We have all been there: You have that one project or presentation or report or whatever that is looming overhead that seems like it is the most important thing that you’ve ever had to do. You don’t know whether or not you are going to be able to deliver the project or presentation or report or whatever on time. And to top it all off, you feel like your entire career hangs in the balance. If you screw this up, the world might actually end! So you get completely consumed by how big and daunting and scary it could be to the point that you are not sleeping or eating properly and you start lashing out at everyone around you…

Or maybe that’s just me.

You see, in the past few months, I allowed myself to become completely consumed with one big event – 1KV. In fact, I was so consumed by it that I kind of lost myself in it for a while. I gave it every bit of physical and emotional energy I had. I was drowning and pulling everyone around me down with me.

But last week, the main event was postponed until who-knows-when because of forces beyond my control. I was devastated…for a while anyway. But now, I’m ridiculously grateful. This is going to allow the 1KV team time to rethink our entire strategy and restart fresh. And more importantly, it’s given ME the reminder to take a breath, reboot, and start again…

When facing a major task or event like this, it’s vital that you pull back and get a little perspective on the situation. Said another way, make sure you are looking at the whole forest, not just this one big ass tree.

99% of the time, even though this next big thing is super-duper important, but not a career maker/breaker. Think about how it fits into the bigger picture. Then decide that the emotional turmoil that you are bringing to the party is unwelcome. Seriously people. It helps nobody…and it’s doing you no good whatsoever.

Once you have a grip on reality again that this task is not the end-all-be-all task, zoom back in and make it happen. If you worry about a loss-of-perspective-relapse, enlist the help of someone who will keep you on track. Remember that while this is huge right now, the next huge thing is just around the corner. This is an opportunity to get better at managing your perspective and making amazing things happen. Go forth!

Too many people are chasing down the wrong things. It’s imperative that you only chase goals that you are truly PASSIONATE about. Pick the goals that you want deeply in every fiber of your being. So many people choose the wrong goals. Let’s do a quick and dirty Passion Check on your goals. Write down the list of goals you are currently driving towards. Now, read through the following levels and determine your level of passion for your goals…where are you going?

1. Blazing a Trail — You have goals that fire you up! You’re challenged, engaged, and excited to work on these goals. I encourage you to make these goals known by putting them front and center. Tell your friends about your goals. Post images of them up on your vision board/fridge/bathroom mirror. Take time out everyday to work on these goals – even if it’s just taking time to envision yourself achieving them.
2. Following Default Paths — You may have other goals that you are not all that passionate about. In fact, these so-called goals may feel more like chores. Somehow you are still working toward them, but you are not in any great rush to accomplish them. Ask yourself: Are these goals really YOUR goals or ones you think you should be driving toward? Unless they mean something to you, get rid of them. Life is too short to focus on the wrong goals.
3. Hanging Out on a Treadmill — You may also have no idea what you might be passionate about and so you are not striving toward anything at all. You’re not satisfied with the status quo, but you haven’t the faintest idea what you’d rather be doing. Believe it or not, you are not alone. Many, many people are struggling with a lack of direction – especially with the grim economic times we live in. I highly recommend spending some time soul searching to find your passions.

Learn to only choose goals that inspire you, push you beyond your comfort zone, and come from inside you. You deserve nothing less!

…and I know I’m not the only one! Let’s connect over there…and help me spread the Audacity all over this fabulous tool!

Are you bringing your A-game to the table today? Did you show up for life this morning ready and raring to go? Are you busting into your rarely tapped potential to give the best you have to offer to something that’s important to you?

Very, very few people are doing this on this random Tuesday morning in February.

Most people woke up this morning after hitting the snooze button a few times. They drug themselves through the motions of getting ready and begrudgingly “clocked in” to their existence. They are currently thinking about what’s for lunch, what to cook for dinner, or what to do next weekend. They fully intend to get whatever they must get done today with the least possible effort necessary so it’s good enough to pass muster.

Okay, be honest…is this about right for you? If so, I ask again (in a slightly different way) the same questions:

Are you ready to bring your A-game to the table this afternoon? Could you show up for life this afternoon ready and raring to go? Are you tapping into your hidden potential to give the best you have to offer today to something that’s important to you?

If so – What might that look like?

