Wow, if you’re ever hopeless and ever wished to know someone who has hit rock bottom and has bounced back, you need to meet Ruth Soukup. Better yet, if you want to know someone who not only bounced back, but soared and is now happy, living well and fulfilled, then you have to meet Ruth!
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Ruth Soukup truly a person who, in the words of Winston Churchill, kept going. He said,
“If you’re going through hell, keep going.”
She is an amazing person, entrepreneur, author, blogger and speaker, not to mention an amazing mother and wife. She is one who followed the wonderful advice offered by Teddy Roosevelt once, “do what you can with what you have where you are.” Let me tell you a little bit about who Ruth Soukup is and how she has influenced me in my career and pursuit of happiness.
What Makes Ruth Soukup So Unique?
Ruth has a powerful story, both about her personal life and her career success. She had a rough childhood, facing sexual abuse starting at age six. She suppressed her emotions until one day, as a young adult, all those feelings came welling up and she wasn’t able to handle them. She became clinically depressed, hopeless and full of despair. Ruth tried to end it all. Thankfully, her life was saved and began her journey to recovery.
When we say we’ve hit rock bottom, we need to compare it to Ruth’s experience and see how far she has come in her healing, in her transformation and in her personal happiness. It wasn’t an overnight victory, but she overcame! She had the courage and strength to keep fighting to be better, to be a winner at life. But not just that, to be fully and utterly happy. Is that what we all really want?
Ruth is a blogger who started the blog Living Well, Spending Less to help herself and others overcome the need to give material things emotional value. Material things don’t own us; we own them. We don’t need to break the bank or live above our means to be happy. She writes about blogging for a living, living well with a budget, home organization (including writing a book about decluttering), life circumstances and, my favorite, is encouragement and happiness.
Ruth has been and still is a great inspiration to me, for what she’s overcome and how she is a true and living witness that no matter what, we can, one day, find the happiness we want and desire so desperately. I was in her very first Elite Blog Academy course when she first offered it about 3 years ago. She is such a motivation for me that I still use her planner. It is my personal favorite! I love all the bright colors she uses and why not use a planner that literally makes me happier just by looking at it.
Go Alone On a Personal Retreat
She has a list of several things that she uses to rest and recharge, but I will mention my top two favorites from that list.
First, to recharge her batteries, she has gone on a 4-day personal retreat. Alone. By herself. She recounts how she disconnected from her phone and the outside world. She took time to read, to do yoga and to calm her thoughts and slow the speed of life. Ruth assures us that it is something special and that we need to find time for ourselves. I couldn’t agree more!
Simply put, she says, “Recharging your batteries doesn’t need to be an expensive process, and it shouldn’t require you to do something time consuming and out of the ordinary. Pick a simple activity that makes you feel good, and put away your cell phone and technology so you can really enjoy and savor the moment!”
Keep a Stop Doing List
Her second way of finding happiness and peace is by creating a “Stop Doing” list. What is that?! It is coming up with a list of things that are toxic in our lives that we need to stop doing. We should all keep a Stop Doing list! I can already think of several things I need to add to that list.
It takes a person to go through hard times in life to fight, overcome and be a champion, for herself and for others. Let’s become champions, like Ruth, and be someone’s champion!
Great post! So annoying of me to mention this, but it’s Elite Blog Academy, not Blogging Academy. I only mention it because she made a big point in her videos for affiliates this year to make sure we got it right. Amazing blog!