Inspiration
Empowering stories and advice from our friends to keep you on the pathway to success.
- When You Stop Forcing, Life Flows
“You don’t have to force the flow—sometimes your only job is to soften and let go.” ~Unknown For most of my life, I was obsessed with getting everything right. Planning. Controlling. Anticipating every outcome so I wouldn’t be caught off guard. I saw life as a kind of puzzle: if I just […]
- Magic in the Ordinary: Finding Glimmers and Hope...
“If today gets difficult, remember the smell of coffee, the way sunlight bounces off a window, the sound of your favorite person’s laugh, the feeling when a song you love comes on, the color of the sky at dusk, and that we are here to take care of each other.” ~Nanea Hoffman The beach breeze […]
- When You Outgrow Where You Live but Can’t Yet...
“Living in the moment is learning how to live between the big moments. It is learning how to make the most of the in-betweens and having the audacity to make those moments just as exciting.” ~Morgan Harper Nichols There’s a peculiar grief that doesn’t often get named. It lives in the […]
- Beyond the Yips: How to Reclaim Your Creative...
“You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt There’s a quiet moment before the spotlight hits when everything in your body wants to run. Your hands tremble. Your voice tightens. Your breath shortens, even […]
- A Transracial Adoption Story of Love and...
“Make it a great day that ends with a smile in your heart.” Growing up, I always heard my father speak variations of these words. They’ve always sort of been ingrained in my head, but now more than ever are forever planted. He lived by them. He breathed them. And in doing so, he instilled […]
- How I Found Myself on the Other Side of Survival
“Until you make peace with who you are, you will never be content with what you have.” ~Doris Mortman For most of my life, I believed my worth was tied to how well I could perform. If I looked successful, kept people happy, worked harder than anyone else, and stayed quiet about my pain, […]
- To My Narcissistic Friend: Thanks for Being My...
“It’s okay to let go of those who couldn’t love you. Those who didn’t know how to. Those who failed to even try. It’s okay to outgrow them, because that means you filled the empty space in you with self-love instead. You’re outgrowing them because you’re growing into you. And that’s […]
- How to Reconnect with What You’re Hungry For
“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~Anaïs Nin What is it about us that makes us wait for permission? To do what we want. To be who we are. We wait until we’ve “earned” it, until we’re thinner, smarter, more […]
- The Surprising Reason Many People Are Still Stuck
“Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.” ~Anaïs Nin I never imagined I’d be fired. It wasn’t because I didn’t have the qualifications or experience. In […]
- Walking My Mother Home: On Aging, Love, and...
“To love someone deeply is to learn the art of holding on and letting go—sometimes at the very same time.” ~Unknown Nothing has softened me—or challenged me—like caring for my ninety-six-year-old mother as she slowly withdraws from the world. I thought I was strong, but this is a […]
- 10 Painfully Obvious Truths About Life We Forget...
The truth does not vanish when it is forgotten or ignored. You know how you can hear something a hundred times in a bunch of different ways before it finally gets through to you? The ten truths discussed here fall firmly into that category — timeless lessons most of us likely learned years ago, […]
- 40 Quotes for Letting Go and Coping with 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 Important Things We Often Wait Too Long to Do...
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 we always sit around until
- 5 Hard Truths We All Live Through and Learn From
Some of life’s greatest truths and lessons are the hardest to accept, and yet we must. Because they ultimately allow us to navigate the inevitable obstacles and challenges we can’t avoid. So it’s time to remind yourself… 1. Everyone and everything in life is limited. You can never read all […]
- 10 Mindful Ways to Remain Calm When Other People...
You can’t calm the storm. What you can do is calm yourself, and the storm will eventually pass. Calmness is a human superpower. The ability to not overreact or take things personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace, which gradually gives you the upper hand in all walks of life. […]
- 20 Essential Things to Start Doing for Your Own...
Patience isn’t about waiting, it’s the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard for what you believe in. As you move through the days and weeks ahead, remind yourself that it takes roughly 66 days to form a new habit. So for the next nine and a half weeks, consciously leverage the […]
- 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, […]
- 1 Important Step We Always Take Too Late in Life
Too often people overestimate the significance of one big defining moment and underestimate the value of making good decisions and small steps of progress on a daily basis. You’re probably familiar with what’s known as the Serenity Prayer. It goes like this: God, grant me the serenity to accept […]
- 20 Things 90 Years of Wisdom Told Me to Stop...
Worry gives small things a big shadow. Some people wait all day for 5pm, all week for Friday, all year for the holidays, all their lives for happiness. Don’t be one of them. Don’t wait until your life is almost over to realize how good it has been. The secret to happiness and peace on
- 12 “Notes to Self” We Should All Memorize...
I know many of us are yearning for a simpler and selective range of life experiences in the month ahead — the happier days, the normal times, the settings and experiences that make us feel more comfortable. And yet, the full range of our reality often brings something very different. The days and […]
- 3 Ways to Rebuild the Faith and Confidence...
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
- 7 Quotes for Letting Go and Coping With Other...
You can’t calm the storm. What you can do is calm yourself, and the storm will gradually pass. So do your best to breathe when negativity surrounds you today. Let calmness be your superpower. The ability to not overreact or take things too personally keeps your mind clear and your heart at peace, […]
- 10 False Beliefs We Often Let Go of Too Late in...
One of the strongest signs of your growth is realizing you’re no longer holding on to the false beliefs that once used to drain you. Marc and I received a thank you email recently from a longtime reader and coaching client named Kevin (I’m writing about him today with his consent). He said our […]
- 10 Life Choices You Will Regret in 10 Years (But...
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 life choices that ultimately lead to that phrase of regret, and how to avoid […]
- 6 Small Daily Rituals that Will Change Your Whole...
“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.
- 10 Hard Realities that Help You Grow (Once You...
The world is full of struggle. It is also full of overcoming. Character and wisdom are both sculpted over time. These qualities come with loss, lessons, and triumphs. They come after doubts, second guesses, and exploring unknowns. If there was a definitive path to personal growth, everyone would be […]
- 8 Wake-Up Calls We All Need to Get in Life Before...
You have come a long way, and you’re still learning and growing. Be thankful for the lessons. Take them and make the best of things today. For my 18th birthday, many moons ago, my grandfather on my mom’s side gave me four lightly-used flannel shirts that he no longer needed. The shirts were […]
- 12 “Sticky Notes” We Should Read Each and...
It’s not what you say to everyone else that determines your life; it’s what you whisper to yourself that has the greatest power and influence. The best lessons we learn in life are the lessons we learn over and over again. The human mind needs lots of reminders — lots of practice — to […]
- 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 or uneasy 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
- 9 Fundamental Rules for Turning Life’s Endings...
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. When you can no longer think of a reason to continue, you must think of a reason to start over. There’s a big difference between giving up and starting over in the right direction. And there are three little words that can release you […]
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