Here's the truth about STUCK: It's a form of indecision that can become a habit. We can get so used to not taking a step forward into "decided" that Stuck becomes a normal place to hang out! If you have an idea you really want to take action on (like...you're sick of hearing yourself talk about it and NEED to do the damn thing) -or- if you're worried the only way to get yourself into gear is to activate Ye Olde Burnout Methods of Yore, you're in luck. This episode's for you. What's inside: 3 simple questions to ask that'll move you out of Stuck and into Decided How to get into action even if you aren't 100% fully decided on the "big issue"  A quick tangent that'll help you LOVE your holiday conversations with otherwise predictably negative people (you're welcome)   LINKS! What's your DECISION STYLE? Take the Quiz! Ready to prioritize yourself, make decisions easier for life, and do it alongside a community of like-minded supporters? The Decision Masters Program is BACK and enrolling now. Learn everything here. Let's talk 1-on-1 about Coaching (free).

Ahhh, holidays. The time of year when otherwise confident, assertive, boundaried people tend to switch into some other gear. This is when we can all of sudden become wildly susceptible to stressful decision-making! NOT THIS YEAR, friend-o. I'm cluing you into 3 mistakes you may be at risk of making in these final weeks of the year, so instead, you can have the best. damn. season. of 2023. What's inside: What about this time of year makes stressful, disempowered decision-making easier How groupthink can cost you time, money and experiences you don't have to surrender A simple but game-changing trick to filter decisions throughout the season, so you can trust you're choosing right every time (and move the heck on with your life)   LINKS! What's your DECISION STYLE? Take the Quiz! Get your free ticket to the Decision Style Workshop! Ready to prioritize yourself, make decisions easier for life, and do it alongside a community of like-minded supporters? The Decision Masters Program is BACK and enrolling now. Learn everything here.

When it comes to Decision Styles, People-Pleaser might be the one with the most judgment attached to it.  In this series on the Decision Styles, and with the Decision Style Quiz, my goal is to help you make the MOST of how you operate. And in that spirit, I don't want to simply accept all the historical & societal criticisms we can assume about what it means to "be a people-pleaser." In my opinion, the world would lose a lot of its brightness without people making decisions that take others' happiness and comfort into account.  So how do you get the best of both worlds? How do you keep your considerate nature WITHOUT feeling like a doormat?  Listen in for:  How to maximize the good about your "people-pleasing" habits What the same decision can look like when it's People-Pleasing vs. Empowered The one thing to focus on for the next 24 hours that'll kickstart massive habit change!   LINKS! What's your DECISION STYLE? Take the Quiz! The Ivy Sisters Summit happens Nov 9! It's free, it's virtual, and over 500 Ivy League Women from all over the world are coming. Are you?  Get your free ticket to the Decision Style Workshop! Fun update (fupdate?)...! Decision Masters is now on YouTube. Watch the Interviews and Episodes here!

How often have you put yourself down for your Perfectionism?  "UGH there I go again, needing everything to be perfect, SIGH." Ok, yes I agree sometimes this habit feels like a runaway train that costs you hours you never wanted to give to a project because who even is gonna notice that the background color of the PowerPoint is 4% off your normal brand colors........ But I want to help you look beyond the obvious hiccups of Perfectionism and embrace what's AMAZING about it. Today we're talking about: What's embrace-able about Perfectionism that you need to celebrate more Where this decision-making style might be causing more issues than you realize in your life One easy tool that'll help you take control of wielding your Perfection Wand   LINKS! What's your DECISION STYLE? Take the Quiz! The Ivy Sisters Summit happens Nov 9! It's free, it's virtual, and over 500 Ivy League Women from all over the world are coming. Are you?  Get your free ticket to the Decision Style Workshop! Fun update (fupdate?)...! Decision Masters is now on YouTube. Watch the Interviews and Episodes here!

