It’s Been a Hard Year, Here’s How I’ve Been Coping

— EPISODE 98 —

 

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This has been a hard year for me. Not all bad by any measure but definitely hard.

I started the year out with big goals and plans for my business and met very few of them. 

My themes for this year were fun and ease and, ironically, I struggled with both of those things. 

I experienced the resurgence of self-worth challenges that I thought I had resolved and was reminded of the ongoing nature of our self-worth journeys. 

I’m sharing this with you because I want to be open and honest about my own self-worth journey, not just where I’ve been (there are many episodes where I’ve shared that) but where I am now and how I’m moving through the challenging periods in my life. 


Business Challenges

One of the biggest sources of challenge in my life this year was my business. I had a really great year last year with lots of speaking engagements and more revenue than I expected, even with a maternity leave, and I went into this year thinking it would be even better.

But it wasn’t and I wasn’t prepared when things didn’t go the way I planned. In short, the speaking engagements that had been flowing before slowed to a trickle and so did revenue from my other courses and programs. 

In response to this I spent more time marketing and creating programs to try to fill the gap and was spending less time doing what I love: speaking, coaching, and helping people on their self-worth journey. 

At the end of all this I was left feeling burned out and disillusioned. 

These challenges in my business also brought up feelings of insecurity about my purpose and my worthiness. I realized that some of my old overachiever tendencies had gotten activated with my business and trying to prove that my business was good enough. 

While deep down, I wasn’t questioning whether I was unconditionally worthy, I was struggling with not feeling like I was a good business owner and starting to question if what I have to offer was really good enough or helpful for people. 

I went through a whole host of emotions during this time. Guilt, fear, anxiety, confusion. It was hard. My family depends on my business to contribute a significant amount of income and when that income wasn’t coming it was scary. 

Thankfully, we made it through that period and I made some tough decisions that have helped to turn things around. 

Here’s what helped me to get through that time of confusion and questioning: 

  • I talked about it with my close friends and my husband. 

  • I returned to spiritual teachings (books, podcasts, etc.) that grounded me in the truth of who I am and my purpose. 

  • I got super present with my work focus. Instead of worrying about what is going to happen 3 months from now or if I’m having a huge impact, I focused on sending love to and being a blessing to the people I encountered in my work and day to day life. 

  • I allowed myself to feel my feelings. 

  • I put my experience into context.

Personal Challenges 

As I mentioned before, my themes for 2023 were ease and fun and I struggled with both of those things. 

I am still loving being a mom and Amani is growing and developing in ways that amaze me every day and I felt the challenge of being a mom and also having financial constraints in a big way this year. 

I was in the haze of new motherhood last year and didn’t fully realize how my free time, rest time, and play time have been limited but now I am fully aware. 

For me, as a mom it has been harder to access the things that I used to do for fun, the things my husband and I enjoy doing for fun and to connect, and the time I used to spend resting and relaxing. 

So this is a work in progress for me. One of the things that has helped me the most is reminding myself that I am not doing anything wrong and seeing this challenge as an invitation to reimagine what fun looks like in my current life stage. 

I have also noticed that I feel much less happy about the simple moments of joy that I have experienced over the last year when I spend a lot of time on social media and significantly limiting my time on social media has helped me to appreciate simple moments of fun and ease. 

Lessons from this Year

This year has been a reminder for me that our self-worth journeys evolve as we experience new challenges and growth in life. 

We may have gotten to a point in our lives where we feel confident in our unconditional self-worth and then we lose something (an identity or relationship for example) that was important to us and suddenly we have to go back to our self-worth work and reconnect to the truth of who we are without the thing that was helping us to feel worthy. 

This is why the practices and strategies that I offer through this podcast, the Date Yourself Course and my Unconditionally Worthy Group Coaching Program are not tasks to check off a list, they are practices and ways of being to carry with you no matter where your self-worth journey leads you. 

Wherever you are on your self-worth journey, I hope that listening to this episode helps you to know that you aren’t alone when you experience life challenges. I hope it reminds you that going through difficult times in life is not a sign that you are unworthy. You are Unconditionally Worthy no matter what and it is in embracing this truth that you will find a light within that guides you out of the darkness. 

Announcement

Before we end this episode, I have a hard announcement to make: I will be pausing the podcast indefinitely after this season. Season 6 ends with the 100th episode and that will be the last new episode for a while. 

One of the biggest investments I’ve made in my business is in the Unconditionally Worthy Podcast. I hired an incredible podcast management company to produce the podcast episodes so that I did not have to be involved in the tech and editing. One of the hard decisions I had to make in my business was deciding to pause the podcast because the financial investment was not sustainable. 

I hope to be able to resume the podcast at some point in the future in a way that is more sustainable for me energetically and financially. 

I want to sincerely thank you to you for listening, sharing, and leaving ratings and reviews of the podcast. I have sincerely appreciated your support and it has been incredibly encouraging to hear how the podcast has supported you on your self-worth journey. I would love to hear from you via email, DM, or you can still live a rating and review on Apple what this podcast has meant to you. I’ll link and share all the info in the show notes. 

We have two more episodes to go for the remainder of the season and the last two episodes will be solo episodes too so be sure to stay tuned! 

To learn more, listen to the full episode!


Relevant Resources:

Dr. Adia’s Free E-Book: 4 Practices to Connect with Your Unconditional Self-Worth

https://dradiagooden.com/freee-book/


To connect further with me:

Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradiagooden 

Connect with me on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adiagooden/

Subscribe to my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCURnbYiU8WTj_2RlMIyER0w 


If you enjoyed this discussion, share it with a loved one, then…

  • Leave a review and share this podcast, or DM me on social media to let me know your thoughts on this topic!

 
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This is How You Release Perfectionism with Dr. Rebecca Hubbard