Season 1 Episode 18. The Yes...And Podcast. A Summer of Simplicity: Creating Space for What Matters Most

In this episode, Claire shares what it means to embrace a Summer of Simplicity—not just by clearing the calendar, but by resetting the way we move through our days. If you've been feeling overextended, disconnected, or stuck in survival mode, this is your invitation to pause, breathe, and realign with what truly matters.

Claire also introduces the Summer Reset Bundle—a curated collection of her most powerful digital programs designed to help high-achieving women reset their mindset, rhythms, and goals with clarity and ease.

This episode is for anyone who’s craving more peace and progress—and is ready to feel more present, on purpose, and grounded in their daily life.

Grab the Summer Reset Bundle here for the special low price! https://clairedarr.mykajabi.com/2025-summer-reset-bundle

Welcome to The Yes… And Podcast, where we explore what happens when you say yes to life, embrace your purpose, and step into your fullest potential.

Hosted by Claire Darr—former corporate lawyer turned executive coach, wife, mom, and passionate believer in intentional living—this podcast is your guide to creating a life you can’t wait to wake up for.

Each week, we’ll dive into inspiring stories and practical lessons, blending soulful conversations with actionable strategies to help you overcome self-imposed limits, find balance, and build a legacy of joy and fulfillment. From courageous entrepreneurs to everyday heroes, our guests share how they’ve said yes… and to faith, family, career, and the adventures of life.

Whether you’re a busy professional, a working mom, or someone feeling stuck or overwhelmed,The Yes… And Podcast is here to empower you with the tools, mindset, and inspiration to dream big and live boldly.

Life is too short to play small. It’s time to say yes to more—and discover the yes..and life you’ve been longing for.

Subscribe now and join the movement toward a life of peace, purpose, and boundless possibilities.

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Interested in working with me, all the links here: https://linktr.ee/clairedarr

Transcript

Welcome back to the Yes And podcast. It's Claire here. And today I want to talk to you about something I've struggled with over the years, but I am embracing it this summer. It's simplicity. And I'm it so much. I have named summer 2025, which is what we're in right now, the summer of simplicity.

and ⁓ I'm going all in. It just feels right. It feels aligned. It feels like it's where I should be. ⁓ And...

It's something that I think probably a lot of us need. A lot of us might want, we don't know where to begin. So I'm hoping today will help you with that. ⁓ It's something we may have avoided or thought was out of our reach, know, enjoying a summer, dealing with all the things, work, kids, family, travel, what have you, ⁓ and keeping it simple. But doesn't that feel good if you just think of it simplicity?

Imagine having fun, lots of experiences, making so many memories, achieving amazing things at work, having just laughing, spending time together. And you do it simply, this simplicity throughout all of it. That just feels amazing to me. So I want you to think of this summer, and this is how I'm thinking of my summer, everything

I'm gonna suggest to you, I'm gonna be doing myself or I am doing myself. It's all tested out on me first as the guinea pig. ⁓ But I want you to think of this summer as the reset. You didn't know you needed. ⁓ Often I think with summer, think, you know, we're just, it should naturally be relaxing. It should naturally feel easier.

And I don't know about you, but I've spent many summers going into it thinking it would be that way. And then by the end of it, I'm worn out. And, and then I plan the next summer saying, right, I'm not going to do that again. Not going to do that. Not going to do this. I'm to do this better. And so if I'm really honest, ⁓ I've probably not had a summer since, ⁓ goodness. I was like in my twenties where summer felt easy and fun.

⁓ you know, since I've worked since law school, the summer of the bar exam, ⁓ working, then working life with a family and then working life with kids in school. It's never felt simple and easy and just fun. And honestly, I just accepted that as being what it's like to be a working mom. I had accepted it or ⁓ when I was ⁓

before I had kids when I was working at the law firm, you this is just what it's like to be a, you know, a professional who is achieving things, who gets summer off, you know, and I'm not talking about taking summer off. I'm talking about really experiencing every moment of this summer, ⁓ fully and intentionally while taking time to reset you and your life so that when August, September rolls round,

you are really recharged. made the most of the time and maybe the slower pace, maybe more people out of the office, you know, later mornings, ⁓ a little bit more time in here, there. You really made the most of it. You didn't just expect it to happen at you or to you. You actually had a part to play in it.

