Your Next, Best Step

The friend who cracks a joke at the worst possible moment is not missing how serious things are.She is doing one of the healthiest things a person can do under pressure.A short word for anyone who has wondered whether their sense of humor is a flaw. Join me for the full companion episode: "The Last Time You Really Laughed" (Ep 135) on Your Next, Best StepReady for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

When was the last time you laughed so hard you could not catch your breath?If you had to stop and think about it, this episode is for you.Somewhere in a long, full stretch of being the steady one, laughter can slip out of a whole week without you noticing. The funny things never stopped coming. Your face just settled into managing and getting through. This is a gentle look at what happens to laughter when you have been carrying a lot, and why the end of summer is a good moment to welcome it back.Coach Janet J shares what researchers have found about the different ways people use humor, and which kinds build you up and pull you closer to the people you love. You will also hear a true story involving her dog Santino, a big Amazon box, and a living room full of cardboard.What you will take away:Why laughter goes missing when you are coping wellThe kinds of laughter worth protecting, and the ones that cost youHow one real belly laugh touches your mind, body, heart, and faithScripture: Psalm 126:2Research note: Draws on research into humor styles and psychological well-beingReady for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Here is a fall decision worth making out loud: choosing the one goal that has your name on it this season. But does choosing one really mean you're quitting on the others?Join me the full companion episode "The Second January: Why a Fresh Start Feels So Possible in the Fall" where we walk through why the daydream of a fresh start backfires, what the research says is happening in your body, and the one move that turns the fall surge into something real. (Ep 134)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

There is a second January hiding in late August. You feel it when the light shifts and the school supplies show up: a pull to start over, to finally become the version of you who takes the walk and opens her Bible before the day runs away.And the strange part is this: that warm daydream about your fresh fall start can be the very thing that drains the energy to do it.In this episode, here is what you will walk away with:Why autumn hands you a real surge of motivation, and why it fades faster than you would likeThe one common daydream that spends that motivation before you ever use itA way to aim this fall’s energy at a single thing that actually matters to youScripture: James 4:13-15Research note: based on Gabriele Oettingen’s research on positive fantasy and mental contrasting.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

A goal that vague gives your mind nothing to measure, so it can never tell you that you are finished.Here is the fix. Join me for the full episode we will walk through the September Soft Launch and the one question that tells you which preparation to choose."The September Soft Launch" (Ep 133)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

September is not here yet, and your shoulders already know it is coming. The calendar starts filling in. The invitations arrive. And once fall lands, the holidays come at you fast, one right after another, all the way to January.Here is the strange part. Nothing has happened yet. Nobody has asked you for anything. And you are already carrying the whole season.In this episode, you will find out:Why a season you cannot even name yet can sit on you this heavilyWhat decades of goal-setting research reveal about the kind of worry your mind can never put downHow one preparation, chosen on purpose in late August, changes how the whole fall landsScripture: Proverbs 24:27Research note: Drawing on the goal-setting research of Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, published in American Psychologist.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

We tend to treat grace as something handed over after we have earned it. Hebrews 4:16 uses a different tense entirely.Join me for the full episode where we will walk through the “Mercy Margin:” one small practice that changes the order of your morning without arguing with that voice at all.  [Ep 132: “The Voice That Rules Against You Before You Start”]Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You have not failed at anything today. Nothing has gone wrong. And there is still a voice inside you that has already decided you are falling short.That verdict tends to arrive early, before the day has produced any evidence at all. It rules on your morning before the morning happens and on your season before the season starts. Most of us have been carrying its weight for years, believing it was the thing keeping us moving.In this episode, you will find out:Why the harshest voice in your head shows up before anything has actually gone wrongWhat the research suggests that voice is costing you, and why it has never made you more capableWhere mercy fits in your morning, and what changes when it speaks firstScripture: Hebrews 4:16Research note: Fuschia Sirois, Self and Identity, on self-compassion, self-criticism, and stress.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Structure lovers feel calm when the day has edges.Flexibility lovers feel boxed in by them.Most of us have spent years buying for the type we are not. Join me for the latest episode “The Planner You Bought Cannot Save You” (Ep 131)With a special feature resource:Planning Personalities Quiz - Prime Time WomenReady for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Somewhere in your house there is a drawer with a planner in it. The first three weeks are filled in with beautiful handwriting, and then the pages go blank. If you just pictured the exact drawer, this episode is for you.Most of us have decided that the abandoned planner means something about our character. We are undisciplined. We keep starting things we do not finish. The research points somewhere else entirely, and it lets you off a hook you have been hanging on for years.SHOW NOTES LINKHelen’s Resource: https://primetimewomen.co.uk/planning-personalities-quiz/In this episode you will walk away with:Relief from the story that you are the problemA clearer sense of why one system stuck and another slid right off youA way to shop for your actual brain instead of the woman you think you are supposed to beScripture: Psalm 32:8Research note: Lally and colleagues (2010) found the time to reach automaticity varied widely from person to person.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Your mind runs ahead because it thinks it is protecting you. It believes that if it pictures every version of Thursday, Thursday cannot ambush you. Here is what that rehearsal actually costs, and the one move that calls your attention home.Join me for the latest episode where we walk through why the evening sky asks nothing of you at all, and a three-minute practice built on three questions. “One More Sunset Before the Schedule Starts” (Ep 130)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

