Did you ever hear the saying, “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise?”

While I love to go to bed early, and get up early, most executives I work with say they feel lucky to get 5 hours of sleep a night.

But this means that their body and brain lose 2-3 hours of the sleep they need for the energy, mental focus and peak productivity the next day.

How long can you expect energy to last without a fully charged battery, without proper sleep?

How can you hope to do your best, if you’ve not slept well the night before?

This is why you don’t want to watch TV and return late-night emails from bed — They can interrupt your body’s natural internal clock and the production cycles of hormones melatonin and cortisol that help you sleep.

Unhealthy, interrupted, and poor sleep patterns can affect even your most basic daily routines.

Which is why it’s so important to think about how you end your day, to set the stage for healthy sleep — to set the stage for an awesome next day.

Research shows that the light from computers and technology significantly lowers levels of melatonin, which regulates sleep cycles.

If you constantly wake up or can’t fall asleep, research also shows you could suffer from lower concentration and lower cognitive functioning. Just one sleepless night can cause you to feel foggy, unfocused and scattered.

To ensure that your body is ready to sleep when you go to bed, to create great success tomorrow:

1. You must choose ‘before-bed’ activities that set you up for a healthy and restorative night of sleep, like reading, meditation and removing all technology from your bedroom.
2. You must reduce stimulating activities 1 hour before bed, and aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night, to reap the energy, mental clarity and peak productivity a well restored body offers.

If you do these two simple steps, you literally sleep your way to greater success, because you’ll wake up restored and recharged for all that you want to accomplish!

Don’t underestimate these simple recommendations. You will feel more productive. You will feel more alert and focused. You will feel more energized…

Ask yourself, “what could be possible personally and professionally, if I felt more productive, alert, focused, and energized every day?”

As my client Kathryn said, “I’m getting so much more accomplished now that I’m sleeping better.”

And… I’ve got 4 more simple daily habits like this one that top achievers use to increase their energy by 30% in my free guide, Five to Thrive. You can get a copy here by clicking to download.

Have you ever heard, “Let go of saying ‘should. There are no shoulds. You should never say ‘I should?‘”

The words “you should” are teeming with unwanted advice and expectation.

In “The Alchemist,” Paulo Coelho, said, “Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”

A Conversation

Last week I had a conversation with someone who told me he wanted to lose weight and feel more energy. He continued  to describe how he suffered from acute and debilitating anxiety that often left him afraid to leave his home.

And this man is a successful entrepreneur. His company relies on him and his expertise.

When I told him my fee, he said, “Carol, I’d love to work with you, but I just paid a business coach $25K — I’ll call you in a few months.”

Though he suffers from debilitating anxiety, low energy and excess weight, he said with his dollars, his business matters more than his health.

Your Life is Your Most Valuable Possession

Though I said to him, “But you are your business,” I wanted to say,

Your life is your most valuable possession. What benchmark could you achieve in your business, what skill could you develop, what possession could you ever obtain that could be as valuable as your life?

Safeguard your health. Care for, treasure and protect your body. Your life is your most valuable possession.

If you put your health and wellbeing first, you will have far more opportunity to live and learn, grow and achieve.

Don’t take your health for granted. Your body started to tell you long ago you it needs your care and attention.

But at the risk of sounding like a snake-oil salesman, I tempered my response. At the risk of pressuring him, I held back.

Was I wrong? Should I have hard-sold him?

With all that I continue to learn about chronic disease and the generational impact it’s causing, with all that I see my clients gain and achieve because they feel so much better after working together, I say yes, I should have hard-sold him.

Saying, ‘You should,” doesn’t work. Saying “You should,” can actually antagonize, rather than draw in understanding and agreement.

And so I wait to hear from him.

But I’ll say to you, since there’s nothing at stake between you and I, but the whole quality of your health and your life,

Don’t take your life for granted. It is your most valuable possession.

Beyond diets, beyond weight loss, beyond on any achievement and possession, sanctify your life.

Sanctify your life and you will soon see and feel results in every area of life.

Sanctify your life and watch every good choice will flow.

Protect, purify and strengthen your body and watch life rise up within you. Reject what hampers and hinders it and watch health return, beauty emerge, intelligence lead and true power take over.

Do you sanctify your life as your most valuable possession?

Do your choices say “I consciously and consistently choose to protect, purify and strengthen my body?”