If you like raw, real and inspirational AF, this interview's for you. I'm joined by Lauren Balukjian, fellow Ivy grad and founder of the Ivy Sisters. She's the mastermind behind the Global Virtual Summit (that I'm lucky enough to be a Panelist for - see below). It's all about dropping the veil of perfection and getting real & raw about success, vulnerability, imposter syndrome and so much more. She also shares the personal, powerful story of her career pivot (preview: a surprise pregnancy, a surprise divorce and a giant leap of faith - read: Experiment - make appearances). All you over-workers who aren't asking for what you want or don't feel totally aligned in your jobs...you're gonna want to hear this!   IVY SUMMIT INFO: Are you an Ivy League woman who values community, growth and embracing IMPERFECTION?  You'll love the Ivy Sisters Global Summit - and bonus...I'm one of the featured speakers this year! Register now free and catch my section on the Power of Self-Authority: How stop needing approval or permission and own your choices. We go LIVE (online) November 9th.     More links! Grab Lauren's 7x7 Cheatsheet to Regain Control and Harness your Power Find out your Decision Style: https://www.kirstenparker.com/quiz Are you a woman with an Ivy League education who values community, growth and embracing IMPERFECTION? You'll love the Ivy Sisters Global Summit - which I'm a Speaker for this year! Register FREE. The Decision Style Masterclass will teach you how to make the most of your overthinking, people-pleasing, perfectioning and (yup!) even procrastination! Register free here.    About Lauren:  A former Division-1 athlete who struggled with fear of failure, Lauren’s purpose is to empower women to liberate themselves from society’s expectations and reclaim their true spark. After graduating from Dartmouth College and then working in Silicon Valley for more than a decade, she traded the comforts of Corporate America for a riskier path that aligned with her passion to lead women. Today, high-achieving, professional women come to Lauren when they’re feeling stuck and can’t stop getting in their own way. Through her 7x7 methodology, she helps them break old patterns and upgrade their mental operating system, so they live a more fulfilling, purpose-driven life. Lauren is a mother to a blended family of 7 children and is passionate about building global communities for women and youth.  

Have you taken the Decision Style Quiz yet?  It'll tell you your default Decision Style, how to avoid its most common (most annoying) pitfalls, AND how you can use it to your advantage.  Welcome to Decision Style #2: The Procrastinator! Wait, Kirsten, procrastinating is bad, evil, and actually any human's most condemnable character flaw...Isn't it??? NOPE. Just because we have a default way of thinking that feels like a a problem, that doesn't mean it has to stay a problem. In this episode, you'll hear: What "procrastinating" means about your productivity superpowers Why every overthinking over-worker in the world is jealous of you The only thing you need to do to take control of your project pace (no, it isn't working on something every hour every day until it's done)   More links! Find out your Decision Style: https://www.kirstenparker.com/quiz Are you a woman with an Ivy League education who values community, growth and embracing IMPERFECTION? You'll love the Ivy Sisters Global Summit - which I'm a Speaker for this year! Register FREE. The Decision Style Masterclass will teach you how to make the most of your overthinking, people-pleasing, perfectioning and (yup!) even procrastination! Register free here.

Have you taken the Decision Style Quiz yet?  It'll tell you your default Decision Style, how to avoid its most common (most annoying) pitfalls, AND how you can use it to your advantage.  Today we're delving into Decision Style #1, which happens to be my personal default: The Overthinker. Wait, Kirsten, are you telling me it doesn't have to be a completely bad thing that I overthink stuff? EXACTLY. Just because we have a default way of thinking that feels like a a problem, that doesn't mean it has to stay a problem. In this episode, you'll hear: The fastest way to turn Overthinking into Superthinking  How to feel in charge of your choices, without turning into a different person The one question to use whenever overthinking starts up    More links! Find out your Decision Style: https://www.kirstenparker.com/quiz Are you a woman with an Ivy League education who values community, growth and embracing IMPERFECTION? You'll love the Ivy Sisters Global Summit - which I'm a Speaker for this year! Register FREE. The Decision Style Masterclass will teach you how to make the most of your overthinking, people-pleasing, perfectioning and (yup!) even procrastination! Register free here.

