even with your partner and kids too) because I’ve been working from home for YEARS now with my kids and husband home too…this is a topic I’m a pro at!
- Make extra money and/or up-level your money game because I’ve been broke during a high-stress time and I also know how to take advantage of a volatile financial market (thanks to my financial advisor hubby).
- Manage anxiety even if you have MORE on your plate right nowWhy it’s important to analyze what stage of belief you’re in monthly
- Build strong habits despite changes happening every day by just asking yourself three simple questions
…and so much more!
I know some of these topics in this episode don’t apply to everyone so I’ve broken the episode down by the time each topic starts so you can listen to what does apply to you.
I HIGHLY suggest that EVERYONE listens to the beginning of this episode up until I give the work from home tips to get the latest announcements and then listening to the end of the episode starting with the managing anxiety section – this info is GOLD.
EPISODE TIME BREAKDOWN:
–A MUST-LISTEN: What’s going on in my free online community right now & how to join: 4:29
–A MUST-LISTEN: What program I’m giving away for free right now & how to join: 7:23
-My top tips for working from home: starts at 9:42
-My top tips for working from home with your spouse: starts at 19:00
-My top tips for working from home with kids, including what skill you can gain from this that can be a HUGE blessing for you: starts at 23:00
-Ideas to make extra money right now if your income is reduced if not completely cut-off right now: starts at 29:21
-Suggestions on how to up-level your money game especially if things aren’t “bad” financially right now for you: starts at 35:22
–A MUST-LISTEN: How to manage your anxiety if you have LESS on your plate than normal right now: starts at 40:33
–A MUST-LISTEN: How to manage your anxiety if you have MORE on your plate than normal right now: starts at 43:52
–A MUST-LISTEN: The 3 questions to ask yourself to make this time extremely intentional for you and how you can create healthy habits to make your intentions come true: starts at 47:40
Listen to the extremely impactful episode via the link above.
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
→ Continue the conversation in my free online community
→ Get The 4-Day Accomplish Your Dreams Free Training
→ DISTRACTION-FREE LIVING episode
→ MANAGING UNCERTAINTY episode
→ MASTER YOUR MOTIVATION episode
→ CORONAVIRUS QUESTIONS PRINTABLE
Full Transcript
This is the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast with Lindsay Preston Episode 37,
Coronavirus Tips.
[music]
Welcome to the Become an Unstoppable Woman podcast, the show for goal-getting, fearfacing women for kicking ass by creating change. I’m your host, Lindsay Preston. I’m a wife,
mom of two, and a multi-certified life coach to women all over the world. I’ve lived
through enough in life to know that easier doesn’t always equate to better. We can’t fear
the fire, we must learn to become it. On this show, I’ll teach you how to do just that. Join
me as I challenge you to become even more of the strong, resilient, and powerful woman
you were meant to be. Let’s do this.
[music]
Hi there, my friend, welcome to the show. Today is one of those last-minute bonus
episodes that I’m recording on the fly on another Sunday morning here. What time is it?
10:35 AM, as I’m recording this, and it’s going live in less than 24 hours because we were
living in a very weird time right now where the coronavirus is global. I have clients in New
Zealand, England, Germany right now, and all of them are feeling the effects of this.
Obviously, here in the United States, we are well.
So, crazy, right? How we’re all going through this together, but yet cool at the same time,
because sometimes in our lives we go through struggles and we can feel really alone, but
it is really cool. It’s weird that I’m saying that this is cool, but it is cool that we are all
experiencing some form of this around the world. I guess that’s my connecting the
strength coming out but it’s just very nice to know that we’re not alone in the struggle for
once, right?
Today what I’m going to talk about are just all the things, all the things that may be on
your plate right now. Maybe you’re working from home for the first time and you have a
partner at home, or you may have kids at home too. How do you manage that? I have been
working for home with a partner in kids for years now so I’m going to give you some tips
on that.
Also, how to make extra money right now, or if you just want to up-level your money
game. You may be in a spot where your income has diminished or ceased and you are in
this fight or flight mode. I’ve been there, I’m going to talk you through that. But if you’re in
a place where you are actually pretty good, but maybe you can take this time when the
world has slowed down a little bit to simplify and to invest, I’m going to talk you through
that as well.
We’re also going to talk through how to manage the anxiety, because again, wherever you
are in the spectrum of, shit is hitting the fan right now, or if life is just a little bit different
for you, you probably have some anxiety. I want to talk you through how to manage that.
Then, how to build strong habits despite these changes happening every day and so much
more in there.
I will say, listen to the very end of this episode because that’s where we’re going to get
into the biggest takeaways I think. I’m going to give you a free printable that you can use
to help you really make this time of all these unexpected changes a time when you can
not just survive but thrive. I actually did the exercise that I’m going to give you just a bit
ago, and oh my goodness, it has really helped to calm my mind and got me super focused,
and making me feel like I’m myself again. This past week has been a little crazy, let’s
admit. Especially as this episode is going live, it’s just been about a week and a half since
here in the US things started to radically change. So, I’m just catching my breath and you
may be too.
All right, let’s talk through everything. Before I do though, I do want to share that I do have
a free community and it’s in an online platform. It’s not on Facebook or any other social
network, it’s its own app. It’s actually called Mighty Networks, but you can sign up for free
right now. All you do is you go to Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, epreston.com/community, there’s
also a link in the show notes. This community is one where you can come and you can talk
about this episode more in-depth with me either via in a private message or just post
something in our community. The tips I’m going to give you today are going to be general
and for a wide range of people. You may be thinking, “Well, where can I fit, Lindsay? Maybe
I need specific help on X, Y, Z and you didn’t talk about that.” Or, “I want to know how you
took this one thing and how I can apply it to my life.”
