What do you do, when you're just so tired? When you don't have any desire to stick to your routine? Right now, I am having one of those moments. I am jet-lagged, exhausted, and I have two leftover pieces of pizza in the fridge that are calling my name. I was very tempted to skip my writing today. I was very tempted to…

Almost a year ago, I tried an intermediate yoga class. I watched as the instructor twisted herself into some ridiculous shape. As I made an attempt and failed, I complained to my husband that it was too hard and I could never do it. As I laid there on the ground, defeated, he said something that stuck with me…

I love the finished parts of my house. The projects we’ve worked on and the furniture and nice things we’ve been able to buy. But I also love the unfinished parts. I love my basement that has cement floor, old wood paneling, old laundry machines and a toilet in the middle of the room. I love my kitchen that has peel and stick tile on it, poorly painted cabinets from one manic weekend, and…

Last week, I told you about the formula for habit building and how all habits consist of cue + routine = reward. When you analyze your habits and figure out what cue is causing which routine and the reward you feel after, you can successfully switch out the routine in the middle. This is one of the reasons the well known habit-changing program AA is so successful. The reward is not the drink or feeling of being drunk…

Recently I have found myself drinking more coffee during the work day. I used to have two cups of half-calf in the morning and that would be it. But a few months ago, I unknowingly created a cue for myself that started to form this bad habit.

Earlier this week, as I stared at my calendar that holds my monthly ambitions, I realized I had failed at my writing goals. Just like a New Year's Resolution forgotten by February, I had just let it slip. I was doing so well with exercise and devoting more time to work, that it was easy to feel like I was succeeding. Truthfully though, I was doing the bare minimum to get this newsletter out and letting the thing that was most important to me - working on my book - slip through the cracks.

Earlier on in my life and career, I used to look at the opportunities other people had and just figured they were given to them. I would see someone presenting in the all-company meeting and assume they had been chosen for their greatness. I would sit back and dream about the day when someone would pick me for my greatness. What I didn’t realize, is that there is a very important phase in between being a nobody and being a somebody. I call it the Ask For It phase.

About 2.5 years ago we moved into our first home. Moving in at the end of the Summer meant that I was not prepared for the number of weeds that would emerge in our yard the next Spring. For three seasons now, I have crawled through our lot on my hands and knees, pulling out each weed one at a time. We have sprayed, we have re-seeded grass, and we continue to enjoy the hobby of making our lawn nice to look at and live on.

It can be difficult working on yourself, because just like anything else, it takes time. And I'm not talking about "the journey is long" kind of time. I'm talking about physical time out of your day or week when you decide this is for me and not anyone else. If you want to reach a goal or make moves in your career by skilling up in new areas, you need that this is for me time.

A few months ago, I received a message from someone pretty high up at my company. He participated in a meeting that I had lead and when it was over he messaged me, unprompted, to tell me how great my facilitation was. I found out later that he also messaged my manager. I felt so encouraged by him doing that I thought, when I'm that high up, I want to do that too.

This week, I was walking in the park when I was passed by someone skipping. To answer your question, no they were not a child. This person had purple hair, appeared to maybe be in their late twenties, and had some headphones in as they merrily went on their way. A little while later…

A lot of what you see me post on social media is positive and encouraging. I want everyone around me to know that they can dream big and do amazing things - so much more than they even know. You might find it surprising then that…

There is a thought process that happens when we start something new or try to improve ourselves - at least it happens with me. I get this idea in my head that any steps in the wrong direction are failure. I look back at the week I had planned for myself and…

47 Weeks. According to Instagram, that’s how long this project took. The picture you see above is from my newly renovated office. When I went to post the final pictures Saturday morning, I realized that it had been 47 weeks since it began. After seeing the final product…

I've always assumed that we are born either 'glass-half-full' kind of people, or 'glass-half-empty.' Surprisingly, I think I've also always just assumed that I was 'glass-half-full.' Of course I would be, right? Those that see the world as missing something must be perpetually grumpy, hate small children, and are also probably ugly too. I'm way too good looking to fall under that category.

Last month, I gave my first virtual training session. Of course, I've taught and trained for over 10 years, and I've been in virtual environments before - but this was my first time training on this particular technology with these particular topics. By the end of the week, I thought I had done pretty good considering it was my first swing. There was definitely room for improvement, I took note of things I would change and work on, but all in all I was feeling good about how it went. Until I got an email…

"Be humble enough to suck for as long as it takes you to become better" (Rachel Hollis)… I stumbled upon an image of this quote on Instagram just now and actually laughed out loud at how accurate it was to how I have felt in the last 24 hours. I recently took on learning a new topic at work. It's something…

Last night, I reached a goal I have been chasing after for 7 years. Let me give you some context so you understand why I am so excited about this. It was a Saturday morning, about 7 years ago…

What I told myself this morning…I am too tired. It's way too early. I’m still fighting a cold so I should probably sleep in. I ran enough earlier in the week, so I can probably skip today. I’ll run tomorrow instead…

I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels like I'm always going after great comfort. That the sole purpose of my life is to get to a place where I am physically, mentally, financially, and emotionally comfortable. That all my hard work is so I can finally "arrive" to this place where I can stop working so hard, take a deep breath, put on my comfy clothes and be comfortable. My bigger life plans are geared around this belief and my every day also functions by this rule.