I’d love your to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

And if you want first steps to sanctify your life and take control of your health, begin here.

Do you suffer from seasonal allergies?

Does congestion, headaches, fatigue, watery, itchy eyes or other inflammatory symptoms get the best of you when the seasons change?

Research shows that more than 50 million Americans struggle with symptoms associated with allergies.

And many experts believe allergies can’t be cured, only managed, so they prescribe medications like steroids and antihistamines which only offer temporary relief and further complications, like not getting to the root cause.

I disagree. I know allergies can be cured, because I’ve cured myself of chronic and often painful allergy symptoms that I experienced earlier in life, especially every Spring season… and I’ve helped clients do the same.

Allergies are a hypersensitive immune response by the body. And what is important to note about this response is, 1) not everyone suffers from allergies (you would want to ask why?) and, 2) symptoms are inflammatory in nature.

That inflammation is a symptom that is linked back to all health problems, a precursor if you will, because chronic inflammation is known to cause and advance many common diseases.

7 Simple, Natural and Effective Allergy Solutions

Two Foundational Steps:

Yes, these two steps ask something more of you than just popping the immediate-fix prescription or over-the-counter pill. And, yes, these two steps will not give you the same in-the-moment relief. BUT they will, over the long haul, lay the healthy foundation you need, like me, to never suffer from another allergic response again.

1. Your first important step is to remove common inflammatory foods for at least seven days. This one step could very likely offer you the relief you need in a very short amount of time.
2. Next you want to add in foods that quell inflammation and alkalize your body with lots of green vegetables. Green and alkalizing foods carry with all their minerals and nutrients, the most vital substance of life, oxygen. And no symptom, not even disease, can live in a highly-oxygenated environment.

Every symptom is a sign of imbalance, and this 2-fold formula, what I call the Math Equation, is your ticket to counter imbalance and promote homeostasis in your body.

Five Simple Steps You Can Take Now for Immediate Relief

But you need ease from the symptoms you’re experiencing now — I know, or should I say, I remember!

Here are five steps you can take right now for immediate relief.

1. Hydrate+. Hydrate your body with warm or hot lemon water throughout the day. The lemon will help break up excess mucous and the congestion it causes and it’s loaded with immune-boosting Vitamin C. The warm/hot water will cleanse toxins, more deeply hydrate, and soothe your throat and sinus passages.
2. Local Honey. While I’m not a fan of added sugars of any kind, when you’re not feeling well, add local honey to your lemon water to ward off infections and allergies, and boost your immune system. Local honey is known to make your body resistant to a few types of pollens, like an antibiotic works.
3. Ginger Root. Fresh ginger root is a natural anti-inflammatory, and very good as a decongestant and antihistamine. Beyond working directly against inflammation in the body, it has many other health benefits that can help with seasonal allergies, including antioxidant and anti-viral properties.
4. Neti Pot. Cleansing nasal passages of irritants and allergens is an old Ayurvedic medicine remedy, but is growing in popularity in the U.S. With warm water and a little sea salt in your Neti Pot, you can clear your sinus cavity of mucous, to treat seasonal allergies, chronic and acute sinusitis and the common cold. I recommend taking a hot shower first, to help break up congestion and mucous.
5. Sleep. Beyond all the physical, mental and emotional benefits sleep provides, your body heals when it sleeps. If you are feeling rundown, safe-guarding your sleep hours is an important step to help your body recover from illness and the stress it causes.

Remember, as you set out to address these allergies you’re dealing with, they happen because of a hypersensitive immune response, and can affect your whole body. Begin with healthy eating and healthy lifestyle choices. They will serve you in ways far beyond the allergy troubles you’re experiencing. And… hydrate, with lots and lots of warm lemon water. Sweeten it lightly with local honey. Add ginger root if you don’t mind it’s spicy taste.  Flush out and clean your sinus passages of allergens and irritants, and get lots of extra sleep. If you’re not feeling well, there’s no such thing as too much sleep!

BONUS: One Healing Remedy

A personal favorite — Lemon Ginger Tea — a mug-full of all the ingredients I recommend above!

• Boil 2 cups of water
• Peel one lemon (do not remove all the white pith — it’s loaded with bio-flavionids = HIGH vitamin C!)
• Peel 1-2 inches of ginger
• Local honey to taste

Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender and puree until the lemon and the ginger are well broken down. Strain into your mug and add honey to taste.

