Thanks for being here.
How to Get Out of Thanksgiving This Year
The other day I hosted a Zoom Friends-Giving, and I’ll be honest: while I love seeing my friends, having to do yet another event on Zoom makes me unbearably sad. This winter and holiday season is filled with uncertainty, exhaustion, sickness, and frustration, and I’m scared that it’s going to get even harder. Yet everywhere I look, people are packing their bags, trying to figure out a way to make Thanksgiving work this year, and making excuses when we should be making really hard decisions. We need to cancel in-person Thanksgiving. Here’s why (and how).
Join The Visibility + Storytelling Challenge
Join me for a seven-day Instagram Creativity Challenge: create seven posts in seven days (using the prompts below), and everyone who does will win prizes. If you've been here a while, you know I have an annual birthday sale every year. Each year during my...
Sort your stress into three piles
What really causes me to freeze Sometimes I get really productive during stress. REALLY productive. It's my coping mechanism and I run around like an energizer bunny, getting it all done. I think my inner monologue truly believes that if somehow I accomplish every...
Taking Care Of Yourself
In a tired year, how do you persevere? Here are a few ways to restore and recharge. For my empaths, highly sensitive friends, and people who are feeling the fatigue of this year, a reminder to take care to fill up your own bucket and create boundaries to protect you as a person.
“Mom, Go That Way!”
When your four-year old helpfully gives you directions as you’re driving home.
What You Can Do
Ruth Bader Ginsburg died on Friday. A Supreme Court Justice, an advocate for women, for equality, for justice. The best kind. Here’s my two cents: Let the anger burn pure and clean. Let the tears flow out. Let it burn clean and hot in you, but do not let the anger take you down. Do not let the emotions bury you. Find a clarity and focus inside of this.
It’s Okay To Skip The Marketing Pressure
Just a reminder: if you’re feeling overwhelmed, mentally rough, or you’re in a financially tough spot right now, skip the marketing pressure to buy things on deadlines. More good opportunities will come in good time. You do NOT have to buy anything right now that you don’t need.
Do This To Make Your Day Better
Today I want to share a tool that can help you set yourself up for a successful day. I learned about it from Hugh Jackman. Hugh is a well-known musical theater performer, artist, and singer (who holds the Guinness World Record for “longest career as a live-action Marvel superhero”). He talked about the practice he uses on a recent episode of The Tim Ferriss podcast. Here’s how it works.
Setting Boundaries & Saying No
Saying no is powerful. My toddler wields the word on a daily basis, and in many ways, I’m in awe of his unabashed claim of the word. Yet saying no can be hard! How do you do it well? Here are my time-tested strategies.
August Sabbatical (Does 2020 Include A Sabbatical?)
Every summer, we take a break as a family and take a summer sabbatical. Typically, we take a few weeks off in August, sometimes up to a month. This year is a little different, of course, because 2020 has been a tidal wave of epic proportions. Still, despite everything going on, we’re going to hang onto the threads of the idea of a sabbatical and take a small step back. Sticking to a semblance of structure and routine can be stress-relieving, especially when things are chaotic.
How To Make Better Decisions: 4 Helpful Strategies When You’re Stuck
Decision paralysis is real. Sometimes when I have a huge decision looming ahead of me, it’s hard to figure out what to do. Just the other day, I met with my operations planning team, and we reviewed the pile of work that I had on my plate ahead of me. My lead operations person looked at me and said “Sarah, you have to make some tough decisions here. You no longer have enough bandwidth to complete all of this.” We had to get real about the time we had, and the projects we could do. The hardest part? Decision making. I’ve written before about why making decisions is so hard. Today I want to share four strategies you can lean on when you feel stuck and don’t know your next move.
2,000 Books Is Not Enough
Since starting my social media break last week, I’ve noticed something interesting. I’m hungry for more books. Books feel like a breath of fresh air. Like a complete conversation in a world that’s forgotten what more than a sentence feels like. The comparison between a book and Twitter is divine, and real. I’m back on track to read 50 books this year, but I want to read more. Here’s how I’ll do it.
Take A Break: Social Media Sabbaticals + News Vacations
I felt giddy. It turns out, being separated from your phone doesn’t feel like problem, it feels like freedom. The tether in my pocket was gone, and I could be right here, with people, full attention and absorption. The music overwhelmed, surrounded me. The innovation sank into me. Each line was a delight, and because it was improv, it was here—and then it wasn’t. My laughter felt larger, full-bodied, round. My face was open-mouthed with rapture and love and the full sensation of music, not just in my ears, but a part of me. To be honest, being away from my phone felt like being high.
