Personal development

Personal Growth & Development  ·  Personal Growth & Family Life  ·  Relationships
Remember to celebrate the progress

Happy Sacred Sunday!

Today I want to explore the difference between living in the gap and the gain, and why success filing and celebrating the progress matters so much.

This Sacred Sunday is a special one for my company. We have officially reached the 100th episode of the Bliss’n Up Podcast.

That’s nearly two years of zero missed Sundays, weekly episodes, and so much love poured into content designed to elevate your mindset, wellness, and relationships.

I did some digging into the numbers today. Did you know that 44% of podcasts never make it past three episodes? Only about 20 to 25% reach ten. Of the shows that pass three episodes, 90% don’t make it to twenty. And only roughly 6% of all podcasts ever reach 100 episodes.

In terms of consistency and effort, I consider this a success.

Now, in terms of listenership and downloads, here is what my numbers say. Roughly 14,000 audio plays across platforms. Over 4,500 hours of total content consumed. Nearly 1,000 people who actively follow or subscribe. A 66% engaged listener rate, which is well above the industry benchmark of 20 to 30%.

Although I am honored to have this much listenership, by industry standards, these are modest numbers. I am a long way from making it as a top podcast in my space.

And here is exactly where I get to make a choice.

If I focus on my progress, my effort, and the impact I have made since May of 2024 … I get to celebrate. If I compare myself to the podcasts I admire and fixate on how slowly my show is growing … I skip the celebration entirely.

Celebrating success isn’t about your circumstances. It’s about your decision.

Because you will always have evidence of the gaps and the gains. You get to decide which one you nurture.

Here is something else worth understanding about outcomes. We believe that once we achieve our goals, we will finally feel happy and stay happy. That is not actually how it works. Once you hit the goal, you move the goalpost. It may feel good for a moment, but it will not be long before you find yourself asking the question my friend Bruce Turkel wrote about: “Is that all there is?”

That is why I choose to enjoy the journey rather than fixate on the destination.

It took Joe Rogan five years before his show caught real momentum. But you cannot get to five years if you do not pass year one. You will not reach your 100th episode if you do not get past the first ten. Half the battle is simply the willingness to stay in the game.

Nobody in my life has modeled that better than my husband, Orlando.

For today’s episode, I invited him to join me for a conversation about love, marriage, transformation, and delayed gratification. He has taught me so much about staying in the game and never giving up. As it relates to our marriage, he is the one who taught me to focus on the gains instead of the gaps.

I will confess that it was Orlando who taught me how to be married.

So today I am celebrating the gains with you.

13 years of blogging. Almost two years of podcasting. 100 episodes. Loyal listeners. The best coaching clients a person could ask for. A devoted, caring, and supportive team (thank you Daisy, Jai Juan, Frances, and Fran!) And 19 years of marriage to a man I respect and admire deeply.

I also want to thank you, for being a part of my journey. Thank you for reading, listening, and sharing my work throughout the years.

Now it’s your turn. What are the gains you are celebrating in this season? Where are you showing up consistently, staying in the game, and making progress? I would love to celebrate you too.

And if you are ready to stop celebrating alone and want a container where this kind of intentional reflection becomes a weekly rhythm, I would love to connect with you. Book a complimentary Life Audit call here and let’s see where you are and what’s possible.

Sending you so much love, today and always.

Article content

 
The Gap and the Gain: The High Achievers’ Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success, by Dan Sullivan

P.S. The first 10 women who join The Well get an automatic upgrade to VIP at no extra cost. That means four private quarterly calls with me throughout the year to make sure you are on track, supported, and building the intentional life you came here to build. This bonus closes the moment the 10th woman joins. No deadline extensions. [Join The Well]

March 29, 2026

Mindful Living  ·  Personal Growth  ·  Podcast Anniversaries
If it weren’t for this, you wouldn’t be here

There’s one thing we know for sure:
Regardless of what kind of relationship you have with your mother…
If it weren’t for her, you wouldn’t be in this world.
So today, on this Sacred Sunday, let’s pause to honor the mothers — those who birthed us, raised us, loved us, or simply gave us life. Let’s thank them for being the vessel through which we entered this world.

Happy Sacred Sunday!

Last Thursday, I had the opportunity to lead a mission statement workshop for a family. The mother had previously attended one of my workshops and wanted her husband and children to experience it too.

Picture this: Mom and Dad, their five kids (ages 19 to 30), three spouses, and a few babies — all gathered on a Thursday night, after a long day of work, at Mom and Dad’s house to discover their personal missions.

The place was a mad house and I couldn’t believe Mom had pulled this off. 😂

This is how she did it:

  1. She told them she wanted them to participate in an activity (no details).
  2. She said it was her Mother’s Day gift.

And they showed up.

Every single one of them.

