Most high achievers are not used to finding joy in small things, instead focusing far too much on the big things. Why? It’s highly likely that it’s because of the conditioning that led to your success! You fall into the trap of only chasing the big wins and the big highs. For example, you live for the fancy vacations and spa days, but struggle with the small things like romanticizing and appreciating your daily life. 

Sound familiar? Now don’t get us wrong, those things have a place too! But the problem is, you’re still looking for joy or fulfillment outside yourself. So, we want to introduce you to what we call “sustainable joy,” or small moments that you can enjoy daily. The power of sustainable joy? It puts the power back in your control.

Joy is Productive

Did you know? Joy is good for your wellbeing! It’s scientifically proven to be good for both physical and mental health. And you guessed it, it’s also key to resilience. Who doesn’t want more of that?

So don’t sleep on it. It’s important to make it a priority, and part of routine for self care, mental wellness, and overall life optimization. You can think of this like a ritual or a practice. It’s intentionally small so that it’s easy to access without much time or effort.

Joy Makes You Resilient

Another thing we don’t hear anyone talking about is that your hobbies and passions can be the best stress reliever and resilience strategy out there.  For Sara, connecting with her creativity is one of the biggest things that’s helped heal her burnout and feel at home in herself. And she loves to share it with others because it’s been incredibly life-changing for her! (Shameless plug to check out her new group program, Hobbies to Heal, starting in late January 2025)

Joy Creates Expansion and Activates Flow

Creating time for your hobbies and passions provides an opportunity for expansion. You’re using new mental muscles and having novel experiences which are good for neuroplasticity.  You’re in the mindset of curiosity and experimentation – an incredibly valuable way of thinking you can transfer back into your work.

Spending time on your hobbies and passions allows you to activate flow states. You can also think of it like this – these things actually create energy instead of taking it. They fill you with excitement and leave you feeling inspired. And what can be more important to resilience than that?

Joy Fulfills You

We just have to say it, you need to have hobbies, passions, and things in your life that bring you joy that quite literally have NOTHING to do with your career. Remember, we said this is an inside job. And for that to be the case, you need to detach from the often tight grip you have on work. And you’ll also want to learn to validate yourself.

Finding Your Hobbies and Passions

If you’re a high achiever, we realize this might sound foreign, but we’re going to say it anyway. THIS IS NOT THE PLACE TO BE A PERFECTIONIST. Don’t limit yourself to only what you think you might be good at. Also, like we said, let this be completely unrelated to your work.

This will take time and experimentation to figure out. It might not even be immediately fun. And you’ll probably question the value of it at first. But once you find your thing, we promise it’ll change everything.

Questions for Self Reflection

• What’s that thing you’ve been wanting to do but feel like you can’t make time for? 
• If you had all the time in the world, what would you do for fun?
• What are your favorite activities to do on vacation and can any of them translate into a hobby you can pursue closer to home?
• What’s something you used to enjoy when you were younger, perhaps even as a child?

Think Outside the Box

If you’ve been with us for a while, you know that Sara is the traditionally more creative one. She’s always loved arts and crafts – scrapbooking, jewelry making, heck she was even good at knitting. And now, she’s even a professional bookbinder!

Long story short, she took a bookbinding class in Japan last summer and totally fell in love with this art form. She gets into true flow with this, completely immersing herself in her art. She’s created a highly engaged community on instagram to share her art and her creativity. And she also creates custom binds in her very own shop, The Meraki Bindery.

(*Side note, please don’t pressure yourself into monetizing your passions, art, or hobbies unless you truly want to!! Monetization is absolutely not what we’re after, although it can happen if it feels right and it’s aligned. We’re just sharing her story because it’s truly inspiring, and yet, it was a difficult decision for her to make and we want to be very real about that.)

Get Curious and Experiment

Me on the other hand? I’ve always been super practical and I could never quite get the hang of knitting. So I considered traveling as my hobby, and it’s also a great love of mine. But recently, I realized that I *am* creative too. It just looks different.

I enjoy writing! I like to do it for myself, for our blog, and for others. I’ve realized it’s one of the most natural ways I express my creativity. It’s healing and inspirational at the same time. I’m even in the process of birthing the idea of creative writing and journaling workshops…if you’d like to share your opinion, fill out my google form!

Make it enJOYable

As a personal example, I learned to ski in the French Alps last winter. And as fancy as that sounds, I can confirm it was indeed not immediately fun. I struggled hard with not being “good” at it. It was exhausting. I fell a lot. And vulnerability alert, I even cried a few times! But I learned a lot about myself and my ability to trust myself (or not). I also rewarded myself with tartiflette and white wine on a sunny terrace. This reward had nothing to do with my skiing ability, but rather the fact that I went and tried. So how can you reward yourself for trying something new?

Build Your Sustainable Joy Practice

What do we do with our clients? We actually brainstorm things they enjoy that are different “sizes,” so to speak. We then create a toolbox. We experiment with it and find what works specifically for them. It has to be sustainable, repeatable, and accessible at any time.

Make three lists – small, medium, or large. Then list out things that bring you joy under each category. Small things can be done every day, and sometimes even more than once. Medium things can be done weekly or monthly. And large things typically happen somewhere in the neighborhood or quarterly or yearly.  For example, sitting in the sunshine with your coffee is small. On the other hand, a tropical beach vacation falls under the large category.

Make it Smaller, We Dare You!

Challenge yourself to see just how many items you can list under each category, and especially the small one! Try to incorporate at least one thing that brings you joy each day, and bonus points if you can do more than that. Remember, make the small moments of joy as small as you can. It’s fun to see how many of the small moments you can fit into your day. Then, look ahead at your schedule and try to plan for some medium and large items too. And don’t forget to actually schedule them in your calendar!

What’s Next?

Okay so like we said, shameless plug over here…Sara’s enrolling for Hobbies to Heal starting late January 2025. It’s a celebration of hobbies as medicine, a way to tap into your unique creativity, joy, connection to yourself, to find safety within, coming home to yourself and exploring! It’s a place for you as a high achiever to heal your burnout to ditch perfectionism, and even to rediscover your inner child. If you’re interested or have more questions, contact Sara here!

And as I mentioned, I’m in the early stages of my creative journaling workshop series! I’d love to hear from you, what you’d like to see, and what we can create together. Please fill out my google form.

As always, we’re here to support you!  Feel free to reach out to us via email, instagram (or comment below!)

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Looking for more personalized support on this journey?

Want to go deeper? As we always say, it may be called “the inner work,” but that doesn’t mean you’re meant to do it alone. We would be honored to be your guides! Book a free session with either of us here. It may be the most valuable thing you do to move forward in your personal development journey!