So many of us struggle with “enoughness.”

Am I good enough?

Thin enough?

Successful enough?

Have I gotten enough done, said enough, tried enough?

Did I put in enough time, give enough, tip enough, work out enough, push myself enough?

Did I spend enough time at the office, on the yard, on my partner, on my kids . . . ?

ENOUGH!

Enoughness even gets in our way when we are trying to break the cycle of NOT being enough.

I don’t know how many women I’ve talked to, struggling to find time for themselves, who have poo-pooed the idea of a simple act because, “that would never be enough. If I’m going to take time for me, I’d need more than that.” So, (as I point out), they choose to go without.

Going to bed a half hour early, “wouldn’t make a difference.”

Ten minutes of focus on something important, “wouldn’t count.”

Ten minutes of walking around the neighborhood “isn’t nearly enough of a workout.”

So they choose nothing.

We’re also scared we won’t be satisfied with enough. A client tells me she is afraid to allow herself to really enjoy, indulge, and savor an excellent piece of chocolate. Because she is afraid she will gobble the whole bar. So she denies herself, feels deprived, and does end up eating the whole thing later—not in a savoring, indulgent sort of way, but in secret, feeling guilty and frustrated with herself.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Not really, I don’t think I really even tasted most of it, I was so mad.”

Do you hear what’s going on?

It’s perfectionism.

Perfectionism is black and white thinking that lies to us that it’s a standard of excellence. What perfectionism really is is a standard of impossibility that paralyzes us, causes us to respond in the extreme, and never allows us to feel satisfied, effective, or good.

Escaping the trap of perfectionism:

All-or-nothing thinking hardly ever works. In your busy life, when do you ever have time for all?

What if you allowed what you really have to give to be enough? If this makes you nervous, add the phrase “for now.”

Small steps count. If you let them.

Last week, I challenged you to commit to small daily acts of self-care. The main requirement was that you pick actions that were really do-able. No day-long spa retreats or tropical vacations. For many of you, thinking as small as I suggested, was new. “I can do it when it’s laid out this way” was the gist of many emails I received.

Are you seeing it? Small steps work. You can do amazing things for your spirit and your self in ten minutes. You can start to build new habits and routines. When you are consistent. When you allow yourself to be present. When you savor.

There IS a lot you can’t do in ten minutes. It’s true. And if you focus on that, you win the argument and you stay stuck.

Escaping the trap sometimes means letting go of your focus on “enough” and breathing into what you have.

Owning your time and being present in THIS moment.

Making deliberate choices.

The big question is this: where in your life is perfectionism and the need for enough sucking you dry and wearing you out?

Consider this: what small shift could you allow? What might change if you focused on changes that felt possible and do-able?

Drinking enough water every day.

Moving from no exercise to a ten minute walk.

Eliminating multitasking when you eat.

Joining the self-care challenge.

Getting more sleep.

Breaking free of perfectionism probably means picking one or two to start—not everything on the list .

When it comes to being happy and successful, enoughness can be a big lie and perfectionism is a red herring. We are the choices that we make. How are you feeling about yours?

Take good care,

Ready for small steps? I believe they are the place to start and recommend the following programs:

The Get OVER Overeating 7 Day Jumpstart: Change your mindset, get new tools, get on track in seven days.

The Success Soundtrack™ : Add more ease, flow, me-time and success in just ten minutes a day.

The How to Put Yourself First 7 Day Blast-off: Seven days of do-able action steps.

Melissa McCreery

Five More Beliefs that May be Sabotaging Your Success with Overeating

When I wrote my earlier post on overeating and self-sabotage, I realized that I had just touched the surface. Creating a mindset for success is critical if you want to end overeating and create a lasting peace with food. This is also true if you are trying to break free of struggles with stress, overload, and overwhelm. Little things add up and the way you talk to yourself and approach your life can have a big influence on whether you are sabotaging your success or creating changes that last.

