Ep 109 Transcript: The Mindset Shift That Turns Self Care Into Real Self Respect
This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.
Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.934)
Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon, and today is a very special two year anniversary episode. And I just want to say, first of all, thank you so much for joining me today. If you're new here, welcome. I hope that you enjoy the show and you will continue to join us each week. But if you've been here for a little while, I just want to say thank you so much for your support. It truly means the world to me. That started as a passion project of mine a couple of years ago, and it has grown incredibly.
beyond my wildest dreams. has been something that has not only fulfilled me and a passion inside my heart, but I hear from you guys constantly about how much these episodes are helping you. So I just want to say thank you so much for inviting me into your car, your home, wherever you're listening to me and allowing me to be a part of your journey. I want to ask, let me start this episode by asking you, how many times in the last few days have you said, I'm going to deal with that later?
And then when later comes you regret leaving it so long or how about that time you decided to save something for the morning and then the morning comes and the kids are sick. You're running behind and now you're scrambling to get the things done, whatever it looks like. That's what today's episode is all about about how to ensure that we are treating ourselves the best way possible. And a big part of that has to do with our future self. We're going to be incorporating a bit about self-care.
and how self-care isn't just about bubble baths. It's about how you speak to yourself when nobody's listening except for yourself. Because we listen to our thoughts all the time and we tend to treat ourselves, both our inner thoughts, how we physically treat ourselves, how we set ourselves up in the future in a way that we wouldn't actually treat another person that we really cared about. And there's a bit of a disconnect there. So we're going to dig into a little bit about why that happens, how to avoid it, how this shows up.
and some tips for putting us on a path that helps us to ensure that we are taking care of future us. So one of the fastest ways to shift some of this is to basically start treating your future self like someone that you genuinely respect and want to protect. And that seems like a wild idea, but it's something that's not actually intuitively easy for us because we haven't been conditioned that way. So.
Shauna Lynn Simon (04:12.258)
Let's get into things. So we talk about self-care more than ever, but a lot of us still speak to ourselves like we're the enemy. We're out here treating our clients, our partners, our kids, our teams with the utmost patience to the point where it can be testing us sometimes. And then we turn around and we mentally trash talk ourselves. So today I want us to reframe self-care as self-respect. And I'm going to share the shift that I'm using right now treating my future self like a separate person that I actually care about. And by the end of this episode,
you're going to have a simple way to help you catch the sabotage and replace it with the future you standard without getting into we're not going to be super fluffy or fake or anything in this. We just want to be very real with ourselves both now and later. So let's talk about why self-care is getting kind of its its moment. It's kind of the self-care era these days. Wouldn't you say it's a little bit louder than ever, but at the same time, it still doesn't seem to be landing, right?
We think of self-care still as spa days or I allowed myself a cup of tea today or I went for a walk this afternoon. And those are all absolutely elements of self-care. And I do not want to minimize those whatsoever. But I still feel as though as women, we still have this guilt almost attached to any sort of self-care. And previous generations, especially women, were often rewarded for what they would consider self-sacrifice. And that keep going no matter what.
grit have that hustle and now self-care has become mainstream, but some of us still practice it more like an add-on instead of a baseline standard because again, there's a part in our brain that's just saying well, you don't deserve this. You haven't earned this. How many times have you given yourself a self-care day because you earned it? Why do we need to earn our self-care? Right. So
If you were talking to someone else and they're saying like, I took a self-care day, like, are you shaming them? No, you're probably saying like, man, good for you. Congratulations on taking a self-care day. And they don't have to necessarily say, well, I earned it. I worked super hard. I did X, Y, and Z. I put in 40 hours of work over three days. Therefore, I've earned a self-care day. We shouldn't have to earn it. It shouldn't be this bonus or add-on. It should be a part of our day to day. And it's really interesting how selfish we can be
Shauna Lynn Simon (06:31.362)
what is just us, but as soon as another person is involved, we're all about the sacrifice. But what if today's sacrifice serves the person you care most about, which is yourself? So it can be easy sometimes when like, let's say I live alone and if I open up the fridge, I know that everything that's in that fridge belongs to me, but now I've got guests staying with me and I open up the fridge and I see some items in there and I think, you know what? I should save that for my guests because they're going to want it later.
