Episode 7 – On Self-Care, Let’s Make you a Priority

Hi and welcome to the Daring to Leap podcast. I'm your host, Loree Philip. I'm so excited to dive into this week's episode with you. On this Valentine's Day episode, we're going to discuss the importance of taking the time to take care of yourself. 

And How to move it from the bottom of your list to the very top. Let's get started. Hello, everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you so much. I just got off of the launch week of this podcast and I'm so very grateful for all of the beautiful comments and support I've received from all of you. 

So just thank you so much and I can't wait to continue this journey with you. So today I'm recording this, but it's going to air on Valentine's Day, so happy Valentine's Day, everyone. It seems fitting to bring up the topic of self care and self compassion on this Valentine's Day where we are showing others how much we love them. 

It seems that we end up forgetting one very important person who needs some love and attention, too. I'm sure you guessed it, it's ourselves. At this point, I bet you already know how important self care is. 

It is the topic that comes up over and over again. There are whole industries built around self care and taking care of yourself. If you go and look at the data, there is a ton of information out there on why taking time for yourself is so important. Yet it is so easy for us to put ourselves last on the priority list and take care of everything else first. Our work, our family, our never ending to-do lists, all these things seem to come up to the top of the list, and all the things for ourselves fall to the bottom. 

And I'm here today to remind you that self care should be a priority for you. And I'm going to give you three reasons why you should make it a priority. The first reason is you're a better person. Employee, leader, mom, friend, et cetera. 

When you are taking time for yourself, you know this. You know how you feel when you're in a good spot after you've had that nice break, after you went out with friends, after you went and hiked that mountain. 

When you take time for yourselves, you can show up in all the other things that you need to do, and you're just that much better. You feel good and it comes out. The second reason is if you can't seem to make self care a priority for yourself, consider making it a priority because of its impact on others.

When you take care of yourself, you become a positive role model for others. You are modeling that self care is important and everybody will see it. When you make it a priority, your family will see it, your kids will see it, your colleagues will see it.

Your employees will see it. And you know, we need to step into this idea and continue to step into this idea that we are role models, we are leaders. And instead of waiting for others to give us the permission and show us how to prioritize ourselves, we can step forward and do it and become that role model for others.

And the third reason I have for you that you should make self care a priority is you don't need a reason. You are important. Your care, your self love and compassion is important too. And you deserve it.

And so, even though I'm giving you these reasons, it's not necessary. You should put yourself first sometimes. I mean, the more the better. But sometimes it's important that you take time for yourself.

I'm sure you already know what it is that you should be doing more of for yourself. It pops up from time to time throughout our lives. We're thinking, oh, I should be working out, or I should be taking more time for myself to go do fun things with my friends.

I should be taking more breaks, I should be eating a little healthier. All the shoulds. But before you start beating yourself up up for not doing it, give yourself a break. You are busy, you are doing your very best. 

But right now you can decide to do it, to prioritize yourself and bring your self care to the top of the list. And if you're thinking, Loree, I want to, I know I should, but I don't have any time. You are absolutely right. 

We are all so busy. The reality is though, that it will just not spontaneously happen on its own. Or you might get some inspiration and go do a few things for a month or a week, but it doesn't become part of your day to day rhythm. 

So if you're ready to make yourself a priority, I will challenge you to do two things this week. The first one is to pick that one thing you would like to start doing, to prioritize yourself and commit to it.

We never start to do anything with any real success without commitment. Deciding to do it for yourself is the first step. It is always the first step. And so as you pick the one thing, and it could be anything that comes to you, it could be exercise, eating healthier, having more meat time, taking a break to spend quality time with your friends, whatever that is for you that you really want to start doing, make sure that it's something that you're excited to do. 

Not necessarily, oh, I know I should be eating healthier, so I'm going to make myself eat salads for a month or this exercise. Choose something that you want to do that you think would be fun and you know you would enjoy doing it once you have that thing. 

The second thing I would challenge you to do is to make a plan. How often will you do it? Will it be. Each day, each week, once a month? When will you do it? Is it during the week? In the evenings, on the weekend? 

Do you need to do something first before it can happen? Like get a membership book, an appointment, call a friend? So just do a few planning steps to hash it out. I want to start doing this one thing for myself.

How am I going to make it happen? How am I going to integrate it into my schedule? How am I going to make sure that it doesn't just get crossed off or canceled when the next thing pops up? Put it on your schedule.

Now, if you can do these two things this week, I'm so excited and I can't wait to hear how it goes. And I want you to notice, as you're doing it, how you feel after you take the time for yourself. How great do you feel when you do this and notice the impact it has on your work in your life? 

Are you a little bit happier? Are things a little easier? Are you bringing more to all the other things in your life? Because you're giving yourself this time. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you've enjoyed it, I would love for you to subscribe, leave a review and share it with a friend. Until next time. Bye.