5 Life lessons learned as a full-time traveling entrepreneur in 2022

This year was an adventure.

I started 2022 dancing in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. We spent the winter venturing through Italy–Trieste, Venice, Florence, and Rome. We went on to meet great friends in Porto, Portugal in February.

Took a trip to the US to visit family (and a short detour in Mexico) over the spring. Hopped back across the pond to spend the summer in Madeira, Portugal with said friends from Porto.

For the fall season, we checked out of the Schengen Zone and to Croatia where we visited Dubrovnik, Hvar, and Zagreb.

Now I’m writing this from Greece where we’ll be celebrating Christmas, and ringing in the first two months of 2023 in Cyprus.

This year I will have traveled to 11 countries, and I would say lived in (trips longer than a week) 5 countries.

All while running a successful online coaching business.

After taking a moment to pause and reflect on 2022, here are my life lessons learned this year. (In no particular order).

As well as how I’ll take each lesson ahead into the new year with me to continue growing and thriving.

---

Life lessons learned in 2022

This is the third time I’m doing a yearly recap, which means I’m approaching 3 years as a holistic time management coach this upcoming January! Woohoo!

As someone whose main passion in life is to just be more of herself, it’s really cool to be able to go back and read past life lessons. It’s amazing to see my healing and progress and say, “Yep! I’m still living and now teaching these lessons I learned two years ago.”

<<Read my life lessons learned in 2021 and 2020>>

Here’s to all of us becoming more of ourselves! 🥂✨

Life Lesson One: Get comfy with uncertainty.

As a digital nomad, I have no idea where I’ll live two months from now. As a business owner, I have no guarantee of a paycheck. When I first started traveling full-time back in July 2020, the uncertainty was absolutely terrifying. To the point of losing hair, tears, and many sleepless nights.

I wanted to be in as much control of my life as I feel like I could be. I wanted to feel at home within myself, no matter where in the world I was. Most importantly, I wanted to get out of my box and see the world. And all of those desires continued to outweigh my anxiety and worry, so I kept on.

It took about 2 years of traveling full-time to get to the place where I landed this summer: Comfortable with uncertainty. At one point, I had no idea where I was going to live the next week. I’ve learned how to be okay with not knowing where I’ll live or where my next client comes from.

I trust that no matter what, I can and will figure it out.

This is a huge, massive, ginormous life lesson that’s taken a lot to learn. However, the amount of peace that I live with is totally worth the effort. So with this, I plan to continue to travel in 2023, let the places I want to live call to me, run my business, and see what happens.

Though, if you’re like, “Yo, you went to an extreme for this life lesson…” you’re right. This leads me to lesson number two.

Life Lesson Two. Find the gray zone.

Black-or-white thinking sucks.

For example, hustle culture and anti-hustle culture. Hustle culture tells us we are worthy if we work all the time, feel exhausted, disregard needing breaks, and neglect our health. Anti-hustle culture says if we’re working hard, we’re doing it wrong. Success in business is somewhere in the messy middle.

Another example, oppressive society and culture tell us we have no agency over our time. Spiritual gurus gaslight us and tell us we have complete agency over our time. The agency we have is somewhere in the messy middle.

Want another? Rigidity versus openness. We’ve been taught time management, structure, and schedules need to be super rigid. Due to anti-hustle culture, many of us have tossed out all structure in the seek for freedom. Structure that truly benefits us is somewhere in the messy middle.

Everything we do and are as humans are in the messy middle ground. The balance between masculine and feminine or yin and yang. As I approach the new year, I want to use this life lesson learned to be even more creative with solutions to any frustration, new ideas, places to travel, and just life in general.

Life Lesson Three. I create my own time paradigm.

As I travel across time zones and cultures, I realize more than ever how deep the societal construct of time runs within us. From what time we should wake up, eat meals, work, and go to bed… it’s all made up. And vaguely changes depending on what country you’re in.

You could make your new year tomorrow if you wanted. Literally.

Of course, with a “normal” job and external constraints, the more you’ll live in society’s construct of time. However, over the last 2.5 years, I have been reclaiming more and more agency over my time (see lesson 2) by choosing how much I want to subscribe to society’s time construct.

The more I define and live within my own time construct, the more manageable my life feels.

So as of now, I’m taking this lesson learned by fully stepping into cyclical planning with my astrological chart. No more going back and forth between the moons and the gregorian calendar.

What this looks like is: I’ll be essentially letting go of months in the traditional sense and planning completely aligned with each new moon. My “new year” will be celebrated on July 23rd, the Leo (my ascendant) new moon.