And so I'm willing to sacrifice for other people. And yet when it comes to sacrificing for myself, sometimes like, you know what? I don't feel like doing the dishes right now. I'm not going to do the dishes. Meanwhile, I just screwed over future me because she's got to do the dishes still. And so she's cursing past me and saying like, I can't believe she didn't care about me enough to do the dishes. And sometimes our inner critic really is that negative. Other times it's not quite as obvious. It's not something that we're conscious of, but it is the reality of it though that
You know, I'm saying, well, selfish me just wants to sit on the sofa and just watch TV, binge watch something. Meanwhile, future me is going to have to deal with this later. But a future you with someone else that you cared about instead of sitting on the sofa, wouldn't you have gone to do the dishes? So kind of put kind of put this in perspective. So try to follow along here. So if self-care is what you do for your body and your schedule, then self-compassion is what you do for your mind. And we're to be working a little bit on that today, because that's where a lot of as entrepreneurs, we're leaking energy.
So we aim to treat others how we want to be treated, but then we don't treat ourselves that way. So self-talk becomes the background operating system of your business. So you've got this harsh inner critic, which leads to procrastination, which leads to avoidance, which then leads to that guilt spiral. You're familiar with the guilt spiral, right? Of course, all women are. Or you've got this perfectionism in you, which leads to overworking, which then leads to resentment because you've overworked yourself and, well, I'm not getting paid properly for this, or I didn't charge enough for this.
which then leads to what? Burnout. What are some of the things that we're saying to ourselves? So how many times have you said to yourself, I'm so behind. Why can't I just get it together? You everyone else can handle this. That's my favorite is when you're looking around you and you're seeing other people and you're comparing yourself to them saying, well, she can clearly do it. Listen, honey, first of all, you don't know what she can and cannot do. You don't know what sacrifices she's making. And I talked about it on just a couple of episodes ago about the yes opportunities and people pleasing and how
Shauna Lynn Simon (08:55.49)
When you say yes to something you don't actually want to say yes to, you're saying no to something else. So when you're saying like, everyone else can handle it. I just need to just keep pushing forward and keep saying yes to all these things to keep just keep on keeping on. What are you sacrificing to do that? My favorite inner critic line that I think we don't realize is actually an inner critic because it sounds so simple. It's the I'll feel better once I catch up. But then the finish line keeps moving, right?
I'll feel better after this once I get this done. It's kind of the one more thing complex. I actually saw a meme not long ago that said and I'm going to kind of screw this up a little bit but something along the lines of adulthood is saying that after this one more thing then things will settle down but knowing that they never actually will settle down and I feel like that is so true. But the reality is it doesn't have to be that way. So reviews of self-compassion.
research have actually described it as responding to struggle with support rather than self judgment. So what is self compassion? It is responding to struggle with support rather than self judgment. And so what if your future you isn't you later? Let's imagine future you is actually a person that you care about. Give a name to her. Because if I talk about Shauna Lynn,
I'm unfortunately accustomed to not saying the nicest thing sometimes about Shauna Lynn There are some days I don't like Shauna Lynn very much. And I try not to be that way, of course, but there was a ton of micro thoughts that we have in our brain that we can't even fully grasp or identify. So instead of calling her Shauna Lynn, maybe I give her a different name, whatever that name might be. see, what can I come up with now? know, like Beyonce's got her Sasha Fierce, right? So come up with your Sasha Fierce and give her a name.
Something a name that kind of inspires something warm and and friendshipy. So what if she's someone that you now respect? If you respected her, what would you stop doing today? So let's see. So Shauna Lynn, we're going to give her the name of Kimberly, mainly just because I was one of my favorite names growing up as much as I love my own name. So Kimberly, what are some things if I have to think of my actions today impact Kimberly in the future?