It is the middle of August, and you are standing in your kitchen at the end of the day. Your body is here. Your mind is already in September. And underneath it, a worry that will not settle:I have not rested enough, and life is already speeding up.This episode is one slow evening before the season leans in.Harvard researchers who pinged more than two thousand people at random moments through their ordinary days found that our minds are somewhere other than the present almost half the time. Where a person's mind had gone predicted how she felt better than what she was actually doing. And the heaviness landed hardest when the mind had run ahead toward something worrying.What you will come away with:An honest look at why the end of summer feels like it is speeding upRelief from the sense that you missed your window to restOne evening practice doable tonightScripture: Psalm 19:1 (NIV)Research note: Killingsworth and Gilbert, Science, 2010 — experience-sampling research on mind-wandering and mood.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

For the woman everybody leans on.A fortress does not get to rest, and you were never meant to be one.Join me for the latest full episode: "The School Supply List for Your Soul" where we'll walk through the supply list for your soul, and the one item that belongs at the top of it.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

There is a supply list for almost everything in August. One for the classroom, one for the dorm, one for the office. There is a list for every person you take care of. And no one handed you one.If you are carrying the thought that you are taking care of everyone else's needs while your own soul is running low, this episode is the list nobody hands you.In this episode you will find:· Why this season equips everyone around you and skips you entirely· What one steady line can do for your body before a hard day even starts· Why a supply that looks too small keeps turning out to be enoughScripture: Psalm 62:1-2 (NIV)Research note: A UCLA team led by David Creswell found that people who named a value that mattered to them before a stressful task showed a lower stress response than those who did not.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Most of us buy things we already own.Five minutes in your own drawers and closets can cross several items off before you spend a dollar.Join me for latest full episode (Ep 128) "Back-to-School (and the Rest of Fall) Without Losing Your Wallet " where we will walk through the one move that lightens the load before you ever reach the register - if you decide to go shopping!Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Fall turns the spending faucet back on — and the list in your head grows faster than anything you actually buy. One folder becomes ninety dollars. Here is why that weight is real, and the one-minute move that lightens it before you reach the register.Back-to-school is the loudest example, and it reaches far past the women with backpacks in the house. The heating bill climbs. The wardrobe stops matching the weather. The programs restart their fees. If you are on Medicare, the fall window opens and the mail starts stacking up. Different list, same season.In this episode, I will walk you through why a season of small, scattered costs lands so much heavier than any single price tag — and it has less to do with your budget than with how much your mind can hold at one time.You will come away with:A clear-eyed sense of why fall feels heavy, without a single ounce of guilt attachedA way to see what you already own before you spend another dollarOne small sort you can do standing in the aisle, no paper and no spreadsheet requiredScripture: Proverbs 27:23 — "Be sure you know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds."Research note: National Retail Federation survey data on back-to-school spending, plus decades of research on how much the mind can hold at once — and why grouping helps.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

