Sugar Balances Her “Emotional Budget” With These Pear Apple Pupcakes

Every pup has an emotional budget.

In my mind, an emotional budget is the time and energy I have to spend on something as well as how it affects my pup well-being.  It’s also the decision that “I’m no longer available for things that make me feel like shit.”  Those things are, honestly, too expensive for this pup to handle.

Side note.  Humans should put this into practice as well.  Why do you think we pups are able to love without judgement, bring joy to those around us and let go of any grudge so easily?  Easy.  We find a way to keep our emotional budgets intact.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s definitely a learned skill.  It’s not something that comes as easily as it sounds.  It wasn’t until I became a pup business owner that I figured out the importance of my emotional budget.

When I came up with the idea of Pupcake Sugar, I was chair-pup of several committees for some well-known pup organizations.  I absolutely loved chairing these committees.  It always feels like a pup blessing to be a part of an organization that’s bigger than yourself.  All of us pups working together for the goal of creating the better good is a rewarding experience.

Through my committee work, I had the opportunity to get to know so many amazing pups.  All of them, extremely gifted, talented and a true inspiration for “what’s possible” if you work hard and believe in yourself.  I also made a lot of lifelong pup friends.

In fact, when I began working on Pupcake Sugar, I decided to keep my committee chair-pup positions.  So, in addition to working my job at BarkScent, I was also dedicating my time to being chair-pup to several organizational committees. 

When Pupcake Sugar was simply an idea I was mapping out, balancing work, being chair-pup and Pupcake Sugar wasn’t as hard as it sounds. I’d sketch out my ideas for Pupcake Sugar at lunch, when I had a little downtime at work and a few hours on those evenings I didn’t have a committee meeting.

However, as the dream for Pupcake Sugar got bigger and planning my pup business venture became much more involved, stretching myself across so many different commitments began to take its toll on my emotional well-being. 

My attention span got significantly shorter, and it became very hard for me to concentrate.  I was sleeping harder, not longer. I felt like I was walking around in a daze all of the time.  And, the times I looked forward to going out with my pup friends had changed to me rather spending my time lounging in bed.

I finally decided this was too much.  My emotional budget was way out of whack and it was time for me to fix it.  So, in the words of Mike Falzone…

And, all of these activities I was involved in were spreading me too thin.  So, I forced myself to sit down and make a list of every committee, pup business, organization or project I was a part of.  I asked myself, “What do I love doing?” “What is taking up too much of my time?”  What is causing me unnecessary stress?”  And most importantly, “what can I cut back on?”

After reviewing my list, I realized that I loved being a member of all of my organizations.  However, being a chair-pup for all of these different committees was wearing me down.  And, now that Pupcake Sugar was taking up more of my time, the best solution was to give up my chair-pup positions so I would have a lot more freedom to commit to my business.

We’ve all heard the phrase, “you can’t pour from an empty cup.”  However, when you’re an active “can’t sit still” pup like me, it’s very easy to overload your schedule with a ton of different activities.

However, at some point we all have to take a little pup stock in ourselves and determine whether our overloaded schedules are really working for our emotional and mental health.  And if it’s not working for us, cut the fat and make the necessary changes.

And, since balancing our emotional budget isn’t a one-time thing, I decided to “balance my emotional budget” every 6 months.  It keeps me aware of my mental health and allows me to maintain my emotional well-being.

These Pear Apple Pupcakes With Peanut Butter Frosting are dedicated to building a routine schedule to assess and balance our emotional budgets.

And of course, we believe that every pupcake has a love story.  So, while your favorite pup is PUPPY LOVIN’ on these pupcakes, we’d love to hear from you.

Do you have an emotional budget?  If so, have you found it useful?  How often do you assess and balance it?  If you don’t have one, would you consider creating one for yourself?  Why or why not?

Please share your pupcake story in the box below.