This is the Mother's Day post nobody is writing for the woman who is also a builder.

So I'm writing it.

Every May, the internet hands moms the same script. Selfless. Tired. Grateful. Wonderful. All true. All beautiful. All, and stay with me here - incomplete.

Because there is a quiet, stubborn truth a lot of us are walking around with this week, and almost nobody is naming it out loud:

You are a mom. And you also want something for yourself. And both of those can be true at the same time.

You're allowed to love your people fiercely and want to build something that has your name on it. You're allowed to wipe the noses, pack the lunches, sit through the recital, hold the fevered baby at 2 a.m. and still have a goal you're working on at 9 p.m. You're allowed to want more than someday.

And this Mother's Day, I'm not going to tell you to "treat yourself." I'm going to tell you something that's actually going to change something.

The lie we keep telling ourselves every May

Every Mother's Day, we hear some version of:

"I'll start when the kids are older." "I'll start when summer is over." "I'll start when I'm not so tired." "Someday."

I want you to notice something. You said the same thing last Mother's Day. And the Mother's Day before. And the one before that.

Someday is not a season. Someday is a story we tell ourselves so we don't have to start.

And the heartbreaking part isn't that you don't want it. The heartbreaking part is that you do ✨desperately✨ and you've been told that wanting it makes you a worse mom.

It doesn't. Wanting more makes you a whole one.

What you actually need (and it isn't more time)

You don't need more time. I'll say it again because every productivity guru on the internet is going to try to sell you the opposite this month: you don't need more time. You need a clear goal for the time you do have.

Most moms I know have at least one 25-minute pocket somewhere in their day. After bedtime. Before the kids wake up. In the parking lot at soccer practice. While dinner simmers. The pocket is there. What's missing is the goal.

Without a clear goal, that 25 minutes evaporates into Instagram, the dishwasher, the laundry pile, the snack everyone is suddenly hungry for. With a clear goal, that same 25 minutes becomes the most powerful unit of time in your week.

This is the whole secret. It's also why I built Cultivating Awesome.

The 25-minute system, in real life

Here's what it actually looks like, not in fantasy life, in real life:

You write your goal down on a card. Not a Pinterest goal. Your goal. A big goal.

One sentence, present tense. "Cultivating Awesome has 1000 members."

You set a 25-minute timer. (We call it a tomato.)

You do the work that you can do today to move you toward that goal.

That's it. That's the whole system.

It works because it doesn't require summer to be over, the toddler to nap reliably, the laundry to be done, or a perfect office. It requires twenty-five minutes and a goal. You have twenty-five minutes. The goal is what's been missing.

The Mother's Day permission slip

So here is your permission slip. Print it if you want. Stick it on the fridge. Tape it to the dashboard.

I am allowed to be a wonderful mother and a woman with goals. I do not have to wait for a season that may never come. I can start with the time I have, the goal I write down, and the next 25 minutes. Today. Not someday.

The most loving thing you can do for your kids this Mother's Day isn't another sacrifice. It's showing them what it looks like to be a person who wants something... and goes after it twenty-five minutes at a time.

They are watching. Let them watch you build.

Your move (today, not someday)

Three things you can do in the next ten minutes:

1. Grab my free goal card. It's the exact card I use to write down my one daily goal, the thing that keeps my goal top of mind and makes 25 minutes actually work.

2. Come work alongside me. I host daily live coworking sessions for moms who want company while they do the work.

3. Join Cultivating Awesome. It's $9/month right now (going to $17 at 200 members) and it's the most quietly transformative community I've ever built- moms writing goals, doing 25-minute sessions, and not waiting for someday anymore.

Happy Mother's Day. From one mom who wants more to another.

You don't need more time. You need a clear goal for the time you have.

An hour a day over someday.