Shauna Lynn Simon (11:18.168)
What would I stop doing today? For starters, I might stop overbooking. I might stop skipping meals or I might even just eat more nutritious meals, right? Because poor Kimberly is going to be paying the price for that one. Otherwise, I mean, if I skip lunch right now, Kimberly tonight, she's going to be hangry and is not going to be pleasant. She's also probably going to be a little lightheaded. She's probably not going to be as productive. She's not going to get the work done that she wants to get done. She's not going to feel comfortable going out with friends. So what can I do to make sure that
per evening is good because my daytime is good. I probably wouldn't tolerate messy boundaries if I'm speaking for someone else. I made it really clear for my staff. I had a booking system where they could block themselves off of the calendar at any time that they needed to. But essentially, we knew when they were available and we could book them on consultations, full staging projects, design projects, whatever. We could book them at any time that we needed to.
But I also made it clear to them that they were responsible for ensuring that they had enough time to finish up an appointment to get to whatever they had going on next and that they had enough time to eat proper meals throughout the day. This was something that they were responsible for doing. Now, of course, if I'm booking a consultation in the morning, let's say I've got two clients come to me. look at one. Let's say it's Kimberly. I'm looking at Kimberly's schedule for next week and Tuesday's wide open for her.
So I've got now a request for two different consultations. I'm to book both those consultations on Tuesday. Do you think I'm to book them back to back so she barely even has time to go from one to the next with a snack bar? No, I'm going to ensure that she's got enough time to take a break. I these are two, three hour consultations. I want her to have some time to refuel, to re-energize, to regroup a little bit before going to that next one. But then when I'm scheduling myself, no, I can do those back to back.
Might as well do them back to back. I'll just have a bar or something with me. And now I'm scrambling. I'm exhausted. I'm drained. Do you know what it's like to operate on next to no food? You're drained from it. So if I'm talking about Kimberly, I wouldn't do that to her, but I am doing it to myself. Do you see where I'm going with this? What about saying yes to something while knowing you really don't want to say yes to it? Would you ever volunteer someone else to do something like someone that you care about? Would you volunteer them to do something you know they really don't want to do?
Shauna Lynn Simon (13:33.986)
How about letting cashflow issues become a surprise every single month? Don't you want her to be set up sustainably financially for her future? So what if I asked you a simple question, what would future me like? So what if you started asking yourself this when you're making decisions, whether it's about your schedule, whether it's about the direction of your business, whether it's investments that you're choosing to make, why don't you ask yourself, what would future me like?
not what present me wants, but what does future me want? One of the things, I worked in hospitality for a number of years. This is not the first time I'm speaking about this, but of course, if you're new to joining the show, you might not have heard this, a bit of background. All through my university and my first corporate job, as well as building my business, I worked as a bartender. It paid the bills, it was fantastic energy, absolutely loved it. But years in hospitality, you learn a few things. And if you've ever worked in hospitality, it is a whole different world.
One of the things in the hospitality industry that we were known for is if you're finishing up a shift, you had what we would call side duties. Sometimes they're just called duties. And I know there's a few different terms for them, but essentially these are things you need to complete before the end of your shift that ensures that the next person who's coming in and taking over is going to be set up for success. So I was a bartender. So this meant ensuring that I've got lemons and limes cut, that all my glassware is put away, that I've restocked any rags and...
supplies that they might possibly need for that next shift. And so you're setting that next person up for success. Now, as a bartender, we're a pretty small team. There weren't a ton of us. And so I usually knew the next person coming in. We're all pretty much friends on the bar. So but sometimes I had certain friends that I was even closer to. And if I knew that my bestie was coming in for her shift after mine, I really set her up for success. Aren't you your own bestie?
Shouldn't you be setting yourself up for success? So one of the things that I've started doing, for example, to set myself up for success, one day was doing laundry and I go to put all my clothes away and every single shirt that I go to put away and every single pair of pants is inside out. So it took me so long to put my clothes away because of course I want to put them the right side out, you know, and so flip them all around and pull the sleeves through, pull the legs through on the pants and such.
