Health
I’m Taking a Sabbatical! 5 Signs You Might Need to Take One Too
In this episode, Coach Emily shares her decision to take a summer sabbatical, exploring the signs that you might need one too. She emphasizes the importance of rest and renewal for personal growth and...
I’m Taking a Sabbatical! 5 Signs You Might Need to Take One Too
Health •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hey there, it's Coach Emily. If you caught this episode in the summer of 2025, I'm taking a summer break.
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But don't worry, there are hundreds of episodes of HabitHack Your Health to help you take action now
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and transform your body and mind all via my HabitHacking Systems.
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You can connect with me in my training for LifeFab at trainingforlifefab.com
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for all of my Habit-based fitness programming in the meantime.
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While you're there, go grab a free seven day trial.
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I'm always reading for you and I'll see you in August.
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Hey girl, if you're done with dieting and the constant starting and stopping of your healthy habits
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because well, life, and you'd rather find a way to train for Life Instead, then you're in the right place.
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Hey, I'm Emily, Habit and Fitness Coach and Midlife Boy Mom.
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I've gone from frustrated dieter to now consistently and confidently living a healthy lifestyle
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following the HabitHacking Systems that I'm now going to teach you.
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Think of this as a topic habits for women.
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I'm now helping other Midlife moms like you feel and look good in their favorite leggings
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through all seasons of life following my Habit-based fitness programming.
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No more dieting, my friend, just training for Life.
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Sorry, you ready to have it at your health?
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Then let's do this.
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Hey, there, friend.
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So as you can tell from the title of this episode, I'm taking a sabbatical for the summer.
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I'm recording this episode at the end of May 2025 and I won't be putting out any new episodes
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scheduling or doing any guest interviews.
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I probably won't be posting much on social media as well and I won't be sending out a newsletter until August.
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I haven't missed an episode in over five years, so this might be a bigger deal for me than it is for you.
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But I thought maybe really explaining why I'm taking this sabbatical or summer break might inspire you to look within yourself as well
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if you feel like you need to do the same.
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So let me explain.
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I felt really called to take a summer break and I've been really praying about it.
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And this was brought up in my devotional I've been doing earlier this year.
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It actually was probably around February, really early in the year.
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And it was planted on my heart already then.
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It came up in my devotional.
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I thought, okay, is this like a sign from God?
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It's already been planted in my mind.
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Should I do it?
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When does it feel right?
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And it feels really good to plan on taking a break because honestly, I'm feeling very burnt out.
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I'm tired.
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All the tabs open.
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I feel like I've had 20,000 open forever just like we talk about here on the show.
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And I need to take a break.
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Now our summer is super busy.
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We have a big epic trip with the boys out west.
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They have different camps.
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So they're coming and going.
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I'm driving my 13 year old around to all these different running camps.
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And my kids are getting bigger.
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My boys are 17 and 13.
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And you know, this is next year my son's going to be getting ready to go off to college.
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My oldest will be getting ready to go into high school.
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I can't talk about this too much or else I'll just cry.
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And I only got a couple of summers left with them.
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And I want summer to be very intentional in regards to our time and our experiences together.
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Plus tracking the data over the past five years after over 500,000 downloads of the show.
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My downloads are always lowest in the summer because y'all are busy.
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We are busy.
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You're off your regular routine.
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And you just don't regularly listen to podcasts during the summer.
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So this just makes sense.
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And same, I don't nearly listen to podcasts on the regular in the summer because we're off our routine.
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So what is this sabbatical?
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So I'm taking this from a faith approach.
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But it's pretty much any extended period of rest and renewal.
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Okay.
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It's really rooted in God's command to pause from work.
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Right.
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When God created everything, right.
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God didn't rest after creation because he was tired.
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He was, he was like, girl, this is a pattern.
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This is a habit you need to do.
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Work is good.
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But it's not everything.
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He's, you know, rest is holy.
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It's a sacred, intentional pause.
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And if God values rest, I feel like we should too.
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So how do you know if you need to take a sabbatical?
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I just can't leave you hanging here over the summer without giving you something to think about as well.
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And you don't always have to do a sabbatical in regards to like your actual job job.
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A lot of us can't do that.
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This is not my only job.
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That's why I have all the tabs open.
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So I'll still be doing other things.
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But I just needed to close this tab temporarily for the summer.
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But a sabbatical that could be like a creative one, right.
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Where you are focused on things like reading books, exploring a hobby,
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or a motherhood sabbatical where you are just digging deep and deparant in your kids,
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whatever season of life you're in, especially as teenagers.
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Girl, I'm a fallen all these teenage experts on TikTok.
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And it's been really great for me as a mom because I don't know what I'm doing.
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I've never been the mom of teenage boys ever.
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Right.
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Or it could be a wellness sabbatical where you are just so digging deep into your health
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and you're not taking on any distractions.
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You are dialed in.
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Or it could be a sabbatical where you're just taking a vacation and unplugging.
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You're not answering emails.
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You're just spending time with your family at the beach, right.
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It could be short term.
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It could be long term.
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It could be in any area of your life where you feel like you need to be more intentional.
