Tiny Hands, Big Future: Why Moms Need Something to Look Forward To

When motherhood and business start to feel like an endless loop of responsibilities, it’s easy to slip into survival mode. In this episode of Raising Hustle, we talk about how having something to look forward to—no matter how small—can shift your mindset, restore hope, and keep you moving forward.

This is a heart-led conversation about:

• Why anticipation is powerful for your mental health
• How small joys can make hard seasons lighter
• Using business goals and milestones as emotional anchors
• Creating rituals and moments that bring you back to yourself

If you’ve been feeling stuck, tired, or disconnected, this episode is your reminder:
 you are not behind—you are becoming.

Tiny hands may fill your days, but a big future is still waiting for you. 💛

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This episode is sponsored by FM Bookkeeping 💛

FM Bookkeeping exists to empower business owners and give them peace of mind around their finances. We believe you deserve clarity, confidence, and support—without shame, judgment, or overwhelm.

Whether you’re behind, confused, or just tired of carrying the mental load of your numbers, FM Bookkeeping is here to help you feel grounded and in control again.

If you’re ready to stop stressing about your books and start feeling supported, visit:

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Raising Hustle, the unfiltered podcast for the moms who are building empires with babies on their hips and grits in their hearts. I'm your host, Mariel Fry, bookkeeper by trade, hustler by nature, and mama by choice. Around here we're raising kids, raising hell, and raising the bar. If you're tired of choosing between nap time and next level dreams, this is your space. Let's redefine what it means to have it all on our own damn terms. Welcome back to Raising Hustle, the podcast about building a business while raising a family with honesty, heart, and zero judgment. I'm Arielle, and today we're talking about something that has carried me through some of the hardest and most beautiful seasons of motherhood and entrepreneurship. The power of having something to look forward to. As moms, it's so easy to get stuck in survival mode. Diapers, dishes, deadlines. Repeat. But when you have something ahead of you that excites you, whether it's as simple as a coffee date or as big as launching a new offer in your business, it changes the way you show up. Today we're going to explore why anticipation matters, how it helps with postpartum and beyond, and how you can create little and big things to look forward to that will keep you grounded, hopeful, and motivated. By the end of this episode, you'll have practical ideas, examples from my own life, and encouragement to start your building your own, something to look forward to list. Because tiny hands may fill our days, but a big future is what keeps us going. Number one, the survival mode trap. Hands up if you feel you are running on survival mode, where you feel you are running, running, running, trying to catch up with the dishes, catch up with the laundry, clean up the mess. In between the naps, you're trying to catch your breath. That feels like freaking hell. Surviving is so hard. And at the end of the day, we feel that's all we're supposed to know. We don't know anything else because we're trapped. We're trapped in a nap trap. And so we scroll on the phone. We can't even maybe go to the bathroom or take a poo. We feel so entangled and enthralled with getting into the baby phase. It's like starting a business. You feel so entangled with just getting clients and building clarity around your business. And then once you get busy, all of a sudden it's like, whoa, okay, I'm busy. Now I need to figure out my operations or hiring or whatever it is. So in the beginning, it really is survival mode to a certain point. But you need things to look forward to in that because surviving is not thriving. Surviving is trying to hang on by a thread. And that feels really heavy and that feels really hard. And so if you are in the thick of it listening to this episode, I hear you, I see you, I feel you. And if I could just give you a big hug, I promise you it's going to be okay. Because number two, the psychology of anticipation, I love this because I feel like when I was becoming a mom, I suffered through pregnancy anxiety. And I wanted to be able to look forward to so many things, but I was so nervous in that. But I told myself I need to anticipate and get excited about the world. And I need to know that even with sleepless nights and feeling exhausted and my body bleeding and just feeling like a mess. I just knew I needed something to look forward to. I needed something to get excited about. But what does that mean for you? I know for me, one of the things I got really excited about was to kind of dive in. And I didn't take a perfect maternity leave, so I want to preface that. But I was excited to work and use my brain and have adult conversations. Doesn't mean I don't want to be at home with my little one. I love my son. But there's something to be said about being excited about other things that make you who you are before a baby. We all are beautiful humans. And just because you bring a child into the world doesn't mean you shouldn't have anything to look forward to. I was so excited to put my son on a plane. He must have been four months to go see my parents in Florida. And I did this solo. And a lot of people told me, I'm crazy, you're nuts. And if you want a separate episode on how I travel, happy to do that. But the reality was, is I was so excited to plan this trip. It's something to look forward to. It's something to anticipate. That was the best feeling in the world, is that I felt good enough to go somewhere. And so, mamas, I encourage you to look forward to something, whatever it is, whether it's a spa day just to get a massage, or whether it's to go out to you with a friend for dinner, put things on your calendar that you can be excited about and rejuvenated about. And it fills your cup up. I love that because this really goes into number three for small joys and big impact. Really, it is the little things. I remember when my son was first born, I felt trapped in the hospital. And