As I pull out my keyboard to write this morning, I’m feeling imposter syndrome creep in.

Reframing dips into the sphere of therapy. Because you all know how much I love therapy, I'm going to start this post by stating...find professional help if your "situation" is rooted in trauma or something that is interfering with your everyday life.

Sigh, I feel better with that off my chest.

If you're just feeling stuck, keep reading.

Reframing Defined

Let’s start out with a definition of reframing. 

Harvard Stress & Development Lab explains, “Positive reframing involves thinking about a negative or challenging situation in a more positive way. This could involve thinking about a benefit or upside to a negative situation that you had not considered. Alternatively, it can involve identifying a lesson to be learned from a difficult situation.  Finding something to be grateful about in a challenging situation is a type of...

That moment when your husband walks in after a long day can you feel your body tense?

It could be a tone in his voice or a particular way he holds himself. Overwhelm is written all over his face.

It's much easier to spot in others. We are more used to our own sh*t.

No matter if you are being called out for being stressed out or if you recognize the warning signs in yourself. Here are some things to keep in mind when you’ve reached that awful place of not knowing what to do next.

Protect your Mental Health

I’ve been an advocate for mental health long before it was trending because of my journey with parenting two kids with ADHD. I think this is a good starting point to go into overwhelm.

If this is a problem bigger than yourself, you need to look outside to get the help you need.  I urge you to seek help if there are trauma or behavioral issues involved. There is zero shame in seeking help from a therapist. I started seeing a...

My dog saved my life.

As a toddler, I had the luckiest day of my life. One day, while they were busy inside, my parents let me play in the backyard.  They didn't know the pool guy had left the safety gate unlocked.

My little feet floated into the pool area. I was not safe, so my dog alerted the adults. When my parents came outside to see what all the barking was about, I was about to jump in.

Do I believe in luck? Absolutely, but I also believe it takes more than gold coins and rainbows to live a full life. Let’s explore the possibilities.

“Luck is when preparation meets opportunity”

This is a famous quote by Roman philosopher Seneca.

This idea makes sense because we have to put in the hard work to be prepared. If you want to land your dream client, you have to have done the work to prove to them you are worthy of their business. If you want an amazing relationship with your daughter, you have to show up in their lives...

Your goals are under attack. 

You are bombarding your vision for your life with fear, perfectionism, failures, excuses, and procrastination, to name a few.

It's time to go on defense. In today's post, I will share with you my favorite weapons (aka tools) for setting goals.

1. Life Plan

It's like a roadmap. 

When you're putting launching a business, there’s thought and strategy behind it (aka a business plan). This is a plan for your life goals. It’s a strategy that reverse engineers your life.

Stay with me, this is going to get dark. Think about the end of your life. How do you want to be remembered by your children, your partner, your coworkers, your friends, whoever is important to you? Begin living into that intentionally today and into the future. 

The life plan is a process of looking at these goals and also looking at the obligations that you have in your life, in addition to the accounts that are...

You have only 40 seconds to focus. How much will you accomplish?

I heard this alarming fact in author Chris Bailey’s Ted Talk on focus. He warns if you have your phone nearby you are only able to focus for 40-second sprints. 

As a mompreneur, you're dealing with more than just that interruption.  You’ve got a husband that needs you to run an errand, a friend who needs to unload her fight with mom, and the incessant needs of those kids.

Interruptions cost you every time. This is known as a switching cost. As soon as we take our focus off of our task and put it on something else, our mind takes some time to refocus when we return to the original task. It's also a waste of energy. The reason you're going to feel really drained by the end of that task is that you're pulling yourself back and pulling yourself back and pulling yourself back because you're constantly interrupted every 40 seconds. 

I used to struggle with silencing all of...

SQUIRREL!

Where did your mind go?

I think of Dug the sweet but easily distractable dog from the Pixar movie UP. 

I just opened another tab in my browser and found Pixar’s Instagram account.  Did you know Dug has a series of shorts out now on Disney+? That would be fun to watch with the kids.

It’s been 15 minutes but now I’m back to writing this post. This is my brain chasing squirrels.

It’s fun to follow the sparkle of a shiny object but beware.  Shiny object syndrome can pull you off course in chasing your goals. How do you stop it?

I’ve given you some tools on how to focus but today let me give you some questions to consider when there’s a shiny object is dangling between you and that goal you wrote down on January 1st.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself to Curb Shiny Object Syndrome and Keep Focused on Your Goals

1. What is my top goal for the next 3-6 months?   

   Admit...

The text read: Would you ever do Ragnar Tahoe again? 

My heart skipped a beat. One of my dearest friends was asking me to join a trail running event. Not just any trail run but the one I completed 2 years ago that was one of the greatest experiences of my life.  I reread the message and my heart sank.  It’s a 24hour team relay event that was planned on my son's 12th birthday.

I texted back, “OHHH I would do it again but that’s Chase’s birthday…let me think on that one.”

I wanted to hold onto the dream of experiencing that trail run with one of my besties for a few more moments.  In my heart, I knew my answer had to be NO. Ragnar Tahoe will be there again next year but I could only celebrate my son’s 12th birthday once. 

Ironically if you look at my goals for 2022 I’ve listed finish another trail race. But when the opportunity presented itself, I had to make a choice, and the option...

In another lifetime (pre-kids) I worked as a pharma rep.  I would schlep drug samples to doctor’s offices all around Sacramento, the East Bay, and Napa.  At the end of the year, I would have a performance review with my District Manager.  A process many of you know if you ever spent time working for someone else.  

Regardless of whether the review was positive or negative, you always learn something about yourself. Today I want to make a case for how you can spin this process for your mom biz.

Let’s take a look:

Your Accomplishments

You need to celebrate those wins.  Take some time to review what you accomplished in 2021. Do you have a brag file? If so, great! Spend some time flipping through it. If not, here are some tips to spark your memory.

• Review your calendar
• Scroll through photos
• Revisit social media posts
• Flip through your journal

Day to Day

How you spend your time, regardless of what’s on your...

It's easy to see why multitasking is so tempting. We're all busy and it seems like we can do more in less time when we work on multiple projects at once. But research has shown that our brain can't actually handle doing two tasks simultaneously, which means that the quality of both will suffer. So what are your thoughts? Is multitasking good or evil? Let’s explore this a little further.

As many of you know I’ve been spending a lot of time on Clubhouse because I enjoy connecting, inspiring, and learning from others on the app.  It has also increased the time I spend multitasking because I’ve been drawn in by the lure of not wanting to miss out on a conversation. I find myself “clubhousing” while checking emails or making lunch.  Right in line with the oxford definition the performance of more than one task at the same time. I get into trouble when I try to “clubhouse” and complete more demanding tasks.  For example, if...

Has mama guilt stolen your creativity?

There are not enough hours in the day to do everything. Sometimes, you look at your to-do list and wonder how it got so long. You might even think that adding more things to it won't make a difference because there just isn't time for them all! 

What if I told you that making time for imagination is worth doing? Creativity can be very therapeutic and fun too! Here are some ways to find the creativity inside of you: 

Consciously Absorb New Information

Be fully present and experience everything, without filter.  You can do this by consuming information with an open mind that allows you the freedom of thought (and creativity). It's like being a baby again - take it all in!

Uncritically viewing your world gives new experiences their power. Knowledge becomes something exciting rather than scary or intimidating.

Want some more shortcuts? Try letting go completely at times (meditation is perfect for...