This past weekend I headed up to Temecula, a short 45 minutes north of San Diego, to attend Bloggy Boot Camp with the SITS Girls. While I learned a lot about the business side of blogging, networking, etc., I also learned far more beyond blogging.

In addition to the great tidbits about the latest social media platforms (::cough, cough:: SnapChat?? No, maybe it’s Periscope…), Tiffany Romero of the SITS Girls shared ways to simply be a better person.

Now I’m totally going to paraphrase this because I’m no good at exact quotes but when Tiffany suggested that we stop and think of our daughters in our shoes. Then look at what our daughters are doing and tell them what they need to do – more sleep, less work, exercise and eat right, never give up – basically giving myself the advice I would give my daugther should she be in my shoes. And this opened my eyes a bit more to how I’m living my life.

After Women Get Social last year, also put on by the SITS Girls, I had taken away quite a bit that I actually put into action. I made office hours, I hired a Virtual Assistant. Heck… I even hired my house keeper back after a long break without her (and my friends thank me every time they come over and have to use our guest bathroom that is also my son’s bathroom). But there were a few things I hadn’t been doing and now I need to start working on weaving those into my life.

I also want to start considering what my daughters see when they watch me. I want to be more cognizant and aware of how I’m living my life and make sure that I’m living the life I want to live and being the person I want to be. But I also want to portray that to my daughters So that instead of just a frazzled, crazy woman who’s over-extended herself in an effort to do everything, they’re seeing a dedicated, hard working woman who loves to support those around her.

I have stopped saying negative things about my appearance and myself in front of her. When I weigh myself in the morning I smile even when I want to cry. And when I’m trying on clothes I make sure to critique the fit of the clothes, not the look of my body in the clothes. Because she’s watching… she’s watching everything.

And it’s only a matter of time until she starts to look at herself in that mirror. It’s only a matter of time until she’s over-extending and wondering why she feels like she’s the only one drowning. Until she realizes that she’s not alone. And it’s ok to feel that way.

Oh, and the photo above? I had my daughter take it. I’m going to have her take a lot more photos of me too…