Do you find yourself constantly putting pressure on yourself to develop and/or be consistent with your habits?

It can be hard to juggle habits when productivity and self-improvement often go hand in hand. Many of us find ourselves in a constant cycle of starting, maintaining, and sometimes abandoning habits, all under the pressure of expectations. But what if there's a gentler approach to bettering your habits—one that emphasizes trust in ourselves and the evolving nature of our needs?

Imagine waking up each day completely trusting the habits you've chosen to grow. This is what we all want: habits that serve us, that align with our current circumstances, and that evolve as we do. For those deeply entrenched in the science and practice of habits, like myself, it's easy to become enamored with the idea of mastering and perfecting our habits. Yet, as I've discovered in my own journey, even well-established habits can become burdensome if we don't take time to reevaluate them from time t...

It's the start of a new year, and if there's one thing everyone is doing, it's making plans.

But did you know that most people don't realize the four components of effective planning, and THAT is why so many fall off on their goals early in the year?

Here are 4 components of planning:

Vision casting, goal-setting, habit-building, and mindset.

If you've struggled with not only enjoying the process of planning but also activating and achieving your goals, it might be because you didn't have all four of the necessary components to make planning effective. 

If you're lacking even one of the 4 components, it's going to make achieving your goals that much harder. The good news is we're talking about all of them below, so you won't be missing anything this year!

4 Must-Have Components for Effective Planning

1. Vision

Picture this: you're headed out on a road trip to a place you've never been before. How do you get there? A map!

Just like you need directions to tell you where to go...

Have you ever noticed that the way you start your day sets the tone for everything that follows?

For high performers, optimizing morning routines is more than just a habit – it's a strategic approach to maximizing productivity, focus, and overall well-being!

How things go in the first hours of the day and its impact on your day isn't just luck––it's science! Our bodies operate on a natural internal clock, and morning light exposure helps regulate the release of hormones like cortisol, impacting stress levels and overall well-being. Establishing positive habits in the morning can positively influence these physiological processes and set a constructive tone for the rest of the day.

So how do you master a productive morning routine? Let's discuss some key elements to elevating your performance through habits and intention in the early hours of the day.

1. Early Rising: The Power of the Sun

High performers often swear by the practice of waking up early. The morning sun not only pr...

Have you become so busy that you have neglected the practice of using a planner? If you’re like most of the clients I coach, you’ve fallen into a rut of clicking “accept” on every event that passes through your inbox, from Zoom meeting invitations and party invites. You likely send your daily routine straight to your Google calendar and rely on its notifications to manage your days and weeks. 

You are flying through life living from one Google notification to the other. 

Do you ever feel like your schedule is running your life and wonder if you’ll ever get to be in charge again? 

If this sounds like your current rhythm, I want to express how deeply I understand. Being a busy business owner, wife of an entrepreneur, and mom of four young children who still need help with their homework and a ride to EVERY activity, I couldn’t relate more. That’s why I am so passionate about something that has become so useful and invaluable to me: the old-fashioned pencil and paper.

Yes, a paper pla...

Are you feeling stuck in a cycle of knowing what you want but always coming up short or not sustaining what you want  once you get there?

Do you feel like you’ve tried so many different things but nothing seems to stick? Nothing seems to move you forward the way you WANT to move forward?

When this happens, I ask this question to all the High Performers that I coach...so let me ask you.

How are your habits? 

Have you been paying attention to your habits at all?

Are you CONSISTENT with your habits?

You should know that your habits are the exact place to start if you want to get unstuck!

What’s the most common hang up on this subject? I think you already know, and that is why you clicked on this blog. In fact, the above few questions may have caused you to shift in your chair feeling uncomfortable because you may think that habits constrict your freedom.

If you don’t believe this…I’m sure you’ve at least felt a hint of fear surrounding your habits. This fee...

Do you ever feel like you’ve spent your whole day warding off distraction rather than “winning the day?”

I have felt this on many occasions. 

For me, I know I’ve won the day when I’ve successfully planned ahead, connected with my people and when I know I showed up to the best of my abilities. But some days, distractions limit me from accomplishing that winning plan. 

Some days giving into distractions has a domino effect and, soon enough, the end of the day feels like a bust. When I do this, I look back on the day and realize, I basically gave up by giving in! (Let me be clear - giving up IS okay if you’re not going in the direction you want to go! Maybe you need to re-route! But giving up on something you love in order to avoid the discomfort of discipline, that’s another thing entirely and I’m here to tell you… as a High Performer, which I know you are...we don’t give up on the things that matter!)

I’ve faced (and continue to face) obstacle after obstacle when it come...

James Clear once said, “change your habits, change your life.” As a big proponent of the power of healthy habits, I couldn’t agree more!

We all want some sort of transformation in our life. Whether it’s making small changes in our personal life, becoming a better parent or taking our business to the next level, most everyone wants to better themself in some way or another.

Many people believe that in order to transform, they have to completely overhaul their life. But I want to share a nugget of truth: it’s the small habits that transform.

When you think about it, it makes total sense. When you commit to following through with small habits, they add up over time: resulting in big change!

Making sweeping changes can also have a big effect, of course. However, as humans it can be super easy to drop those big changes when they become overwhelming. Admit it, you’ve let go of a New Year’s Resolution or two because it ended up being too dramatic!

Determine Your Direction

If you’ve spent any amount of time with me, you know that I love a good discussion about habits. Whether good or bad, we all have them. If you’ve clicked on this post today though, you know we are talking about habits you want to break...habits that are no longer serving the person you want to become.

Bad habits are something that have evolved within our life that usually have some sort of pay off that we find rewarding. Maybe it’s the feeling of a lazy day spent on the couch avoiding chores, or avoiding that sense of anxiety by procrastinating on a big work project. Either way, the immediate gratification of embracing that bad habit is so enticing that we find ourselves doing it over and over.

But news flash! All those bad habits don’t offer any rewards! They continue to just bring short term “happiness,” causing you to miss out on all the goodness that is otherwise out there.

So how do you break bad habits? It’s not as difficult as you may think!

Define Your Habits

To s...

In my time as a high performance coach, I’ve seen traits that high performers possess that set them apart. One of the most important qualities of someone who continually finds success has got to be this: they are proactive, not reactive.

What’s the difference? 

A proactive person is one who plans. They plan their day, their week, their month, and even their year! (Yes, I just made a FRIENDS reference).  High performers foresee challenges and eliminate the problems before they have a chance to come to fruition. And they have a clear direction for where they want to go so they don’t get sidetracked by distractions or the need to put out fires (that may not be fires at all). 

The opposite of a proactive person is a reactive person, who waits for an issue to arise and then starts to problem solve. Reactive people don’t have a clear picture so they get tossed around reacting to whatever comes their way and often not progressing much at all. Living in a constant state of reaction...

When it comes to being a high performer, a lot of people believe that the quickest way to reach success is to work harder. And working harder usually equates to being busy. After all, if you’re busy, you must be accomplishing a lot, right?

Not necessarily.

First, let’s admit that high performers have a natural tendency to be busy people. They are hard working, go-getters, and make things happen. That can often present itself as a constant state of frenzy. 

We’ve likely all been there, especially when we’re trying to launch a new business or level-up!

But let’s be honest––it’s not sustainable. And it’s also not productive!

A healthy high performer (or someone who is working towards health) spends their time and productivity working on the right next steps or their habits.

High performers who are in a healthy place aren’t thinking about how many meetings they can squeeze into a day or how they can fill their calendar. 

They’re thinking:

“What can I do now ...