👋 Somebody should ask you this

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’ve decided to end the year the opposite of how it started.

In January, I was in full-on panic mode about how much my life would change after I became a mom.

Since I didn’t have a maternity leave, I worked 60-70 hours a week to try to get as much work done as possible and create enough content to last me through May so that I could “sleep when the baby sleeps” aka clean bottles, run a million errands, and spend time on Google figuring out how to care for a newborn.

I booked multiple plans with multiple people on the weekends so that I could cherish a carefree social life before I was glued to the couch.

I went on long road trips with Adam, wrote pages inside coffee shops for entire afternoons, and walked circles around Manhattan. All things I knew would be tough to do when the baby came.

This is all to say that I started my year off in the most chaotic way and to balance it out, I want to end it with stillness and peace.

I’m not loading up my December with holiday plans and pounds of work. I’m not searching for ways to make the season exciting and Instagram-worthy. I’m saying: let’s chat in the New Year about this to 90% of the opportunities entering my inbox.

I just want to lounge inside our tiny little home beside books and my baby. I want time to feel time passing. I want to see the end of the year coming and dance with it before it leaves.

How did your year start and could you end it differently?

In this issue: Part (3) 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.

Ps. I’m so grateful that you’re reading this because writing this newsletter every week is my favorite thing. If you know anyone who would adore getting this in their inbox, it would mean the world if you’d share it.

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⚡Instant Pick Me Ups

Ps. All of the picks from the past few months are all inside this list here!

📚: I heard this book was equivalent to a warm hug. It’s on the top of my list. So many people have told me to download the Libby app - which connects to your library card and lets you rent e-books and audiobooks for free. I finally did this and I am obsessed. I was able to download three audiobooks I wanted to listen to and immediately start playing them.

📄: If you like local drama, here’s NYC Christmas tree drama. I met this documentary maker who is making a documentary on these guys this year.

👗: If you are shopping early for gifts this year, here are some of my favorite picks from previous newsletters this year.

• Homesick Candles: I sent this to a friend who was really missing NYC. (Oct 2, 2023)

• Vintage Games: I think these are a great holiday gift idea, and display so cutely on a bookshelf. (Oct 2, 2023)

• Blind Date with a Book: A fun idea if you’re looking for a gift for someone who adores books. (Sep 25, 2023)

• Lemon Tree: A beautiful and long-lasting alternative to flowers. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Customized Pet Embroidery: Perfect sweatshirt for the pet lover in your life. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Personalized Game: A unique and customized engagement gift. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Storm Cloud: An unusual little item for a person who needs a pick-me-up on their desk. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Handwritten Blanket: This personalized blanket is a thoughtful gift for anyone. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Flower Art: Nice housewarming gift option. (Jul 24, 2023)

• Pool Float: Great gift for when you are invited to your next pool party. (Jul 10, 2023)

🛠️: I’ve been working hard on a few big things. Bridesmaid for Hire officially launched (3) new tools. We have a maid of honor and best man speech writing tool + a vow writing tool. They are fun, interactive, and super easy to use. All of them are here + free to test out! Plus, the tools were featured in The New York Times.

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Questions for You and Your 2023

I’m spending the last few weeks of the year sharing different ways you can process 2023 and plan your life in 2024.

So far, we took inventory on the year so far and created a list of things to get done before the end of December.

But this week is different. This week involves you answering questions that perhaps nobody has asked you.

In a few weeks from now, people will ask you about your resolutions for the new year. But how the heck can you know who you want to be and what you want to do if you haven’t figured out how 2023 has impacted you?

And one way to figure out how the year impacted you is to do a deep-dive into important questions.

I’m sharing a few of my favorite below.

There are two ways you can do this:

(1): You can answer these questions solo. Get out a piece of paper and write down your responses or audio record yourself talking through them. I find that when I speak out answers (even solo) I’m more honest.

(2): Write each question on a sticky note and grab someone in your life you adore. Ask each other these questions and chat through the responses.

If you want to do a combo of 1 & 2, pick a question and share your answer with our community:

Ready for the questions? Here they are:

• What was the biggest lesson you learned?

• What was the biggest risk that you took?

• What was the biggest thing that you completed?

• What are you the most proud of?

• What were you not able to accomplish?

• Did anything happen so far this year that needs to be forgiven or picked apart more?

• Did anything happen this year that you need to apologize for?

• What is the best thing you have discovered about yourself?

• What are you the most grateful for?

• How would you sum up 2023?

Any other questions you want to add to the list? Share them with us below!

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👩 Real Life Pick-Me-Ups:

• I’m so excited to share that I was featured in The New York Times yesterday. Here’s the article and here was my reaction when I saw the news.

• I was chatting with a group of friends last week and we decided that we’re all going to secretly manifest things for the other people in the group. We wrote down what we manifested for each person and set a date for October 2024 to see if those manifestations came true. It’s sometimes hard for us to know what we want out our own lives. Sometimes the people who love us can see what’s best for us because they aren’t dealing with our imposter syndrome or fear of failure. I’m excited to see how these manifestations play out.

• I think I’ll only write two more newsletters this year and go on a break until January. I’m thinking of revamping the newsletter and changing the name. What do you think? What do you want to see from this newsletter in 2024? I need the feedback.

Until next week,

Jen Glantz!