👋 Can you spare some change?
It's Monday. I'm here for you.
The Pick Me Up is a Monday morning newsletter filled with advice, personal stories, and tips to help you get out of bed and jumpstart your week.
Greetings friend.
It’s me - Jen Glantz.
I imagine your inbox is slammed today with deals, deals, deals.
Every brand I’ve ever bought anything from is trying to tell me that today is the last chance I have to get the lowest price ever in the history of the world on anything they sell.
I don’t believe it.
This happened last year and the year before that.
A brand I loved vowed that by Tuesday morning, I’d never see them offer 50% off ever again.
But then on December 15th, they emailed me that they were offering their biggest sale of the year - 60% off everything.
My hope, as a self-proclaimed bargain queen, is that you land good deals on the things you need.
But don’t give into pressure, from anyone, that time is running out and that you will miss out on opportunities if you don’t act now.
Act when you’re ready.
Act when you feel like it.
Act when the time is right.
Refunds aren’t always offered so easily in life. Neither are opportunites. I know that.
But it just never works out when you feel rushed to make a decision or pressured.
Remember that.
In this issue: Part five of the year-end inventory process and little life updates.
Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 8-years, to thousands of awesome humans, just like you. Thank you for letting this email live in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.
⚡Instant Pick Me Ups
Ps. All of the picks from the past few months are all inside this list here!
📚: I’ve been really into listening to audiobooks (for free) lately and I can’t get enough of this book. It’s incredible. People have been obsessing about it for years. The hype is real. Here’s a quote from the book that I can’t stop thinking about:
When you're given an opportunity to change your life, be ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen. The world doesn't give things, you take things. If you learn one thing from me, it should probably be that.
👗: I thought back to previous Black Fridays and Cyber Mondays and realized that I have a history of buying things I don’t need just because they seem to be on sale. So this year, I bought nothing. Not one thing. I didn’t even waste time browsing my favorite sites or going into stores. I’m the biggest deal hunter out there. I only buy things on sale. But I also realize that there’s such a bubble of pressure around these big deal days and I didn’t want to give into it. I audited my finances a few months ago and realized my spending was up this year and I’m on a mission to spend 10% less than I did last year. That means I have to be wickedly strategic about my holiday gift buying this year. Stay tuned for tips on that.
📄: Sometimes when I can’t make decisions about things I use this to help.
🎵: Tiny Desk concerts are a treat to watch. Here’s one I enjoyed listening to last week.
🎙️:I love podcasts about scams so this one looks like a good time. Ir’s next on my listen list.
What’s Changed?
I read somewhere that the best way to understand how you lived your life in a year is to ask yourself this one question:
How have you changed?
I’ve been sharing instructions here on how to do a year-end inventory.
It started with part one that was all about going through each of the months of 2023 and writing down the good things that happened and the challenging things too.
So if you look back at those notes, how would you answer that question?
For me, I’ve let go of so many things I thought I cared deeply about but realized I cared about them for the very wrong reasons. It happened when I became a mom. I lost 75% of my free time. My heart expanded. What I wanted to let inside of my life just became smaller and smaller.
After 5 years of doing a weekly podcast, I just stopped.
After a decade of letting the world see my life on social media every day - every time something even a tiny bit interesting happened to me - I pulled back.
After saying yes to every opportunity that came my way - whether for work or to be a guest on a podcast or to meet someone for lunch - I started to say no more than I ever have in my life.
I look back at 2023 and notice that i’ve become tougher and less inclined to do things just because that’s how i’ve always done them before.
Past 5 of the year-end inventory is simple. It’s just a few questions:
How have you changed this year? Who are you now?
How do you want to carry those ways over to 2024?
How do you want to change by the end of 2024?
As a recap: part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4.
👩 Real Life Pick-Me-Ups:
It’s not a healthy habit and I don’t recommend doing this but I find myself scrolling on social media a lot during the holiday season. I personally don’t loo0o0ve the holiday season and I think because I feel so blahhh about it, I turn to social media as a distraction or as a weird way to live vicariously through other people’s lives. Do you do this too or is it just me?
I thought I was going to take off December but I decided to write a few more newsletters before the end of the year. My last one for the year will be December 11th.
I have to give a big thank you to BreathableBaby for gifting me a truly amazing crib for Gemma. I wasn’t sure what to expect before we tried it out but Gemma has loved every second in it. It’s comfortable, safe, and free of over 10,000 chemicals. Highly recommend this one.
Until next week,
Jen Glantz!