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I came home from vacation on Friday to an injured dog. 

We thought he’d strained a muscle playing too hard while we were away, but over the weekend, his pain increased dramatically. 

Yesterday he was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease. We’re home now on a strict regime of rest, steroids, painkillers, and muscle relaxers, desperately hoping he can heal without surgery. 

My three beagles are my babies. The amount of love I feel for them is borderline unreasonable, and seeing my little buddy yelping in pain is breaking my heart into a thousand tiny pieces. 

Unsurprisingly, I’ve gotten zero work done and have canceled most of my meetings. 

Instead of spiraling into overwhelm and self-criticism, I’m trying to breathe and focus on gratitude.

Today I noticed feeling deep gratitude for my business…

I’m grateful for flexibility. 

I’m grateful my business is able to employ both me and my husband. The flexibility we’ve had to schedule last minute veterinarian appointments and be home 24/7 to monitor our pup without having to stress about calling in sick or requesting time off is an incredible gift. 

I’m grateful for my team.

Oooh how my life has changed since I hired a team. The ability to say, “Nancy, here’s the situation – I can’t be present with work right now, can you please handle everything for me and make sure things don’t burn to the ground while I’m unavailable?” and then to be able to turn off my phone and be with my family, without worrying for a second about the business? Beyond grateful.

I’m grateful I can express myself to you. 

I remember feeling so sad and alone when I was a therapist in private practice and my personal life was going to shit. My business wasn’t about me, it was about the client, and thus, I didn’t feel it was appropriate to share how I was really doing. 

Years and years of that emotional incongruence really wore me down (and contributed to my burnout). 

It’s one of the main reasons I created a personal brand – a business that’s an extension of me, that literally pays me to show up as my full and honest self. 

I am feeling deep gratitude right now to be able to write you this email about how fucking sad I am. 

This gratitude spiral has reaffirmed my mission to help you create a business that serves you first so that you too can experience the flexibility, support, and self-expression I’m so grateful for today. 

And now I’m going to snuggle with my pup and think about how grateful I am that you’re in my email community. Thank you for being here and for letting me be myself.