Now is a perfect time to take a look at your thinking to make sure you are not falling prey to these five beliefs that can sabotage your success with overeating and emotional eating.

Five more self-sabotaging mindsets:

1.  This is just something I have to accept/ it wasn’t meant to be. Many women live with the secret belief that they will never be successful. “I’ll always be fat.” “I’ll always struggle with food.” “I’m going to be dieting for the rest of my life.” If this sounds familiar—please pay attention. You are working against yourself every time you start a plan to change with the belief that you will fail. Put your efforts into goals and plans for growth that you can see success with. Start with a goal you can wrap your mind around. If you don’t believe you can lose 150 pounds (and you want to), set a goal that you believe you can achieve—even if it’s losing two pounds. Then, find someone who you trust who believes in you and can help you grow your belief in yourself. Changing this mindset will change your life. Truly.

2.  Faulty filters. We see what we expect to see. Research has proven over and over that our brains are trained to collect information that confirms what we already believe and filter out the rest. That’s one reason becoming aware of mindsets that can lead to self-sabotage is so important. If you believe you are unlucky or a failure or that you are lazy or that you can’t live without dessert, you will find all sorts of evidence to confirm that belief. You will create that reality. You’ll also be highly likely to miss the other evidence—the things you do well, the strengths that you have, or the ways that you can be successful without that sweet treat at the end of a meal. Practice creating the filters that create success. Make an effort to notice your accomplishments and your good moments. Practice acknowledging gratefulness and times that you are lucky. Try this—practice seeing the good in yourself and making a note of three great things about you every single day.

3.  I don’t have time. It’s time to take this sentence out of your vocabulary. Time is the great equalizer. We all get the same amount, every single day. We all choose how we spend and manage our time. How would it feel to replace “I don’t have time” with “I’m choosing to spend my time on something else”? The truth is, claiming time for you is a choice. Here’s another truth: claiming time for self-care and your other priorities can have a big impact on your success with emotional eating and overeating. Try scheduling your needs like you schedule everything else and see what happens.

4.  It will upset people. If you want a sure way not to accomplish your goals, make it your mission to make everyone happy. It’s not possible. People get into self-sabotaging traps with overeating (and other unhelpful habits) when they neglect their own needs and feelings because they are trying to please others or avoid conflict. This becomes even more tangled up because many women overeat as a way to try to cope with conflict and other people’s anger or frustration. If you want to break free from overeating, learning to handle conflict with a degree of comfort will pay off big

5.  I missed out/I’m too old. Do you believe that it’s just too late for you? Here’s a way to turn that show-stopping belief on its head: if you feel like it’s late in the game, than the stakes are even higher. Life is short and every moment counts. Don’t make the self-sabotaging mistake of spending THIS moment looking over your shoulder regretting the past. Take a deep breath and own THIS moment. It’s the only one that you can count on and it is the only one that you can control. Set your sites on where you want to go and then get the help you need to start moving in that direction.

You write the story of your life. That story can stop you in your tracks and it can also propel you powerfully forward. The beauty is that you can edit and rewrite as you go along. Choose your mindset and your story carefully. Be mindful of feeding the beliefs you want to nourish and let the old unhelpful ones go hungry. That’s a powerful approach to taking control of overeating. Let me know what amazing changes you start seeing.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

Today, February 13, is the 44^th day of 2012. We’re a month and a half into our new year. If you are like me, it may feel like the time has flown. I’m posting today to ask you to take a quick inventory.

How are you progressing on the goals and deadlines that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year? Are you making progress or are you feeling stuck or like you have fallen off your priority list?

If things have not gone as planned, please don’t despair. Life happens. From time to time we all fall off track (or even forget where we are going). Sometimes the goals that feel the most inspired aren’t enough to keep us moving. It happens.

If you didn’t wake up today feeling unstoppable, confident and effective in your life, this is your signal that it’s time to shake things up. Don’t fall into the trap of pushing harder at something that just isn’t going to work for you. Sometimes change requires working smarter and differently than you are used to.

