Hello everyone and thank you for joining me. In last week’s 100% Jodi episode I talked about the book The Dip by Seth Godin. Godin describes The Dip as “the long slog between beginning and mastery.”

I have to tell you after writing and recording that episode it was like psychologically I was in The Dip in every area of my life. Has that ever happened to you?

I was catching up with a friend and talking about all the amazing opportunities that have been coming my way in my business. On paper just about everything is fantastic and I have many reasons to be grateful.

And then I ended my update with “and I am so [insert expletive] bored with my life.”

Daily the lyrics from Bruce Springstein’s song Dancing in the Dark kept running through my head and after meeting with my mastermind group at the end of last week I know exactly why and I’m going to get into that in just a bit.

What I’ve been going through has gotten me thinking about the Tolerations Detox Challenge we did at the beginning of the year and I think it’s time to bring it back again but I’m going to do it a little bit differently.

Instead of releasing the 5 challenges every other day, starting on Monday, May 7, I’m going to release one a week for 5 weeks. I heard all your feedback and it was tough to keep up with the challenges and I know many of you did not like falling behind.

With each challenge coming out once a week it will be no problem for you to identify 2 things that you are tolerating or avoiding in the area selected for that week (think home and transportation, work and technology, health and wellness, etc.). Then you’ll have the whole week to address them before the next challenge comes out.

If you are interested in joining in the Tolerations Detox Challenge for this round and getting back a whole bunch of energy before the summer begins sign up at womentakingthelead.com/tolerations to sign up!

This week is the month-end episode so that means an update on goals but as promised in the last episode I’m going give the updates and comment on whether I’m crushing the goal, if I’m experiencing The Dip, or if I’m starting to wonder if something is a Dead End.

To review, in The Dip you’re doing a lot of hard work and you may not be getting a lot of traction but there definitely is progress or you can see where your efforts are going to turn into progress. With a dead end things don’t get better or worse. They pretty much stay the same.

Goal #1 Build more strength and endurance

The original goal for strength and endurance was to do 300 Spartan-regulation burpees in good form in one session by June 30 but I completed that in February. Crushed that goal and set a new goal.

My burpee goal is now at 1000 burpees. Separately, I have a goal to do an unassisted pull-up before the end of this year.

I have started incorporating pull-ups with the pull-up bands into my workouts during the week. I really shouldn’t say it’s incorporated into my workouts because the truth is I work from home so I do pull-ups whenever I think of it or feel like doing pull-ups which isn’t very often.

I don’t dislike pull-ups and I’m starting to do them more often. It’s just a new activity being incorporated into my day so I’m sure this will pick up and become a daily thing this month.

At first I could only do one or two assisted pull-ups with each attempt and now I’m up to four pull-ups with the band.

As of the day I’m recording this episode I have completed doing 500 spartan-regulation burbees (chest to ground) in good form in one workout session and by the time this episode goes live I’ll have done 525 in one workout.

The 500 burpee workout took me 1:43:49 to complete so I have to start planning my workout within larger time blocks.

Yes, doing the workout is a slog but I wouldn’t say I’m suffering through it and I’m definitely making progress. With this goal I am in The Dip but I am leaning into it and enjoying the positive consequences of doing a workout that intense on a weekly basis.

I’ve also increased the intensity of my separate strength-training and cardio workouts to support doing the burpee workouts with more ease.

Goal #4 Do a Women Taking the Lead branded full-day event in the summer or fall

In October, which is breast cancer awareness month, I will be collaborating with Emily leRoux, the Spartan Women Global Leader of Spartan Races, Inc. to do a “Burpees for Boobs” event. I am going to coordinate the event here in Maine but the intention is to have these events happening globally in October.

As I reported in last month’s update there has not been a lot of extra time to make significant progress on this goal but I am continuing to share this goal with people who are ready to take action as soon as things are in place.

I’ve got The Maine Women’s Conference coming up on Wednesday, May 9, 2018 in Portland, ME as well as some corporate workshops that need my attention but come June I’m going to be shifting my focus to this event.

Side note: If you have not bought your tickets for The Maine Women’s Conference you can purchase your ticket at themainewomensconference.org. We have Caroline Paul and Maysoon Zayid as keynotes, there will be two panel discussions and I will be one of 12 breakout session speakers. I’ll be talking about one of my favorite topics: How to Grow and Leverage Your Network with Ease!

Again, go to themainewomensconference.org to buy your ticket and I’ll look forward to seeing you there.