How do we get ourselves to DO the things we wanna do? Today's episode asks you to stop looking at motivation as gasoline in a tank (is there enough to get where we want?) and instead, as an emotion. It's easy to forget that motivated is a feeling, just like grateful and irritated. And too often, we expect this emotion to show up on cue when it's time to do the things we've planned. But what happens when you don't feel motivated?  Do you abandon your plans? Leave the thing unfinished? Blame yourself for not being motivated enough? What if you didn't HAVE to feel motivated — and you could still follow through on your plans? In this episode I'll walk you through how to change your mind about "feeling motivated" and make it easier to do the stuff you wanna do!     More links! Ready for FOPO to stop making your choices for you? Download the FREE Crash Course in How to Say No (Guilt-Free!) Want direct help owning your decisions (whatever people may think?) Book your free consult to talk about Decision Coaching. PS! Did you know we can work together on ONE decision only? The Make a Decision Package is for you if you want to get unstuck on a single choice and zoom forward with clarity & confidence. 

  "I don't have a choice" is one of the most toxic ideas out there.  And we believe it...even when we're not talking about impossibilities born of the laws of physics! In this episode, we talk about: How to detox this poison from your mindset  What that means about "liking your decisions" And exactly what to do when this thought comes up, to make sure you land on an empowered choice     More links! Ready for FOPO to stop making your choices for you? Download the FREE Crash Course in How to Say No (Guilt-Free!) Want direct help owning your decisions (whatever people may think?) Book your free consult to talk about Decision Coaching. PS! Did you know we can work together on ONE decision only? The Make a Decision Package is for you if you want to get unstuck on a single choice and zoom forward with clarity & confidence. 

So many choices are influenced by our fear of eliciting certain reactions from other people. This is FOPO in action, right? Fear of people’s opinions swooping in to compel us to not say what we mean, not advocate for what we want, agree to stuff we don’t want to do... This mostly happens on a small scale. But when it becomes a decision-making habit, it can result in BIG life choices (where you live, work you do, who you spend your time with).  Obviously, you don't want to base your biggest decisions on "how So-n-So might react" — and that's what today's episode will help you with. Listen in on what's REALLY going on when you're afraid of what someone will think / feel / do in response to your choices, and how this can FREE you from making decisions out of FOPO! More links! Ready for FOPO to stop making your choices for you? Download the FREE Crash Course in How to Say No (Guilt-Free!) Want direct help owning your decisions (whatever people may think?) Book your free consult to talk about Decision Coaching. PS! Did you know we can work together on ONE decision only? The Make a Decision Package is for you if you want to get unstuck on a single choice and zoom forward with clarity & confidence. Learn all about it here!

How do you tell the difference between "being polite / professional / etc" vs. making an inauthentic choice out of fear of people's opinions?  Short answer? You either feel in charge of your decision or you don't.  Even if the choice LOOKS the same (i.e...you agree to meet your weirdest family members in Vegas for Thanksgiving)... Your decision's motivation impacts the energy it takes to follow-through, your mood & mindset, your sense of agency, the experience you have.  In short, knowing if your choice to pack your sunscreen & book the flight is AUTHENTIC or not is a huge factor in your well-being, self-concept and (importantly) future decisions.  This episode walks you all the way through a decision, so you can see what it's like to  maybe want to make someone happy, maybe not wanna piss someone else off, and maybe be unsure of what you authentically wanna do. You'll see what questions to ask, how to know where you stand, and end up with a decision you feel in charge of and totally trust.  More links! Are you decisions taking to much time? Take the 2-MINUTE QUIZ to find out! Grab the Free Crash Course on How to Say No (Guilt-Free) Need guidance & accountability to get a decision made and move forward? Check out the Make a Decision Coaching Sessions. PS...are we friends on TikTok yet? @thedecisioncoach

