Blog Category: Growth

For the next three weeks, I’m issuing an invitation, a helping hand—a challenge. Join me as I guide you through all 7 major life areas, asking you to make small, but breakthrough changes in each area.

You might decide to:

• Investigate a new job, career or business opportunity

• Clear out the junk food and sugar from your kitchen

• Start taking walks after dinner with your spouse

Whatever dreams you have for your life, for the next three weeks, I’d like to challenge you to choose, then tackle, one thing in each area that you know you must accomplish to arrive at where you want to be.

To start off the 21-Day Challenge, let’s focus on a major stressor for most people: their finances. What could you do tonight after work to start making a major breakthrough in tackling your debt, cutting your expenses, saving for a major purchase, or otherwise lowering your financial stress?

Could you spend an hour to:

• List all your debts, then pay off the smallest one

• Cancel a subscription, meal kit, or service you rarely use

• Research companies and start an investment account

• Identify an unused item and post it for sale online

The concept of a breakthrough goal is something I learned from The Oola Guys – Dr. Dave Braun and Dr. Troy Amdahl, authors of Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World. With so many stress points in life, they say, our lives can get out of balance. But narrowing our focus to smaller goals that are easy to achieve, we can start changing our lives for the better (often permanently). 

Are you up for that kind of life change this month? Watch for my posts, take action every day, and see what happens!

Hello Friends!!!!! 

Can you believe Thanksgiving is next week?  I also turn 51 next week, too!!!  Time is sure flying by lately.

When I was sitting down thinking about this I realized that means that if you are like the majority of people (Americans anyhow) you are focusing right now on meal plans for next week, and then moving in to thinking about shopping for Christmas. For many of us the next 5 or so weeks will blow any financial strategy or gains we had, and if you purchase gifts on credit, then you'll be blowing the first few months of next year too. Or if you only make the minimum payment then maybe the next several years of your finances.  How depressing.  

And that doesn't leave room for any emergencies. Like this guy....
This is Eggroll. He's a 13ish year old cat who needs surgery next week. And not cheap surgery, either. Like $1,000+ surgery. Right before Christmas and my upcoming vacation!!!!  Aaaaccckkkk!!!!

Here's the thing. Six months ago I wouldn't have been able to afford this surgery and would have had to either leave him in pain, pay it on Care credit or on a credit card (which I don't even have). Or worse, be forced to maybe even make the most difficult decision.  The one you never want to make due to money when the pet still has so much living left to do.  

But I'm lucky. In the past 6 months I've been able to build up an emergency fund to cover this cost, still be able to buy all the Christmas gifts I want, save for my two upcoming trips (one to Australia next year that will be expensive), invest in my future, and still have fun along the way. And pay for it all with cash. And I didn't get a job making more money, either.  I'm doing this with my current income.  

So what changed? I found a plan that takes the emotion out of money and helped me finally get my finances in order.  Yep, it took me 50 years to finally figure it out.  Yes - I am embarrassed about that, but better late than never right?

And it is not rocket science, and it doesn't matter what your income level is.  This system can help you, I promise.  

So, how are you going to finish out these next 6 weeks of the year?  Worrying about money, dreading the thought of the end of January when the credit card bills come due, or worried about what you'll do if the car breaks down or the cat needs surgery?

There really is hope.  You can grab the full program here
Green Gap
GREEN GAP
and it even includes monthly coaching with the creator, where you can ask questions and dive even deeper in to how the system works.  You too can become a money machine.  

I'm sure you are thinking?  Great.  But I'm broke and a system like this probably costs a fortune, especially with those included monthly coaching/Q&A sessions.  But guess what?  It doesn't.  It's a one-time fee of $197 or $147 if you are already an Oola Member or Ambassador.  So....are you ready to invest in yourself and your financial future?  

If you want to see more of Eggroll check out this Facebook Live I did with him today: https://www.facebook.com/1641691034/videos/861985131117602/

Reach out if you have questions. I'd love to help you find the freedom I've finally found after all these years.

Visualization can be the secret weapon in turning your dreams into reality. You already have the power to achieve what you want in life; motivation, strategy, and the Big Idea are already there, locked in your subconscious mind. Take just ten minutes every day to unlock that power and start to move towards your goals.

