Your Next, Best Step

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.

Your phone is not the enemy of your summer — it is just very good at reaching you first.One small way to give the moment in front of you a fair shot. Join me for the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step: “A Little More Wonder, a Little Less Wi-Fi” where we walk through one small daily practice that helps you notice more and scroll less, without adding one more thing to your to-do list.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 will pass a hundred small wonders today, give or take. Most of them get intercepted somewhere between your eyes and your attention, usually by a screen about the size of your hand. This summer can be different.In this episode of Your Next, Best Step, you will discover why the ordinary moments of summer hold more than you think, how a fifteen-minute practice studied in people your age changed their everyday mood and worry, and a gentle way to meet God in the parts of your day you have been walking right past.Scripture: Psalm 8:3-4 (NIV)Research note: References the “awe walk” research from Virginia Sturm, Dacher Keltner, and colleagues, published in the journal Emotion (2020).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 years, I read 1 Thessalonians 5:17 that says, “pray continually” and felt slightly defeated by it. Continually? How? I cannot even continually remember where I put my keys.Here is what I have come to think it means.Join me for the newest episode on Your Next, Best Step (Ep 109): “Popcorn Prayers: When You Are Too Tired for a Quiet Time” where we walk through a simple 3-step popcorn prayer that fits inside the busiest moments of your day.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.

Have you ever been so tired that even your quiet time felt loud?You love God. You want to pray. And then real life walks in wearing muddy shoes — and your “quiet time” becomes “Lord, help me not lose my mind” whispered in front of the fridge.Today, Coach Janet J names something almost too simple: that ten-second prayer counts.In this episode you will learn:Why short, scattered prayers may be the most honest ones you prayWhat Nehemiah 2:4 reveals about praying under real-time pressureHow brief intentional pauses interact with both your spirit and your nervous systemScripture: Nehemiah 2:4 (NIV)Research note: Micro-break research (Zacher et al., 2014; Albulescu et al., 2022) suggests brief intentional pauses can reduce fatigue and restore a sense of energy.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 if the number on your banking app has nothing to do with your worth?This short gives you a 60-second mental shift you can run anywhere. No spreadsheet. No budget app. Just three words on a small piece of paper, placed somewhere only you will see.Save this one for the next time you open the app and feel that little tug of “should have known better.”Ready for the full episode? It is called The Christmas Bill That Is Still Here in June and it is for the woman who has been making payments since the new year and is ready for a little exhale around money this summer.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 Christmas bill is still here. And it is June.If you have been making payments since the new year and the balance is moving slower than you hoped, you are in good company. Researchers describe what you are feeling as a loop, and the way out has almost nothing to do with the numbers.This episode is for the woman who thought this would be gone by now. The woman who feels a little tug of “should have known better” every time she taps the banking app. We are looking at why a lingering bill feels heavier than the number on the screen, what the research actually says about financial stress and mental well-being, and one small thing you can do this week without spreadsheets, math, or guilt.Here is what you will walk away with:a clear way to see what the bill is and is not, a fresh handle on the difference between responsibility and shame, and a small first step that meets you exactly where you are.SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Proverbs 24:16.Research note: Financial Health Network on the connection between financial stress and mental well-being.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.

If you are caring for someone whose mind is slipping away from you, here is a gift that often goes undiscussed.To dive deeper, check out Episode 107 where Coach Janet will walk you through a Scripture that holds steady when memory does not and two researched frameworks that name what you are living through."Loving Someone Who Does Not Remember You"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.

If you are loving someone whose mind is slipping away from you — a parent with dementia, a husband with Alzheimer's, a sibling or friend whose memory keeps shrinking — the grief you carry has a name. Most people will never name it for you. So we are doing it here.In this episode, I sit with one of the most under-discussed experiences in the sandwich generation: caregiver grief. The kind that begins long before a funeral. The kind that comes with no casserole and no recognized mourning period.By the end of this conversation, you will:•  Recognize the specific kind of grief you have been carrying — and why it has felt so heavy and so invisible•  Understand what one researcher means when she says closure is a myth, and why that reframe matters for women in long-haul caregiving•  Walk away with two small, doable steps to help you steady yourself this weekSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)Research note: This episode references the work of Pauline Boss on ambiguous loss, the program of research on anticipatory grief in dementia caregivers led by Franziska Meichsner and Gabriele Wilz, and demographic data from the Alzheimer's Association 2024 and 2026 Facts and Figures reports.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.