Shauna Lynn Simon (15:59.222)
And it just took so much longer to put my laundry away. So you know what I've started doing is now when I get undressed, I'm actually putting the clothes right side out before I put them in the hamper. Well, this makes sense. Don't get me wrong. There's some items I gather that you want to wash them inside out. Sure. That's not every item. And I want to save myself time when it comes to putting my clothes away. So now it's so much faster when I put my clothes away and my and my present self when I'm putting my clothes away, I'm thanking my past self for doing that for me. I'm so
thrilled with my past self. And so that feels good, right? Because when you do something nice for someone and they thank you for it, you feel good about it, right? So when you do something nice for your future self, I want you to acknowledge it too. So when your future self gets there, thank your past self for setting you up for success. Okay, so future me self-care in real life and business. We're gonna make this ridiculously practical.
because if this just stays kind of philosophical, it's not going to change anything. So when I say treat your future self better, I don't just mean future me 10 years from now. I mean future me in an hour, tomorrow morning, next week, next month. She shows up fast and she's either grateful or she's cleaning up my mess. So let's talk about a few other examples. So I gave the laundry one already, right? So that's the inside out laundry tax that I was paying essentially. So let's see what else I've got here. Let's see. How about the nighttime me setting up?
my morning me. Okay, so I'm a runner. I run ridiculously early in the morning. So for anyone who's not aware, I get up at approximately 4:15 AM every day. I'm usually out for my run between 5 and 5:30 AM. And I've got a lovely group of ladies that I run with. And it's a big topic for us that we're putting out our clothes the night before pretty much every single night. And some nights I don't actually know what the weather is going to be because if you're not aware, I'm in Canada. And let me tell you.
Winter months can be incredibly unpredictable. So I might put something aside for the morning and now it's not actually right. So if I'm looking at the weather and it looks like it's a little bit iffy where it could be an extra layer or not, I'm gonna put up both options for myself for the morning. So I don't have to dig through and make the decision. I can make the decision in the moment really easily in the morning. I'm also going to make sure that my water bottle is filled up before I go for my run so that it is available for me as soon as I finish my run.
Shauna Lynn Simon (18:20.982)
I'm going to plug my phone in right away when I get back because I've drained some of the battery on my run or when I'm going to bed, nighttime me, also make sure that my phone is charged for the next morning, right? What about, are you someone who puts your keys in the same location every time? Are you someone who's constantly scrambling for them? Because that future you, scrambling for them, she's not too pleased with past you who didn't put them in the same spot every single time. And I get it, trust me, I get it when you say like, I'm just not capable of that.
But if you create a system, it's actually pretty easy to do it. One of the number one reasons why we don't put our keys in the same spot is because we just don't have a good location for them. Find a good location for them. And again, these are just some examples. But in personal life, there's there's a lot of things that I'm sure that you've done where you've said, like, tomorrow morning, me is going to be so happy about this. And there are other times where you've screwed over tomorrow morning. You're like, I'll deal with that in the morning. And it doesn't mean that you're going to get all the things done. Like, I mean,
Present you has to also be respectful and mindful of like your own energy levels. If you really don't have the energy to do something in the evening, save it for the morning when your energy has been replenished. Absolutely. But you want to make sure that you're making reasonable decisions. If it's just a matter of, just feel like being lazy right now and I don't care about future me again, put a name to future you. Is she someone that you actually want to be able to help?
Okay, so we're going to apply this to business in just a moment. We're just going to take this short break. And when we come back, we're going to talk about how this shows up in your business as well.
