5 Simple Habits to Live Better

At Noteworthy, July and August are typically slower months: coaching sessions tend to get moved around or outright canceled as my clients go on vacation with their families, emails sent out to corporate leads come back with OOO messages, and speaking & training gigs come to a standstill until September.

BUT NOT THIS YEAR!

My schedule is packed with back-to-back client sessions, introduction calls with potential Noteworthy leaders, a speaking and training series, and a backlog of important work waiting to be done between all those human-facing engagements.

My clients, too, are seeing an uptick in activity and work.

If we're not careful, we could easily slip into work and life patterns that will lead to overwhelm, fatigue, and, ultimately, misery.

To help avoid that, we're doubling down on five critical practices that safeguard the bandwidth and the energy needed to work hard (but not too hard), set high standards without slipping into perfectionism, and maintain balance and a sense of control in life and at work.

Habit #1: Dedicate your mornings to yourself

Ban all screens and media for the first 20-30 minutes of the day. As a therapist who specializes in stress and anxiety, there were a handful of habits that would massively reduce the stress of my patients and make me look like a rockstar. This was number one or two on the list.

Leave your phone on the charger. Instead of checking emails and the news, check in with yourself.

?? Bio-Tech executive E has been using her early mornings to walk or practice her check-ins rather than anxiously pouring over her emails. She starts the day more resilient, calmer, and paradoxically far better prepared.

Habit #2: Check-in

Check-in with yourself several times a day (three minimum), starting first thing in the morning. Here's the check-in process. I've been teaching busy leaders and anxiety-prone women since my therapy days.

This is the secret to managing your stress throughout your day rather than letting it pile up and crush you.

?? One Noteworthy Global Leader uses these 5 steps when she gives feedback to her team to help them recognize how her suggestions are landing with them.

Habit #3: Nothing

Everyone thinks the key to success is doing more: more work, more degrees, more certifications, and more productivity.

But the real key to high-level success and mental/emotional/physical/personal fulfillment is the ability to slow down, check out, and do nothing.

I'm in the process of writing a short book about that truth (the current working title is Miserably Successful: How to Stop Sacrificing Fulfillment at The Altar of Success in 10 Minutes a Day or Less) - but until it comes out, you're going to have to trust me...

The ART OF NOTHING is, hands down, my favorite strategy. The link I shared has a 7-day practice to help you build this next-level skill and create the space to reduce stress, make better strategic decisions, and increase your productivity.

?? Noteworthy leader Mandi credits the Art of Nothing with getting her anxiety and burnout under control.

My sons at their very first weightlifting meet this weekend. We hired a private coach for them, even though both their father and I competed and ran a successful weightlifting gym.

Habit #4: Daily-To-Dos

Take 5 minutes at the start of your day to set a daily to-do list . It should include no more than three items. This habit is a game changer, massively increasing productivity, impact, and focus.

?? My Client Jess swears by the daily to-dos to keep her focused and strategic.

Habit #5: Surround Yourself With Mirrors

When your life and your schedule are hectic, it can be hard to maintain an objective sense of how you're doing, what you need, and where you might be sabotaging yourself. Even the most insightful, smart, and strategically sound women struggle with this.

That's where having a great coach, a personal advisory board, and a community that's invested in your success can make all the difference.

A great coach reflects (distortion-free) what you're doing and how it aligns (or doesn't) with what you want in life.

Like a clear mirror, sometimes you'll love what you see, and sometimes you won't. A great coach isn't there to make you feel good. My job is to challenge your thinking, level up your expectations, say what no one else dares to say, and push you to do what you don’t dare to do on your own.

Part advisor, mentor, strategic partner, cheerleader, and powerful coach will hold you accountable to your dreams, ambitions, and worth.

Over the past 18 months, April (my program manager) and I have worked tirelessly behind the scenes to improve systems to keep our clients engaged, accountable, and plugged in, even when their jobs and lives get hectic. The results speak for themselves; Noteworthy women are prioritizing themselves and their coaching sessions. They're addressing maladaptive patterns before they become real problems, and they continue to show up for one another both in our community calls and beyond.

I hope you're enjoying your summer. Whether you choose to practice all five of these steps or just one, I would love to know what's working for you.

Worldwide, smart, ambitious executive women work three times as hard for a fraction of the influence they deserve.

Excellence-driven, they show up fully for everyone - all the time - and discover that high-level success can come at too high a cost if you don't have the right systems or support.

I've made it my mission to help women in senior leadership show up with authority, own their value, leverage their influence, and make a meaningful impact without sacrificing everything on the altar of success.

I lead this work through Noteworthy, an exclusive executive coaching and consulting firm that advances senior executive women in STEM and finance and supports companies that seek to retain, elevate, and attract them.

This work has transformed the lives of hundreds of executive women in the US and Europe and changed workplaces for the better at scores of companies ranging in size from agile start-up to Fortune 100.

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