All tagged growth

How Movement Helps Your Personal Development Practice

How Movement Helps Your Personal Development Practice

Stephanie Ondrusek
feminism, mindset

So, you're sitting there, mid-February, having abandoned all notions of resolutions, thinking about the hike you took this weekend and the dinner you're cooking later, wondering why you didn't allow yourself some space for freedom sooner. When all of a sudden you hear chatter creeping up, wafting through the breeze like the smell of city trash in the summer: your coworkers are on their way to the break room, making one self-deprecating comment after another about how they've "failed" already, and they sit down to join you. You're having a tough time listening without

a) ripping your hair out or flipping a table
and/or
b) feeling pulled back into the diet culture soup.

But of course you don't want to do either of those things, and you can't just leave, because you've been trying to be friendlier at work. Why do you always find yourself in these situations?

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Is This You? [[Last Call!]]

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, offers, mindset

So, you’re sitting there, half-drunk smoothie at the corner of your desk, zoned out on a Thursday with the trillion things you have to do before you bring work home for the weekend running through your mind. You’re wondering why this smoothie doesn’t just taste better and why exercising feels like such a chore and why you never follow through on anything, and this ever-growing to-do list gumming up the works like the smoothie that won’t come through the straw is proof.

When you think about the person you want to be—that you swear you could be, if you just got it “right”—instead of feeling inspired, you mostly want to take a nap. Having enough time to do that, though, is laughable, so you grit your teeth and think, “just one more day/week/month.” You know you’re juggling too much, but you’re not sure how to stop. It all feels so urgent, so important, so much like no one else will do it if you don’t (and it needs to get done, so guess what!). What you really want is someone to take a good look at it all and help you see what you can put down so you feel like you again.

→ Hi, hello, this is what I do. ←

How to Know You're Making Progress (A Letter From (and to) My 16-Year-Old Self)

How to Know You're Making Progress (A Letter From (and to) My 16-Year-Old Self)

Stephanie Ondrusek
body image, Bold Body Initiative, coaching, mindset, offers

This is a note from my journal one week into my senior year of high school.

This is one of the times that journaling really tugs at your heartstrings. If you don’t have a regular journaling practice, I’d encourage you to start, even if it’s just one line in your planner or on your phone about how you felt that day, and this is why: you gift yourself the opportunity to witness your growth in real time.

Grit: A Reward You May Not Have Considered

Grit: A Reward You May Not Have Considered

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, coaching, offers

Honing our crafts takes reps under the bar, after all. To learn where we thrive under the pressure and where we cower in fear, we need to set out on the path.

When looking into some research on perseverence and change, I found that the highest performers work on their weaknesses the most. Seems obvious, no?

But it's the last thing most of us want to do.

We want to avoid them, find ways around them, out-muscle our weaknesses with our strengths.

What Do Your Workouts Show You?

What Do Your Workouts Show You?

Stephanie Ondrusek
mindset, workouts

Exploring the limits of our physical bodies pushes them a bit further out every time, but, more than that, the act of discovering our edges introduces us to our deepest truths. Fitness has shown me that I'm more intelligent than I've been in the past, that I'm more durable than I've believed myself to be, and that I'm more powerful than I've thought myself.

There's nothing like looking at a workout and thinking, "dang, can I do that?" rather than, "oh, I could never do that." It's a subtle shift that oozes its way into our minds over time, and, once it takes place, there's no going back. It seeps through our lives, starting in the gym, and moving out until its grubby fingerprints are all over our walls.

When we're in a spot where all we can think about is what's directly in front of us, the stories we tell ourselves become irrelevant. We're focused on the task at hand and what parts of ourselves need to show up to get it done, excuses be damned.

And it's magic.

Bookwormin': My Top 10 Books for a Bigger Life.

Bookwormin': My Top 10 Books for a Bigger Life.

Stephanie Ondrusek
general BAMFery

Storytelling is an art, whether it's fiction (I read more than my fair share of dystopian young adult novels...in my late 20s.) or nonfiction (because a long list of facts has never captivated anyone, some of the best storytellers I know are nonfiction writers. Making learning engaging can be tough.). Through our stories, we can change lives, have an impact, create shifts, forge bonds, and heal others (and ourselves). 

SO! Inspired by a few others who have provided reads that changed my game, I wanted to stop by really quick and drop off my 10 favorite books for creating a bigger, better life. The topics range from food to fitness to personal development...kind of like the rest of my life. :) They're all here (with Amazon links), so feel free to browse! 

Make the choice to do the hard things- that's where the fruit is.

Make the choice to do the hard things- that's where the fruit is.

Stephanie Ondrusek
ballgnorance, general BAMFery, mindset, coaching

To train for physical strength is to train for mental strength. The iron is a proving ground, and it never lies to us: we can either lift the weight or we can’t. And when we discover that we can – and that we can do more than we imagined we could – we begin to discover that we can do other hard things too.

Every moment of every day presents a choice. We get to see it for what it is whenever we want to, and there’s no judgment: at every challenge, do we embrace our new #WonderWomanLoading mentality and expand, or do we stay small and safe? The time is right for either; we just have to choose. If we choose small one day, that’s okay, because we know that a new choice is right around the corner, and we’ve chosen big – and succeeded! – before, so we can do it again.

We can learn new skills. We can smash PRs. We can get to know who we really are and what we really want. We can deepen our intimacy and trust in relationships. We can pursue our passions. It’s all available to us; the door is wide open. We have to cultivate the courage and create the space to step through it.