I’m a lover of uncluttered schedules, coloring outside the lines, 3 hour coffee dates, and road trips with no destinations. Give me rules and I’m likely to break them. Guidelines I can maybe live with but don’t box me in, I’ll only resist and tear at the cardboard walls.

Why then is routine and structure so critical to my success? Another oxymoron in the game of life? It’s simply another example of balance. My ability to enjoy and embrace unstructured time is a result of having routines, structures and systems to keep my life in order.

I confess, I tend to resist routine and structure yet when I stick to them, the pay offs are huge and I question why I resisted in the first place.

As an entrepreneur, having filing, scheduling, and project management systems I trust is key to growing my business and focusing the bulk of my time on my clients not on tedious paperwork.

Deciding to work out ‘when I’m in the mood’ = no work out! When I commit to a routine and go everyday at 7am, I get my exercise in. (Keeping my waistline and Levi’s happy!)

I use the structure of vision boards to keep my heart and mind focused on what’s most important to me. It’s powerful to look back at previous years boards and circle the goals I’ve achieved and experiences I’ve enjoyed, thanks in part to the active use of this structure.

How does someone like me who refuses to be boxed in become a fan of structure? I focus on the outcome. What will I gain from using the appropriate routine? How will I, my family, my community benefit from my use of structure? In reality, it’s the routines and structures that allow me the luxurious freedom to live outside the box.



There’s a thread you follow. It goes among

things that change. But it doesn’t change.

People wonder about what you are pursuing.

You have to explain about your thread.

But it is hard for others to see.

While you hold it you can’t get lost.

Tragedies happen; people get hurt

or die; and you suffer and get old.

Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.

You don’t ever let go of the thread.

-  William Stafford

What’s your thread?

What gives meaning to your life?

How are you sharing your thread with the world?



To succeed that is! One of the laws of the mind we explore in Train Your Mind for Success is the law of insertion. This law of the mind states, you have the power to insert, any thought, of any kind, at anytime into your mind.

Example, before an important meeting, you find yourself thinking, “I’m going to screw this up. I know I’ll say the wrong thing at the wrong time.” Guess what’s likely to happen? You’ll say the wrong thing at the wrong time!

Using the law of insertion, you cut off the above thought and replace it with, “I’m going to be thoughtful, take my time, and offer my ideas in a clear manner.” Guess what’s likely to happen? You’ll perform better! How easy was that? All it took was recognizing the useless thought and inserting a more empowering thought.

Here’s a real life example. Yesterday, I was feeling overwhelmed by ‘to dos’ and not eager to jump into the work. I set a timer for 5 minutes, yes, just 5 minutes, and focused my thoughts on, “I complete things with ease.” It started more like a mantra and then I started asking myself empowering questions, how will I benefit from completely things with ease? How will my office look at the end of the day? How will I feel?

Guess what happened? My to do’s are now a short list, my clients cared for, my office is tidy, and I feel productive, focused, and satisfied.

What can 5 minutes and the law of insertion do for you today?



Like you, I have numerous projects competing for my attention as well as the ever present email and social media. Being a smidge on the competitive side I challenge myself to get chunks of work done in a set amount of time using an online timer.

I don’t ‘watch’ the timer, I simply dive into the project trusting, that when time is up, I’ll have completed what I could, and move onto the next project. Depending on the task at hand, I’ll set the timer for 5 to 30 minutes.

Some curious and wonderful things happen.

• I relax into the work and become very efficient, knowing I’ll make progress.
• I’ve noticed the 80/20 rule seriously at play because I allow myself to do ~20% of the work and move the project forward ~80%.
• I have peace of mind knowing I’m attending to lots of responsibilities and not neglecting any.
• I simply get more things completed - which is cause for celebration!
• I more readily notice redundancies in my system leading to streamlining.
• Relationships and benefits between programs and clients become more evident and I can connect people and things in a more meaningful way.
• And sometimes, setting the timer for 5 minutes and focusing on breathing, is the most powerful part of a day.

I may not win an Olympic medal for my competitive use of the timer, but my life is certainly winning thanks to the power of the timer.



I’m often asked, ‘how do you manage change?’ This strikes me as an oxymoron, we don’t learn to manage change, we learn to manage ourselves.