And so I mean, I just talked about I've been talking to my clients lately about rewriting my narrative on summer. ⁓ Because I've spent way too many summers in the past trying to juggle it all with work and kids and life and goals and a perfect vacation. And somewhere in between all of that doing I missed actually just being and

I found myself earlier this year, maybe in March, April time, it's the time that here in America, you sign kids up for summer camps, or you're even late at that point. Plotting, you you plot out every week, it's like a strategic military operation. When you're a working person with kids. And ⁓ I found myself uttering the words, I hate summer, I hate it. And I said it out loud to some people and then I

caught myself and I thought, what a horrible thing to say. Like who hates summer? And I actually set about rewriting that narrative, ⁓ rewriting that story, because it was a story, it was just a story I was telling myself based on past experiences, where I felt like I'd failed at a summer or I'd spent so much money putting my kids in camps they hated and I was still run ragged trying to drive all over town.

in the heat of the summer, keeping everyone happy, trying to make it to work meetings and ⁓ trying to enjoy the vacations, all that trying, trying, trying, trying.

And it didn't feel easy and it didn't feel simple. And so I had labeled summer as being hard, hard for a working parent, hard for, ⁓ hard for me. And I don't like that. I don't like putting labels on things. I don't like putting myself in a box, telling myself a story that I don't like the story. So I rewrote that story and I wrote it out to what I wanted it to be. How do I really want to feel every day over the course of the summer?

How do I want to feel? What do I want to achieve? What do I want to have happen? How do I want to feel by the end of it? How do I want to feel in the middle? What are some big things I want to achieve? I've not just like hung up my goals, put them on a shelf until August, September. I'm setting goals each month. And there's some pretty lofty ones. I'm still progressing and moving forward. But how do I do all of that? And

also enjoy the time, be present for my family, not feel stressed all the time and certainly not utter the words I hate summer ever again. How do I do that? So I rewrote that narrative and what came out of that was really this concept.

I made a different choice. I made a quieter one, a more intentional one. I may say that word 100 times here in this podcast, intentional. I want to be more intentional. I am going to be more intentional. I'm being more intentional. And I want to invite you into it too.

And I want you to know simplicity isn't laziness or giving up. It's actually clarity. Simplicity is clarity. And it's a willingness to strip away what's not serving you. What you don't like, what bogs you down, what you do out of obligation or what you realize, I actually hate doing this. Why am I doing it?

Why am I doing this to myself or my family or people around me? And to find a rhythm or a flow, a mindset that lets you feel more like yourself again.

I actually, as I was rewriting the narrative, I gave myself a prompt and it was, think back to the last time you felt really free and breezy and easy and just happy in the summer. Think back to it. And I encourage you all to do that. You know, write it down now, make a note, go away. Just think back to a time.

And I don't want you to do it and I didn't do this. This isn't the purpose of this exercise. I don't want you to try to recreate that summer or recreate who you were or what you were doing or who you're with. That's not the point of this. I want you to connect to the feelings you had then. ⁓ I want you to really remember what you were doing, what music was playing, where did you go, who you were around.

⁓ what are things that come to you? What were you eating? What did you do? And again, not to recreate it, but to connect with the feeling. So I'll tell you a really funny story. ⁓ and by the way, please no judgment in this. Don't look for a time that you think you should have had or something meaningful with your loved ones. When I gave myself the space and clarity just to think back to a time when I just felt

fully free and alive and happy, I figured out I was, I think, like 17 years old. And hey, I don't want to go back to 17, trust me, trust me. There was no part of 17 I really, really want to go back to other than the feeling I had that summer when I was 17. And I have really distinct memories of

⁓ I had a boyfriend at the time and he could drive and I was just learning to drive. ⁓ actually that was the summer I started learning to drive. So I guess freedom came with that. ⁓ but he had a car and like, had a distinct memory of him pulling up outside my parents' house to pick me up. Middle of the day. And it was beautiful weather and,

I hopped in his car and there was a song playing on the radio and it was a song I hated at the time. It was really annoying. ⁓ Was one of those songs like you're like, why is this so popular? And now it's stuck in my head, one of those. But I remember the song and I just remember the feeling. I don't remember what I was wearing. I don't remember where we went. He is inconsequential with this whole thing. Cause you know, I think we broke up like.

weeks later or something like that. But it was that feeling I had. I remember just hopping in the van feeling free. We were about to go somewhere and this music was playing and life felt easy and fun.