I was honored to be February’s Stellar Star on ChaChanna Simpson’s StellarTV series. She invited me on to share my personal road-to-entrepreneurship story and to share my advice and lessons learned with her audience. We also discussed my involvement in the upcoming 1,000 Voices event in NYC. It was an amazing conversation with lots of great insight to share. Please share fall and wide.

Inertia – the tendency for something at rest to resist change
Momentum – the tendency for something in motion to continue moving

A very wise mentor taught me about how Newton’s Laws of Motion can relate to human behavior. People dwelling in a state of inertia may have great ideas, but rarely complete anything. Due to lack of focus, energy, or motivation, people suffering from inertia often procrastinate and find themselves stuck spinning their wheels. By contrast, people thriving with momentum are able to define a goal, create a plan, and systematically get stuff done. They have the focus, energy, and motivation they need to seize the day and often find themselves dreaming bigger and achieving more.

In reality, there is a continuum of energy between inertia and momentum when it comes to taking action. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Where do you fall on the continuum? What could you do differently today to move you closer to momentum?

This post is part of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Okay…so far so good. Then came the winter months of 2011. Laziness set in. “We’ll start training next week” became a constant slogan. There were tons of distractions and other displacement activities to blame on our lack of commitment to training…but deep down, we both assumed that we’d make the time to do it when the time was “right.”

Early in May we started to get serious. We went for a few training runs, leaving me beat up. That’s when the pain started.

Because I had not trained properly, I’d injured my left foot. In about a mile, my heel would start aching like it was being stabbed with every step and my toes would fall asleep. It was painful at first, but within a few weeks it was excruciating. Eventually, it got so it hurt no matter what I was doing…sitting, standing, walking, stretching. Running became absolutely impossible.

After months of prodding from my bestie and my wife (man, do those two know how to gang up on me), I went to the doctor. He wasn’t sure I should continue my training and sent me off to a podiatrist who concurred.

So just a few months ahead of the marathon I was told by my doctors that my two year goal was dead in the water. I was devastated. And embarrassed. I mean, I had told the entire world that I was doing this, Meredyth was planning to do it with me so SHE had told everyone she knows and loves, and we had invested all that time and energy getting qualified in 2010….and now it was all for not?!? UNACCEPTABLE!!!

All of this was squelched once we looked up the cancellation policy with the marathon…we could postpone to 2012. In fact, we can postpone annually if we want, just as long as we pay for registration each year.

So, in November we watched the 2011 Marathon…the one we were originally slated to run. We went to Central Park to cheer the runners on who were just 2 miles away from the finish line.

It was moving. Inspiring. Unbelievable. Powerful.

And incredibly EMPOWERING!

My foot has healed and we are ready to restart our training program. We are more fired up than ever before. So here’s what we are going to do…

• Complete Jeff Galloways Run/Walk Half-Marathon Training Program for Beginning Runners (20 weeks)
• Followed by his Run/Walk Marathon Training Program for Novice Runners (28 weeks)
• Adopt a gluten-free clean diet plan (this is due to my wife’s new dietary requirement to follow a strict gluten-free diet)
• Joined Diana Antholis’ Unleash Your Sexy Coaching Program (the Lioness Package RAWR!) Fully personalized one-on-one Unleash Your Sexy wellness coaching and virtual personal training sessions

I’d like to bring you along with me during this exciting experience this year. I’ll be posting updates each week with what I’ve done, what I’ve learned, what’s kicking my ass, and how I’m growing. Please cheer me (and my wife) on as we make this Audacious three year goal become a reality!

This post is part of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Fast forward to December 13, 2010…when I wrote out this newsletter and shared it with everyone I knew…

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So This is What It Feels Like to Follow Through on a Fitness Goal!

I am going to run the 2011 NYC Marathon! Okay, if you’ve been following my blog this year, this is hardly news. But today, I’m pleased to announce that this goal is now much more real!