That drop you feel on the drive home after a concert or retreat is more normal than you think. A 60-second word on why the comedown happens, and why the mountaintop still counts.Then join me for the latest episode where we walk through a small move I call the One-Song Bridge, so the nearness you feel in the big moments has a way home. “When Worship Feels Easier at a Concert Than in Your Kitchen” (Ep 127)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Ever felt God so close during a worship night you could barely breathe, then stood at your own sink the next morning and felt nothing at all?That gap between big-moment worship and ordinary-day faith is one of the most common things women in this season carry, and it does not mean something is wrong with your faith.In this episode, you will find:Why closeness with God comes easily in some places and goes missing in others, and what is actually behind itWhat one Hebrew word in Psalm 100 reveals about worship and the dishesA simple way to carry the big-room feeling into a regular afternoonScripture: Psalm 100:2Research note: a University of Michigan national poll of adults 50 to 80 on music, mood, and spiritual connection.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Picture the woman you will be one year from today. What does she thank you for? A 60-second reflection on planting one small thing now. Join me for the latest episode on Your Next, Best Step where we walk through another simple reflection you can return to every birthday from here on: “Another Birthday, Another Honest Look” (Ep 126)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Your birthday arrives with a question you did not ask for: by now, I thought I would be… If a birthday has ever left you measuring your life against where you expected to be — or wondering whether this past year counted at all — this episode is a gentler way to look back.We walk through why the same year can leave you feeling behind or feeling at peace, and the one thing that makes the difference.In this episode:Why the usual way we take stock on a birthday leaves us shaky, and what steadies itHow research on self-worth reframes the “am I behind?” questionA way to look back that holds up even when no one is there to celebrate youScripture: Psalm 90:12Research note: Drawn from Neff and Vonk (2009), Journal of Personality, on self-compassion and a steadier sense of self-worth — presented as the researchers reported it.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

That instinct to grab your phone at a beautiful moment might be about something other than the picture.Join me for the latest episode on the podcast where I share one small change that hands the moment back to you, without putting your camera away for good. (“The 400 Photos You Will Never Look At” Ep 125)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You have a phone full of photos from this summer. So why do so many of those moments feel like a blur?If you have ever come home from something wonderful with forty new pictures and almost none of the feeling of having been there, you are in good company. This week we look at what the camera does to a memory, and the one small change that helps you actually keep the good days.In this episode:• Why your memory of a moment can fade even when the photo is sharp• The reason your brain loosens its grip the second you lift your phone• How to come home from the good days feeling like you were really thereScripture: Psalm 118:24 (CSB)Research note: A study on memory and photographs — the photo-taking impairment effect (Henkel, Psychological Science, 2014) — found that snapping a quick photo of something can weaken how well you remember it later.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

In rodeo, the score is split between the rider and the animal he drew, and nobody is graded on looking smooth. A quick reframe for any week you are barely hanging on.Join me for the latest episode on Your Next, Best Step (Ep 124): “From Rodeo Dust to Daily Grace”Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Why do I feel like life keeps throwing me around lately? If the last few weeks have knocked you sideways, this short episode is for you. You do not need to handle a hard season gracefully. You need a faster way back up. In about eight minutes, you will hear: Why bouncing back is the most ordinary, most human thing you will do all weekWhat resilience researchers found about how most of us actually respond after something hardHow a fifteen-second practice helps you dust off and rise faster, with less spiralingScripture: Micah 7:8Research note: Resilience researchers, including George Bonanno and Ann Masten, find that bouncing back after hard events is the common human pattern, built from ordinary, everyday supports.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Your mind is already running previews of the hard parts of fall. Hand some of that screen time to something worth looking forward to: a simple shift backed by how affective forecasting works.Join me for the companion episode where we walk through why your brain runs ahead like this, and one forward-looking kindness you can hand the woman you will be in August. “The Back-to-School Dread That Starts in July” (Ep 123) Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

It is the last day of July, and somewhere in the back of your mind, August has already started making its list. If you are bracing for the fall before it arrives, this episode is for you. In this episode, you will:Understand why back-to-school dread shows up a full month early, and why it feels so convincingSee the gap between the fall you are imagining and the fall you will actually liveLeave with one small, doable way to steady yourself todayScripture: Psalm 94:19 (NIV)Research note: We look at affective forecasting and the impact bias (Wilson and Gilbert) — our tendency to overestimate how hard a future stretch will feel — alongside worry-outcome research on how often specific worries actually come true. An honest caveat about that research is included in the episode.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

