The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.     ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I was a really good student. Can't say I retained most of what i jammed into my head right before a test, but I would certainly make every effort to get an A. 

Once I became an A student and had the reputation of always getting A's, I became a person who then would be utterly embarrassed and hard on myself if I achieved anything but an A.

The idea of receiving a C or D, which as you recall meant Average and Below Average, seemed like it would be mortifying.  I mean, the prospect of getting an F- FAILING would have been the end of the world in my mind. So I ended up playing it safe, taking easier classes and hiding from tapping into my true potential and what I truly wanted to go after. I hid.

Fast forward a few decades (ok, 4) and now I have a whole different perspective- one I am compelled to share with you and the world.  I know now what...

Are you overwhelmed with all the stuff you own?

This time of year gets especially hard for me as I bring in more things in the form of Christmas presents for my kiddos.

With three kids I try to even it out as much as possible to show my equality of love for them!  Sometimes, though I look at it all and admit its a lot of STUFF.  

Do you get me mamas? 

It is a great reminder, however, of my rule of "If things are coming in, things will need to go out."

I make sure of it because of what I know for sure- A life lived with having less items that you don’t need, use or want can bring you so much MORE.

More PEACE more TIME and definitely more FREEDOM

Imagine the freedom and peace you would feel as you look around your home and think, “I love, need, and use everything I own.”

Change your thoughts from “I don’t know where to begin” to “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Tis is my favorite thought that...

I like mornings.  Do you?

I run them instead of letting them run me. 

I get all of my "have-to's" done quickly like brushing my teeth and I make decisions quickly when getting dressed. I  also spend my mornings doing my "want to's", working out and prioritizing my dedicated prayer time. 

Early bird gets the worm, right?

Not everyone feels the same way and that's OK. 

Everyone has their own routine and reasons why they get up at a certain time and start living out the day in a certain way.

I would like to offer you a perspective of organizing every single type of morning routine, no matter what it entails.  

I've learned that organizing your morning, or anyone's morning for that matter, is best done when you get your thinking and feelings in order. 

What you do and how you show up doing it will then dictate if your mornings go well or not- according to your own standards. 

So, let's organize your morning thinking.  

Focus in on...

FOMO which stands for "Fear Of Missing Out" is a buzz word of late. 

I've personally felt it as I concluded my training as a Life Coach and began my entrepreneurial journey. We, Certified Life Coaches, have access to a channel of communication  (called Slack) where so much is posted about ALL THE THINGS everybody is doing and accomplishing. It also let's us know where others are struggling and this too sets us up for comparison.

It startled me for a while, how I easily compared where I was in my business to where others were and it sent me down a path of FOMO when I checked the channel everyday,  Can you relate at all?

After all, there might be vital information I need and can't miss, right?  

My mind was getting cluttered and my negative feeling radar was alerted as to my comparison thinking causing the unwanted feelings. 

My training as a Life Coach has given me the awareness, thank goodness, when I've fallen prey to this unwanted feeling of FOMO...

The end of a decade is soon upon us. 

The month of December is filled with year in reviews and now that it is also a decade change, there will be decade in reviews, as well. 

This can be so fun.

I do like looking back to recall memories of adventures I experienced, having a laugh at what I worried about and, of course, how my looks have changed (my kids like to point this one out).

Many times I also seem to focus on the mistakes I have made, including when I didn't show up as the mom and wife I strive to be or what I set out to do but didn't accomplish for one reason or another.   

I am reminded, however, that to live successfully, we must move away from past failures and mistakes and go forward without letting them be a weight upon us.  

By putting the past behind us we can then organize the future by looking confidently there and keeping God close is the key. 

This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching...

Are you the type of person who has a hundred things on your list to accomplish?

Do you set a bunch of goals and regularly come up with new ones to add to the list?

Well, just like having too much stuff in your house and too many things to do on your schedule, you can also have too many goals which equals GOAL CLUTTER.

Having goals and setting out to accomplish them is such a noble endeavor, right? or is it? Perhaps after reflecting on your list of goals you'll come to realize that you are spreading yourself too thin? Not really accomplishing anything before something new takes your attention.

The key to achieving success is FOCUS or in another word, CONSTRAINT.   Having a laser pointed energy focused in one area at a time can bring your desired result more quickly to where you can then move on to your next goal.  Constraining to one goal at a time is crucial to following through. 

To see this in action, try the following exercise:

1.  Write 25 goals you...

To stuff a Thanksgiving turkey you first have to remove all the insides so the cavity is all nice and cleaned out.

Then you get to stuff back in all the good stuff: bread crumbs, carrots, celery and spices.

Organizing your thinking works very much the same way.

Your brain is filled with sixty thousand to eighty thousand thoughts per day.

Imagine that many thoughts filling a room. Now that's stuffed!

There are three steps to follow in order to unstuff your head and organize your thinking.

Step 1 Become aware.

The more aware you are of your thinking, the more you can make conscious choices about how you want to think. To become aware, you have to shift from merely thinking, to thinking about your thinking. Stay with me now!  Its like you are eavesdropping on your own mind.

To eavesdrop on your thinking, you simply write down all the sentences that comes to your mind. Just write, observing your thoughts as they come, getting them out of your mind and onto paper. We call this list...

During my first career as a professional ballet dancer, I was trained for over two decades to follow directions, to execute exactly the steps I was shown. 

If you tell me or show me what you would like me to perform, I will then learn, practice, and carry out the directions until there is a successful performance as a result.  This is how it was done

Another example of knowing the steps to follow is when we look at a recipe that has detailed directions laid out to make the perfect dinner.  We follow each step which makes us feel sure we will get a yummy dinner.

But what if there is no director telling you his vision and what exact steps to dance to get there?

OR

No recipe to follow but just have a pile of ingredients on the table?

Would you find yourself saying the following phrases/questions

I don't know how to......

I don't know where......

I don't know what........

I don't know when......

I don't know why........

That is the default pattern our brain tells...