Day 4 Standing in the Rubble —

Alright—Part 4.
This is where we talk about the first brick.
Not the whole rebuild.
Not the blueprint.
Just that one small, heavy, necessary thing you place down when you decide you’re done living in collapse.

But let me be real with you first.

Running a business while standing in the rubble?
It hits different.
It’s like trying to rebuild your life and keep everyone else’s structure from falling at the same time.
You’re the firefighter, the architect, the janitor, and the emotional support animal for every client who “just needs a minute.”
It’s hard to admit, but I’ll say it:
I’ve been running on fumes—
the kind of fumes that taste like burnt coffee and skipped meals.

Some days I’m surviving on crackers and caffeine, telling myself it’s “temporary,”
telling myself I’ll eat later,
rest later,
breathe later.

Because the grind doesn’t stop, right?
Because people need things.
Deadlines need things.
Expectations need things.
And somewhere along the way I convinced myself that if I just pushed a little harder, just stretched a little thinner, everything would magically sort itself out.

Spoiler: it didn’t.

People-pleasing is a quiet kind of self-destruction.
It’s giving away your last match to keep someone else warm while you freeze.
It’s telling yourself you’re strong enough to carry the whole load—even when your knees are shaking.
And the worst part is how normal it starts to feel.
How invisible the sacrifice becomes.

That’s why this “first brick” matters so much.

Because the first brick isn’t courage or strategy or some motivational quote.
It’s permission.
Permission to not be everything to everyone.
Permission to eat an actual meal.
Permission to rest without guilt.
Permission to say “not today” even when people expect a yes.
Permission to finally matter to yourself.

The first brick is the moment you say:
“I can’t save my business by sacrificing the person running it.”
“I can’t rebuild a life while starving my own needs.”
“I can’t keep giving what I don’t have.”

It’s small, but it’s solid.
It’s yours.
And once you lay it down, everything else—every boundary, every habit, every change—builds on top of it.

So yeah, Part 4 is about the first brick.
But it’s also about admitting that you’ve been building with empty hands for too long.
It’s about acknowledging the exhaustion you’ve been treating like a personality trait.
It’s about finally choosing foundations over fumes.

Part 5?
We’ll talk about the second brick—
the one where you start protecting your energy like it’s a limited resource…
because it is.

But for now, lay this first one down with me.

Not perfect.
Not pretty.
Just honest.

The rebuild starts here.