That’s what that community is for, is for you to ask all your questions, to get individualized
free feedback, and get support from other people too. Not only that, but right now in that
community, we are doing daily wins, gratitude, and struggle post. Every day I have a post
in there and I say, “Okay, what went well for you yesterday? What were your wins?” You go
in there and you say, “Okay, yesterday, I did this and I did this and I did this.”
Right now our brains are always going to focus in on the negative. That’s just our survival
mechanism. Especially with everything going on right now, it’s a lot to take in. If we don’t
intentionally take a few minutes every day and say, “Okay, what was the good of
yesterday? What went well?” Again, what we call wins in my world, then our brain just
overwhelms us with all the bad things and we just start feeling really weighed down.
But when we can see these little bursts of light, hope and goodness, goodness it changes
the game. It may seem so simple and even Pollyanna-like, but I promise you, it makes such
a difference. We do that daily wins post, you express something you’re grateful for because
gratitude is the highest emotional frequency you can feel. It’s really important, again, you
take a moment every day to express gratitude. I’m grateful for being alive, I’m grateful that
I’m healthy, I’m grateful for whatever you’re grateful for that day, to ease that mind again,
right?
Then, two, on that post, you can say a struggle. “I’m struggling today with a judgment. I’m
feeling really judgy towards people who are handling the virus in a different way than I
am.” “I’m feeling really judgy toward this.” Or, “I’m really struggling with my partner on
this, or my kids with this or my work with this, or with my mindset.” Whatever it is, you can
post that struggle in there.
You can either talk through what you’ve done to overcome that struggle because, again,
that will boost that brain in saying, “Hey, I really am handling this well,” and/or you can
post that struggle of, “I’m really needing help with us. What tips can you give me?” There, I
can coach you through things, other people can give you support, love and guidance. It’s
just a really great way for every day to go in and boost that mindset. Go join that free
community again, it’s Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, epreston.com/community to join.
The other quick thing I want to say is my Life Luvers 21-day Challenge program that’s
typically $97, I am giving away for free right now. This is for anybody. Typically I have
where you have to go through an assessment and get on a call with me to get in this
course, but right now, anybody can join it. This course is one that’s going to teach you in
21 days, the neuroscience backed tools for lifelong success. It’s the program I have all my
clients go through at the very beginning because I want them to learn all of those basic
tools. You will get it for free, as I said right now, for 30 days. It’s more than enough time
for you to go in and take this course, learn these tools. These tools will not only help you
during this time of uncertainty but in your entire life.
One of those tools, I must say, and they are wins. I go into in-depth, what wins are, how to
look for them because they’re not just external things, there is internal things that you
want to be looking for in your mind, every single day, to comment and show it. I’m in
control, I’ve got this, everything’s going to be good. It makes such a huge difference. If you
want to get in that course, just go to Lindsay, L-I-N-D-S-A-Y, epreston.com/freelifeluvers,
and lifeluvers is spelled, L-I-F-E-L-U-V-E-R-S. It’s Lindsayepreston.com/freelifeluvers, with
luvers spelled, L-U-V-E-R-S. The link will be in the show notes as well.
Okay. Those are announcements for there, but let’s get into my coronavirus tips. I have a
feeling this episode is going to be a long one. I’m going to go through some of these stuff
fast because some of these tips of like working from home, making extra money and upleveling your money game are really just like the toppings to a cake. The cake, or the base,
of what I want to talk about is actually at the end of this podcast but I realized that a lot of
you probably have all of this anxiety and all these questions about things like working
from home and money, and it’s really important for me to address those first so we can get
to the good stuff later because then your brain will be a little bit calmer. All right?
Let’s talk about working from home. If this is a new thing for you, as I said earlier, I’ve
been doing this for a while now, and here are my top tips for you to create an at-home
working space that will help you thrive. Right?
First off, create focused working hours. If you’re in a corporate environment, it may already
be set for you, you need to be at your desk from eight to five or whatever. If you don’t have
set working hours now, really sit down and figure out when do you work best. For me, I
work best from like 10 AM to about 2 PM or 3 PM and those are my strongest working
hours. Now, obviously, you may not be in a boat where you can work less than eight hours,
I don’t know, but whatever boat you’re in, just really set some working hours because that
is going to give you a boundary of, I’m at work and when I’m not at work.
The second thing is to make sure your workspace is organized and clean. For me, I like to
work around the house at different points. Now, I do have an office and I tend to work
there but I also work in my master bedroom sometimes, I work on my couch sometimes, I’ll
even go to the library sometimes, which obviously we’re not really doing right now.
Wherever I am, I have to make sure that environment is clean. If there is are things that are
not in the right place, or it’s a dirty room, I do not want to be there. You may be like me,
and you need that clean and organized space. Research out there shows most of us need
that in order to really be able to focus. Make sure you’re keeping your space clean,
especially since we’re at home now so much, it’s really important you’re keeping that
space clean. You really don’t have that many excuses to keep it clean, or to not keep it
clean, even if you have kids at home. Please, please, please keep that space organized and
clean.
Also make sure your energy is calm. We’ll talk about ways to manage your anxiety here in
a bit. The more you can create calmness in that space, the better. All right, so and it may
be, you may feel calm, you may need more energy, so find ways to create whatever energy
you want for that space. For me, as I just said, it’s calm. For a lot of times, maybe I have
music playing in the background, or my space is really clean like I said, I’m looking outside,
I’ve just done some mindset things to get into my space, where I’m really calm and
collected, but do whatever you need to do to create the energy that you want to create.
The other thing I want to encourage is to take breaks. When you’re in an office
environment, you’re typically up and moving every so often either going to a meeting, or
you’re talking to someone or you’re just looking at your phone every so often. Whereas
from working from home, you can get a lot more done typically at home. It’s like
homeschooling at home, you don’t have to sit a child down for eight hours and do
homeschooling, what I’m learning is that really, it only takes like an hour or two to get
done what you need to get done, which is crazy to me. It’s the same with working from
home, you can get a lot more done, in less time. It’s really important that you take breaks.
