With Thanksgiving right around the corner, gratitude is on the mind. Every Thanksgiving we are surrounded by those we love most as we sit around large tables full of good food. It is easy to see why we have so much to be grateful for. It is also easy to be grateful on Thanksgiving because the whole world is participating. It is a social media uproar with #grateful. However, I believe that gratitude is not the easy choice. Gratitude is a difficult decision and it is never seco

When it comes to handling stress we all are so different. Not all stress is bad, but more often than not it is a nuisance in our lives. Dealing with stress, managing our worries, and working our concerns is fundamental to achieving your goals. Here are some tried and true tips to dealing with stress in your life: Identify the Stressor Stress can come in many forms in our lives. It can be good stress like wanting to do really well on assignments, or push ourselves to the next

Do you know your limits? So many of us don’t. Or worse yet, we are afraid that if we admit we have limits that we are weak. When in reality the opposite is true. Knowing your limits, in all aspects of your life, makes you a more rounded individual, better employee, kinder friend, and more loving person. Understanding your limits is the key to feeling more in control of your life and allows you to give more energy and love to those around you. I used to think that “no” was a d

We all have days where we wish we could go back to bed and hunker down and pretend our problems don’t exist. Bad days, hard days, crazy days, and even horrible days seem to find us no matter how awesome our plans are. What are we supposed to do on those days? Here is a few tips and tricks to managing and reducing the number of bad days you are having. 1. Identify the Stressor I don’t know about you but when I bounce (or crawl…mostly crawl) out of bed in the morning, I really

We live in a world that promises faster, better, stronger. All of us are striving to be our very best. While it is invigorating to be chasing after your dreams, it can feel overwhelming when we are faced with all the habits we should be doing but aren’t. Our lives get so full with lists of “should do” that we sometimes don’t take a look at what we shouldn’t be doing. Cutting out bad habits will help you free up more time, more mental capacity, and allows your good habits to d

I was sitting next to one of my best friends in the whole world (who happens to be 3X my age and oh so wise) when she asked how my life was going. I was honest with her when I explained that while I was good, things weren’t exactly how I wanted them right then. I wasn’t sure about some future decisions, and my birthday was coming up which marked another year that I felt I wasn’t where I thought I would be at my age. I told her that while life really was good, the perfect plan

In life we are told to take risks. In the same breath, we are also taught to be careful, to not push our luck, or to watch out for the danger. Which is it? Are we supposed to take the clear path in our lives or venture off and become risk takers? While we all have our own journey to travel, here is a quick guide to help you decide if you need to steady your course or to sprinkle on some risk. When looking at taking new risks it is important to redefine the way you view risk.

I never made my junior high volleyball team. On my 18th birthday both my boyfriend and best friend canceled their plans with me. My choir teacher said I sounded tone-def. No one showed up to my first life coaching class. Sad, right? Life is full of disappointments (I was keeping my list short). How we deal with those disappointments reveals more about our character than any outward appearance we put off. When disappointment strikes it is easy to feel angry, upset, hurt, sad

Life always seems to be one step ahead of us. We can’t wait for something looming right over our horizon. I get it. I’ve been there. I couldn’t wait to be in high school, then school would really be fun. Then I couldn’t wait to graduate high school, because then my life would really begin. I had to get through college before I could actually start my life, and then finding a career was next. I thought that maybe one day this cycle of “waiting” would end…but it never does. Wha

With Fall right around the corner, I have been thinking a lot about school. I graduated from college two years ago, coming up on my third year away from any form of “formal” education. It is a wonderful feeling to never have to worry about tests, bells, and sleeping in on the final exam day. However, there is a discomforting feeling that comes when you realize that you are done with your formal education. That feeling comes from realizing that all of your education is now up

Lately all of the wonderful habits I promised myself I would start, or at least start doing better, have not happened. Not even one. This can be so frustrating especially when you feel your progress regressing. Why is creating a new positive routine in your life or habit feel almost impossible? Our list of reasons for not starting, not trying, and not developing the habits we would like to can all be traced back to our focus. Are we focused on the pleasure of our new habit or

However you chose to dress, style your hair, or do your makeup (or not)—it all says something about you. While we all know that we should never judge a person by the way they look, the reality is that we do. The late Jim Rohn, a renowned motivational speaker and my personal hero once said, “God looks on the inside and people look on the outside.” With this in mind understand that when people ask me if it really matters if they look nice, dress well, or do their hair the answe

Is it a universal law that someone always has to be better than you at something? It sure can seem like that. We all get intimidated. We want to be more like (and secretly hate) the girl that is more talented, is smarter, cooks better, has a boyfriend, got straight A’s, has a high up job, makes more money, or even is just better looking. But if we let intimidation stop us from doing our best and reaching for our goals then we don’t have much to go for. Intimidation can stop u

Control—we all want it. We want control over our lives, our bank account, other people, circumstances, and our hardships. We feel that if we have enough control that our lives can be free of all worries, trials, change, and unpleasant surprises. But it’s this very quest for control that can make us lose all sense of our control. So what do we do? We focus on the only control we can ever fully claim—control over ourselves. My whole life I have felt like I was in a power strugg

There is the best place that all of us dream of visiting. It is nice year-round, yet hardly anyone seems to visit. That place is called “someday” and though we plan to arrive there one day, if we aren’t careful we will drive right on pass or miss it all together. We think, I’ll be an adult someday. Someday I will graduate college. I will someday have what I really want in life. “Someday” can elude you despite your best intentions and you turn a year older. It’s not a bad thin