now I was only there for three days, but I couldn't leave as a mom. Typically, you can't leave the hospital. My husband did, but I couldn't. Until I was truly discharged, I was not allowed to leave the hospital. Same with the baby. And again, I was stuck at home for a few weeks. I couldn't really go out. And I remember going just to drop off a package and go to Target with my dad. And I was so excited to get out of the house. I felt like a human. I just looked around other humans and thought, wow, life hasn't stopped because I had a baby. Life just keeps going. And I was just so pumped to do something normal, to get out of the house and be normal. And since then, I've been excited about little things more than I ever have. I think that is the joy of the micro joys and kind of the micro excitements and the little excitements. Because what I realized is before a baby, I looked forward to big trips. I love big trips. I went with a girlfriend of mine twice in a year. First time we did all over Italy, we did Rome, Venice, and Florence. The second trip together we did Madrid and Lisbon. And I love the big trips. I love the adventure. I love the tours and I soak all of that up. And I still always will, let's be frank. I will always love a big trip and a big excitement. But there is something to be said since having my son. The small joys and excitement of going out of the house. I remember when I first left the house with him by myself. I was nine, he was nine weeks old. And I did actually a Charleston postpartum support group. So if you're in Charleston, they are the best group to be part of once you have a baby. And it was just nice to be on other moms. And I knew I can get out of the house and I felt confident. And now I bring my son everywhere with me. I take him to swim, I take him to mom friends, I do story time, I do all of these things with him. And it was these little, little moments of joy that really gave me confidence. Like the first time I remember I walked my dog and the baby together alone. My mom was home because she was here, still helping. And I felt like if she's here and if something goes wrong, I'm okay. But if she's not here and something goes wrong, it's a problem. And so I just did five minutes with the two of them. Then I graduated to 10 and then 15. And now I do 40, 45 minute walks with the both of them by myself. Of course, and you know, my neighborhood. But the small win is so important. Like even just walking around the block for me after I had the baby, it felt hard. But every day I took another step and another step and another step. And these small little wins allowed me to now I can go back to the gym fully and feel so strong and so confident. And so, mamas, what I tell you is these small joys are everything. Everything like getting out of the house, putting on makeup, doing your hair, taking a shower, which that should just be normal. But truly the little things that bring you joy is everything. And now I come from an abundance mindset, more or less. And look, as an entrepreneur, you're still going to struggle with this. But generally, especially as a mom, I have learned to be more confident in myself, to trust my gut. But these small little joys of like bathing my son alone was a win. Feeding my son was a win. Cleaning bottles was a win. Because I've never had kids before my son. I never babysat, I never did daycare. But I'm going into this because I do really want you, mamas, to know that these little, little things will add up to something so much greater than you could have ever imagined. So take the baby out for a coffee. Go out and meet a mom friend. Whatever it is that brings you joy, do that little small win. You're gonna feel a heck of a lot better. Number four, business goals as anchors. Now, mamas and entrepreneurs, we talk about goals a lot. I love my mentor where I do pumpkin planning. And if you don't know what that is, I'll definitely have to link it. But every month I meet with my mentor and we talk about monthly goals, we go into quarterly goals, and then we have yearly goals. And it's exciting to write goals down that come true. They come true when I write them down and have accountability. It's I forgot the statistic, but it's like 90%, 95% of your goals really happen when you write them down and you say them out loud. But that's the same with like milestones as a mom. I think we have this idea of our son has to or our daughter has to be walking at a certain age or getting teeth at a certain age. There are milestones and maybe parameters, but get excited about whatever it is your your baby's going through, whether it's learning to make bread, right? If you want that as like a goal, or whether it's you want to gain another client, or whether it is your baby started walking or crawling. There's so many different things to think about as goals. I know a big goal for me, for my business, was this podcast. I wanted to share my voice. I wanted to talk about my struggles and my wins and my truths. And I wanted to be able to really be able to talk about it. And so for me, I think the biggest thing I would tell anybody for goals, whether you're a mom, whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're both, I think it's just setting realistic goals for yourself and celebrating those goals if you achieve them, not if, when. And deadlines do kind of give you some momentum. Because I think if you tell yourself, okay, by the end of this year, I'm going to make 20K a month, that's great. How are you doing that? Right. And so it's going backwards a little bit on how do you find those clients? How are you marketing? How are you selling? How are you getting out there? And same goals like for my son, right? I have goals for him of I want him to try a new food a week, right? Can I do that? Sure. That doesn't seem too challenging, but maybe for some others it is. And so find the goals that feel good to you because no two goals are the same because no two people are the same. And so do the thing that makes you feel good. And that's really hard sometimes. But as moms, we can really do some really hard things. Number five, postpartum and beyond. How are we healing through hope? Because when you get pregnant, people are so excited for you. The baby showers, the presence, oh, all the things. But when