Enjoy!

After you try my suggestions, let me know how they worked for you in the comments section below. I’d love to hear!

Is there something you feel really adamant about? Something that really matters to you? That though others might not understand why you feel the way you feel, you must give voice to this thing?

I don’t like meal delivery services, and here’s why:

I get you’re busy and this sort of service is a better solution to eating fast-food after work.

I get many meal deliver services tout “fresh and seasonal ingredients” and “delicious and unforgettable meals.”

What’s not to like, right?

It hits all the marks, yes?

The draw of these offers win on seemingly every marker — Convenience. Doorstep delivery. Quality ingredients.

But here’s the thing that’s missing, the thing that shows up for every client I work with and the reason why I don’t like, and don’t recommend meal delivery services:

We’re not taking time for even our most basic self-care, and in this case, a most basic of human needs — preparing our own food!

We work long days. We go to bed late. We get up early. We take little to no time to decompress from the stress of the day, and then we turn to every “time-saving” gimmick, offer and technology that supports us living an imbalanced life, rather than turn back to ways that create balance.

I recently asked a new client who went off one of the worst medications made, in ONE short month of us working together, the same client who is healing in mind-blowing ways, “Why do you think things (your health) got so out of control?”

“I wasn’t taking time to care for me. Business growth and work responsibilities completely took over.”

No time for self care is a common problem for most of us today, and is also the cause of untold stress, conflict, chronic symptoms and chronic disease.

We’re living as though our bodies don’t require any special care to function optimally.

Think about it, we were once hunter-and-gatherer societies. We were once a simple living species. But since the evolution away from a simple lifestyle to the more advanced industrial and technological societies, the human frame grows sicker and sicker. Today, one out of every two of us suffers from chronic disease. Today, eighty to a hundred autoimmune diseases have been discovered. Today, more suffer from depression than ever, with teens affected at even higher rates.

And yet many will argue for convenience over self-care.

It’s time to start cooking your own meals.

From choosing weekly recipes, to planning, shopping, prepping and cooking meals for you and your family, you’ll begin to create more balance in your life — You’ll begin to re-connect with yourself on a primal level, which alone will promote healing on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. Eating a meal is not simply a gastronomic experience to satisfy a need or craving, it’s a primal act with real physiological benefits.

Personally, I love all that I gain from grocery shopping. I love the real relationships I create with real people, like the produce guys, like Nashville and Arun, who’re always teaching me something new about what they’ve got stocked. They offer insights about local produce, how to think smartly about produce shipped in from other countries, and even preparation ideas. I know everyone in every department at my local grocery stores. I even know many up and down the east coast. There’s so much to be said alone for all the real relationships with real people gained from the experience of planning, prepping and shopping.

Another very busy client of mine, she’s a CFO, and I laughed so much yesterday as we talked about perusing our favorite cookbooks as a weekly commitment, to inspire new ways of preparing fun, healthy meals. She said, “I’m so excited about this little idea. I feel so inspired. It feels so fun.” So equal to all the creative benefits you gain from cooking yourself, you gain the opportunity to infuse your meal with love, have lots of fun “dancing and cooking” (I blast FUN music when I cook!) and the sacred ritual of hunting, gathering and preparing your meal!

It’s so important to slow down and connect with you and the food you eat.

Masaru Emoto showed us with compelling evidence in his movie, “Hidden Messages In Water,” that everything affects everything. Emoto’s message resounds with Einstein’s famous mc2 message on energy,

“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want.”

Every thought, every action, every emotion carries a pulsating light-energy that affects our reality, beginning on a cellular level. If you are fast-fooding your life, albeit on a more expensive and grander scale with meal-planning services, it’s affecting you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, beginning on a cellular level. This is pure science. That on the most basic level, Einstein discovered that energy and mass (matter) are interchangeable; they are different forms of the same thing.

I highly recommend Emoto’s documentary for a more simplistic explanation of energy and how to think about what you eat from this perspective, but if you are looking for easy health, high-vibe resources, I encourage you to follow chefs who focus on high-vibe foods on Instagram or their blogs — A few of my long-time favorites are Matthew Kenney and Susan Powers.

We live in times when everything and anything we want is available with the ‘bat of an eye’ — It’s not necessarily the best thing for us! 

