Photo by David Lezcano on Unsplash

In my last blog post, I talked about how I spent roughly the last 2 years working on personal development. It was a tough and thrilling process. One of the ways I worked on bettering myself was reading every self-help/personal growth book I could get my hands on. 

I need a no-nonsense approach when it comes to stuff like this. I spent too many years making excuses for why I couldn't better myself or why I put up with things that didn't serve me or weren't in line with my values. I can't handle the "fluffy" self-help way. I'm lucky enough to have friends and family that fill me with all the positive feels. They make me feel valued and loved. What I need from a book about personal growth is someone telling me to cut the shit and get real for once. 

Here are 3 books I HIGHLY recommend if you're looking for some personal growth of your own.

The past year has been filled with a lot for me. A 5-year relationship came to an end, I changed jobs twice (after getting laid off), I fostered a ton of dogs, took my first solo trip, became really close to an old friend again, and basically just figured a lot of my shit out.

I didn’t intend on taking the whole year off from blogging but that’s just what needed to happen.  I wasn’t ready to give any type of insight or advice to other people since some days I couldn’t even get myself motivated to change out of my sweats and leave the house.

I finally feel like I’m in a good place again. I feel more peaceful, more purposeful, more fulfilled.

We all need to remember to give ourselves a pat on the back for everything we do and everything we overcome. We’re stronger than we know. We’re more amazing than we give ourselves credit for.

One of the things that helped me the most over the past while was going on a solo trip. Taking the time to hit the reset button, be able to collect my thoughts while being in a new and beautiful environment, being able to take a real break, was the best thing I could have asked for.

I went to a beautiful resort in Mexico, Iberostar Tucan, for a week. Everything was gorgeous! The sun, the beach, the food, the pool, everything! This was my first time going to Mexico and I would definitely go back!

There are 3 things I never would have learned about myself, had I not gone on this trip.

I’m the type of girl that likes to plan everything.

When I was younger I had this picture in my head of what career I wanted, when I wanted to get married, how many kids I wanted to have, etc.

Over time I realized that things don’t really work that way, so I learned to be more adaptable. Even so, I still had this general “plan” for how things were meant to turn out.

Here I was, working at a job that I sorta liked, in a dead end relationship, going through the motions of life because it was in line with my “plan”.

Girl, was I ever in for a surprise.

Somehow, regardless of how much I planned - I found myself laid off from my job, single at 30, and spending my days laying on the couch watching Netflix with no motivation to do anything else.

That looks nothing like my plan.

Life doesn’t always go the way you hope it will. You can’t plan everything. Life takes you where it wants to - you’re pretty much just along for the ride!

That’s not necessarily a bad thing though. Life is an adventure and it would be pretty boring if it didn’t have its ups and downs and if you always knew what was right around the corner.

If you’re a “planner” like me, here are a few things you can do when you find yourself nowhere near where you hoped.

Yes - I’ve been MIA for a little while.

Things have slowed down for me (or should I say, sped up?).

I’ve been taking a lot of time to reevaluate my goals and how I want to spend my time.

When I became a blogger it was because I wanted to have the ability to work from home (or wherever I wanted to). It looked so glamorous to me. I still knew it would be a lot of work (especially at first) but I thought I would really enjoying making money writing Sponsored Content for companies I loved.

Things changed.

Although blogging is still something that I love, I’m starting to rethink my options to make it part of my full-time gig.

There are a few different ways you can make money from blogging. I won’t get into that right now because it’s a heck of a lot of information (and there may only be a small percentage of you that are curious about it) but the way I see my career in terms of blogging is a lot different than when I started.

This makes me super excited and also a little stressed out.

I’ve been really bad at making goals for myself and following through with the action plans to achieve these goals. I used to just have this idea of what I wanted in my head but then never worked towards it.

Pretty lame.

Now, I’m actually working towards what I want (it only took me 30 years, ha!) and that’s a ton of work. I needed to take some time off from blogging to make sure I’m doing things right.

I also wanted to make sure my mental health was in check. Having new life goals and, basically, a new direction in life, can be a little scary and intimidating. I’ve been careful to make sure that I'm taking care of myself throughout this process.

I’m excited to share more with you about what my plans are for the future! There will be a post about this soon.

If you want to know what I’m up to you can also follow me on social media


While hustling hard is an admired quality, taking some off time is essential.  If you think you might need some “off-time” here are a few reasons why it might be a good idea