Researchers studying what they call spiritual dryness have found something worth knowing, so if God feels silent right now, let me share a sentence to help you carry it if you're in that season.Then join me for the latest YNBS episode (106) where we walk through a small, repeatable practice that may bring you closer to God than another devotional plan ever could."Has God Forgotten Me? When Faith Feels Loud and God Feels Silent"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 question many faithful women carry that they will not say out loud. It surfaces at two in the morning, in the carpool line, in the middle of the worship song everyone else seems to feel.Has God forgotten me?If you are still praying, still serving, still showing up — and God feels silent anyway — this episode is for you.Here is what you will walk away with:Why God's silence often feels like rejection — even when nothing has actually changed between you and God.What researchers studying spiritual dryness have learned about how common this is among the most devoted believers.How dryness shows up in your body, your mind, and your relationships — and why that matters.SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Psalm 13:1–2 (NIV)Research note: Spiritual dryness research from Büssing and colleagues at Witten/Herdecke University, and attachment to God research from Beck and McDonald.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 sun may stay up late. That does not mean you have to.”Join me for a short prayer to make the longest day a little better as we lean into the reminder that that God made the day, the night, summer, winter, and the limits inside all of it.Feel free to check out the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step (105) for a gentle reminder for the woman who is running on backup battery this summer - "The Longest Day of the Year and the Shortest Fuse"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 longest day of the year sounds beautiful. So why are you running short on patience by 6:12 in the evening?If summer feels less like a season of joy and more like a season of slow depletion, you are in the right place. The science says it is not your character. It is heat, evening light, and modest sleep loss all chipping away at your emotional bandwidth at the same time.In this episode, I will walk you through what is actually happening in your body around the summer solstice, why your short fuse has a physiological explanation, and one small thing you can do before the sun sets tonight to help restore your energy.Here is what you will take away:Why “more daylight” often costs you more than it gives backHow heat and modest sleep loss shrink your patience without you realizing A grounded, faith-rooted way to receive this season instead of pushing through itSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Psalm 74:16–17 (NIV)Research note: Noelke and colleagues, 2016, Environmental Research, on ambient temperature and emotional well-being.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.

Holidays can be layered. Most of us carry gratitude and grief in the same family tree, and the night before can leave a heart feeling restless.Here is a small practice you can use tonight. I call it The Naming Practice. Three steps, about sixty seconds. Name the gift. Name the gap. Receive. It is a quiet way to hand the day to God before you sleep.Full (Ep 104) of Your Next, Best Step is live now, with three truths for whatever your father story isReady 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.

Father's Day is coming, and the truth is, your father story may be more layered than a greeting card allows.Maybe your dad is wonderful and you cannot wait to call him. Maybe he is gone, and June makes the missing harder to ignore. Maybe your stepfather raised you, your grandfather was your safe place, or a man who was never family at all fathered you when no one else did. Maybe your story holds gratitude and grief in the same family tree.Whatever your father story is, this episode makes room for it.Here is what you'll walk away with:Why Father's Day does not get the same room to be complicated that Mother's Day does, and why that leaves so many women feeling unseen.What the research says about father figures, including grandfathers and stepfathers, and why the showing up matters more than the title.How a father story can shape the way you experience God as Father, and what helps when that word feels heavy.SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Psalm 68:5 and Psalm 27:10 (WEB)Research note: Father involvement research from Flouri and Buchanan, grandparent research from Stephenson and Carstensen at Stanford, stepfather research from Jensen and colleagues, and attachment to God research from Limke and Mayfield.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.

When was the last time you were actually in the picture?Here's a quick reflection to help you jump in the next time someone says "Hey, get in here with us!"Then join me for the full episode - "The Summer Your Body Dreads" (Ep 103) - to dig deeper on why summer turns up the volume on body image, and one small shift you can make tomorrow morning before you even get dressed - no pep talks, no diet talk, no forced confidence.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.

Summer sounds adorable in theory. Sandals, sunshine, long porch evenings. And then your actual body has to participate — sleeveless tops, shorts, family photos — and the dread starts climbing.If that feeling has shown up the way the temperature has, you are in good company. Researchers actually study this, and there is a kinder way through it than gritting your teeth until September.In this episode, I will walk you through what is going on, why summer hits body image harder, and one small shift you can make tomorrow morning before you get dressed.Here is what you will walk away with:Why your dread climbs in June and softens in OctoberThe difference between dressing for comfort and disappearing inside your clothesWhy forcing yourself to feel confident usually backfiresSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT:  "You are altogether beautiful, my darling; there is no flaw in you." Song of Solomon 4:7Research note: This episode references the work of Dr. Scott Griffiths and colleagues on seasonal body image, plus Dr. Kristin Neff and Dr. Ellen Albertson on self-compassion and body dissatisfaction.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 summers we remember most from childhood almost never cost anything. A sprinkler. A porch. Reading in front of a fan. Nobody booked those memories. They happened because someone decided that simple was enough.Join for me for the full episode (#102): The Vacation You Cannot Afford And the One You CanReady 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.