you go through postpartum, it's a real setback depending on your birth, right? And your delivery and your labor. Some women have the perfect birth story and some women do not. And we need to give those women grace and check in on them and bring food, whatever you can do. I'm not perfect, but I try to show up in any way that I can because really, when you have a baby, your whole world truly changes and it sets you back and it makes you think. And there's nothing wrong with that. And so I really try to have excitement in my life. And I try to have things to look forward to, especially on the lows. That's why I think postpartum, I was so excited to plan a trip. I thought, okay, if I can feel good and I can do this, I can do that, I can go on this trip with my son. And I knew if I did the recovery right, I can go back to the gym and feel really good. And so I think the biggest thing I've learned is truly my mindset with this and letting my hormones take its course when I need it to. Like if you need to cry, girl, let it, let it out. Let the waterfalls come out, the river, the stream, cry. Let out the emotion. Because when you cry, you are like I feel when I cry, I am releasing the stress and the tension and the frustration and the anger and the upsetness and all of the things. I feel so much better about my situation, you know, and I have hope for the future. And initially, when I had a son, my son, I was nervous to have a baby. I full transparency, very nervous. I was terrified that I wouldn't have things to look forward to. And can I tell you, I have everything to look forward to. I'm so excited to celebrate Hanukkah with my son and Christmas with my son. I'm excited to see him walk so we can go to the aquarium or go to museums or go to the zoo or whatever it is, the beach, the pool. I am so hopeful of the future and what I'm able to achieve. And being a mother has grown so much of that within me. And so sometimes I really believe setbacks just make you realize that there's so much more to look forward to. Number six, community as something to anticipate. Now, if you've been listening to my podcast, this is something that I do like to bring up. And whether this becomes my first episode, I think community is everything. And it depends on the season of life you're in. I'm in a season of life where I love my connection with my entrepreneurs just as much as I love my connection with moms. And if you're a little bit of both, we really get each other in ways that nobody would understand. Because connection and seeing people is so important for your mental health. I cannot even begin to tell you. There's a story that I follow and I love. If you're in Charleston, there's moms clubs Charleston. I think she's calling it Mom's Club HQ now, but her name's Felicity. And she started this group because she felt so lonely when she had her baby. And she just wanted community and she craved connection and other women and started to just do walks around Charleston. And what I witnessed was just a beautiful way to kind of commiserate, but talk about your situation with other women who are in the same season of life as you. There's nothing more magical about that. There is nothing more real about that. There's nothing more honest about that. Having these connections with women just makes your day go by. You love that your littles are playing together. It's just really exciting, just as much as it's exciting to talk about your business goals too. Because when you say them out loud to your friends or any entrepreneur that you have a really good relationship with, you feel really good to just be yourself around people. And that's what I learned. I really felt so isolated. I personally don't live in your family. So for anyone listening to this, if you don't live in your family, I don't want you to give up on hope at all. I think if you live in a decent city or a decent town where things are happening, or a town or two over, right, depending on how far away that is for you, find your people. Find them, look for them, chase them, maybe. But I would encourage you to get outside, meet with people, connect with people. If you have kids the same age, even better. If you know someone in business that's doing something, same thing. I think when you talk to other people, you really don't feel alone. You feel like maybe the thoughts you had, oh, they're crazy, they're this. And then you talk to another mom and they say, girl, you're not crazy. That's normal. You're frustrated or you're tired or you're this. And I'm sure somebody went through the same thing. And what I love about mom friends is a mom hack to you. I love hanging out with friends with kids who are a little bit younger than my son, also a little bit older. When they're a little bit older, it's nice to get the advice to know what's ahead. But I love to help the moms with younger kids because I love to help them what I've been through. So a lot of it's perspective when you think about this of like how far you've come, whether you just started a business or whether you're year five. I know for me, I'm in year three, and I can't believe how far I've come. And I know I still have so much more to look forward to. And so really finding your community and your people who light you up, who excite you, who invigorate you, who challenge you and who make you better. Keep those people around. They're the good ones. They're the real ones. Number seven, teaching kids the same lesson. Have your kids look forward to something too. Now, I have a little, so this might be a little bit out of my wheelhouse here, but I am trying to look forward to things with my son, looking forward to vacations and trips and things he might be interested in. And maybe we do a cooking class, or maybe we just ride our bikes, or we go to the beach, or we get together with friends, or a zoo, or an activity, or whatever it is. I'm just excited to look forward to maybe traditions I start or just hanging out with my son, whatever that is. Because we want to teach them to be hopeful and to plan and to get excited, just like we do as humans now. I think the reality is things don't happen overnight. Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither will your business, and neither will having a child. Think about this. It takes 10 months, nine months to create a child. That takes a long time, really. Sure, you blink and time flies, but the same token, it's still a long time to create a human. And so if we teach our kids like gardening, right, it takes time to take a seed to a sprout and a sprout to a plant. If we teach them that nothing is instant gratification, nothing is so quick that things are going to happen, it's just not going to happen right away, and to be hopeful and to work hard. And so having joy, right? Having joy in the little things, short term or long term, I think that really is just so incredible. And again, having a little, little bit different, but I am excited for the future and what is to come. Number eight, the balance of now versus next. Now, let's make this clear. We have a past, present, and future. So our past, right, we have created a life for ourselves to some level of our career, our family, what we did with freedom. And then the present is what I am in today, in the thick of it, as many people would say. And then the future, right? I know my little won't be little forever, which makes me very emotional these days, but he won't be little forever. He's going to be a boy who will become a man. And there's a lot of future in that. And so for me, I really try to think about all the milestones for my son to balance being in the moment and being present, which is hard. And postpartum, in the first three, four months, I'll tell you there is no like enjoying this. You enjoy the snuggles, I think, but they're constant, they need constant attention, like a maid or butler giving to their queen or king. It is 24-7, it is around the clock, and it's not enjoyable and it's not fun. And I'm not afraid to be honest about that. But what I've realized since my son's been a little bit older as I'm recording this, he's almost a year. He is happy and joyful and laughing and giggling. And I'm really enjoying these moments with him because I'll never get them back. So I enjoy the present a lot more and I have truly looked to slow down. But at the same time, I'm still excited about my business. I'm still excited about this podcast. I'm still looking forward to vacations and dinners and all the things imaginable. I still have not changed in that sense. But my life is prioritized differently, and my responsibilities have changed tremendously. But I love my son. And I feel for me, I grew this fire in my belly to want to work a little bit harder and want to push a little bit further, but not to kill myself. I want to do it in a way that feels authentic and aligned with me. And if you haven't done human design, I highly recommend it. It's changed my life and something I will go into in a deeper episode, but doing a lot of human design work has allowed me to be the way that I am today. Number nine, practical looking forward to list. Now, I've mentioned a few things before, but here's a few ideas that you can think about when you look forward to something. Whether it's looking forward to a mommy and me date, whether it's looking forward to swim lessons for your kid, whether it's a family ritual like pizza night on Fridays, whether it's a business milestone, you made 20K, amazing. Or a self care, right? For a spa day, massage, a facial, a beach day, whatever that is. I know for me, in this current moment of life, as I record, my biggest list is looking forward to networking again. I'm looking forward to getting out. I'm looking forward to just Trying to spend a little bit more time with my husband, trying to just live in the moment a little more. And that's what I'm looking forward to is just being more present. And last but not least, resilience through seasons. Now, this feels so real, mamas and entrepreneurs, because both of these seasons, they are fucking hard. Being an entrepreneur is tough. Being a mom, I will tell you, is even tougher. And you put a thick skin, right? And you go through so much physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, it's hard. It's really hard. I mean, being a mom alone, going through pregnancy and giving birth, that's an experience in itself. And then, and then you're given a human to go home with, and there's no manual, there's no script. And that's similar to entrepreneurship. You start a business and there's no holding hands. I mean, maybe if you pay a coach or a mentor, but you're paying a lot of money. And typically most entrepreneurs just start with a little bit of grit and elbow grease. And they're both really hard seasons because you're growing this tiny human to be a human, like a real adult human, just as your business is a little seed growing to flourish to be something so much more. And so that is what has helped me stay grounded to look forward to the future because it's exhausting. It's exhausting to answer to clients some days. It's exhausting to have a human who needs me all the time. It's really hard. But I will tell you the reward is so worth it. And I will tell you that I have found lots of joys and little little things in life because of it. And so I just really encourage you, mamas, to look forward to whatever you'd like to look forward to. Because here's my biggest takeaway. Having something to look forward to is not just a nice to have, it's survival, it's strategy, and most importantly, it's soul care. Whether it's a small coffee date with a mommy and me, or a major business milestone. Those things on the horizon remind us that we're not stuck, we are moving forward and we are moving ahead. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd love to hear what more of what you're looking forward to. Share it with me on Instagram and tag Raising Hustle because your joy might inspire another mom who needs it right now. And if you have a friend in the thick of postpartum or hustling in her business, send her this episode as a little dose of hope. Thanks for joining me for another conversation here on Raising Hustle. Until next time, keep holding those tiny hands, keep dreaming about the big future, and remember, you've got this. This is just the beginning. Subscribe now to Raising Hustle and get ready for raw stories, real talk, and unapologetic ambition. We're showing up messy, loud, and all in because success doesn't wait for quiet. Let's raise our voices, our businesses, and our babies together.