At first, I wondered how they’d respond.

Would they be annoyed? Disengaged? Scrolling on their phones?

But they were such troopers and engaged the entire time.

Each of them walked away with something powerful — a personal mission statement to help them live with intention and solid principles.

And guess what? They even enjoyed it. 😮

It touched my heart that this mother dared to create such a meaningful experience, even though it seemed inconvenient or risky at first. All she wanted was to give her family a tool for their success.

Someone once said, “The person who learns the most in any classroom is the teacher.”

And let me tell you — I learned so much from her that night.

Mom inspired me to dare to create a similar experience for my own family.

So yesterday, I gathered my “five fingers” (my three teenage boys and my husband) plus my mom, stepdad, and sister to do a Bliss on the Bottle Vision Casting activity together.

Now, you can probably imagine the enthusiasm level when I told three teenage boys what we’d be doing. 😅

But just like Mom’s family…

They showed up. They engaged. And I hope they’ll carry something meaningful from that moment forward.

I was especially grateful to watch my 75-year-old mom cast her visions with joy and enthusiasm.

It reminded me that it’s never too late to keep dreaming and never too early to model what daring looks like.

This week on the Bliss’n Up podcast, I’m inviting you to reflect on what motherhood can teach you about courage and daring.

Whether you’re a mom yourself, celebrating your mother, or learning from a mother’s legacy, this episode will inspire you to reflect on what brave decisions, quiet sacrifices, or bold moments shaped you.

And how you can use those lessons to pave a brighter, bolder way forward.

Let this episode be a gentle invitation to honor the many forms of daring,  especially the ones passed down through the women who molded us.

To all the mothers, the mother-figures, and the lessons they continue to give us…

Happy Mother’s Day.

Bliss’n Up Podcast
May 12, 2025

Mindful Living  ·  Personal Growth  ·  Podcast Anniversaries
It’s our Anniversary ✨✨✨ Reflections from a year of podcasting

Happy Sacred Sunday!

“May the 4th be with you” has become a famous, albeit unofficial holiday, stemming from a clever play on the Star Wars movie phrase.

As a true lover of words, I love May 4th 😂.

But today I love it a little extra … because today is also the day we celebrate the one year anniversary of Bliss’n Up on the podcast. (Cinco de Mayo is the official birthday, but we’re celebrating on this Sacred Sunday).

When I told my husband, Orlando, that I was it had been one year since I launched Bliss’n Up, he didn’t believe me. He’d shake his head and repeat, “no Caro. It can’t be! Time is passing too fast!”

It occurred to me that without any milestones, the passing of one May 4th to the other would be insignificant. It reminded me of the story I read years ago about a Native American man who told his grandfather he dreamed of becoming a lawyer.

The grandfather asked, “if that is your dream, then why don’t you go to law school?’

“I’m 47 years old, grandpa. I’m too old to go to lawschool.”

The grandfather put his hand on the man’s shoulder and looked him straight in the eye. “Son, in 3 years you will be 50. The only difference is you’ll be a 50 year lawyer, or you won’t.”

Time will pass regardless, but it is our responsibility to make that time intentional.

From now on, May 5th (and 4th this year) will forever mark a dream I dared to bring to life — even if it unbelievable how quickly it sprung up on us.

This week on Bliss’n Up, I’m reflecting on our anniversary and closing the loop on the 1st episode: Getting out of the trying loop and diving in.

There is a lot to learn about going from trying to doing and I’m so happy to be on the other side of this story to share those golden nuggets with you.

May the 4th be with you to DARE to chase your dreams, live your best life, and create your own reality, 

And thank you for joining along in my journey; thank you for reading this weekly newsletter, listening to the podcast, and being part of our Bliss’n Up community. This work wouldn’t matter if I didn’t have you to share it with.
Happy anniversary to us!
Bliss’n Up Podcast

May 4, 2025

Inspiration  ·  Mindset  ·  Success Skills
It’s okay to practice

Happy Sacred Sunday!

I remember telling my dad I was “trying” to do something once. He had a unique way of teaching me a lesson. He pulled out a dollar from his wallet, dropped it on the floor, and said, “Try to pick up the dollar.”

Confused, I picked it up, wondering where this was going. He then told me, “Caroline, you either do something or you don’t. There’s no ‘trying.’” This lesson stuck with me because “trying” often feels like a cover for not actually doing anything.

For example, you might say,

“I’m trying to be more consistent working out.”

This most likely means you’re thinking that if you go to the gym 3 times a week for 6 months, that would make you more consistent than you have been thus far.

Since the six months haven’t passed, that in-between phase is what you call TRYING. As time progresses, you will either go to the gym 3 times a week for those 6 months, or you won’t.

But life’s not always so straightforward, especially with goals that require ongoing effort without guaranteed success.

