Emily Romrell

Estimated Reading Time 7 Minutes

Hey You! How’s it going? Really good I hope. I’m Emily Romrell and this is The Vibrant Life Podcast. Summer is in full swing now and I’m honestly not sure how we got here so fast. But I’ve been soaking up some sun and getting excited over all the Summery things: baseball, BBQs, bonfires, bicycle rides…you know all of the great things that apparently start with the letter B. I feel like I could be on Sesame Street. But it really is a fantastic time of year and I hope you’re diving into your Summer with gusto as well.

And while you’re feeling the excitement, now would be the perfect time to head on over to iTunes and share your thoughts in the form of a review on the podcast. It’s a great time to spread the news to friends and family that would enjoy listening as well. Let’s keep the ball rolling and the community growing.

You know, I think we all have sayings of our parents floating around our heads. Voices of loved ones like to repeat memories in our brains when the situation is just right. My mind is crammed full of these things. Things like: It’s always right to be polite, or Money doesn’t grow on trees. The phrase: It’s always better to keep up rather than catch up. is a gift from my mother. This reminder has stayed with me and my mom actually just repeated it to me again a few days ago. So this episode is dedicated to you, Mom.

I have to admit, Peeps, I’m loving my cover art for the episode this week. For better or worse, puns and cheesy jokes play a major part in my personality. So using a ketchup bottle to promote the subject of Keep Up vs. Catch up is very ME. I also think a ketchup bottle is an apt metaphor to kick things off for us today.

Click Here For Swag Featuring This Quote

So let’s get saucy. A few weeks ago, I went on a quick trip to Idaho with my brother. We stayed at my cousin’s house and had a blast visiting with her and her family. One afternoon we played cornhole in their yard and I gotta tell ya that my bean bag tossing skills are not that great, but it was so much fun. The teams were my cousin and me vs. my brother and her little boy. Boys vs. Girls…go figure. One thing that made me smile, though, is that whenever the throw was short, Daxton, the ten-year-old, would yell, “Give it more sauce!” So the thrower would give it some extra oomph next time. (Side note: isn’t oomph a fantastic word? I am a word nerd and that one makes me happy.)

I think often things in life pile up for us when we lose our oomph. It’s easy to become complacent and bored in the daily grind. When passion decreases problems tend to get bigger. If we let things go this way for too long, we may get stuck and feel like life has left us behind. You might wonder how you’ll ever catch back up to where you want to be. But we know how to turn that around, right? It can be difficult if you’re struggling with your mindset or mental health. But the solution is a simple one. Put a little more sauce into your daily efforts.

Right now, you’re probably thinking, “Okay, Emily, how exactly do I give my life more sauce?”

I do have some suggestions for you:

1. Embrace What Makes You Different

Every human on the planet is special and unique, which is something I love about life. So each of us has our own brand of magic sauce to give to the world. A good place to start is to ask yourself, “What is it that makes me, (insert your name here), special and unique?”

There’s a great quote by Meryl Streep: “What makes you different or weird…that’s your strength. If we can embrace what makes us different, that allows our individual passions to grow. When we’re passionate and excited, the oomph arrives. What makes you, YOU is what adds the real flavor to your vibrant life.

2. Be Playful

This is such a big thing, my friends. If you need some help to get you going, spend an hour playing with a child. Things don’t get much better than that. As an adult it’s easy to let our cares and responsibilities weigh us down. We sometimes forget what life was like as a kid. Almost everything is a game if you want it to be. Obviously, there are times to be serious. But I believe we are serious too much of the time. And if you want to hear more of my thoughts on this topic, you should check out Ep. 12 The Mary Poppins Effect. Be playful, Peeps. It makes a huge difference.

3. Manage Your Physical Energy

To be honest I’ve really struggled with this one lately. The upside is that I can affirm with experience how important managing your energy is. I deal with insomnia and debilitating headaches on the regular which translates into low energy and fatigue much of the time. If you’re physically drained it’s much more difficult to get things done, let alone to do them with oomph. So it’s easy for things to pile up on you. But this isn’t an excuse to give up. I’m working hard to get things back into balance. But I do think it’s good for you to know that I struggle and that I am working on my vibrant life from an imperfect place. We all are.

I know personally that good nutrition and exercise make a difference. Spending time outside in the sunshine is also important. Getting a good night’s sleep is more precious to me now than ever before. I know that these answers may seem basic. But they are the basic answers for a reason. They’re vital to get the energy you need to be your best.

So we’ve covered a couple ways to prevent things from getting out of control and how to give life more sauce. But what do you do when you’re stuck in the thick of things?

You may or may not be familiar with a romantic comedy called Kate and Leopold. It’s a cute movie, but the only reason I’m bringing it up is that in that show the brother quotes this rhyme from Richard Armour:

“Shake and shake the catsup bottle. None’ll come– And then a lot’ll.”

Yes, we’re sticking with the ketchup theme.

I think life is often like that. We have a goal we’re working toward or a big job or chore that we need to do, and we get into this pattern of starts and stops in our efforts. We give a big push and then forget it for a while and repeat. We shake the metaphorical ketchup bottle. This isn’t always a bad thing. But you end up with mixed results. Sometimes you get what you want, and sometimes you get a big mess.

One drawback of this start-and-stop method of doing work is that it takes a lot longer to get things done. House cleaning is the obvious example that comes to mind. I know that I’m guilty of this. I will do a deep clean of my home and then slack off until things pile up and then I get down and dirty with another round of chores. I’m a fairly clean person so things don’t get too bad, but every once in a while when I’m not feeling well or I’m sick or something I’ll let things go. It’s always more difficult after these slumps to dig myself out and get everything in order again.

The key is consistency. How many times do we hear about the importance of our habits when it comes to success? Although routines can feel restrictive, the truth is that building order into our lives is a major key to freedom. Without a plan, we often waste time trying to decide what to do next. When we have a schedule we get straight to work, finish quicker, and free up time to do what we want.

However, despite our best efforts, life is messy. We all get into slumps. I love the book Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Suess and he describes this situation pretty well:

Yes, my friends, keep up is much easier than catch up. That’s the point. But if you find yourself in catch-up mode, don’t get too discouraged. Just focus on the next best step. Most people are familiar with the quote from Lao Tsu, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s famous for a reason. And if you’re able to get into a flow state of mind, the work gets done relatively fast. I usually listen to music or have an audiobook or a podcast going on in the background when possible.

If you’re truly overwhelmed don’t be afraid to ask for help. Friends and family are usually happy to pitch in when needed, and too often we try to do things all on our own. It’s all about the happy medium, right? Be as independent as you can, but be willing to give others the opportunity to show up for you. It’s a nice feeling to be needed and to help people we care about. Don’t deprive the special folks in your life of that chance. I bet you would do the same for them. Once you find yourself back on track, you can keep on keeping things up.

So the challenge this week is to tackle a big job that may have crept up on you. Then try to put a practice in place that will prevent that job from getting so big in the future. You can do it. I believe in you. Let’s Live The Vibrant Life.

Hey You! Don’t forget to go to iTunes and leave a quick review on the podcast. It doesn’t take long and it helps more than you know. Please share the love with your friends and family as well. Thank you in advance and have a great week!