I have this little problem called "I keep forgetting to take my medicine in the morning," and as you might know, there's a tiny pill I need to take each morning if I want to improve the likelihood that my breast cancer won't come back. This is important, right?! I mean, I want to make sure I live long enough to see my kids all begin their careers, get married, have kids... I don't want to miss any of the milestones! Yet, I keep getting to the end of the day, realizing I was so busy that I never stopped long enough to swallow that pill.

Finally, I started setting an alert on my phone. I put "take your @*$% pill" in my calendar, and clicked the "alert" option so my phone would buzz and remind me mid-morning. But, I told myself I needed to take it one step further. I made a deal with myself that no matter what I was doing, I would stop and take my medicine right then and there. And that's more tricky than it sounds. Once I get going in the morning, whether it's playing...

Get out of the house. Put your phone down. Go see a show. Go have dinner. Sit at a coffee shop and discuss a book. Whatever it is, get out among people and TALK. It is amazing what you will discover.

I went with my daughters to see a bunch of our musician friends perform over the weekend. It was a beautiful show. They all have a crazy amount of talent, so the fact that it was INCREDIBLE was no surprise. Witnessing the banter, and the smiles, it was clear the musicians enjoyed what they were doing. 

The afternoon would have been a success--even if taking two hours to relax and be inspired by our friends' gifts was all we accomplished. On the way in, and before the show, we chatted with several people we know who were in the audience. (Tip #1: it is good to get out into the world -away from your screen- and see and talk with your friends. It's good for us to interact with people face-to-face! And, you get a depth of conversation you don't get with texting and social...

No matter who you are, or what your goal, you don't need to be an elite athlete to benefit from approaching life like a champion.

So you want to:

get in shape / lose weight / launch a new business / build a career / get cast on Broadway / just get through  your junior year of high school / excel at a new sport / save money for your dream vacation / pay cash for your dream retirement home ....

Whatever it is, we all have that thing we want to achieve or do. All too often, we are the ones standing in the way of our own success.  Without knowing it, we sabotage ourselves with thinking and habits that do not support our goals. 

Ten Ways to Stop Sabotaging Your Success:

1. Stop expecting immediate results. Understand everything is a process. Take the pressure off yourself, and instead, focus on being consistent. Focused, consistent effort over time will pay off.
   
   
2. Stop saying, "I can't..." Eliminate the phrase from your vocabulary. Tell yourself, "Yes, I can!" I can stick...

We are coming into that new year's resolution time of year, and I've been thinking a lot about what it takes to be a high achiever. What is the secret sauce that separates those who believe in themselves and crush their goals from those who pout, complain, make excuses and talk bad about those who are doing the work?

Yeah, that might be harsh. But the haters usually fall into that second group too. 

But YOU. YOU are someone who has that fire, that dream, that goal you want to achieve. YOU are someone who will do the work! And, if you're not there yet... I'm going to teach you how!

In my virtual group run clubs, we dive deeper into these ideas (and more!), but here are some things to ponder as you wrap up the new year in merry style:

• Be Grateful. No matter how bad things get, there is always something to be grateful for. When I was going through breast cancer treatment, a friend told me to take at least one picture a day, no matter how bad I felt. It was the best advice...

I know... thinking about ankle mobility isn't exciting. You'd rather get out there and run! I get it. But... you need to have healthy feet, ankles and calves if you are going to run to your potential. So many little problems that become big problems start with the feet.

Take a look at the foot in the image above. See that angle? If the foot can't achieve at least a 30 degree angle as it is loading, it is going to compensate in some way that usually creates a braking force (which slows you down). The inability to move the foot through the range of motion without compensating by rolling the foot to one side (for example) means that the runner will execute this flawed motion repeatedly over the course of their training run. And every motion from the minute the foot touches the ground affects something further up the kinetic chain. 

Why do we care?

1) If you want to get faster, a good place to start is with the feet.

2) To help prevent injury. My goal as a coach and with...

The other day, I was working in the kitchen, and I kept hearing this horrible ruckus outside. At first, I wrote it off as neighbors working on an outdoor project, but the noise was distracting... and sounded closer than the neighbor's house. In fact, it sounded like something was hitting my house. When I finally investigated, I saw this bird.

This poor little guy had been flying into the glass in my dining room window for over 45 minutes before I spotted him. I immediately grabbed my phone to snap a picture because after thinking, "Poor little guy..." my next thought was "What a great metaphor!"

How often do we fly full-force into a glass window and ricochet off before we realize our approach is not working? And once we realize we need to try something new, do we remain stuck in the same pattern, unable to break out... or do we change the plan?

Over the course of the next several hours, I opened the front door and stood on the porch to scare the bird away. Each time, he flew away...

I love to run outside on the many trails we have in the Kansas City area. And, I love to stop and take pictures while I run. I know that doesn't sound like hard core training.

Run. Stop. Take a photo. Run. Stop. Take a photo. 

Some days, you just need to do what feeds your soul.

I've had several medical challenges the last few years, most recently being diagnosed with breast cancer. I had a bi-lateral mastectomy and chemo two years ago, and all is good now. What people don't always realize though is that the effects of a cancer diagnosis can live on, long beyond the official treatment. 

I wanted to be able to just flip a switch and start running and training hard core the minute I walked out of that final chemo session. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. It's taken a good two years for me to feel like my brain works. The courses I am developing were not even an option a year ago because I couldn't concentrate, or even string together a series of complete thoughts.

...

I have been having so much fun developing my latest online courses for walkers and runners. I've offered online courses before, but I've always felt like they were disjointed, with information spread over a bunch of platforms. I've finally found a solution that keeps the content together and makes it easy to follow, and I'm excited to share these courses with you!

The newest courses are:

1) Walk (or Run!) Your First 5K

2) Train for Your First Half Marathon (also great for someone who wants a sound program, regardless of the number of races they've completed!)

Both will be offered in an online learning platform with new content being released every seven days.  Each week, participants receive updated strength and stability exercises, drills and cool downs--all with video demonstrations. But what I love most about these programs is that I will be teaching you the things you need to know to make running and walking activities you can enjoy for a long time to come. I will...