This time of year can be exhausting as we leave the quieter days of summer behind. The noise of our life can be distracting, including the “dirty feet” of others who pull us into their wants and needs as Gandhi shares in today’s quote.

Cuddling into my sweaters on these cold mornings brings a new essence which makes me look further into the changes within the inside world of my mind as well.

To honor the summer coming to a close I attended a yoga retreat with my daughter in a beautiful spot here in the mountains of Colorado.

Hopefully you have had time over the weekend to quiet your mind and are now ready to get back into action with all the tasks that need your attention. 

As you look at your week ahead, what are the absolute items that you must achieve in your life to make you feel satisfied? Perhaps it’s that big project that must be started, the content that needs to be created, or maybe those people you recently met that you want to follow-up with.   

It’s great to put together that list at the beginning of the week and feel motivated to get all those to-do item done, but as is true with my own life it seems that there are always a few things at the end of the week that even with 12-hour work days I just can’t seem to check off the list. 

In the Victory Letter last week I shared some thoughts around creating good habits to help us from our distractions. This week how about we talk about distractions that have become a bad habit?

First, let’s clarify what quantifies as a distraction. The dictionary states that it is, “A thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else and creates extreme agitation of the mind or emotions.”

Last week I disconnected my home phone number, a landline that I have had since we moved into our home 24 years ago. What I had come to realize was that it had in fact for the most part become a distraction. Something I had been putting up with for a number of years.

Last week our Victory Circles embarked on a 30 day-challenge to create an audio recording, or photo or video every day.  The goal is to get focused on creating content that will drive their marketing efforts.

Not an easy challenge to be sure, however, the end results will be extremely beneficial for each person who actually does it.  The key and the reason to do any kind of a challenge is to get yourself into the habit of doing something of value in your life: whether it is to get healthier or to build your business skills.

We did it!  We lost our minds a bit, opened our hearts a lot, and become proud new parents of a furry baby girl that we have named Luna Marie. 

The many new elements of this 8-week old yellow lab coming into our lives have me looking at the world a bit differently. Reminding me a lot of my early days as a Mom to other puppies along way and my human kids as well. 

It has re-energized my respect for parents everywhere and all they do in juggling parenting with everything else.  Especially those who run a small business – a baby all in itself at times! 

Here’s a simple question that hopefully does not require a complex answer… 

Who has got your back?

As we have watched the Olympics over the last few weeks one thing remained clear throughout: not one of those amazing athletes got to Rio on their own. 

In fact, there was probably a whole team who got them there. Their parents, coach, friends, and teammates who cheered for them through the good times and the bad.

The key element for these athletes to get past their fear and compete on that world stage is that someone had their back.  They knew if they were to fall, someone would be there to push them back up and keep them going forward.

As I began my meditation practice at daybreak on Tuesday morning, this problem was sitting right there with me. I was having trouble with letting go of the angst this problem was causing me.   

I opened my eyes and in front of me was one of the beautiful sunflowers that are throughout my garden. It’s beauty and energy brought a smile to my face as it reminded me of the beautiful yellow finch that has been flying around the garden since my sunflowers have arrived.

Every one of us at some time or another has had the opportunity to wash a sink full of dishes - whether we wanted to or not.

During the aftermath of recent party we hosted, the dishes were over the top – literally - and my main goal as hostess was to be with my guests and just make sure the food got put away and the dishes were “soaking” in the sink.

As I thought through this whole idea of letting dishes soak, I realized I had learned the most important part of washing dishes at the young age of 10 when my dish washing days began. Soaking was and is such an easier way to wash dishes. It made my mother crazy back then and my husband crazy today because technically the task is not complete.

Last week I felt my brain go numb as my daughter Bailey headed off for her new life adventures in Southern California.  Watching her drive down our street waving all the way until we could no longer see each other (a long term family ritual) my heart broke in two. My baby was leaving the nest once again. 

Did I know this day was coming? Of course. It had been the plan that she would leave the nest again after her return home a year and a half ago from her college adventures. A brilliant business opportunity in Southern California had come her way recently and it was crystal clear she should move forward with the offer.