Statement Mondays’ ~New Groove~: Coffee Shop Project & Sabbatical 🕺
Hi friends, happy Monday! (No this is not a drill, yes I am really back).
I’m currently on month ten (10!) of my ~spontaneous sabbatical~ after moving to Berlin a year ago, and bringing STMT back to life just feels right ⚡️. I’ll share more about these updates and more, I promise!
What is Statement Mondays? It’s a weekly jolt of inspiration to Be Bold, based on the stories and learnings I have from putting this motto into practice myself. I write about my approach to my sabbatical as well as my Coffee Shop Project that’s come out of it. You’ve known STMT as a podcast, but it’s in full metamorphosis!
🍭 What’s going on?
So let’s start again. My name is Natalie and I’m currently on month ten of my sabbatical. After pouring my whole self into my tech career for the past five years, I’m on a mission to rediscover my creativity and the sparkle in my eye both of which I unintentionally allowed to dull.
My Coffee Shop Project is the product of months of tiny steps towards this goal and a reflection of me just following my energy – its physical form is a collection of drawings of the cafes I’ve been to, but to me the process means a lot more than that output. I’ll share more in future notes and sprinkle drawings throughout! In the meantime, you can tag along by following the Instagram account @coffee_shop_project. ☕️
🍬 What’s the plan here?
If you know me, then you know I love to challenge people, energize them, and push them to be their best and brightest selves. So I’m kicking off this STMT collection of notes both for me to document this crazy time and to put a little inspiration out in the world!
Lots of people have approached me with questions about my “time off” or seeking tips as they think about doing something similar. I’ve also frequently noticed friends’ and strangers’ eyes begin to sparkle whenever I’m sharing about what I’ve been up to. If my own eyes are sparkling and I can inspire other sparkling eyes, then I know I’m doing something very right. ✨✨ So here we go, it’s on. So much eye sparkle.
What you can expect in upcoming notes:
My small “manifesting” steps that made the move to Berlin obvious and easy
Tactics that gave me direction during unplanned & unconstrained time
My strategy for “friend dating”
Living in the present (including reaching a very real and literal “high on life” euphoria)
Separating a sabbatical or other type of time off into stages
Why restart this STMT newsletter now?
I have had many months with no real accountability outside of my own internal drive. Writing these notes gives me something to be consistently responsible for.
I’ve been careful to avoid my pre-sabbatical mindset of “always needing to be productive,” so the tangible things I’ve created have been limited to art for myself. I’m ready to create more kinds of content and create for wider audiences. Leveling up!
I’ve done a lot of living in the present and internalizing what that means to me. I feel so full of learnings and personal growth, but no longer want to keep it all inside. Actually externalizing them in this way, written and public, forces me to organize these thoughts clearly and concisely. I’ve been baking this cake and it’s ready to come out of the oven to be sliced and shared 🍰.
I miss you guys! I’ve occasionally wondered if this is real life or a dream, and any contact with you all grounds me. So I’d love responses to any of the upcoming notes that resonate :)
I don’t exactly have clarity on how I want to spend my time and energy next, so let’s see where Statement Mondays leads me.
🙌 Shoutouts:
Thank you to Helen S for brainstorming all sorts of ideas on the train with me, during which I realized that my existing Statement Mondays initiative is the perfect home for my sabbatical and Coffee Shop Project musings
Congratulations to Annie Z and Jay H whose wedding I just attended – Annie, the process of writing my speech for you shot me back to the origin of Statement Mondays and flooded me once again with the inspiration to create and share. So here we are
See you in my next note! And if you need a reason to be bold today, here it is – today is Statement Monday.
Swinging on a chair in my friend Helen’s garden in rural Germany,
Natalie
(PS: Website & IG & brand revamp to come)