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I woke up this morning with an ambitious to-do list and absolutely zero desire to open my computer. 

My mind was elsewhere—trapped inside of a fictional universe full of magical creatures, life-or-death adventure, and really steamy romance 🔥

This is what happens when I start reading a new book series. I get sucked in and stop caring about everything else! (It’s my favorite personal problem.)

I had to drop this addictive behavior when I was running a traditional private practice. 

I couldn’t afford a new book obsession when I was committed to seeing 20-25 clients a week. I couldn’t risk being swept away by imagination when my frontal lobe needed to be present and focused on the real humans who were paying top dollar for my attention. 

When I started dwindling my caseload a few years ago, my lust for fiction re-emerged. 

Makes sense, I had more mental space for myself… more flexibility in my schedule to allow for late night binge reading sessions… more control over postponing deadlines and to-do lists. 

Since then, I’ve stopped seeing therapy clients entirely and have limited my live coaching calls to one day per week. That means I have 4 glorious days every week to play, create, produce, or rest!

Some days I work for 8+ hours, some days 4 hours, some days I throw in the towel and surrender to sweet fictional dissociation! 

There is nothing more luxurious than allowing your heart to tell you how to spend your day—rather than your calendar. 

But there’s still one barrier that gets in my way…  

The belief that I should be working more, and that if I were working more, I’d be making more money. Money, revenue, income, blah, blah, blah. 

I am so tired of people telling me to make more money! 😤😤😤

5-figure months! 6-figure quarters! 7-figure years! When does it stop? 

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about “revenue”. 

What does that mean, really? What is revenue? It is the money your business generates, yes, but what else? What other things, besides money, can your business provide for you? 

For me, it’s rest. I want my business to pay me in time for rest. 

Of course I’m going to make enough money to cover my overhead, pay my team well, and meet my personal financial needs for a secure and comfortable life. 

But after that… I want to get paid in time. 

That’s the reframe I offered myself this morning as I sunk deeper into my Lovesac with juuust enough Kindle battery left to get me through the end of this novel. 

Suddenly, as if slapped in the face by a crusty curmudgeon boss, I felt overwhelming GUILTY that I wasn’t plucking my way through my to-do list. 

“Maegan, what are you doing?! It’s 11am. GET TO WORK!” 

I almost fell for it. 

But then… I remembered… 

“Hold the phone, Crusty Curmudgeon! This is my payment. This IS my revenue.”

My business was paying me in space to rest. 

For 3 glorious hours, I lounged, sipped tea, and bulldozed my way through the end of my book. 

I was collecting my payment and savoring the fruits of my labor. 

Could I have made “more money” if I would’ve forced myself to “be productive”? Sure. But I didn’t need more money today, I needed to recharge my joy battery. 

It’s easy to get stuck on monetary revenue as the only metric measuring our success. 

I think that’s a real shame, and I think it’s keeping many of us trapped in a patriarchal society that benefits when we’re stressed, tired, and busy. (More on that later.)

What kind of non-monetary revenue do you want to collect from your business? The sky’s the limit. You can get paid in whatever. you. want. 

Hit reply and let me know. I want to be inspired by your out-of-the-box thinking! 

And if you find yourself thinking, “Yeah, sounds great, Maegan. But that’ll never be possible for me. I’m stuck in my private practice prison!” then I want you to seriously consider joining me in Next-Level Therapist this October.

Because that restriction you’re feeling? The sense that you’re trapped by your business and have no path to a more spacious, creative, luxurious life? That is a terrible feeling. 

My work on this planet is to help you free yourself from these private practice shackles so you too can spend all day reading a great novel… or, you know, doing whatever you want to do to live your best life.

All of the details will be released in a few weeks 🤩

Okay, I’ve gotta go start reading the next book in this series… WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT? I DON’T KNOW AND I’M REALLY STRESSED ABOUT IT.