I’m allowing things on a day-to-day level, and a macro level to take as much time as they want to take. I’m learning more about mother earth and indigenous wisdom.

Life Lesson Four. This shit really works.

As I enter my fourth year of developing holistic time management and coaching people, I am still astounded every time one of my clients creates literal magic.

From starting podcasts, writing books, making tons of money, starting businesses, traveling the world, managing teams more effectively, healing deep wounds, and creating trust and safety within. I’ve witnessed so many amazing humans accomplish deeply meaningful goals and finally be the person they want to be all because they teamed up with time.

Absolutely magical. ✨

Not to brag or anything, but on a personal note, I feel like everyone right about now (late Nov/early Dec) is t.i.r.e.d. where I’m feeling really energized and good. I’ve taken lots of breaks, short and long, throughout the year. I’ve imperfectly stayed balanced while focused on and aligned with my priorities.

I knew this before, but this year I feel like I finally understand it on a deeper, more holistic level with each day and with each person I get to work with.

With this life lesson, I plan to continue healing my own time misunderstandings and doing this deeply meaningful and important work of holistic time coaching.

Life Lesson Five. My home is inside of me.

In November this year, as I traveled on a Bus from Croatia to Bosnia, it finally hit me. There are buses, trees, roads, dogs, construction, and clouds everywhere on this planet.

The only thing that stays constant throughout is me. My heart. My mind. My body.

This life lesson may seem obvious, but it wasn't to me as someone who sought her worthiness and fulfillment through productivity and achievements. My happiness and peace were dependent on my external success and the approval of others.

If this year has taught me anything, what keeps me healthy and makes me successful is listening to myself, my joy, and my gut. Period.

I can leave places and situations that suck. I can speak up for myself. I can do what I need to do to feel safe.

It’s my job to build a strong home for myself, and protect it at all costs.

This is what holistic time management is all about, and I’m excited to see what the next 6 months bring as I now celebrate the new year in July!

What lessons did you learn in 2022?

I’d love to hear in the comments below or send me a DM on Instagram.

Is 2023 the year you get more intentional around your time?

Click here to learn how time coaching can help you thrive in the coming year.

5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session

5 Self reflection questions for an end of the year review session

We 21st-century humans move through life at such a high speed, whether it feels fast in the moment or not, we often miss what’s right in front of us.

As a time coach, reflecting is the key to intentionality, healing, growth, progress, and success.

Self-reflection or introspection helps you acknowledge what you did, who you were, and what went right.

It can also help you determine what can go better moving forward. Better meaning more authentic or aligned. Not better according to society or guilt.

Want to feel more aware of how you spent your time?

Want to more easily celebrate yourself? Feel more compassion, motivation, and confidence?

Grab a pen and paper or open a fresh google doc to reflect on your last year with me!

Before continuing, PAUSE!

Before we pause and reflect, let’s get super meta and pause to take a few big deep breaths.

Feel free to close your eyes, put your hands on your heart for a gesture of self-compassion, and take three big deep breaths.

Open your eyes, when you’re ready, and we'll go ahead and get started.

5 Self-reflection questions for an end-of-year review session

Q1: What happened in your life and business?

The first question that I always need to journal or think about to decompress from the past year was: What happened in my life? What happened in my business or job?

Here’s what happened in my life and business and what I learned in 2022.

Pause reading this blog, and take some time to journal about this question. I’d recommend 10 to 15 minutes. Feel free to open up your digital calendar or planners to help jog your memory.

Q2: What happened in the world around you?

The second question is: What happened in the world around me? 

So not just in your personal life, but expanding out to what happened in your community and the world.

In 2022, we seem to be recovering from COVID, wars and revolutions broke out, elections were had, and so much more. I often forget about how current events in the world impact me and add internalized stress and anxiety.

Feel free to take another 10 to 15 minutes to jot down all the things that happened in the world around you that you can think of.

Q3: What goals did you accomplish? Not accomplish?

The third question is: What were the goals that I set at the beginning of the year? Which of them happened, and which didn’t?

If you want to go deeper, ask yourself why you think that was the case. For the goals that happened, what supported you in accomplishing them? For the ones that didn’t happen, how can you give yourself permission to let go of them?

If you need help letting it go, go back to the last question, what happened in the world around you? What happened in your life? Hopefully, those two questions will give you a bit of permission or compassion around why they didn't come to fruition.

Pause reading and journal about that connecting to the last two questions and truly start to see kind of how all these things that impact our time, ourselves, and our lives start to fit together. 

Q4: What have you learned over the past year?

