Up Your Energy at Any Age (w/Health & Lifestyle Consultant, Craig Bruce)

 Do you ever watch children race around without ever tiring and think, “I wish I had that kind of energy!” Sure, that sort of stamina may be out of reach (and honestly not really needed for most grownups), but it is possible to “up your game” to meet the mental and physical challenges of everything you juggle.  In fact, re-igniting energy and helping with stress and burnout is what our guest, Craig Bruce specializes in. The former executive who tells us his bad habits led him on a downward health and burnout spiral, not only turned it around for himself, but became a health and lifestyle consultant and founded Evolve Health & Lifestyle. Their pillars are “mindset, nourish, restore and move.”  

What he shares are tips and methods that have transformed his life and those he's coached. They are science-based habits to help us bounce back from the fatigue and burnout that many of us experience. He tells us that “small hinges open big doors”, and the small changes he recommends can indeed have a huge impact.  Also in Craig's mantra is "progress not perfection" and this makes it much easier to implement and SO much less intimidating!  

If you're tired all the time, the first thing to do is to check with your doctor. If you're looking for some fresh ideas on gaining energy, we invite you to listen in and try one, two, ... or all of his tips to claim balance over burnout and hopefully increase your energy and mental clarity whatever your age or stage of life. 

INFO on Craig Bruce:
Evolve Health and Lifestyle
on Instagram
on LinkedIn
Email: craig@evolvehealthandlifestyle.com  (ask for his 3 secrets to re-ignite energy and crush burnout!)

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Transcript

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:03]:

Welcome to Imagine Yourself podcast, where we help you imagine your next chapter of life with grace, gratitude, courage and faith.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:12]:

Thanks for joining us. I'm Lanee here with Sandy. Do you feel overwhelmed lately? Or at least whelmed? Are you experiencing burnout in your life or your job overall? Are you ready to reignite your life? Call us at five. Five. Five energy and have the energy you once had as a child able to work and play all day with no problems at all for just $19.99.

Sandy Kovach  [00:00:39]:

Yeah, I'm calling.

Lanée Blaise [00:00:40]:

You're calling Sandy. Well, here's the thing, we can't really promise you these exact results, but especially not for $19.99. But I know that earlier today I was talking with Sandy and I said, oh, my gosh, I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed. And I said, Sandy, I am so grateful that we have the guest that we're about to have today. Craig Bruce, a health and lifestyle consultant who has science based habits and actual ways that we can become the biggest advocate for our own health and harmonious lifestyles. He has ways that will crush, burnout and reignite your energy. He knows what he's talking about because he used to live that burned out life of exhaustion, overwork poor sleep, wrong food choices. You name it, he did it and he's overturned it and he's here to help us overturn it, because I know you all know exactly what I'm talking about. I think we should just jump right in. Craig, we want to welcome you to Imagine Yourself.

Craig Bruce [00:01:44]:

Wow. So, Lanee and Sandy, I am so delighted to be know we've been interacting on Instagram for the last year. So we just found each other organically and it was meant to be. There are no accidents, no coincidences.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:03]:

In fact, I have a cousin that used to say coincidence is God being anonymous. So I thank you for us getting together. And I just want to say that, like Lanee said, the burnout is a big thing. And I think we find ourselves in this place where we know we've got to do something, but almost because we're so overwhelmed, we have no idea where to start. So if I'm that person and I'm coming to you, where in the heck am I going to start with this?

Craig Bruce [00:02:29]:

So it's interesting that you say many people know they're burned out or they're overwhelmed. I think they do. However, my experience is people are running at such an unprecedented pace that their current lifestyle just becomes their new normal. A fish doesn't know it's in water until it's not. A bird doesn't know it's in the air until it's not.

Sandy Kovach  [00:02:56]:

I think a lot of people came to this place too, after the pandemic, where they got a little taste of slowing down. They're like, hey, wait a minute, maybe this is a better idea. So do you find that your business? Is a lot of people coming to you post pandemic with those sorts of ideas.

Craig Bruce [00:03:14]:

Yeah, I think what we saw in the pandemic, because people were working from home and not going into the office, there was no separation between the different aspects of your life. So what did people do? They got up in the morning, they went to the kitchen, made their pot of coffee, their first pot of coffee, and then they went to their office, which was their home office or their kitchen table, and just continued to work. And so there was absolutely no separation. The good part was that because people were working from home, as you said, Sandy, they got this taste of a little bit of freedom. And even though I feel like I'm on call probably twenty four, seven, you know what, I can go out for a quick walk. And I couldn't do that at work. So I think they did get the bug, so to speak.