The first steps I always recommend:

• Make sure you really know how to put yourself and your goals on your priority list.
• Make sure you are truly spending your valuable time and energy in the places that are important.
• Make sure you have a system in place that ensures that this continues to happen.
• Make sure that guilt and self-blame aren’t distracting and sabotaging you. They serve no one and do nothing but waste time and energy for everyone.

If you aren’t already doing these things, know that they can make an almost instant difference in your life. Simple shifts can free up time and energy, improve your focus and your efficiency, and leave you less irritable and frustrated and more able to give to the others in your life that you care about. (It’s like a Valentine’s Day bonus for everyone )

If you struggle to put yourself first without feeling selfish, or simply don’t know how to start, the best resource I know of is the Put Yourself First 7 Day Blast-off. I designed this program for my private clients who needed a quick and easy way to get started on just this issue. Now it’s almost instantly accessible for you to use too.

In just one week, the Put Yourself First Blast-off walks you through the steps so that you can:

• Create (and take) me-time (even if you are busy)
• Craft your winning mindset (and stop setting yourself up with plans that don’t work)
• Find out how to take action without getting stressed or overwhelmed
• Learn some of my best tricks for making it as simple and struggle-free as possible

All in daily, easy-to-digest tips and downloads that show up in your email inbox.

Today is day 44 of 2012. It’s the day to take stock and ask yourself whether you are poised to make the most of the next 322 days. If the answer is not a resounding, “YES!”—it’s time to make a shift.

Are you ready to join the blast-off? Here’s what past participants accomplished in just seven days:

• “I started going to the gym. Adding more veggies/fruit/water.”
• “It was of great help to me to get me started on a daily plan that I wanted, but never seemed to find the time to do.”
• “This program is very powerful and I would recommend it to anyone.”
• “Mission Accomplished Big Time!”
• “Totally loved the program. Have been in a great mood all week just from Putting Myself First. My energy has increased and people are noticing. My friends are contacting me more because I am happier with myself.”
• “My self esteem has increased from focusing on myself. This is powerful and naturally builds confidence which is much more sustainable.”
• “I am calmer throughout the day!”
• “(This program) filled in some pieces I didn’t know I even needed to think about or identify.”

Small changes can pay off in big ways. Are you exactly where you want to be today or is it time for a change? Go here to learn more and get started before another week passes.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

When you are struggling with too much—whether it’s too much weight, too much to do, or just too much stress, setting goals and deciding to change can feel impossible.

“I know where I want to end up, but when I look at how far I have to go, it feels overwhelming,” a client in one of my emotional eating coaching programs shared. “How am I going to make all the changes I need to make? When I look at the weight I need to lose (135 pounds), I feel hopeless.”

When you are overwhelmed, overloaded, or overeating, the hole you see yourself in can feel pretty deep. If your stress level is high to begin with and your calendar is crowded, thinking about your weight loss or life balancing project can exhaust you before you even really get going.

What do you do when change seems insurmountable?

Dream big and step deliberately. This is a theme that has been coming up quite a bit with my private coaching clients and I want to share it with you.

If you are a high achiever who expects a lot of herself, this can be a delicate balance, but it’s the key to really getting where you want to go, not selling yourself short, and not creating a lot of stress and overwhelm that sabotages your success.

Here’s what you need to do.

Set your GPS. Define your destination. This is the big, bold, juicy place where you want to end up. Don’t short change yourself. Dream big. Your vision is about thriving not just surviving. Set your sights on what you really, truly want. It’s okay if your goals feel too big to even wrap your head around.  This is your vision. It’s the destination that’s off on the horizon. You don’t have to get there tomorrow, but you do want to be navigating in this direction. In the meantime, your focus is going to be on your feet.

A marathon is just a series of steps.

