Inspiration

Empowering stories and advice from our friends to keep you on the pathway to success.

  • Why Your Friendships Make You Feel Anxious and...

    “Many of our relationship struggles are not character flaws but survival strategies that once made sense.” ~Unknown Throughout my life I’ve often been described as confident and outgoing. I can be the “life and soul” of a party and am able to strike up conversations with a wide variety […]

  • Breaking Free from the Constant Need to Be Better

    “Enough is a decision, not a condition.” ~Unknown The night sky above Disneyland shimmered in color as fireworks burst to life. My daughters leaned against me, sticky-fingered from melted ice cream, eyes wide with wonder. It was supposed to be the happiest place on earth. Then Mirabel’s voice […]

  • Trauma, Darkness, and the Powerful Therapy...

    Trigger Warning: This piece contains references to childhood trauma, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Please take care of yourself as you read, and step away if you need to. If you are struggling, you are not alone — support is available through trusted loved ones, a therapist, or resources […]

  • The Power of Writing for Healing: An Embodied...

    FREE Live 90-minute Write to Heal class and 20-page guide with prompts, recordings and more to support your healing journey.  When I was studying writing in college, my personal essay class was my favorite. I’d already been journaling for almost a decade, so I understood the power of exploring […]

  • The Question That Helped Me Reclaim My Time and...

    “You can’t add more to your life until you first let go of what weighs you down.” ~Unknown I used to think being busy meant being successful. My days were a blur of meetings, notifications, and commitments. My calendar looked impressive, but at night I lay awake wondering why I felt so […]

  • What Losing My Faith Taught Me About Being Truly...

    “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson I grew up as the fifth of seven children in a strict religious family where faith shaped everything. From an early age, I learned to follow the rules, perform to […]

  • How I Found Peace When Everything Suddenly Felt...

    “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche I was twenty-five weeks pregnant when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Still working, still showing up, still dreaming of a gentle homebirth. We had an event at work that day, and I had to walk to it. I remember feeling […]

  • What I Learned About Love and Worth When Money...

    “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” ~Oprah Winfrey The fluorescent lights of the grocery store hummed, a cruel counterpoint to the silence in my head. I watched the cashier scan the items, the familiar beep-boop-beep of […]

  • Finding Peace When You Don’t Know What Comes...

    “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” ~Eckhart Tolle For as long as I can remember, I’ve been the kind of person who plans everything. My calendar was color-coded, my to-do lists perfectly alphabetized, and I could tell you what I’d be […]

  • How to Stop Judging Yourself and the Past Year...

    “The way you look at things is the most powerful force shaping your life.” ~John O’Donohue As often happens at this time of year, I recently found myself lamenting how quickly time had passed. In this agitated headspace, the myriad of goals I did not accomplish and the numerous targets I did […]

  • 10 Self-Limiting Beliefs that Often Drain 90...

    One of the strongest signs of your growth is realizing you’re no longer holding on to the beliefs that once used to limit you. I received a thank you email recently from a longtime reader and coaching client named Kevin (I’m writing about him today with permission). He said the work Marc and I […]

  • 3 Daily Habits that Keep Holding 95 Percent of Us...

    If it keeps you busy but will hold you back someday, it’s a distraction. Don’t settle. There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is too short not to focus more on what matters most. And life is definitely too short for habits and routines that keep you […]

  • 4 Hard Life Lessons We All Learn by Letting Go

    If somebody is working on themselves and changing for the better, it’s unnecessary to keep bringing up their past. People can change and grow. You know that’s true. But have you given yourself a fair chance to change and grow, too? Have you loosened your grip on what’s behind you, so you can […]

  • 19 Timeless Lessons in Life 90 Years of Wisdom...

    “I have seen and touched and danced and sang and climbed and loved and meditated on a lifetime spent living honestly. Should it all end tonight, I can positively say there would be no regrets. I feel fortunate to have walked 90 years in my shoes. I am truly lucky. I really have lived 1,000

  • 7 Daily Expectations that Often Drain 90 Percent...

    “I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you’re not in this world to live up to mine.” — Bruce Lee The biggest and most draining disappointments in our daily lives are often the result of misplaced expectations. This is especially true when it comes to our relationships […]

  • 3 Essential Things to Start Doing for Your...