Lanée Blaise [00:04:13]:

I wonder too, because I had a little talk with myself and I said self. You say that you absolutely value taking time out to have some downtime. And you say that you want to slow down the pace of life. And it's not just fear of missing out and it's not just scheduling, it is just something else that's going on. Because I know that you have a science based formula for really targeting some of the different health aspects and sleep aspects and mental and harmony aspects. What am I doing wrong?

Craig Bruce [00:04:56]:

I think it all begins with asking yourself, who do I want to be and how am I going to show up every day? And so as I began my adventures I call them adventures, I don't call them journeys, I don't call them programs. Because no one wants to have another program, right? But we all do want to go on an adventure, so it sets the tone. One of the first couple of questions that I ask my clients after, what do they want to accomplish is who do you want to be and how do you want to show up every day? And I'm just curious, how does that resonate with you?

Lanée Blaise [00:05:33]:

Me personally? Okay. This is kind of fun

Sandy Kovach  [00:05:36]:

,Turning it around on you, Lanee

Lanée Blaise [00:05:38]:

Yeah, I like it. Personally, I want to show up in three different ways. I want to have time for myself, whether that's my physical health, spiritual health, and my mental time to just I sometimes even just like to sit on the couch and stare at the wall and just collect myself. But I also want to make sure that everything that I'm doing as far as my writing and podcasting and public speaking are going in a great direction. And then my family is super important also. So I want to show up for all three of those every day. Well, except the weekends, maybe take off the career stuff. But I want to show up as someone who's well rested, positive, and who is healthy and whose brain is not scrambled up like scrambled egg.

Craig Bruce [00:06:27]:

So what you have just shared with me and your audience is what's important to you, what are your values and what are your non negotiables? I heard time for yourself, for your family, and time for your writing and podcasting.

Lanée Blaise [00:06:45]:

Yes.

Craig Bruce [00:06:45]:

Then we would continue this conversation around how do we make that happen? Because if those are your values and or your non negotiables, then how do we set boundaries? Which is actually one of my three secrets to really reigniting your energy and living a life of clarity, intention, and integrity. And most of us are really bad at setting boundaries.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:17]:

What about when I set boundaries and things pop up that I can't anticipate or control or say no to?

Craig Bruce [00:07:27]:

What might be an example of that?

Lanée Blaise [00:07:29]:

The Internet goes out and my son has to do this big project, and my family member gets sick and needs me to do something for them.

Craig Bruce [00:07:42]:

Okay. Yeah. So I get that along this adventure, we know that we are going to get derailed.

Lanée Blaise [00:07:50]:

Yes.

Craig Bruce [00:07:51]:

So part of the conversations I have with my clients after we talk about what's important to them and what are their non negotiable is let's examine your life and see the scenarios where you put yourself in or you are in that support those values and non negotiables. And what are the scenarios that actually don't, and we try to anticipate those. Now, for example, if a family member gets sick and they need you because family is a key priority, that's where you're going to be. And that's okay. Then we have conversations around, accept that because it is a priority, and then get back on the bus when you.

Sandy Kovach  [00:08:38]:

Can without the guilt of I think a lot of people are like, okay, if they're with their family, maybe they're thinking about work with their work. They're thinking about their family. And you mentioned the kind of downside of working at home. A lot of folks working at home are doing the hybrid thing, is the lines they're not drawn. And so it's a lot easier to be thinking about the other things that you could be doing. It's always like an economics class. I remember opportunity cost was like a thing that they talked about. If you choose to do one thing, then you're not doing the other thing. So how do we not feel the guilt?

Craig Bruce [00:09:18]:

Yeah. So a couple of things I mentioned that I have in working with over a couple hundred executives and entrepreneurs over the last five, six years, I've developed three secrets to reigniting your energy and living that limitless life. The first secret is to set rituals. So that means a morning ritual and an evening ritual.

Lanée Blaise [00:09:45]:

Okay.

Craig Bruce [00:09:45]:

To answer your question, the way we get over the guilt, one is to have these rituals that become part of our daily life and then also acknowledge that we will get derailed along the way. But in the absence of having these rituals, and I use that word very intentionally. I don't use the word routine because when you think of rituals, it's something that you value in some regards. It may be something that is spiritual to you. Right. So in the absence of having these rituals, we tend to fall back into old patterns of behavior, the distractions.