FOPO: Fear of people's opinions. Not just super annoying and we wish we were over it by now...but also, a huge influence on your decision-making. Specifically? How empowered you do (or don't) feel in the choices you make.  This episode will tell you how to spot (often sneaky, subtle) signs that FOPO is costing you some of your agency — and how to get it back!   More Links! Download the Free Crash Course: How to Say NO to a Request or Invite (without being a terrible person, ruining a relationship, or ending up doing it anyway!)  Would making just ONE decision make everything easier? Book your Make a Decision Mini Coaching Package for expert guidance in navigating (and making) this choice, so you can move forward with confidence & conviction! Book your free consult to talk about working together

Why does the act of deciding inspire such feelings of fear & finality? Well, turns out it's not just you being dramatic and/or indecisive...! Etymologically speaking, it actually makes a lot of sense that we take decisions so dang seriously. This episode explains why "deciding" really does inspire fear, and how indecision becomes the norm when FEAR is your decision-making baseline. To get free from indecision, you have to shift your baseline out of fear. We explore 4 steps to do just that in this episode! More links! Decision Masters Podcast Ep #29: The Cure for "If Only..." Agony The FREE Get Shit Done Decision-Making Workshop is available for FREE Instant Access  Get the Clarity Workshop right frickin' now Book your free consult to talk about hiring me to help you make faster, easier, clearer decisions & unleash your Inner Decisive Self!

How do we make easier, better, more self-honoring decisions when it comes to FOOD and how we think about our bodies? Well, if you're like me, you have a lifetime of influences that makes this a complicated question. This year though, I decided I wanted answers (and good ones), so I hired Intuitive Eating Coach Victoria Yates! I gotta be honest - I had no idea what "intuitive eating" was (and frankly didn't really care). I just wanted to clean up this drama that wasn't going away on its own. Listen in for: Why decisions about what we eat & how we see ourselves feel so easy to "get wrong" How diets and rule systems don't work for long-term ease OR results (spoiler: it's because they all bypass the physical body...for a rule & system lover, this was a big Aha for me) What to do if decisions about food feel fraught, overwhelming, exhausting and/or intimidating Victoria is a former nurse turned intuitive eating & body image coach for women. She specializes in helping women to stop dieting & love their bodies by learning how to eat intuitively & healing their relationship with food. More Links! Victoria Yates' Website: https://www.victoria-yates.com Victoria on IG: @nondiet_rn Redefining Health Podcast: Wherever you podcast Work with Victoria to have peace and freedom with food and your health Work with Kirsten to make life decisions easier, faster & more aligned

You're unclear on your goals — but you still have time & energy you have to...use up on stuff. WHAT NOW.  This episode gives you actionable guidance for when you're in this super common, usually uncomfortable place. We go into detail on how to: 1. Remove the pressure to know ALL the answers RIGHT now   2. Use this sneaky question to get unstuck: “If you did know what you were going to do next, what would you say?” 3. Identify your Vision, Goals & Values to get clear on what you want More links! Get the Clarity Workshop right frickin' now Book your free consult to talk about getting coached on clarity & prioritizing

Sometimes, there really is no tidy, perfect solution where everyone’s happy and you get everything exactly how you wanted it...😬 BUT that doesn’t mean you can’t still feel totally in charge of your choices and be intentional about what you do. If you feel backed into a corner, like you can't have one thing without sacrificing another —  or like you have to give up one possibility to pursue the other — this episode is for you. These strategies'll help you see: How your intentions/desires/goals are NOT competing after all How they’re more FLEXIBLE than you thought (meaning you can still have some version of what you want!) OR, when it comes to those times you do have to choose, this'll help you make a clear-headed, authentic decision you can stand behind More links! The FREE Get Shit Done Decision-Making Workshop happens Aug 10th - put it on your calendar!  Ready to talk about working together? Book your free consult to share what you want to work on and find out how Coaching will guarantee growth & change! 