Take to time to think about the foods you love most this week. Open a favorite cookbook and pick a few recipes you’d love to make. Go to your local grocery store and make a new friend in the produce department. Ask them how their freshest and best can enhance your recipes. Turn the volume up on the Rollings Stones, Bruno Mars or Adele and ENJOY EVERY benefit you gained from turning off work-mode, reconnecting to yourself in creative ways, meeting and befriending new people, cooking and dancing AND having great fun! I dare you to tell me you don’t FEEL the benefits on an energetic and cellular level! IF you can flip your mindset to fierce self-care, I bet you’ll be addicted to EVERY phase of cooking for yourself!

Everyone who’s ever met my mother says to me, “You’ve got good genes,” to explain my “youthful look.”

Yes, my Mom has always had beautiful skin, but believing that “I got good genes” from her, which guarantees me having beautiful skin is based on out-dated science, with wildly exciting implications far beyond “good skin.”

I’ve done my best to lighten up dense science, but stay with me here even if it feels a little heavy. It’s a really cool, empowering and important conversation that must first move through the theories of “good and bad genes,” to get to the gold.

Old Science

As you may remember from grade school lessons of Darwinian theory, old science says that everything in life is genetically predetermined. That from inside our cell’s nucleus, our chromosomes and DNA govern and predetermine our destiny. That is the reason, for example, why many believe that because “my mother has good skin,” I have good skin, or that because someone in your family had cancer, you’ll get cancer.

Good News. In a process called enucleation (removing the nucleus from the cell), researchers found that cells continue to function as if they still have a brain, even after their genetic code was removed.

This finding challenges Darwin’s science that DNA houses the cell’s intelligence that we’ve grown up believing to be true.  Even Darwin himself doubted his work at the end of his life. He questioned if he considered enough the impact of environment on his theories of “genetics as destiny,” genetic determinism.

New Science

New science, the field of epigenetics, found that the nucleus is responsible for cell-reproduction, and that the cell’s outer membrane is the actual brain of the cell — That the genetic code inside the nucleus is only a blueprint of who we are and that environmental factors directly influence how genes express themselves.

Let’s return to the example I opened with, “my mother has good skin.” Epigenetics says that this does not mean I will automatically get good skin, like so many of us believe about my mother’s skin, my skin, or a common chronic disease we believe is our genetic destiny.

There are two proteins inside our cell’s membrane that interact with the environment inside our body, and they respond to things like the foods we eat, the stress we experience, the thoughts we think, the things we do, and other lifestyle factors (including external influences).

That no matter how beautiful my mother’s skin is, or… no matter how sick my father got from Parkinson’s (as another example), or any other variable, I have some control over how my genes express themselves, and so do you…

Research shows that except for trauma, only 5% of us die from genetic diseases not influenced by lifestyle choices, and 95 percent of us die of preventable diseases. 

What Does This Mean for You and Me?

Great news. New science says that we have profound control over the ways our genes express themselves with the foods we eat, the thoughts we think, the actions we take and the lifestyle choices we choose. New science no longer supports the idea of “genes as destiny,” that I am guaranteed good skin because my mother has good skin, or that I’ll get Parkinson’s disease because my father had Parkinson’s disease.

New science puts me and you in the driver’s seat of our health and life. The theory of “genetics as destiny” is no longer a blessing or a curse, because new science has overturned it.

What You Can Do

Yes, research shows that there are factors we can’t avoid, that genetic disease could be our destiny  (5%). Yes, I could, as could you, be one of the 5% who die from a disease that is not influenced by lifestyle choices. But new science AND statistics show that you and I’ve got some pretty significant control over this game called quality-of-life to counter the near epidemic rates of chronic disease today!

That with the lifestyle choices we make, new science and statistics show that you and I’ve got significant control over the ways our genes express themselves.

To begin to build a healthy environment for your cells to thrive in, and to limit the ways a genetic predisposition expresses itself, start with: 1) Eating a clean and healthy diet, 2) Reducing stress 3) Choosing empowering thoughts, and 4) Exercising.

But also consider how this new science could impact you and your life, beyond all the immediate benefits you gain from making healthy lifestyle choices, like weight loss, increased energy, mental clarity and greater happiness.

