Find Ease Part 2: How to do great things in 90 days

Throw out your plan for the year. You could get great things done in 90 days — maybe even more meaningful things than what you previously set out to do in a year.

We dramatically underestimate how much we can get done in two or three years, but overestimate much we can get done in a day or a week.

I told you the story of the 7 coffee cups in the last episode. (Make sure to listen to that first.)

Here is the truth about who I was the day I drew that line in the sand:

• I was a yoyo dieter who had zero faith in my body. I had used pregnancy as my excuse to eat whatever I wanted and after three kids I was 80 pounds heavier than I had ever been before.
• I had no skills in the kitchen. I was scared of cookbooks and grocery shopping. I am not sure I even knew what kale was, and green smoothies were nowhere on my radar. I thought of food only as the 3 meals I was supposed to eat, and now make available for my husband and 3 kids.
• I had checked off all the boxes. I had 3 kids under five, and they were a dream. I had married the hottest guy I knew, who I had met in highschool. We bought our first apartment together, I was building this amazing graphic design company… Literally, I was 32 with ALL of my boxes checked. And yet, when I was at work, I was sure I should have opted to stay home. When I was home I could not wait for the babysitter to arrive, so I could get back to work.

I was so miserable.

But on that coffee cup day, everything changed VERY quickly.

Change Can Happen Faster Than We Think

The journey is a journey. There is always a next level. And each level comes with its own obstacles. I am still on the journey today.

But little things shifted quickly. And they can for you too. Here is why.

“Happiness does not depend on what you have or who you are. It solely relies on what you think.”  —Buddha

My new thought that day I drew the line in the sand: 5 years on, 5 years off.

I had been a mom for 5 years. I had been carrying the extra weight for 5 years. I paused to think ahead 5 years. I imagined what life would be like 5 years into the future. I wrote, read, and imagined.

Think In Seasons

I made a goal to lose the weight. I was 110% percent in — because it did not have to happen by the next day!

I looked very carefully at the season I was in, and figured out how to  support my goals in that season. I made a plan to go to yoga class. That could happen with the time that I was no longer going to spend at Starbucks!

I figured out a workable next step and kept it embarrassingly simple. Each time I took a doable step, I found the next doable step.

A year in, I had a whole new health profile and had lost 65 pounds.

Here is how it unfolded…

• Went to Yoga
• Change my food
• Learned to cook
• Worked on family dinners
• Revisited the food

Within 90 days…

• Lost some weight
• Rid myself of seasonal allergies
• Never sick and no antibiotics
• Balanced hormones
• Boundless energy
• Felt happy and at ease

I can guarantee that if I did not change my thinking, I could have done all the same actions with very little result. That had been my life until that point.

This idea of listening to your  intuition, taking a small step, seeing the next step is uncovered, taking that step … happens every week in FLOW365.

Movement literally creates momentum and miracles.

I have had many 90-day goals around food, life and work since committing to my best life one 90-day season at a time

• Food: My own health, dinner, one kid, menopause, loving my body
• Decluttering
• Writing a book
• Going on a book tour
• Homeschooling the kids
• Creating an amazing marriage
• Helping a daughter through an impossible time
• Travel

I hope I have shown you that a 90 day goal is really powerful when it responds to the season you are in, how you want to feel, and your big vision.

When I set my mind to a 90-day goal, I make much more progress than I used to make in a year.