a) This episode was inspired by conversations on TikTok — come hang out with me if you’re over there! @thedecisioncoach And b) if you’re getting any value out of this podcast, I would love love to hear about it. If you have the bandwidth & inclination, you can leave a rating and review to let me know what’s resonating, what you’re trying out, what’s helpful. (Thank you!)  A lot of what I’ve heard from people lately is about “prioritizing.” How do I choose what to do first, how do I feel ok about what’s not getting done while I’m doing something else, how do I not self-sabotage and say I’ll do this but then put it off forever...? If you’re listening real-time, make sure you sign up for the upcoming workshop: the Get Shit Done Decision-Making Workshop happens Aug 10th. Today we’re looking at how to prioritize when you don’t know where to start. I give you a series of high-quality questions to ask to organize your brain chaos, prevent back-n-forthing, and make a decision you trust about what to prioritize! MORE LINKS! The FREE Get Shit Done Decision-Making Workshop happens Aug 10th - grab your seat! Clarity Workshop: Clarify your Vision, Goals & Values (and if goals feel murky right now - this gives you 3 different Goal Setting techniques to work with your brain, where you are today, and get your goals clear, concise & on paper) Ready to talk about working together? Book your free consult to share what you want to work on and find out how Coaching will guarantee growth & change!  Here's the full episode page if you want complete notes 🤓

If the idea that "You don't have to be productive all the time" sounds scary AND wonderful, this episode is for you. Hard-working high-achievers learn the mindset that To work is to succeed & earn value...To rest is to quit, fail and basically be worthless. It's no suprise that, at some point, we get sick of this mindset and realize we'd love to rest AND get stuff done — and stop feeling so crappy about ourselves. This episode gives you 3 things to do to start implementing this new way of being. 3 ways to escape the Productivity Police you've feared all your life but no longer wanna run from! I know you want to get stuff done — I’m with you — but I also know you want to enjoy daily life more and stop feeling like you never do enough.  Deep down, you and I both know you’re doing A LOT — and we also know that beating yourself up is not the winning strategy to get your next goal accomplished. Have fun creating a world without Productivity Police! I guarantee you’ll get more meaningful stuff done, but more importantly, you’ll feel your best doing it. More links! Come to the Get Shit Done Decision-Making Workshop on Aug 10th Want to work together and really get sh** done? Coaching helps you capitalize on your strengths, change habits that get in the way and stay accountable to the goals that matter to you. Book your consultation here to talk about working together.

There's a LOT of potential in the year ahead.  But diving straight into a Goal Game Plan can set you up for burnout & misalignment if you don't take the time to reflect on the year so far! This guided exercise is designed to help you reflect & reset in a structured, intentional, doable way. Download your free REFLECT + RESET GUIDE here (or visit kirstenparker.com/60) Have fun envisioning the year you want — and seeing how it's so possible for you! If you use all the information of where you're coming from and what won't work well to get where you wanna go, you'll make it easy to get there. Enjoy! More links: Download your Mid-Year Reflect + Reset Guide Grab your Free Crash Course on How to Say NO: A quick but in-depth training & downloadable that'll set you up for any situation where you want to say NO and stick to it, guilt-free! Ready to work together to turn your Vision into reality? Book your free hour here.

If you're a hard-working high-achiever who's "a bit too hard on yourself"...you may be talking yourself out of one or more of these 4 things on a daily basis without even knowing it.  Which matters because these 4 things are VITAL to a fulfilling, whole, happy, authentic life.🚨 And we can get in the habit of automatically depriving ourselves of them. This episode walks you through how to spot it if it's happening (it can be SO subtle) — what the ripple effects are (and will be) if you keep on doing it — and simple things to try this week to start changing this habit asap. I challenge you to see what happens when you STOP talking yourselves out of this stuff. I'm guessing if you give it a try, you won't go back!    More links! Grab your Free Crash Course on How to Say NO: A quick but in-depth training & downloadable that'll set you up for any situation where you want to say NO and stick to it, guilt-free! Ready to take charge of your time, productivity, mindset, and how you treat yourself...? Yup, you're ready for Coaching. Set up your consult to see if this is right for you.