Oh this world of new science and epigenetics! While it doesn’t guarantee me good skin anymore, this wildly exciting and game-changing research with wildly exciting and game-changing implications suggests we’ve got more power over the state of our health than we ever thought… and the glow of our skin! But of course every benefit happens inside the choices we make…

Before I close, I offer you one more important recommendation — Read my highest viewed and responded to post about why you want to eat high-vibe foods and grab your FREE step-by-step guide.

The plant-based diet is getting a lot of attention today.

Doctors like, T. Colin Campbell, John McDougall and Michael Greger, among many others I greatly respect, offer expansive and impressive research showing clear science that you can dramatically reduce your risk of getting cancer, heart disease, and diabetes just by changing to a plant-based diet.

Each of these doctors have helped shape my ideas about health and healing. I appreciate their contributions. Their healing counsel has positively impacted the lives of many.

But their work falls short on a very important matter about healing.

They’re not talking about the energy of food.

In fact, they tell us that we can reduce our risk of getting cancer, heart disease and diabetes while eating pizza, pancakes and potatoes.

But energetically, foods like this contribute to entropy — to the degeneration, chaos and demise of our body on a cellular level.

Albert Einstein taught us that “Everything in life is energy.” Stepping over his important work is having very real and physical consequences beyond just our health and vitality… it’s impacting the quality of our lives.

For example, when Courtney Donnelly and I began to work together last year, she was in the Emergency Room twice a week for months with Ulcerative Colitis, a health problem that esteemed specialists, at an esteemed institution, told her she’d never heal.

If I had her on a plant-based diet as recommended above, we’d never have healed her digestive wall — Foods like pizza, pancakes and potatoes, even if “plant-based,” would have continued to abrade her digestive wall, cause inflammation and cause an excess of mucous production, so healing would have eluded her.

Not only is Courtney healing right before our very eyes (down to one medication), other Mom’s regularly compliment her on her “glowing” skin and radiant energy.

Add on regular love texts from her husband saying, “I’m falling more in love with you everyday,” PLUS the launch of her new design and lifestyle business, Vibrant Home, the benefits she’s experiencing FAR exceed, as Courtney says, “looking and feeling better than I ever remember.”

Courtney’s life has changed significantly because she took on eating a “high vibe” diet, not simply a plant-based die.

Let me explain a “high vibe’ diet.

Imagine your garage-door opener and alarm system on your house, they depend on a specific range of megahertz (MHz) of energy to run efficiently. It’s the same for your body, it depends on a specific range of MHz of energy to function at peak performance.

MHz is a scientific measurement of frequency and vibrational energy.

Imagine if you only provide your garage-door opener and alarm system 10 MHz of energy, though they run optimally at 40 MHz of energy, what do you think will happen? If you guessed sub-par functionality, with very low output, you’d a’ guessed right!

Your body — on a cellular level, operates similarly. If it does not receive the optimal range of megahertz of energy to function optimally (60-70), cellular activity in your body, with every gland, organ and system will function at a sub-par level — think brain fog, chronic and acute symptoms, excess weight, emotional imbalance, poor energy and poor performance.

Unlike electronic devices that just break down, your body is designed to convert MHz of energy from the air your breathe, the food you eat, and water you drink. This is why it’s imperative you understand the importance of quality air, food and water. They don’t just fuel your body, they heal against the ravages of the modern lifestyle.

The MHz of energy in a healthy body is very different than the MHz of energy in a sick body — As mentioned above, the optimal range of megahertz of energy in a healthy body is roughly 60-70 MHz. A common cold and flu start at 57-60 MHz (Warning: not a far drop from the healthy range). Candida overgrowth and disease start at 55 MHz. Cancer — 42 MHz. Death — 25 MHz.

Courtney, I, and all my clients eat a “high vibe” diet. My goal, for me, my clients and you, is to counter the ravaging impact of the modern lifestyle of fast food and immediate gratification, against our body. Statistics of chronic disease show us that trouble is afoot, that what we’re eating is not working for the human body… which is why I’ve created a guide for you to reenergize your body with high-vibe foods.

As pizza, pancakes and potatoes cause entropic demise of your body, the guide I’ve created outlines the frequencies of the foods you eat, so you can make choices to raise your vibrational state. It’s an easy download that you can hang on your fridge, or take shopping with you!

Download Your Free Energetics of Food Guide!

