I was an ice skater when I was young.  No, I was not good, but I enjoyed it anyway.  It still perplexes me because I DESPISE cold.  Yet, I would go to a COLD rink every week and freeze for hours on end.  That’s beside the point though....

At the end of every season we had a big show.  During the show you would skate in a group to a song that fit some sort of them.  The week/weekend leading up to the show we would have dress rehearsals.  I LOVED DRESS REHEARSALS!  It was so fun because we still got to skate and practice our routines in our costumes (super awesome!) but we didn’t actually have a large audience.  If we screwed up, nobody really cared.  That was the best part about it.  There was no pressure.  In my mind, the rehearsals were better than the show. 

Too bad we don’t have more dress rehearsals now.  It’s a bummer that we don’t get ourselves ready and...

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“I’m unmotivated.”

I get a little fired up after hearing this. Usually, people say this phrase to me like it is something they can’t change.

Motivation doesn’t magically drop in your lap.  Motivation isn’t a gift that can be given. 

Motivation comes through hard work. The hard work of sticking to what you planned and reminding yourself why you started in the first place. 

The hard work of managing your brain.

Here is a little secret.  I am personally writing this blog for me.  My goal is to get myself fired up again.

The other day, I heard myself say, “I lost my motivation.”

I know it’s not really “lost”.  I know how to find it. 

But finding it and bringing it back takes HARD WORK (you know, what I said above…).

Lately, I have been falling into...

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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...

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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...

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Do you remember when you were pregnant? 

I do.  And my word is, “Ugh.”  I want to apologize to the ladies who have either (a) not been pregnant or (b) loved being pregnant.  To those ladies, let me paint the picture of my pregnancy (to some of you who also had horrible pregnancies, you can totally skip this part because you know what I’m talking about here). 

It started at 4 weeks.  Yep, I knew instantly when I was pregnant because the, “I only want to sleep FOREVER” and “Oh my goodness, that smell makes me want to vomit” started.  Those two only intensified from there.  Getting out of bed was like trying to get slime out of carpet…slow and almost impossible.  Plus, who really wants to get out of bed when you know you are going to just vomit or feel like vomiting the rest of the day.  

No, this...