Taking your Big Hairy Audacious Goals to Prime Time (sort of!)

Danielle hit the nail on the head, but, oftentimes, our follow through on goals is lacking. In a study by Adams-Miller and Frisch in 2009, researchers discovered that as much as 80% of our day's activity is directed by our "unthinking reaction to cues." In other words, we go through most of our day on autopilot, conveniently "forgetting" those big hairy audacious goals we have set for ourselves. 

Enter the primer ...


What is a primer? Primers are conscious or unconscious cues paired together that promote behavioral change. Translation por favor?

Basically, a PRIMER is a REMINDER on steroids.

Let's take an easy example such as starting an exercise habit first thing in the morning. Maybe you've even set a BHAG of running a marathon or a daily run or spin class IS your BHAG (sheepishly raises hand).

Whichever the case, if you have no daily habit in place (and you haven't broken a sweat in a long time), you need a primer. A  primer for exercise might be to put your running...

Continue Reading...

Turtle Steps & Treat Day for New Year's Resolution Success!

Are you already taking action steps on your goals? Wonderful! Are you still as motivated 12 days later as you were on day 1? Hopefully the answer is yes, but it's completely understandable if the answer is hell no.  Maybe you're now so overwhelmed by what you want to get done that 2020 is sounding like a better year to dive into all of this. Have you started telling yourself you'll just tuck these emails away and do it next year?

Don't quit on me, we need to just feed your elephant!

Let's remember, again, the duality of our brains. We've got our emotional brain (we previously referred to as our elephant) and our prefrontal cortex (our smart and savvy rider) and they both need to work together to get each goal off of the ground and all the way to the finish line.

Big surprise, your emotional brain wants immediate gratification and constant feedback to stay motivated. It doesn't want to wait 12 months to see results. It would rather have a glass...

Continue Reading...

Aim High (but not too high) with your New Year's Resolutions

I hope you had a wonderful first weekend of the New Year. Before we move onto how to make all of your right brain resolutions happen - we’re going to up the ante a bit during the setting process. 

Now your resolution list can definitely have some easy wins on it. If you are resolving to drink 64 ounces of water every day in 2020 - that’s fabulous. If you’re going to meditate for 15 minutes every day - wonderful (learning to meditate is one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself, by the way). These are small habits that can have a big impact on your wellbeing.

But let's also put some hair on your goals…

I’d also like you to consider having some BHAGs on your list. What’s a BHAG? It’s a BIG HAIRY AUDACIOUS GOAL. Martha Beck calls them your WIGS (Wildly Improbable Goals), Brooke Castillo calls them your impossible goals and Jim Collins calls them your BHAGS. I’ve recently come to...

Continue Reading...

The elephant in the New Year's Resolution Room

 

Do you still feel as revved up and motivated as you did two days ago? If yes, awesome, if no, you are not alone. The pitfalls of setting NYE party resolutions are many.

We borrow a resolution from someone else that sounds pretty good - oh hey I'd kind of maybe also like to lose weight, declutter, get my finances in order, too, yet we lack the true intrinsic motivation to get 'er done.

The pat answers about our resolutions were easy to give at the cocktail party, but that doesn’t mean that they are especially meaningful to us.  

Change isn't a walk in the park. It takes commitment, perseverance and consistency. You need new neural pathways in your brain to replace rutted out old ways of doing things.

Our brains like to be as efficient as possible, which makes the old way easier. The new way takes time and effort before it becomes ingrained as a new way of life. So motivation for the long-term is key.

But motivation has to be your own, not...

Continue Reading...

Are you ready to surf or drift in 2020?

The topic of the upcoming New Year can be quite loaded. Some of us are so ready to shut the door on 2019 and others are all amped up with lists longer than Santa's on all the ways we need to improve ourselves in the next 12 months. 

How we're going to choose to fill the next 52 weeks can be either exhilarating or daunting.

Whether this is the bitch of a blank canvas for you or a fresh start and a clean slate, it's an opportunity to set some intentions for the next decade.

Do Resolutions Even Work?

When set properly, goals and resolutions set at the beginning of the year can work wonders. When arbitrarily proclaimed at midnight on Dec 31 with no plan to back them up, well, yeah, those resolutions barely make it past the late-night Uber ride home. 

My favorite perspective on the year ahead is to think about the new year as 365 opportunities!

I realize that 2019 might have given you 365 ways to want to bang your head against the wall or 365 ways to...