While I highly recommend the doctors above for their extensive research and work on the value of the plan-based diet, I’ve found it’s not enough. A diet rich in high-vibe foods is the key to turning your body back on, like Courtney and my other clients have.

*Do Note: Fruit offers the highest MHz of energy of any other food, so it tops the guide. If not for the impact of the modern lifestyle on the human body, I’d recommend it. But the high-sugar content of sweet fruit feeds yeast, mold, fungus and pathogen in the body — best to limit fruit to low-sugar choices, like lemons, limes, grapefruits, all berries and green apples. 

A challenge to you:

For the next week, challenge yourself to eat a diet of primarily high-vibe foods, while omitting low-vibe foods. Use the guide to lead you to making your best choices, and then assess how you feel, and how you look come the end of the week. When you’re done, come back and let me know how you did! I’d love to hear.

And, if you have any questions or comments, please do post below. I’d love to help!

Did you make it past January 12th?

Official Quitters Day?

Studies show January 12th is the official day most people give up on their New Year’s Resolutions.

Just twelve days after committing to their biggest hopes, dreams and goals,

Most people quit.

And though you started 2018 strong by creating solid, actionable goals, assessing where you were when you started the year, and then you even added in some BIG dreams to the mix,

You may have fallen smack dab center into the resolution quitters hole too,

Though you so want to look and feel your best this year!

As I said to one of my clients this week, it’s completely unrealistic to think we can succeed at winning many goals, IF we’re not used to committing to one goal.

This is why I’ve always LOVED author and editor of Success Magazine, Darren Hardy’s quote,

“Small smart choices + Consistency + Time = Radical Difference.”

But no worries if you projected too much too soon and slipped a bit.

I’ve got 14 secrets to share with you that help me and my clients achieve results that not only last, but make a real difference in our lives. Results like, heal lifelong digestive problems, go off of high blood pressure and high cholesterol medications, lose 50 pounds, put autoimmune disease in remission, reduce insulin by 70%, heal ulcerative colitis and so much more.

1. Choose goals that inspire YOU, not goals that inspire others.
2. Get very clear WHY you want to achieve your goal — Ask yourself what the goal is you really want, underneath the goal you’re after.
3. HINT: Ask yourself, “how do I want to FEEL?”
4. Set your bar HIGH, and don’t let anyone else’s ideas, standards and habits lower yours. Ever.
5. Raise your bar again.
6. When you hit a mark, celebrate.
7. Celebrate again. Celebrate every single win.
8. Create goals that pull you to them — goals that stop your heart for a second.
9. Develop congruency — What you do matches what you say you’ll do.
10. Seek out people who support who you want to be and the goals you want to achieve (this has been my goal for the past 25 years).
11. Burn fear. Take Risks.
12. Set “Impossible Goals,” goals that don’t seem remotely possible. We often forget that the impossible is possible. Did Neil Armstrong think it possible to walk on the moon when he was a little boy? Did Martin Luther King imagine early in life that he would lead a segregated nation to unity? Did Gandhi think he could topple British rule and free his country early on?
13. Set impossible goals and do this often. On a regular basis. This is why we pursue vibrant health = everything becomes possible! 
14. Join me in my 6-month program, Your Best Health Project, to guarantee you achieve your goals this year.

Don’t sacrifice your goals this year!  Tell me in the comments section below,

What would achieving your goal make possible for you?

What would you want if you knew you couldn’t fail?

What would it mean to you, if you achieved your goal?

Tell me. I’d love to help.

It was a life-changing moment.

Norman and Sherry, two people I barely knew, were enjoying cocktails and laughing with their friends.

“How many nights were they here at the restaurant this week?” I thought, while I labored through the dining room with,

The heavier-than-me tray full of beautifully-plated meals weighing down my shoulder.

I wondered, “What the heck do they do, that I don’t do?”

“They’re here near every night. They travel all the time. They’re successful. They enjoy life.”

As I was remembering crying just a few short hours ago, while I struggled to find a babysitter, so I could get to my twelfth work-shift in a row that night,

And still not have enough money to pay my bills, never mind go out to dinner, travel and enjoy life like they did!

When I first read poet Mary Oliver ask, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” in her poem, Summer Day, I was like, “Heck if I know, I’m too tired from working all the time!”

…

Jim Rohn said, your “dreams get you started; discipline keeps you going.”

