This article has been authored by Stand Out Online Member Nicole Wald, Write Kinda Girl

It is currently 11:55 p.m. – a full 85 minutes past the time I’m committed to being in bed each night. And yet I’m compelled to be awake just a smidge longer.

Why? It could be some swirling thoughts left over in my head from a busy day, or the fact that sometimes the utter stillness of night is the only time I get to really collect my thoughts.

But I’m thinking this late night session actually has deeper roots. In fact, I might trace it back to 1999.

I was dating a guy in college who loaned me a CD set from a weekend sales seminar he’d just attended. And I never returned them (sorry Chris!). For literally years, those CDs were on a constant rotation in the one-disc slot of my green Jeep Wrangler, filling my head with big perspectives and deep learnings. Whether I was on a 5 minute commute to my job at Costco, trekking from my college town of Santa Barbara to my home town of San Bernardino, or roadtripping out to Burning Man, my fancy speakers were bumping the deep baritone of Jim Rhone’s voice.

That’s why today, over 20 years later, his truisms are etched in my being. And why, tonight, this phrase is keeping me awake:

“Discipline weighs ounces. Regrets weigh tons.”

So, as you may have surmised, there is a discipline I’ve been avoiding, and it’s weighing heavily on me at this moment. It’s writing these blogs. I have been putting this off. For. Years.

Anyone else relate?

Maybe for you it’s not blogs. But if you’re like all the entrepreneurs I know, you have that something that you just don’t get to, a really important something that you’re just not prioritizing because, well, L-I-F-E.

And, because you are an enlightened entrepreneur who knows all about the importance of self love (shout out to Dr. Katherine James for helping make that a thing in my life) – you give yourself grace and move on with all that your day throws your way.

But grace does not make the weight go away. What does? Discipline.

So really, this little blog is a love note. An invitation to love on yourself by lightening the load ahead.

What’s ONE thing that is weighing you down like a sack of rocks?

Figure out a time this week to sit down and do the dang thing that you KNOW in your heart is a stepping stone to your highest purpose, to serving the world in a bigger way, to living up to the dreams that you’ve emblazoned on that vision board from January (full disclosure — mine is only half done for this year — another weight patiently waiting its turn).

Is this a not-so-veiled attempt to encourage you to get to writing whatever copy you’ve been putting off? It could be – I am the Copy Confidence Coach after all.

But I also genuinely believe that any weight you take off yourself – whether it’s balancing your bank statement or putting away the stack of clutter that’s been there so long it almost feels like a permanent fixture on your desk – will help in all areas of your life.

So pick something this week, and get started. Or go buck wild and FINISH something, like I’m about to do by completing my first ever blog for the Women Helping Women community.

I’d love to see an email or Facebook post from you when you do. It will make the fact that it is now 1:06 a.m. – and that I have about 6 hours of sleep possible before my 2-year-old clambers over and starts insisting on things like breakfast – feel worth it.

Do it for me. Do it for yourself. Do it for the people you serve. Do it for the rush of endorphins that’s coming soon to a future near you.

And let me hear all about it when you do.

Or take an even bigger step, and join in my Copy Confidence Accountability Club, where a community of fabulous business women and fem-preneurs like you show up every week to support and cheer each other on. We celebrate our wins, get training on whatever copy is needed (and there’s almost always copy if it has to do with growing your business), and get hands-on editing support. But above all else, we re-commit every week to choosing discipline over regret, lightening the load we carry that much more.

Nicole Michelle Wald is a mom-preneur, seasoned content strategy consultant, and educator-turned-coach. She provides hands-on guidance and training on what to write (and where) so that heart-centered entrepreneurs, businesses, and nonprofits can attract perfect customers, increase sales for courses, products and high-ticket programs, and build a life they love. Through her WriteKindaGirl.com consulting agency, she’s helped hundreds of clients – from startups to nonprofits to international thought leaders – multiply sign ups, sales, and impact. She also hosts the empowering Entrepreneurs Write Copy Facebook community, and is in the launch phase of her most recent offering, the Copy Confidence Accountability Club, which is dedicated to empowering six-and seven-figure female entrepreneurs with accountability, training, and community so they can move past imposter fears, stand out from the competition, and create the high-converting copy that will take their business to the next level.