For example. Let’s say you have a goal to become a NY Times bestseller. You can do many things toward this goal:

Write a book.
Get an agent.
Market the book.
Hire a public relations firm.
Go on a book tour.

And you may still not land on the NY Times bestseller list.

So, what do you call the space between trying and doing, especially for outcomes that are beyond your control?

My friend Katie offered an enlightening perspective about parenting by analogizing it to how yogis approach their discipline. They don’t say they “do yoga”; they “practice yoga.” This idea made sense to me.

Yoga as a practice demands continuous learning, personal development, and growth. As practitioners progress, they discover new possibilities within their poses, breathing techniques, and meditation practices. Yoga is not about mastering a finite set of skills, rather about embarking on a lifelong journey to strengthen one’s self.

Practice implies action, an ongoing effort towards a goal, recognizing that the journey itself is where the value lies.
I recently applied this “practice” mindset to the 75 Hard Challenge. Rather than fully committing or avoiding it altogether, I downloaded the app, chatted with friends about it, and started incorporating elements of the challenge into my daily routine. I wanted to understand it.

I noticed in the app if you miss one checkmark, it’s a failed attempt and you have to start all over again from day 1. The theory behind this approach is to teach you mental toughness and show you the benefits of going “all in.”

But you can fail a thousand times and start over.

That’s practice!

This concept is about resilience. It’s about the effort, the learning, and the small successes along the way. It’s about always moving forward and toward your desired goals.

So, think about the things you’re “trying” to do. Are you really putting in the effort, or is “trying” just an excuse? Maybe it’s fear of failure or not doing it perfectly that’s holding you back. What if you shifted your mindset to practicing towards your goals? What steps can you take today, no matter how small, towards achieving them?

It’s not about perfection. It’s about practice, improvement, and embracing the journey.

Let’s focus on the actions, on practicing, and see where it leads us.

February 19, 2024

Inspiration  ·  Mindset  ·  Success Skills  ·  Wellness
There are 2 kinds of problems

Happy Sacred Sunday!

My great-aunt said to me once, “There are problems that come to us, and there are problems we look for.”

Those words have never left me.

Recently, a conversation with my son reminded me of that saying, but it led us to a deeper reflection that I thought was so important. I wanted to share it with you.

Orly was asking me why I do quarterly fasts if I’m already healthy and fit. I brought up my dad’s cancer and how I’m trying to speak to my genetics, yara yara.

As I was saying this, a thought came into my mind:

What if you get cancer, anyway?

I was so grateful for this thought because it was an intuitive nudge reminding me to make some things clear to my teenager.

1. What is within your control and what is not

I didn’t want my son to confuse me saying, “I do these fasts because I don’t want to get sick” with “By doing these things I won’t get sick.”

We all want to have a sense of control in our lives. But in reality, it is a false sense of control. Life is full of mysteries and often things happen we simply can’t explain.

There are no guarantees of what your future will hold, no matter what you do.

Therein lies the detail I wanted to convey:

I have decided to step into the identity of a person who does not look for the problem.

That’s why I try to eat a clean diet, exercise, fast, do the sauna, avoid drugs, alcohol, and smoking, work with a life coach, work on my relationships, etc.

I do those things because those things are within my control. But you know what’s not in my control?

Anything else.

So that’s why you…

2. Do the work, surrender the outcome

If you want a result, you have to be proactive in getting that result.

You want to be healthy? Create healthy habits.

You want to have a fulfilling relationship? Do your part in your relationships.

You want to be wealthy? Focus on creating wealth.

Work for what you want.

The tricky part of life is, though, sometimes you do the work, and the outcome is not what you wanted.

You maintain healthy habits, and you still get sick.

You work on your marriage, and your partner leaves you for someone else.

You save all your money, and a financial crisis wipes out your savings.

I wanted Orly to understand that even when we don’t look for the problem, sometimes problems come — and no matter what, we will be okay.

3. Life is rigged in your favor

That little thought “what if you get cancer, anyway?” which intruded my brain as I was explaining myself to Orly, sparked another thought, “then that means you were supposed to learn something from it.”

What did we come into this life to do, if not to learn?

Every problem you have teaches you something about life or about yourself.

I felt this sense of peace and rush of confidence consume me.

Although I want to be a person who doesn’t look for problems, I know that when problems come, they are vehicles for me to learn, grow, and evolve.

This is the knowing that allows you to behave as if life is rigged in your favor. It is not being attached to a favorable outcome, rather, to a favorable perspective.

That changes everything.

Watch the video I did about this on Instagram.

As you reflect on this Sacred Sunday, I invite you to do the things in your life that avoids problems, while simultaneously accepting the problems you have as teachers in your journey.And once again, we carefully walk the fine line of this complicated, yet blissful experience.

Sending you so much love.

February 5, 2024