Tag: personal growth

Experiences, Getting Started, Goals

Transform Your Resolutions with New Experiences

Corie Muldoon

Tired of breaking New Year’s resolutions by February? Switch from “lose 20 pounds” to “try 6 new hiking trails.” This simple shift changes everything.

Traditional resolutions focus on what you want to change about yourself.

Experience-based goals focus on what you want to explore in life.

Why experience goals work better:

  • They’re memorable – You’ll remember the weekend you tried rock climbing, not the day you ate 1,500 calories
  • Built-in accountability – Experiences require planning and commitment, making them harder to skip
  • Naturally builds habits – Regular adventures create momentum for other healthy changes

Instead of “exercise more,” plan to bike or kayak once a month.

Instead of “eat healthier,” commit to trying a new farmers market recipe bi-weekly.

Instead of “be more adventurous,” plan a camping trip once a quarter.

The habits follow the experiences, not the other way around.

Try this today: Write down 6 experiences you want to have in 2026 instead of traditional resolutions. Make them specific, scheduled, and exciting

Share your thoughts below!

Learn more about the Kevin’s Rule approach here

Lifestyle, Productivity, Technology

Capture Your Aha Moments: The Dual Notebook System

Corie Muldoon

Your best insights are worthless if you forget them by Tuesday.

Keep a paper AND digital notebook, and watch how quickly your life improves.

As a student of life, I’ve learned that brilliant ideas and necessary fixes hit at random moments. The dual notebook system ensures nothing gets lost.

Your Simple Setup:

  • Paper notebook: Keep one everywhere—bedside, gym bag, kitchen counter. Perfect for quick captures when inspiration strikes. Even a scrape of paper counts
  • Digital notes app: Use your phone’s notes app or Google Keep to get more organized, with searchable pinning options it’s easy to review ideas
  • Weekly reflection sheet: Every Sunday, review both notebooks and transfer action items to your written plans and calendar

Why This Works: Paper captures the raw moment without tech friction. Digital organizes and makes it searchable. The weekly review transforms scattered thoughts into actual change.

You’ll stop repeating the same mistakes. You’ll actually implement that workout tweak or nutrition adjustment you thought of mid-run. You become someone who learns and evolves, quickly.

Try this today: Buy a small notebook you love and write down one thing you’ve been meaning to fix about your routine.

Share your thoughts below!

Healthy Habits, Mindfulness, Mindset

How to Forgive and Let Go for Emotional Healing

Corie Muldoon

With the Scorpio New Moon here (deep, intense, and super transformative), I challenged myself to sit down and think deeper.

What am I holding to? What am I not forgiving myself or others for? Do negative thoughts keeping popping up around certain situations? I may need to add it to my list of Forgive and Let Go.

After sitting down for a few minutes, I wrote out 10 situations involving multiple people that still bother me. I was blown away at how much I’ve been holding onto, not fully letting go of. They came quick to mind once I let it all come up without judging right or wrong.

How am I gonna juggle all these situations emotionally moving forward? I know this pain is real, there’s no denying – but in order to heal, I know I have to truly FORGIVE AND LET GO. BUT HOW?! Here are my notes below:

3 Steps to Forgive and Let Go

1. Acknowledge the hurt and emotions 

  • Recognize the pain: Acknowledge the emotional pain caused by the offense and how it has affected you.
  • Name your feelings: Recognize and allow yourself to feel emotions like anger, sadness, betrayal, or resentment without judgment. Suppressing them won’t make them disappear.
  • Process your feelings: Share your feelings by journaling, talking to a trusted friend or counselor, or taking a similar action, like writing a letter you don’t send. 

2. Understand and gain perspective

  • Consider the context: Reflect on the surrounding circumstances to better understand what happened.
  • Humanize the other person: Try to understand the other person’s motives or circumstances without excusing their behavior. Empathy for their frailties as a human being can make it easier to show compassion.
  • Let go of unrealistic expectations: Release the belief that things should have been different. Expect reality to be as it is, which can reduce resentment. 

3. Make a conscious choice to forgive

  • Decide to forgive: Make a deliberate choice to forgive, understanding that it is for your own emotional and mental health.
  • Release resentment: Practice letting go of negative feelings and thoughts and replace them with healthier coping mechanisms.
  • Commit to it: Forgiveness is an ongoing process. Recommit to letting go on days when feelings resurface. Focus on today and the future instead of dwelling on the past.

Personal growth is all about getting a little bit better, stronger, healthier, more open-minded each day. Bringing awareness to the things that have been pulling me down is liberating. I’ll be working on them on-goingly and will report back here about how my overall well-being and peace of mind have been affected.

Forgive and let go my friends!

