Since June 4, 2021, I have sent the CHAT Insider newsletter consistently on the first Friday of every month. Last month was the first time I didn’t send a newsletter. Weeks before, I struggled with my ego telling me how I needed to push through my exhaustion to make the newsletter happen. After all, I have done it in the past to keep my commitment to my consistency, even at the expense of my own physical and mental well-being.

But this time, I decided to practice what I teach in my Guidelines to Authentic Conversations. Step number 8, “Personal Safety,” protecting my emotional, physical, and mental energy, is a top priority — not just when interacting with others. I often say the most important conversations are the ones we have with ourselves. My ego was trying to bully me into writing when my body, mind, and spirit didn’t have it to give. I had just spent the last year traveling South America, Central America, and Europe. I was craving stability, and my physical body was demanding it.

When my ego could not physically force my body to write the newsletter, it tried to guilt me into doing so. It wanted me to believe that you would notice that you didn’t receive a newsletter on the first Friday of October, and that you would send me emails expressing your disappointment in my lack of commitment.

Despite my ego’s attempts, I decided to engage in Step 11, “Everything is renegotiable.” When I first committed to writing my newsletter, I didn’t want my newsletter to be a sales drive; my mailbox was already filled with monthly sales letters. I wanted my newsletter to be beneficial to the reader, to provide tools, tips, and inspiration. I also didn’t want to inundate our already overwhelming mailboxes with daily or weekly emails. I tried to focus on quality over quantity, and with the state of my physical, emotional, and spiritual being at the end of my year-long journey of living a nomadic lifestyle, I would have forced myself to write a newsletter that would have compromised one of my personal core values: integrity. I would have delivered something to you that would not align with my original intention of providing value. I want to move from inspiration instead of obligation.

Can you relate? Have you ever pushed through something to check the box at the expense of your mental, physical, or emotional well-being? Did you ever need to renegotiate with yourself? There is the saying “robbing Peter to pay Paul,” but if Peter and Paul are both you, who are we really hurting, and for what?

For me, creating from inspiration rather than obligation makes my work more meaningful, which in turn nourishes my soul and supports my emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being, allowing me to give from a cup that is overflowing. In turn, it creates quality over quantity. Inspiration is the alchemist that turns intention into gold.

“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott

I did not miss a month; I honored myself by practicing what I teach.