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:29]:

So the rituals tend to center us. So let's say we're working from home since we're not driving into the office. Now, we have to have rituals like I go to my workspace and I do X, Y, and Z. Yeah.

Craig Bruce [00:10:42]:

So can I share with you some science based habits around the morning ritual?

Sandy Kovach  [00:10:47]:

Oh, yes.

Craig Bruce [00:10:48]:

Okay, so here's what we know. The morning ritual is designed to set you up for success throughout the day. It gives you back your control, because what happens with most of us when we wake up? What are the first things we do?

Sandy Kovach  [00:11:05]:

Grab the phone.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:06]:

That's what I was going to say. We got to stop doing this.

Craig Bruce [00:11:09]:

Yeah, we grab the phone, we look at our email, and now who has the power?

Sandy Kovach  [00:11:15]:

Whoever's got the biggest fire to put out on the email.

Craig Bruce [00:11:18]:

Yeah. So the first thing that we do is with regard to a morning ritual. And there are actually three habits I'll share with your audience that I have found have been life changing. So the first habit is wake up at the same time every day.

Lanée Blaise [00:11:34]:

Even the weekends?

Craig Bruce [00:11:35]:

Even the weekends? Even the weekends, Linnae, if you're going to sleep in no more than an hour. And here's why our body loves routine, because what happens often is that we wake up and we hit the snooze. That's actually counterproductive to you being productive throughout the day. If we wake up at the same time every day, our body begins to our circadian rhythm. That 24 hours cycle that manages all of our hormones and our process, our sleep cycle, our weight cycle. It gets accustomed to that. So we wake up at the same time every day and we don't hit the snooze.

Sandy Kovach  [00:12:13]:

Refuse to snooze.

Craig Bruce [00:12:15]:

Exactly. And if you can get out and get a little bit of sunlight, even in Detroit or Chicago in the yeah, right. When we don't see the sun during the whole month of January?

Sandy Kovach  [00:12:30]:

Pretty much, yeah.

Craig Bruce [00:12:32]:

Then what that will do is reset your circadian rhythm. It actually boosts your cortisol, which is mostly known for stress, but it will ignite your energy. And then if you can also go for a quick walk, that also will give you more energy. So that's habit number one. Wake up at the same time. If you can get some sunlight, even if it's cloudy, you're still getting some of the benefits of the rays that come through. And don't hit that snooze. All right.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:03]:

Okay.

Lanée Blaise [00:13:03]:

I like it.

Craig Bruce [00:13:04]:

Tip number two is hydrate before you caffeinate.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:10]:

The coffee should not be the first thing you drink.

Craig Bruce [00:13:13]:

It should not, because during the night, we get dehydrated. We get dehydrated because we breathe through most of us are mouth breathers, and we breathe through our mouth at night, dehydrates us. Depending upon what we ate during the day before, that sodium will actually dehydrate us. And what happens when we get dehydrated? Brain fog. Our body doesn't work as well. So hydrate before you caffeinate.

Sandy Kovach  [00:13:42]:

You're talking about like an eight ounce glass.

Craig Bruce [00:13:44]:

Yeah, I'm thinking an eight ounce. And then the third one is really, get outside if you can, or at least get some kind of movement. Take your dogs for a walk. Just get out and go pick up the mail. Just get out. Because interestingly enough, what that forward movement does, as well as when you're walking, your eyes are going back and forth. That forward ambulation actually calms a part of the brain called the amygdala that is so involved in anxiety that that will help calm anxiety as well. Most people don't know that.

Sandy Kovach  [00:14:24]:

I love these tips, and this is tying into the balance and all of the burnout that we're experiencing our lives. And what you're telling us are these are physical, science based things that allows us to kind of get out of our heads and move forward.

Craig Bruce [00:14:40]:

Yeah. Just building upon that, I think there is another important component to the morning ritual. This relates back to who you want to be and how you show up. Every day. Before I get out of bed, I ask myself three questions how do I want to show up today? Basically, who am I going to be and how am I going to show up today? The second question is, what am I going to focus on today that will get me closer to my goals? And by the way, I've already planned that out the night before.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:12]:

Yes.

Craig Bruce [00:15:13]:

And the third question is, for what am I grateful?

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:16]:

Oh, gratitude.