But Rohn didn’t just say this, he literally showed me HOW to dream again, beyond the grind of the day-to-day, so I could actually consider the weight of what Oliver was asking.

In an exercise very similar to the one I offer you, Rohn asked me to think about all the dreams and goals I ever had in life… AND to write them down!

As I discovered, and as you’ll soon discover too, you’ll remember the craziest and coolest things that you always wanted to do, but forgot, and you’ll be like, “WOW, COOL! YES, I remember wanting to accomplish  _______ and do _______!”

But the grind takes over. Immediate needs take precedence, and I, and maybe you too, simply forgot how much you’d really love to accomplish that thing, or do this thing!

I give all my clients this Dare to Dream Exercise, because it changed my life, and I know it can change yours too, IF you want your dreams to drive the actions you take to achieve the goals and results you most want.

Dare to Dream WILL remind you of things that once really mattered to you, but got buried underneath you daily to-dos and responsibilities! It WILL bring back excitement into your goal setting! And if you’re excited about your goals, your way more likely to create the results you really want!

On first run, you might feel like this very simple exercise is hard, if, like me, you feel like your dreams got lost somewhere amidst your day-to-day grind.

But no fear, it’s an exercise you can do again, and again, and likely get better at as you do it again!

Download Your Free Dare to Dream Exercise!Best part though? You’ll gain clarity on the kinds of actions you need to take to accomplish your goals and DO the things you need to do, to bring your dreams to life, like me!

The question, “What will you do with your one wild and precious life?” will begin to take on a life of it’s own in ways you can’t see just yet, when you begin to reclaim what you most want to do and accomplish!

Years back, I NEVER imagined me as the “self-disciplined one,” but ’tis true, it’s who I’ve become as I began to excavate what I most wanted to do and accomplish in life!

In looking back, it’s incredible how people I barely knew made such a difference in my life.

Your Turn

I’d love to hear what you discovered from taking on this exercise.

I’d LOVE to hear what you discover, when you dare to bring your dreams alive again…

It’s a simple, but not necessarily easy exercise, and I’m happy to help in any way. Just post your questions and ideas in the comments section below and I’ll respond pronto!

If your goals include losing weight, increasing energy, improving mental clarity and even relieving chronic health symptoms — you’ve got to focus on creating balance in life, rather than just a one quick-fix-solution.

You can comb through all the statistics and suggestions published around this time of year on how to stick to your resolutions, but the hard truth is, 92% of us will quit by February 1st.

That is, unless, you get that, “How you do anything is how you do everything.”

How you manage any area of life, circumstance or experience, is very likely how you manage every area of life.

Balance Matters

If you’re out of balance in one area, research shows your out of balance in other areas too.

Think about it, if you’re stressed out at work, over-tired because you’re not getting enough sleep, or just feeling defeated because you can never stick to your goals to get the results you most want, do you think you’ll stick to your resolution to eat healthy when you feel overtired after work?

Do you think you’ll stick with getting to the gym, like you’ve said you would many times over, if stress rules your relationships or troubles with finances distracts you?

As a new client said to me, “I’m “successful” in all ways that say I’m successful, but I’m overweight. I’m addicted to food, I’m stressed out and I’m working myself to death. This does not feel successful, it feels crazy.”

The impact of the continual trying and the continual failing wreaks havoc on ‘you’ mentally and emotionally.

The National Institute of Health defines the impact of this recurring high and low cycle as a psychological condition. The question you want to ask is, how does this pattern impact you mentally and emotionally over the long haul?

To break through defeating patterns and an out-of-balance life, balance is your answer and The Wheel of Life is your starting assessment tool.

The Wheel of Life

Last week you clarified your goals for 2018. This week you’ll use The Wheel of Life, a useful tool I use with all my private clients, to make sure that your goals support results and balance.

The Wheel of life shows where you’re thriving in life, and where you need to extend more attention and effort, in an aerial overview kind of way, which is often amiss for many in the goal setting process.

In this assessment exercise, you want to make sure your wheel, the whole of your life is in balance, because you know what happens when you feel out of balance, right? Commitments break. Goals get shelved. Defeat resumes.

Look at each area of The Wheel, like health and finances, career and health, as “spokes,” of a wheel, to tighten up your goals in ways that promote the results you want, but in a smart and balanced way.

