Keep moving forward

Last weekend, I batched one of our meal plans live on YouTube because I wanted to show people how doable it is.

We scheduled it for 8am my time, but because of a daylight saving scheduling glitch, I had to start at 7am. Being on camera that early in my not-very-well-lit kitchen wasn’t ideal, but we had already announced it, so 7am it was.

The night before the event:
✔️ I set up my lights.
✔️ I tested my wireless mic.
✔️ I set up my computer.
✔️ I created the event on YouTube.
✔️ I was ready to go!

The next morning, I clicked “Go Live” at exactly 7am and Dirties started showing up to watch me make magic in my kitchen and batch along with me. It started out great, but then 10 minutes in, my mic stopped working. 🤦‍♀️

Hundreds of eyes were on me, and I could not figure out why my mic wasn’t working. I ended up having to stop the live session, switch out my mic, start a new session, and hope people could hear me, and have the patience to show up for round two.

Before I re-started the session, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and gave myself a few long seconds to feel the frustration before pulling up my big girl panties and pressing “Go Live” once again. The sound was back, and I continued to batch my plants off for the next two hours.

Here’s the thing.

• Fails happen.

• Technology isn’t perfect.

• We all mess up.

• We make mistakes.

• Things don’t always go our way.

• Awkward things are said.

• We forget stuff.

These things are guaranteed.
But it only becomes a problem if we allow these things to stop us from learning and then moving forward.

It was easy for me to start over after my mic stopped working because I had a lot of people waiting for me to figure it out. So, of course I kept going. But what if no one had shown up for my live event? What if I didn’t have an audience? It would have been a lot easier to give up and not try again. I know this because 10 years ago, I didn’t have an audience. I was writing and sending out emails to fewer than five people. I was creating videos and classes no one signed up for.

Back then, I wasn’t bouncing back from fails and figuring it out because people were counting on me.

I was doing it because my future self was counting on me.

It might be easier to do it for other people, but it is always more rewarding when you do it for yourself—even if it takes time to reach the version of you that gets to enjoy and celebrate all you’ve accomplished by not giving up.

Don’t give up, my friend. Keep moving forward. 💪

Molly