I had a conversation with a friend recently that stopped me in my tracks. We were talking about how we're all constantly in a hurry—wanting everything to happen now, or even yesterday. She said something that hit me like a ton of bricks: "If you're living in the future, you're living in anxiety. If you're living in the past, you're living in depression."

That quote (which I'm pretty sure is from Brianna Wiest) made me realize I've been living in a constant state of rush lately. As I'm shifting gears with my business, my podcast, and my mission to help more women achieve their first pull-up, I've been so focused on the destination that I'm missing the beauty of the journey.

The Truth About Why We Rush

For high performers like myself, the rush usually comes down to a few things:

• High expectations: We set big goals and feel like failures if we're not achieving them fast enough
• Comparison: We look at others who seem ahead and wonder, "Why am I not there yet?" (forgetting we don't
...

I used to think resilience was some kind of superhero quality—something you either had or you didn't. But here's what I've learned after falling forward more times than I can count: resilience isn't magic, and it's definitely not glamorous.

It's a skill. A practice. And it's built on what I call radical adaptability—the ability to bend without breaking, to adapt when life throws you curveballs, and to keep moving forward even when everything feels stuck.

The Unglamorous Truth About Resilience

Let me be real with you for a moment. I'm recording this while feeling incredibly stuck myself. I'm in the middle of a major transition, moving from fitness-focused work to something bigger, and honestly? It's uncomfortable as hell.

But here's the thing about resilience that no one talks about: it's not about rising from the ashes in some dramatic movie moment. Most of the time, it's quiet, messy, and small. It's choosing to take one step forward when you feel paralyzed. It's washing your f...

I had one of those brutally honest conversations with a close friend today. You know the kind—where you finally admit what's been eating at you for months.

"I feel like I'm falling behind," I told her.

I'm surrounded by these incredible women who seem to have it all figured out. They're building wildly successful businesses, crushing their goals, and navigating life with this enviable grace. There's one friend in particular who seems like everything she touches turns to gold. And here I am, working my butt off but feeling stuck in the same place for what feels like forever.

But here's what I realized: feeling behind doesn't mean I'm failing. It just means I'm comparing my chapter one to their chapter twelve.

What I Learned from the Women I Admire

After some reflection, I noticed these successful women all share certain traits—and they're not magic. They're habits and mindsets that any of us can cultivate:

They have unshakable discipline. They don't rely on motivation; they rely ...

It's almost 10 PM on a snow day in Austin, Texas—yes, you read that right, snow in Austin—and I'm sitting here in my sweats with my dog, who just experienced snow for the first time. I promised myself I'd record this podcast episode weekly, and despite the late hour and my complete lack of a "fancy setup," here I am. Because this message couldn't wait.

Something hit me recently that I can't shake. The potential TikTok ban had everyone in a frenzy, but something beautiful happened in that chaos. Suddenly, people stopped caring about filters, trends, and algorithms. They started posting the videos they'd been holding back, sharing their real selves, and finally saying, "Screw it. I'm just going to do me."

It was magnetic. And it made me wonder: Why do we wait for a last-chance moment to act like ourselves?

The Trap of "Someday"

We hold back for so many reasons:

• Fear of what others might think or say
• Perfectionism that whispers "I'll do it when I'm ready, when it's perfect"
• Pr...

I had this realization today while I was dragging myself to the gym. I really didn't want to go—I was in a flow with my work, sitting on my floor with my little desk setup, and the last thing I wanted to do was interrupt my groove. But I'd made a promise to myself this year to keep showing up, even when I didn't feel like it.

After my workout, something clicked. I'd been dreading this thing that literally took me one hour. One hour out of my entire week. And I don't even need to go for a full hour—30 or 45 minutes would be plenty.

Here's what blew my mind: if I work out four times a week for 45 minutes each time, that's only 3 hours total. There are 168 hours in a week, which means I'm spending just 1.8% of my time on something that dramatically improves my life. When I break it down to a single 30-minute workout, that's literally 0.3% of my week.

0.3 percent.

Yet I was building this whole drama around it in my head, making it seem like this massive time commitment that would de...