I actually did a form of coaching once as a client called high-performance coaching. The
coaching process is Brendon Burchard, if you know who he is, that’s his baby and process.
What I learned in that process is that you want to be taking breaks, I think it’s like every 40
minutes or something like that. Which is crazy to me that it’s that often. I typically take a
break, gosh, like every hour, I’ll just get up and walk around. Though, I don’t have it set in
stone that I do that because I have a tendency to sit down for hours on end and then just
burn myself out. I’ve had to learn to say, “Okay, I’ve worked for–” Two hours is usually my
max, then I’ll get up, I’ll move around, I’ll stretch, take deep breaths, maybe get some
water or whatever I need to do and then I’ll get back at it.
I encourage you to do the same and not just sit at a desk, or chair or pouch or whatever for
hours on it, make sure you’re getting up and moving around and doing whatever you need
to do to take a break.
The other thing I want to say here is prep your mindset when you’re going to work which
could be just walking across your house or your apartment. Maybe get dressed of some
sort. There have been times when I have literally rolled out of bed and started working and
my mindset for the day was crappy because of that. It was just groggy and sleepy versus if
I were to get up and at least just get dressed, maybe wash my face, put on deodorant put
on a bra even. Bonus points because now what I do typically is I get up I get my kids to
school, I get dressed, and then I go work out and then I start working. That’s just been my
pattern for an ideal day.
Now, if you’re in a place where you can work out in the morning before you “go to work”
that may be ideal for you too. Just play with what routine you want to create to get in the
right workspace because I know for many people, they have that commute. For a lot of
them they’re listening to podcasts or music and that gets them in the headspace. Now,
they’re not doing that, they’re just doing the roll out of bed get to work thing. It’s
important that you still maintain some routine where you’re getting in the right mindset.
That could be as easy as going for a walk outside and listening to your podcast instead of
driving to work.
The other thing I want to say here is working from home is create very, very strong
boundaries with distractions. I like what I do, I’m very fortunate in that, I’m not distracted
very often to say, “Oh, I just want to sit and watch TV or whatever.” There are certain
things in my business, I do not like doing, specifically tech things, oh, my gosh, and I will
put that crap off and just be like, “Oh, well, I’ll get to it later. I’ll just go scroll on my phone
or I will go and talk to somebody inside, or I’ll just say, I’m really tired, I want to do it.”
If you’re in a position where you don’t really like your job, and now you’re working from
home, it’s going to be crazy hard to not want to turn to distractions. Distractions are things
that you do, but you don’t really want to do them anyway, even though your brain is like,
“Let me go watch Netflix.” “Let me go eat chocolate,” or, “Let me go scroll my phone or
whatever.” You’re just going to have to get bigger than your brain in essence on this. When
you feel like you need to distract yourself with things, you’ve got to stop yourself and say,
“Okay, remember, I set a boundary around this stuff, I’m not going to do XYZ right now,
these are my working hours or maybe I just need to go for a walk instead of turn on
Netflix, or whatever it is.” I already have some clients who are telling me, “Oh, I’m taking
this extra time and I’m not using it wisely. I’m scrolling on Netflix, and whatever.”
It’s really important you start to set some strong boundaries with that, I know it’s hard and
I’ll get to it a minute more of ceasing than anxiety and things of that sort to help you with
this. Just know setting strong boundaries is part of the game, we all struggle with it, we all
want to distract ourselves but you’ve got to be bigger than your brain.
The other thing I want to say here is remember or create your why of why your job is
important. It may be obviously for money reasons like, “It’s important for me to have
money and here’s why,” and go deeper into that, “Because I want to have a roof over my
head, I want to be able to travel, I want to be able to have health care,” whatever that is.
Why is it important that you’re doing your job?
You have to remember that you have a choice. This week on the Unstoppable Podcast, I
have two episodes coming out, Master your Motivation is the other one. I really encourage
you to listen to that one, too. It’s one I had pre-recorded way back in January, with my
guest, Susan Fowler, and she talks about how choice is so important in our motivation.
Again, go listen to that episode to learn more. Realize that you have a choice here to show
up for your job or not. Figure out why is it so important for you to show up to that job.
For me, it’s really easy again, because I have a deeper way with my business. It’s all about
helping people, helping women specifically. I’ve really dug deep among the years of
realizing why that’s so important to me and things of that sort. When I don’t want to show
up for my job, I remember my why and it’s really easy for me to get motivated with that.
Now for you, you may have not done that work, or your job just is not enjoyable. Trust me,
I’ve been there, I’ve had jobs that are not enjoyable. Again, really tap into why it is
important for you to be showing up to that job right now, and that will help boost your
motivation. Go listen to that Master your Motivation episode if you’re struggling with that
because that can start to help you a little bit more. That interview is so good, it’s so, so, so
good.
All right, that’s just my general working from home tips. Now some of you have extra
things here with working from home, you’ve got a spouse at home, and/or you’ve got kids
at home. Let’s talk through that because I have both. My spouse and I have been working
beside each other now for a couple of years. When we first started doing it, holy moly, it
drove me crazy. It was so weird to see him all of the time. First off, it took away some of
our passion and our spark to be honest with you, because it was just like I knew what he
was doing all day long. I saw him all day long.
We really had to create some boundaries with that. One thing that really helped us is we
didn’t really see each other during the day. I would go back in my office, he would be up in
his office. Our house isn’t really that big, it’s like 2000 square feet so it’s not a huge house.