I’ve created a FREE worksheet to help guide you in doing the Wheel of Life exercise. Just click below for an instant download.

Download Your Free Wheel of Life Exercise! 

I recommend blocking 15-30 minutes to do this exercise today, to weigh in on the goals you set last week, and how what you discover in this exercise can help you smartly edit them!

If you know you’re caught up in the world of doing, doing, doing, and reacting to life, rather than creating the forward momentum and results you most want, add the Wheel of Life to your New Year’s resolutions and goal setting this year… It will help you identify where you’re at now, and what you need to do, to get what you most want for you life, in a healthy and balanced way. 

I’ve heard many saying this week, “I’m done with resolutions.”

That 2018 is the “Year of Intention.”

No goals. No personal development. No plan.

Intention is the compass now.

What about you? Did you denounce resolutions this year?

I get it. Take good care of yourself. It’s essential. Yes.

But, how do you get from point A to point B, without a plan, without taking action?

The definition of resolution says, “a firm decision to do or not to do something.”

To do. To take action. Or not.

IF your committed to personal growth and development, for you and your life,

• With your health
• With your relationships,
• Or even with your time-management,

It’s irrefutable, getting there is going to require more than intention.

Change requires you take new actions.

I myself have an arms-length of goals I want to achieve this year, from building “my strongest body ever,” to delivering a TED Talk, to even writing a book.

Intention alone would never get me the results I want.

Creating Actionable Goals in 2018

At the kickoff call for my 1:1 coaching program, Your Best Health Project, and as the kickoff for this year long blog series, I, ask one starting question:

What do you want to get out of this program?

Or, more specifically, what are the goals you most want to achieve while we work together?

And then we set the stage of every action you will take to achieve your goals.

Intention matters. You set one in our first session. It guides the program, but actions get you to your end game.

Simply put, intention is not enough.

Without taking new actions, you can’t create change.

I ask you, WHAT top 3-5 goals would you most love to achieve in your health and wellness this year?

As an example, you might say, I want to lose weight.

But “I want to lose weight” is elusive. It’s not specific enough. To achieve any goal, it has to be smart, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely.

If weight-loss is your goal, you want to pick a specific number of pounds you want to lose, and you want to calculate how much weigh you’ll lose each week, each month, to get to your goal weight. Then you want to be realistic for the 6-month period of time we’d work together — you don’t want to set an unrealistic expectation and set yourself up for failure.

OK, let’s break it down:

Over a 6-month period, if you want to lose 30 pounds, divide 30 (the pounds you want to lose) by 24 weeks (the 6 months of working together) and you’d easily see that you need to lose .8 pounds per week to get to your goal weight.

But this is only one example, and the math makes it easy to measure.

But let’s say your goal is something more intangible, like you want more energy.

Then you’d choose specific actions that would increase your energy in a very measurable way.

For example, one of my overall top recommendations with every client is, The Math Equation, where I recommend clients take out foods that cause inflammation in the body (which inherently deplete energy reserves) and add in The Wholly Trinity, or greens 3-ways, a green juice, a green smoothie and a meal-sized green salad every day that will naturally increase energy because every ingredient is oxygen heavy (which increases energy).

• HINT — Choose ONE goal, or new habit that you KNOW could make every other action easier. For example, you might choose getting up 30 minutes earlier in the morning, so you can journal and meditate before others in your family wake up. Or, you might choose preparing smoothies and lunches at nighttime, like my client Courtney does, to make mornings more smooth and easy with her family.

Creating Your Goal Plan

Whatever your goal, you can, and you must:

1. Write your goals down. If you write them down, you put them into existence — they become a real target, rather than simply wishful thinking.
2. Choose specific actions that you can measure in very solid ways, and they must be realistic for the time window you choose to achieve them.
3. Publicly declare your goal, and the actions you’re going to take to achieve it.
4. Create accountability with another person, like a coach or an accountability partner.

Research shows that if you write down your goals, share them with a friend, and create accountability with a coach or accountability partner, you will exponentially reap higher results.

Your turn. Your time.

If you know you struggle with accountability (just look back at your 2016 and 2017 resolutions!) and are ready to create the results you want now, by working with me, click here to schedule a free discovery call to see what’s possible.

Or, if you just need a safe space to declare your goals – post in the comments below! Then bookmark this page and come back to stay on track, I’ll support you every step of the way!