I didn’t used to feel the effects of my choices and actions as clearly as I do now. Maybe that’s because I’m not in my 20’s, or 30’s anymore. Or maybe it’s because before I became a mother I simply had more free time. It’s probably both!

I also know that when my health hit the lowest of lows, and I was struggling to simply get through one simple part of my day, every single one of my choices and actions had a massive impact on me. And I felt the repercussions almost immediately.

Most of us don’t feel the ramifications of our daily choices with such immediacy. We don’t feel the effects of…

Sleep deprivation
Smoking
Constantly pushing ourselves to our limits
Health hindering foods
Poor posture
Shallow breathing
Lack of exercise
Staring at screens all day
Isolation
Overwork
Caretaking everyone else
Self-neglect
Dehydration
Chronic fatigue
Negative self-talk
Hormone imbalances
Toxic relationships
Constantly going, doing, striving
Perpetually putting ourselves last

… until we do.

Often, by the time we realize there’s an issue, it’s become a bigger issue. It’s something beyond a quick fix, and we’re feeling the consequences of it in other areas of our lives, too.

It’s impacting our professional performance and our finances. It’s tanked our libido. It’s affecting our confidence and our willingness to be visible. And it’s really affecting our relationships in not-so-pretty ways.

If we take an honest look at what’s truly at stake for us, it’s much larger than we often allow ourselves to believe it is.

I’m not here to tell you how to live, or what you can and can’t do. But I am here to tell you that there is a cost to your day-to-day choices. Over time, things add up.

Nearly every single woman I speak to – at the grocery store, on a client call, with my closest girlfriends, or at my son’s preschool – is exhausted. She’s depleted. She’s beyond burning the candle at both ends. She’s verging on desperate.

And she’s scared because she doesn’t see another way.

There’s so much momentum going in a particular direction and there’s so much at stake for her, her family, her career, her livelihood, and everyone she’s responsible to and for…

She’s literally falling apart and yet she can’t see how it could ever be any other way than it is without putting in just as much, if not more hard work to get herself out of the dilemma she’s in.

There is another way. A way out.

I’ve lived this, so I can tell you, hand on heart, that it is possible to step out of the depleting, exhausting, constantly go-go-going mania of your life. And, it’s less scary than you’ve been led, or have led yourself to believe.

I’m not going to tell you that it’s easy, because stepping out of self-sacrifice requires a new level of devotion to yourself that may feel deeply uncomfortable for a while. If you want things to change, or if you want to avoid slipping into this conundrum altogether, you must start putting yourself first.

Feel into what that actually asks of you, and how different that might be from how you are living your life today.

In order to live in a way that feels better to you – a way that honors all of who you are and those you love – you have to start listening to what you need, what your body needs, and what your soul desires.

Then you have to be willing to take inspired action on your own behalf.

Start doing more of those things that elevate and nourish you. Begin to crowd out the things that drain and deplete you.

Shift your attention to yourself, your needs and your desires.

I dare you to do this! Watch how your life opens up in ways you may have never thought possible.