Chronic exhaustion and unfulfilled dreams have a message for you. They want you to know that it’s possible to have a life without them. They want you to leave them behind, because, quite frankly, you aren’t their cup of tea…You, with your vision and skillz and awesomesauce.

Many of you have big plans. BIG ones, people! But all too often, things aren’t going as planned because you either find yourself too tired or too pissed to move forward.

Whatever your goal, mission or love. However you need to testify. I am right here in the garden of possibility watering your soul. Or throwing logs on your fire. Just waiting for you to drop your to do list and show up.

I like to think of it as inviting people to come sit around your bonfire–think beach chairs, blankets, s’mores, fiyah. Creating a profitable business or living a life that feels amazing (building your fire), while keeping the relaxed/fun vibe of a bonfire party, is an art. I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t really create change in the world by having an out of control fire (burn out) or by fanning flames all by yourself (hiding and isolation).

I watch so many brilliant clients get tired just collecting the wood for their fire. They start out jazzed, and end up depressed.

Y’all know I’m a fan of easy and practical, so I’ve created a quick 3 step checklist for you to drop the suckage and embrace your fire.

1. Claim it. Testify! Tell people what you are creating for yourself.

2. Nurture it. Create a circle of friends, advisors, mentors to help you rally when the going gets tough (ie. you tell yourself bullshit lies). There is power in community. Do not isolate yourself.

3. Tend the fire. Too much of a good thing is still too much. Alternately, ignoring the flames, walking away and leaving your dream to smoke out is equally destructive.

What’s your tendency? An out of control fire, or an empty fire pit? I’d love to hear your ideas about how you deal with this in the comments below!

This is my short presentation at The MBI Coach Summit, where I mention God, Ferris Bueller, Ryan Hyatt, and American Idol in the first four minutes. There’s a lot of inspiration, and even a couple of surprises packed into this video. Let me know what you think!

Your opinion of me is none of my business. Truly. And, I’ll be forever in the debt of Byron Katie for teaching me that one. But boy oh boy did I spend a lot of years trying to control what other people thought of me.

I once pretended to be interested in becoming a pilot, because I had a crush on hot guy who was into planes. Not one to give up on a goal (lol), at 17, I even went down to the Navy recruiting office in my Catholic school uniform and filled out information to join the Navy. You know, so that I could become a fighter pilot and all. The recruiting officer was highly amused and questioned, “Do you parents even know you are here?” I didn’t yet know that in order for someone to notice me, I had to first notice myself.

Over the years, I’ve given away too much of me or hidden things about myself to win love or keep friends. Little things, like volunteering to do things I didn’t want to do, and much bigger things, like hiding my political (proud independent) and spiritual beliefs (there are many rivers to the ocean).

What truth are you holding back from saying, doing or living fully because you are afraid that someone – anyone – may think less of you for it?

Maybe it’s raw honesty that you’re sweeping under the rug.

Maybe you’ve been holding back from making a crucial decision.

Maybe you’ve got a game-changing opportunity on the horizon that would absolutely rock your world … but you’re afraid you may hurt someone by taking it.

If we learn to barter our very own beliefs and desires for someone else’s love, admiration, acceptance, whether real or imagined, we begin to build a watered down version of ourselves. You, only the 1.0 model. You, only not really you.

The admiration that you bask in, the friends that are around you, the acceptance that you lie for….it’s all pretend unless you are showing up fully as yourself.

Be yourself. Your whole self. No one else can do it for you.

Watch Susan as she demonstrates how to make a green smoothie and expands on how nutritious the drink can be:

Part One:

Part Two:

from http://weheartit.com/entry/15462531 via Pinterest

(I was asked to dish on Luck for a blog series put together by Molly Mahar of Stratejoy.  She’s organized a blog crawl + Treasure Hunt where 26 sassy writers are blogging about self love.)

“For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart.
It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.”
– Judy Garland

Last week, I was on a morning radio show to chat about Create Your Own Luck, 7 Steps to Get Your Lucky On, as it relates to love. Romantic love.  I think I shocked the sugar out of the hosts, when I suggested that instead of worrying about wooing the perfect mate, you need to woo yourself.

I know you think you want your honey to surprise you with something shiny. Or, maybe you are dying to have a honey. Regardless, I’m here to tell you, that you ARE the shiny.  YOU are the honey. The sooner you align with that basic truth, the luckier you are going to get. Romantically and otherwise.

Self -love is the fertilizer of luck. And luck, my friends, is the way to become your very own soul whisperer.

When I wrote my book to teach peeps how to “get their lucky on,” I wanted to create a shift in how we think about luck and life. I’ve created 7 basic lucky commandments, that I challenge you to journal about them one at a time. Pick one a day.

My love affair with myself, and the notion of luck, over the past two years, has led me to understand that your very cell level goodness generates more luck that you can imagine.

You are a luck factory. If you are ready to embrace that, you will, in fact, have a love affair with yourself.

This Blog Crawl of Self-Love is hosted by Molly Mahar of Stratejoy. She believes in the transformational power of truly adoring ourselves and so do I. Find out more about The ABC’s of Self Love Blog Crawl + Treasure Hunt here.

Brooke and I hosted a free one-hour call last night. You can grab a copy of the free MP3 here. With over 350 registered, it was a fun time. We always love sharing how to end the crazy diet struggle. Lots of great questions and insights.

You’ll want to download the call and listen, but here are some nuggets:

Brooke’s Top 5 Tips…

1. Awareness. Start noticing and becoming aware in a compassionate way, what you are eating and question why you are eating it.  Are you hungry? Are you bored? Are you avoiding something? Notice how you feel and what you think.

2. Inhabiting your body. NOW! Connect with your physical body and really be IN your body. Has rejecting your body and trying to climb out of it, as it is now, been working for you?