Continue Reading...

How to Marie Kondo your Christmas -> 8 ways to spark the joy and dump the stress this holiday season

Uncategorized Dec 19, 2019

What do I mean by Marie Kondo your Christmas?

Don't worry! I do not mean folding your underwear in a weird way or having to organize ANYTHING in your home right now. 

Marie Kondo is that incredible professional organizer who wrote the book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Did you read it?

Makes a great holiday gift ;-)! Just kidding. I mean it does, but that's not what this is about.

This is less about holiday presents and more about holiday presence...

which probably just made you feel guilty. Because in going overboard and trying to create a magical holiday for our loved ones, we are usually more stressed and less present than we are at other times in the year. And that feels kind of crummy.

Christmas is touted as the most wonderful time of the year ... except that comes with a hefty emotional and financial price tag for those of us who are orchestrating the magic for everyone else.

I saw the funniest quote the other day that basically said that December...

Continue Reading...

Give Back Black Friday

Well, we’ve officially transitioned out of the season of stuffing to the season of stuff. Thanksgiving is over, but it’s always a good time of year to give that thanks away.

Today is Black Friday and before you give your credit card a workout, take a minute to pass some gratitude gravy.

Black Friday can be rough on those who work in retail. Yes, investment bankers, CEOs, and stockholders love Black Friday, but those who are manning (and woman’ning) the stores often bear the brunt of shoppers’ seasonal anxieties, which isn’t always easy.


We all know the horror stories of shoppers trampling each other to get the hot new item of the season. Or yelling at store personnel for being out of stock.

I highly doubt you even remotely fall into this category, but instead of just patting ourselves on the back for not being a complete jerk in life, let’s go the extra mile and start this shopping season by spreading some gratitude during our holiday...

Continue Reading...

Talk turkey to me

gratitude gratitude gravy Nov 28, 2019

#GratitudeGRAVY day 14

Hello Lizzie:

For years I pretty much missed the point of Thanksgiving. Sad, but true. I'm the person who has literally lit my oven on fire while trying to broil bagels. 

Let's just say that a holiday dedicated to cooking one big meal coupled with fear of family tension has never been high on my list of favorites. 

Despite the Thanksgiving hits and misses we've had chez Larock, I've come to realize that Thanksgiving is supposed to be a celebration of the great FULLness* of life with some of the wonderful humans that are in my world. Flawed and funny, weird and wonderful, I give thanks for all of them. 

When I first started gratitude gravy a few years ago, I stumbled upon this post from my friend, Kelsey Murphy. I think it nicely sums up the great FULL ness of a Thanksgiving celebration:

Soak up the Crazy

But what if this holiday you soaked up all the good crazy, and let go of the bad crazy. Think about it…...

Continue Reading...

Want to improve your mood (and your creativity) in a hurry? Look up!

When was the last time you studied the ceiling of an airport? 

I took this photo of these red lanterns in the Houston airport at the end of April. We were coming home from Peru and had a 3-hour layover after having already traveled straight for 22 hours. I was exhausted, spent, wired not tired.

There's beauty everywhere. Sometimes we have to look in unexpected places to find it, like the ceiling of the Houston airport. But if you're paying attention, you'll see it and appreciate it. 

But most of us are head down in our phones all.the.time. We've forgotten what it's like to notice something other than a text message or a burgeoning inbox.

Where did we all go? ‍

As you're scrolling through your phone right now (hey, I'm probably doing it, too), take a second to turn your gaze upwards. Look at the sky, the ceiling, the person next to you. 

Positive psychology has shown that just the mere act of looking up raises our moods. 

In a series of experiments...

Continue Reading...

A sneak preview of The Life Feast

the life feast Mar 04, 2019
 

What is The Life Feast? The Life Feast is a 7-week online experience where you will savor, swoon and sincerely fall in love with life's little moments. You'll use photography, a smidge of mindfulness and the science of positive psychology to shake up your usual routine, amplify what's working and experience life through a different lens. Curious? Good! Curiosity is a key ingredient for The Life Feast...

I've got a sneak preview of what's inside The Life Feast. Take a look at then sign up. It starts this Thursday, February 20, 2020 ... don't miss out!

You can go straight to registration right here or you can see a few more details right here.

 

Continue Reading...
1 2 3 4 5 6
Close

50% Complete

Just pop your email address in here and you'll receive my FREE photowalk guide.