I own my own business, which basically means (in a nutshell) that I’m “available” around the clock. I put this on myself. Nobody else does. I don’t have an office that I need to report to. I don’t have a boss whom I need to check-in with daily. I don’t have a team of people waiting for people to layout the structure and goals of the day. I don’t have anyone other than me driving the train and steering the wheel. In all honesty, this is what I love what I do. I love building and growing my business to where I want it to go. And most important – I can prioritize things in my life around my work.

Here’s the thing. I don’t let myself be “off.” It’s my dirty little secret. With 5 kids and living a very active and busy lifestyle, I’ve gotten really good at fitting in my work around my kids and within pockets of time that I have in spurts of “free” moments. When the kids are at school, I’m head down like a machine working like a busy bee. I have my list of stuff that needs to get done and I do it. I have a “To Do List” for the week and I make sure everything is crossed off by Friday. I’m the breadwinner in my family right now, so for me – there’s no other option. I don’t have the luxury not to work hard. I don’t have the option not to work like a dog. I don’t have the option not to hustle. The good thing is that I love to work hard, I love to work like a dog and I love a hustle.

But I had a big moment happen to me on Monday that I can’t shake and I won’t ever forget.

Monday is Victoria’s swim lesson. I want to make sure she’s comfortable in the water before the summer because we’re at our pool club all the time. She’s a little mermaid, but swimming – this is something she just started to do on her own. She’s shaky, but she’s trying and she’s really getting there. She loves Monday swim because it’s 30 minutes of fun in the pool. On Monday, she went off to her teacher and I sat in the parent room watching with the other moms. I hate to admit this, but I truly thought to myself… “Great – I have 30 minutes of uninterrupted time to be catching up on emails and IG and FB messages.” And off I went, head down in my phone catching up on work.

After about 10 minutes, I felt the woman next to me tap my shoulder. I looked up at her and she said with a big smile, “I think that’s your daughter waving at you. She’s so cute!”

And I looked up to see my beautiful little girl with a smile from ear to ear waving at me, blowing kisses at me. She took my breath away in that moment. She was so happy and so proud of herself.

I turned to the woman (trying to fight back tears) and said, “Thank you… I was just trying to catch up on some work and completely missed the point as to why I’m here.”

The woman smiled back… and it was a smile in that I knew she understood and knew that it caught me in my heart.

My takeaway?

Put the Damn Phone Down, Audrey!

Emails. Messages. Conference calls. Texts. Tweets. Instagram posts. FB posts. YouTube comments. IT CAN ALL WAIT 30 minutes.

The most important thing for that 30 minutes each week is for me to be fully 100% present for my little girl learning to swim. I sometimes get so wrapped up in providing for them, that sometimes I miss the moments where I just need to be there for them. It’s not easy working for yourself. It’s not easy trying to balance it all. It’s not easy trying to make it look easy all the time.

I’m thankful for this little wake-up call.
I’m thankful for the mom next to me.
I’m thankful for the lesson learned.

My phone?

It can wait.