Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.
Susan Hyatt cuts right to the chase: “What’s robbing you of success?” the Evansville-based Master Certified Life Coach asks clients, encouraging them to identify the habits and behaviors that are holding them back from self-improvement. Although consistency and accountability factor heavily into creating good habits or breaking negative ones, in order to truly change yourself, Hyatt says you have to align your awareness, thinking, and goals.
Hyatt’s advice is sourced from experts, medical studies — and her own lived experiences. “One (habit) I consider an absolute miracle is I went from someone with a Ph.D. in Couch Potato to someone who moves her body consistently,” she says. She decided who she wanted to become, plugged into that mindset, and changed her identity around exercise. “People who knew me then marvel that I’m somebody who now has an app to lift weights,” she says. “Susan Hyatt in 2007, she would have laughed at that.”
Be Your Biggest Cheerleader
“What you’re telling yourself needs to be supportive,” Hyatt says. “Self talk often is so negative. We’ll discount ourselves in a way that we’ll never speak to someone else.” She recommends this as the first obstacle to overcome: “Universally, you change habits by the way you think and speak to yourself.”
Align Your Thinking With Your Goal
Pay attention to and match your thinking to what you’re wanting to become. “Awareness of what you want to change, who you’re becoming, and how you’re thinking needs to be in alignment,” Hyatt says. “Otherwise, step into a new identity.”
Start Small
“Seventeen years ago, I was someone who said, ‘You can’t make me exercise.’ Now, I run 4-5 times a week and lift weights 4-5 times a week,” Hyatt says. “It started a little at a time: walking a few days a week, me being curious about what I’m capable of. At the time, I didn’t like it, but moving my body was necessary for my mental and physical health — it motivated me because I felt so bad all the time. I started moving to feel better with my mental health and it escalated and improved from there.”
Hyatt says to expect a certain amount of regression where old thoughts and habits come back, and use your new mindset to address it. “Say, ‘OK, let me reframe this thought and, with kindness, redirect myself back to what I want to do,’” she says. “It’s not black or white. It’s all part of the process. People give up way too soon because they’re not doing it perfectly.”
Think positively and proactively, Hyatt encourages. “If it has crossed your mind, it’s something you really crave and want, and you have what it takes to create it,” she says. “You wouldn’t have the desire without the ability to do it. That’s my biggest pep talk. Otherwise it wouldn’t dawn on you.”
Setting Attainable Goals
Last February, the Evansville Thunderbolts were struggling to make the playoffs. Coach Jeff Bes called a meeting, where players outlined steps toward becoming a championship hockey team. “Those short-term goals Coach always sets (are) a good way to tackle big tasks,” Captain Matthew Hobbs says. “We put it all on the board and stuck to our plan.” (Read more about the Bolts and their eventual SPHL championship.)
