Get the full Future Self Course for $26

As we close out 2025, this episode is an invitation to pause before you plan.

If the year felt beautiful—amazing. And if it felt heavy, disorienting, or unfinished—you're not alone.

Instead of starting the new year with goals, strategies, or fixing yourself, this episode begins where real change actually starts: identity.

In this episode, I'm sharing Step One from my Future Self Course: Dream Big.

Not as a vision board exercise. Not as wishful thinking. And not as a plan.

But as a necessary first step in identity creation.

Inside this lesson, we explore:

• Why starting with how keeps you stuck in your old identity

• How "being realistic" often means shrinking your desires before you begin

• Why getting your hopes up is not irresponsible—it's clarifying

• How dreaming big gives direction before you ever need a strategy

This lesson is about permission. Permission to want what you want. Permission to imagine without editing. Permission to let the next version of you come into focus.

Want the Full Future Self Experience?

This episode is one lesson from the full Future Self Course, and to celebrate 2026, you can get the entire experience for $26.

You'll receive:

• The complete Future Self course

• A private podcast version you can listen to anytime

• The accompanying workbook to integrate the work

Learn more and get instant access at calmAF.com.

Let this be the year you stop shrinking what you want—and start becoming who you already know you're here to be.

The week between Christmas and New Year's—what I call the holiday vortex—is your secret weapon for creating a calm, focused, and successful start to 2025.

In this episode, I'll show you why rest is the most productive thing you can do and how using this unique time strategically can help you achieve more without burnout.

You'll learn how to break free from the productivity treadmill, rewire your nervous system, and step into the new year with clarity, confidence, and joy.

If you're an ambitious high achiever ready to thrive without exhaustion, this episode is for you.

Work with me:

Private Coaching: This is High-touch, personalized support designed to help you regulate your nervous system, build resilience, and achieve big goals without burnout. My clients don't need me to teach them, they need me to help them calibrate so they can move further and faster in the most efficient and effective way.

Get daily reminders to live your life as the main character HERE.

What if you approached your own life with the same intentionality a screenwriter brings to their main character?

In this episode, we're talking about why so many high-achievers are living like background characters in their own story AND how to step into the lead role.

You'll learn:

• Why identity always precedes behavior (and why most people get this backwards)
• The difference between writing yourself from the inside out vs. the outside in
• How one client became "a person who exercises every day" without willpower or discipline
• Why change feels so hard when you're operating from the wrong identity
• The Rewrite Method: seeing your life cinematically and showing up with intention

This isn't about fake-it-til-you-make-it or toxic positivity. It's about understanding that every moment is a scene, and you get to choose who you're becoming in real time.

If you've been waiting for permission, clarity, or motivation to make a change, this episode will show you why the shift starts with identity first, action second.

If I could go back and tell my younger self something, it would be this: Figure out what really matters in life. Figure out what, at the end of your life, made it a life well lived. And then figure out HOW to not forget it.

(This episode is a replay from 2023)

Here's the EASIEST way: Daily Love Letters

Change takes consistency. If you'd love a gentle nudge each day to stay on track while you're creating new patterns, grab my Daily Love Letters

Every morning, get a love letter in your inbox – a daily reminder that you aren't here to be a perfect human before you can enjoy this amazing, precious life you've been gifted.

These aren't another thing for your to-do list. They're daily permission slips to prioritize what makes everything else easier.

Each love letter:

• Takes less than 2 minutes to read
• Ensures the FIRST neural pathway you travel each day is one of joy
• Reminds you that work doesn't HAVE to be hard
• Helps you remember that lightening up makes you more productive

[GET LOVE LETTERS]

In today's episode of Calm AF, we're diving deep into one of the most harmful modern mindsets: the belief that you have to fix yourself before you can enjoy your life. If you've ever felt like you need to check off a to-do list before you're allowed to relax or be happy — this episode is your reminder to stop fixing yourself to be happy.

Inspired by a love letter from my private podcast, this "spiel" explores why you don't need to earn joy, peace, or worthiness. You're not a project — you're a human being living a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And that means you deserve to love your life right now, not after the next goal, hack, or habit tracker.

🧠 What You'll Learn:

• Why constant self-improvement can actually keep you stuck

• The difference between desire-based transformation and shame-driven change

• How to stop treating your life like a never-ending project

• The truth about the to-do list that never ends

• How to actually enjoy your life — while still growing and evolving

💌 Subscribe to Daily Love Letters:

Get a mindset reset every morning — no extra effort, no fixing required. ➡️ Subscribe here

Get Daily Reminders to rewire your nervous system and mindset patterns.