I keep reminding myself each week as I do my burpee workout that the preparation to do 1000 burpees at the Burpees for Boobs event in October is the work I am doing to prepare for that event, for now.

For this goal I have not made enough progress to hit The Dip or a dead end so I have no commentary here.

Goal #3 Increase profitability in my business

Goal: have a net income (earnings minus expenses) of $80,000 minimum this year.

March’s Profit and Loss report showed a net profit of $2854.72. That is better than February’s profit of $493.82 but still far off from the average $6700/month required to see a net profit of $80,000. Some of my largest business bills come due in February and March and that is past now so I’m looking forward to seeing what the next few months bring.

Am I experiencing a dead end in this area? No.

This is what the slog looks like. I am making progress. The work I am doing is making an impact and I am getting more inquiries for training and coaching. It just takes time and consistent effort to get to the tipping point.

I have been reviewing and tweaking the strategies I have for increasing the profits in my business that may not be getting the traction that I hoped for.

I am continuing to offer the Energy Leadership Assessment, strategy sessions and private coaching. I also will be running a group program over the summer around transforming who you are in your career and business so you can start getting traction and hitting your goals with ease.

I have also been spending more time talking about the corporate trainings during my BNI meeting and in the networking coffee dates I’ve been having. The word is getting out so now my job is to continue to spread the word and create a landing page for the corporate workshops I offer on my website.

Goal # 5 Outsourcing

Goal: (contingent upon profitability goal) to outsource social media content creation and email inbox management.

If any of my goals feel like a dead end this is the one because it’s based on my profitability goals and I haven’t hit my target on that goal yet.

Something I also didn’t plan for well was figuring into my profitability goal the fact that my business expenses would go up at first to pay for more virtual assistance as I brought in more money. I may start sharing my profit number with and without the expense of outsourcing to show more progress.

Goal #2 Be in a committed monogamous relationship with a man

In relationships I am not looking to be the best in the world but there are dips and dead ends in relationships that I am becoming more familiar with.

I need to be open-minded and recognize when the work is to stay open-minded and compassionate, while at the same time be able to gauge when there is no chemistry. Or worse, when there is chemistry but the guy is not available, for whatever reason, so I’ll know when to cut my losses and move on.

I have found myself getting a little tired of the process of finding a partner, at least on the dating app.

In my exhaustion I have been questioning my goal in terms of do I need to be in a relationship or is dating casually good enough? Do I care if he’s seeing other people? Am I looking for a partner or am I okay with male attention from someone who at the very least considers my feelings.

I had even considered casually dating someone whose life wasn’t suited to the time commitment of building a relationship. I wondered if I could see him occasionally while I continued my search for a partner. We just got along so well and had great chemistry that I didn’t want to move on.

Who am I kidding? I still don’t want to move on. We had a lot of fun when we were together and I enjoyed the male attention. It is like sunshine on your skin.

The reality is though all those things are okay to start with, I ultimately want a partner, and I know I would become emotionally involved if I continue to see him, and thus emotionally unavailable to other men. It’s the recipe for disaster.

And it’s difficult to walk away from semi-good sunshine into a cold shadow once again.  That’s where the boredom started and why the song Dancing in the Dark kept popping into my head.

When I broke down my feelings and my perspective with my mastermind group last week it was pointed out to me that almost all my time and successes were coming from masculine pursuits.

I was spending hardly any time in feminine pursuits. For me this would look like singing, dancing, flirting, gardening, conversations that are not around business, politics or religion.

Flirting and having romance in my life is important and it’s not something I’m capable of denying anymore.

What I’ve also come to realize is, though there is a progression, I want someone to share my life with and I want to be a part of their life.

And where I am in the process right now, being on the dating app, takes practicing patience. I say practicing because I’ve also come to realize I am not naturally a patient person; I have to work at it.

It will also take having thick skin, not taking things personally, and consistently letting go of the past and being open to something new. It takes holding to my boundaries, being honest about what I’m looking for, keeping it light and fun, and not lowering my standards just because I’m temporarily feeling lonely.

None of this is easy. It’s as Seth Godin says, “the long slog between beginning and mastery.” It’s The Dip and I am in it. However, as the cliché goes, I am in it to win it.

Okay, that’s it for now. Again you can join the Tolerations Detox Challenge at womentakingthelead.com/tolerations to remove all the little things in your life that are zapping your energy and leaving you feeling drained by the end of the day and the end of the week.

As always I hope this was of value to you and here’s to your success!

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