One Degree to Victory

Your life can be hard and still be wide open. We talk straight to the part of you that’s tired of being defined by what you’ve survived, and we make room for what comes next. If you’ve been stuck solving “right now” problems on repeat, this conversation puts language to what’s happening in your mind and body, and it does it without shame.

We unpack capacity, the attention, energy, emotional space, awareness, and decision-making ability you actually have available. When pressure is high, capacity gets pulled into urgent questions like where you’ll sleep, how you’ll get the kids where they need to go, or how you’ll make it through the week. Then we introduce prospection, the ability to look ahead, imagine possibilities, and start planning for the future. I share how homelessness narrowed my view to survival, and how even a small release of pressure gave me enough room to think beyond the hotel room.

You’ll hear a practical distinction that can change your decision making fast: possible is not the same as feasible. We also use a flashlight-in-a-dark-room metaphor to explain why you may only be able to see a few steps ahead right now, and why that doesn’t mean the rest of the room is empty. We close with situational awareness, moving with intention, and trusting that as you change position, you’ll see options you could never see from where you started.

If this spoke to you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s carrying a lot, and leave a review so more listeners can find the support they need.

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

Panic loves to sound like certainty: “You have to decide right now.” When you’re a mom facing homelessness, that kind of pressure can hijack your brain and push you into choices that don’t actually move your family forward. We talk about a different path: protecting your agency, even when the system feels bigger than you and resources feel scarce. 

We break down how a scarcity mindset forms during housing insecurity and why it’s more than money or services. Agency is your ability to find the part of the situation where your decisions still belong to you and act on it. From there, we lay out three agency traps that quietly steal your options: the permission trap (“I can’t until…”), the power trap (deciding to manage someone else’s reaction), and the pressure trap (urgency that makes one option look like the only option). We also talk safety, because reclaiming agency never means putting yourself or your kids in danger. 

You’ll leave with practical, repeatable prompts you can use in shelters, temporary housing, shared homes, and stressful meetings: “What can I start while things are still difficult?”, “Let me think about that before I answer,” “What other options are available?”, and the pressure interruptor, “What happens if I don’t choose this?” We close with a real story from an extended-stay hotel that shows how one calm pause can create space for things to happen for you rather than to you. 

If this helped you feel steadier and more clear, subscribe, share this with a mom who needs it, and leave a review so more families can find these tools.

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

 In this episode of This One’s For You, Dr. Hollis speaks directly to women navigating housing instability about one of the hardest parts of an unstable season: when emotions, responsibilities, relationships, hopes, and daily demands begin to merge into one overwhelming burden. She introduces a different way to move through the season by naming it, protecting capacity, and deciding what actually deserves to be carried forward.

If this resonates, subscribe for more honest tools for resilience and mental health, share this with someone who needs steadier ground, and leave a review so more listeners can find it. What would you name the season you’re in right now?

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

When you are navigating housing instability, every need can feel urgent. Housing, food, transportation, work, paperwork and your children’s needs can all compete for your attention at the same time.

In the first episode of new series: This One’s for You, Dr. Hollis introduces three simple containers—TODAY, NEXT and NOT YET—to help you decide what requires your capacity now, what can be scheduled and what you can intentionally set down.

Drawing from her own experience living in a hotel with her children, Dr. Hollis reminds you that forward movement does not always change your circumstances immediately. Sometimes it creates enough safety, clarity or stability to help you make the next responsible decision.

What truly requires your capacity today?

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

Stagnation does not always look like doing nothing.

You can work, pay bills, care for other people, solve problems, and carry responsibilities all day—while remaining stagnant in the area of your life that most needs your attention.

In this final episode of the WASPS series, Dr. Hollis explores how worry, anxiety, stress, and procrastination can eventually become a pattern of no meaningful forward movement. She examines how stagnation develops within our relationships, emotions, health and well-being, and finances—and how outside conditions can consume the capacity required to move.

Stagnation is not your identity. It is the place where movement stopped.

The question is not, “How do I change my entire life today?” The question is: Where has movement stopped, which part of WASPS has been holding it there, and what is one responsible step that can begin movement again?

Subscribe, share this with someone who’s holding everything together, and leave a review if it helps. What’s one area where movement has stopped, and what one step could you take this week?

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

Staying too long can look responsible on the outside and feel like slow erosion on the inside. We tell a personal story about knowing a job needed to end, trying to “control the exit,” and realizing that the longer we delayed, the more of our energy we spent just surviving the day. If you’ve ever felt like work turned into a battle zone, or you’ve caught yourself shrinking to fit a place you’ve outgrown, this conversation puts language to that tension. 

We dig into the idea that procrastination isn’t only about unfinished tasks. Sometimes it’s a delayed decision, and the price is your capacity: your emotional bandwidth, mental clarity, relationships, and ability to pursue a bigger vision. We talk about why comfort zones feel safe, how complacency can quietly lower your standards, and what changes when you finally stop investing your best energy into a season that’s already over. 