“Don’t sweat the small stuff, and it’s all small stuff.” – Richard Carlson

Remember: techniques like journaling, talking to a trusted friend or counselor, or setting boundaries can help majorly with forgiving and letting go.

I also found that genuine prayer helps me heal. I pray for myself and those around me. The more I pray, the more I forgive, let go, and ultimately heal. I can feel the transformation within, and can feel the energy around me and those I pray for shift. Deep calmness. Almost like an emotional and spiritual reset.

It’s my responsibility to tend my garden, to pull weeds and water flowers. Using this blog as a tool to work on emotional pain and forgiveness.

Progress over perfection.

x Cor

> see free mental health resources here <

Getting Started, Healthy Habits, Mental Health

Express Feelings Positively with the ‘I Feel’ Framework

Corie Muldoon

Here are my notes for communicating feelings and needs to others in a productive, positive way:

Instead of bottling up emotions or exploding in frustration, let’s work on expressing our thoughts, feelings, and needs in a productive and positive way. This is one of my biggest weaknesses (continuing and never-ending improvement). It’s been fun learning new ways to process emotions and express myself.

The “I Feel” Framework helps you communicate what’s really going on without any blame or judgment.

Why it works: When you start with “I feel” instead of “You always” or “You never,” you take ownership of your emotions while inviting understanding instead of defensiveness. It transforms conflicts into conversations.

The “I Feel” Framework:

1. Name it:“I feel [frustrated/overwhelmed/hurt]…”

2. Link it: “…when [specific situation happens]…”

3. Need it: “…because I need [respect/support/help].”

4. Ask for it: “Would you be willing to [specific action]?”

Example: Instead of “You never help around here” … try: “I feel overwhelmed when the chores pile up because I need some team work”. Would you be willing to handle dishes after dinner?”

This approach validates your feelings, explains the impact, and offers a clear path forward. No one gets defensive, everyone gets heard.

Try this today: Next time you feel frustrated, pause and run through the “I Feel” Framework before speaking. Notice how the conversation shifts.

Share your thoughts below!

Healthy Habits, Mental Health

Own Your Emotions: The Daily Check-In That Changes Everything

Corie Muldoon

The Daily Check-In: A simple 5-minute emotional check-in that helps you express feelings honestly without blaming others or spiraling into self-criticism.

Most of us either bottle up emotions or let them explode… both hurt our relationships and well-being.

The middle ground is taking ownership of your feelings while staying accountable, without dragging yourself or others down.

Here’s how to make it an everyday practice:

1. Set a daily alarm for your check-in – Morning coffee or lunch break works great

2. Ask yourself: “What am I feeling right now?” – Happy, sad, angry? Use the Feelings Chart to get more specific (see end of post)

3. Verbalize your emotions using “I feel” statements instead of “you made me feel” – owning emotions is about your experience, not assigning fault

4. Acknowledge your role without harsh self-judgment – “I could have handled that better” is way better than “I’m such a mess”

This practice builds emotional awareness and keeps small frustrations from becoming big explosions. You’ll communicate more clearly, relationships improve, and that constant mental chatter will quiet down.

Try this today: Set a daily alarm for your check-in. Tomorrow when it goes off, pause for just 3 minutes and run through questions 2-4: what are you feeling, create “I feel” statement, and acknowledge your role in any conflicts. Notice what comes up… no judgment, just awareness.

Share your thoughts below!

The Feelings Chart

Relationships

10 Positive Thoughts for Building Confidence in Your Relationship

Corie Muldoon

A healthy relationship starts with positive thoughts.

Bring awareness to your mind’s chatter.

Are your thoughts positive or negative? Are they helping or hurting you?

Weeds vs Good Seeds

We are the farmer, and our mind is the land.

It’s our daily duty to:

  1. Pull weeds (notice negative thoughts, work through them, let go)
  2. Plant good seeds (think positive thoughts)
  3. Water seeds daily (repeat positive thoughts with emotion)

Good Seeds for Confidence

Here are some positive thoughts to help you grow confidence, certainty, and security in your relationship. Repeat them daily with full faith.

1. “I trust myself and my partner.”

2. “Our relationship is strong and resilient.”

3. “I am worthy of love and respect.”

4. “We communicate openly and honestly.”

5. “I choose to focus on the moment and let go of worries about the past or future.”

6. “Our bond grows stronger with each passing day.”

7. “I am secure in our love and commitment to each other.”

8. “We navigate challenges together, as a team.”

9. “I celebrate our unique connection and relationship.”

10. “I am enough, and our relationship is enough.”

By adopting these mantras, you’ll cultivate a more confident and secure mindset, allowing you to nurture a healthier, happier relationship.