I began running marathons a few years ago. In the process, I’ve met a lot of people with incredible stories—women who went from not being able to walk two miles to running 26.2. Women who lost 100 plus pounds and changed their lives—inspiring stuff. But here’s the deal. They didn’t do it (and I didn’t run my first marathon) by simply going out and running 26.2 miles right away. We set our vision and then we put our trust in a series of actions and smaller goals—which we took one small step at a time. We ran a marathon by taking a first step. And then another. And then, as it got easier, a bunch more.

When I trained for that first marathon, I never looked farther ahead than the week I was in. It would have been too scary. I had no idea how I was going to run a marathon, but I could take on the challenge of that week’s training plan. When I got to the starting line in Portland, I didn’t think about mile 25 or mile 26 (I never do). I thought about the first mile.

Getting where you want to go doesn’t need to be overwhelming, and it shouldn’t add stress or overload to your already busy life. Set your GPS and then focus on where you are going to put your foot down next. Take steps—steps that are the size that work for you. As long as you keep your feet moving, and your GPS calibrated, you’ll be fine.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

Mind clutter—a mind overflowing with thoughts, worries, projects, to-do lists, feeling and ideas—leads to a lot of problems. Mind clutter contributes to overload, stress, procrastination, lack of focus, burnout, clutter outside your mind, and emotional eating and overeating.

Overeating, or reaching for food when you aren’t really hungry, is a common response to feeling overloaded, ineffective, or short of time. And that’s how too much mind clutter can leave you feeling.

It’s easy to become caught in a vicious cycle (I call it the hamster wheel), when your mind is on overload. It can be tempting to resort to stress eating, or to overeat because you feel too overwhelmed to really take care of yourself. Overeating adds to any feelings of being out of control (and now having one more thing to deal with). You have so much in your head that you feel like you don’t have time or the mental space to do more than react, and you soon overeat again. Maybe this time you aren’t craving comfort, but you want an energy boost, or a reward, or a distraction.

The point is, the cycle of mind clutter contributing to emotional eating contributing to mind clutter continues, and you stay stuck. Plus, it feels awful.

My suggestion? When you focus on tools to stop overeating, don’t ignore the mind clutter. Taking control of the overwhelm can create a profound shift in both your emotional eating and your life.

Here are some tips to get started.

• Don’t rely on your memory. It doesn’t matter how well it works. The point is, it takes a lot of energy and creates stress when you store too many details, events, and things to do in your brain and expect yourself to be able to track them. Like a computer screen constantly being “refreshed,” you are continually going through the act of sorting through what you need to remember, prioritizing, and making decisions. That’s a lot of work. Write everything down. Designate one place (one notebook, app on your phone, or file on your computer) and do a brain dump of everything you are thinking about or worrying about daily. Now you don’t  have to remember it anymore.

See the mental space you just created?

• Create a punch list. This is not a comprehensive list of everything  that you want to accomplish in the next six months. This is the list of 1—3 priority action items you are giving your attention today or this hour or for the next fifteen minutes. Choose a time frame that works for you and honor that important task or experience with your full attention.

•  Give your brain downtime. Too much clutter creates anxiety and tension. It does not encourage restfulness and relaxation. But a periodic “reboot” is exactly what you need to get off the hamster wheel. Give yourself at least 7 ½ hours of sleep and aim to spend at least ten minutes a day simply “being” and tuning in to the world around you.

 Giving your mind practice at being calm instead of spinning at top speed is a good thing.

Addressing mind clutter creates a shift from being caught on the hamster wheel to being proactive and in charge. That’s where overload begins to dissolve, and peace with food and all the good stuff that comes with it, really begins.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

If you are you a busy woman, a business owner, or mom with too much on your plate, here are three easy ways to start moving from stress and overload to ease, abundance, and success.

