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Rebecca Rosario
12/21/22
Ever since Christine and I started this little 2 Moms gig, we’ve encountered such a gamut of project and service types. We’ve learned so much about ourselves, others and project execution.
We have made friends and family and experienced the opportunity to deepen connections we would have never had if it wasn’t for the time and situations our services were called upon for.
Then wait for it, I often find myself thinking, what in the world have we gotten ourselves into?
Whether consulting, building, cleaning, errands, repairs, I’ve noticed a trend when we approach a project. We game plan and prepare, confirm with the client that we are coming, arrive excited, we connect with the client and then we dig in.
Somewhere mid project one of us will start to feel tired, maybe frustrated, usually hungry (ok that’s usually me). Our humanity creeps in and we start thinking, we are going to disappoint not only them but us.
Then we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes that looks like we are close to the end, maybe progress but mostly hope.
Our clients are all so different, some offer encouragement and gratitude with words, some with an invitation to come back and do more work. Some with dissatisfaction. Yes, we aren’t perfect! (ok pick up your jaw and we will address this in another post!)
One of my all time faves, Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book, Big Magic, Creative Living Beyond Fear , introduces a concept called the “sh*t sandwich". In essence she states that everything sucks some of the time. You just have to come to terms with how passionate you are about something and what flavor of sandwich you are willing to eat.
Hard stuff doesn’t mean you made a wrong choice. Disappointment doesn’t even mean that either! I think somewhere a lot of us bought the lie that if it doesn’t feel good all of the time you made a wrong decision. Here’s the deal, the stuff we love to do is going to come with a “sh*t sandwich”. Choose your flavor and move through it.
Early on we started blurting out to each other as we worked, “You’re doing great work!” and now it’s a ritual. I can count on my wife as I scrub a toilet and she can count on me as she has pieces of building material everywhere and doesn’t know where to begin to say, “You're doing great work!”. We keep it going through the whole project. When the client is also helping, we will tell them too!
When you give of yourself for a living, it’s an incredibly vulnerable thing. I’ve felt that so hard in my body and heart. If I am feeling it, I know you are too.
Outside of working, I’ve started telling other people that “They’re doing great work!” It’s like I am walking through the day throwing out little life preservers and that feels good.
Dear reader, you’re doing great work!
Love,
Rebecca
You should read it!
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
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