How Do You Want the Journey to Feel?

The goal is important. It's the whole point. 

But 99% of our time is spent pursuing the goal.

Ironically, at the end of the day, it's the pursuit of the goal that fires me up.

Not actually reaching the goal.

I love the heart-thumping feeling when an idea comes knocking at 3am.

I love the determination of waking up every morning with a purpose.

I love the feeling of going to sleep at night having made progress.

I love the pursuit.

So instead of focusing on how I want to feel once I get there – I'm working on how I want to feel WHILE getting there.

Crazy Week Thoughts vs Fun Week Thoughts

This week I have about 23648568 coaching calls.

I don't usually have that many scheduled, but this week is an exception.

I've been thinking about how to coach my brain through it.

My automatic reaction is:

➡️ This is going to be a CRAZY week

➡️ I'm going to be flat out

➡️ I won't have time for myself

➡️ I will just have to get through it

➡️ I hope I don't get too stressed out

But I've decided they aren't helpful thoughts.

Instead, I'm choosing to think helpful thoughts.

➡️ This is going to be fun

➡️ I love connecting with people

➡️ There is enough time for everything I want to do

➡️ This is an opportunity for me to show up as my ideal self

➡️ I am choosing to be relaxed and do this with ease

➡️ I created this, I am in control

➡️ Time expands for me

These thoughts feel way better.

Going into my week excited and ready.

Bring it on.

Take Action From Your Ideal Self

Today I pushed hard.

Harder than I’ve pushed myself all year.

I ran uphill. And I didn’t stop once.

Current me doesn’t do that.

Current me gives up and walks the hard bits.

Current me procrastinates for hours and doesn't run for a second longer than she has to.

But today I didn’t take action from current me.

I took action from the person I want to be.

The whole time I was thinking, "Michael Jordan would do it."

I ran the whole way, uphill, and took the long route.

If you take action from your current self, you’ll get the same results that your current self is getting.

But when you take action from your ideal self, you'll get results that your ideal self creates.

Because you can’t get from A to B with the mindset you have at A.

You have to step into the mindset you will have at B before you arrive at B.

In other words: the only way to get from A to B is to BE the person at B.

The Spectrum of Results

When you set a goal, it might start out feeling impossible.

And as you begin to change your beliefs, your identity, and your actions, it shifts to feeling possible.

Then with deeper work, it shifts to probable.

And eventually, with enough mental and physical effort, what was once an impossible goal becomes an inevitable outcome.

Impossible ➡️  Possible ➡️ Probable ➡️ Inevitable

Where does your goal sit on the spectrum right now?

Want to Help People?

Ever heard someone say this?

"I want to be successful so I can help a lot of people."

It turns out, helping people isn't a result of being successful.

It's a condition for it.

You can't be successful without adding a ton of value to people's lives.

People don't buy things and listen to people that don't add value.

It's not: The more successful you become, the more people you can help.

It's: The more successful you become, the more people you HAVE helped.

Success and value are inseparable.

The World in My Head

The view on my run

Today I went running and I had one of those moments where the world feels so good.

I was reminded that the world is only the way I perceive it.

That I don’t see the world as it is, only as how my mind interprets it.

And I control my mind. So I get to choose how I see it.

And today, I’m choosing to see that the world is good.

That’s all.

Generate Motivation From Within

Motivation doesn't fall from the sky. It comes from within.

We get to generate our own motivation.

You're not tired, you're just bored.

You're not unmotivated, you're just not excited with life!

Go and get yourself some of life's juicy delightful fun.

What lights you up? What gets you excited?

Watch an inspiring documentary.

Set a big goal.

Take a big leap.

Go emotional skydiving.

CHOOSE to generate some motivation.

Short-Term Feelings

"I don't feel like it."

Aka, the most common excuse my brain gives me for not doing something I said I would do.

• Getting out of bed early.

• Making a YouTube video.

• Going for a run.

It doesn't matter what it is – when it comes down to it, I almost always don't feel like doing it.

One of the best things I've ever heard was Will Smith saying he doesn't care what his in-the-moment feelings tell him.

He says that what he feels like in the moment never gets a say in his success.

How good is that?!

We think that when we let ourselves off the hook with our commitment, we are being kind to ourselves.

But really, we're doing the opposite – we're sabotaging our future self.

Don't let a short-term feeling sabotage a long-term gain.

Feelings only last for a moment.

Results are forever.

Thought Processing

I’ve been doing this thing all my life, but I’ve only recently heard it referred to as a ‘thought download’.

Where you just write everything down on a list to get it out of your head and onto paper. Then you can properly evaluate it.

My favourite way to do a thought download is to imagine that I’m with a team of experts in a board room meeting (if you’ve seen the TV show The Politician, it’s kind of like that in my head).

They can take care of everything for me.

I can offload anything to them. They will fix it and make suggestions that my own self wouldn’t normally come up with. I think “Right, Gerry, over to you. What do you suggest we do about the ‘staying-up-too-late’ issue?”

And I’ll get perspectives from imaginary experts and I’ll make an executive decision.

“Right, we’re going with Barbara’s idea of scheduling everything down to tiny details, and we’ll meet back here in 3 days to evaluate and rehash the whole thing.”

This isn’t new to me. I’ve been doing it automatically every day since I was a kid. I thought every few hours everyone just stopped, evaluated the last few hours of thoughts, figured out how they fit into the puzzle of life, and then filed them into a mental library to deal with at the next board meeting.

And since articulating it, no one else I’ve met says they do this.

How do you process your thoughts? I’d love to know.

Already Done

What if you just decided your goal was already done and nothing could undo it?

How would you show up for it?

How would you feel?