Last year, I shared a post for a new category called “#SelfLoveSaturday: Try Something New”. It was pretty much a roundup of quotes, links and posts all related to the topic. And then things just kind of fell off. I tried several times to get back on track with sharing on the site but things just didn’t feel right. Towards the end 2015, my mindset had begun to change and in December, I chose 2/8/2016 to be my relaunch date! I had new ideas for everything from the imagery to my writing process to transforming that new category into something else completely. I planned to integrate other changes after the relaunch to keep myself going. On the evening of 2/7/2016, I was just about done with ¾ of the content I planned to have prepared but I was overwhelmed and felt something wasn’t right. So I gave myself more time. The new date? 3/7/2016! This gave me time to revise everything and work out what had caused me to freak out that night in February. Around 11pm on March 5th, I finished the last image and saved it….and then it happened.

While saving that last image, Photoshop and Finder crashed. I’ve had a program crash while saving before. It usually corrupts the file and you have to recreate it. I accepted that*. Except, this time, the file wasn’t the only thing that was corrupted. My entire external hard drive (327GB worth of work) was corrupted and inaccessible. I freaked out. I Googled and tried running disk recovery. And when that didn’t work, I made an appointment to go to the Apple Store the very next morning. Then I prayed and went to sleep. My life was in shambles. The next morning, I went to the Apple Store and when nothing worked I was sent to MicroCenter. I was told that if the drive was mechanically working, they should be able to recover the data. I called my mom, cried for about 5 minutes, prayed again in my car, and drove to MicroCenter. And then I went home. I had a full weekend planned so there wasn’t much time to sit and sulk. I sat down for 30 minutes, got up, and went to A PHP course I’d signed up for through a Meetup.com group. That night, I went out to dinner and a bar with another Meetup.com group.

I’m sharing all of this with you because around 2am, it hit me. After leaving my house, I enjoyed my day. I lived my life. I didn’t fixate on the issue and I actually forgot all about the drive off and on throughout the day! When a friend responded with, “Oh! That’s awful.” after I told her what happened, I happily replied, “Yeah, but we’ll see what happens. And if it doesn’t work out, I’ll just redo everything with new energy!” And I meant it!

In case you’re wondering, two weeks went by and it turns out there was nothing they could do. Nothing was recovered. I was going to have to start over. I was no longer tied to a relaunch date because I had no idea how long it would take. I made a NEW relaunch to-do list. And I added every single new idea I had been considering to it. If I was going to have to start over, I was going to go all in. And since you’re reading this, that means I made it and you can to! 🙂

Now take a minute to think about a time when you had your mind set on a goal. When you were working really, really hard to make it happen. When you were making amazing progress. When you were like, “YASSSSSSSSSSSS! I BETTA!” And then when everything swerved left, crashed through the rails, and fell all the way off course. I have been there (see above). It can be really hard to just pick up where you left off. It might even be impossible. But if it’s something you really want for yourself, you are going to have to start over. Check out the 5 reasons that I encourage you to start over!

You Can Be Kind to Yourself

Things happen. Mistakes are made. Tasks are forgotten. I never finished backing up my files to DropBox. That was the point of me paying for Dropbox**. I could have beat myself up for it but it wouldn’t have brought the files back. It just would have made me feel worse about the whole situation. Life is stressful enough. Beating yourself up will just make it that much harder for you to succeed at anything.

Be kind to yourself! Get out the house and live your life. Do things that make you happy and make you feel good about yourself. If you’re going to start over, you might as well be happy when you do it!

You Can Try Something Different

What did you do before? What would you change about that process? What would you do the same? Guess what. You can do it now! I used to write posts and create the art the week before…and sometimes the day before. When I initially began planning the relaunch, one of the first things I wanted to fix was my process. I’m a very visual person so it can be difficult getting my thoughts written out in a coherent way so I wanted to get all my writing done early on. I also wanted to streamline my art process and include more of my personality and experiences into the site. Not only is my process streamlined but it reflects me and my goals better.

Try something different. Rethink the process you use. Rethink the tools you use. Try a new schedule. Try putting more of yourself into it. The goal should be to make it easier to allow your greatness to shine through!

You Can Keep Going

I wanted to relaunch Love U Too and nothing was going to stop me from doing that. During the two weeks I waited to learn the fate of my external hard drive, I slowly finished worked on creating more content and I began listing out new ideas I planned like to implement. I kept working towards the goal. Once I learned that I would have to start over, I expanded that list to include everything from changing the official brand PANK (that’s what I like to call hot pink) to finally deciding on which print-on-demand companies worked best for my needs. I didn’t view this setback as that much of a setback. It ended up being kind of freeing. It went from getting back on track to being a true relaunch.

Keep going. Keep researching. Keep goal setting. Keep doing tasks that will get you to where you want to be. No matter how small they seem. It all has to get done.

You Can Make It Better

I don’t know about you but I’ve learned a lot since last summer, the most important being how to control my anxiety better and how to share what I’ve learned to help others. Love U Too grew from an idea I had about sharing inspirational, handwritten messages that encourage people to feel good about themselves. It’s a great idea but it can be so much more! And it will be! Stay tuned! 😉

Make it better. Make learning new things a priority. Take webinars. Sign up for classes in your area. Make Google your friend. Read more books! Share ideas with your friends. Be inspired by everything around you and your brain will be exploding with ideas.

You Can Take Your Time

Time is everywhere yet there never seems to be enough of it. One of the things I decided when I had to start over was that I would not set a new deadline. I decided to just work at a steady pace so as not to stress myself out with so much new work on my plate! Like I said, I had A LOT of new ideas so i wasn’t sure how long it would take. I work full-time and we’ve been pretty busy. I am also learning not to wear myself out!

Take your time. Find a pace where you’re getting things done without overdoing it. Work steadily and calmly. Make this time work for you. How often do you get to do that?!

Starting over might sound like a lot of work, and it most likely will be. But if it’s something you really want, it will always be worth it.

What can you do today to prepare yourself to start over? Share in the comments below!

Give yourself the love you deserve with a Self Love Check-In! Every Sunday, you’ll get A Letter to U (from you) and downloadable color cards to use for your needs.

*Normally I would have went smooth off the deep end but I’ve been working at reducing anxiety and my efforts have paid off! I’ll talk more about it in another post but accepting that some things are just out of my control has really been key to my personal growth. 🙂

**Luckily some of my files were in my DropBox. I had not taken the time backup everything from the drive (like I was supposed to) but I did have what I considered to be most crucial to me not losing my damn mind!

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