 Most of what we call a messy pile is just objects that never got an address. Here is a 10-second test to find the real problem — and one small fix for your week. Join me for the latest episode where we look at the Great Summer Stuff Explosion and the one small spot that can absorb most of it, no marathon decluttering required. “The Great Summer Stuff Explosion” (Ep 122)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

There is a beach towel that has been living on your stair railing since the third week of June. You have walked past it two hundred times. You have not moved it. Welcome to the Great Summer Stuff Explosion.Somewhere around June, the systems that held your home together all year stopped working, because the categories changed. Now there are beach towels, water bottles, sunscreen, sandals, pool bags, and a cooler that never makes it back to the garage, and every one of them is homeless.Here is the relief: the pile on your counter has far less to do with your willpower than you think, and far more to do with how your house is set up right now. In this episode, I unpack what behavior research says about why stuff lands where it lands, the one small spot that absorbs most of the summer mess, and why it works without a single weekend of decluttering.Scripture: 1 Corinthians 14:40Research note: Habit research from Dr. Wendy Wood (University of Southern California) on how friction and environment shape everyday behavior.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

What would you say to your friend calling at the end of a long summer day, exhausted & apologizing for it? Let's ponder a different question worth asking tonight.(Join me for the full episode "Why Am I Tired After Doing Nothing?" where explore why the popular “decision fatigue” story is shakier than you have heard, and what holds up and one doable way to make peace with a tired evening. Ep 121)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You did not do much today. So why are you wiped out by dinnertime?If a slow summer day can still leave you running on empty, you are not imagining it, and the reason is more real than you think. This episode looks at why a day that looks like nothing on paper can drain you completely — the heat, the broken routines, the steady stream of tiny decisions nobody sees — and why none of it means something is wrong with you.In this episode: Why mental tiredness is as real as physical tiredness, even when you barely movedThe honest reason “decision fatigue” gets misunderstood, and what the sturdier science actually saysHow to stop adding self-blame on top of being tiredScripture: Isaiah 40:29Research note: Drawn from work at the Paris Brain Institute on how sustained mental effort changes the brain (Wiehler et al., 2022), shared with its limits noted.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Not the outfit. Colossians 3 describes patience and gentleness as things you put on, like grabbing a sweater on the way out the door. You can choose your clothing on the inside before you walk into a full house. Join me for the latest episode, we walk through a two-line pocket script for stepping away and coming back steadier. “The Family Visit Survival Kit” (Ep 120)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You love them. You would also like ten minutes alone in your own kitchen. Both can be true at the same time, and this episode is your kit for the kind of summer where the house is full of people you adore.Family visit season is here: adult kids home with their laundry, grandkids at full volume, in-laws settled in, or maybe you are the one sleeping in someone else’s guest room. By about day two, your shoulders are somewhere up around your ears and nothing is even wrong. There is a reason for that, and there is a simple way through it.In this episode you will:- Understand why a full house tires you out even when everyone is lovely- See what Colossians 3 says about choosing your patience before the day begins- Learn how one small shift in how you talk to yourself can steady you in a hot momentScripture: Colossians 3:12-13 (NIV)Research note: Self-distancing research from Ethan Kross, Jason Moser, and colleagues on how the words you use with yourself shape your reaction in a stressful moment.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

A gentler way to look at a full summer, in under a minute. A loud calendar is what a life full of people looks like, and it is still editable. Join me for the episode “The Mid-Summer Calendar Creep” where I share a simple way to audit what is already on your calendar and protect the time that actually restores you. (Ep 119)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You meant for this to be a slower summer. Slower mornings, a little white space, maybe a book you would actually finish. Now it is late July, and your calendar looks nothing like that plan — and you do not remember the moment you agreed to all of it.The good news: a full summer is rarely the result of one big decision.It builds gradually, one small yes at a time, until your free hours arrive in pieces too small to rest in. There is a name for that, and once you can see it, you can do something about it.In this episode, you will find:- Why your “slower summer” filled up without a single decision on your part- The research-backed reason scattered free time never feels like rest- How to reclaim your rhythm before August arrives, without a rigid systemScripture: Ephesians 5:15–16 (NIV)Research note: This episode draws on the idea of “time confetti,” coined by author Brigid Schulte and studied by Harvard researcher Ashley Whillans. It is presented as a concept, with no invented statistics.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