And that's the feeling I captured. I even actually found the song, which is not quite as hideous anymore. I actually quite like it because it ties me, it angers me back to that feeling. Songs can be very powerful, smells can be very powerful, you know, the smell of ⁓ sunscreen, you know, the smell of beach, the smell of food, I don't know, certain things can really kind of pull you back. ⁓ And I know you're all curious what the song

was. So was in England at the time. I could tie it back to a date. What was this? 1991-ish, yes. ⁓ And the song was, I am the one and only by a guy called, I think it's Chesney Hawks. I want to say Kenny Chesney, not Kenny Chesney, Chesney Hawks. my goodness. Incredibly cheesy.

and yet even now when I hear that song I feel like fun and light and easy. ⁓ So who knows what your song could be or what your thing anchoring you back could be.

The point of all of this, what is the point Claire? The point is I anchored back to that feeling. I remembered what that felt like. And then I put this version of me, this version with what I know about myself, with my life, with my resources, with everything I have going on in my life right now, I put myself in that version of me and I thought, what can this Claire do to...

feel that way? Not recreate that summer, but feel that way. What are things that can help me feel that way every day? What are those things? And that's been what I've been doing so far this summer. Finding those moments, calendaring things in, seeking out that feeling, remembering in the morning what will help me feel this way, deciding to feel that way.

even when things are going pear-shaped around me. This weekend a bunch of stuff went pear-shaped and I kept bringing myself back to that feeling. And my experience so far has been so much lighter and brighter and we've got so many things to look forward to this summer and I would have had them all look forward to anyway but had I not decided to do this work just this simple way of

resetting myself, of remembering what it is to feel that way, of centering myself every day. If I weren't doing these things, would my experience of these experiences be as rich? Probably not. I may be a bit on autopilot. I may be a bit going through the motions. I may be a bit looking back and going, why didn't I make more of that? Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I do that? that wasn't this. That wasn't that.

I'm not gonna do that this summer.

And so this is my invitation to you to think of summer 2025 as the summer of simplicity. It's a time for you to get clarity. It's a time for you to reset yourself, get in a flow, feel more like you again. And to do that, I have actually created something that I'm really

really excited about actually I kind of I've got a tingle about it it's I'm really excited ⁓ and I'm calling it the summer reset bundle because I really do think the next couple of months are a great time for you to reset yourself come back to you remember who you are start practices that serve you that set you up for success that have you feeling amazing and strong and energized and in control

and that you're progressing in your life on every front. And start that now over the summer so that when we get back to normal, I'm air quoting, in the fall, you are already set up for success. So the summer reset bundle, ⁓ I created it because a lot of the people I work with, including me, I work with myself every day, ⁓

We're not broken. You're not broken. My clients aren't broken. We're all just tired of living in survival mode. Get through it mode. Get to the other side of it mode. Get through some of it. Get through this trip. Get through that the next two weeks. Get through it. Get through it.

I hazard a guess that you are like a lot of my clients, a lot of my friends, you're a high achiever and you want more peace and progress. Right? You want to feel that calm, that peace, that serenity, that happiness, and you want to do well at work and you want to see progress in your business or your career.