Lanée Blaise [00:15:17]:

Trifecta. Okay. Yeah. This is very important because we learn a lot about even back since the Oprah days, the daily Oprah days, about how important gratitude is to bringing joy to our lives. And she talks about gratitude journals and things like that. But your way is even simpler. Just taking a moment puts a whole different positive spin on your morning, on your day. You're setting the tone for your day.

Sandy Kovach  [00:15:45]:

And you could add in a devotional or prayer or however it is, and that's kind of all encapsulated. But you're saying all of these things, the physical aspects and the gratitude, prayer, whatever aspects, is part of this ritual that you do every single day. Even on the weekends.

Craig Bruce [00:16:04]:

Yeah, even on the weekends.

Lanée Blaise [00:16:06]:

And before you grab that stupid cell phone, which it's a smartphone, but it has components that will wreck your piece and wreck your tone and wreck the trajectory of your day if you're not careful and you're not just telling us, don't grab your cell phone, you're telling us what to do instead of grabbing the cell phone first, which I appreciate.

Craig Bruce [00:16:29]:

It's interesting as I work with my clients, we literally sit down and design their entire morning ritual because in the absence of this ritual, we will get derailed and we'll fall back into old habits. So as structured as this seems, my experience is that it's beneficial. So for example, 06:00 A.m. To 07:00 A.m. Is my morning ritual that I just described. 07:00 a.m to 08:00 a.m I get in my morning workout from 08:00 A.m. To 12:00 P.m.. That's my work time. We literally, in working with my clients, we sketch out their entire morning, hour by hour, based upon who they want to be and how they want to show up.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:20]:

I've always admired people who are scheduled and can do that. I have always been, and maybe this is my problem, much more of a free form person. Obviously, I have somewhat of an idea. I know what I need to do, I have a task list, but I am way far away from what you're telling me. Do you find that once people get into this rhythm, when you help them schedule this out, do they have a hard time sticking to this? Do they want to go back to their old ways?

Craig Bruce [00:17:46]:

Yeah, that's such a good question. So I would say overall, the executives that I work with tend to be pretty structured, although I do have a few creatives who is that the nice.

Sandy Kovach  [00:17:57]:

Way of talking, by bullying me.

Craig Bruce [00:18:01]:

And they will resist. And so I say it's about progress, it's not perfection. So let's try this and see. And if it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. But I find in general, clients that I coach respond to this pretty well. But then, you know what? Life hits. Life happens.

Lanée Blaise [00:18:19]:

But even with the way that you showed your structure, it had me thinking about that really popular book back from like the Early Two Thousand s the Four Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss. And it made me think about the fact that I'm not sure that I'm convinced that there's a four hour work week. But even the way you designed your morning, it seems like you have four very power packed hours of work that gets in between 08:00 A.m. And twelve noon because you've set yourself up physically and mentally for like a good ride.

Craig Bruce [00:18:52]:

And for me it's about progress, not perfection as well. Because I get distracted by emails, so I turn off my notifications. There are some mornings when I will have podcast interviews, like this morning, and I need to rearrange my schedule. My point here is I built in the flexibility, and I think most of us should build in the flexibility to make those changes because in the absence of having that flexibility, then you start to feel guilty.

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:24]:

Okay, so that kind of addresses both questions from earlier.

Craig Bruce [00:19:28]:

Yes, I was circling back to that. And I think you just have to give yourself permission, which is easier said than done because most of us tend to be perfectionist, right?

Sandy Kovach  [00:19:39]:

Yeah, to a degree.

Lanée Blaise [00:19:41]:

But I want to know a little bit more about your personal story because I told everybody that you know what you're talking about because you used to live in a way that was not ideal. As far as all these things that we're talking about now, what happened? Can you just share the backstory?

Craig Bruce [00:20:03]:

Yeah. So I'm boarding my return flight home and it's already been a 15 hours day. As my Southern grandma would say. I was sick as a dog. I was suffering from this sinus infection that wouldn't go away. But you know what? I still did my meeting.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:22]:

Yeah.

Craig Bruce [00:20:23]:

And I sit down and I always got upgraded because by the way, I had 2.5 million mile on one airline and a million miles on another and I wore that like a badge of honor. I actually bragged about that!

Lanée Blaise [00:20:40]:

that shows you are not ever home.

Craig Bruce [00:20:44]:

I got upgraded and I sit down and the flight attendant approaches me and I think she's going to ask me what I want to drink. And do you know what she said to me?