You may not realize how powerful your subconscious is in determining whether or not you succeed in life. A negative mindset can act as a drag, stopping you from imagining your dream life and going for it. It will remind you of past failures and tell you that gaining success and wealth is hard work and painful, even impossible.

Studies have shown that you can rewire your mindset by programming the Reticular Activating System in your brain to select for positivity and success. The RAS acts a bit like an email folder, getting you to focus on what’s important to you. If you tell it to prioritize information that will feed your success, you will have your subconscious mind working for you, not against you.

Just ten minutes a day of visualizing your future life is enough to keep the momentum going and your motivation high. Make the visualization habit easy by doing it at the same time and place each day. The ten minutes before you get up and before you go to sleep are the perfect times to practice visualization. You’re relaxed, unlikely to be interrupted, and in the ideal state of mind to have an impactful visualization.

Bring to mind every detail of your future successful life, How does it feel? What can you see, feel, hear, and taste? What are you wearing? What emotions are you feeling? Make it as real and detailed as possible.

You can practice visualization not just by thinking about the future but also being fully present in the here and now. Placing your happiness in the future means you miss out on all the good things in your life right now. And that can be demotivating and lead to a drop in positivity.

Don’t postpone happiness. Think of all the things in your life that you are grateful for right now. Celebrate your successes and your gifts and use them to fuel your ambition for more and better.

See yourself working your way along the map and ticking off your successes as you get closer to achieving what you want. Mark every success, no matter how small and keep your energy and motivation high.

Did you miss the first post in this series?  Check it out HERE.  

You’ve probably heard about visualizing as a personal development tool. Or maybe your sports coach used visualization to help motivate you and your team. But did you know that there’s a scientific basis for how visualization works? Neuroscientists have found that visualization actually changes the brain and can set you on the road to success.

You may not realize it, but there is a powerful part of your brain that already prioritizes what you need to know. The Reticular Activating System (RAS) protects your brain from being overwhelmed by the millions of bits of information that flood it every day. It acts as an email filter, discarding what you don’t need to know and prioritizing important things. The RAS is influenced both by your childhood messages and what you ‘tell’ it that you want to know. Ever noticed how, once you decide you want a new car, you see that model of car everywhere? That’s your RAS saying ‘look at this’!

Using visualization enables you to hack your mindset and refocus your thoughts from negative doubts to a clear positive vision of where you want to be. Instead of anxiety about where you are now, you can visualize an alternative reality and hack your RAS to start priming you for success. Keeping your goals literally top of mind will help you focus on achieving them.

Your brain works with a complex system of hormones and other chemicals. You can manipulate things like your dopamine feedback loops to focus on successful behaviors. That good feeling when you win is all about the rush of dopamine that floods your brain as a kind of chemical reward. This is what keeps you motivated to try and achieve bigger and better goals.

You can harness this dopamine reward system by stretching your challenges. Aim to get two new clients this week, three the next, and so on. You are feeding and encouraging your motivation by priming your dopamine loops. And as a bonus, it makes the work more fun!

Scientists have found that you can edit your memories to focus on the good ones. Instead of remembering past bad experiences and then feeling less confident, you can bolster your motivation by remembering past successes.

You can take the sting out of bad memories by playing them over and over in your mind, visualizing them getting smaller and smaller until they disappear. Conversely, you can turn up the color and volume on good memories. Make them IMAX sized in your mind and enjoy how they make you feel. Use that vision to fuel your motivation.

Like what you learned here?  Check out my other blog posts or follow me on Facebook.  

Make Progress Every Single Day And You’ll Beat Procrastination For Good

It’s hard to believe but we are coming to the end of our seven-week challenge to get off your butt and finally beat procrastination. I hope you’ve been following along and more importantly that you’ve been making progress on at least one of the things you’ve been procrastinating on. We end today with the most important piece of advice and the main lesson I want you to take away from all this.

Make progress every single day!

Of course, that’s easier said than done. That’s why I’m leaving you today with three simple hacks or strategies to help you. Give them a try and see if you can’t get into the habit of being productive every day instead of procrastinating.