For some of you, I know you’re in tiny apartments right now or smaller houses, this may be
harder for you but just think through how you can create this. Like I said, we’re in two
different areas of the house. He’s at the front of the house, I’m at the back of the house, we
even have French doors to separate the house. Even though we’re in different rooms, we’ll
close the French doors, so we don’t really hear each other because he tends to be on the
phone a lot. He’s a financial adviser and so he’s just talking to people all the time, and
then I have my coaching calls, and I don’t want to hear anything going on with him,
nothing because he’s talking about money and all this earthly stuff, no, thank you. I want
to be in my clients’ heads, completely present with them and then our little Lalo world, is
what I like to call it. Again, I don’t want to see him, I don’t really want to know what he’s
doing all day because, at the end of the day, we don’t really have anything to talk about,
there’s really no mystery there, and so it was really important for us to have those separate
spaces.
Now, sometimes we’ll go out to lunch together. Now, I know right now we’re not, we’re all
at home, but come together at certain parts of the day, or I’ve incorporated, I’ll go in his
office at certain parts, and I’ll just say, “Hey, how are you doing,” and I might rub his
shoulders, or just give him a kiss, and things of that sort. We will connect throughout the
day, but we really have our own space, and both of us tend to be pretty focused now when
we’re working. Hopefully, that tip helps.
Another tip I have about working from home with your partner is get out of the house
separately. Now, I know we all need to stay home right now and things of that sort, but
you can easily just get in your car and drive around. If you’re at home all day long with this
person, think about that, maybe you go work out separately, someone goes for a run at a
certain point and the other person doesn’t. If you’re able to go to an outdoor space, maybe
go out there and do your own self-care by yourself.
Don’t feel like you need to spend 24/7 with this person, just because you’re both home.
Yes, it’s such an amazing opportunity, you’re both home at the same time, trust me, I’m a
little bit jealous of it. At the same time, you guys will likely get very sick of each other and
you want to create some distance, some passion there, some mystery because it will keep
things alive a little bit more. Just my experience.
The last thing I want to say here is– It goes back to something I said earlier with
boundaries, but really set strong boundaries with distractions. It can be really easy during
this time, especially if you’re new to this working from home with a partner thing, just
want to hang out with him or her all day. Especially if you’re dating early on, this can be
really exciting to do that, but keep those strong boundaries, keep those working hours, just
plan, hey, we’re going to meet for dinner every night or we meet for lunch, or whatever
that is.
I think my tips later in this episode will help you even more here with this but right now
just start thinking about some of these of like, “Okay, we’ll maybe work in the same space,
maybe we need separate or whatever,” because trust me, your partner will start to drive
you crazy. You guys need that separation.
Now, what if you’re working from home with kids? This one, my friend, is my most favorite
of all because it is the trickiest for sure. Here’s how I handle it when I’m working from
home with kids. First off, set designated work hours. Now, for some of you, you may have a
job that says, “Hey, you need to be, “In office from 8:00 to 5:00, no matter what you are at
home, I don’t care.” That is a little bit trickier. Hopefully, most of you have a job where
they’re being a little bit flexible with you. If you have some flexibility, think about when
you can have your kids have quiet time, or nap time, or just alone time, whatever you want
to call it, where you have set working hours.
If they come in, then you just say, “No, mommy is working,” or whatever, and here’s the
protocol for when mommy’s working. My daughter did this the other day. I tend to have
two hours during the day from 12:30 to 2:30 when I work because my son is sleeping, and
then I have her have quiet time. She came in, “Mommy this, mommy that.” I said, “Isabella,
mommy is working right now, these are things that you need to figure out on your own
during this time.” It was little things like tech things. “Got it?” She’s like, “Okay, yes,
mommy.”
Sometimes you just have to do those things because, otherwise, you know this as a mom,
your kids can eat you alive with all their requests, and all their things. In my house both of
my kids prefer me, and so they’re wanting me 24/7 all the time. I love it and I’m so grateful
for that, but I have to be really strict with my work hours.
Also, on that note, be prepared that you may have to be working nights and weekends like
I’m doing right now. I am so used to the schedule. It is not ideal by any means and I know
you and your partner, if you have one, may be really feeling stretched to connect with one
another right now while you’re working different hours and you’ve got kids at home and all
the anxieties of the world. I get it, I know, again, I’ve been doing this for a while, it’s not
ideal, but sometimes you have to put on your big girl panties, and you just have to work
during times when it’s not the most pleasant. You’re going to have to work those evenings,
you’re going to have to work those weekends, that’s why again, you need to figure out that
why, go back to why your job is so important. Hopefully, you have just a little bit of passion
for it to keep you going, but really, really set those work hours.
Now, you can have your phone or this is what I do, at least, I have my phone and I’m
checking in with work, probably once an hour. It tends to be a pretty quick check-in, I just
check my email, I’ll check my community real quick, and answer a couple of things, and
then I’m back into mommy mode. Now, it’s not ideal, in my ideal world, I would not check
my phone during the day, but I just feel I need to be checking my phone every so often,
especially because right now I’m offering a free challenge, I’m doing a lot in my
community and so it’s really important for me to check-in, but I’m not checking my phone
24/7. I see some people they’re checking their phone 24/7, and their poor kids are just left
to parent themselves in some ways. Now, I must admit, I’m not a perfect parent either. I
know, you’re just trying to survive right now too, so that’s you, I’m not judging you, but just
know that, again, you can set boundaries with these things, if you’re able to just say, “Hey,
I’ll check in every hour, and then I’m putting my phone down.”
Again, I know these are general tips, they may not be specific to your situation, that’s why I
really want you to lean on me in my community if you need more specific tips here,
because some of these, you may be like, “Well, that would be nice, Lindsay, but my boss
won’t let me do X, Y, Z.” Again, I’m here to help you however you need it. I’m just giving
you general tips. If you need more specific things, my community is the outward for that.
What else do I want to say about this? The other thing is if both spouses are working from
home with kids, this is my situation with my spouse, and again, we’ve been doing this for
years, in a lot of ways, is we switch. He does have really designated working hours. It’s
really from 8:00 to 5:00, at least. He tends to work longer. There are times when I have to
have meetings during the day and so we will switch, and he’ll take care of the kids, and I’ll
go have my meeting. Again, I’ve mentioned I do evenings and weekends, and that puts him
in a burden sometimes because he would like to work more, but it just is what it is.