You say you want peace. You say you're ready to stop overthinking, people-pleasing, and spinning out.

So why does your brain keep dragging you back into suffering — even when life gives you a moment to breathe?

In this episode, we're talking about the ways we argue against our own peace — and how we fight harder to stay stuck than to change.

You'll learn why familiar thoughts like:

• "I'm not good enough."

• "Life's harder for me."

• "People always let me down."

…feel so true — and how to stop identifying with them.

We'll talk about:

• Why your brain clings to old suffering stories — even when they hurt

• How to recognize when you're defending pain instead of choosing peace

• A nervous system practice to shift out of mental spiraling

• Tools to build evidence for your peaceful, grounded identity — one thought at a time

Because your peace doesn't begin when life gets easier — it begins when you stop fighting for your suffering.

Get Daily Reminders delivered to your inbox every day. Because change doesn't happen because you want it to. It happens becuase you choose yourself. Every single day.

Why does your brain keep pulling you back into the same thought loops — even when you want to change? In this episode, I'm breaking down the real science of neural pathway rewiring, and why motivation isn't the answer.

You'll learn:

• Why your brain defaults to familiar (not better) pathways

• A simple, effective way to rewire old patterns

• What to do in the moment when you catch yourself thinking the old story

• Why reminders and repetition are the keys to lasting change

• How long it really takes to shift your brain's default setting

This isn't about willpower — it's about working with your brain, not against it.

Want Daily Reminders While You Rewire?

Get daily love letters here.

Get free daily reminders

Feeling mentally and emotionally drained but convinced you have to keep pushing through?

This episode is for you.

If you're running on fumes but your instinct is to try harder, work longer, and push more - you might be doing exactly what's keeping you stuck. In this episode, I share the story of a high-achieving client who was beating her head against a brick wall until she learned the power of pressing pause.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• The difference between inevitable pain and optional suffering
• Why "trying harder" often makes everything worse
• How one client found the door she'd been missing by stopping her run toward the wall
• Why clarity comes from pause, not force
• The simple practice that can shift everything this week

This isn't about giving up on your goals - it's about getting out of your own way so you can actually reach them.

Ready to stop running into brick walls? Get daily love letters every day in September that remind you there's another way. These aren't another thing for your to-do list - they're one-minute reminders that you don't have to do life the hard way.

SHARE THIS EPISODE

Know someone who's been pushing too hard? Share this episode with them.

Get September daily love letters

What if everything you've been told about productivity is backwards? What if the secret to achieving your goals isn't more discipline, but more joy?

In this episode, I share the story of my most reluctant client who finally agreed to choose the "fun bucket" - and accidentally became more productive than she'd ever been. You'll discover why white-knuckling your way through goals leads to burnout, and how prioritizing fun creates lasting change instead of temporary fixes.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why every client avoided the "fun bucket" (and why you probably would too)
• The real reason discipline-based approaches fail long-term
• How I stopped needing a donut as my only source of joy
• Why fun and hard work aren't mutually exclusive - they're partners
• The restrict-binge cycle that happens with joy (and how to find balance)
• How to rewire your brain to see fun as fuel, not reward

This isn't about being less serious about your goals - it's about being more strategic. When you fuel up with joy instead of discipline, everything else becomes easier.

Ready to try the fun bucket approach? Get daily love letters all September long that remind you fun is the most efficient fuel you can put in your tank. These aren't another thing for your to-do list - they're daily permission slips to prioritize what makes everything else easier.

Get September Love Letters

Click here to get daily reminders every day in September.

September is my new year. The fresh start is so invigorating and exciting AND leads to one of the most COMMON traps we find ourselves in. This epsiode is for you if you're in any kind of new chapter moment - back to school, empty nesting, relationship changes, or just ready to stop earning your way to what matters most.

Key Takeaways

• Why September feels more like a new year than January (and why that fresh start energy can be tricky)
• The "old voice" that shows up during new chapters telling us to buckle down and get serious
• Why we achieve our way away from the thing we wanted to achieve our way to
• The difference between doubling down on what matters vs. buckling down on discipline
• How high achievers get trapped in earning their way to their own values
• What it looks like to be bombarded with reminders of what matters instead of what you're not doing enough of
• Why prioritizing joy, beauty, and connection isn't unproductive - it's fuel