AMY HANSEN

Each year brings about something new.  This includes new challenges and opportunities to learn.  It’s in the darkest, most difficult of times that you’re able to fully breakthrough and experience growth.  Ultimately, this is what life is all about.  You’re able to become the highest version of yourself when you learn and grow.  Those lessons can be taken with you and help you in future challenges.  Here are four lessons from this year.

Search For Signs

Often seeing the success of others can be triggering.  Usually this is because you’re not quite there yet or at least as far along as you’d like to be.  Instead of feeling envy or jealously, see the success of others as proof that it is possible for you.  Better yet, that it is a sign that you’re on the right track and on the path to seeing success in your own life.  See someone else’s success as confirmation that success on already its way to you.  Be on the lookout and search for signs that success is coming to you.

Abundan...

It’s officially December!  You may be feeling the pressure to try and make up for lost time in regards to your goals.  You maybe thinking that you can scramble, push extra hard, work furiously, and actually squeak out achieving the goal you’ve set by the end of the year.  But, is that really the best move?  Be realistic with what you can achieve this month.  Be practical and don’t overwhelm yourself by overloading your schedule with ten million to dos.  Here are four things you can achieve this month in order to set yourself up for success in the new year.

Your Goal

First, reconnect to yourself, your goals, and your dreams.  The year is almost over.  You may not be exactly where you had hoped.  But, you are here, so let’s end the year on a high note!  Revisit your vision for this year and acknowledge if it’s changed.  Maybe you’ve veered off course or your goal no longer aligns with what you want in your life.  You may need to revise your goal and what you can realistically acc...

With the holidays around the corner, life can get busy and your goal gets pushed to the back burner.  You have a lot going on and adding one more thing to your plate feels overwhelming.  Here is how to survive the holidays and still make progress toward your goal.

Self Care

With so much on your to do list, the holidays can feel extremely overwhelming.  That’s why it’s important to find time in your schedule to just breathe.  Take a beat and pause.  If you’re able to, squeeze in a nap or quiet time to read a book.  You might have to get up a bit earlier to have this peace and quiet to yourself.  Be still in the meditative silence.  Escape the busyness of the holidays and go for a walk to clear your thoughts.  All of these may be tough to do during the holidays but it is so important for your mental health and wellbeing.  You have to take care of yourself if you expect to be present and there for others too at this time of year. 

Gratitude

Next, focus on gratitude.  Find thi...

It’s so easy to compare where you are to someone else.  You see someone else achieve success but you don’t know the whole story.  You can’t compare your progress to someone else who has been at it longer, had more practice, or has had more resources available to them.  Especially if you haven’t been taking consistent action to achieve your goal.  Here is what you should do instead of comparing your progress to someone else.

Consistent Action

When you see someone else succeed, take a look and see what they did and how they achieved success.  Usually, it boils down to being consistent, more often, and for a longer period of time.  Massive progress is made by taking consistent daily action.  It’s not working on your goal every now and then, it’s being consistent.  Use the success of others as inspiration to fuel you and motivate you into action.  There is no reason why you can’t achieve their level of success or higher.  Know that it is possible for you and believe that you can ac...

Comparing your success to others can be triggering.  You can have one of two reactions when you someone shares their success or progress with you.  Let’s take a look at each of these reactions and see how it helps you or hinders you to achieve your own goals.

Success Trigger

The first reaction is to be triggered by another person’s success.  You might feel frustrated, annoyed, bitter, resentful, or that something is wrong with you because you’re not making progress at the same rate as someone else.  You might feel like you’re not doing enough, you’re not far enough along, or that you’re ultimately behind.  You may get jealous, upset, or envious and think that there is less success available for you.  Perhaps you even react by discounting or down playing the success of others because it initially makes you feel better to justify why you haven’t achieved success yet.  You find yourself making excuses as to why someone else has made progress and you haven’t.  All of these are nega...

