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The Blueprint

by Jody Lamb

For people who grew up being the responsible one and are finally learning that their first job is taking care of themselves. A couple times a month, I share honest stories, practical insights, and the kind of permission you didn't know you needed — from someone who had to figure it all out from scratch. Join 2,400+ readers. My memoir comes out September 2026.

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Featured Post

You don't have to heal your whole childhood

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hey, Reader. Somewhere along the way, somebody sold you a lie. The lie is that before you're allowed to have a good life, you have to go back and heal every single thing that happened to you as a kid. Every wound. Every memory. Every pattern. That you have to finish healing first. And then you get to live. I believed that for years. I spent years with my childhood and young adult years as basically my main hobby. Reading...

9 days ago • 3 min read
A man wearing a cap sits in a sunlit forest.

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hey, Reader. I generally avoid talking about people-pleasing. Because the kind of people-pleasing that comes out of adult children of alcoholics like me is way more extreme than the kind most people talk about. Let’s just say that if there was an Olympic medal in people-pleasing, we’d take it. Through my healing journey, I’ve worked on shedding my people-pleasing ways. I've read the books. I've listened to the podcasts....

28 days ago • 3 min read
woman sitting on rock during daytime

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hey, Reader. You and I email each other because we probably have a lot in common. You probably grew up with some kind of dysfunction in your home. An alcoholic parent or something else. You probably find yourself battling a tall list of challenges as an adult that you know stem from those experiences as a little one. You're probably great at putting yourself last. And you're probably determined to shed those issues or at...

about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Red and yellow flower buds against a subtle script background.

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hi, Reader. I just crawled out of a hole after several weekends of memoir editing with a smile on my face. My Job Is Me is really happening. I'm excited. And a little bit terrified to have my story out for the whole world to read. Was writing it a tiring, eye-opening rollercoaster? Yes. Do I love it? YES. Why? Because at my core, I believe in the power of personal stories. I believe my story of growing up with an...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Rocky lake shore under a blue sky with white clouds.

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hi, Reader. I tried to save my mom for more than 20 years. Twenty years. I wrote letters and slid them under her door. I found treatment centers. I rehearsed speeches. I cried. I begged. I tried every combination of words I could think of, believing that one day I'd finally say the thing that made her stop drinking. I was completely convinced it was my job. That as her firstborn daughter, it was on me to fix this. It...

2 months ago • 3 min read
A woman in pink jacket crouching near a powerful waterfall.

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hey, Reader. Have you ever looked at your family and thought: Why does this keep happening? The same patterns. The same chaos. The same dysfunction showing up generation after generation. Your grandparents had it. Your parents had it. And now you're watching pieces of it show up in your own life. I've seen it in my family. Addiction has passed through multiple generations. My mom grew up with an alcoholic father who died...

3 months ago • 3 min read
Two women talking in a kitchen while cooking

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hey, Reader. You're a grown adult. You have a job. Maybe kids. A mortgage. You handle real problems every single day. And then your mom calls. Or your sibling sends one text. Or you walk through the door at a family gathering. And suddenly you're thirteen again. Tight chest. Defensive. Saying things you swore you wouldn't say. Reacting in ways that don't even make sense to you. Sound familiar? Yep. That was me, too. For...

3 months ago • 4 min read
woman wearing gray long-sleeved shirt facing the sea

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hi, Reader. May I tell you something that took me years to figure out? Years. I had been on my healing journey for a while. Done the support groups. Done the reading. Done the therapy. Done the hard conversations with myself about my childhood and my mom and all of it. And I still felt this heaviness I couldn't explain. I thought it was anger. I thought it was frustration. I thought it was just me being someone who was...

4 months ago • 2 min read
A woman reads a book by a lamp.

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hi, Reader! I'm curious. How many self-help books have you bought, started, highlighted, and then quietly abandoned? How many morning routines have you tried? How many affirmations have you said in the mirror while thinking, "This feels ridiculous?" Yeah. Same. The problem isn't you. You’re probably just not ready for the general self-help stuff. Most self-help was written for people who grew up with a foundation. Stable...

4 months ago • 3 min read
Young woman in red shirt and jeans looking away

The Blueprint Your first job is taking care of yourself. with JODY LAMB Hi, Reader. I need to ask you something and I want you to answer honestly, just to yourself. When you were a kid, were you the one holding everything together? Reading the room before anyone spoke. Making dinner because no one else was going to. Managing a parent's mood like it was your full-time job at ten years old. Me, too. I've been thinking a lot about the patterns we carry from childhood into adulthood. The ones we...

5 months ago • 3 min read