By mid-June, your social media feed has become a slideshow of everyone else's vacations. Italy. Cruises. Beach houses. Matching linen outfits in front of mountains. Meanwhile, you are looking at the grocery total and the gas prices, wondering if your summer is somehow falling short.Here is the thing. The vacation you cannot afford is rarely the trip itself. It is something underneath the trip - and once you can name it, the pressure starts to lift.In this episode, we walk through what is actually driving the urge to overspend this summer, how to tell the difference between a vacation that costs your peace and one that fits your life, and a simple way to give your heart what it is really asking for. What you will hear in today's episode:•  Why comparison hits harder in summer than almost any other season•  How to spot the trip that will cost you more than money•  What the summers your heart actually remembers have in commonSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Hebrews 13:5Research note: This episode references social comparison research from Ling and colleagues (Frontiers in Psychology, 2023) and the experiential spending research from Van Boven and Gilovich (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003).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 four stages anger becomes when we will not deal with it ---- and what Ephesians 4 actually invites us to do instead.Join us for a full episode where we'll walk you through what your body is doing while you keep the peace, two common disguises resentment hides behind, the question that may tell you everything you need to know, and a three-step practice you can use tonight. "The Resentment You Are Calling Patience" (Ep 101)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.

Have you ever finished a conversation, smiled, said something gracious, and then forty minutes later replayed every word and realized you had been keeping a very detailed mental ledger? You may be calling that patience. It might be something else.This episode is for the woman who prides herself on being "the patient one" — and is starting to wonder what it is actually costing her. We are looking at the difference between patience and silence, what happens to your body and your closest relationships when anger gets dressed up as a virtue, and a simple evening practice rooted in Ephesians that can change how you carry the day. Here is what you will walk away with:• A clear-eyed way to tell whether you are actually patient or holding it in at your own expense.• An honest look at what suppressed anger does to your body, your sleep, and your closest relationships.• A sixty-second evening practice you can use tonight, before your head hits the pillow.SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Ephesians 4:26–27 (NIV)Research note: This episode draws on Gross and Levenson's foundational work on emotional suppression, more recent research on anger and cardiovascular health (Shimbo et al., 2024, Journal of the American Heart Association), and Dr. John Gottman's relationship research on contempt.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.

If you are over forty-five and a question keeps surfacing — What if this is all there is? — researchers have a name for what you are experiencing & what the data says about the women who keep walking through it.Join us for the full conversation in EPISODE 100 of Your Next, Best Step!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 question that wakes you up at two in the morning. The one you have never said out loud: What if this is all there is?It is the secret weight underneath every other midlife question. Underneath the wondering about your body, your purpose, your marriage, your faith. And on the one hundredth episode of Your Next, Best Step, we are going to sit with it together — and walk you through the answer one hundred episodes have taught me.In this episode, I will walk you through:The two-in-the-morning question almost every woman over forty-five carries, and why it is more common than anybody talks aboutWhat Scripture says when you ask the question — and what the longitudinal happiness research has been finding for thirty years that almost nobody mentions in churchThe one small shift that pulls you out of "what I missed" and toward "what God is doing now"SCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)Research note: The U-curve of well-being across the lifespan, drawing on more than thirty years of research from Dartmouth economist David Blanchflower and recent qualifications from the 2025 PLOS One literature.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.

Forgetting a word mid-sentence can feel terrifying, but the National Institute on Aging confirms that occasional brain glitches are a completely normal part of aging. Don't panic over a single forgotten word - instead, focus on long-term patterns and talk to your doctor only if it starts disrupting your daily life. Join for the full episode (099) “When You Google “Early Signs of Dementia” at 2 AM” of Your Next, Best Step where Coach Janet J walks you through the question to ask in place of “am I getting dementia” and one starter practice to do three times this week. 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.