1. Set the tone. Your busy brain finds and collects the information that it’s looking for. If you want to spend your day focused on stress and overload, begin by worrying about what you haven’t done. Want more ease and calm? Set an attitude focused on accomplishment and positivity.  List three things you are grateful for before you even get out of bed and review three things that you WILL accomplish today. Put on music that inspires and create and live in positive energy.
2. Don’t ignore the food and don’t deprive yourself. Ease and calm require consistent fuel. Eat something for breakfast that has protein in it. This will tide you over much better than a bagel or a bowl of cereal or the nothing that you usually feed yourself. Give yourself a short deadline (two minutes is plenty) and decide NOW what you will have for lunch and dinner if you don’t already have a plan. Unmade decisions create stress. Hunger and low blood sugar lead to bad decisions and (often) overeating.
3. Slow down. Rushing, even when you are busy, rarely makes anyone more productive. Focus does. Hold on to your vision of ease and calm and your three priority tasks. Do one thing at a time. In a world of mutitasking and Twitter, giving your whole self over to a task can be grounding and even meditative. Really. Ask yourself throughout the day where you want to place your energy in this moment. Close down the other windows on your computer, let your phone go to voice mail, and let the other tasks wait until it is their turn. Enjoy the job you dive into, the feeling of undivided attention, the conversation you have while being fully present, and the lunch you get to savor.

This is the only life you are going to live today. Be in it.

How do you release stress and create calm and ease in your busy life? Share your thoughts and ideas by leaving a comment.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

Stop “not thinking about it.”

How often do you end up shoving your plans and priorities or even your thoughts and feelings to the back burner because there are so many other things you feel responsible for?

Guess what? “Not thinking about it” doesn’t work. It’s also a way of not taking yourself seriously.

I hear it all the time from clients:

“I don’t want to feel angry.”

“There’s nothing I can do about it so I eat.”

“I’m trying not to focus on it.”

Denying your thoughts and feelings is a major source of stress, a major cause of emotional eating, insomnia, procrastination, misplaced irritability and problems focusing.

Here’s another important piece of information (especially for all you high-achievers and perfectionists!):

Taking your thoughts and feelings seriously doesn’t mean you have to know what to “do about them.”

Too many of you are prolonging your stress and creating problems for yourself because you’ve decided—“It’s pointless to think about this because I can’t do anything about it.”

Important feelings and thoughts don’t go away just because you ignore them. Too often they build up, get tangled up around other issues, and trigger self-sabotaging behaviors like stress eating, comfort eating, avoidance, lack of motivation in other areas . . . you get the picture.

Here’s your bite-sized challenge for today. I want you to separate the process of acknowledging and respecting your feelings from the task of problem solving.

Today—right now if you can—start a list of everything that you are currently tolerating. Everything you can think of that is sub-optimal, isn’t working for you, is driving you crazy, causing you stress, distress, sadness, or just bugs you a teensy tiny bit.

Put it on a list. Nothing is too small or too outrageous. If it helps to compartmentalize, make separate lists. I have one for work and one for my personal life.  Start the list and add to it as things occur to you. Then watch what happens.

I’m going to predict at least two results.  Once you start noting things like this—actually writing them down—you are automatically paying more attention to your feelings or needs. This is the opposite of the head-in-the-sand approach. Take note of where it leads you. Most people find that noting what they are tolerating causes them to be more aware of what they want and what they don’t want. You’re also likely to find that simply putting some of these items on your list seems to lead to easy resolution. The truth is, sometimes the act of saying, “this doesn’t work for me.” Is enough to create change.

Make your list and see what happens. Leave a comment and share your experience.

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

I’ve had many emails and conversations related to my recent post about how we underestimate what we can accomplish in a year. Some of you told me you appreciate the reminder. Others shared that the idea of thinking about setting and accomplishing twelve month goals feels overwhelming and even scary. Someone said that thinking about all that it would require to succeed at her goal feels like “too much work.”

Goals are important, but life is too short not to feel like YOU are in charge of it.

Goals can be valuable, but don’t let a time frame short circuit your creativity or your dreams. Some busy women have an over-developed “let’s-be-realistic gene” that keeps their lives and even their relationships and professional pursuits too small.