Really lean on your partner for this. I know a lot of women out there aren’t leaning enough
on their partners if they have one. This is where you have to again, put on your big girl
panties, have those hard conversations, and tell your spouse, “I need help and this is what I
need from you.” Hopefully, they are mature enough to handle that stuff. I know some of
you are babying- are with basically the man-child, man-child is what they call them I think.
It’s time for those boys to grow up a little bit. If you need help with that, again, reach out
my community, I’m already coaching women on some of these things with their husbands
of having those conversations where they step up to the plate.
A lot of times, I will tell you, it feels really scary to have those conversations, but once you
do, they will start to rise up like you would never believe. Don’t start convincing yourself
that you can’t have that, you can, you just need to know how to have those conversations.
Last thing I want to say about working with kids is, I actually really enjoy working with
kids and myself at home now because it has taught me that I can’t screw around with my
time anymore. I can’t just go and piddle around online or piddle in things that aren’t going
to move the needle forward in my business because I don’t have the time. You may realize
this with your profession, there are things that you’re doing that are just busywork or just
piddle work, and you learn to become so flippin efficient in such a short amount of time.
Most days, I only work two hours, maybe four hours some days. Of course, I do work nights
and weekends right now. Who knows how long I’m working there? But I can get a lot done,
a lot done. You will see your productivity start to rise too with having a tighter schedule.
That’s my working from home stuff. Let’s talk about money now. Again, we’re going to get
into really deep stuff with managing anxiety and habits, so stay with me, that’s where the
really good stuff is. I want to address all these immediate concerns you may be feeling.
If you’re in a place where your income has been reduced, if not just completely ceased, I’ve
been there and I know how scary it can be, and so I want to give you some tips on that.
First thing, cut all unneeded expenses as soon as possible. Really sit down and think
things like, do I need a cell phone? Do I need internet? Do I need this random
subscription? Go down to your very, very basic needs first of all. You may already be there,
but if you’re not get there fast.
The other thing is, since we’re all in this kind of epidemic or whatever emergency together,
you can start calling your different bills and say, “Listen, I don’t have money coming in
right now, I need help. What can you offer me?” Be willing to negotiate with them and say,
“Well, I’m going to leave if you don’t do blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Hopefully, they’re
going to be working with you right now. I know in the State of Texas, they’re not going to
be evicting people from apartments. They are going to be charging late fees,
unfortunately. You can start again calling around and seeing what you can negotiate with
people to put off payments, hopefully, fingers crossed, but you can definitely start to cut
your expenses. You can live on very, very little, my friend, very little.
If you’re at a place where you just don’t see where the income is going to be coming in at
any point, you may want to start thinking about moving in with somebody else. Now,
granted, you may be on a lease. Hopefully, you’re not in a mortgage, but if you are maybe
in a mortgage, but just start thinking about a backup plan if this starts to become a couple
months that this is happening. Just really start to plan for that. When I was in the situation
with my divorce, I was really adamant I wanted to keep my house. I was in a mortgage but
I knew I had backup plans.
The other thing I want to say here is I really want you to focus on to what are ways that
you can make money. I want you to get specific, what would be your ideal way right now
to make money? In my situation with my divorce, it became very immediate. I needed to
get a job as soon as possible because I was a stay at home mom and obviously my
husband was living a double life. I had legal fees coming in, no income. Holy crap, what
am I going to do? I got really clear. What is it that I want right now? I wanted a job where I
could bring my daughter. That was a non-negotiable for me. It didn’t really matter how
much money I made as long as I was bringing in some income at that point.
I got on care.com and I found a nanny job and I wasn’t making that much, but I could bring
my daughter with me, I could get out of the house, I could start feeling like I was making a
little bit of money, and start getting the ball moving in grieving that way. That’s what I
could do at that time. I had that job for a few months and then I was able to pay some bills
with that and then move on to the next thing.
The other thing that I did during this time is I was selling a ton of stuff around my house. I
was willing to let go of all of it to be able to stay with my daughter at that time because it
was really important for me, with all the changes she had going on between me and her
dad, that I was with her. So, I didn’t care, I was going to sell everything. Luckily, I didn’t
have to, but I sold a lot of stuff. I don’t know what the market is right now with the online
buy/sell trade kind of stuff, but you never know, people are always out there looking for
things and needing things. You may be able to sell stuff right now.
The other thing I did is I had an Etsy shop and so I started making banners for people’s
birthdays and stuff like that. I didn’t make a ton of money at that, but I didn’t know where
to go at the time. I just thought, okay, here are some ideas that I can start moving and
grooving because to me the non-negotiable is that I had to keep my daughter.
Now, I want you to also think about, you need to throw a pride out the window. Was it the
most prideful thing at the time to have a nanny job that paid $8 an hour when I’m college
educated and all of the stuff? No. I didn’t care though. I was willing to do whatever it took.
I’ve done things like I’ve worked in retail, I’ve worked in the restaurant industry. I have
done whatever it takes to make things happen. I’ve done volunteer jobs to get out of
different payments for things. Trust me, I’ve had to hustle and get scrappy when it’s
needed and you may need that. I know right now the grocery stores really need help. I
know that Amazon really needs help if you’re here in the States. If you’re willing to go do
jobs like that based on what your boundaries are, maybe it’s time you go do that.
It’s really important you’re figuring out ways to hustle and make money. I know there’s a
lot of online jobs. I don’t really know all the specifics about them, but just start putting it
out there, two, you’ve got to go and reach out to your community as well and ask people.
Again, put pride in the backseat and say, “I need help. Do you have any jobs that I could be
doing right now? Do you know any resources?” Don’t just sit here and wallow in self-pity,
you have to put yourself out there and really, again, hustle and get scrappy and make this
work, my friend. I’ve been there. I know it.