Change is typically an external situation, a situation we have limited if any ability to manage, influence, or control. Your neighbor decides to paint their house chartreuse, the CEO distributes a new vacation policy, it rains, it snows, the sun shines, your best customer moves out of state, your spouse forgets to pick up the milk, etc. These are all changes in your external environment and changes you can’t manage.

What you can manage is how you decide to interpret, perceive, and interact with the change. This is where coaching can help. Coaching can guide you in the process of better understanding your internal world, your mind, your heart, your hopes, and dreams. Learning to manage your mind allows you to decide how you want to react to and be in relation to external change. It gives you power and creates more joy.

A great, and easy first step, is to start to notice your internal environment.

What am I feeling?

What am I thinking?

What thought will better serve me?

You’re in complete control of your internal world; strive to use your powers for good.



These four simple moves can help you stay trim and fit this holiday season. Don't give up your regular workouts and add 5 minutes w/ these targeted moves and your shape is bound to improve by time you're ringing in the New Year.

1. Pilates Push Up

Targets: Biceps, Triceps, Chest, Upper Back, and Core

• Begin in the up phase of a push-up.
• Hug your elbows to your sides and bend them straight back, lowering your body until you're about 5 inches from the floor, keeping abs firmly drawn up resisting gravity, neck long and hips lifted.
• Hold for a count of 3, then straighten your arms to return to starting position. Repeat
• Option: consider starting by holding the plank for 3-5 breaths, when you feel stable, begin adding the Pilates push ups.

2. Wall Slides

Targets: Quads and Glutes

• Stand one pace away from a wall (or door); draw your abs up and in gently pressing your back into the surface.
• Slowly bend your knees to 90 degrees slide your back down the wall. Hold for 20 seconds.
• Inhale and as you exhale engage and lift with your abdominal muscles to return to standing. Repeat twice more. Work up to holding for 40 seconds and then 1 minute, each set.

3. Inner Thigh Lift

Targets: Inner Thighs and Glutes

• Lie on the floor on your right side, head resting on right hand (or lengthen arm and rest head on upper arm) and legs extended 45 degrees in front of you. Place your left foot on the floor in front of your right thigh and grasp left ankle or lie the left knee on the ground in front of you.
• Raise right leg to hip height, inner thigh reaching toward the ceiling and foot flexed, lower half way down, lift again.
• Do 8 lifts lowering half way down, and then circle leg 3 times in each direction.
• Roll onto your stomach and place your forehead in your hands. Draw your waistline in, lifting your belly button from the mat, lift legs off the floor and "clap" your heels together 30 times.

• Roll onto your left side and repeat entire series.

4. Crisscross

Targets: Obliques

• Lie on your back with knees bent into chest, hands behind head.
• Contract abs and lift head and shoulders off the floor. Extend right leg.
• Keep left knee tucked into chest and bring right shoulder toward your knee. Hold for 3 counts; lift through center and bring right knee in to left shoulder, switch sides and repeat for 10 reps per side.
• Strive to keep the abdomen drawn in and up, don’t let it pooch out. Also, as you switch sides, let your eyes look toward the back elbow, this will assist in deepening the rotation.

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‘Tis the season of joy yet, for some, it can feel like the season of overwhelm. What can you do to nurture peace and calm in your life? Create a personal holiday mission statement to act as your guiding star.

A mission statement is simply a statement of purpose, a succinct declaration of how you want to live. They often include your values and desired achievements. So what do you want your holidays to represent this year? Here’s a quick and fun exercise to help you craft your holiday mission and tips for how to activate your personal holiday mission.

Here’s how it works.

1. Briefly describe two of your favorite holiday traditions.
2. Review and circle the 2-3 words that leap off the page, warm your heart, make you giggle (pssst…these are some of you core values).
3. Keeping those values and feelings in mind, imagine it’s early January and you’re summarizing your holiday season for a dear friend, write a brief description of your season.
4. Review your summary and craft a single sentence that includes your value words and represents your vision of the holiday season (pssst…..this is your personal holiday mission statement).

To activate your mission you must engage with it on a regular basis. Here are some options for how to do this:

• Post your statement in key locations you’ll see daily, bathroom mirror, steering wheel, fridge door, screen saver, etc.
• Share your statement and vision with your family and enroll them in supporting your vision for the season.
• Spend 5 to 10 minutes a day meditating on your mission statement.
• When making decision about activities and commitments, repeat your mission to yourself like a mantra for 5 minutes, then make your decision, (pssst…..you’re more likely to make a decision in sync with your mission after this process).
• Create a vision board to represent your mission and put the board where you’ll see it daily.