The next question that I always love to reflect on is: What significant lessons can I gather from the last year of my life? Some additional questions are:

• What have I learned from all the things that have happened?

• What did I learn about what makes me successful?

• Then, ask yourself: How might I carry these lessons with me into the new year?

Again, pause reading here to take some time to journal about your takeaways now. 

Q5: How can you celebrate yourself and your efforts?

The fifth and final question is: How can I celebrate myself and my efforts?

If you're here reading this and reflecting on your last year, that is enough to celebrate. I’m celebrating you reflecting and reviewing the past year because it’s 100% going to set you up for success.

A simple and easy way to celebrate yourself is through self-talk. You can say to yourself, “Thank you for making it through another year. Thank you for reflecting. Thank you for caring about me. Thank you!!!”

Another question you can ask yourself is: What do I need to do to make sure I actually celebrate myself?

It’s really easy for people to move right past celebrating themselves. This is the most important part of the end-of-year review session. You deserve celebration and acknowledgment!

Ok, I lied. Q6: Where would you like to be in a year from now?

With your above reflections and this question, it’s time to create a plan for 2023 that is sustainable, realistic, and most importantly authentic to you.

Want to end 2023 knowing that you made the best use of your time, energy, and attention?

Want to be able to take more time off to rest and take care of yourself than ever before? Or discover the strategies that will help you stay focused on and follow through with what matters most in your life?

Whatever it is, I'm here for it.

Click here to learn how time coaching can support you as you thrive into the next phase of your life.

A timeline of my life: Why I became a holistic time management coach

My ancestry and how I grew up deeply impacted me & my time.

The legacy my immigrant entrepreneur family left me wasn’t just a strong work ethic. In my family, there was also workaholism, alcoholism, and perfectionism.

My worth was so tied up in my achievements, in 2013, I finished a college term paper from my hospital bed, sick with a deadly intestinal infection (the same one that kills 30,000 Americans every year and would kill my Holocaust-surviving grandfather two years later) because under no condition could I settle for anything less than an A.

My illness and four miserable months of recovery didn’t cure me of my addiction to hustle and achievement.

After college, in 2017, I got a prestigious engineering job working for the US government, just like my grandparents.

But that time did open a crack in the matrix where a tiny, unexpected seed of another way could silently germinate beneath the ongoing chaos.

First I got into yoga, meditation, reiki, and other healing modalities, and then I started my own business teaching yoga. 

I continued to go above and beyond for my work and my beloved to-do list and I said yes to everything that promised to maximize my efficiency. 

I passed on hanging out with my friends.

I got annoyed with my husband when he tried to hug me because I needed to get shit done.

I injured myself doing yoga trying to relax.

If only I could be more efficient, I thought, I could catch up with everything I had to do, and THEN I could breathe and enjoy some time off. Right…?

Except I was unhealthy and unhappy and I knew what I was doing wasn’t working.

That seed of awareness had germinated, taken root, and was beginning to sprout.

Me hustling for time off was like that bombing for peace saying. It just wasn’t possible.

There was never going to be space for that new life, for the how of making real, lasting change until I let go of what was draining the life out of me.

One day at a time, over the course of years, I healed what fed the hustle and feelings of unworthiness.

I simplified my life and business and gave that sprout what it needed to grow. And grow. And grow…

It took time but my priorities slowly shifted away from proving my worth by some toxic, external definition of success to an internal one of a simple, authentic human experience.

From a tiny seed in a tiny crack, real change began and ultimately led to my work as a Holistic Time Coach and Educator in 2020.

Time is the most precious resource we have. Capitalism and other oppressive systems exploit all of our time and lives in unequal ways.

Traditional time hacks and management systems are built to work with these systems. They are not the cure for our real time-related problems because they’re not designed to help us lead a more fulfilling, more human life.

They’re designed to make us a more productive commodity in the labor force.

Healing individual and collective time wounds is cultural and intergenerational healing.

I'm still on my journey, peeling back the layers of overdoing in order to reclaim the agency I do have over my time and life within the systems we live in.

My thoughts to those of you who’ve cracked open the matrix but don’t yet know the how? 

Breathe.

Continue to breathe space into that crack, even when you feel like you should be doing something “more.”

Know that you are worthy not only of your goals, but also of your dreams and the boundaries, priorities, and self-care that will help you realize them.

Then exhale. 

Release the hustle, chaos, and control.

Let go of toxic productivity and achievement-based worth that’s been force-fed to us our entire lives.

Working with me is not just about managing time better (though we definitely declutter your calendar and get realistic about your capacity).

