**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

I’m in the river right now. 

I am swimming hard to get to the other side, but honestly, I feel like I’m getting nowhere.

What river you ask?

Well, the river of misery.

“You aren’t supposed to be miserable!  You just started this coaching thing full time.  Most of your time is spent at home and with your kids.  What do you have to be miserable about?”

Yes, I have many blessings.  That is for sure.  But it doesn’t mean I am not miserable sometimes.

Guess what? I actually embrace my misery. 

If any of you live in a northern region, you know what I am talking about when I say the “river of misery”.  See, here in Minnesota we have COLD and snowy winters.  They are MISERABLE.  You will find a few people that may actually enjoy wintertime, but for the majority, we dread it. 

Why do we live here?  OUR SUMMERS ARE GLORIOUS! 

Have you heard that Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes?  The...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

The day after Mother’s Day, I get to wrap up this beautiful series I have been writing about for the last six weeks.  I wanted to use this blog post today to review, but also to give a few final thoughts that I pray will help you on this crazy, beautiful journey of motherhood.

 Let's dive in...

The first essential I discussed is by far the most important in my book.

Love yourself. 

You can’t truly love others unconditionally, if you don’t love who God made you first.

Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37

My best advice.  Be your own best friend. Talk to yourself like you would your daughter.  And for goodness sake, giv...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

One of my favorite things to do is hike.  The best hikes, in my book, are the ones in which you get a view at the end. 

The last hike I did was in a little town in Minnesota called Red Wing.  It was a short, straight up the hill climb to the top of a bluff. The top was beautiful.  The view was expansive and invigorating.

The hike itself was nothing special though.  A whole bunch of trees with the occasional view of the busy highway. I’m glad it was short because the actual hike was pretty boring. Once I was at the top, I realized I had to make the tedious trip back down. I told myself that at least down is easier and I already know the way.

I think about this when I talk about perspective with my clients.  When we start coaching I have them come up with goals.   Not because I need my clients to hit them, but because they need a target, a focus.

When I start asking them wh...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

Let’s recap the last four weeks in the series – Six Essentials Every Mom Needs to be the Best Mom for their Kids. 

1. Love Yourself
2. Mindset Matters
3. Ditch the Manuals
4. Take Care of your Temple

This week, let’s dive into letting go of other people’s opinions.

Letting this go; that’s a hard pill to swallow for a recovering people pleaser like me. 

Honestly, a lot of my time was spent unconsciously figuring out how I could get people to like me.  I would pretend and twist myself into a mold I thought they would want me to fit.  Ultimately, it was lying.  The problem with lying, you get caught and eventually realize you don’t even know the truth any more.

This really hit home when my oldest started school.  I noticed that she would come home very upset most days.  I learned that her “friends” were running away from her and telling her that they didn’t want to be her friend...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

Are you ready?! 

Week 4 of the six part series:  Essentials Every Mom Needs to be the Best Mom for their Kids

Take care of your TEMPLE.

It is my FAVORITE thing to do so I can regroup, refocus and become re-energized.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought with a price.  Therefore, honor God with your body.  1 Corinthians 6:19-20

I have so many favorite verses, and this is one.  It reminds me that the Holy Spirit LIVES IN ME.  God gave me this body to steward as a place for the Spirit to reside in.  He also gave me this body as a vessel in which to complete His work.  This body was bought with a price.  If God sees my body as precious and wonderful, then so should I.

Do you ever watch those hoarding shows?  I am totally fascinated by them.  It is interesti...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

Week three of the six part series: Essentials every Mom Needs to be the Best Mom for their Kids.

If you missed the other two, you can find them here and here. 

I’m so excited for today’s topic!  Once I adopted this in my own life, I saw a huge change quickly.  I can't wait to share it with you.

Lets talk about ditching the “should”.

 So, what am I talking about here? 

You know the phrases…

• My husband should help out around the house.
• My kids should know by now to pick that up.
• My friends should call me on my birthday.
• My mother should want to watch my kids.

Don’t tell me you haven’t said something like this before.  I know you all have! And I have too!

I want you to see that we are talking about humans.  We are expecting these humans to take a certain action (i.e. helping, picking up, calling, wanting).  Basically, we, in our minds, are telling these humans ...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

Week two of the Six Essentials Every Mom Needs to be the Best Mom for their Kids! 

This series is all about giving you the tools I have learned that made a HUGE impact on my life and how I parent.  But guess what?!  Even if you’re not a mom yet, these are still great tools the can change your life.

Essential Number Two:  Create a Positive Mindset for Yourself

I love definitions. So, I had to Google the definition of mindset.  It is kind of a buzz word but I really wanted to get to the root of it.  The definition is the established set of attitudes held by someone.

The phrase ‘established set of attitudes’ jumped out at me. So I went back to Google.  Establish means that it is set or has been around a long time. Attitudes are a way of thinking or feeling about someone or something. It is reflected in a person's behavior .

I want to put this all together for you.  Mindset then i...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

It’s April! Woohoo! For most of you winter is done. For us in Minnesota, the end is near!

New season, new excitement, new energy!

Same goes for me ;) I’m so excited to share my next blog series with you. I’m going to outline it quickly here in this post, but I will be writing about each of these topics more in depth. Be sure you sign up for my weekly emails so you don’t miss it!

For the next six weeks, I will be talking about Six Essentials Every Mom needs to Be the Best Mom for their Kids. Guess what?! If you’re not a mom these essentials still apply to you!

Are you excited? You should be!  This will be a great opportunity to start making shifts in your life so you can THRIVE and be the mom you want to be!

So.... let's begin with Essential Number One:

LOVING YOURSELF

I want to share two common themes I hear from women around this topic. 

1. Some women don’t believe that
...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

So I have been giving you all a little tough love the last couple of weeks with this all this talk of commitment. Today, I just want to give some encouragement and awareness. How does that sound?

Good!

Most of my clients come to me and tell me that they are all or none kind of people. They use this trait to explain to me why they haven’t lost weight, why they yell at their kids, why they can’t get their business going and on and on.

I get it. I’ve been there too. I still am some days.

As I am writing this post, I had this commitment to myself that I was going to get all the blog posts for March written by February 28. I am well into March and I’m still writing.  I wanted to get them all done and put my focus else where.  

When I didn't get this post done by my goal date, my first reaction was to beat myself up. I wanted to be mad at myself. I felt like that would motivate me, ...

**If you would like to listen to this blog post, scroll to the bottom for the audio version.

Can I recap for those who may have not read/ listened to my last two posts?

Great! Thank you for sticking with me here.

Two weeks ago I talked about commitment. Why it’s important and how to commit. The take away, commit because the benefits far exceeds the struggle.

Last week I discussed God’s hope versus the world’s hope. The take away, is to commit to stay faithful in the hope (certainty) of God’s promises. Why? Because we can be certain about what He says in His word compared to a world that is very uncertain.

Why the recap? Because, I’m talking about commitment here friend.

Now, I really want to challenge your commitment.

The opposite of committing is quitting.   Would you agree?

When we quit we give up the commitment we made. Remember, commitment is a stance created by you in which you know what you will or will not do regardless of what does or doesn’t happen.

Quitti...