I haven't written this newsletter in over a year, and I have a pretty good excuse — I had a baby.
Not only did I have a baby, but I also moved back to Illinois from South Carolina to be close to my family, and I worked multiple jobs and purchased a house during one of the worse housing markets in history.
To say that 2022 was overwhelming is an understatement. And here we are more than half way through 2023, and I'm slowly coming out of the daze and accepting these major life changes.
Let me be clear — I was happy to have a baby but that didn't stop me from feeling in shock and overwhelmed by how much my life would change.
During maternity leave, I did everything I could to keep up with creative pursuits even though I was barely sleeping. It was my way of holding on to my identity as "Shannon" and not just "new mom." I sewed a coat made out of premium violet-colored boiled wool, which in retrospect was a ridiculous undertaking.
I only had 3 months with my newborn before it was time for me to start work again. Yet, I felt anxious not working. And once I started working again, I realized I wasn't entirely ready yet — emotionally, physically, and mentally.
It took me a good 8 months to recover from postpartum, and I'm still recovering. Whether this is due to my sensitive temperament or the fact that I had to go back to work so soon, or perhaps both, the recovery stage is much longer than what I imagined.
Being a new mother has also challenged me to make hard decisions on where my time should be spent. It's made me more efficient in many ways. I don't have the luxury anymore of catching up on work in the morning or in the evening, or on the weekends. Work must be done during work hours.
But ultimately, what motherhood has taught me is:
A) Patience (still working on this …)
B) Baby steps
My good friend, a talented project manager, was telling me about her vision in a new role she's in. As she was talking to me, the first thing that came to mind was, "baby steps" and of course, I thought about my daughter, and how at first I was obsessively Googling monthly baby milestones per weeks and months.
Did it take her too long to start crawling? Is she hitting average milestones compared to other babies? Should she being showing teeth yet?
Luckily, I kicked the milestone obsession. My daughter is now 8 months, and she's developed quite a bit. But I feel more joy now when I witness and focus on how she's changing day to day.
No longer is it about what milestones she's hitting and when, but more so the progress she is making overall.
I want to write more (including here!), and I have big ideas on what I want to share more of. But I'm going to take what I've learned from my daughter and crawl into new projects. I want to accept the need to go slow, and I want to build a habit of tackling goals in smaller chunks.
How about you? How are you tackling goals and measuring progress?
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Hi Shannon, I really appreciate your honesty in this post. There seems to be this societal view that everyone is on top of everything all the time and smashing it all. But in reality life is exhausting and full of little bumps and then huge bumps just when you've started to see the light again. I love the fact that you're going to crawl into everything now, it's so easy to put pressure on yourself and tell yourself that you should be doing more than you are. Take it easy, and I look forward to hearing from you again when you're ready :-)