It’s about real change. 

And real change requires more than a crack in the matrix, more than quick-fix hacks and bandaid tools on deeper wounds.

This is about believing you, just as you are, are worthy of a life well lived, whatever that looks like to you.

All of the clarity, skills, and steps required to create the fulfilling life you desire emerge from here.

If you’re ready to get real about your calendar and your healing, let’s revolutionize your relationship with time and yourself so the life you want–and deserve!–can flourish.

Learn more about working with me.

Time management coaches are more important now than ever before: Here’s why

Life is beautiful and fragile.

Being human is amazing and challenging.

Staying true to ourselves is essential for living each of our one lifetimes with the most fulfillment, happiness, and health.

It's easier than ever before in our world to become consumed by all of our to-do lists, distracted by what other people are doing, and lose touch with ourselves.

A holistic time management coach is someone you can hire to make your life so much easier by supporting you with making time for, staying focused on, and being present with the things that matter most to you.

If you’ve been wondering what you can do to make more of your time and life, continue reading to find out why a time management coach is more important than ever before.

---

Time management coaches: An antidote to the state of the world

We’ve been living in an increasingly demanding and uncertain world that moves and evolves faster every single day.

American psychiatrist Edward Hallowell goes so far as to say, ‘Never in human history have our brains had to work with so much information as they do today… We have a generation of people who are so busy processing the information received from all directions that they are losing the ability to think and feel.’

Our societies are fighting against a global pandemic, the attention economy, burnout, overworking, addiction, individual and collective trauma, and so much more.

54% Gen Xers are burned out, whereas 68% of working moms are burned out (source).

As a result of the pandemic, it appears to me that we are collectively rethinking many things… one of which is the way we work and live.

I believe that’s why 47.4 million people have voluntarily left their jobs for better work (CNBC).

We are after more flexible working conditions, better wages, and a better quality of life overall.

More than ever, we have tuned into the fact that we have this one human life to make the most of.

And I don’t know about you, but I want an extraordinary one full of connection, purpose, impact, and meaning.

A time management coach is here to partner up with you to make the most out of your life.

Not your average time management coach

When the majority of people think about time management, being a productive superhuman at work and sometimes, at home, comes to mind.

I get tired just thinking about the way I used to think about time management.

However, here at The Holistic Time Coach, we’re about shifting our perception around time management.

Time is the fabric of life, and our humanness.

Time is the medium for meeting our needs.

Consciously choosing to spend our time is the most important thing we can ever do.

Time management, the kind that’s not just about being more productive at work, is about being a good steward of our life force.

Collaborating with time allows us to do all the things that are deeply meaningful to us and be the person we want to be.

The extraordinary life we crave goes from a distant wish to a real possibility.

Saying goodbye to getting consumed by all the to-do’s, distracted by what other people are doing, and losing touch with ourselves becomes possible too.

A holistic time management coach is someone you can hire to make your life so much easier by supporting you with making time for, staying focused on, and being present with the things that matter most to you.

How does a time management coach actually do that?

As a holistic time management coach, my role has 3 main elements. In order for someone to create and experience an extraordinary life on their terms, I assist someone in:

1. Playing in the possibilities to identify how and where they truly want to spend their time.

2. Discovering the unique skills and tools they need in order to spend their time how they want.

3. Integrating those skills until they become second nature with gentle support and accountability.

Want more details on what I actually do as a holistic time management coach? Click here.

Have you thought about what’s possible for you if you were able to stay focused on what matters most? If you were able to spend the majority of your time doing the things you want to do?

Let me know in the comments below!

Curious about what was possible for the folks I’ve worked with?

Click here to read from the amazing humans, entrepreneurs, and professionals I’ve worked with have said about working with me.

Themed Days: A surprisingly powerful way to make time to create

If you’re here, you’ve most likely got big dreams, a big heart, and somehow… never enough time to create the things you want to create.

Whether it’s writing, art, bringing new offerings into the world, or anything else that brings you joy.

Now if you’re a creative soul, traditional time management advice isn’t usually your cup of tea. For good reason, most of it feels shame-y and icky.

However, when used in a curious and compassionate way, I’ve seen the most anti-structure folks find a way forward that works for them and helps them do the things they’ve been trying to do for years.

If you’ve been struggling with never having enough time to create, themed days are here to help you make the most of your day.

Keep reading to learn more.

---

Why is finding creative time such a challenge?

Bills! Survival Mode! Valuing working/doing over creating! Self-sabotage! Limited capacity! Feeling undeserving of creative time! Etc! Etc! Etc!