LET’S TALK: A PODCAST
Let’s Talk 12: Try It And See
If you’re ever stuck or waffling in a decision, here’s a phrase and a short-hand that I love that helps remind me to take action: “Try it and see.” It’s something I use when I don’t know whether or not to do something. (It doesn’t work in ALL instances, but it certainly helps when I’m stuck.)
Let’s Talk 11: Getting Out Of A Rut
How do you get out of a rut? When you’re stuck at home, with children or without your brain (or BOTH), how do you get back into a groove and find your way? This episode is for anyone that feels anxious, stressed out, overwhelmed, or unable to complete a to-do list. I’m taking the view that it’s time to learn and adapt to our situation, and figure out the best strategies for us as individuals and how we get through this.
Let’s Talk 10: Saying Good Morning
Lately the strangest thing has been happening: I’m finding myself drawn towards social media, and wanting to connect more. So every morning, I’ve been sharing a small snippet of my morning routine on my Facebook page, and it’s turned into my virtual coffee shop. Listen in for how it all works, and why it’s helping me so much right now.
// Big Life Questions
An Answer For Everything
There's an answer for everything. Every choice, every decision, every reason for being. When you feel the impulse to dance, or wiggle, or scream, or wring your hands in frustration. When you think you don't want to go to a meeting, when you hate getting on the subway, when you want to quit working with a client, or a job....
Take Up Space
Take up space. Take up space with your body. With your gestures, with your height, with your size. If you're petite, take up space. If you're tall, take up space. Fill the room with the weight of your body, and then expand again with the weight of your soul. Take up space with your voice. Lift it high and let it sink low. Take...
Are You Chasing Productivity At The Expense of Your Soul?
I’m struggling with two competing challenges: being present and mindful, while also chasing the ego-driven aims of “success” and “productivity.” Is there a middle ground? I reached out to my dear friend Mathias Jakobsen, author and creator of Think Clearly, to dissect this competing pull between these two desires. This is the...
How We See Ourselves: On Identity, Labels, and Privilege
Do you know the story about when a man is asked to look in a mirror? He's asked what he sees. He says "myself" (usually he says his name, "I see John," etc). A woman looks in the mirror and says, "I see a woman." A black woman says, "I see a black woman." How we describe ourselves says a lot about where our labels and...
The Profound Habit of Following Your Own Advice
Wisdom is nothing more profound than an ability to follow your own advice. — Sam Harris. I struggle with writing essays that sound too much like advice, because I know inevitably as soon as I tell you the ten tricks for getting into bed early, I’ll suffer bouts of insomnia, wake up at odd hours, and suffer from erratic sleep...
Making Space: Holding the Container Open, Empty, and Ready
Cleaning out sometimes feels a bit like a death. Whenever I pack up bags to give away, it feels as though I'm going through old remnants of my past self, closets of things that represent who I used to be, and parting ways. Lately I've been cleaning out everything: getting rid of extra toiletries, clothes, miscellaneous things,...
// Decision Making
The Power of Saying Things Out Loud
The power of saying what you want out loud continues to astound me. It was January 1, this year. I was setting goals. I outlined what I wanted to do this quarter — take singing lessons, finish the first draft of my book, a few more things. Being in New York has been challenging at times. It’s a new environment, and all my...
Why quitting is perfectly okay.
It’s always the same story for me: I start a project, a class, an idea, or a story. I eagerly rush in, align my pencils, lay out my notebooks, and make delirious plans in my calendar. That first day, ideas and dreams pour out of me. Then four days pass. I waver, tired. My calendar seems oppressive. The new habit loses its...
How to Practice Saying No
I walked into the restaurant and something didn't feel right. The prices were too high, the waiter a little stuffy and dismissive, the air a little cold. I can't tell you exactly what it was, but I do know that my body was decidedly uncomfortable. While none of the particulars was enough to make a fuss—should I complain about...
Why I Say No to Meeting People for Coffee
Ever say yes to something and wish you hadn’t? Or get stuck in a situation where you’re not sure how to say no to something? Or better yet, get asked for money and you don’t know how to say no? I have a hard time saying no (an impossible time, sometimes, because I want to say yes to everything), so recently I said no to...
