Last week Lara and I hosted our first of three webinars as part of our Making Brands Happen Webinar Series. This one was Part One: Setting Yourself Up for Success. For all of you that know about our Simplified Planner, THAT is the point of it. In order to have a simplified life, you must set yourself up for success ten steps in advance. I’m feeling good about all the meal planning, time blocking and date-night planning I’ve been doing but one thing always remained – and that was my addiction to my iPhone.
It’s an addiction guys. It’s not funny. It’s not something to laugh off. It’s serious. It’s an addiction and it’s gross. It’s an addiction to the feeling we get when we have 100 likes on an Instagram photo (they like me!) and the way we feel when we have a new Facebook Message (something interesting!) and the way we feel when a new email rolls in from someone we don’t know (ooh, this could be good!) and the way we feel when we’re wrapped up in a text message with a friend (i’m loved / needed / etc).
Courtney Whitmore, of Pizzazzerie, said it best the other day on Instagram. It’s the “glorification of busy.” It’s the way we feel when we have TEN things going on at once. You know that adrenaline rush? We’re feeing the child, talking on the iPhone (about something uber important, of course), checking our email, stirring the pot of spaghetti and organizing the mail ALL while wearing five inch heels. RIGHT!? GET IT MAMA!!
No.
That’s gross. At least it is for me. And that’s the realization I came to during last weeks webinar. My word for this year is SLOW. I want to slow down and LITERALLY smell the roses (hubby! roses!) I want to unplug myself from my iPhone (and flip that thing monogrammed side up!) and soak up every last minute and drop of goodness. When our pup, Briggs, was diagnosed with Lymphoma last week I took a day and literally laid in the sunshine with him rubbing his giant bull mastiff belly. I text messaged Lara and said “This is horrible. Why have I never done this with him.”
SLOW.
So this weekend, my parents came to visit. I posted two pics to Instagram last night but had an otherwise social media free weekend. Lara has been doing this for a while now, but I never thought I had a “problem” with it until this weekend when I gave it a try. Do you know how many times I pulled my Facebook / Email / Instagram free phone (I removed the apps for the weekend) out to do something on it? Something I couldn’t do because the apps weren’t there.
Oh goodness.
I’m joining the social media free weekend club. And I’m also joining the put-your-phone-in-a-drawer-after-5pm club. Life’s just too short! My Mom and I saw Wicked last night (our third time each!). I surprised her with SIXTH row seats for her birthday! Her birthday is Feb 27. Mine is Feb 28 (sorry you were in labor on your birthday, Mama!) It was such a great time. There’s so so so much goodness all around us. And sometimes we are so busy glorifying the busy, the connection, the HUSTLE, that we just plain forget.
Happy week, friends!
Emily
PS: Please enjoy the random guy in the photo above. Let’s pretend he’s saying “Oh my WORD. What a GORGEOUS iPhone case. I need something monogrammed.”
PPS: Top photo by Gina Zeidler :)
