Blog

Have you ever had a day where you started off strong, but later found yourself abandoning your workout plans and flopping on the couch with a bowl of ice cream? Decision fatigue might be the culprit behind this temporary loss of willpower. Once you understand why it’s happening, you can get ahead of decision fatigue and see your goals through to success - even when Friends reruns are calling your name.  

Understanding Decision Fatigue

Research shows that the more decisions we make throughout the day, the more our capacity for willpower and self-control diminishes. This means that after a long day at work, an eventful outing, or during moments of heightened stress, making choices becomes particularly challenging. Whether it's choosing between going for a walk or indulging in a Friends marathon, we often opt for the path of least resistance. While decision fatigue can hinder our ability to maintain healthy habits and stay on track, acknowledging its existence empowers...

Stress is an inevitable part of our lives, and we all experience it in different ways. Whether it's due to work pressure, personal relationships, or financial issues, stress can take a toll on your physical and mental health. While occasional stress is a normal part of life, chronic stress can have severe consequences on your physical well-being. 

Stress originates when your body/mind experiences a threat. The threat could be real (being chased by a bear or losing your job), or it could be a perceived threat (i.e. lying awake worrying “what if” every night). No matter the threat,  your nervous system responds by sounding an alarm and preparing the body to respond quickly. The reactions include increased heart rate and breathing, surges of hormones, and increased blood pressure to name a few. 

These responses are meant to help in short-term “fight or flight” situations to increase your chances of survival. Unfortunately, in the modern world full...

 Over the past month, I've been talking about clearing out your mental clutter to gain more mental clarity for greater success. To wrap things up, here are seven daily practices that will help you gain control of any thoughts continuously swirling around in your head. Add these tips to your toolbox for when you find yourself ruminating or overwhelmed by unhelpful thoughts. 

Easy Strategies to Clear Your Mental Clutter 

Whether you can’t focus because of the to-do list running in your head, or you can’t sleep because you’re stuck worrying about work, we all get stuck in a “thought loop” sometimes. Your brain won’t turn off or let you focus, and it zaps your energy and productivity. Try one (or a few) of the tips below the next time you find your mind overflowing; or, better yet, choose one and make it a habit to keep those thoughts from turning up in the first place. 

1. Mindful Breathing. If you feel overwhelmed or are...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

It’s not easy to find focus in our world of smartphones and constant distractions, and I bet most people would like to improve their ability to stay on-task. There are lots of external ways to improve your focus, but today I want to talk about internal factors that could be affecting your mental clarity. More specifically, how your diet could be sabotaging your ability to focus. 

Focus for the Win

When you have improved focus, you’ll see benefits in every area of your life, including in the actions you take toward your goals and dreams. You’ll find it easier to: 

• Set goals based on your own preferences and desires
• Make choices with certainty
• Find the path that will lead you to the things you want
• Find motivation to do the things required to achieve your larger goals

In contrast, mental clutter can keep the brain from accomplishing straightforward tasks that you want to do. Setting your brain up to better focus...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

Whether it’s how you were raised, part of your genetics, or a conscious decision, it’s obvious that some people think more positively than others. Have you noticed that life seems to go more smoothly for positive people? There is great power in positive thinking, and it’s not just about feeling happier or being more optimistic. While these are great side effects of positive thinking, the benefits of it go much further and will help you achieve greater success in your life. 

The Benefits of Becoming More Positive

If being happier isn't a good enough reason to work on increasing your positive thinking, I’m sure that some of the following benefits will sway you to want to see the glass as half-full. 

The Snowball Effect

Recent studies have shown that positive thinking is directly linked to your brain's reward system and pleasure stimulus. This means that once your mind feels the pleasure that positive thinking...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast 

We’ve all done things or had things happen to us in the past that we’d regret or would rather forget. Life isn’t always easy and can leave us with emotional scars or baggage. It’s up to us to heal the best we can, and thankfully there are many tools to do that. When you hold on to the past, it brings overwhelm and mental clutter into the present as you deal with people and situations around us. Letting go of what hurt you then will help you move forward clearly and openly now. 

Whether the past is holding you back consciously or subconsciously, it’s worth the effort to uncover what it is so you can let it go. Recognizing it is the first step, and there are so many benefits to doing the work to let go of that negativity. Letting go of the past is a positive, kind act for yourself, and the following are just some of the benefits that you’ll experience from doing so. 

Release the...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

Back when the pandemic really hit and the kids were stuck in their rooms every day doing schoolwork, my daughter’s mental health took a hit. Her room got very little natural light, so we switched my brighter office with her bedroom and it helped a lot. Now that she is gone to college, though, it’s time for me to switch back. The back and forth has involved a fair bit of physical decluttering, and I feel so much lighter with less “stuff” to manage. The same principle works in your brain, too. When you clean up your mental clutter, your mind has more space to work and play in. 

Some signs that your mental clutter is bogging you down are feelings of overwhelm or being over-stimulated, confused, and even disoriented when it comes to everyday life and decisions. Our modern world moves quickly, and with quick access to the internet and social media, it’s easy to become over-stimulated. Just as we need to...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

For the past several months, I’ve been prepping you to take the leap, get out of your comfort zone, and finally take action on your goals and dreams. I’ve shared the psychology of comfort zones, tips to motivate yourself to expand yours, and examples of the amazing things that can happen when you are brave enough to get uncomfortable. But the time for talking is over. No more planning. No more thinking about it. It’s time to take action. 

Getting from your comfort zone to your dreams will require you to take a giant leap of faith in yourself. There is no certainty in life. You can never know for sure if you’ll succeed or fail. Even if you’ve meticulously planned every step, there are too many external factors that can (and will) pop up on your journey. This isn’t said to scare you, but rather to give you that final push you need; you’ve done all you can! 

The only thing left to do is to take...

Listen on The Extraordinary Life Podcast

As much as I enjoy the holidays, I'm always happy to get back to routine. With the buildup to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year, it’s like six weeks of preparation and “unusual” days of visiting and celebrations. I love the time I get to spend with my daughter who has gone back to college now, and with my son who is nearing the end of his high school days. I know it won’t be long until he has left to follow his dreams, too. 

With a fresh year ahead, it’s the perfect time to take action on your own dreams. To do that, you need to step outside of your comfort zone; this is something you’ll have to do again and again. 

What Your Comfort Zone Is

I think most people imagine their comfort zone as a safe circle around them, where everything is predictable and cozy that doesn’t change. Surprise! Your comfort zone isn’t set in stone. It’s an artificial mental boundary that allows...

 As I look back over the past twelve months, one of the things I’m most proud of in my business is how consistent I was with my podcast and blog. Despite vacations, my son’s bike racing, and everyday life “interruptions”, I made the time to create new content to help you stay consistent and create your own version of an Extraordinary Life. Below are the top five podcasts and blogs that people enjoyed the most; surprisingly, my very first podcast ever captured the #2 spot! I hope you’ll enjoy revisiting some of my favorites, to help set yourself up for a great year ahead. 

#1: Episode 30: Always Growing - An Interview with Artist Tina Short

In today’s episode, I interview Tina Short, an artist living her version of an extraordinary life. Through parenting twin boys, divorce, and finding her path as an artist, she’s come up against many obstacles. Yet through it all, she’s stayed committed to growing and staying true to...