To guarantee entry for the marathon in 2011 through the New York Road Runners organization, we had to run 9 scored races within 2010. Well, we did it! My wife and I completed our 9th of the required 9 races required to guarantee entry into the 2011 ING NYC Marathon on Saturday. Here’s our track record:

City Parks Foundation Run for the Parks | April 18 | 4 Miles

Japan Run | June 6 | 4 Miles

New York Mini 10K | June 12 | 10K

Fitness® Magazine Mind, Body, Spirit Games | September 11 | 4 Miles

Continental Airlines Fifth Avenue Mile | September 26 | 1 Mile

Norway Run | October 2 | 1.7 Miles

Race to Deliver | November 21 | 4 Miles

Joe Kleinerman Classic | December 5 | 10K

Jingle Bell Jog | December 11 | 4 Miles

That equals 35.1 racing miles completed in 2010! The marathon should be a breeze!

Why on earth am I telling you all this? Well, for one, to brag! Audacious people who achieve Audacious goals have earned the right to boast a little. But more importantly, I wanted to capture this follow through feeling and share it with you!

You see I’ve never, ever achieved a physical fitness goal that was this big before. Ever! The reason – my follow through sucks! I’ve set and given up on countless goals when it comes to improving my health and fitness my whole life. I’ve successfully created everything else I wanted so far and yet I continue to treat my health and fitness goals as an insurmountable struggle. This year, something snapped and I decided that this was no longer good enough. So I set the Audacious goal to earn my place in the world’s largest marathon. And I put in place strategies to ensure I would follow through. Here’s how I made this goal different:

• I declared this goal publicly. I’ve told every person I know – and tons of people I don’t know – that I intend to run the marathon next year. Talk about accountability!
• I’m crystal clear on WHY I’m doing this - to prove to myself (and nobody else) that I can do something that seems impossible. The fact that only 1% of Americans ever run a marathon inspires me and I want to be among that elite group of go-getters.
• It’s not a competition. Sure, there are elite runners in the front of every race competing for their glory, but I’m not interested in that part. I’m hanging out at the back of the pack just doing my thing. I simply want to finish each race by giving everything I got.
• Most importantly, I’m not doing this one alone. My wife and I decided to run every step together, side-by-side. It’s a wonderful thing that we are doing together and we refuse to let ourselves down.

Here’s my point: finally following through feels AMAZING! If I could bottle this feeling and sell it, I’d be the richest person in the world. It’s so exhilarating to finally break the cycle of giving up. You gotta try it!!!

Does your follow through suck? Maybe you’re like me and never follow through on your health related goals. Or perhaps you are great at following through on your fitness goals, but not so much on your career goals. Or you can handle all things career, but you let your personal life slide. When is this no longer going to be good enough???

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Okay…so far so good. Then came the winter months of 2011. Laziness set in. “We’ll start training next week” became a constant slogan. There were tons of distractions and other displacement activities to blame on our lack of commitment to training…but deep down, we both assumed that we’d make the time to do it when the time was “right.”

to be continued…

This post is the first of the Walking (and Running) My Talk blog series documenting my personal journey to the marathon.

Announcing my newest blog series documenting my personal journey from the couch to the New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 4, 2012. This is a part of my personal #mefirst experience.

This is how it all started.

It was the first Sunday morning in November 2009 and Meredyth and I had only lived in NYC for a few months. We were lazily in our pajamas late and flipping the channels on the tube when we discovered that there was a marathon happening just a few avenues away from us. We became laser focused on the television set as story after story after story was shared about the runners’ journeys to that finish line. Not the elite runners mind you…that’s like being inspired by olympians but feeling completely removed. I’m talking about the stories of regular people who had done something extraordinary. A woman who survived cancer and decided to run in celebration. A man that was pushing his disabled son in a wheelchair for their 40-something’th marathon. A veteran who lost BOTH legs in the war who was running on prosthetic legs. Old people. Young people. All kinds of people.

It was moving. Inspiring. Unbelievable. Powerful.

And incredibly depressing.

Here we were, home on our asses, eating crappy food, and unable to even peal ourselves off the sofa to walk from 3rd Avenue to 5th Avenue to see the runners pass in person. Pathetic.

As the day wore on, we couldn’t talk about anything else. We’ve become obsessed with learning how these people did this impossible thing…put one foot in front of another for 26.2 miles! We started googling a little to learn more about the history of the NYC Marathon…which led us to learning about how to qualify for the marathon…which led us to the New York Road Runners (NYRR) 9+1 Guaranteed Entry Program. Yes, we were sucked in.

