Not going to lie, as I sit here writing this article, I can’t help but feel my spark has faded. It’s 6:05pm on a Saturday and I just made it into the City Girl Savings office…with a lot of work ahead of me.

My day went something like this:

• woke up late (which was nice)
• got the dogs and myself prepped for the day
• met my boyfriend’s mom for lunch and coffee
• ran home to give my boyfriend his lunch
• headed out to my lash appointment
• stopped at a drive-thru coffee shop
• finally made it to my office

This has been my life for quite some time. I can’t tell you the last weekend I had that consisted of NOTHING. I am tired. However, I have a lot of big goals I’m working towards. Knowing that, I’ve got no choice but to keep going and overcome…

When I say my life has been non-stop for quite some time, I’m not exaggerating. I’ve been going, going, going since I moved back to Austin in 2013 after my dad died. I was quickly thrown into a world I knew nothing about because I was listed as a representative on multiple business documents of his. I worked tirelessly to understand the business (which was a small oil company), bring past-due taxes current (I’m talking 4+ years), and continue remotely at the full-time job I left behind in California.

I put the grief behind me, put my head down, and figured it out. Something always came up.  Every day there was a new obstacle. Whether it was a new account I hadn’t seen before, a document contradicting my understanding of the business, or a random piece of scratch paper with my dad’s handwriting that reminded me he was gone. Through it all, I overcame.

While I was working my full-time job and working to bring my dad’s company current, I decided I wanted to start my own venture. I had managed to turn my money situation around quickly after moving back home, and I wanted to help other women do the same. So, I launched the blog City Girl Savings about a year after moving back.

By then, I had gotten into the flow of working for my dad’s business and working full-time in corporate, so starting my own passion project seemed manageable. Sure, my Saturdays would be spent writing blog posts or working on the site, but I managed. I worked tirelessly on all 3 endeavors until I finally released my dad’s business to the people managing his estate. After that happened, my corporate job promoted me and my responsibilities increased.

I had managed two workloads before, I thought, I could do it again. Eventually, my work at corporate lead to more promotions, more money, and much more responsibility. City Girl Savings turned into a full-on financial coaching company, and my days looked like this…

• 7am-4pm: corporate job with free time spent on City Girl Savings
• 4pm-8pm: City Girl Savings client calls
• Weekends: work on City Girl Savings

I lived like this for four years. Four years. I’d have vacation time in the mix, but if I wasn’t traveling, I was working.

In the middle of 2021, I was finally able to quit my corporate job and run City Girl Savings full-time. I thought having 40 hours a week to devote to it would mean that my weekends were my own. Unfortunately, I just filled up my time with more work. Sure, I had more time to do personal things, but I still felt like my time wasn’t really mine.

When they say ‘the grass isn’t always greener’, it’s for a reason. I’d just swapped working all the time for someone else to working all the time for myself. Don’t get me wrong—I’m happy about that, but it’s shown me that I have to be intentional with my time and give myself boundaries.

As I wrap up this article, I’m realizing that all the hard work I put in was—and is—of my own doing. I love City Girl Savings, so I don’t regret it. But if I’m feeling overwhelmed right now, if I’m feeling like my spark has faded, that’s also on me. And it’s 100% within my control to change it. I can overcome the overwhelm by setting boundaries around my own time. I can choose to make the most of my hours, to have client calls on 3 days of the week, work on the business the other 2 days and give myself weekends to relax. I can choose.

Now that I’m aware that this struggle exists, I can fix it. So, this is my vow: I’m putting the power back into my own hands and taking back control of my time! We only have this one life here on Earth, and we deserve for it to be a phenomenal one!

Think about your own situation. What struggles are you experiencing, and what vows can you make to yourself to help you overcome them?