If you’re in this place right now, please join my community too because I really want to
help you. I do even have some clients right now who are willing to pay it forward. I may be
able to connect you with them to either get some money-making opportunities or some
other things. Reach out to me.
If you’re in a place where your job is pretty settled, things are feeling really good, but you
want to up-level your money game, this is an amazing opportunity to do that. This is the
boat I’m in right now. Now, I have a husband who’s a financial advisor. I’m obviously not
one, but I hear him talking all day. I feel like I could easily call his boss and say, “Hey, I
think I’m ready. Put me in, coach, I could be a financial advisor.”
Again, take this with a grain of salt, but just know this is a great investing time right now.
All the stocks are really low. You can buy them at a really low cost. Now, you may not
know what happens with the stock market, it can get worse, but it will likely get better.
Usually, it takes a year and a half, two years to recover. Once it does, you’re going to start
to see a return on that investment. What we’ve done personally is we took some of the
cash we have in our emergency fund and we invested it. Now, and that’s not the right
choice for everybody, but that was the choice that we decided to make as a couple because
again, my husband is a financial advisor, he knows what he’s doing. We invested a lot
because the upswing, when it does upswing, is going to pay out very well, typically. We’re
investing a lot.
If you have a portfolio where you have stocks and bonds this is the time when you’re
wanting to shave off some of those bonds and put them in stocks. If you have a financial
advisor, hopefully they’re calling you and hopefully, they’re saying this stuff to you. I hear
my husband on the phone all day long saying the same thing to people over and over
again. Hopefully, your financial advisor is giving you that level of support too.
The other thing I want to say here is, if you want to up-level your money game, I want to
encourage you to pay it forward. If you have some expenses that are being cut right now,
like maybe you’re not able to go get your beauty treatments done, maybe you’re not
having to pay for childcare right now, but the money is just sitting there because you’re
not having to pay for these things, maybe you’re even canceling like your cleaning service
and stuff, still, I encourage you to pay it. This may not be the right advice for everybody,
but last week I canceled my cleaning person and I still paid her anyway.
As we’re starting to think about April now and the potential that probably my kids won’t be
going to school, my son goes through like a mother’s day out program, my daughter goes
to a private school, I’m still going to be paying those things because that was money that
was allotted for those people. They’re still trying to give me a service. I’m still paying for
her dance lesson and I’m still paying for her drum lesson. They are offering things online,
so they are offering value.
Those are the people that are really hurting right now. If you’ve ever had those kinds of
positions in your life, I know I have, then I really encourage you to pay it forward. Don’t
hoard that money. Just really think about how can I be spreading some of the abundance
that I have right now? I am a big believer that when you’re putting that out in the world,
it’s going to come back to you tenfold. Again, not the right advice for everybody, but just
something to think about.
The other thing here is cut your distractions as soon as possible. When we get in times of
anxiety, we want to turn to distractions like shopping, alcohol and buying things and
looking at Netflix and whatever, so we can tend to spend money that way. If you find
yourself spending extra money right now because you’re a little bored or you have the
things just energy, you got to get that crap and check my friends.
I encourage you to listen to my Distraction-free Living episode, it’s just a couple episodes
back. I’ll put a link in the show notes as well, but really listen to that episode because I’ll
start to open your awareness and teach you a little about how to cut those destructions
even more, but that’s going to save you so much money. I can’t tell you how many clients
I’ve had that have come to me and said, “I have so much more money now from working
with you Lindsay, and that wasn’t even a goal of mine, because I’ve cut my distractions.”
Another thing you can do right now is just to learn to live with less. Maybe it’s time for you
to clean out things, you can sell some things around your house, maybe it’s not the right
time to actually sell them right now, but down the road, people will be wanting more
lower cost things and used things because some of these markets are really going to
struggle through this like the service industry people. That may be a time that you can sell
things or you can just donate them, get rid of that energy in your space. Really think about
some of the bills that you have every month, “Are these things that I really want?”
Now, I must admit, I really don’t want you to hoard right now and get to an anxious place
of like, “Let me cut everything because the world is ending.” It is a time when you can start
to reevaluate like, “Do I really need XYZ? I don’t know, let me think about it.”
All right, so that’s the initial anxiety stuff you may be feeling right now that I wanted to
address, let’s get into some of the more core issues stuff of managing anxiety, and then
really starting to build strong habits to this. Again, what I’m going to give you here at the
end of this episode is going to be the best nuggets of all. I know this episode is getting
super-duper long, but it’s packed full. Stay with me, maybe you have to listen to this and
twofold, I totally get it, but where we’re getting now is really, really good.
We’re going to talk about managing your anxiety right now. If you’re a person who actually
has less on your plate, so meaning you probably don’t have kids at home, you’re probably
not having to commute to the office anymore, you may be home alone or with some
roommates or with a spouse and you just have this extra time, how can you manage your
anxiety?
First thing to do is to learn to start to journal. I’m going to give you some journaling
prompts here in a bit, but journaling is going to be one of your very best friends at
managing your anxiety okay? Another great resource for you is to take my Life Luvers free
21-Day Challenge that’s totally free right now, typically $97. I have a link in the show
notes, but really think about taking that right now.
This is your time to up-level your personal development game, quit putting it off, quit
saying cleaning your closet is more important. This is the time my friend, it’s time for you
to really think about what is it that’s causing me anxiety? Yes, we’re in a very uncertain
time right now, but you can easily be calm through this situation. If you’re feeling anxious,
it’s time to learn to manage your mind and that’s why I’m giving you that Life Luvers
Challenge right now.
The other thing is, you really need some self care. Self care doesn’t necessarily mean
turning to your phone or the TV. Typically, for most people, those are things that do not
actually fill their bucket. You want to turn to things that do make you feel recharged. For a
lot of women, it tends to be, taking a bath, going for a walk, listening to peaceful music,
just laying peacefully, talking to someone they love. I want you to really start to make a
list of all the things that truly recharge you. Again, this is an activity we do in the Life
Luvers Challenge, I encourage you to take it.
