What I love about breakfast (besides the eating part)

What I love about breakfast (besides the eating part)

by | Sep 18, 2023 | Applied psychology, Brules of Life, Coaching, Create Your Life!, Dream Acceleration, Dream Accelerator, Tara Sage Coaching

One key part of my mission is to turn complex behavioral and psychological concepts into suuuuuper accessible, user-friendly, easy-to-apply strategies that help you experience more joy and wellbeing in your life.

Because I love you and want you to thrive.

Because you don’t need to have studied this stuff for years or have degrees in behavioral psychology to learn from someone who does … that is, so long as that person (me) keeps it REAL and breaks things into simple, relatable, straight-talking micro-steps that make your life better.

So. That’s what I’m committed to.

With this said, can we talk about breakfast for a minute?

What I love about breakfast, besides the eating part, is that it’s a habit we ALL have.

Regardless of WHAT you eat. (This is not a message about your diet.)

Regardless of WHEN you eat. (Perhaps you fast until 2pm, or eat early. Do you.)

Unless you’re in the midst of a daylong fast … somewhere in the course of your day, I’m going to assume you, quite literally, break-fast.

From an applied psychology perspective, this is great news for two reasons:

  1. Because eating breakfast has built-in rewards … namely, that hunger gets satisfied, but also the pleasure of happy taste buds. (a.k.a. positive reinforcement)
  2. Because eating your first meal of the day is part of your routine. (a.k.a. conditioned behavior pattern, an established habit)

Here’s how this simple, daily, built-in habit provides you with a fabulous opportunity:👇

The behavioral and brain science is clear. Changing habits is most effective when you add a new habit (as opposed to trying to stop an old habit).

Let’s say, for example, that you aspire to:

  • read more books, or
  • build more physical strength, or
  • learn a new language, or
  • prepare more healthy meals, or
  • start a meditation practice, or
  • (fill in the blank with something that’s true for you)…

Since breakfast is an already established habit, it presents a PERFECT opportunity for you to add, in an effort to build on and establish more helpful habits into your routine.

For example, you might add …

  • 30 minutes of reading, or
  • 50 squats, or
  • a Duolingo lesson, or
  • making a big salad so it’s ready to eat for lunch, or
  • 10 minutes of meditation, or
  • whatever new habit will best support your goals

… all BEFORE you get rewarded by having breakfast.

To be clear, I recommend picking ONE thing you’ll add to your routine. ONE thing you decide you’re going to be sure to do BEFORE you eat breakfast. I also recommend doing it for at least 7 days, consistently, before considering adding any other new habits to the mix.

So, what supportive new habit will YOU add to your pre-breakfast routine? I’d love to hear!

Small changes add up. And small steps – if they’re the right steps – can be absolutely transformative: they build your confidence, they break old patterns, they free up energy, and they make you that much more ready and able to take on the bigger stuff.

Want to learn more ways to disrupt old patterns, build positive new habits, establish expansive new levels of empowerment, and experience a new kind of freedom in your life?

JOIN ME for my upcoming in-person special event where we’ll not only break bread, we’ll break brules! 😉 Click here to learn more and claim your seat at the table!

Big love,

 

Do not ignore these signs

Do not ignore these signs

by | Mar 9, 2023 | Brules of Life, Coaching, Create Your Life!, Dream Acceleration, Tara Sage Coaching

 

Creating your life is an evolution, an ongoing expression of your freedoms and your being-ness.

Your life is the embodiment of your self-actualization.

Recognizing this, is the opposite of bypassing, and the opposite of avoiding.

The act of intentionally creating your life to be the reflection and expression of your freedoms, your potentials, your dreams, and the truth of who you are, is extraordinarily BRAVE.

Your life right now is the embodiment of your self-actualization (or lack thereof).

Your life right now is the barometer for your current level of self-actualization, AND your current level of self-abandonment.

This is true for you. This is true for me.

When I was in a job that I knew was all wrong for me

When I felt trapped in a marriage that was full of dishonesty

When home was a darky, musty, basement apartment

When my soul longed to travel, but I stayed put



 all of this was an affront to my soul.


 and ALL of this was glaring evidence of my own self-abandonment.

Whatever degree self-actualization is lacking in your life, is the same degree that self-abandonment is happening in your life. 

A tough pill to swallow, but a truly powerful one too.

This is not about blame or shame. But it’s also not about pretending.

This kind of evidence-based self-inventory isn’t for the faint of heart.

Every example of self-abandonment is an opportunity to see what’s there. 

To see, observe, learn from, and find fuel for change in the tangible evidence of your life’s creation, so far.

Seeing the YOU that is smack in the middle of it all – is POWERFUL – not because you are the blame center, but because you are the POWER center.

YOU are the common denominator. And you can therefore choose to move away from self-abandonment and towards self-actualization.

You can choose to move away from what doesn’t light you up, and towards what does.
You can choose to move away from fears about not enough, and towards enoughness.
You can choose to move away from “I can’t” and towards “watch me figure it out.”

Doing this requires a whole lot of courage, self-inquiry, and self-integrity – asking, and seeing: What is aligned for me? What isn’t aligned for me? What do I really really want? If I had one year to live, what would I do with it? And if I had one year to live, what would I stop doing immediately?

Let NOW be time to get to the heart of the matter.

Objectively identifying what’s what, being fiercely honest with yourself, and then consciously deciding to grow into being the person who would (re)align what’s not, is the journey of self-actualization.

Creating a life that reflects the truth of who you are, takes heart, and hutzpah. Not the “who” the world has told you to be, but who you ARE and the truth of your desires.

The work of self-actualization is not a strategy of separation.
It is not a way to distance yourself from the life you have.
It is not about positioning yourself as the victim of your circumstances.
It is not about shame or blame or pretending. (I said that already, but it’s worth repeating.)

And, truth be told, it’s a mission that is never done.

Until you leave this Earth, it’s an ongoing creation, moment by moment.

When on a mission of self-actualization, as long as you’re alive, there will always be “lag time” between who you ARE, and the life you’re creating to be a reflection of that being-ness, that person.

It is therefore not a fixed point, and it is not a destination. It is an expression. It is an evolutionary unfolding. It’s a journey of self-responsibility, of empowerment, of healing, and of doing what’s needed to shift any aspect of your life that isn’t for you.

Ultimately, this requires that you get intimate with yourself, and intimate with your life – both as it IS and as you wish it to be.

Step one is seeing what’s there. Stepping back to see the mirror that IS your life. Facing your life, perhaps as you never have before. And then, participating fully in its evolution and ongoing creation so that it can align that much more fully with the dreams in your heart and the truth of YOU – who you are here to be.

Love,

P.S. Going after your dream life, finally living it, moving from your life now to the life you want to have – all of this can feel utterly terrifying! How do you know what you want? HOW do you get what you want? How do you face all the uncertainty and that huge climb from where you are now to the life of your dreams?

There’s ONE SKILL that unlocks all the rest. >>> And my totally free and totally updated Only Skill You Ever Need guide and bonus chapter goes through exactly that.

Ready for that dream life of yours? It’s my gift to you.