Girl Code: Unlocking the Secrets to Success, Sanity, and Happiness for the Female Entrepreneur

You Better Work
“I never dreamed of success, I worked for it.”
– Estee Lauder
By most standards, I am a workaholic. I work seven days a week. I
over-serve my clients. I over-deliver in all areas. I work on every single
holiday. I work on vacation. I wake up early and start working before I’ve
even had a sip of coffee (which my husband finds completely insane). I
often wake up in the middle of the night to check my email or respond to
social media comments. I understand that my success depends entirely on
myself.
But none of this feels like work because I am passionate about what I
do. When you are aligned with your purpose and truly doing what you love,
it feels like a privilege to get to do it every single day. I feel so lucky that
people want to read my books and enroll in my coaching programs. I also
remind myself of the long, hard road I took to get here, and I am grateful
every single day.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take a break, get a message, or even
go on vacation. But if you’re under the impression that you don’t have to
live and breathe your business every day – at least in the beginning while
you’re building it up – you are sorely mistaken.
When I first became a life coach, I was working in my full-time job at
MTV. In fact, I was a director with major responsibilities, a team of twenty
people under me, and a hefty workload. The months leading up to receiving
my coaching certification were brutal. I’d work eight hours a day (on top of
commuting three hours round trip from Brooklyn to Manhattan), then come
home, eat dinner, and attend coaching school for three hours per night, two
nights a week. The other nights were spent buddy coaching classmates on
the phone and working on assignments. I was also blogging regularly at The
Champagne Diet. It was exhausting, it was stressful, but it was worth every

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second. I knew I wanted to become a coach and I knew I wanted to leave
MTV. My hustle was my escape plan.
After receiving my certification, I launched my coaching practice. Still
working at MTV, I’d take my clients in the evenings and on weekends. I
also began writing my first book, Sparkle, during that time, so every spare
minute was filled with hustling to make my dreams a reality. I used my
vacation and personal days to work on book edits. I declined weekend
getaways with my girlfriends and stopped watching television.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, or thinking you don’t have time to
work on your business, think again. You can eliminate more things out of
your day than you realize. Work during your commute, wake up an hour
earlier, and slice your time on Facebook in half. Instead of surfing the web
during your lunch hour, use that time to dream up new ideas or research a
new project. Give up Netflix for a night. We all have the same hours in a
day. It’s how you choose to spend them that counts. And there is always,
always a choice.