We learned that we’d only need to finish (no specific time) nine NYRR qualifying races + volunteer at one event within the 2010 calendar year to guaranteed entry into the 2011 marathon! That gave us two years to work toward this big-ass goal. While it still seemed utterly impossible, it also seemed like something we’d regret NOT doing. We wanted to prove to ourselves that we can do the impossible and cross that finish line (and live to tell about it).

And boom :: another Audacious goal was born.

The story continues with Our Race for Guaranteed Entry…

Happy New Year!!! I hope you had an amazing 2011 filled with everything awesome-sauce!

Now it’s time to look forward and decide what the next year has in store for us. Screw the typical New Year resolution setting (that never freaking works anyway); I’m talking real Audacious goal setting (the juicy stuff). And I have the perfect tool to help you out: The Future Letter.

The premise of the Future Letter is simple: write a letter to someone as if you are writing it at some point in your future (traditionally a year from today) detailing the accomplishment of your goals. It’s a sort of Back to the Future way to script out how the next phase of your life could go if you achieve the goals you are creating today.

The letter should be addressed to someone in your cheering section who genuinely cares about your success and would love to hear about your accomplishments. Whether or not you actually send the letter is entirely up to you.

Writing your Future Letter is an opportunity to flesh out your goals into something tangible, inspiring, and motivating. Be bold, give details, stay optimistic, and enjoy the process!

So here’s the task:

1. Select the point of time that works for you and pinpoint an exact date for your letter. Perhaps this is six months from now, one year from today, five years from today, or on some already specified day like graduation day or your wedding day.
2. Identify the addressee(s) for your letter. Who is the best recipient for this letter? Why is this the right person for to send it to?
3. Write out your letter as if you are writing it on your selected date AND you’ve already accomplished/experienced the things you are writing about.
4. Decide what you are going to do with the letter to draw power from it. Suggestions include: sending it to the recipient for safe keeping, post it on your blog, print it and keep it with you, post it on your vision board, etc.

To inspire you, I’ve decided to share my personal Future Letter for 2012 below. Mine focuses mostly on building my business, of course, but yours could focus on whatever goals you want – personal, career, spiritual, physical, relationships, etc. Enjoy!

January 1, 2013

Hi Bestie,                                   

Happy New Year!!! 2012 has been a my best year yet – both personally and professionally! I can’t wait to tell you all about it!!!

First, my health! Like every other year, I sought to improve my health and fitness this year. But this year, I actually made it happen! I hired a personal trainer and wellness coach to help me drop weight and gain confidence…and I’ve never felt better – or sexier! I’ve fallen in love with going to the gym, took up kickboxing, and I live on my bike. I’m a new woman!

And of course, I also took my running to a whole new level. After the crush of not being able to run in 2011, I let my foot heal, dusted myself off, and restarted my walk/run training. We finished our first half-marathon in April and in November, you were there when we crossed the NYC Marathon finish line!!! Becoming a runner has given me a new lease on life! Both Meredyth and I now consider ourselves full-fledged athletes!

Second, my book! I finally published my first book in March!!! Once I got in the swing of writing, I followed the first one up with my second book in September. Both books have sold very respectably and add tons of value to my speaking and coaching programs. I’ve enclosed autographed copies of both books.

My coaching practice is booked solid!!! I have a waiting list of clients who want in the Audacity PACT Group Coaching Program, the PACTion Steps self-guided program sells like crazy, and my PACT Solo Sesh days are booked three months out! I’m so happy to be working with such a variety of amazing clients from all over the world who get what Audacity is about and want to reinvent themselves with my help. I so love what I do. And now that I’ve carefully packaged my coaching programs into groups and one-day sessions, I have much more time freedom to devote to my fitness goals and my speaking career.

Speaking of speaking, my professional speaking career continues to blossom! I booked over 30 paid speaking engagements in 2012, including national conferences, local conferences, college events, Meetups, and associations. I also hosted my own live full day seminar in the fall and sold out the seats! And the Audacity PACT Weekend Retreats are growing in popularity and I’m traveling all over to host them. 

I’m incredibly proud about (whoops…this part is top secret…well, for now…major announcement coming in a couple weeks)

All in all, life is good! Thank you for always believing in me! Your support truly helped make all of the above happen!  

Love + Moxie,

Jennie