Hey friend!
Last time we met, I told you about our new book, WANT YOUR SELF, which is coming out in Fall 2023. I let you know I was taking a summer hiatus to focus on the manuscript.
And — here's the great part — I actually DID!!!
I spent the summer with my head down in my work, leaning into my night-owl creativity style (something about the quiet and the dark energize me when I'm working on a big project), researching, fact-checking, writing, editing, writing more, editing more, and even went upstate to get a few uninterrupted days to myself. And last week, I finally turned in my manuscript to my editor!!
I've now got one month before I get my edits back from her, and we dive in again to complete the final draft by the end of the year.
This also means that I'm "back in the swing of things." Or at least...I think I thought I *would* be?
To my surprise, I now feel like I…don’t remember how to write things that aren’t 270 pages long??????
Or focus on any projects that aren't multiple years' worth in the making?????
Right now, it feels like I'm only able to write or set goals the way I pack for a trip: It’s either 10 days’ worth of outfits plus all my accessories, or one outfit and I forgot socks. It’s either a book or a text. It's either a goal two years out or two days out. The in-between feels trickier than usual.
Some things that are helping me:
REMEMBERING THERE IS NO SWING TO GET BACK INTO. Many times over the last few months, I felt like I needed to tap out of my life in order to get work done. And while that was true (major gratitude to all my friends and family who understood my extreme solitude and didn't make me feel guilty for doing what I needed to do!), I also think that I was starting to craft a newer version of life for myself. A life in which I'm more grounded, more focused, more confident and more connected. There is no swing to get back into, because I'm the process of actively actualizing a new swing entirely.
LETTING THINGS BE FLEXY. I shared on my friend Kara Cutruzzula's new podcast DO IT TODAY that I like to plan my days/weeks by giving myself room for structure and flow to coexist. What does this mean realistically? Well, right now that means figuring out what's going to work for this season of my life. What do I need now? What am I going after now? How do I want to feel now? And since I'm still figuring this out, I'm allowing these first couple weeks of September to be more trial-and-error than usual. When I give myself the space to let things be flexible, however flexible they're able to be, I'm always able to find a new groove. (But I also give myself a deadline to find this groove, because without one, the open-endedness of it all triggers my anxiety)
DESIGN MY SPACE FOR HOW I WANT TO FEEL. Since we bought our apartment in April, Jeremy and I have slowly but steadily been "putting it together." Everyone told us to give ourselves time to live in the space for a bit before making any big, costly, or labor-intensive decisions — like renovations, new furniture, or painting walls, respectively. And I'm SO glad we did. These past few months have really given us both so much insight into who we want to be, personally and professionally, and what we need from our home in order to reflect that back to us. Now it's go time! I finally got a chair for a little nook I'm creating, I started painting a wall yesterday...but it's also the little things, like grouping my perfume bottles on a pretty little tray instead of shoving them in the medicine cabinet, that make me feel the way I want to feel. Never underestimate how a new or repurposed or just moved-around-and-organized-space can change things for the better (can you tell it's Virgo Season, LOL).
LEAN INTO NEW SYSTEMS. I've been using Mailchimp and designed/developed the WANT site all on my own for SEVEN years. Plus, as much as I adored The WANT Community, the platform just wasn't feeling like the right fit. I'm ready to streamline things and make them feel authentic to me and to WANT. So, your next issue of The Good Word will be coming to you from Substack, where our community will live as well, AND...we have a new site coming that I can't wait to share!! These upgrades have been a long time in the making, and I'll share more later on the decision-making behind them. But if something isn't working, there's no reason to stay with it just because you've been with it for "so long."
And more than ANYTHING, I am meeting myself where I'm at. Because most of us (myself included) are so quick to rush through transitional moments, or not even realize they're transitional moments at all. For many of us, they just seem inconvenient or annoying.
But this is the stuff your tomorrows are made of.
Moments when it feels like you need to "get back into the swing of things" aren't moments you need to move "back" at all.
Even if the logistics look the same from the outside, you're different on the inside.
It's all forward from here.
Did this resonate at all? I hope so.
I’m always here, just an email away, cheering you on. Let me know if you're finding your new swing-of-things (or just say hi!) by replying to this email. Or follow up with me on Instagram — I’m @katiehorwitch, if we’re not friends there yet.
New email coming soon, new site coming soon, and new season of the WANTcast coming soon — so much newness around the corner for you!
I believe in you. I hope you believe in you, too.