I had been doing so well.

For weeks, my Fitbit sleep scores were in the high 80s and low 90s — and I was feeling it. More energy. Clearer head. Better days.

And then this past week… I was back to being awake for hours in the night.

Nothing dramatic happened. No big crisis. Just real life, a bit of travel, a disrupted routine — and if I’m honest — I simply forgot to take my nighttime herbal sleep remedy that has been helping me so much.

This morning, I did something very simple.

I took the bottle out of my travel bag and put it on my night table.

Right where I can’t miss it.

And I smiled, because I thought: This is exactly what we teach about implementation.

Last Thursday, during our Implementation session with the Oral-B Professional Partners Program, we talked about this exact principle — if you want something to stick, it can’t live in a drawer or on a shelf or in your “good intentions.” It has to be in front of you. Your environment has to support the habit.

James Clear talks about this in Atomic Habits: we don’t rise to the level of our goals, we fall to the level of our systems — and our environment is a huge part of that system. Cues matter. Placement matters.

But here’s the other piece that’s been showing up for me this week: the racing mind.

It’s hard not to worry in today’s climate. There’s a lot that feels uncertain and out of our control. I’ve read The Let Them Theory a couple of times now, and it’s a great reminder that not everything deserves our energy. Some things we simply have to let be.

What is in our control, though, is what we choose to build.

When we set goals, create a learning plan, and then actually create an implementation plan, something shifts. You feel forward motion again. You feel momentum. And since we spend such a big portion of our lives in our work, improving your practice really does improve your life.

Tony Robbins says it best:

Progress = Happiness.

Without progress, we feel stuck. And when we feel stuck, everything feels heavier — even our sleep.

So maybe your “night table move” this week isn’t about sleep.

Maybe it’s finally putting that course on your calendar.

Maybe it’s choosing one goal for this quarter.

Maybe it’s setting up your environment — and your schedule — to support the kind of clinician and professional you want to be.

Small placements. Small shifts.

But they create forward motion.

And forward motion changes everything.

Warmly,

Kathleen

Kathleen Bokrossy, RDH, BSc ~ Founder | President