Lanée Blaise [00:20:54]:

What did she say?

Craig Bruce [00:20:55]:

She said, you look awful.

Lanée Blaise [00:20:57]:

What?

Craig Bruce [00:20:58]:

Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:20:59]:

So a stranger comes up and tells you you look awful?

Craig Bruce [00:21:02]:

Yeah. And so I turned and I had a window seat and I saw my reflection in the window. And I swear to you, if the bags under my eyes were any bigger, she was going to come back and say, you got to check those in the overhead bin. And I suddenly tears began to well up. It hit you? Yeah. And I said to myself, craig, you're a grown man crying in public. Stop it. Your life. Part of my language sucks. The very next day, I landed in the doctor's office and she ordered bedrest. And my version of bedrest was my laptop, my cell phone, and my conference calls from my bed while I was pretending to obey her orders.

Sandy Kovach  [00:21:51]:

Not really obeying.

Craig Bruce [00:21:53]:

Sort of halfway. Yeah, not really. And so it was in that moment that I really realized that my current lifestyle had become my new normal and that it was killing me and something had to change.

Sandy Kovach  [00:22:06]:

That was your AHA moment?

Craig Bruce [00:22:07]:

That was my AHA moment. And so from there so I ended up retiring from the management consulting field. And as I was consulting, people would always ask me, if you weren't doing this, what do you think you would do? And I said, Well, I think I'd do something around health and wellness. So I went back to school to become a health and lifestyle coach. Did that for four years, working for an amazing organization. I moved from Chicago to La because I couldn't take the winters anymore. And then I finally said, I don't need a boss. I can do this on my own. And two years ago, I launched Evolve Health and Lifestyle, and now I'm guiding executives and entrepreneurs like me every day to really reignite your energy and get clear about who you are, who you want to be, how you're going to show up, and then work on science based habits that are actually going to transform your life.

Lanée Blaise [00:23:07]:

If anyone were to ask and you would answer back honestly, do you miss any of the rewards or the financial pleasures or any of the things from before? Are you glad that you made that full shift? Was it worth it?

Craig Bruce [00:23:23]:

Yes. And here's why it was worth it. And you notice I said that very unequivocally because what I was able to do and what I have been able to do is to take the best part of that 25 years and bring it with me. The relationships that I built, one of my key values that I live my life by is developing long term relationships. And I am so proud of the fact that many of the relationships that I built over those 25 years, I still see these people, and many of them have become clients, by the way.

Sandy Kovach  [00:24:02]:

Yeah. You're building good bridges.

Craig Bruce [00:24:04]:

Absolutely. And then the second piece is the skills that I developed as a management consultant and then as a health and lifestyle consultant for this organization.

Sandy Kovach  [00:24:16]:

Okay, so we talk a lot about habits. Right. And so that's a big part of what's driving you. And that goes beyond the health piece, but just in general.

Craig Bruce [00:24:26]:

Yeah. So what I find is in helping clients create habits around a morning ritual, an evening ritual, habits around how they eat, what they eat and when they eat, and habits around setting boundaries that we can begin to transform their life.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:45]:

I got to ask about the eating part.

Sandy Kovach  [00:24:48]:

I'm struggling with that right now.

Lanée Blaise [00:24:51]:

Can you shed a little light on some of the components about, like you said, what you eat when you eat? I know that people do need to come to you to get the full fledged answer, but just a little tidbit for us.

Craig Bruce [00:25:03]:

Yeah. So here are a couple of science based habits that will allow you to eat more mindfully, because my first secret was create rituals. The second secret is eat mindfully. And eat mindfully involves how, what, and when you eat. And it's interesting how you eat. And science supports this. How you eat is equally as important as what you eat to reaching your goals. And here's why. Did you know that 20% of the digestive process begins before food hits your stomach? It actually starts when you think about food, smell food, see food. What? How do most of us eat our meals?

Sandy Kovach  [00:25:54]:

Very quickly.

Craig Bruce [00:25:55]:

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:25:56]:

Not intentionally at all.

Craig Bruce [00:25:57]:

Not intentionally. We're in front of our laptops or our phone. We're in front of the TV. So the point here is that if we are not eating intentionally and mindfully, up to 20% of the digestive process can be lost or not optimized. And that means the likelihood that that food will be optimized by your body to create energy is significantly reduced. So that's why eating mindfully and without distractions and slowly is an important habit that we work on.

