Finding Joy and Getting Your Spark Back

with andee hart

If you’ve been through difficult times, you can probably relate when someone says that they need to get their spark back and they want to find joy again.

This is what led to Rachel Marie Martin writing her new book Get Your Spark Back. She had gone through some tough times and one day she thought “Who am I?”

Image is two books stacked on top of each other. The name of the book is Get Your Spark Back. Written by Rachel Marie Martin author of the popular blog Finding Joy

She had lost her inner drive, the spark of who she was. So, she went on a journey of rediscovering herself and her spark, and those around her took notice and wanted to know how she was getting her spark back because they wanted their spark back as well.

Today, I’m joined by Rachel who believes in the power of the human spirit to overcome, thrive and to find deep joy and because of that she pours out her heart via these platforms: she is the writer behind the site FindingJoy.net and author of both Mom Enough and The Brave Art of Motherhood and a founding partner in Audience Industries – a company designed to train and equip entrepreneurs in their ventures.

Finding Joy and Having Courage

Rachel shares when she was in her first marriage and having a really rough time someone at Church gave her hope that she could change her life.

And she wanted to be that spark of hope for somebody else. And that’s how she started her popular blog Finding Joy.

With starting Finding Joy that gave her the power of starting to get that hope back and you don’t get to tell others how you have started unless you had the courage to start.

Having the courage to start and put your work out into the world is the first step and the hardest step.

I like to tell my clients that it just takes 10 seconds of courage to put your product or offering out there and then look at how far you can do with it.

Inspiration behind Get Your Spark Back

Get Your Spark back is Rachel’s 3rd book, and she notes all of her books are part of her own personal journey coupled with listening to her audience.

Rachel believes that’s a lot of our journey as entrepreneurs is not just being listening to ourselves, but also hearing feedback.

So, in Rachel’s journey she had gone through a really rough divorce, spent 10 years being a single parent and then got remarried, fixed her finances, and started a business.

And then one day, she had that moment of “well, now who am I?”

Which surprised her because how could that happen? She had fixed the stuff that was hard.

And so, she kind of lost that spark of who she was.

So, she went on a journey to figure out, okay, what’s next?

What am I going to do now?

And as I went on the journey, everyone from that followed her in finding joy was like, I want to get my spark back too.

How are you doing that?

The answer to getting your spark back

So, this book is an answer to for women of how to do that.

How to go about figuring out what’s the next thing, or how do you fix and reclaim your relationship with money, or how do you invest in friendship, and what does it look like?

And oftentimes people will say, well, I don’t even know if I have a spark.

And Rachel always reminds everyone that nobody asks me how do I get a spark.

Everybody asks me how do I get my spark back.

And the word back implies that they know they have it. It’s there somewhere and no is the journey to find it again.

Pivotal moments in our journey

Rachel shares that one of the things that she does is to push people to expand their threshold of on what comfortable and uncomfortable looks like.

And so, for her, her word for the year has been confident.

One of the tenets of the book is you just have to do it, you have to go all in.

On January 1st, my husband, Dan and his daughter, typically go do the polar plunge, and they asked Rachel do you want to do it with us?

And normally she’s a hard no, absolutely not. I’m not doing that.

Well, this year, January 1st, her year word of the year is confident. She thought I have got to do this. How can I not?

Naturally she doesn’t want to do it because she is going to be freezing! But is she going to let being cold for a few minutes hold her back?

After the plunge it takes about 5 minutes to warm up but the confidence of getting over the idea that the only deterrent was that I didn’t want be cold was powerful for her.

Realizing, wow. It’s these little things that keep you from advancing.

Pushing past being uncomfortable

So, in the book, she talks about pushing that little bit of what uncomfortable is.

Once you change the threshold, what used to be uncomfortable now becomes normal, and you’re constantly expanding and creating more space for you to work within.

As entrepreneurs, you’re always pushing past that feeling of uncomfortable because you’re not following a prescribed method.

So, you’re always having to go, I’m going to have to push this a little bit.

I’m going to have to test this a little bit and being okay with the testing.

Everything you hit is not going to be a home run and being okay with, wow, I totally struck out, but I’m going I’m going to try out again.

Helping entrepreneurs get their spark back

Remember the word back? That means you still have that spark, it’s there somewhere. And the fact that you’re asking that question is so powerful.

That means that you want it.

The only way that Rachel has discovered to get back the spark is to take the time and invest in yourself.

As an entrepreneur you’re always investing in the business. You can’t just hope that it works or think about doing it. You have to put in the time and the effort.

And it’s taking that same type of energy that you have for that and using it for your own soul too.

Investing back in yourself without guilt.

You don’t want to burn yourself out either.

If we burn out, then everything else burns out.

And we have to be willing to invest and take time to invest in our own stories.

The Impact of Get Your Spark Back on women who are struggling to find happiness and purpose

You’re not alone.

Rachel notes that’s part of the issue is we feel alone. We feel like we’re the only one that are not happy. And then we don’t want to tell anyone.

Happiness is critical to our stories.

And, when you are in the process of getting your spark back you have to put in the effort and the work.

If you would like to hear my full conversation with Rachel Marie Martin about finding joy and getting your spark back then tune in with the podcast player at the top!

About Rachel Marie Martin

Rachel believes in the power of the human spirit to overcome, to thrive and to find deep joy and because of that she pours out her heart via these platforms: she is the writer behind the site FindingJoy.net and author of both Mom Enough and The Brave Art of Motherhood and a founding partner in Audience Industries – a company designed to train and equip entrepreneurs in their ventures. Her articles have been translated into over 25 languages, her site reaches millions of visitors per month and she has a robust, engaged Facebook community.

Her content has been featured in The Huffington Post, The Today Show, Star Tribune, Tiny Buddha, iVillage, Stuff New Zealand, John Tesh, PopSugar, Motherly, Parents, What to Expect, Independent Journal Review, Dr. Greene, Power of Positivity, Her View From Home, CafeMom, and many more. She speaks worldwide encouraging moms and entrepreneurs to live each day with purpose and drive. Beyond that, she’s a mom to seven, and calls Nashville, Tennessee, her home.