Self care is really, really important right now. Do not waste this time by just floundering
around and by sitting in front of the TV, really get focused on your self care. This is a time
when you are focus on yourself can come alive. I’m so jealous of you right now because it
is just such an opportunity for you. I really, really want to enforce that on you.
Another thing, and I keep saying this, I’m like a broken record, but cut those distractions.
Cut all those things that are keeping you from doing really deep meaningful work. Is not
really going to improve your life that much for you to watch all the episodes of The Office
or all the episodes of your favorite show, instead, spend some time every day investing in
yourself. Again, Life Luvers Challenges for you right now. It only takes 30 minutes a day for
21 days. Think about it. Lindsayepreston.com/freelifeluvers to join, and luvers is spelled, LU-V-E-R-S.
What if you have more on your plate right now? Can you really get self care? Can you
really get personal development? I’m going to say yes or no. This means that you likely
have kids at home, and/or you are really struggling with anxiety because of money issues
maybe, or health issues or maybe you’re just working at crap time, like you’re in the health
profession or something like that. How can you manage it?
First off, vent. Find somebody that can hold space for you for you to vent without them
giving you advice or making it worse by judging you and things of that sort. Hopefully you
have somebody in your personal life you can turn to for that. I’ve actually taught my
husband over the years how to hold that space for me when I need to vent. It’s really really
nice. I also have a coach of my own that I turned to and I vent to, now I’m not really using
her that much right now because of the crazy schedule and such, but I know she’s there
when I need it. I want you to think about the same thing for yourself. If you don’t have
something in your personal life you can vent to, think about investing in an online coach
via me, or maybe you need a therapist, I don’t know where you are on that scale of needing
therapy or coaching.
Typically a coaching client is just somebody who can vent and then we can get into action
and solve the problem. A therapy client just needs to vent and vent and vent and doesn’t
necessarily want to get into action. Okay, that’s a generalized difference. If you need more
questions on that, you can reach out to me in our community,
Lindsayepreston.com/community, okay? Really vent, okay, because journaling is great, but
you may not have time to pick up pen and paper so vent, vent, vent.
Self Care is also super important. Even though you have so much more on your plate right
now, taking time to recharge every day is so vital. For me, it’s taking a bath every night,
right now is really helping me recharge. I’m also very strong on my boundaries with my
kids, “This is mommy’s alone time,” and with my husband of, “Hey, I need this,” and really
telling them what I need, versus trying to people-please or trying to do it all right now. I’m
not trying to be supermom right now, I will tell you that, I am just trying to get through the
day as best as I can, and take care of myself in the process, because if I don’t take care of
myself, I am going to crash and burn in a big way and nobody wants to see that. Nobody
wants to see a mad mean mommy, who is burnt out. Not good.
The other thing I want to say here, and I keep saying, is just cut distractions, because if
you’re just taking “self care”, but it’s really just you scrolling your phone and reading all
about the coronavirus, that’s really not going to help you, my friend, and you know it. So,
cut that crap out and instead fill up that bucket.
Really, what I want you to think about is when after all this big corona crap is over with to
really invest in your personal development. Right now you’re really busy, but this is a time
when your mind is showing itself to you and if you’re wanting to drink all day, and if you’re
wanting to just escape your life because your kids are driving you crazy or your husband or
your work, it is definitely time for you to do some self care and some personal
development with me, as I really want you to think about what that could look like after
this period is over. Right now, just get through it, vent, reach out to me for support and my
community or whatever you need. I’m here, vent to me, I would love for you to vent to me.
If you join that free Life Luvers Challenge, we have Q&A calls every week where you can
just get on and have a 15 minute hot seat of just, “Lindsay, I just need to vent. Can I vent
to you?” Absolutely, I will hold that space for you and I will let you vent. I will tell you, you
can get through a lot in 15 minutes and you can feel so recharged after getting that crap
out. I would love to do that for you, just join my third challenge to get into them. All right?
All right, so now let’s get to the very, very good stuff of this episode, which is, how to build
strong habits right now despite everyday being a different shitstorm. Now, granted, many
of us are getting into a routine already a week in week and a half in, some of you may be
behind, some of maybe ahead of that but right now is a prime time when you can start to
really focus in on what is it that I want this time of my life to create.
I’m going to give you a couple things that I want you to really think through and journal
about. Even if you’re super duper busy right now, these are the three things that I want you
to really focus in on. If you can focus in and journal on these, the rest of this time during
all this craziness is going to feel so much easier. I actually took the time to journal on
these before I did this episode and they helped tremendously. I’m actually going to give
you a printable this too, if you need it.
The first thing I really want you to think about is creative focus about how you want to feel
and be when you come out of this. I’m going to say it again. I want you to create a focus
around how you want to feel and be when you come out of this. When I sat down and I
journaled about this I wrote on the top of a piece of paper, I said, “Create a focus around
how you want to feel and be when you come out of this coronavirus emergency.” Here’s
what I wrote, “I want to be a coach and person that people knew they could turn to to help
them ease their anxiety, and see the value in prioritizing their growth. I want others to say,
“She really helped me during a tough time and I’m so grateful for the time I took to work
on myself, despite my brain wanting to focus on so many other more dramatic things.” I
want them to also say, “Lindsay helped me create calm in a time when I could have easily
freaked out. If she can help me then she can definitely help me now as things have calmed
down. I’m so grateful I have the time to prioritize my growth and I’m so grateful I turned to
Lindsay for help.”
I want my family to experience a mother who was calm, cool and collected. I didn’t let the
anxiety of today infiltrate my home. I see present focused and at peace despite all the
crazy around us. I did distance learning for my daughter with ease, I created fun activities
with ease for both children and I didn’t worry or stress when things weren’t getting done.