Shauna Lynn Simon (20:37.696)
All right, welcome back to the Real Women Real Business Podcast and we are talking about...
self-care and self compassion in a way that helps you to set up your future self for success. And we're talking about taking your future self and treating her as if she's a separate person that you genuinely love and care about someone that you feel responsible for someone that you feel indebted to someone that you really, really want to take care of. And so we talked about some ways that this shows up in personal, but how does this show up in business? Okay, because this is kind of sneaky in business. We do we do this thing where we leave ourselves these little
breadcrumbs and call it, I'll remember, but we won't. So how many times have you written yourself a little note with two words on it? You're like, that'll do. That'll make sense in the morning. Whereas if you had written out more of a paragraph, it would actually make sense. Whether it was a social media post or a task you want to take care of or a conversation you wanted to have with someone. So here's what future me care looks like in business. So at the end of the day, if I've got an open loop on something, like let's face it,
I am the biggest advocate of don't try to finish massive tasks all at once. But you do want to make sure that the next loop of that task is ready for the next step. So if you've got an open loop on something, what is that next step to it? So for example, I might be working on a file and I use ClickUp as my project manager. So I've got tasks set out in ClickUp and I might get to a certain point where I'm like, okay, this is in progress, but I need to come back to it. So I'm going to document in the description of that task.
how far I got on things. And then let's say I created a spreadsheet. Well, I'm to put a link to that spreadsheet right in that file. So the next day, I'm not having to go and find where is that Excel spreadsheet that I had just created. So that's what I mean by setting up the next step for an open loop. I'm making it really easy for me to pick up where I left off. So it doesn't have to be the whole plan, but it's just got that next step, just like a little breadcrumb of it at least. After I finish a call with someone,
Shauna Lynn Simon (22:58.828)
I usually capture at least a few bullet points. Now I'm very fortunate to use an AI note taker these days, which has made my life a whole lot easier, but I've usually got a few specific action items that are inside my head that my AI can't capture. So I'm gonna write down those notes as soon as I get off the call. So I'm gonna write down any decisions that have been made or decisions that need to be made, any next steps, who owns what by when. So that will help me whether it's a sales call, a team meeting call,
a client coaching call, whatever that looks like, I'm gonna make sure that the next three steps are put down there. Now, in order for me to be able to do that, this is another way that I need to take care of future self though, is I need to make sure I have enough of a buffer between my calls to allow myself not only the time to do that, but to also reset mentally. Have you ever gone from one call to the next? You feel frazzled going into the next call. Stop overbooking yourself.
I also like to keep a simple waiting on list because otherwise you think that you're behind when you're actually just waiting on something. So I make sure that those items are identified as waiting on someone else. And I also have dates attached to them still though, so that I know if I'm still waiting by a certain day, I'm going to be following up with them. And again, I do this using the task statuses inside my clickup. And what this does is this helps reduce the mental load. So future me doesn't have to like start from zero on things.
Tasks can feel overwhelming. is one of the reasons why we procrastinate because we feel like, oh, it's just such a heavy lift to get started. But if you can just spend five to 10 minutes, get started on something and then the next time you come back to it, you already know where you left off. It's a much easier getting started. But if you feel like you're constantly, oh, shoot, where did I save that file? I feel like I started something on this. I have some notes on this. Where did I put those notes? If that's what you're going through every single time. Yeah, it's.
course you're not, you're going to continue to procrastinate on it because it just feels too hard to get started. Another way that I protect my time from a business standpoint is at the end of each day, I am going to write down the top three things I want to do the next day. Now I've talked about this previously, about my task triage. A big part of task management is ensuring that we can kind of triage our task list a little bit.
Shauna Lynn Simon (25:14.55)
really bring out the items that are most important, not just urgent, but most important. And so I will create that list of three things. Like I might have 20 items on my to do list today, but I've got three things that I know those are my top priority. So when I get pulled a little bit off track, I keep going back to those three items saying, if I do nothing else today, I want to get these three items done. Sometimes I will create that list of three items first thing in the morning. Most of the time I'm creating it before I close my computer. So you already know the next day what your top three.
priorities are going to be. So that's the immediate future me. That's tomorrow future me. But what about like next month future you? How do you keep next month future you from avoiding stress? I'm going to tell you this one's a little bit trickier. And the reason is that we're less connected to our future self the further out she is. So next month future me seems so far away. How many times you've been like, March is just like it's a gong show of a month. But you know what? April is going to clear up really nicely.
