“How do you do it all? … You’re Super Woman!” 

This comment from my Instagram is nothing new to me.  I get this type of reaction so very often from colleagues, family and friends.    With an ever growing commercial business, a charity, publishing partnerships and constantly writing and releasing new romances for my readers, many onlookers constantly ask, “how do you do it all?”

Did I mention I also have two children at home and I’m currently 8 months pregnant with no sight of slowing down?

So how do I do it?

The answer is easy: I don’t.

I couldn’t possibly do all of this on my own.  My success is not measured in my productivity.  I have to-do lists for my to-do lists, but even that isn’t good enough to get it done.  It’s so much more than that.  It’s a matter of organizing and delegating excessively and compulsively.  It’s not just a team effort, that is … lacking in the strength of the tribe I have.

I chase my passion and when I find someone along the way who’s passion aligns with mine, I snag them and hold on to them because that’s how it’s done.   How do I do it?  I don’t do it, I simply bring on the right team of people who want it to happen and therefore it does.

No … want isn’t the right word.  I don’t bring on people who want it to happen, but individuals who know it will, they believe in the goal.  They know exactly what has to be done to take whatever the vision is and turn it into a reality.  Women (and men too, although that makes the title a little not quite right), who have a desire to accomplish the same task, or a piece of the task that allows me to see it to fruition.  I don’t know how many times I’ve brought on someone and said: I need this, can you do it?  They’ve replied, “I love doing that, but you’re also going to need this.”  And it makes me smile, because they have that desire and that knowledge, or at least the pursuit of it and the drive.

Everyone has their own passion, that little piece that ignites them inside.  Recognizing it makes all the difference.  I have my own and I’m very well aware of it.  I want to write stories that make readers like me feel.  I want them to experience what I do when I close my eyes at night and these stories come to me.  It drives me like nothing else can.  I have other dreams too.  I summed it up recently by stating I wanted to be some-kind-of-Romance-author-Batman.  It’s not quite elegant, but it’s all I could come up with as a response when asked about all of the additional side projects I have.  I don’t want to get in a suped up batmobile and chase bad guys, but mental health matters to me and I’m certain it will be the hill I die on.  Living in a better world matters to me.  Praising romance novels and women in not just our industry but in our culture and in our world matters to me.

I am by no means under the impression that I can be this version of Batman on my own.  I can’t possibly accomplish these great things I am striving towards on my own.  I may go faster if I rely on no one, but I will go further if I rely on a tribe who sees the same future I do.  Even if their passion is only a piece of it, and my passion is only a piece of theirs.  We go farther together.

I have learned to organize, to delegate, and to search for my tribe and cling to them.

My only goal is to nurture the passion I have and any little thing that comes between me and that light, I make an intention and a plan to give it to someone else.  But not just anyone, I give it to someone who can use that to fuel their own fire that aligns with my own.

There’s a quote I rely on often: 

Working for something you don’t care about is stress.  Working for something you love is called passion.

It’s so very true and yet, so easily ignored.  We live in a culture where praise is given to individuals who are worn out and have driven themselves into the ground accomplishing a goal, regardless of whether or not the end point mattered to them.

If you want to be “Super Woman” you have to say no to anything that steals your time from your passion, you have to nurture your fire, but more importantly, you have to find someone who has a fire you can fuel simply by running alongside her.

That’s how you do it.

Connect with Willow

 Website

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Amazon

Check out Willow’s newest release…