That effortless family photo took 47 minutes, three outfit changes, and one bribed teenager. Here is why remembering that sets you free.Join us for the latest episode where we get into the one change to your phone that interrupts the comparison before it starts, and why it works better than willpower ever will. “When Everyone Else’s Summer Looks Better Than Yours”(Ep 118)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You scroll for four minutes during a fine afternoon, and somehow your perfectly good summer starts to look like the saddest one on the block. The family photo where everyone is glowing. The friend who seems to have endless energy. The grown kids who apparently call their mother every day.There is a real reason for that, and it has nothing to do with your life actually being smaller. Something specific happens in your brain when you scroll, and once you see how it works, the whole feeling loses its sting.In this episode, you will discover:• Why your own life reliably looks smaller the second you close the app• The idea a researcher landed on in 1954 that explains the summer scroll exactly• How one of the Ten Commandments put words to this precise ache thousands of years before the first phoneScripture: Exodus 20:17 (NIV)Research note: Festinger’s social comparison theory, plus recent research on upward comparison and mood.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

The disciples were so busy they had not stopped to eat. Jesus answered with an invitation: come away, and rest. If part of you suspects that resting means falling behind, look at who is doing the inviting. Join me for the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step where I share a sixty-to-ninety-second practice - and one easy place to slot it into your day that tells your body it is safe to drop into rest. “The Rest Your Body Cannot Fake” (Ep 117)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You finally sat down to rest, and somehow you stood up just as tired. So you decided that rest does not work for you. There is a reason for that, and it is mechanical: your body has a gear for deep rest that most of us never shift into on purpose. Stopping your hands does not switch it on. This Friday episode of Your Next, Best Step looks at why the rest you grab does not stick, and the one waking gear that does the restoring your day off keeps missing — the kind your body cannot fake. In this episode, you will discover:- Why a day spent “relaxing” can leave you more depleted than a workday- What a Harvard cardiologist learned about the body’s built-in state of deep, waking rest- What the science of waking stillness says about doing nothing on purposeScripture: Mark 6:31Research note: Herbert Benson’s relaxation response, and Dewar and colleagues on wakeful rest (presented with its honest limits).Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Why are we far less patient with people in the middle of their own renovation?Let’s talk about a helpful reframe for the people in your life.Then join me for the latest full episode of Your Next, Best Step where we get into why the messy middle feels the way it does, and the one small step that gives you somewhere steady to stand right now. Ep 116: “Living in the Middle of the Mess”Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Your kitchen is behind plastic sheeting, the coffee pot has relocated to the living room, and there is a refrigerator in your entryway. Or maybe the mess is not drywall at all. Maybe it is a season where everything feels half-finished and nothing feels settled.This episode is about finding your footing when you are living in the middle of the mess. You will learn:Why an unfinished, disordered space wears on your body more than a single hard day doesWhat a sense of control actually does for your stress, even when your circumstances do not changeHow to feel steady in the in-between, before the beautiful after arrivesScripture: Psalm 138:8Research note: Classic and current research on perceived control and stress (Langer & Rodin; Lachman & Weaver).Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

For most of the last century, families saved a few dollars a week so December was paid for before it arrived. Then the rules of the game changed. Here is what we traded - and how to take back the old, calmer rhythm.Join me for the latest episode where I share where this idea came from and the small, almost painless system that makes it work - and the one word that turns ordinary money into protected money. Ep 115: “Christmas in July: The Five-Dollar Envelope”Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

It is July. It is warm.And the smartest thing you can do for next December is happening right now.If you have ever started a new year with that sinking feeling - decorations coming down, the first credit card statement arriving, your stomach dropping - this episode is your way out of that loop. With five full months of runway, you can make sure next January feels completely different.In this episode you will discover:Why next December does not have to come with dread or a lingering billHow a hundred-year-old idea protected millions of families from holiday debtWhat your brain naturally does with money that has a name and a purposeScripture: Luke 14:28 (NIV) - counting the cost before you build.Research note: We look at behavioral economist Richard Thaler's work on how our minds sort money, and the long-forgotten Christmas club accounts that helped families arrive at the holidays owing nothing.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Does the idea of sitting down before the work is finished give you a little twist of guilt? Here’s a quick thought on how to refuel & rest before guilt leads the charge.Then join me for the latest episode on Your Next, Best Step where we walk through why joy was given as strength for the road ahead. (Ep 114: The Joy You Keep Postponing)Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

