This morning, I was working the front desk at the fitness studio I work at part-time when a mom with a toddler came in looking disheveled and exhausted. They were at a storytelling event next door and she saw the studio on her way to the car. She asked about classes and schedules and memberships with a sense of excitement and desperation. She said she was going to try to come back for a class two hours later.


As the start time of said class approached, people started trickling in, but she didn’t. I thought, Oh no, please let her make it and have this time for herself.

She ended up running in one minute before class started, just in time.

After class, as I got her checked out, I noticed her energy was lighter. She said she was so happy to have made it happen, but she wouldn’t be able to commit to more classes, since she had her toddler at home with her most days.

Today, the stars aligned for her — she was motivated, she had someone to watch her daughter, she saw that we were open and there was a class time that worked. AMAZING!

And yet, I wonder how long those good feelings lasted. Maybe through tonight or until tomorrow. Maybe they were zapped as soon as she walked through the door back home. For her sake, I hope it was longer.

Now, I hope this doesn’t sound patronizing. I’m trying to paint a picture for you of a situation I’m sure most of you have been in at one point or another. I certainly have. Where people and responsibilities require so much of you that you don’t get to do anything for yourself. Where you don’t even recognize what you’re sacrificing until maybe it’s too late.

What if you didn’t have to wait for the motivation to get started or for the stars to align in order to do something for your health and yourself? How would that change your health? Your relationships? Your life?

There are always going to be excuses. You can always insert things into your life that make it so you don’t have the time to exercise or the brain capacity to meal plan or the money to invest in a therapist or coach or…or…or….

​So you have to choose what’s most important to you. Then you commit to it. And then you take action. And when you make that commitment, you can come up with solutions that are (mostly) excuse-proof (…some people are REALLY good at making excuses).


If you are ready to commit to your priorities and change your health and life, you’re in the right place. I have a 5-Day Resolution Restart 2024 starting on January 29, and I’d love for you to be my guest! We’ll be live on Zoom talking about your vision of optimal health, creating goals, and putting them into action. Info and register here.

I’ve had a slow start to the year compared to 2023. While I didn’t set intentions in 2023 (see my previous article about this), I hit the ground running as soon as I got back from my holiday trip to visit my parents in Colorado and I rannn for months. It was fun and exciting!

This year (2024), despite creating resolutions and goals, I struggled a bit to get going. Anyone else?

*Just a reminder here that comparison is the thief of joy! Whether you’re comparing yourself to yourself or to other people, it’s really not helpful and takes you away from the present moment of your life.

ANYWAYS

I’ve found inspiration in the past few days— from hearing about some great wins from clients to settling back into my daily routines — I’m ready to go.

(Also, we’re only 12 days into the new year, so “calm down Elaine,” I know!)

One thing I know to be true is that waiting for the “motivation” to get started never gets me what I want. In the past, I have been stuck for days, weeks, or months waiting for motivation to strike, and that has left me at the whim of circumstance to dictate how I get to live and what happens to me.

So, instead of waiting for motivation, I know I just have to move. Take action first, and momentum and motivation builds to keep me going.

This happened in my own health journey. A couple of years ago, I was sparked into action when my dad got sick, and I realized I needed to be taking better care of myself. As I began to eat better, prioritize sleep, exercise, and find belonging in a spiritual community, I found myself in an upward spiral towards feeling better, each change leading to motivation to do the next, and the next, and the next.

By improving my health, I gained the confidence and clarity I needed to make some big changes in my life to realign with my purpose. Over the next six months, I

• ended a 2.5-year relationship that was fine but wasn’t aligned with my long-term goals (which I’d known for a while but didn’t have the confidence to leave).
• decided to move on to my next career, knowing I had accomplished all I could in the place I was. I knew that my desire to grow needed to be nurtured, and it was okay to strive for more.
• moved out of an apartment that had been home for five years in search of new energy.

It didn’t all happen at once. It wasn’t easy. And it wasn’t serendipitous. This transformation took hard work, intention, and consistent forward action.

I recently conducted a market research survey for overwhelmed, purpose-driven women who are seeking harmony between their desire to make a difference in the world and their need to nourish their own body, mind, and soul without guilt. In response to the question, “What do you think you need in order to see a positive shift in your struggle areas?”, so many women said that they need to see results, progress, some wins…

But how are you going to see results if you’re waiting to make a change until you see results? Yes, we need to see results to prove to ourselves that we can actually do it, and the only way that’ll happen is by starting anyway. Regardless of whether circumstances are perfect or the time is “right” or you are totally motivated. You just have to get started.

So how do you get yourself to take that first action when you’re not motivated? Connecting to your motivation to change (not your motivation to go to the gym or eat the vegetable), coming up with a foolproof plan for you, and setting up accountability for yourself so you can’t not do it! More on that next week.

​In the meantime, if you are ready to set the direction of your life and health and prepare for action, check out my free, 5-day masterclass — Resolution Restart 2024 — from January 29-February 2. I’ll be live with you in Zoom every day, getting you set up with manageable, actionable resolutions that’ll transform your health and life. Sign up here.

I’ve been hesitant to share with my clients and networks about my New Year’s “resolutions”. It seems that “resolutions” have gotten a bad rap in recent years. The messages I receive are that they’re meaningless, they don’t actually help people make changes, 92% of people fail at their resolutions, everyone gives up in the first few days of January…blah blah blah. And I was letting this message get to me. If I’m a health coach, I guess I shouldn’t be telling people about my resolutions and telling them to make their own if they don’t work.


But I’m calling BS. Because “resolutions” have worked for me in the past. And they can work for you too.

I put “resolutions” in quotes because I think we all have a different idea of what that means, and the types of “resolutions” that fail may not be the types of “resolutions” I’m talking about that can work.

If we think about where that word comes from, we’re talking about resolving to do something. Making a decision with determination to accomplish what we set out to do.

For me, the distinction between the resolutions that fail and those that don’t is intention versus commitment.

An intention is an aim or an idea. It seems that many people set intentions for the new year — that is, they come up with ideas for their year. Dreaming about what it’d be like to exercise more, lose 20 pounds, see friends and family more, try new foods, make more money, find more fulfillment, be more present, quit *insert unhealthy habit here*.

And there is ABSOLUTELY a time and place for intention setting. If you want to change your life, that’s where you start. You have to know what you want so you can ask for it. But that’s not where it ends. Or actually, that is where it ends if you stop there.

But if you really want your life to change, you have to change your life, not just your ideas.

A commitment, on the other hand, is a decision to dedicate and restrict your time to actually doing your resolution. You create a plan, make it specific and measurable, and add in accountability to make sure you follow through. And then you do it.

Now, it’s not as easy as one-two-three, but you’ll be a lot more likely to follow through when you decide you’re actually going to do something (not just wouldn’t it be nice…) and have a plan of action.

So back to the New Year’s part — at what other point in your life are you sitting down and intentionally designing your life? Choosing what you want and making commitments to get it? Why not use the New Year to make it happen? It’s as good a time as any.

Use the energy of the collective consciousness of billions of people who have agreed on the calendar that says January 1 is a time for new beginnings, and begin anew.

​I wish you all the success, growth, and happiness in 2024. Happy New Year!