Spend your money, time, & energy on purpose.
Living your life on purpose starts with knowing what REALLY makes you happy. Get started by downloading my FREE audiobook + workbook below!
Start learning now! Click an option below.
Brand new masterclass
5 Reasons Your Good Habits Don’t Stick
Downloadable free workbook
How To Stop Buying Sh*t You Don’t Need
Free ebook
How To Figure Out What Makes You Happy
Oh hey there,
I’m Sarah Von Bargen.
Want to look at your calendar and your bank statement and think “Yup, I made awesome choices”? I’ll show you how to spend your time, money, and energy on purpose.
How To Make Any Unpleasant Situation Suck Less
It’s only 6 am and I already hate everything.
I’ve been awake for three hours and I’ve already tangled with my Lyft driver and spent $9 ill-advised dollars on airport donuts. I’ve battled for the armrest and been called ‘honey’ by the guy sitting next to me. I’ve questioned the wisdom of wearing skinny jeans on a six-hour flight. I’ve moved ‘air travel’ into the Unpleasant Situation column in my mental spreadsheet.
Do you have an Unpleasant Situation column in your mental spreadsheet? Or a Things I Dread box? Maybe you have an Experiences I Hate But Can’t Avoid list.
Dude, me too. But what if it didn’t have to be like that? What if we could make unpleasant situations – any unpleasant situation – suck less?
We can!
The good news: we can use the same six steps to make any shitty situation less awful. Long flights, the busy season at work, houseguests you didn’t invite and don’t enjoy – the same six steps apply to all of the above.
The bad news: even if we execute each of these steps perfectly, I’m not sure we can turn an Unpleasant Situation into a Perfectly Enjoyable Situation. Going to your partner’s family reunion in the middle of nowhere is never going to be the same as heading to Italy for two weeks. Painting the exterior of your house at the height of summer is never going to feel like a day at the spa.
But! With some forethought and a slightly better mindset we can make unpleasant situations suck less.
6 ways to make unpleasant situations suck less
Welcome to Yes & Yes!
Want to spend your time, money, and energy on purpose? I'll show you how.
The 1-Hour Money Multiplier
60 minutes + 5 weirdly easy steps = more money in your bank account by this afternoon. Yes, really!
Nice work if you can get it: Movie set Caterer
Brekke and Geoffrey Rush became great friends (This is part of our Nice work if you can get it interview series, in which I interview friends of mine who have intriguing, envy-inducing jobs. I've known Brekke since we were tiny blonde girls running through the linoleum halls of the Aitkin United Methodist Church. We even lived together for a summer, during which I coveted her wardrobe and...
Nice work if you can get it: Sled dog Vetrinarian
You know how sometimes you meet someone at a party, and after three minutes of small talk you discover a kindred spirit? You then retire to a corner and spend the next hour swapping stories and periodically yelling "I KNOW!"? This is my story with Justine. If you see us at a crowded house party, we will be the ladies in the corner, talking intensely about what to wear in Egypt. In addition to...
Notes from the Road – Death Cab for Pukey
So. The Mister and I decided to take a slightly less beaten path to Machu Picchu. And if you´re wondering exactly what that means, it means we followed the directions in the Lonely Planet under the heading "Off The Beaten Path." So it was just us and 400 other travelers attempting to get away from it all.Though we were probably the only ones who didn't have dreadlocks and were over the age of...
Nice work if you can get it: Professional Do-gooder
This is part of our series of interviews with people who have fantastic, envy-inducing jobs. They all also happen to be my friends. I met Meghan while we were both teaching English in Taiwan. After we left the R.O.C., we traveled through Thailand and Vietnam together, dodging motorbikes and taking over-night trains into the mountains. Now she lives on a swanky island, house sits for millionaires...
9 Valentine’s Day Ideas You Haven’t Heard A million times before
Looking for Valentine's Day ideas other than chocolates + roses + dinner? You're in the right place! Romance is about soooo much more than flowers and candy (though I'd never sneeze in the face of some dark chocolate and a bouquet of spider mums). Romance is about knowing your partner, understanding what makes them happy, and then planning accordingly. If you haven't taken the love languages...
Notes from the Road: Sandboarding and Whitewater Rafting
"Say, what´s that a picture of?" is what you´re probably asking yourself right now, eh? Or maybe "Is Sarah still trying to impress us with all that talk of sand boarding?" Or probably "What happened to that guest poster La Bellette Rouge? When´s she coming back?" Well, I´m going to go ahead and ignore those last two questions and pretend like you´re thinking about the first, mmmmkay? That photo...