I used to believe confidence was something you either had or you didn't. I thought some people were just born with it—that magical ability to walk into any room and own it. But here's what I've learned through years of being called names, failing on national television, and slowly building myself back up: confidence isn't given to you. It's something you create, action by action.

Growing up, I was constantly teased for my muscular arms. Kids called me "Mangela" and made me feel like I wasn't feminine enough or good enough. I remember one particularly brutal day in social studies class when we were watching Gladiator, and a guy shouted about one of the ripped characters, "Just like Angela!" I melted. I literally stormed out, called my mom from the nurse's office, and sat crying on the curb waiting to go home.

But you know what changed everything for me? Understanding that confidence doesn't come before action—it comes after.

Think about something you're confident in right now. May...

I recently had one of those moments—you know, the kind where you're sitting there feeling frustrated about certain outcomes in your life, wondering why things aren't happening the way you want them to. But then it hit me like a ton of bricks: I didn't even have a plan for them.

The Uncomfortable Truth I Had to Face

Here's the thing that got me thinking: I've achieved some pretty incredible things in my life. I won Miss Fitness America, made it on American Ninja Warrior multiple times, came back after an ACL tear, and made it to finals. But here's what's important—none of those moments happened by accident. They weren't random. They were the result of daily, intentional actions that moved me closer to my goal.

So why was I getting frustrated about other areas of my life where things weren't happening when I wasn't following the same process? It literally is the same process, and it's a hard truth to face.

The Problem with Randomness

Whether it's fitness, career, relationships, o...

Life has a way of testing us, doesn't it? Whether you're facing a sudden crisis at work, juggling the endless demands of motherhood, or simply navigating a particularly heavy season, pressure is inevitable. But here's what I've learned: it's not about avoiding the pressure—it's about how you respond to it.

You Don't Have to Be Unbreakable

Someone once told me I was "anti-fragile"—like that vase you could throw off a counter and it somehow wouldn't break. While I appreciate the sentiment, the truth is, I fail a lot. I take messy action. There are days when I'm messaging my team asking, "How are we going to do this?"

But here's the thing: I keep going. I haven't allowed the pressure to break me. And that's exactly what you need too—the ability to bend instead of break.

Feel the Feelings (But Don't Get Stuck There)

The first step to handling pressure isn't to power through or ignore your emotions. It's giving yourself permission to feel. Acknowledge the fear, sadness, or frustrati...

Wow. I can’t believe I’m 35.

It feels like just yesterday I was graduating college. Since then, I’ve traveled the world, lived what feels like multiple lives, fallen in and out of love, and taken more chances than I can count.

When people hear my story, they often say, “Wait, how are you only 35?” And I get it. Because I’ve lived boldly. I’ve messed up. I’ve rebuilt. I’ve thrown myself into everything from biochemistry to American Ninja Warrior to entrepreneurship and keynote stages.

So for this blog post, I wanted to mark the moment.
To pause.
To reflect.
To share 35 lessons that have shaped me.

No matter what age you are, whether you’re 25, 45, or 65, my hope is that something here resonates and helps you move forward, one bold step at a time.

1. Failure isn’t failure - it’s redirection.

Every “failure” taught me something I couldn’t have learned any other way. It was never the end. It was always the beginning of something better. So “celebrate” the failures, ...

Last Thursday, I hit a wall—hard.

I was in the middle of launching my pull-up program, riding high on motivation and productivity for over a week. Then suddenly, I found myself staring at my computer screen, completely paralyzed. I wasn't physically tired, but my brain felt like it had simply stopped working.

Sound familiar?

I was so frustrated with myself. Why couldn't I focus? Why did everything feel so overwhelming? That's when I realized I was experiencing something we don't talk about enough: mental fatigue.

What Mental Fatigue Really Looks Like

Mental fatigue isn't just being tired—it's that feeling when your brain has hit its absolute limit and cannot process one more thing. You might feel foggy, irritable, or even physically exhausted despite not doing anything physically demanding.

For me, it felt like having every single browser tab open at once. My mind was juggling the launch, content creation, my team's questions, and a million other tasks simultaneously. No wonde...