There is a chair on your porch that has been waiting for you all summer. You keep meaning to sit in it - right after the dishes, right after one more email. And somehow the season you most wanted to enjoy is slipping by while you wait to earn the rest.If you keep postponing joy until the work is finally finished, this gentle, summery episode is for you. The work is never all the way done, and the joy was never meant to wait that long.In this episode, you will learn:- Why “I will relax once it is finished” keeps backfiring- What an ancient celebration in the book of Nehemiah reveals about joy and strength- How one small delight today can steady you for everything still on your plateScripture: Nehemiah 8:10 (NIV)Research note: Drawn from Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build research on positive emotions, and the well-supported principle that action tends to come before the feeling.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Let me tell you how you can make happy moments last longer... it costs you nothing.Join me for the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step where I share a way to be fully present with the people who matter most, and the one sentence that turns an ordinary moment into one you both get to keep. (Ep 113: “Celebrate Them While You Can”Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

Your dad’s birthday. An ordinary Tuesday dinner. The friend on the other end of the phone. We almost never miss the big days, and somehow the regular ones, the ones that make up most of our life with the people we love, slip right past us while we are looking the other way.This week’s episode is a celebration: an invitation to savor the people still at your table this summer, before the season scatters everyone again.Inside this episode:• Why the people closest to you are the easiest ones to stop fully seeing, and what shifts the moment you notice it• How something you say out loud can stretch a good moment and make it last for both of you• Why this particular summer is the right time to slow down and pay attentionScripture: Psalm 92:14Research note: Drawing on savoring research (Bryant and Veroff) and studies on sharing positive moments with the people we love (Gable and colleagues).Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

The party starts for everyone else the moment they walk in the door.For you, it started days ago. So what happens if you’re the one who is ALWAYS hosting?Join me for more in the latest episode where we get into the research that explains why the planning and the cleanup always seem to land on you, and the small change that makes the next gathering lighter. Ep 112: "Red, White, and Worn Out"Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

You love the cookout. You really do. So why are you the one stacking plates while everyone else sinks into a lawn chair?If the planning and the cleanup always seem to land on you, this episode is for you.In Episode 112, you'll learn:See the hidden shape of hosting work — the part that starts days before and ends long after the last guest leaves Meet the one woman in Scripture who would completely understand your kitchen Walk away with a simple three-part adjustment for the next gathering, without giving up the parts you loveScripture: Luke 10:38–42 (NIV)Research note: Allison Daminger's research on the cognitive labor of running a household (American Sociological Review).Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

At the next gathering, notice the audience in the back of your mind keeping score. Here is what the research says about that feeling, and why the real room is kinder than the one in your head. Join us for the latest episode “The Freedom You Actually Need This Summer’ (Ep 111) where I share the one word in Galatians 5:1 that reframes the whole weekend, and the single thing worth setting down before Saturday.Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.

This weekend the whole country celebrates freedom, and a lot of us will spend it proving, pleasing, and performing through a backyard full of people, then wonder why a holiday about freedom leaves us feeling everything except free. If a day off has ever failed to feel like one, this episode is for you.You will understand why an open calendar and a long weekend do not deliver the freedom you are hoping for. You will see the named pattern underneath the urge to prove and please, and why it is more common than you might think. And you will leave with one obligation you can set down before the cookout even starts.Scripture: Galatians 5:1 (NIV)Research note: On socially prescribed perfectionism, the perception that the people around us expect us to be perfect (Hewitt and Flett, 1991), a pressure researchers have tracked rising over recent decades (Curran and Hill, 2019).Ready for your next step?FREE 5-Minute Daily Reset (instant download):YourNextBestStep.com Weekly encouragement + practical tips:YouTube @CoachJanetJ Instagram: @janetjjaecksIf this episode resonated with you, please follow/subscribe and share with a friend who needs their next step.  One small step. One day at a time.