You’ll also hear a perspective shift that’s both practical and freeing: when the assignment is over, it’s over, and making space can be an act of integrity for you and for the people coming after you. If you’re wrestling with career change, burnout, fear of uncertainty, or the pressure to stay “reasonable,” you’ll leave with a clearer way to evaluate the true cost of waiting. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a push, and leave a review so more listeners can find the show.

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

Stress doesn’t only show up when something is wrong. Sometimes it shows up because something is changing, stretching, and developing you, and that difference can change whether you quit too soon or push too long.

We unpack a simple but powerful distinction: depletion stress versus growth stress. Depletion comes from the seasons that drain you through loss, betrayal, or relentless uncertainty. Growth stress comes from the opportunities you asked for and the new responsibilities you choose, like finishing a degree, starting a business, taking a promotion, moving, or learning a skill you’ve never had to carry before. Both spend human capacity, and neither one eliminates the need for rest, sleep, and real restoration.

We also share a personal vacation moment that surprises a lot of high-functioning people: you finally get freedom, and instead of feeling energized, your body sleeps. That isn’t weakness, it’s your system catching up. We talk about capacity like water in the body, how you spend it on decisions, relationships, problem-solving, and recovery, and why “still functioning” can be a misleading measure of health. You’ll leave with clearer questions to ask yourself about your current season and practical permission to rest before life creates a forced shutdown.

If this helped you name what you’re carrying, subscribe, share with a friend who’s running on fumes, and leave a review so more people can find the show. What’s your telltale sign you need restoration?

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

Your life can be on fire, and you can still be capable. That’s the tension we sit with as Dr. Hollis shares the real distance between a hotel room season and a doctoral graduation stage, and why the story isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about understanding what blocks movement when you genuinely want change, can imagine change, and even have opportunities in front of you.

We break down WASPS, worry, anxiety, stress, procrastination, and stagnation, not as a tidy sequence, but as five patterns that can interfere with the very things you need to move: clear thinking, problem-solving, decision-making, recovery, and the ability to take the next step. Dr. Hollis puts language to what so many people feel but can’t name: human capacity. When capacity gets squeezed, your world shrinks, not because you’re lazy or broken, but because too many demands are pulling on you at the same time.

The metaphor is simple and painfully accurate: like an iPhone running too many apps, we overheat under pressure and certain functions temporarily shut down. That’s why “I can’t do it right now” can be an act of self-awareness rather than a character flaw. We talk through how to spot what this moment requires, how to let something else wait without guilt, and how small, realistic choices can carry you through a hard season.

If you’ve been confusing your current limits with your future potential, press play. Subscribe for more, share this with someone in transition, and leave a review with the phrase you needed to hear most.

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

“My anxiety.” It sounds normal, even honest, but what if that tiny phrase is quietly building a fence around your life? I’m Dr. Hollis, and I’m taking a hard look at how the words we repeat can turn a real stress response into an identity we carry everywhere. When anxiety shows up, it can feel like more than worry. It can feel like constriction that tightens your thinking, your confidence, and your ability to move.

A messy, painfully relatable situation kicks this off: my daughter is trying to move into a new apartment, and the delays, lost deposit records, and shifting dates keep piling up. Each update comes with “my anxiety,” and I react like a mother first. That moment opens the door to a bigger truth I don’t want either of us to forget: don’t let what somebody else has done to you determine how much of yourself you have access to.

From there, I dig into what anxiety means at its root, and why it’s not just being nervous or having a lot on your mind. Anxiety can squeeze, press, and narrow your options, especially when your nervous system reads danger. Then we land on a metaphor you won’t forget: anxiety is the kink in the water hose. The kink blocks flow, hijacks joy, and delays action, but it does not define what’s inside the hose and it doesn’t define you.

You’ll leave with a simple language shift that supports self-awareness: moving from “my anxiety won’t let me” to “when anxiety kicks in, I notice.” I also share why finding a trusted voice matters when your world starts to shrink. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs steadier words, and leave a review. What phrase are you ready to stop claiming as yours?

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙
 

What if anxiety isn't only making you worry about what could go wrong—but also keeping you from recognizing what is already going right?

In this episode of One Degree to Victory, Dr. Hollis explores what happens when anxiety constricts our perception during seasons of uncertainty and change.

Through the story of buying a car during a major life transition, she examines the tension between uncertainty and possibility—and what becomes available when we stop giving uncertainty the entire moment.

The anxiety may be real. The unanswered questions may be real. But possibility is real, too.

Sometimes the door is already open.

The question is whether we can look again—and move.

Ask your questions, share your comments

Links to all things One Degree to Victory:
➡️:       Facebook

🌐:      One Degree To Victory


One Degree to Victory is the podcast of the NM Hollis Institute, where we explore the science and practice of building human capacity. Through practical frameworks, meaningful reflection, and real-life stories, each episode helps you think more clearly, respond more intentionally, and move forward one degree at a time. 

Until next time, Constant Listener, I love ya'll. 💙