Monday Morning Motivation:
The Best Is Yet To Come!

Baby…… I’M BACK!

Hola GEMs and Happy Monday! Some of you may be off this holiday and if you are, enjoy! Around these parts, we’re ramping up for a crazy stint of travel. I’m getting ready to hit the road to shoot two new episodes of my show, Sweet Retreats, in the warm environs of Florida and I can’t WAIT! We have a show in the southern part of the state and then we head up to the Jacksonville area for another episode. In between those two shoots, I’m popping over to Dallas for a charity event called Beyond The Bag, which will raise money for the Joan Katz Breast Center Endowment Fund at Baylor All Saints Medical Center.

But back to Sweet Retreats for a moment.

The photo up above was taken from last night at the very moment the premiere episode of Sweet Retreats ended. Of course, I’m not cheering for the end of the episode, rather the time and effort it took to get to this place and by that, I mean a couple of things. First, the show. Sometimes these shows are shot out of sequence and I’m not privy to all the “b-roll” (industry term for the footage that doesn’t include the interviews) so it’s hard for me to get a handle on what this was ultimately going to look like.

Needless to say I thought it looked GREAT (as you can tell by my expression).

 Screen shot from Sweet Retreats
On The Live Well Network.
You can see the full episode here.

The other reason I’m so  happy at this moment is because of what it took to get HERE. When I started Good Enough Mother eight years ago (did someone say overnight success?) my goal was do something more meaningful than read off a teleprompter; I really wanted to help women, wives, mothers and others feel better about the job they were doing as parents. We know how tough that is.

Along the way, I hit a couple rough patches of my own including illness, job loss, hair loss, loss of self, even. Some bad business deals helped me learn but contributed to those dark days. The details are not worth rehashing but let me sum it up this way; it pretty much sucked.

Fast forward to where we are now; I’ll be 50 in a couple of weeks, a tough age for women in front of the camera. And you know what? I’ve never felt better. I’m in charge of my destiny and the message I want to impart. Though I’ve been knocked around a bit, I’m still standing and the best part? I fully expect things are going to get better. Much, MUCH better. Actually they already are.

Good Enough Mother is a full-fledged brand and we have some exciting partnerships with brands and advertisers in the works. I’m doing more and more TV with Sweet Retreats as the centerpiece. And interestingly enough, it’s all happening at a time when I (and others) thought I would have long been washed up. I don’t have the secret, I don’t hold the key; I just kept plugging away, knowing that if I kept at it, I’d get to the place I want to be. I’m certainly not there yet.. but I will be.

I know this is sort of rambling and you might be saying, “Rene! What IS the point here?” I guess I just want to give you a little more reason to hold on, even when you feel like letting go would be easier. I want you to feel inside, the way I did last night when Sweet Retreats wrapped up, the knowledge that you did something that you worked hard on and are proud of it.

Whatever you’re going through, I can assure you won’t last forever. Learn what you can while you’re in that space, lean into the wind, hone your craft and chisel away at your dream, one little day at a time. You will get there; I know it!

Now, go out there and make it  happen, tiger!

How do you keep going when you feel like quitting?

More from GEM:

Monday Morning Motivation: Go At Your Own Pace

Monday Morning Motivation: Confusion Or Delusion? 

Monday Morning Motivation: It’s The Journey Not The Destination