Why I must follow my playfulness

In many ways, this was always coming. And I knew it.

For years I felt a familiar entity following me around. Always out of the corner of my eye. Sitting, waiting patiently, yet never still.

Almost like a ghost pet.

I knew what it was. It was a part of me I left behind years ago. A part of me that I hid away when I decided to 'grow up' and be an adult.

It was my playfulness.

It had always made me sad to think about it, I would grieve for it like it was a lost loved one. Without realizing the danger that each day brought without having play as a part of my life.

And then one day, the wind changed course.

A stroke of perfectly timed bad luck put me in one of the worst states of health than ever before.

Crippled by pain and suffering, it was in this state that I was ready to hear the message of my playfulness.

She propped up, looked me square in the eye and said (with an obnoxious grin on her face), "So are you finally ready?"

I was.

I am.

Which brings me to the point of this post.

This weekend I have been reading Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, and there was one particular chapter where I felt like she was writing directly to me.

"Ideas are driven by a single impulse: to be made manifest through collaboration with a human partner. It is only through humans efforts that an idea can be brought out of the ether and into reality. Ideas will spend an eternity swirling around us searching for available human partners willing to do the work. If you miss it, the idea will try to wave you down, maybe for a moment, a few months or a few years, but when it finally realizes you're oblivious to it's message it will move on to someone else."

This is exactly what my playfulness had been doing. Hanging out for me to notice it sitting in the corner, waiting to offload the ideas it holds. I think if I waited any longer, it may very well have left me. I think that's what my "health warning" was about.

Since then I have been cultivating my playfulness bit by bit, letting it learn to trust me again and learning to understand the terms of our contract together.

And the first agreement of our contract is that I must be unapologetically true to myself.

This means that I have to allow my work in this world - including my business and this website - to mould into the quintessence of who I am and what I stand for.

I must follow my playfulness and let it guide me.

So from here forward I will be expanding on what I do here, what I write about. It won't be solely about money and mindset. It will have more about wealth, adventure, creativity, purpose, passion and freedom.

This is all about playful living and how to integrate it into your life.

If this is something you have been craving more of in your life, I ask you to stick around and see how this unfolds for yourself. If not, I won't be offended if you need to move on.

I wish you all warm fuzzies.

Elise xo

How I Handle My Self-Sabotaging Ways

You might have been wondering where I've gotten to over these last couple of weeks.

I'd love to be able to say I've been high on cloud nine, kickin' it in Florence with my entrepreneur pals. But alas, that would be a lie.

In actual fact I have been very much down on earth dealing with my "old friends" doubt and self-sabotage.

They always show up when things are getting good!

What buzz killers.

I always get those tell-tale signs that they're coming to town.

For me it begins with procrastination. "Oh, I'll just write that post tomorrow" or "I'll do my money tracking exercise later on". And then I'll start to justify why I haven't been able to get around to doing any work. "I've been really busy with work/family/home" or my favourite, "I've just been too tired to do anything", when really I've been watching all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies back-to-back and playing Tomb Raider on PS3. Next up I suddenly become awash with self-doubt. "I've chosen the wrong field/topic/business type" and "I'm not really 'clear' on my message, therefore it must not be the right one. Now I have to change it."

Can you relate?

It happens.

Especially when trying to up-level anything in your life.

So what the hell do you do when it happens?

Here's how I do it.

How I Handle My Self-Sabotaging Ways

Let myself have a break. I really have to gauge what's going on here. Most of the time it's that I've been working really hard on my business and I actually need to take a break. So I'll quite literally "give in" to my sabotage and relax. And sometimes that looks like doing nothing for a week or so, sometimes that looks like spending time outdoors in nature or in this case watching movies and playing PS3!

Allow myself to be creative and get re-inspired. Don't forget that the inspirer still needs to be inspired herself. And I always know when I need re-inspiring because I'll want to spend more time doing creative things than doing anything else. This week I bought Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and have been devouring the material (which I highly recommend btw). I also discovered new music by Odesza which sends me straight into a high vibration. That was enough to get me ready to gently get back to my business.

Do the things that comes easy first. When I self-sabotage, rebelling against my own routine is usually part of it. So once I've had my little break and got some inspo, I start getting back into my routine by doing the easiest things first. Over the last week the easiest thing for me to do has been making my green smoothie for breakfast and citing my morning intentions.

Tackle a "tedious" task quickly. For me this blog post was the "tedious" task. It's not that I don't love writing, or that I don't like giving you everything I've got (not at all!) it's more a case of the task of writing. I've been writing posts for 5 years now, so it gets a little old. Through this short break I have decided I'm going to be delivering content to you through a new route. And sometimes that's what your self-sabotage and doubt will lead you to - the birth of something new! But let's talk about that later!

Go full force back into it. Usually after I've let myself have my chill time, gotten myself inspired, eased myself back into it, I'm good to go. And thus why you have this post to read ;)


Sometimes you actually just need a break. Sometimes your doubt will be overwhelming. And sometimes you're not even going to know you're sabotaging yourself.

And what I have to say to that is you need to pay attention to yourself. If it's something you start to do whenever things are going well, then it tends to be self-sabotage. If it's something out of character, that could well be your intuition telling you something is off. If you're drained, then you most definitely need a break! So take it!

Now it's your turn: How do you handle your own self-sabotage? What are your signs?

Elise xo


P.S - 10 ways to clear your money blocks