Most of all, I have loved on my family. I held them, I kiss them. I asked them daily, what
they needed for me to support them. I showed them love the way they wanted and needed
for that day. I showed my family the ultimate example of what it’s like to have it all,
meaning to do work, support my family and give time to myself and give to charity, even in
times of uncertainty so that they could do it all one day too.
I also show the F-up for myself too. I worked out, I did self-care, I meditated and prayed, I
even journaled. I counted my wins and express my gratitude daily, I leaned on my husband,
community, and kids for support. I realized even more that I can depend on others to help
me to. Overall, I want to look on this time and say what an opportunity we had as a family
to be together and what an opportunity it was for me to help serve the world with my
guests.
I’m going to say it again. Here’s the question I want you to ask yourself, create a focus
around how you want to fill and be when you come out of this experience, meaning the
coronavirus emergency or whatever, or you want to call it. That’s the first thing I want you
to start to really think about because when you have that common core focus, like I just
gave you my example of, it becomes really easy then of what habits you need to create.
That’s the next question I want you to ask.
Once you’ve answered that focus question, then say, “Well, what habits can I do daily to
support this? What are the things I need to say no to as well?” If you’re at a place where
lots of changes are going on, you’ve got that work from home stuff, you’ve got your spouse
at home, you’ve got your kids at home, you’ve got money situations that are changing.
Let’s get back to the habits. You’ve got your focus on what are the habits you can do.
For me, I said, “My habits are to show up in my community daily, email my list two to four
times a week, giving value to them, post on social media daily, workout daily, have one to
three hours of self care a day, have nightly wrap-up time with my daughter and my
husband, count wins and gratitude daily. I lean on others for support, if needed, I did
something fun with my kids every day.”
Now I know what I need to be doing every single day to live out this focus of what I’m
wanting. Things I need to say no to are obviously like zoning out with TV, drinking, which I
haven’t had any alcohol, point for me, even though I’ve really wanted it and things of that
sort. Now I know, here’s what I need to do and here’s what I’m going to say no to, because
this is really going to help me every time I’m making a choice of, do you all want to have it
to Netflix right now or do I want to go take a bath? I want to go take a bath. That’s really
self-care, Netflix isn’t necessarily self-care, sometimes it is sometimes it’s not.
Then moments when I really just want to scream at my kids because they’re driving me
crazy, which they did this week. That was really unlike me, that in my head I just wanted to
scream, “Shut up, shut up.” I took a deep breath and I just said, “Okay, we’re going to
change our focus for right now. Everything is really loud. Mommy needs a little bit more
quiet, so let’s all take deep breaths.” Then I was able to move on. This really helps me a
lot.
Now, the next question I want to ask you, or have you ask yourself is, what do I need to
believe to make those habits happen? Lots of times you can sit here and say, “Oh, I want to
have these things happen to me, or I want to do these things,” but then we don’t really
understand what we need to believe about ourselves. If we believe the whole world is
going to end right now, we’re going to be broke and there’s no way we can be a great
person through this, then it’s really going to be hard to show up and create those habits.
You’ve got to think about what you need to believe about yourself and the world to make
this a very intentional time for you.
For me, here are the things I need to believe to make my focus happen. That I’m an
amazing coach, that people are dying for what I have to offer and are more than willing to
pay me for it. I’m an amazing mother, I’m an amazing wife, I have more than enough
energy to complete what I want to get done daily. A fear of mine is I don’t have enough
energy, total side note.
Another thing I need to believe is I’m present, I’m calm, I’m at peace, I’m working toward
my goals every day. I trust in something bigger that’s working in our favor. Everything is
working for my greatest good. Money is not an issue, we have more than enough no matter
what happens. I am deeply connected to myself and others. Others jumped for joy to help
me grow. It is easy for me to have fun and live in pleasure.
Those are the beliefs that I need to believe right now to make my habits happen, to make
my bigger focus grow. These three questions, my friend, again, are going to help you so
very much right now. If you’re wanting a printout of these three questions, including my
example of how I’ve answered these, just go to Lindsayepreston.com/corona, and you can
get a print out of this. You don’t even have to enter an email or anything like that, you just
get an automatic download and you can print it and you can journal these out and then,
post them if you need them around your home to remind you or whatever you need.
Those are my three golden tips I want to leave you with despite all the craziness that’s
going on around you. I hope this episode helped you a lot. I feel like it helped me a lot just
to answer those three journaling questions at the end. If you need specific help, remember
my community is out there for you, Lindsayepreston.com/community.
Now, next week there’s likely only going to be one episode that’s released and it’s just
probably going to be focused around more tips and things of what we’re going through
right now and how to get through it. If you have a specific topic you want me to cover, let
me know. Again, go to our community, and let’s talk through it. I know for a lot of you right
now, you’re having some pain points with your partner. Maybe that’s a topic we talk about
and how to handle that. Maybe you’re having other things going on that I haven’t talked
about yet. Let me know because I would love for that episode to be centered around
something that will help you tremendously.
That’s all I have for this time, my friends, hang in there, you’re doing great work. Keep at it,
keep focused, you got this. I will see you next week.
[music]
Hey there, Miss Unstoppable. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode. If you enjoyed
it, share it with a friend. Send them a picture of this episode via text, via email, share it on
social media, I’m sure they would be so appreciative to know these strategies and tips on
how to accomplish your dreams. If you are ready to guarantee you’re going to accomplish
your goals and dreams, then it’s time to start coaching with me.
In my nine-month simple success coaching system, I am going to walk you every single
step of the way to ensure that you get the goals and dreams that you want. The first step is
to apply for a free 60-minute consult call. Just go to LindsayEpreston.com/apply to get
started. As always, my friend, remember, you’re only as unstoppable as you believe you can
be, so believe in yourself. You got this.
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