Lanée Blaise [00:26:39]:

And get rid of those screens while you're eating and use the eating experience as an actual experience.

Craig Bruce [00:26:46]:

Absolutely.

Lanée Blaise [00:26:46]:

Where you're using all of the metabolic functions to the best advantage.

Craig Bruce [00:26:53]:

Spot on. You actually said that better than I did. Thank you.

Lanée Blaise [00:26:56]:

You're making me smarter. I feel like you were born in the Discovery Channel. This is absolutely easy.

Craig Bruce [00:27:07]:

But baffling. But hard. And again, it's about progress, not perfection. If you can make every meal at least 20 minutes, why 20 minutes? Because it takes 20 minutes for our brain to recognize and receive signals from our tummy that we're full. What do most of us do? We scarf it down and we tend to overeat.

Sandy Kovach  [00:27:31]:

Because we don't know we're full.

Craig Bruce [00:27:33]:

Because we don't know we're full. Exclude Thanksgiving and the holidays. Right.

Sandy Kovach  [00:27:38]:

Or sometimes we do know we're full and we eat anyway.

Craig Bruce [00:27:41]:

Yeah. Do we? So that's a little bit about how you eat, what you eat. It all comes down to eating whole foods and ultimately about balancing that blood sugar roller coaster, because that's where we get in trouble. So when we eat, what's the typical Standard American diet? What's the acronym for it? Standard American diet. Sad. Sad. Oh, gosh. Yeah.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:08]:

Very sad.

Craig Bruce [00:28:09]:

Right? And it's pretty sad. What is that? Typical standard American diet. It's processed foods. It's a lot of sugar. Refined sugars. Sodas. It's cereals. And I will tell you this, our bodies are designed to get us hooked on sugar.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:25]:

Oh, that's my problem.

Craig Bruce [00:28:27]:

Yeah. One, because of the taste buds, it just likes, but also that sugar is converted immediately into glucose. And guess what? Our brain loves and is the primary source for brain fuel glucose. Our brain loves it. And when our brain gets happy, it shoots out dopamine. Right. Which is the same thing that happens when drug addicts take drugs.

Sandy Kovach  [00:28:56]:

So we're fighting. Always fighting this.

Craig Bruce [00:28:58]:

We are fighting. And even if you don't taste it, just the anticipation of it will release the same kinds of hormones and elicit the same response. So the point here is, the more we can eat whole foods, and I often get asked, what are whole foods? And I say somewhat glibly is whole foods don't have an ingredient list, okay?

Sandy Kovach  [00:29:17]:

They just are.

Craig Bruce [00:29:19]:

They just are.

Sandy Kovach  [00:29:20]:

So not just fruits and vegetables, although that's a big part of it, but not like something where you would read the back and it's got monosodium glutamate or exactly. Something you can't pronounce.

Craig Bruce [00:29:30]:

Right. And again, you can be vegan, you can be vegetarian, you can be carnivore, whatever that is. Just make sure that it's not processed.

Sandy Kovach  [00:29:38]:

That's the big thing, and that's so much of our diet. So you've given us, like you say, it's not all nutrition based, but that's a lot of what your secrets are. And where do we find these and how do we get in touch with you? Because I know we only were able to dig a little bit into all of your expertise.

Craig Bruce [00:29:57]:

Yeah. So I have developed, and I would love to give this as a gift to your listeners, my three secrets to reignite your energy and crush burnout. So that I'm assuming we can put a link in the show notes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:13]:

Link in the show notes. And a link on our blog@imagineourselfpodcast.com. Absolutely.

Craig Bruce [00:30:18]:

Awesome. And then we can also put I would love to talk with any of your listeners if they want to reach me. It's Craig@evolvehealthandlifestyle.com. And all those words are spelled out. So Craig@evolvehealthandlifestyle.com and then you have your social media.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:39]:

You're on Instagram where we found you.

Craig Bruce [00:30:41]:

Instagram, right. LinkedIn. If you're okay, we can put all of that in the show notes.

Sandy Kovach  [00:30:46]:

We absolutely will put all of your links in there.

Lanée Blaise [00:30:49]:

I think once people get a taste of this new lifestyle, they might realize it's not as hard or complicated or overwhelming as it seems. And it's not as overwhelming as continuing.

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:07]:

To live the way that we've been.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:08]:

Doing, where we're setting ourselves up for problems.

