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I recently took on a challenge called 75 Hard to build my mental strength. Essentially, the challenge is designed to help you get better at what you’re going to say you’re going to do. I decided to do it because over the past few years I started breaking little promises and appointments I’d set for myself, and was starting to feel the consequences. The challenge entails doing the following for seventy-five days in a row: exercise twice per day for forty-five minutes each, drink one gallon of water, read ten pages of a personal development book, follow a diet of my choice (I chose no gluten, dairy, or added sugar), and no alcohol. I made it eleven days. 

The challenge is extreme, and I know it’s not for everyone, but I was still disappointed because I was really excited to see and feel the outcome after seventy-five days. After reflecting on why I took the challenge on in the first place and the reasons I failed, I decided to start agai...

Listen instead on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

Last week I led you through a process of evaluating and tracking where you are in your life and what needs to be changed using the six High-Performance Habits. Once you start tracking them, it gives you a great baseline to work from and keeps you on track. They’re so important to creating your dream life that we spend six months working on them in The Extraordinary Life Tribe and keep coming back to them. For the other six months, we work on ways to activate your life. These are called the Charge Sessions and are what help you create an engaged, energetic, and enthusiastic life. 

Activating your extraordinary life starts by thinking about and strategically managing your long-term energy, enthusiasm, and engagement in life. To achieve this, you must decide to move beyond the boundaries and beliefs that you or others may have set out for you, and decide what you really want from your life. 

There are ten human drives that are the activa...

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I talk a lot about envisioning your goals and dreams for ten years from now. This is because while I like to live in the moment, I believe you can live best in the moment when you know who you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to have in the future. I also know that if you’re not mindful of these things, ten years will still pass by - but without any direction. I know, you have kids to raise, dogs to walk, chores to do, a job, and relationships to nurture… So how do you manage your big dreams alongside daily life? 

Every single one of my clients struggles with this at one point or another, so know that you aren’t alone. Also know that any feelings of guilt (mom guilt, partner guilt, career guilt, etc.) are common as well. For some reason, women have been sold the idea that we can do it all; I’m here to tell you that not only do you not have to, but you shouldn’t. This is your life, and it should be amazing! You don’t n...

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As much as I love the power of a good goal, I’m not usually a proponent of New Year’s resolutions or setting goals just once a year. But if you aren’t in the habit of goal setting or if you need to revisit your goals, now is the perfect time to get started. The big draw to setting goals is obviously having something to work towards, but there are many other reasons you should incorporate goals into your life. In fact, I have seven! 

The College Comparison

Before we get to the list of reasons you should be a goal-setter, I want to give you a bit of insight into the power of goals. Think back to your late teens or your early twenties. Very likely you were going to college and had some sort of four year plan to finish school and start living your young-adult life. Along with college came a curriculum of courses that you needed to complete, so it was easy to see the next steps and stay focused on graduating. 

Now come back to the present...

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Have you ever wondered how some people seem to have everything they dream of, while for others their dreams remain unrealized or forgotten entirely? I’m here to tell you that it’s not a question of luck or genetics, but rather the strategies people use to get what they want. Below I share seven strategies you can use to help turn your dreams into reality, so you can stop wishing and start achieving the things you really want. 

1. Understand What’s Important to You

Think back to a time when you’ve been really excited about something big in your life. Maybe it was getting married, buying a house, going on a vacation, or even getting into college. You likely felt a lot of energy and motivation surrounding this goal, and the excitement helped you take the actions to get there. 

Unfortunately, we don’t often use this type of momentum on a regular basis to get what we want out of life. This can occur when your goals don’t match your values...

High Performance Habit #6: Demonstrating Courage

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We’ve reached the sixth and final High Performance Habit in this series of blog posts, which is demonstrating courage. I’m sure your mind went straight to dramatic ideas of courage, like rescuing someone from a burning building; but in the context of building habits to create an extraordinary life, courage is made up of the smaller actions we take that push us beyond our comfort zone. To me, being courageous is stretching to become a better, stronger version of yourself - and it’s something we can all learn to do. 

Find Your Version of Courage

Demonstrating courage will look different for each person, since we all have different goals we want to achieve. In my Design Your Decade workshop, I ask my students to look at their goals and dreams, and identify what courageous actions they can take now to achieve their ten year dreams. More often than not, it’s very small, brave steps that will add up over ...

High Performance Habit #4: Increase Your Productivity 

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Over the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing facets of the 6 high performance habits. They are the result of surveys and research done on the most successful people in the world by Brendon Burchard and the High Performance Academy. Even if your goal isn’t to be the head of a Fortune 500 company, these habits still hold immense value for all of us. The fourth habit, increasing productivity, is a favorite of my coaching clients and the one I’m talking about today. After all, who doesn’t want to get more done? 

Being Productive Shouldn’t Add More to Your Plate

Today, I want to invite you to look at the definition of productivity differently; it isn’t about doing more, but doing more to reach your goals. I’m sure most people would prefer to start here, but you really do need to be working on the first three habits (Finding Clarity, Generating Energy, and Raising Necessity). Because if you a...

High Performance Habit #3: Raising Necessity

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Over the past few weeks I’ve been introducing you to the High Performance Habits, and today we’re halfway through with the third habit, raising necessity. As Brendon Burchard says in his book, High Performance Habits, “necessity is the emotional drive that makes great performance a must, instead of a preference.” When you have an increased sense of necessity to do well, it’s easier to keep going when life gets hard, obstacles pop up, or you just don’t feel like showing up that day. 

Another way to understand what raising necessity means, is to think about increasing the pressure or force surrounding your goals. Some people don’t like the idea of being under pressure, even if it’s a positive pressure, while others thrive on it; but at some point, pressure is what will drive you to succeed. So choose whatever word you like the best, (necessity, pressure, or force), and make these six ways to increase...

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There are a few times of year where change and new beginnings fit naturally. A new year is an obvious one, and the freshness of Spring is another - but when it comes to getting back into routine, September is my favorite time. With the start of school and the promising comfort of predictable days after a carefree summer, I’m looking forward to my routines and daily habits again. I’ve slacked off a bit with my morning routine through the summer, and I miss how it helped me greet each day with intention.

To give myself a jump start this month, I accepted a friend’s challenge to read the first three chapters of James Clear’s book Atomic Habits. I’ve read countless self-development books and I’m trained as a High Performance Habits coach, so nothing has surprised me in the book so far. Yet it’s helpful to hear things in a new way or from a different perspective sometimes, to help an idea resonate or stick with you. 

With that in mind, I’m...

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When you are ready to dream big and invite change into your life, it’s exciting! That’s probably why I often get asked, “what can I do now to get working towards my dreams?” The good news is that there are a lot of things you can do today, and then each and every day, to set the ball in motion. In fact, I came up with seven!  

7 Ways to Get Closer to Your Dreams Today

This list is a step-by-step mini-guide to creating your extraordinary life; however, you can stop and re-visit any step when it feels right. In fact, I regularly make time to go back and change things if they aren’t working, or if my goals have changed. So start with step one, and then take your time working through the rest. Remember: creating the life of your dreams is a daily practice, not a race. 

1. Practice Gratitude. Learning to practice gratitude is always the first step to take in  achieving your dreams. I talked about this a few weeks ago, when I reflected
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