Plan For It

It’s easy to make progress every day when you know exactly what you should be working on next. Make a plan and then decide what you will do each day of the week. Write it down in a planner and adjust daily as needed. In the morning, you can see at-a-glance what it is you should be doing. Then get to work on it first thing before the day gets away from you. I find it helpful to have my planner sitting right in front of me at my desk, keeping me on track.

Don’t Break the Chain

There’s something to be said about a chain or a streak. Record every day you don’t procrastinate on something. You can mark it on a monthly calendar, or create a chain of sticky notes, stickers, or even one of those paper chains you used to make in preschool. The goal is simple. Don’t break the chain. Once you have a few days under your belt, you’ll be motivated to go the extra mile and do that one thing you need to do to avoid breaking the streak.

Check In with Yourself

As you start to make progress on the things you know you need to be doing, you should feel your anxiety reduce. Instead, your will feel your confidence go up. Don’t be surprised to feel proud of your accomplishments. Instead use those feelings to propel you forward to more procrastination free days. Procrastination is a habit. It’s something you learned to do, which means it’s something you can unlearn. Stick with it, make progress every day, and enjoy those feelings of accomplishment.

Check out the rest of the series here:
Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past

Listen To Your Inner Voice And Change That Dialogue

Something we haven’t talked about yet is that little voice in our head that either encourages us to go do something else - thus procrastinating, or the other one… the critical one… the one that tells us how much we suck because we didn’t get the things done we set out to do.

Why is it important to listen to those voices? Because they have an impact on your life both on a conscious and a subconscious level. Let’s start with that negative voice because I think in the long run it’s the most destructive of the two. Back on day one of this seven week challenge to beat procrastination we talked about the importance of forgiving yourself. To quickly recap, it does you no good to beat yourself up over past procrastination and that you should expect to “fail” by procrastinating again here and there. Nobody is perfect. We all have good days and bad days. The important part is to show up and try your best.

That little negative voice in your head doesn’t help you do that. Become aware of it and when you hear it, defuse it. You can do this by responding to it out loud or in writing (via a journal). Or go up and do something else. Do whatever it takes to silence that voice. A great option is to prove it wrong by doing something productive. Over time that voice will speak up less and less unless you indulge it by paying attention to it and letting it ruin your day.

Next it’s time to tackle the voice in your head that tells you it’s much more fun to do just about anything other than what you should be doing. We all have that voice. It’s why we come up with terms like procrasticleaning and procrasticrafting. We can get pretty innovative when it comes to doing anything but the thing we don’t want to work on and that little voice is feeding us suggestions and cheering us on.

The best way to diffuse this particular voice into something more productive is with “yes, and” statements. “Yes, playing video games sounds like a lot of fun and I’m going to play for an hour or so after I get this task done.” Use the suggestions this voice gives you as bribes if they sound like something fun. Ignore them otherwise, or put them off until tomorrow.

Check out the rest of the series here:
Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past

Old Habits Are Hard To Break - Accountability Is Key To Beating Procrastination

Beating procrastination can be hard. We do well for a few days, but then old habits set back in, or we get frustrated with our lack of apparent progress. Nothing goes fast enough. If you face a small setback at this point, it may be enough to stop working on what you wanted to accomplish in the first place. Thankfully there’s something you can do to greatly improve your chances of success. Accountability.

Track Your Progress

Start by tracking what you do. You can do this via a simple habit tracker. Use a box for each day of the week and check it off or fill it in when you do the thing you told yourself you would do. Keep tracking until it becomes a habit or until the project is done.  Ready to try the Oola Framework and Activity Tracker?  You won't regret it and there is even a 30-day money back guarantee.  

For larger projects that you may or may not work on a daily basis, it helps to write down your goal and then break it into milestones. Record your progress and how much closer you’re inching to each of your goals.

Make Daily To-Do Lists

Write out a list of everything you want to get done for the day. I find it helpful to do this the day before. Play around with how many items you put on that list. You don’t want it to overwhelm you, but you do want to challenge yourself to get more done. The list holds you accountable because you can see in black and white if you procrastinated or not.

