Aside from a kiddo with some major tummy problems, today was pretty fantastic. This has been week one back to freelancing… and now I’m on vacation. Not just any vacation mind you – my first, real, scheduled vacation ever. Never before have I trusted myself to take time off, because you always have to be hustling, right?
Nope. Not anymore.
If I’ve learned anything this past year, I’ve learned to embrace ease.
As a self-identified rebel, it’s hard to just things as they are. More than that, it’s hard to accept that even if I long for change and growth and more, I am (personally) already enough in this situation. That doesn’t excuse me from doing the work. Far from it. If I can trust my own strengths and my ability to take right action, I damn well better be doing it.
But often, just by asking myself, “What feels right? What feels light?” I’ll find myself staying on the right path. No matter the transition I’m going through, I have what I need to navigate it.
The past six months have brought so many changes and transitions that I couldn’t have imagined (and well, some that I could) that sometimes I think I should feel overwhelmed. This has been a big six months of firsts for me. Lucky for me, it’s been more ups than downs. Far from feeling overwhelmed, for the first time in my life I feel like I have the space to move forward in confidence. I don’t have to second guess or wonder if I made the right call.
This is ease.
It’s easy to curate things and make everything look peachy keen on Facebook. I hope I don’t do that too often, even though I do try to steer towards the positive. There is so much strife in the world right now, and one of the things I’m constantly thinking about is how to use my privilege for good. (Also transitioning from being marginalized to a privileged position? Fucking hard. I wish more people would talk about this. Or at least talk to me about it.)
But today, today was very good. I got my new website pictures back from my incredible photographer. I got to spend the day relaxing (mostly) with my kids. I even had the time to write a little.
Really. How does it get any better than this?
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Dusti Arab, Fractional CMO
And the founder of the reinvention co, a marketing consultancy specializing in working with personality-driven companies with small teams.
Intense, fun, and relentlessly practical, Dusti understands the lives of small business owners are deeply intertwined with their businesses, and if their marketing is going to be sustainable, it can't get in the way of why they do what they do. (And honestly? It should be fun so they actually want to do it.)
She is the host of Referral Worthy, a podcast for small business owners ready to go from "best kept secret" to the go-to name in their niche.