What have you done?

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This time of year always makes me feel a little like an outcast in my own life.

It could be the heat. It could be the change of wardrobe. It’s always the nostalgia.

But I wake up in June and think:

Look at yourself. The year is almost half over…again. You haven’t done a thing.

Of course, I have done…things. But none of the things I wanted to do by this point in the year.

At the end of December, I declared 2024 as my back-on-track year.

I felt like I could no longer use being postpartum as an excuse for not taking care of myself. (Side note: I absolutely can because it’s not an excuse; it’s an ongoing reality. I’m just hard on myself.) I felt desperate to breathe life back into my career because it was slipping away, and I was squeezing out crumbs. I wanted to welcome back in the parts of my life I boxed up when I had a baby: hobbies, friendships, randomness.

But when I scrolled through my calendar from January until now, I saw a whole lot of the same old stuff.

My life was moving forward, but in thick, muddy water.

I wished for more waves. I wanted to fight harder to get out of the currents that were holding me back. I didn’t want to tread water again and again until a new December came.

This newsletter has existed for almost a decade as a place to inspire others. It still will be that. But I also want to start using it as a place to open up and share my own journey as I find inspiration again in my own life.

I needed a name for this fix-my-life operation. ChatGPT shared some real interesting ones:

• Operation Post-Baby Power-Up

• Operation Kick-Ass and Thrive

• Operation Life Remix

• Operation Hot Mess No More

But I’m going to pass one these.

Instead, I’m going to use one of my favorite words because it’s so misunderstood and I find it inspirational.

Flop.

Operation Flop.

We think flop means to fail. But that’s one option.

It always mean to change, to move loosely, or to throw oneself — forward — in a heavy, clumsy, or relaxed manner.

Hello!? If you ever watch yourself try to shimmy out of a slump, you look just like that.

Inside this Operation Flop, there might be a lot of failures (good, we love those around here) and a lot of change (we need that around here).

I will share updates, behind-the-scenes, experiments, and what’s worked/not worked, as I focus on these categories in my life:

• Health

  • I want to get my strength back. My post-baby body is still recovering from all the changes and I want to get in the habit of building my strength back. I also want to get better at pre-planning meals (so I’m not eating food that I make the baby off the floor and calling that dinner) and go see some doctors to run tests around my overall health.

• Tolerance

  • I feel my overall skills, confidence, and comfort zone levels tanking recently. That’s because I work for myself, don’t spend time with a lot of people other than my little girl, and haven’t done a lot of personal development lately. I feel strong when I put myself out there. I want to do more of that.

• Career

  • Ahh, this one. I want to revamp Bridesmaid for Hire and my own personal brand. Stay tuned.

• Book

  • It’s been a goal of mine to write a book since 2019. I have one chapter left in a book I never finished. I have made no progress in this area. It always makes me feel so crummy.

👋Welcome to the Monday Pick-Me-Up. You pick the area and I’ll get started. I’ll update you along the way. Ps. If you want to join in on this Operation Flop. Pick your own four areas. Just four. We might not be able to hold onto much more, at one time.

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📚5 Summer Reads

I’ve been spending less quality time with my phone these days (finally) and instead of scrolling through TikTok or responding to every single text message that pops up, I’ve left my phone to fend for itself and picked up books instead. Here are the five books on my summer read list.

All Fours - Miranda July

This book just sounds like the rollercoaster I need in my life right now. It’s about a mom who tells her husband and child she’s driving from LA to NY. Instead, she leaves the house and checks into a motel nearby for a different kind of journey. I love books about people running away from their own lives.

Self-Help - Lorrie Moore

This is my all-time favorite book. It’s a collection of short fiction stories. I find the writing to be thrilling and smart. I re-read this every so often because it’s delicate and striking. I miss it when I put it down.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

This book has 200,000 Amazon reviews, wow. I bought this months ago because so many people told me I had to read it. I haven’t started it yet but I’m excited to see what the hype is about.

Lies and Weddings

The title caught my attention. The author also wrote Crazy Rich Asians and I loved that book. The plot looks thrilling and I can see this end up as a movie. Excited to read before it hits the big screen.

The Housemaid

I wanted to add a thriller to my summer reading list. I read through the reviews of this book and people kept mentioning how there are sooo many twists.

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Why you’re getting this: I'm Jen Glantz and this is The Monday Pick-Me-Up newsletter. I've been sending it every Monday, for 9-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.

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