Craig Bruce [00:31:12]:

Yeah. I would say what I find is that here's what my clients come to me for. One of the things that makes the relationship successful is clients need a proven system. System or a process need support, and they need accountability. And that's what clients tell me they get in working with me. And then, philosophically, I believe it's about progress, not perfection. And I also believe that small hinges swing big doors.

Sandy Kovach  [00:31:43]:

OOH, I like that. Little small changes can make big impact because it encourages you to make more. And you're giving us all these little tips that even on their own seem like they'd make a big difference.

Craig Bruce [00:31:55]:

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:31:56]:

Well, now I guess we are getting to that part of the episode where we can go one of two ways. I'm curious about what secret number three is, but I also wonder if you have an overall takeaway for people before we depart.

Craig Bruce [00:32:13]:

Secret three we've already talked about, but we'll just come back and circle. Secret number three is set.

Lanée Blaise [00:32:19]:

Yes.

Craig Bruce [00:32:19]:

Yes. And we're not good at it. And so that really involves identifying your values and your non negotiables, and then it involves communicating that to others. And Brene Brown has a quote that I absolutely love. She says, Clear is kind, so don't obfuscate.

Sandy Kovach  [00:32:38]:

Don't dance around the issue. If you need something, tell your partner or your kids or your coworkers, and you can still be nice about it. You can set boundaries nicely. Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:32:50]:

And you can say, this just doesn't work with my time schedule slots, and hopefully someone else will fill the bill.

Craig Bruce [00:32:59]:

Yeah.

Lanée Blaise [00:33:00]:

So I guess we're to that part now where we love to have takeaway time, where we make sure that if there is a message, if somebody was listening and they didn't hear anything else, what is something that you want to make sure that they can arm themselves with as far as knowledge that they can take away from everything that you do? As a certified health coach and lifestyle.

Craig Bruce [00:33:27]:

Specialist, I'm going to share a quote by Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape Spiritual Center here in Los Angeles. That's my spiritual community. He says, be the frequency of the life you want to live. And it gets back to what we've talked about. And this is mindset most people live a life of have, do, be. I have to have something and do something in order to be something. Stephen Covey and Zig Ziglar have both said that's the wrong way to look at it. You first have to be before you can do and do before you can have. So a lot of the conversations we have is around who do you want to be? And that drives everything after that.

Lanée Blaise [00:34:25]:

I love that. We don't want to be frantic, unhealthy, frustrated, unproductive people. We want to be nourished hydrated, intelligent, productive, fun, smooth, confident people.

Craig Bruce [00:34:45]:

And you know what? At the end of the day, doesn't it come down to living the life that you've worked so hard to build? It's the life you want because we're all working very hard. Unless we're clear about who we want to be and we communicate that to others, then I don't think we can live the life that we really want to live and that we are working so hard to build.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:09]:

Well, drop the mic. That was just perfect. On behalf of Sandy and I, we truly want to thank you. You have opened our minds to things that we need to reflect on, things that we need to really look in the mirror and see if we're willing to do and change. On behalf of our listeners, thank you. Just again, to make sure that people understand if they want to reach out to you via Instagram, your handle is.

Craig Bruce [00:35:39]:

Craig Bruce one 40.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:42]:

Perfect. So that's instagram.

Craig Bruce [00:35:44]:

And then your website again is evolvehealthandlifestyle.com.

Sandy Kovach  [00:35:50]:

And if you're driving and just remember, all the links will be in the show notes and on our website. Imagineourselfpodcast.com.

Lanée Blaise [00:35:58]:

Yeah, so overall, sit with yourself, everyone. Determine who it is that you want to be and then start taking intentional moves to get there. Because that is where we want to start. When we feel overwhelmed, we don't want to live in the overwhelm. We want to start focusing on who it is that we want to be. Use these tips, use these science based ways to get ourselves back on that track and get ourselves energy, overcome the burnout and truly, truly have a more harmonious lifestyle. Imagine yourself doing that and thank you so much for joining us.

Sandy Kovach  [00:36:39]:

As always, we hope the info was helpful to you. For more info on our guest Craig Bruce, as well as Imagine Yourself podcast and all of the social media links, you can go to imagineourselfpodcast.com or check out the show notes. We hope you will follow subscribe and if you have a moment, leave us your feedback. A review really helps us shape the podcast and helps others find it. Until next time, when we something new to imagine. Here's to you having lots more energy and getting more enjoyment out of life.