And then April comes, and of course, April is just as busy. But it seemed like if you push something off for April that you're going to have all the time there, but then you still don't have the time. So there's Future Me next month. This is the one who's dealing with deadlines and cash flow and capacity and the things that I've overbooked her on, for example. So next month, me loves things like invoicing as soon as a milestone has hit or tightening up the payment terms so that cash flow isn't such a surprise or templating the stuff that I repeat constantly.
That's one of my favorite things. Like how much does future you love when past you created a template for something or wrote down the SOPs for something or batching some of the admin so it doesn't seep into every single day. You've got like your admin day and you batch a bunch of things for like three hours and you crush it and you get it all taken care of. And then future you is pretty happy because the admin is taken care of. So sometimes self-care looks like better boundaries. Sometimes it looks like cleaner systems.
So taking care of future you, that self-care for future you can show up in a lot of different ways. So I want you to ask yourself, where does future you keep paying the price? Is it hectic mornings? Is it your meals? You're not getting the right meals. You're not getting enough meals. You're constantly eating on the go. Is it a mess? Like this is one thing that, know, if we're living in a cluttered space,
Shauna Lynn Simon (27:36.366)
We don't realize how much that affects our mental health. So maybe it's just a matter of like, I'll clean that up later. I'll clean that up later. And we keep kind of kicking that can down the road. But maybe that's where future you keeps paying the price is like, it's just constantly messy. And every day they're having to tidy things up because the day before you were too lazy to do it yourself. You just pulled everything out of the closet and then future you will put it all back in. Where's future you pay the price? Is it money? Does future you just never quite seem to have enough money because present you?
Wasn't accounting for it properly, wasn't tracking it properly, wasn't collecting it properly. Maybe future you has too many messages to catch up on. This is definitely one that I'm working on. I will admit future me is never happy with how many messages she has to answer. That's something I'm definitely. So if you've got an email to me that I haven't responded to yet, please know it's on the to do list and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Maybe future you just feels like she can't ever get any actual momentum because she doesn't have the space or the capacity to feel she can actually move things forward.
So what is one micro move that you can do today that's going to remove some friction for future you? I'm not asking you for 10 things. I'm not asking you for one big thing. I'm asking you for one micro move that you can do today. And then be aware of this. think the first step to this is really being conscious of where you're misstepping right now. So I want you to pay attention when present you.
is resenting past you, I want you to log those items. How could past you have set present you up better? Because that present you is going to be future you, right? So how do I set up future me in a way that's better? I I do quite a nighttime routine to make sure that I'm going to get a good night's sleep. I'm making sure I'm going to bed at the right time, right? How many times have you done that? How many times have you gone to bed late? And you're like, that's future me's problem, but future you's not too pleased about it the next day, right?
So what are these things that you can start doing? And I understand, like, you're starting to get up early every day, but you still can't get your butt to bed any sooner than midnight, that's going to take a little time to transition. So instead of saying, I'm going to go to bed every night this week at 8 o'clock, that's a little ambitious. But what's a micro move that you can do? Tonight, I'm going to start shutting down at 10 o'clock. Or create a bit of a routine for yourself. Once you start playing this game,
Shauna Lynn Simon (29:57.368)
you'll start realizing that future you care is available all day long. There are so many things that you can be doing to set yourself up for future success. And you know what this does in turn is future you is so much happier. And when future you is happier, that makes present you happy, right? Because ultimately like at some point future you becomes present you and she feels cared for. She feels taken care of. She feels loved. She feels respected.
She doesn't feel the same resentment energy that she has. She's happier and she can bring that energy into everything that she's doing. So this is going to show up in your tiny moments as well as your big decisions. And it all adds up to a life and business that just feels lighter because you're not constantly cleaning up after yourself. So remember that future you isn't your employee. And I want you to show some small kindness now to prevent some big stress later for her.