Tell Someone About Your Plans

If there’s something you’ve been struggling to get done, tell someone else about your plans to finally tackle it. Call a friend, tell your spouse, or announce it on social media. Encourage the people you’re sharing with to check back with you on how you did. It may be the little extra push you need to stop procrastinating.

Find An Accountability Buddy

Last but not least, find someone else who’s procrastinating and start holding each other accountable. This could be as simple as checking in once in the morning to declare what you each want to get done, and then again at the end of the day to see what happened. Knowing someone else is right there with you can be super motivating.  Reach out if you want to join our Inner Circle.  

Give each of these procrastination beating strategies a try and see which ones give you the best results. Like anything else, procrastinating is a habit and you can get out of it and turn yourself into the motivated and productive version of yourself you want to be.

Check out the rest of the series here:
Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past

Set A Goal - Write It Down - Get Started

Getting over procrastination takes action. Of course that is easier said than done. Today I'm going to share a simple three-step process with you that will help you get off your butt and get more done than you ever thought possible.

It all starts with a goal. You have to know what it is you want to accomplish. If you don't know what your goal is, it's hard to know what you should be doing first or what you should be doing right now to move in the right direction. So what do we do instead? Anything other than the work we know needs to get done.

Your goal is simply putting what you know you need to get done into words. A good goal has defined parameters and a set deadline. That doesn't have to be complicated. Here's a simple goal we all strive to accomplish. We have to file our taxes by April 15th. You have a pretty good idea of what paperwork you need, what forms you need to fill out, and where you need to turn them in. You also know what your deadline is. In other words, you have a well-defined goal when it comes to filing your income taxes. And yes, I realized most of us still procrastinate when it comes to this particular task. That's why the remaining steps are just as important as the first one. For now I want you to think about one thing you need to get done and turn it into a goal.

Write it down. I don’t care if you find a random scrap of paper, use your favorite notebook, or type a note to yourself on your phone. The important part is that you put your goal into writing. This does two things. First of all, it helps you clarify what your goal is. You have to get pretty specific when you try to put what you want or need to do into words. Secondly, writing it down gives you something to look back on. It serves as a reminder and as a tool that you can use when you are tempted to procrastinate.

Last but not least, it’s time to get started. That’s often the hardest part, isn’t it? You’re tempted to skip your workout until you lace up your shoes and get started. Once you’re off and running, it’s much easier to keep going. Once you have your goal written down, think about something you can do right now to move you in the right direction. Go do that. Then come back and do something else. Each morning, start by looking at your goal and challenge yourself to take action. Before you know it, you will have made some serious progress. And you’re starting to beat procrastination.

What goals are you going to commit to for this month?  How about for the rest of 2021?  What about in the next year?  Let me know and I'll help you stay accountable.  

Check out the rest of the series here:
Forgive yourself for procrastinating in the past

Are you a procrastinator? Many of us have the tendency to put things off and no matter how often we beat ourselves up over waiting to the last minute to pack for a vacation, book a flight, or file our taxes and struggle to get it all done in time, we keep doing it again and again. If you’re ready to finally beat procrastination and get ahead of the game, you’re in the right place.

Over the course of seven blog posts, I’m going to share my best tips and strategies for overcoming procrastination with you and we start today with - Forgiveness. I know it seems like a strange place to start, but it’s an important first step. Here is why forgiving yourself for procrastination should always be the first step.

Here's the thing. There's nothing you can do about the past except learn from it. Beating yourself up about not following the plan you made for reaching a goal does you no good. Quite the opposite actually. If you stress yourself out and engage in negative self-talk, you make it worse. Those feelings of anxiety will enforce your habit to procrastinate again the next time.

The next time you find yourself procrastinating, tell yourself that it's okay. It's not the end of the world. Say it out loud and then promise yourself to try to do better. Trying is the important keyword here. You're working on mastering a new skill and changing a habit. That takes practice, time, and often failing a few more times, too. Remember, it's part of the learning process.

You may feel frustrated at times about your lack of progress. It's normal. If you can, tap into that frustration and use it to motivate you. Vow to try again and do better. Look at your mistakes. What caused you to procrastinate this time? Learn from it and you will start to do better.