The holidays are a magical time of year and you have the power to craft them as you wish. May your visions of sugar plums come true!

An affirmation is a simple statement representing what you want to happen. The power of an affirmation comes when you repeat the affirmation to yourself on a regular basis thus calling your want into reality.

Ever have to give a presentation and feel nervous or anxious about your delivery? Creating a short simple affirmation such as, “My presentation delivery is effective,” and repeating it at least 5 minutes a day in the days preceding your presentation can calm your nerves and manifest an ‘effective’ delivery.

So how do affirmations work? In essence you’re influencing your thoughts. The mind can actually only have one thought at a time and you’re telling it what to think, “be effective,” so it will be in support of your desired outcome.

A few tips for effective affirmations:

• Keep it short, specific, and to the point. One sentence max and challenge yourself to keep it under 7 words. “Just do it.”
• Keep it positive. Use, “I’m articulate during the meeting” vs. “I won’t jumble my words during the meeting.” The first is positive and shorter!
• You don’t have to believe the affirmation, just create and use one that reflects your desired outcome. Your conscious mind will follow the intention you plant.
• Make affirmations a regular part of your day and life. Use them in line at the grocery, first thing in the morning to set the tone for your day, as a primer for your workday, as a sports training tool, etc.

Sound simple? It is the key is to use affirmations regularly and keep ‘em short.

“These repetitive words and phrases are merely methods of convincing the subconscious mind.”
- Clude M. Bristol  

Vision boards are a deceptively simple and powerful tool for bringing about desired change. It is a visual representation of your preferred future. Vision boards are typically created with images and words from magazines yet can also be hand drawn, photo colleges, computer generated, or a combination of the above.

The idea behind Vision Boards is that when you surround yourself with images of who you want to be, what you want to have, where you want to live, vacation, or travel, your life changes to match those images and desires.

Vision boards add clarity to your desires and more importantly, they help you feel your vision. The combination of seeing and feeling your preferred future on a regular basis makes it indelible in your conscious and subconscious mind, calling your desires into reality.

Does it work? Here is a portion of my vision board from 2007. I wanted to learn to fuse glass and have a dedicated home space for being creative so I included images of someone work with glass as well as someone working in an art studio space. Today I fuse glass in the small ‘art shed’ we built in our backyard.

How does it work? While much of the fun lies in creating these colorful, inspiring masterpieces, the key to success of vision boards is using them regularly. Just like exercise if you don’t move your body, it gets soft in the middle. If you create and never look at your vision board, you won’t draw your preferred future to you.

To maximize your results, place you vision board where you’ll see it frequently. Additionally, take a few minutes every day to focus on your board. Enjoy the images, feel the emotions it represents, and experience your vision as if it’s real.

Above all embrace your preferred future as if it already exists.

Want to create your own? Join me for “Vision Board 2010” November 21^st.

Join me at Hello Holidays! for a mini-vision board workshop.

We've all heard the saying, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” It may make you chuckle and you likely see the truth in the statement yet we often continue to move through life with little plan, road map, or vision of our desired end result.

Visioning is not a one time event, it’s a process of clarifying and refining what matters to you, how you want to show up in this life, the impact you want to have, and why you do what you do. Does that sound quite grand? Esoteric? Out of reach? Like finding those answers requires a week long retreat of self discovery?

Well, that need not be the case, here’s an exercise to help you look into your future and see what’s there, what’s right for you, and what makes you happy.

Prepare with a little breathing and quiet; take 5 to 10 deep breath sets with your eyes closed. During this breathing time, imagine its 20 years from now, 2029. Who are you? What are you doing? Where are you? How do you spend your days? Stay in your picture of 2029 as long as you like and when ready, answer the following.

In 2029 I live in:

I am surrounded by:

My lifestyle includes:

I center and immerse myself in:

My world includes:

On my birthday I feel:

I am grateful for:

I am also grateful for:

Keep breathing, review your answers. How do you like your vision, your road map? If it makes you joyful, read it daily and embody the joy, knowing you’re creating the reality of your choice.

If it’s not quite what you hoped for, examine what you can change to shift the vision. The goal is to avoid sounding like the funny and poignant Ms. Lily Tomlin, “I always wanted to be somebody, but now I realize I should have been more specific.”

Happy visioning.