And I want you to be able to feel that way with and achieve all of that without constantly feeling like you're drowning in your own to do list. so ⁓ inside the summer reset bundle, I've packaged together three of my really amazing digital courses all in one place. So it's easy for you to access and I've

set them at a really, really great price. So you can grab them and not think twice about it and start using them. So what you get inside the Summer Reset Bundle is methodical renewal. This is the practice I started three years ago now. It's what has kept my energy high in every facet of my life, even during the hardest of times. It's what I teach.

to my private clients almost immediately when we start working together. It helps you recalibrate your energy, rebuild your schedule in a way that feels good to you. You actually will find time. I say this a lot to people, I'll help you expand time. You will. There are some really great bonus content in Methodical Renewal to help you manage your time.

and expand your time. It feels good and you find yourself filling up your tanks across the board consistently with ease without adding more to your plate. That is a must for me. The other ⁓ course you get is Your Magical Day and it is, it's, ⁓ I love it. It's a beautiful, calming process really to help you design your ideal.

day, your magical day. And it's not the Pinterest version, or, you know, the one that is out of reach. It's a one that actually works for you and your real life. It's something I started doing five years ago now during COVID. And when I go back and look at the magical day I created back in 2020, it is

mind blowing to see the things that have come true, the things that are now just part of my everyday life that back then in 2020 honestly seemed impossible and like a fantasy. This is your permission to, to dream about the life you want and create your day, your magical day. I've gone on to repeat this process a few times and every time I look back at what I designed,

I'm able to say, honestly with surprise every time, I don't know why I'm still surprised, ⁓ my goodness, that's actually happening. ⁓ whoa, I have that in my life now. Things that I thought were impossible back then, but I did to dream them. ⁓ This will set you on your way to do that. It is so fun, it is not hard, it will not cause extra pressure or stress to you. It is a fun way for you to dream.

and start thinking about your day and the life you want and picturing it. And then I've also included the 21 day success roadmap. It is 21 days of 10 to 15 minute audios that you can access straight from your phone. And it's intended for you to build momentum through tiny, meaningful habits that stack up over time. You will experience mind-shed.

mindset shifts and physical shifts, emotional shifts, you'll discover practices that make your life easier. ⁓ we do it over the course of 21 days, you have full access to it to listen in any order you want, you can go in order, you can pause, you can go back. I've had people go through this multiple times now and every time layer on another level ⁓ of success, another thing that they've achieved, another

level that they've gone to. And so that's amazing to keep doing. And you get access to all of these for life once you have them. So you can go back and do any of them as many times as you want. I want you to know that my goal with the summer reset bundle, because I sat down and thought, would have helped me five years ago to have all in one place? And what am I using?

on a daily basis to ensure that I am as strong as I can be, energized as I can be, I'm making progress in every area of my life. And it's these three things. These are the three things I'm doing all the time, naturally now in my life. And so let me teach it to you so you can start doing it. And I want you to know it's not about overhauling your life or adding more to that plate. No.

No, it's actually about giving you space and tools, some gentle accountability to reset. And you can do it in 10 minutes a day. You really can. And when you do, I know that time will expand for you, energy will increase. And I just picture you at the end of this summer.

a stronger, more vibrant, engaged, intentional, successful version of you now. So if you are telling yourself, need to just get through this summer, I just need to get through it, or maybe after ⁓ that trip or that project or that launch or that whatever, or after the birthday parties or whatever, or worse yet.

If you're just saying, I'll start taking care of myself once things calm down.

I'm just going to gently prod you. You know, those things never happen. There will never be a time when things fully calm down. If you stop, if you start putting off taking care of yourself, ⁓ this is your sign. You actually don't need to wait for the chaos or the fun or the trips or the projects or the whatever to end, to start living differently. You can begin it now.

with small, sustainable shifts that actually work and stick with you. So let this be your summer of simplicity too. I really, really dream that this is a season where you stop the swirling, stop the spiraling, and you start aligning with what feels good to you. I will put...

links to the bundle in the show notes and they're everywhere in my social media. You can grab all three courses or you can pair it down to a shorter version. It's up to you. ⁓ Remember you don't need to do more, you just need a better rhythm.

So how about we reset together this summer and make summer of 2025 our summer of simplicity. Thank you for listening to this by the way. And if any of this resonated with you or you think, oh my goodness, I have someone who needs to hear this, please share it. This is something that we could keep sharing with each other to help each other live with more ease, with more joy.

And so if you're ready for a reset, the link is in the show notes or reach out to me directly. I'd love to support you this summer, however I can. And I look forward to talking to you again soon.