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Happy New Year! (Or whatever time of year you’re reading this.) My daughter has gone home after the holidays, and my husband, son, and I are resting after several days in the snowy mountains. We are also starting to think about our goals for the coming year. If you’re like most people, you are, too.

Before you jump into setting those New Year’s resolutions, take a step back and think about how your New Year’s resolutions usually go. As most of us have experienced, setting a goal just because it’s January first isn’t enough to make it stick. That’s not because resolutions are bad, but if you want to reach health, career, or even relationship goals, it’s best to make your resolutions more meaningful and specific. 

So how do you make sure that happens? Start by asking yourself these three questions: 

1. What habits would make the biggest positive impact on my daily life? We tend to overestimate how much we need to do to reach our goal. Instead, think about which habits will give you the...

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Have you ever noticed that you get what you expect out of life? That what you think is going to happen does? We all live with an unconscious expectation of ourselves and our own lives, and this expectation not only determines what we have in our lives, but it also represents what we're willing to settle for. It’s a very powerful emotion and one that few people ever learn to harness to improve their situation. That’s a shame, because whatever you expect with certainty is what you will get in your life.

Ralph Charell said, "Nobody succeeds beyond his or her wildest expectations unless he or she begins with some wild expectations." So what are your expectations for your life? Are you excited about your future or do you face it with apprehension, fear, or even dread? These thoughts can be about the far away future or what you expect for your day. 

Why We Keep Low Expectations

For many people, the future holds too many uncertainties, and the fear...

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We are exposed to a lot of negativity in the news and media, and you can try to avoid that. But you really shouldn’t have to be exposed to negativity in your own head. Your inner dialogue is one of the biggest influences on your confidence, self-esteem, and the results you create for yourself. If your negative inner voice is too loud these days, I have ways to help you turn that around. 

You Are Not Your Thoughts

Some people are naturally more positive and have an empowering inner voice. If that’s you, then that’s amazing! It didn’t happen by accident. Either you grew up with people that taught you to speak to yourself that way, or you've developed a positive-thinking habit and your life likely reflects that positivity.

For the rest of us that lean towards negative thought chatter, know that you aren’t alone. Researchers from the National Institute of Health estimate that we think about 50,000 to 70,000 thoughts a day, and about 80% ...

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As a life coach, it’s easy for me to see where my clients’ thoughts are impacting their lives and results. Seeing the same things for myself, however, is more of a challenge. Examining my thoughts is something that I’ve been working on, and I’m using a method called “The Model”. My own mentor introduced me to this framework, which was created by Brooke Castillo. Brooke says “The Model is the one tool you need to change anything in your life by helping you understand how your circumstances, thoughts, feelings, actions, and results work.” I’ve been using a variation of The Model as I work to uncover the thoughts that may be holding me back, both in my mind and in my journaling practice. 

Challenge Your Thinking with The Model

There are five parts to The Model which work together to help you understand why you are getting your current results, which in turn gives you the information needed to make changes to get the results you want (whi...

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Once you learn to create momentum in your life, achieving your goals and dreams becomes so much easier. That’s right, you can create it! Developing a mindset for momentum will help you to do a little more every day to move closer to what you want, and less of what’s holding you back. It sounds simple, yet many of us struggle to maintain momentum, even when we briefly find it. Let’s find out why, so we can counteract those negatives and turn them into positives. 

Ways People Fail to Create the Momentum They Want

Despite what it feels like when you experience positive momentum in life, it doesn’t just happen. It’s a coming together of a lot of little pieces that support one another (and you!) to keep moving forward. Thus, when we are missing some of the pieces, creating momentum becomes a lot harder. Let’s fix that! Here are four ways we fail at creating momentum, and the positive alternatives. 

1. Failure to See Beyond the Present. Ev...

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Your beliefs in who you are and what you can accomplish have everything to do with how successful you are in creating your extraordinary life. There are three main beliefs that the most successful and happy people have, which I detail below, but what if you don’t currently have those beliefs? I also have three strategies to help you create them when your “belief muscles” are weak, or if you want to change long-held thought patterns that have been holding you back. 

Your Beliefs Determine Your Direction

This is a great time of year to start thinking about your beliefs. During the holiday season you’ll be seeing more of your family and friends, and these people are the basis for most of the beliefs you have about yourself. Yet these beliefs may not serve you in creating the success you want,  because they have been passed on to you - rather than you creating them for yourself. 

This is why you need to take time to examine what your be...