I listened to a podcast today that I really wanted to share with you. It resonated with me and because I am a great believer that we are the architect of our lives I wanted to share with you how you can really change your behaviour to get what you want out of your life.
Step 1
If I was to take a snap shot of you today, what would I see? What feelings and emotions would hit me in the face? Would you like what that photo reflected?
Have you heard about the sports coach analogy? Well I think you will like it. A sports coach watches you to improve your technique or the mechanics required for your sport. And guess what you can do this for yourself. Did you know that you are your own coach? Your life is based 100% on what you do habitually or what you believe currently. Amazing isn't it. I want you to give yourself 20 minutes to sit and think about what is in your mind. This is called a thought download. This gives us the opportunity to think about what we think. When you understand what impact our thoughts have on our lives it allows you to understand that you can move into a space of deliberatively doing what is going to move you forward.
Have you ever wondered “What is my purpose?” “What was I made to do?” We all know that growth or change is very hard because of the resistance we encounter within our brain. Our brain loves to seek pleasure, avoid pain and expend the least amount of energy possible as you can see in the motivational triad below.
Now I know growth is hard but how about we turn seeking pleasure into seeking growth; expending the least amount of energy into taking massive purposeful action wisely; and avoiding pain into embracing discomfort.
Step 2
Now let’s organise your mind. Think about when you are organising your wardrobe. What is the easiest way to do this? It's to take everything out because this is much more efficient and expends less energy. Have you ever thought about doing this with your mind? Take everything out of your mind by doing a thought download. Put pen to paper and get all the thoughts out of your head. Then take an inventory and think about what your thoughts are. Are they some of these below
I’ve never been able to lose weight
My anxiety controls me
I’m terrible with money
I’m a procrastinator.
These thoughts are not serving you. Now you can choose what you put back into your brain. Organise intentionally and choose purposefully. It is all about being efficient with yourself.
Step 3
Now it’s time to practice believing these new things.
A belief is a thought in your brain that you think is true (a fact). You beliefs are not universally true; they are just well practiced thoughts.
You can believe things you have never believed before because you practice believing these new beliefs over and over again.
Decide what you want to believe by visualising your future.
State your new belief – a sentence that you will practice again and again
Accept this belief as true for you
Practice your belief until it becomes real
Write it down and have it visible to you each day.
I know your brain will want to resist this new belief. An example of this is when you try writing with your non-dominant hand. If you practiced every day you would learn to write with your non-dominant hand. Move towards your discomfort rather than away from it. The growth in this journey will be enjoyable.