This IS the month where everyone is talking resolutions, goals, and how to succeed. And while there is potential value in all of this, I want to encourage you to take a giant step back—or more accurately, up. Imagine yourself talking a helicopter ride up above “reality” or zooming out from your current perspective with a wide-angle lens. Take a step back from the day-to-day of your life and allow yourself to see and think big.

Never fear, there is no to-do list attached.

If your goal is to create your very best version of your life, your goals and pursuits should not be a reaction to what feels realistic or possible or even allowed. I’m going to challenge you to start from a different place entirely—the driver’s seat.

Set “reality” to the side for now. Grab some paper and something to write with. Forget about what’s possible and what else you “need to do.” Stop worrying about money, schedules, and other people and any limiting or “controlling” factors that come to mind.

Spend some time brainstorming what you really want.

No worries about how to make it happen.

Simply—what do you want?

Who do you want to be?

What do you want to do or create or achieve?

The idea is not to get caught up in when or how or if. The goal is to allow yourself to paint a picture—as clear as you can of who you want to be and where you want to head. Don’t worry about the next steps just yet.

I’d love to hear what you come up with!

Take good care,

PS: Some of you may find it challenging to get the time you need to brainstorm and even think about where you really want to go. If this is you, the Put Yourself First 7 Day Blast-off can make a huge difference–your commitment? Just a few minutes a day.

Melissa McCreery

Happy New Year!

I’m back in the office today after taking two weeks off to spend time with family, enjoy the holidays, unwind, and relax. My mind is full of new ideas and I am so excited about the possibilities that 2012 holds for all of us.

I have a message to deliver. You are capable of more than you think. And it gets even better. Odds are, you are capable of accomplishing amazing goals with less stress, and more ease than you currently see possible. If you are overwhelmed, overloaded, or overeating it’s very likely that you can untangle some stuff, have less stress, do less, and create better results. Not by working harder, but by taking simple, do-able steps that make sense for your life.

I’d love to help you keep a focus on this kind of focus in 2012. This year, I’ll be in more frequent touch, with bite-sized tips and information to help you break free of the three Os (overload, overwhelm, and overeating) and create more ease, joy, and success.

January is a month when there is a lot of momentum and emphasis on moving AHEAD, starting new things, and setting intentions, goals, and resolutions for the year ahead. I hope that as you do this, you also spend some time reflecting on the twelve months that have just passed. Here is what I know. We underestimate what can happen in twelve months when we look ahead, and when we look back, we often forget much of what we have done.

For some of you, it’s much easier to see what you didn’t accomplish in 2011 than what you did.

Please don’t stop there.

As you dive into this New Year, I want to encourage you to do some reflecting.

Make a list about 2011. Include everything you can think of that you accomplished, everything significant, life or lifestyle changing that happened, and anything that you survived or overcame. Take note of where you spent your time and energy. Write it all down. You might be surprised.

Don’t stop yet.

Go back through your calendar from 2011 and remind yourself where you were and what you were doing eight, nine, and twelve months ago. Get a clear picture of where you were last January. You might be surprised. When I reviewed my year, I find all sorts of growth and changes that had become so routine that I had stopped noticing them. New habits, new ways of eating, heck—I moved my office in 2011 and radically changed my work schedule. It works so well, I almost forgot to add it to my list of accomplishments!

Last January, I had a vague goal of “someday” running the New York City marathon. In February, I had the unexpected opportunity to work with world-class coaches who encouraged me to set a clear plan for doing so. In May, I ran a half marathon I’d never thought of running with the goal of finishing with a time that qualified me to run in New York City (this was a time goal I had never thought possible for myself). Running that time was amazing. And in November, I accomplished another huge goal. I hit the streets of New York City and ran in a race I’d dreamed of running for years. I never dreamed all that would happen back in January, 2011. But it did.

Don’t forget the positive changes that you’ve maintained over the past year. Sometimes it takes great effort to keep things the same. Have you kept weight off, maintained a fantastic relationship, stuck with your yoga practice or your commitment to me-time? These accomplishments count and they count big.