Everyone starts somewhere.
Even the master yogi took a first class. To become anything, you have to begin. Start somewhere, take a tiny step. Something is better than nothing. Everyone starts somewhere.
Are You Too In Love With A Dream to Make It Real?
Where does your mind go when you daydream? That big dream, that thing in your mind--the really big one. Yes, that one. What's your big, scary, hairy, crazy, totally unrealistic dream? The one you wish for fervently and find yourself thinking about on and off while wandering? Have you thought about making it real? Making it...
// How People Work
Summer Hiatus
Every summer, we take a break as a family—both from work and from business. I also do a social media sabbatical for at least two weeks (sometimes more) based on a series of experiments I conducted and wrote about for Harvard Business Review.
Ask Me Anything (Yes, Anything)
Want my brain on your project or business? Here’s how to access it on my monthly, private, patreon-only podcast.
Slow Down, Don’t Stop, Keep Going
Don't quit, not yet. This is my current mantra—to myself. I thought you might want to hear it as well. I feel behind on nearly everything these days. My life blurred out of focus with the arrival of our second son, and only in May or June of this year, once he hit eight months old, did I feel like I had a small, fleeting grasp...
Less Time Than We Think
I want to write about something I’m noticing—and struggling with. I don’t have an answer for it. It is, perhaps, a set of observations.When I was younger: in my twenties, I didn’t realize how much of my free time I spent doing things—things that I now try to do all inside of my limited work hours. There are small projects I used to indulge in that occupied pockets of time I no longer have in the same way. Today I want to talk through how work (and projects) eat our time, and why we have less time than we think. And how to deal with it.
How, What, Why
Are you rushing, slipping, catching your breath, urgent, last-minute, adrenaline fueled? Or are you patient, calm, planning ahead, ready, exhaling, easy? The difference between the two matters.
Strategies for Selling and Marketing More Effectively
What does having a successful online business look like to you? One of the hardest things to get right in business, in my opinion, is your marketing. It’s something that’s often left to the wayside, done as an afterthought, or purchased by brands and folks that think, “Okay, now we’ll just add some Marketing to it.” Like,...
// Conscious Community
What Questions Are You Asking? (Three Questions For Reconnection)
We are the questions we ask. We are the way we inquire, curiously, about the world we work in. As I was going through what was (for me), a difficult pregnancy, I looked to my partner and asked, time and time again: "How do I make it through this?" It's hard to believe now, but there were moments when I didn't know...
How Do You Feel Before, During, and After?
Today I want to share with you about a way to connect inwardly, with yourself. But first, a quick story. I work with coaches. A lot of coaches. I've worked with college coaches, swim coaches, book coaches, life coaches... you name it, I like doing it. One of my most recent coaches has worked with me on...
Send a Friend a Love Letter
I have the bad habit of hiding and holing myself away for a while. It's when I'm deep in writing, processing, or thinking. I get a bit estranged from the connectivity of it all. When I emerge, I begin to remember things that I used to do, that I've forgotten. A quick sniff of my armpits and I realize that I should probably...
How to Know When You’re Communicating Well
Communication is one of the most challenging aspects of leadership. Often I see young leaders and CEOs (myself included) getting frustrated because they said or emailed something once, and it's not sticking. Communication is often about repeating yourself. You need to explain yourself, explain it again, return to the idea at...
Little Online Moments
It was her first post on Medium. She wrote about her beautiful son. And the hardest thing that she had been through — heart-wrenching. I read the first essay from her husband, bookmarked it, held her and her family in my hearts. I’ve never met her, but I cried for her family nonetheless. A year went by, and she wrote again....
Slowing Down to Connect Across the World: Two Sisters
You immediately inspired me to have a ‘slow morning’ – get my body moving with some gentle, nourishing stretches and movements (from Dad’s routine!), make French press coffee and sit on the deck in the morning sun thinking nothing at all. Spying some wild blueberries on a nearby bush and foraging for my breakfast… Hope you...
RECESS: A FREE AUDIO COURSE
Five minute guided resets for sanity and clarity. Listen to the free samples below or sign up for the full course—also available for free—at sarahkpeck.com/recess
GUIDED STORIES, BREATHWORK & VISUALIZATIONS