Sometimes you can get caught up in the success of other people.  You start comparing where you are to where someone else is.  Perhaps, you don’t quite measure up.  Then, you beat yourself up over your lack of progress because you’re not quite where you’d like to be.  Success is not happening fast enough for you.  But, often you think other people achieve success quicker and for whatever reason, you start to think that it’s just not possible for you.  This comparison trap is not a healthy place to be.  Here are five things you can do when you find yourself in the comparison trap.

Your Success

First, show yourself some compassion.  Stop beating yourself up.  You have achieved success in now and the past, no matter how small it may seem.  Don’t belittle your progress and instead celebrate your success.  Show yourself some gratitude.  Be grateful for where you are and just how far you’ve come.  Remind yourself of the success you’ve already achieved.

What You've Learned

Next, w...

One of the hardest things to do is to actually start to achieve your goal.  You may have set a goal for yourself, but you haven’t taken action to achieve it.  Perhaps you’re waiting for everything to be perfectly lined up or maybe it’s just not the right time.  It could even be fear, worry, or self doubt that’s holding you back from taking action.  In any case, your goal won’t wait forever.  Here are three key beliefs you must have to achieve your goal.

You’re Ready

First, stop waiting for everything to be perfect or for all your ducks to be in a row.  Otherwise, you’ll just be waiting forever because that will never happen.  You have to start from where you are.  You don’t need to educate yourself more, gain more knowledge, or accumulate more tools.  You have everything you need within you to achieve your goal.  You can make this happen but you just have to start.  Stop waiting because you’re ready already.  There is nothing more that you need in order to move forward towards ...

You’re feeling really bummed because you’ve stopped taking action to achieve your goal.  You were doing so well too.  You disciplined yourself to start taking action but then for whatever reason you stopped.  You still deeply want to achieve your goal.  But, you’ve lost some motivation and you’re wondering how to get back on track to achieve your goal.  You must reignite your motivation to achieve your goal again by creating a shift within yourself to take action.

Procrastination

Procrastination is something that everyone does.  Procrastination is when you put off doing something because it triggers a stress response or some other negative feeling inside you.  It’s easier to procrastinate rather that doing what you need to get done.  You can quickly come up with excuses as to why you don’t feel like taking action towards your goal.  For instance, it’s taking too long, you’re just not ready, you need to complete other tasks unrelated to your goal first, or you simply don’t have ...

You’ve started taking action to achieve your goal.  But, you’re hitting a few obstacles and road blocks that are preventing you from moving forward to achieve it.  In fact, you’re no longer taking action towards your goal at all and you’re feeling really bad about it.  With each day that passes, you fall further and feel lower than before.  This is an internal battle you’re struggling to win.  Here is how to battle and win the war so that you achieve your goal.

Thoughts

You may find yourself going down the rabbit hole of all the thoughts that you can’t stick to anything, you’re incompetent, useless, or even untrustworthy because you’re unable to keep the promise that you’d finally achieve your goal.  You might think you’re a failure and that you’ve made a mistake.  Maybe you should just throw in the towel and forget it.  At this point, it’s too late to achieve your goal anyway.  You’re so off course that it’s beyond repair and not worth trying to fix.  You continue to spiral, thin...

With the change in the weather, it marks a change in seasons.  You may be coming into fall, winter, spring, or summer.  But, just like the weather changes seasons, your life has seasons too.  You may be going through a tough time or simply feeling like you’re out of alignment that something isn’t quite right.  It’s in these moments that you need to reassess where you are in your life.  Take inventory to see what’s working and what isn’t.  You don’t have to continue on your current trajectory.  You have the power to create change.  Change is hard but there is a lot to learn with the changing of the seasons.

Reassess Your Life

Your seasons may not change every three months like the calendar predicts.  However, that’s a good timeframe to keep in mind so that you can complete a check in with yourself.  Taking a hard look at your life every three months allows you to see if you’re still on course for the goals that you’ve set or if things have changed.  Perhaps the goal that you’re wor...