There are so many reasons why finding time to create such a challenge, and so many things fighting for our precious time and energy. Know you’re not alone in this.

If you wear tons of different hats, finding a way to collaborate with time is extremely important. And themed days are a surprisingly powerful way to heal what might be keeping you from creating and finally, create.

Who might benefit the most from using themed days?

If you…

• Never have enough time to create/make things for any reason. Often because you seem to always do other things.

• Struggle with the “time is up” phenomenon (you feel inspired one day and would like to spend more time on something. Yet the schedule you’d made tells you that time is up and you need to move to your next time slot. UGH, the worst!)

• Want to be more space + flowy + intuitive with your scheduling. Click here to read about why intuition is so important when it comes to your schedule.

• Want to make easier or faster progress on a project you care about.

• Find yourself multi-tasking or getting distracted more than you’d like to.

• Struggling with being consistent and/or self-disciplined.

Resonate with any of these? Then themed days might be a good next thing to experiment with!

What are themed days?

As defined by Leonard Alexandru, themed days are about “Having each day of the week (or the work-week) dedicated to a certain topic or project.”

Blaz Kos shares, “Themed days are strategically planned days in your calendar which are completely dedicated to one single thing.”

I wanted to share both of those definitions as they might be helpful for your understanding. However, I’m a rebellious, creative, spiritual soul language is really important to me. How things are said makes a huge difference in being able to buy into and effectively use tools and strategies.

That being said, I would define themed days as, “Regular scared containers of time dedicated to deeply important things.”

Is language important to you too? Do you have a different definition? I’d love to hear it in the comments below.

How to create themed days that feel good to you

1. Identify the things that are deeply important to you (see definition of themed days above).
   

2. Open your calendar or the thing you use to visualize your time. See what time you have or can make available.*

   • If you don’t have something, pick someplace you’re going to use to visualize your time (I use my google calendar for everything!)
     

3. Pick a set amount of time (half-day, day, etc.) that you can turn into a sacred container.
   

4. Pair the important things with the sacred container, and that’s your theme!

   • After you’ve set up a themed day, you can get more granular and turn that time into smaller blocks of time connected to specific things you’d like to do.
     

5. Ask yourself what you need to have in place or do to commit to your sacred container.

   • This can range from communicating boundaries with others, changing your availability in your scheduling system, or sitting with it until the theme feels right to you.

These steps might feel simple, but they are profound when integrated. When themed days are properly set up, following them feels natural and 10x easier to do.

*A solid foundation for themed days is knowing your capacity, availability, and responsibilities and having a home for them. Again, I use a weekly schedule template in my google calendar to holistically capture all of this.

How I’ve historically used themed days in my life

When I was starting out with my business, I was also an engineer working 5 days a week. I themed out 3 hours each day of the week for all of the things I needed to do to grow my business.

• Monday’s were CEO days (planning, reviewing, mindset, strategy).

• Tuesdays were building days (develop offerings).

• Wednesdays were writing content days.

• Thursdays were grow days (networking, talking to people, etc.)

• Fridays were bonus days to do anything I didn’t get to.

Now, my themed days have simplified a bit and have gotten more intuitive:

• Monday’s are to create whatever I want to create.

• Tuesday - Thursday are call-focused days (clients, networking, podcasting, etc.)

• The rest of my time is off/unscheduled.

Watch out for these common themed day pitfalls

1. Automatically assuming themed days won’t work for you.

Of course, never try to force things on you if they don’t feel right. However, when we immediately think about why something won’t work for us, we won’t see what parts might work for us. Ultimately this keeps up stuck.

2. Not experimenting with your themes until you find what feels good.

Themes (aka what’s most important to us) are always evolving and changing. Try not to expect them to perfectly work at first, or forever.

3. Not being flexible in real-time.

Things come up in life and they change things. This is expected, and it doesn’t mean you or your themed days suck. You are completely in control of your themes, sacred containers, and time.

4. Overdoing it.

It can be really easy to overdo planning in an attempt to feel safe and keep uncertainty at bay. If you create many different themed days before integrating even one, it will most likely feel overwhelming and you’ll want to scrap it all.

Give yourself permission to get creative with time strategies!

Themed days are one of those things that can be used rigidly, ineffectively, and shame-y. They can also be used in a powerful, creative, and spiritual way.

When themed days are used with curiosity and compassion, I’ve seen even the most anti-structure folks find a way forward that works for them and helps them do the things they’ve been trying to do for years. You can too!

Want to set up themed days that’ll WORK (no messin’ around)? Read more about my Sustainable Schedule VIP Day.