Maybe there's a big task and you started strong, chipping away at it a little at a time. Then you missed a day, and another. That's okay. Not great, but okay. You did well for a while. It's good practice and maybe this particular experience taught you that you can't allow yourself to skip more than one day on an ongoing project.

There's always something new to learn whenever we fail at something or slip back into a bad habit. At the very least we figure out that something isn't working for us. Maybe you do better with three to-do's per day. The Oola Framework is a great way to get better at setting goals and getting three action steps done a day with the Action Tracker.

Forgive yourself for procrastinating so you can move on and practice some more. But, the trick is to move on and keep working at it. Don’t give up.

Tell us - Are you  a procrastinator?  I am when it comes to doing the dishes.  What things are you most likely to procrastinate about?

Check out my other blog content here: https://cathrynknock.com/blog

There are several different ways to intermittent fast. Many people follow a time restricted eating (TRE) approach. These are the 16/8, 18/6, 19/5, 20/4 approaches where the first number is the number of fasting hours and the second number is the number of hours of feasting.

Yep, we call it feasting, because as you go along you will find that you will gravitate toward higher quality foods. We call the feasting time our "window". Another common term in the IF community is "window worthy". You'll start to look at food differently and rate it on if it is "window worthy" and if not, you'll find it is super easy to just not eat it.

I used to think Chinese food would always be window worthy. But the last time I ordered from my normal restaurant I was so disappointed. And here's the thing. The food was the same it has always been. But I'm different, and what tastes good to me now has drastically changed.

The biggest change - I used to love flavored coffee creamers in my coffee. Now they taste exactly like what they are - liquid chemicals.

Don't worry if this hasn't happened for you yet. Every body is different, and when you notice changes may be different than when I noticed changes.

Just keep with it. The results in the long run will be well worth it.

Haven't started an intermittent fasting lifestyle yet?  Do you need more information?  Check out these two books that literally changed my life: Delay, Don't Deny and Fast. Feast. Repeat.

I also have a coaching practice where I walk with you every step of the way to help you.  Book a Discovery Call with me today and let's find out if this way of life is right for you.  

When I was a young child I wanted to live in a two-story house more than anything.

Maybe it was because I grew up relatively poor and it seemed like people on TV, like the Brady's or the Bradford's, were this ideal family and the two-story house was just this pinnacle of finally having the good life.

You know - money, a functional family without alcoholism and co-dependency, enough food, and a family that truly cared for each other. And let's be honest, a housekeeper like Alice on the Brady Bunch as a bonus family member wouldn't hurt.

It's funny the things we pick as an ideal in our youth and how those change as we grow older and more wise.

I've lived in a couple of two-story houses since my childhood. The reality is, it didn't change a thing in my life. Because those things are just that...things.

I've accomplished a lot in my life. Most of it, on my own.

I singlehandedly raised my children to be independent and to think for themselves.  And they grew up to do just that. And they are both amazing individuals who I'm so proud of. We didn't always have money, in fact, we rarely had money, but we were together and we survived and succeeded.

I worked hard after I graduated and moved up in my career. Not the accounting career I envisioned, because my kids came first, but one I'm good at. I've finally reached the level I've been striving for - a Director-level position. To get there, I had to leave all I knew, move to a new state, and start over.

But that is what I do. I reimagine my life and I make the change. I did it when I got divorced, I did it when I moved to go to school, I did it again when I moved for a new job.

And what I've learned as I've gotten older, and hopefully wiser, is that ideals and dreams change, and we can change with them, or we can get stuck in what we think is ideal, without ever doing anything about it.

I'm back in a two-story house right now. It's a rental, because at this point I can't yet afford to buy again, but that's OK. It's just a step on my road to the next thing. But after spending 30 minutes vacuuming the stairs this morning I do still want a housekeeper!  And actually,I never want another two-story house again, ifI can help i. 😂

So, what are your dreams from childhood?  Are they different now that you are an adult?  It doesn't matter, either way, as long as you keep growing. 

And if you ever want to come vacuum my stairs, just let me know! 🤣