3. Disconnect feelings from body size. Self-esteem and body esteem are two completely different things.

4. Kindness. Stop aiming disgust at yourself. End the mean girl stuff. No more pulling or poking at your body.

5. Walking. If nothing else, walk your body for 10 minutes, with no iphone, no distractions, just you and your body. Connect.

Susan’s Top 5 Tips…

6. Excuses are clues, breadcrumbs, markers for us. They point to our freedom. When you find yourself petting your precious excuses and holding them dear, write them down and notice that you are being called to do its opposite.

7. Call a Peace Treaty with your body. Sign it. Live it. Lose it. Download one here, and get starting writing yours.

8. Self Care is an Attitude, not an activity. You can be cranky getting a pedicure, and happy at the DMV. It’s not the action that is self care, as much as it is the energy about it. *Something I learned from my brilliant coaching colleague, Bridgette Boudreau.

9. Get creative with exercise.  The Anti-Leotard Exercise Campaign was something I created to help myself get over my fear and loathing. I picked out interesting ways to move my body, and have never looked back.

10. Texts From Your Body.  If your body were to send you a text message right now, what would it say?

We are sharing this x 100 at our live event in Nashville. Join us! www.theweightschool.com.

Susan joins Lifestyle’s Stefanie Martinez to talk Self Coaching 101!

Part One:

Part Two:

What’s The Price of Freedom? Grandma’s Silver?

4,200 square feet of furnishings, clothes, games, holiday décor, purses, pots, tools, picture frames.  Piano lessons, pot lucks, car pooling schedules, play dates and PTA meetings.  20 years of accumulated memories, dust and piles upon piles of stuff.

How would you feel if all of the above disappeared from your life?  And all you had was a suitcase and your family?

My dear friend and sometimes-business-partner-in-crime, Brooke Castillo, has entered into a whole new level of contrarian behavior. Enamored by the location independent lifestyle, and in a relentless pursuit of what’s possible, her family has decided to sell everything and go on a year-long travel adventure around the United States and Italy.

But why would you DO that?

I’ve had so.much.fun discussing this with people. My family, friends, hairdresser, pals on Facebook. The reactions range from curiosity and admiration to outright panic and anger.  During this interview, you’ll hear me chat about my own husband’s outrage at the thought of selling our block of kitchen knives (the horror) and my daughter’s concerns about her art supplies, friends and flute lessons.  My son’s reaction was that he could throw a few things in a duffel bag and be fine. I (obviously) am fascinated by the whole idea.

Brooke also talks about how she has enjoyed exploring the patterns and expectations we’ve created in our culture:

1) Buy a big house

2) Buy lots of stuff to fill said house

3) Work really hard to pay for the stuff and house
Tons and tons of people work ridiculous hours and rarely see their families to afford that big house and all the stuff in inside it.

Crazy.

Clever, expectation-challenging woman that she is, Brooke wondered what it would be like to be free of her material things and able to travel and live in different, exciting, life-changing locations.

How are they doing this?

Over the course of the next six months, Brooke and her family will be selling their house (they actually sold their home in 2009 and are renting a large home) and nearly every.single.thing inside it.  From July 2012 to July 2013, they’ll rent homes for a month at a time – in places like Boston, Charleston, Florida, Maui and Italy.

Each person can save one steamer trunk of stuff that will stay tucked away in a friend’s garage. What can they take with them? One, single suitcase.

The kids will be home schooled and the Castillo’s had a custom curriculum created based on the locations they’re visiting.  They will operate their business from the road.

Have a listen to this interview and ask yourself -  if you were to go on an adventure like this one….

●      What would make it into your suitcase?
●      What would you put in your trunk?
●      What in your life can you question? Either “Why am I doing this?” or “Why not?

And some really powerful questions to discuss….

●      Am I doing my best to prepare my kids for life? Am I doing my best to prepare me for life?
●      How much of my identity is tied up in my location and home?  We all know that it’s not where you live, it’s who you are.   And you’re you wherever you are.
●      Like my Emily, do you get anxious thinking about leaving your friends for a year? Friends aren’t location dependent, are they?

My favorite line of the whole interview? Brooke says that what her biggest hope for this adventure is that they will return to with “appreciation – that we would choose this (their life in California) again.”

Would you choose your current life again? Why or why not?  Leave your thoughts in the comments!  This is going to be one juicy discussion!

Did you see that text from your body? “Dude. What is up?”

I spend probably 50% of my business working with intelligent, accomplished, amazing women around the issue of weight loss.  But, that’s not really what it’s about.

Sometimes, I’ll get a Facebook message like this one, “I just don’t understand it. Just put the fork down and go exercise. Problem solved.” Calories in, calories out is only 10% of the equation. 90% is something else entirely. It’s this 90% that I help.

We humans are so hilarious. We look at our bodies, that we have overstuffed, undermoved and neglected, and blame it for the shape we are in.

Our minds. Oh, our gorgeous minds…..race with thoughts that are horrifying. A tsunami of hate for our very selves fills our time and our cells.

When all the while…

Our feet asked to please go faster and farther.
Our calves ache to be flexed.
Our thighs wonder if they will ever stretch again.
Our hips cradle our pain with grace.
Our stomachs expand supernaturally and cover for us.
Our backs feel as if they will break under the weight of it all, but carry on.
Our arms go soft with longing to be useful.
Our shoulders slump and ask our feet if anything is going to start moving soon.
Emotions are trapped in a body that doesn’t process them.

Guess what? Your body is pissed off and has every right to be. It is an employer that has been taking crap from it’s employee (the mind) for far too long. The not so civil war is over, and a revolution is here.

It’s not about scale weight. It’s about truth. And, you can’t find that in a box of oreos.

Join us www.theweightschool.com.