Celebrate Your Life Every Month
Not just your birthday
Greetings First name / friend, It's me, your friend Jen. I'm writing this to you from a smoothie bar in Brooklyn. I'm back from Montana.
It seemed like everyone I met in *Montana had come to Montana to run away. Everyone needs a getaway plan. Montana was always mine.“
But what are you running away from?"I asked Gino, the cashier from North Carolina, a lady from Chicago who had moved to Missoula and left, moved to Missoula and left, and moved back to Missoula, or the woman at the front desk from Florida, who moved as far away from her beach town as she could.
Their eyes answered the question more than their words ever could. And if you listen to anyone's story who has ever left something behind...A job, a small town, an entire family, a dangerous version of themselves....You'll know that it doesn't take much to run away.
A one-way ticket, a pocket filled with secrets, a million dollars worth of promises.
Everyone I met in Montana was there to find something they couldn't find anywhere else.And the saddest part of it all is that the ones who have been there for 20-years and the ones who have been there for 20-days all found out the same thing:
They have no idea what they are looking for. But that's not the point of running away, now is it?
In this issue: A simple way to make your life a little more interesting, artificial intelligence tools that are quite interesting and easy (and free to use), and two books I can't stop thinking about.
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. Thanks for letting this email live in in your inbox. It truly makes my heart explode with joy.
THE PICK-ME-UP
Making your life more exciting doesn't have to require some kind of grand adventure.
Sure, that trip to Italy would be amazing or a Saturday night at a Broadway show would be memorable, but it doesn't have to always be like that.
During the pandemic, my mood sunk because I felt so stuck.
Life felt mundane and it didn't feel like there wasn't much I could do about it.
So I sulked in my own misery, complained to Adam about how the boredom was eating me alive, and found solace in redecorating my apartment every single weekend.
Until I decided that acting this way was only making things worse. So I started looking for hacks to make life more exciting without having to do very much.
When life is exciting, when we do new things, time feels like it's slowing down. Maybe that's because we slow down, open our eyes wider, take it all in.
We can't take that grand adventure every day or week, but we can do other things to give ourselves a bit of a thrill.
Someone recently told me about how she celebrates her birthday once a month. She takes that day to do something kind for herself (a solo dinner, a facial, a staycation where you nap all day). So I decided to do this. The first of every month (in honor of my birthday - April 1st), is now “Jen Day”. If I can't take off the full day of work, I'll at least take an hour or two to do something nice for myself. I also did this on the 19th of every month (that's my anniversary of meeting/marrying Adam). Rather than letting another month pass without anything to celebrate, now every month has two events worth cheersing to.
I also did this with the final 3 and ½ months we have left of 2022. I wrote down three things I wanted to do in each of those months (apple picking, a Halloween haunted house, making pumpkin pie) and put them on the calendar already. That way, I have something to look forward to and can make sure that the month won't pass by without doing the things I love do in those months.
These hacks might seem obvious or tiny, but they make a gigantic difference.
Life should feel like a carnival of fun, more often than it's not.
So, will you try these things?
All my love,
Jen Glantz
Random Pick-Me-Ups
Everything I Enjoyed Reading This Week
Grabbed this book when I was in Montana and read the whole thing on the flight home. Wow, I was so invested in this story and couldn't stop thinking about the story when it ended.
A friend recommended I watch this show on Hulu and I became hooked by the plot. I found out it was based on the book - so I ordered a copy of it immediately.
I wrote two new articles for Business Insider about making money - cheers to that! This one is about easy side hustles that don't require you to spend money when you start them // and this one is about side hustles in general.
What I've Been Telling My Friends About
This is quite random but here are some cool - and free - artificial intelligence tools that just make your life easier. These tools were fascinating and I figured I'd share them with you too!
Magic Eraser - can delete unwanted objects out of your photo with a click of a button.
Replika - lets you chat with an AI companion as if they were your BFF or boyfriend/girlfriend. Sort of weird, but also really cool.
Namelix - spits out business names for you based on simple words you share. If you're trying to name a project or side hustle, this is really awesome and it's free.
Copy.ai - writes copy for you using AI. I tested it out to write an ad for me and what it came up with was actually really good.
Imagine having a step-by-step plan that leads you right to your goal. How about a sidekick of a coach who helps make it feel easy, doable, and fun? What if you said goodbye to excuses, what-ifs, and self-doubt and took control of what you deserve in life?
You don’t have to do it alone. Let's work together.
The End
Thanks for reading the Pick-Me-Up Newsletter. If you know someone who'd adore getting this in their inbox, will you send them this link? And if you want to keep in touch this week, you can find me on Instagram, Linkedin, and TikTok (for a real odd time).
Until next Monday, I'll be rooting for you and cheering you on! Have an epic week.
Jen Glantz
p.s. Sharing some odd facts about my life with you in this short little video