Finding your unicorn space
I recently read the famous book "Fair Play" by Eve Rodsky - a book I highly recommend to every working parent. The book is all about how to split up domestic duties with a partner in an equitable way and she created a playing card deck with 100 groups of domestic tasks/responsibilities that the two players (partners) split up. The idea is if you are "holding the card" you are responsible for the CPE - Conception, Planning and Execution - to the end. So in a lot of ways, what we do as virtual house managers!
One of the things she talked about is the need for "unicorn space" - The importance of investing in the creative pursuits that make your life more deeply fulfilling.
As an insanely busy person, this concept resonates deeply with me. Between work, play, parenting, domestic duties, responsibilities and all the rest of it, we need something that is more than just routine "self care" like exercise, walks, etc. We need something that gives us drive, purpose, lights up our lives (beyond our family) and ignites our passions. In the book, Rodsky offers a list of some things that could be - baking, teaching yoga, a side business, volunteering, being involved at your kids' school or a civic organization, etc. But the point is we need that other thing to feel fulfilled.
She introduces the concept in Fair Play but wrote more about it in another book, Find Your Unicorn Space, which I’m in the middle of reading now. It is also an excellent read I would highly recommend, especially if you’ve been searching for that extra something you can’t quite put your finger on.
At the beginning of 2024, I set my intentions to find my Unicorn Space by focusing on becoming a better listener and to pursue my creativity more. I did that - with varied success - by reading books and listening to TED Talks and Masterclasses about listening and trying to incorporate it more into my daily life (varied success, but a work in progress!).
When I set out to pursue creative endeavors more, I had this vision of it being visual - painting, creating art, etc - but it actually manifested into learning more about web design, building a few websites for myself and others, and creating a podcast. There are more creative elements within running a virtual house management business as well, but I was surprised how "creativity" really took a different turn than I expected.
For 2025, I decided to focus my Unicorn Space journey on learning Spanish and actually taking up painting and spoiler alert…neither of those happened. Instead we launched this blog which is designed to take a more personal approach to connection as working parents instead of a stuffy “Here are your 10 best practices for note taking” type blogs that many businesses write. I also started posting on Tiktok and in July 2025, I committed to posting every day. Looking back over the past 7 months of posting 2-10 times/day, it has helped me hone my voice and how I want to show up creatively in the world.
But alas, still no painting….
For 2026, I’m thinking about taking a DJ class so I will definitely keep you posted on how that turns out but if you hear of DJ Heron headlining a stage near you well…it probably won’t be me anytime soon. But a girl can dream!
I would love to hear your thoughts! Do you feel like you have something that lights you up beyond work and family? If not, how do you plan to find that Unicorn Space in your life?
A note that the picture accompanying this blog is from the era when I decided to invent (and eventually teach) the sport of “hula-boarding” which is hula hooping on a paddleboard. I am pictured in the middle circa 2014.