    When I was a high school freshman, a 260-pound freshman girl showed up for track and field tryouts right alongside me. Her name was Sara, and she was only there because her doctor said her health depended on it. But once she scanned the crowd of students who were on the field, she turned around

  • 20 Things My Now 82-Year-Old Father Was Right...

    “One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” — MHN Nearly thirty years ago, when I was a freshman in high school, my English teacher gave my class a homework assignment entitled, “Advice for a Younger Generation.” The concept of the assignment was simple: Each […]

  • 10 Wake-Up Calls for Those Days When You Lose...

    “Head up, heart open. To better days!” — T.F. Hodge Struggling to find your motivation? Feeling unsure about the next steps? There are just a few things you need to know right now. This quick read is for YOU… Once upon a time there was a woman in her mid-sixties who noticed that she had

  • 1 Important Step We All Take Way Too Late in Life

    Too often we overestimate the significance of one big defining moment and underestimate the value of making a little progress every day. You’re probably familiar with what’s known as the Serenity Prayer. It goes like this: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the […]

  • 3 Little Morning Habits that Will Greatly Change...

    A good morning, and thus a good day, aren’t experiences that magically happen — they are created consciously. Most of us are distracted from the get-go every morning. Trivial activities like checking social media, watching TV, and worrying about things we can’t control often set the tone of […]

  • 10 Wake-Up Calls We Often Receive Way Too Late in...

    There’s a big difference between empty fatigue and gratifying exhaustion. Life is too short not to focus more on what matters most. Before you know it you will be asking, “How did it get so late so soon?” Perhaps you can already relate. So take time to reflect. Take time to realize what you […]

  • 40 Quotes for Letting Go and Coping with All the...

    The goal each and every day of your life is to gradually grow stronger on the inside, so that less and less on the outside can affect your inner wellness without your conscious permission. Truth be told, how you cope with unexpected problems and frustrations can easily be the difference between […]

  • 10 Things We All Wait Way Too Long to Do for...

    Opportunities are like sunrises, if we wait too long we miss them. Too often we waste our time waiting for the ideal path to appear. But it never does of course. Because we forget that paths are made by walking, not waiting. Let this be your wake-up call today! If you always sit around until

  • 7 Things You Should Insist on Doing for Yourself...

    You can’t lift a thousand pounds all at once, yet you can easily lift one pound a thousand times. Tiny, repeated efforts will get you there. I have witnessed people reinventing themselves at all ages — 48-year-olds starting families, 57-year-olds graduating from college for the first time, […]

  • 12 Notes to Self We Should All Memorize Before...

    As we all look forward to the rest of the year, I know many of us are yearning for a simpler and selective range of life experiences — the happy holidays, the normal times, the settings and experiences that make us feel more comfortable. And yet, the full range of our reality often brings […]

  • 20 Calming Affirmations We Should All Say to...

    Let’s cut to the chase today. What you ultimately do in life comes out of who you believe you are. You have to practice believing in yourself and ignoring the naysayers. Because while you may not be able to control the impolite things some people say and do, or the unfair things that sometimes […]

  • 3 Fundamental Lessons Too Many of Us Learn Too...

    “In elementary school my parents told me it didn’t matter what I did when I grew up, so long as it made me happy. ‘Happiness is the whole point of life,’ my father said. ‘But it doesn’t always come easy. Your mother loves to help people in need, so she became a psychiatric nurse. I

  • 10 Choices in Life You Will Regret in 10 Years...

    In the end, more than anything else, we regret the little things we wish we’d done differently. “If only…” Those two words paired together create one of the saddest phrases in the English language. Here are ten choices in life that ultimately lead to that phrase of regret, and how to avoid […]

  • 7 Mindful Notes to Self We Should All Memorize...

    Earlier today, I was sitting on a neighborhood park bench eating a sandwich when an elderly couple pulled their car up under a nearby oak tree. They rolled down the windows and turned up some jazz music on the radio. Then the man got out of the car, walked around to the passenger side, and

  • 6 Essential Daily Habits that Will Change the...

    “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” – Annie Dillard Are you willing to spend a little time every day like most people won’t, so you can spend the better part of your life like most people can’t? Think about that question for a moment. Let it sink in.

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