In this Shamelessly Ambitious corner of the internet we celebrate ourselves, dive deep into dream building, and embrace the beauty of finding balance within our life & businesses to experience more freedom. We’ve been through so many “trendy” work styles but I’m here to share my thoughts on the magic that happens when passion, balance, and productivity coexist.
Navigating Change: From Hustle to Alignment
We all remember hustle culture, the very thing that threw most of us into intense burnout… But, just like the seasons change, society changes, too. We’ve now ventured from the hustle era, where it was relentless grind time, to our current phase of alignment, where finding our flow and what feels good with business is the key. Now, I’m not here to say that hustle culture is bad because I’ve been on my grind since I was 15 years old as a hostess at Outback Steakhouse && I’m also not here to say that living in alignment and working less for more success is bad either because I have programs that teach you exactly how to do that. But, when did it become wrong to be in a season of hustle? Why can’t we have both? It’s not about rejecting seasons of hard work or dismissing the beauty of alignment, but rather finding that sweet spot where both exist…duality.
Why not create a new era where we can be both creators and cultivators of our dreams?
When in Rome…
Being a digital nomad definitely opened my horizons to different types of cultural norms. When we were in Italy, things would shut down in the middle of the day and would reopen at seven o’clock at night. While that is the norm for their culture, it isn’t typical for those of us from the United States and my family and I did get ourselves stranded quite a few times because we forgot to plan around the typical siesta. What a concept… to close in the middle of the day to rest, spend time with family, and live life. Experiences like these really showed me the importance of adapting and redefining my perspective on work-life balance.
Finding Balance: Passion and Productivity
As we came back to America, I knew I wanted to integrate the idea of slowing down and enjoying life, but I didn’t want to let go of embodying my hustler, CEO status. So, I sat with what that realistically meant for me. I came to…
What about passion?
Yes, I love the idea of stepping out of the office to enjoy lunch and an afternoon walk, but what if I want to work through lunch because I’m so fucking passionate about what I’m doing?
There are days where I want to sit by the pool and read my smut books without having to think about my business, but there are also days I feel so excited and creative that all I want to do is be locked inside my office working all through the night, losing sleep, and will probably feel like shit the next day && that’s ok because I truly love what I do and I’m excited to work on it.
But, I’ve had to wrestle with my inner dialogue between sticking to a rigid schedule and embracing the spontaneous bits of creativity. I finally decided that it doesn’t have to be one or the other and we can have both. So my invitation is to challenge these narratives and give ourselves permission to embrace both sides of our nature: the passionate creator and the aligned rester.
A New Era of Productive Passion
I’ve realized that this has been in our nature all along. Our cycle has always told us that there are going to be phases where rest is queen. Like, girl BYE to all the productivity. We’ve forced ourselves to be productive through these phases because of societal expectations. On the flip side, there are also phases where we have endless energy & the best thing we can do for ourselves is USE it. These phases are what we really want to capitalize on as business owners.
I, for one, am still finding my groove with this & it’s okay if you are too. A couple of busy days over here, a couple of slow days over here…
With this new groove, I’m excited to announce that we’ll be shifting to one podcast episode per week, allowing me the space to nurture new projects while still pouring into the podcast. Hustling AND flowing. Nothing is taking a break or going away. If anything, these episodes are only going to get more potent & intentional.
Carving Our Own Path
I’m bringing in a new era where we can have passion and productivity and where rest and work coexist seamlessly. It’s time for us to step into our CEO power. Afterall, we did start our businesses because we had a passion to bring to life. Why did we allow this “trend” of alignment stop us from grinding on our passions? I’m not advocating that we fall back into burnout, but we can find the sweet spot of rest and productivity.
“So, what’s to come, Ash?”
You will definitely want to be a part of it, I can guarantee that. Stay tuned.
Everything is inside Empire Society