I’m betting some things have changed or you did some things you forgot about in 2011. If you are like me, you may have accomplished major goals that weren’t even on your radar twelve months ago.

My point is this—don’t sell yourself short. Knowing what you are capable of and knowing what you have done and have endured or survived can be a major source of power and confidence as you step into your bold new year.

I will never encourage you to live in the past, but I want you to take from it what can propel you in the directions that you want to go.

What did you almost take for granted about 2011? What unexpected fantastic new living may await you in 2012?

Take good care,

Melissa McCreery

Maybe you haven’t lost the weight you committed to lose this year. The days are shorter and you aren’t exercising the way you planned. Or perhaps holiday overeating is well underway and you’ve decided it’s hopeless—for now anyway. Are you one of the many women who is now ending her sentences with the phrase “in January” or “after New Year’s”?

• “I’m going back to the gym . . . in January.”
• “I’m going to get back to (fill in your favorite weight loss plan here) . . . in January.”
• “After New Year’s, I’m going to get serious about my eating/stress/_______.”
• “I know I’m an emotional eater and I’m going to get some help with that . . . in January.”

Yes, it’s the holiday season, and for many of you it’s busy or challenging in its own way. And in spite of what you may be thinking, it’s exactly NOT the time to give up on yourself or to put yourself on hold. In fact, you have three weeks of your year remaining. This is time when you can have an impact, nurture some new habits, and prevent yourself from having to dig yourself out of a hole come January 1st. And guess what? It’s possible to do all this without adding to stress and overwhelm.

How to jumpstart your success before the New Year

You doubt me don’t you? The truth is, the holiday season may not be the time to overhaul your life or your habits, but it’s a fine time to start building the kind of incremental change that can work wonders—because this is exactly the kind of change that tends to last. Instead of throwing your priorities to the wind or declaring that there is “no time for me,” this is a time when you can start to build your sense of effectiveness in small but powerful ways.

Your December Jumpstart has two steps

Pick the area of your life that you’d like to focus on. Eating? Managing stress? Physical activity? Self-care? Now think small and think do-able. What’s one small consistent step that you can and will commit to over the next three weeks? This should be something that you want to start or some fragile habit that you want to commit to nourishing and maintaining. If you feel doubtful about your ability to take this step, you aren’t thinking small enough.

Warning: Thinking small is a real challenge for many of you because you are high-achievers. You are likely to devalue small steps and automatically double them. Don’t do this. It won’t work for a jump start.

• Examples of a small step:
• Taking your vitamins every day.
• Drinking eight glasses of water a day.
• Taking a ten minute walk at lunch.
• Spending five minutes every morning writing in your journal.
• Asking for help with something once a day.

Choose the small step that you will commit to and simply start moving forward.

Another warning: You may be tempted to choose many small steps. Again, one small step may not seem like “enough.” The truth is, huge change is built on the backs of small consistent steps, AND taking on too many things at once can lead to a breakdown in all of them. If you are tempted, you can choose two or three small steps, but no more.

Step Two: Commit to me-time.

If you aren’t already doing this, this may be one of the most valuable steps you ever take. And if you start doing this now, you are going to be well on your way to a powerhouse of a new habit by January 1.

Here are the rules of the Jumpstart: commit to taking ten minutes a day connecting with yourself. That’s it. Ten minutes listening to you. It might be ten minutes of quiet meditation, ten minutes of journaling, yoga, or stretching. Maybe you’ll do it on a ten minute walk or while drinking your morning coffee.

Don’t over complicate this, and don’t underestimate its power. These ten minutes will help you stay clear on your priorities, your feelings and your needs. They can help you identify what is going well in your life, what’s stressing you out, and how you want to respond. These ten minutes have helped many women before you with everything from emotional eating, relationship stress, procrastination, overload, overcommitment, and a general lack of mojo.

Yes, you can throw in the towel, call it a year, and check back in with yourself on January 1st. But what might you accomplish if you start really learning the art of do-able self-care today?

Take good care,

Photo Credit

Melissa McCreery