Have you ever had one of those days at work where you feel like you’ve started 100 tasks but never completed any of them? You sat down at the beginning of the day, started to clear your inbox, but then the phone rang. As you were finishing up your call, you got pulled into a meeting. Which turned into a lunch. And then you worked on your next presentation but had to help a co-worker work through something with their project. By the time you were done with that, you realized you had to get in your stats from last week. 

And then it was 5 o’clock.

Your inbox was still full and you didn’t complete a single thing on your to-do list. But you did eat lunch, so that has to count for something, right?

Days like this at work are not exactly a rarity for me (literally, as I wrote this, I stopped and researched two different school options for my kids and then ate a snack.)

It’s actually what my whole life used to feel like. Not just tasks that were left uncompleted, but everything felt chaotic. Like I never could quite get a grasp on what the most important thing was to do at any moment.

Be with my kids or finish up work. Make a home cooked meal or spend time with my husband. Try for the promotion or get more time at home.

Every decision was in conflict with the next.

I realized I had no litmus test to know if something was in the best interest for me or my family. No beacon to point me back to if I got off course.

I needed to have a life that was centered around what I wanted in life. And in order to do that, I had to figure out what I actually wanted!

Once I knew what that was, everything became WAY clearer. Not that I still didn’t have hard choices. But it made sense of WHY things were hard. Creating a centered life starts with having a centered vision: a clear idea of what life would look like for you if you were living according to what mattered most to you. 

And that’s the beauty: it’s YOUR centered life and that’s going to look a lot different for you than for me. Which is awesome.

I know that figuring out what exactly that looks like can be kinda tricky. Try this exercise:

Close your eyes and sit in a comfortable position. Allow your body to relax. Imagine yourself five years from now in a life that is EXACTLY what you want it to be like. What does life look like for you? 

Who are you with and what are you doing? What do you see? What are you wearing? How does it smell? When you wake up in the morning, how does your world look? What do you do? Where do you go? How do you feel? How do you not feel?

Maybe what you saw was yourself in a new career or living in a new place. Maybe what you imagined was more of a feeling. Whatever you envisioned, WRITE IT DOWN and give as much detail as you can, because we’re going to use those to create five themes or components that make up that vision for your life. All based around the things that give you purpose and make you feel centered.

What stood out to you about your centered vision? Was it more about people? Or a place? Did you have free time or were you busy? What were the common themes that tied it all together?

Here’s why that’s important: think about going on a road trip. It’s pretty difficult to make sure you get to where you want to end up…if you don't know where you want to end up. A GPS only does you so much good if you can input your final destination.

That’s why we have to come up with the parameters of our centered life. So when we get off course, we know what it takes to get back. Or even to know that we got off course in the first place!

If you need a little help getting the ball rolling, let me give you some examples from my center points. Remember, these are things that are happening in my life when I am at the center of my life. Basically, if I was living as the best version of myself, this is how I would show up:

FINANCIAL FREEDOM: I am completely debt-free.

STRONG MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH: I’m in the best physical and mental shape of my life.

FAMILY CONNECTION: I am an exceptional wife and have a thriving marriage. I have deep connections and amazing relationships with each of my kids.

WORLD TRAVEL: I work for myself as a speaker, blogger, and businesswoman, speaking and traveling around the world.

PASSIONATE, GIFTED CONTRIBUTION: I give my best talents compassionately and generously to inspire other women to create social-emotional wellness for themselves

How would you show up if you were the best version of yourself?

This is the whole reason we started the Modern Mamas Club app–so that we could dig deeper into learning what makes each of us better as women. Come hang out with us!