Your Next, Best Step

A lot of what you call broken promises to yourself were never promises. They were wishes. Here is the difference, and why it matters for your self-trust.  Join me for the full companion episode “The Promises You Keep Breaking to Yourself” where walk through a doable next step you can put to work tonight (Ep 146) Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download): YourNextBestSt...

You made a promise to yourself this morning. And part of you already doubted you would keep it. When you have let yourself down enough times, you stop believing your own word, and that slow erosion of self-trust sits underneath every goal that will not stick. This episode is about getting your word to yourself to mean something again. Inside this episode: Where your confidence in yourself actually...

In John 15 the gardener prunes the branch that is already producing, not the one that failed. If your capacity has been shrinking, that detail may change how you read it Join me for the full companion episode “God, What Season Am I Even In?” where we walk through four kinds of seasons and how to tell them apart, plus what the memory research says about why one early label can hide a whole year of...

You got asked how you were doing, and you reached for a season. A hard one. A waiting one. And then you could not have said whether that was even true. If naming your season keeps coming up empty, the question itself may be the thing to rethink. This episode looks at four kinds of seasons, and why the honest answer to which one you are in is stranger, and kinder, than you expect. In this episode,...

The fear that keeps a lot of women out of the doctor’s office has nothing to do with bad news. Here is another way to see it.  Join me for the full companion episode where we discuss the gap between noticing something in your body and deciding it is worth a phone call, and why that gap is where almost all of the waiting happens. Ep 144: “The Headache She Decided to Ignore” Ready for your next step...

You can tell someone the exact week your headache started, or your fatigue, or the thing you have been meaning to get looked at. And you have a reason ready for every one of them. That is the part worth paying attention to. There is a stretch of time between noticing something in your body and deciding it counts. Researchers who study how people seek care found that this first stretch holds most o...

What do you imagine it looks like when you think “quiet time” with God? Join me for the full companion episode “When Your Quiet Time Did Not Survive Summer” where we learn what decades of memory research suggest about the thirty years of faith already built into you, and why waiting until you can do it "properly" is the exact thing keeping you stuck through October (Ep 143) Ready for you...

There is a bookmark in your Bible that has not moved since June. You know exactly where it is. And every time you walk past it, the same word shows up: lazy. Here is the thing about that word. It is almost certainly wrong, and it is costing you more than you think. Your quiet time did not disappear because something is wrong with you. It slipped the way a lot of good things slipped this summer, wi...

What can you do when the fall season has belonged to somebody else's schedule? Let’s talk about what you can do today in just 60 seconds. Join me for the full companion episode ”The House That Went Still in September” (Ep 142) where we discover the name grief researchers give to what September is doing to you, and why it means nothing has gone wrong. Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Da...

The school bus still comes down your street. It just does not stop at your house anymore. If the back-to-school photos in your feed have left you feeling something you were not expecting, this episode is for you. September runs on a schedule that used to be yours, and your body kept that calendar long after your mind filed it away. This one is for the empty-nesters, and it is also for the women Se...

What's in that “tenth room” that you never bring up to God in prayer and what are you supposed to do with it? Learn more in the companion episode “The Prayer You Have Been Avoiding” (Ep 141) where we walk through where this avoidance comes from, what David understood about the cost of staying silent, and one way to begin the prayer you have been putting off. Ready for your next step? FREE 5-M...

You pray about almost everything. Your people, your health, your worries, the day ahead. And there is one subject you go right past, every single time. This episode is about that one thing. The prayer you have been avoiding, and a way to begin it that does not ask you to have it all worked out first. Here is what you will walk away with:  A kinder read on why this one subject feels off-limits, eve...

In the research on daily alertness, the early-afternoon trough is temporary. For most people, alertness climbs again and reaches its peak toward early evening. Your capacity comes back. But why does that matter? Join me for the companion episode “The 3 P.M. Wall Is Back” (Ep 140) where we walk through what is really running that hour, and the one move that meets the dip before it flattens you.  Re...

That heavy hour in the middle of your afternoon came back the moment your fall routine did. Here is the reassuring part: your 3 p.m. crash is not random, and it is not a character flaw. It keeps an appointment. Once you know why, you can meet it with something better than another cup of coffee. In this episode you will learn: Why the afternoon wall returns the moment your calendar fills back up Wh...

Think about the first question people ask when they meet you. We answer with a job, a role, a list of who we take care of. It is such a normal question that we rarely notice what it trains us to believe, that who we are and what we do are one and the same. Here is a small experiment for the next gathering you go to.  Join me for the full companion episode "The Woman Who Cannot Be Off the Cloc...

You finally get a day off, and within ten minutes you are up doing something, because sitting still makes you feel like you are disappearing. If a day with nothing on it leaves you anxious instead of rested, this one is for you. We look at what happens when your sense of worth gets wired to what you produce, and why a woman who does so much can feel worth so little the moment she stops. This is th...

That sentence lands like a compliment. Very often it means something else. A 60-second look at what to listen for during fall sign-up season.  Join us for the full companion episode “The Ministry Sign-Up Sheet Is Staring at Me” (Ep 138) where we walk through the called or cornered filter and how to run a fall commitment through it before you sign. Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Rese...

The fall programs restart. The Bible study needs volunteers. The committee needs a chair. And the email arrives that opens with, you would be perfect for this. You are the reliable one. You have always been the reliable one. So your hand reaches for the pen before your heart has said a word about it. Underneath that reach is a question worth asking out loud: Am I serving God here, or am I afraid o...

A word of grace for the first weeks of a new season - we all need it. Join me for the full companion episode “The Back-to-Routine Drag” (Ep 137) where I share why this season lands so heavy, and the one move that hands the remembering back to your surroundings. Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download): YourNextBestStep.com  Weekly encouragement + practical tips: YouTu...

Look at your calendar this week, then look at July. Is anything on it actually harder? Probably not — and you are still wiped out by two in the afternoon. There is a real reason for that, and it has nothing to do with how much you are doing. If the first weeks of fall left you dragging even though your own schedule barely changed, this episode is for you. In this episode:  Why the return to normal...

What was the best part of your whole summer and what can you do so it doesn't disappear the moment fall comes around? Join me for the full companion episode where we walk through a simple three-line practice you can do tonight, while the calendar still says August. "What Are You Taking With You Into September?" (Ep 136) Ready for your next step? FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant do...

Something in your life got better this summer. Unless you choose to keep it, September takes it back, and you will not be able to point to the day it left. The last week of August carries a familiar question for a lot of us: what happens to the good parts of summer once the calendar fills back up? This episode looks at why the best things tend to disappear first, and what it takes to carry one of...

The friend who cracks a joke at the worst possible moment is not missing how serious things are. She is doing one of the healthiest things a person can do under pressure. A short word for anyone who has wondered whether their sense of humor is a flaw.  Join me for the full companion episode: "The Last Time You Really Laughed" (Ep 135) on Your Next, Best Step Ready for your next step? FRE...

When was the last time you laughed so hard you could not catch your breath? If you had to stop and think about it, this episode is for you. Somewhere in a long, full stretch of being the steady one, laughter can slip out of a whole week without you noticing. The funny things never stopped coming. Your face just settled into managing and getting through. This is a gentle look at what happens to lau...

Here is a fall decision worth making out loud: choosing the one goal that has your name on it this season. But does choosing one really mean you're quitting on the others? Join me the full companion episode "The Second January: Why a Fresh Start Feels So Possible in the Fall" where we walk through why the daydream of a fresh start backfires, what the research says is happening in yo...