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And for me, it's rest right now.
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So what are some signs that you might need to take a sabbatical as well?
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And this is all based on me and me like, oh, I need to take a sabbatical.
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So the first is you're running on empty.
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You're always exhausted after even sleep or rest.
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You've lost your usual motivation or creativity or drive.
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Number two, you're just feeling disconnected.
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You're feeling disconnected from God.
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Like your spiritual life feels flat, routine or distant.
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Or you're feeling disconnected from who you are from yourself.
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You just don't feel like you anymore.
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Just someone doing the next thing, checking things off a list.
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Or you feel disconnected from your purpose.
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You're questioning the point of what you're doing and you might need a pivot.
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Which is boiler life.
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That's kind of what I'm doing.
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Number three, those burnout symptoms are creeping in.
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So like mood swings, irritability or emotional numbness or maybe it's parry menopause.
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Or maybe it's all of the growth, right.
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But maybe it's affecting you physically as well.
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Like headaches, anxiety, poor sleep, where you get sick really easy and you just keep thinking.
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I just need a break.
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I just can't go on like this.
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Is this all there is?
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Number four, life feels loud.
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Hmm.
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You're constantly overstimulated by notifications and always people needing you.
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Like my boys have phones.
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Now they're 17 and 13.
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If they are both in the room listening to reels are on YouTube because my youngest doesn't have social media.
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And my husband's over here doing this on his phone.
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I'm like, I have to get out of here.
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I'm going to lose my mind.
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I'm so overstimulated.
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It feels loud.
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But also my brain kind of feels foggy, cluttered, overstretched.
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And I'm just longing for silence and simplicity.
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And the fifth way that you might need to take a sabbatical is you crave space to hear God's voice.
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You need a spiritual stirring and desire to retreat, find quiet before making big decisions.
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You feel like you're pouring out more than you're being filled.
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And you're craving just clarity, direction or vision for yourself in your life.
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But you're too busy to listen.
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One of my favorite quotes.
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I say this so much.
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And it's an under active body leads to an over active mind.
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You know, I move my body to help calm my mind.
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But my mind has too many tabs open where I'm not able to hear as clearly as I would like to.
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I'm really digging deep into my health during this time, not just my physical health, but my mental health as well.
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And really taking some time for prayerful discernment and my next steps for the podcast and being able to serve you all.
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Because this has always been on my heart and my calling to serve in this way.
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And that's not going away.
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But in the way we do it, maybe I need to change it.
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And I'm usually the one like to come up with an idea.
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I'll usually go on a walk and boom, the next week I'll do it.
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I'm unplugging, taking all that way and taking the time to really discern and think about this prayerfully.
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And from a way that serves me and my family and you.
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So if you're taking a sabbatical, some ways to think about it being meaningful, set a clear expectation or intention for yourself.
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Is it rest? Is it healing? Clarity? Creation? Wellness?
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What is the purpose behind your sabbatical?
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And the next communicate your boundaries with your family, with your clients, with your friends.
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Like I said, I'm not taking on any interviews. I'm not scheduling any interviews with any guests.
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I'm not taking on any one-on-one clients, other than ones I currently have.
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No.
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I'm going to unplug from all the outside noise for a season, probably social media.
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What? It's what that's going to look like.
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I don't know. I like getting on there because my oldest does have Instagram now and he sends me reels throughout the day that he does.
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I think would be funny. They're usually dog ones.
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And I don't want to lose that as a communication for him.
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So next you need to let go of guilt.
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It's a powerful investment in your future.
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I don't think I've done this because I'm like, I feel guilty.
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Like people are really counting on me to hear what we're talking about each week in these expert guests.
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Like no. I think you can give me some grace as I would give you the same.
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And then lastly, pray and plan. Ask God what he wants to reveal to you in this time.
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And hopefully you have a little bit more clarity and unstuckness and all the clutter in your head where you're able to hear a little bit more clearly.
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So I will see you back on this show in August after the summer break.
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And you can of course always find me in the training for LifeFap where you can find habit-based fitness training and my help there.
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That's not going why I'm always there willing and able and excited to help you with the fitness programming we have there in the habit coaching.
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Go grab a free seven day trial at training for LifeFap.com. That's always available to you.
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Now, well, things look different when I come back in August. Maybe I guess it just depends on what God shows me over this summer sabbatical.
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And I'm open to whatever I learn about myself during this time.
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And I really want to encourage you, girlfriends, to really take the time to think about what type of sabbatical do you need, what type of renewal do you need in your life as well.
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So as always, I'm rooting for you. I love you all. And I'll see you in August.
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I am so proud of you for listening to another episode of HabitHack, Your Health.
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I don't want you to just feel inspired, but I want you to go take action to help you do that. Go grab a free seven day trial inside of the training for LifeFap.
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This is HabitFace Fitness programming that you won't find anywhere else. A full fitness library with workouts programmed around what we need as midlife moms and habit trainings and accountability community to help you stay consistent no matter what season of life that you're in.
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Go to trainingforlifeapp.com to start your free seven day trial and let's start training for life together. I'm so rooting for you, girl. I'll see you in the next episode.
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You