Have you ever Googled early signs of dementia at 2 AM after forgetting a word, walking into a room with no idea why, or losing your keys while holding your keys? You are not alone, and what is happening may not be what you fear most.June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, and this fear is in the air for a lot of women right now - especially the woman noticing her own memory slipping in ways she did not expect.In Episode 099, Coach Janet J walks you through:How to tell the difference between memory slips that are common with age and patterns worth bringing to a doctorWhy some of what feels like cognitive decline may be chronic stress wearing a costumeHow to move from helpless fear to one small, doable step that cares for the brain you haveSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV)Research note: Framing draws on the National Institute on Aging’s guidance on normal aging versus dementia, the 2024 Lancet Commission update on modifiable dementia risk factors, and Lupien et al. (2009) on chronic stress and the hippocampus.Educational content only. Not medical advice. If you notice new, worsening, or daily-life-disrupting memory changes, please talk with a qualified healthcare professional.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 goals from January were just a sincere guess based on a version of you who hadn’t lived the last six months yet. Cut yourself some slack, thank the past version of you for trying, and give yourself permission to update the plan for who you are today. Join us for Your Next, Best Step’s episode “The Six-Month Check-In You Actually Need” where you can learn what goal-adjustment research says about releasing what no longer and walk away with one clear compass for the second half of your year (Episode 098)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.

Six months in. Half the year is behind you, and the goals you wrote down in January are looking different from where you are sitting now. Some still fit. Some have shifted. And some, when you look at them today, might feel like they belong to a different woman entirely. This episode is your compassionate mid-year check-in.Most women set intentions in January and reach June with a low-grade guilt about everything they did not do. There is a different way to look at the year so far — one that uses the six months you have actually lived as the wisdom you bring forward.In this episode you will:See the difference between adding (what we do in January) and editing (what June is for)Learn what goal-adjustment research says about releasing what no longer fits — and why this is one of the wisest moves you can make for your well-beingWalk away with one clear compass for the second half of your yearSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: “There is a time for everything... a time to keep and a time to throw away.”Ecclesiastes 3:1, 6 (NIV)Research note: References goal-adjustment research from Wrosch and colleagues (Concordia University, 2003) and the Barlow et al. meta-analysis (2020) on goal disengagement, reengagement, and well-being.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 notice how a quiet weekend can feel peaceful one week, but incredibly lonely the next? From the outside, solitude and loneliness look identical.What separates them is a single concept from psychology research: agency.Join us for the full conversation on the latest episode of Your Next, Best Step:"What to Do When Summer Feels Lonely" (Ep 097)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.

Summer is supposed to be the easy season. Long days. Cookouts. Vacation photos. And here you are, on a Monday in June, and the house feels emptier than it does in February.If you are a solo woman, a widow, an empty nester, or simply someone whose friends are traveling with their families this summer, you already know that the thinner calendar stings in a way other seasons do not. Culture says June is social. Your week says otherwise. That mismatch is exhausting.In this episode, we walk through the surprising difference between solitude and loneliness - and the one small thing that shifts how a summer afternoon feels, whether anyone else is in the room or not. What you'll walk away with:— A fresh way to hear Isaiah 41:10 when the house is still— The psychology research that reframes time alone— One doable step to claim summer on your own termsSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT:  "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)Research note: This episode references Long and Averill's foundational work on the distinction between solitude and loneliness, published in the Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour (2003), along with the 2023 U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory on loneliness.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 body is in bed. Your brain is at a desk.The Greek word for "sound mind" in 2 Timothy 1:7 literally means a mind made whole - integrated, present. A 2 a.m. mind running calculations God did not assign is a fragmented mind.Join us for the full episode: "The Anxiety You Manage So Well That Nobody Notices" (Ep 096)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 are the one with the backup plan, the extra charger, and every appointment memorized. Everyone calls you organized. Reliable. The one who holds it all together.What if the thing driving all of that preparation is not personality - it is anxiety?High-functioning anxiety is invisible because it looks like competence. In this episode, I walk you through what this pattern actually is, what it costs your body over time, and how one small shift in awareness can begin to change the way you experience your own mind.In this episode, you'll discover:• Why anxiety that "works" still has a price your body is paying• The difference between productive planning and a nervous system stuck on high alert• What a single Greek word in 2 Timothy reveals about the mind God designed you to haveSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV)Research note: Allostatic load research (McEwen); high-functioning anxiety presentations (Pandya 2023, Hubbard 2023); gender and anxiety prevalence data (McLean et al., CDC)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 notice how 9 compliments disappear the second you get 1 piece of criticism? 🤯Tonight, your brain is going to want to replay the one comment that stung today. Don't beat yourself up for it - that is just your "negativity bias" at work.In fact, researchers have found that our brains process negative information with three times the weight of positive information. It’s an ancient survival system designed to keep you safe from danger, but it’s still running when you're just trying to survive an offhand comment from a coworker.The good news? You aren't stuck with this wiring. You can actually change the ratio.Join me for the full conversation in Episode 095: "Your Brain Has a Negativity Bias, But Gratitude Rewires the Scanner"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 could get nine compliments and one piece of criticism today, and tonight, your brain will replay the criticism. Your brain was built to do exactly that — and it is costing you more than you realize.If you are a Christian woman in midlife who feels like the hard stuff sticks while the good stuff blurs into the background, this episode names why — and what changes it.Researchers have measured something they call the negativity bias - your brain weighs negative information more heavily than positive information. That bias kept your ancestors alive. In your life right now, it shapes what your days actually feel like, even when plenty of good is happening.In this episode, we will walk through:Why your brain remembers the sting and forgets the kindness (and why that is biology, not a character flaw)What neuroimaging research has uncovered about a simple practice that actually changes how the brain processes your daily lifeThe one-word shift in a familiar verse that changes everything about gratitude - and removes the guilt that often comes with itSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NIV)Research note: Draws on Baumeister and colleagues’ landmark negativity bias research, plus gratitude neuroimaging studies by Fox et al. and Kini et al.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 went to make a quick phone call, only to wake up 20 minutes later three videos deep into a social media rabbit hole? Your brain did that on purpose.But I do have a question you can ask yourself the next time you catch yourself avoiding something.Tune in for the full episode (094) where Coach Janet J busts the myth that procrastination is a discipline problem: "The Procrastination Loop You’ve Never Questioned"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 task you have been avoiding for three weeks?You have been calling yourself lazy.The research says you are reading the situation wrong.Procrastination is not a discipline problem. It is an emotion regulation problem. The thing you are avoiding is not the task itself. It is the feeling the task brings up. Boredom. Inadequacy. Resentment. Fear that you will get it wrong. Your brain steers you toward something easier, and the task sits on your list while you wonder what is wrong with you.In this episode, we walk through what neuroscience has discovered about why you cannot start, the one question that changes the entire conversation, and a simple two-minute move that gives your brain new evidence.You'll leave with:- A reframe that ends the lazy/undisciplined story you have been telling yourself- The specific question to ask before you label yourself again- A research-backed micro-move that breaks the loop without willpowerSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: Proverbs 13:4 (NIV)Research note: This episode references the work of Dr. Timothy Pychyl at Carleton University, along with neuroimaging research on emotion regulation and a randomized controlled trial published in Frontiers in Psychology.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 wave of sadness at the barbecue?Researchers have a name for it.And it means your brain is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. If Memorial Day means more to you than the unofficial start of summer, the latest full episode (093) is for you: "The Grief That Shows Up at Barbecues: Memorial Day and the Losses No One Sees"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.