So I wanted to give you a little bit of a tool that you can use today as well. tool number one for making sure that you're practicing that self-care and self compassion. Tool number one is the catch. And this is when you catch yourself saying, what did I just say to myself? I want you to notice the moment that your inner voice is spiking things like I'm failing. I'm so stupid. I'll never figure this out. So I want you to catch yourself with that. Then I want you to swap that out and ask yourself, what would I say?
to friend of mine who's in the same situation. So convert it into a phrase that you can actually believe. So instead of I'm failing, how about this is hard and I'm learning how to handle it. I'm going to take it one step at a time. Instead of saying I'm behind, how about saying I'm gonna prioritize what matters most today. And then the tool number three is the future self standard. If future self, future me was standing here right now, what decision
can I make right now to protect her? So when it comes to your body, food, water, sleep, movement, when it comes to your business, boundaries, pricing, the workload, having a team, having systems in place, when it comes to your mind, this is your self-talk, this is avoiding the shame spirals, this is that comparison that we're doing in our head. When it comes to money, making decisions that create avoidable stress,
Shauna Lynn Simon (32:17.486)
or not making decisions that create avoidable stress later. So like late invoicing, unclear terms. So I want you to close your eyes, of course, unless you're driving, please don't close your eyes, but I want you to picture future you, we're gonna go a little bit further now, I want you to picture future you one year from now. What does she want from you this week? What is something you can be doing this week to help future you in one year? Maybe what's the one thing that she's begging you to stop normalizing?
Like stop wearing your hustle culture, like a badge of honor, like that burnout that you're on the verge of. Like if you are on the verge of burnout, well, you know what future you in a year is going to be dealing with? Recovery. What can you do today to help to prevent that burnout? What's the smallest action you can take in the next 24 hours to support the you in one year? Now I know there's some common misconceptions about self-care. Like if I'm too kind to myself, I'm going to lose my edge. No, but beating yourself up isn't accountability.
It's stress, self-care, we think of as being selfish. I touched on this earlier in the episode, but self-care is how you stay resourced enough to be able to lead your team in order to be able to show up as your best self. Self-care is not just what you do, it's how you treat yourself while you're doing it. So work-related self-compassion interventions have actually been associated with increased resilience and reduced burnout.
Okay, let me say that again. So work-related self-compassion intervention. So there's been studies that have been done to see what it's like to actually show yourself compassion in work-related activities and work-related roles. And when those patterns have been interrupted to make sure that we're showing ourselves that compassion, the members of the study actually showed increased resilience and less burnout. So we think that we're building resilience by pushing ourselves to the limits and really
self-compassion will help us to build that resilience. Okay. So one thing I want you to do is I want you to write a quick little note to yourself at some point today to future you from future you to present you. And I want you to identify like what is future you want from you today? What is future you hoping her life looks like? And then you can identify what is it that I can do to help.
Shauna Lynn Simon (34:42.422)
my future self today. If you find yourself sharing some of these moments of, know, I really just set up my future self for success. I want you to share them with me. Find me on Instagram @shaunalynnsimon I'd love to hear about it. Feel free to DM me. Feel free to contact us via email. Go to our website aboutshaunalynn.com and check us out. But I want to hear about how you're starting to take better care of future you. If you want a little bit of support and accountability with that, reach out to me. I'm happy to set up a call.
and see how we might be able to support each other going forward. And I want to thank you again for tuning in not only to this episode, but for those of you who have been on this journey with me over the last two years. It's been such a special journey and future me, which is now present me, I could not have imagined two years ago where I would be, but I'm so glad that I took the micro steps and the macro steps that I did along the way to get to where I am today. And I hope that you can do the same thing for yourself. So thank you so much.
for tuning into the Real Women Real Business podcast. Any sort of resources that we mentioned, of course, are always going to be available in the show notes. Don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcast and give us a review on your favorite podcast platform. It really does help the algorithm and it means the world to me. I read every single one of those reviews myself. And of course, as always, the best way to not only help you and future you, but also your fellow women entrepreneurs is to share this episode with a woman in your life that you know needs to hear it.
And I'm willing to bet there's probably a few people. So share this episode with them. It helps us at the podcast here and it also helps them to live their best life, both now and in the future. Until next time, thank you so much for joining me. Keep thriving.