Memorial Day weekend is coming. And for some women, the hardest part of the long weekend is carrying the name of someone who will not be at the barbecue, the parade, or the family reunion.If Memorial Day means more to you than the unofficial start of summer, this episode is yours.In this episode, we walk through what modern grief research calls "continuing bonds" - and why the healthiest response to loss is the opposite of "just move on."You will walk away with:A deeper understanding of why grief intensifies on holidays — and why that wave of sadness at the picnic table is a normal, healthy responseThe research-backed reason why talking about the person you lost is one of the best things you can do for your own wellbeingA simple way to honor someone this Memorial Day weekend that costs nothing and takes less than a minuteSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: "Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." John 15:13 (NIV)Research note: This episode references continuing bonds theory (Klass, Silverman & Nickman, 1996), Worden's four tasks of mourning, and the National Cancer Institute's bereavement research on grief bursts during holidays.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.

Have you noticed your bedtime creeping later?The extended daylight is delaying your melatonin - and a 2024 study found that irregular sleep timing is linked to significantly higher mortality risk.One small correction can make a real difference. Join us for the latest full episode exploring why "Sleep Is Not a Luxury: Why Your Body Needs a Bedtime (Yes, Even Yours)" (Ep 092)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 are getting seven or eight hours of sleep. So why do you still feel exhausted? New research points to something most of us have never considered: when you sleep matters as much - or more - than how long you sleep.A 2024 study from Monash University found that people with the most irregular sleep timing had up to 48 percent higher risk of dying from any cause — regardless of total sleep hours. And right now, in late May, the longer evenings are shifting your schedule without you even choosing it.In this episode, we walk through what the research actually found, why summer daylight is the sneakiest disruptor of your sleep rhythm, and the one adjustment that gives your body clock something steady to hold onto. In this episode, you will:Understand why sleep consistency may protect your health more than sleep durationDiscover how summer daylight silently disrupts your circadian rhythmLearn a stewardship perspective on rest that reframes how you think about bedtimeSCRIPTURE HIGHLIGHT: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat — for he grants sleep to those he loves.” Psalm 127:2 (NIV) Research note: Windred et al. (2024), published in the journal Sleep. Prospective cohort study of nearly 61,000 adults using accelerometer data. Sleep regularity was a stronger predictor of all-cause mortality than sleep duration.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.