5 Mindset Shifts That Transformed My Life (1 of 5)

Today I am kicking off a 5 part blog series on mindset shifts that have completely transformed my life. This is part 1 of 5.

If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.

I’ve been reflecting on what is different in my life and, more importantly, how I created those changes.

There’s the obvious stuff:  I believe in myself and my ability to make things different. For most of my life, I doubted that I’d ever change.  I trust myself around food – that certainly was not the case for about 3 decades. Food doesn’t consume my thoughts. I’m not obsessed with everything I do, everything I eat, and every pound on the scale. I am not swinging wildly from one extreme to the other. Most obviously, I used to wear a size 24. The jeans I wore this weekend are a size 10. That’s pretty damn different.

But, I really believe that the way we think is what drives our choices. Given that, what’s most different about the way I think?

The first thing is my approach to those moments, days or weeks of struggle, lack of motivation, frustration & inconsistency. I still have those moments, on the regular, but a huge shift is how I respond to them.

The Old Way:

In the past, when I wasn’t getting results, felt like I was stuck or was in a period of no motivation, my perspective was that I needed to find something new.

I needed a new approach. Sometimes that was a new diet. Sometimes a new book on mindset. A new trainer or workout plan. A new journal. A new strategy. New. More. Different.

I was always looking for the next thing.

I needed to know more. I needed a bigger arsenal of tips and tricks and habits.

My struggle was only because I hadn’t found that thing.

More more more.

All it got me was more of the same. More inconsistency. More hopping from one thing to another and never choosing to create consistency.

The New Way:

I still struggle. I get down on myself. I get frustrated. I have periods where my body seems unresponsive to what I’m doing.

But I’m DONE looking for “more”.

The answers are not outside me. They are inside me.

I don’t need to know more. I don’t need a new idea or approach. I don’t need a new strategy or tatic. I don’t need a book or a podcast or a pep talk.

I already have what I need.

I’m just not doing what I know.

The constant seeking is a distraction from action.

It’s not about looking outside me for answers in the world.

It’s about looking inside me for answers in my heart and in my head.

Ultimately, it’s about answers in my practice. My answers are always in what I do, how I act & the choices I make.

That’s the shift.

If I feel unmotivated, I don’t need a song, book, or podcast. I need to create motivation.

I need to be the change.

I don’t need a new tool or tactic. I need to get serious about being consistent with what I already know.

Too many people are telling themselves they are stuck and they need more ideas.

Honestly, if anything, you need less. Far less.

Are there things you don’t know? Sure. Of course.

Are those things required for you to make progress? Not likely.

And: you will learn infinitely more from your own action & practice than from any book, podcast or strategy in the world.

ACTION IS THE ANSWER.

Do something.

Stop thinking about it. Stop searching for it.

There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could be more consistent. There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could be more disciplined. There isn’t one of us who can’t say where we could make an improvement.

Put your focus there.

That’s the shift.

To put it simply: I used to be a searching. I used to look to everyone except myself. I wanted their ideas. Their strategies.

If I was failing, I assumed it was because there was some missing piece of the puzzle that I had to go find.

That was a distraction from what mattered most: MY WORK.

The missing piece was my commitment to consistent action.

That’s where people are missing out.

We are in the information age, which is awesome, but it can be deceiving & distracting, especially if all the complexity blinds you to the transformative power of SIMPLICITY.

Don’t let learning take your eyes off doing.

What you need to do is act.

And when you aren’t sure and you’re struggling:  don’t learn more.

Do better.

What is one thing you could do today that is an improvement for you?

What is one thing that you know you need to be more consistent with?

Earn easy in your practice today.

To read part 2, click here

How I’m Earning Easy

Not long ago, I started taking guitar lessons. Left to my own devices, I fill my time with work, so I decided to get intentional about adding in activities that bring me joy & challenge me. I certainly wasn’t going to drift to joy! Plus, I love to learn and when it comes to guitar, I have nothing to do but learn!

Right out of the gate, it felt hard.

My forearms and fingers would get tired. Every single note took so much effort, coordination and attention.

It felt like my fingers were too small & the guitar was too big.

Nothing came easily.

My teacher encouraged me to practice every day. It was a chore.

Every minute of practice took effort. There wasn’t any part of it that felt easy.

There are only two approaches to this kind of situation:

  1. You put in the work when it’s hard & it eventually becomes easy.
  2. You avoid the work because it’s hard and it will remain hard.

The more I practice, the easier it gets.

The more I practice, the faster it becomes easy.

I am in control of what feels hard and what feels easy.

So, I practice.

There is true in every area of change.

It’s hard until you earn easy.

I thought of this last night at adult gymnastics. Walk-outs to a push-up on the balance beam felt hard. I thought, “I can’t do it.” Then I quickly thought, if I practiced regularly it would feel easy. The more I practice, the faster my progress to easy!

I get it: eating well can feel hard.

Resisting temptations can feel hard.

Consistency might seem hard.

But it’s only hard because you haven’t done enough work for it to be easy.

Easy is earned.

These things aren’t inherently hard. They aren’t permanently hard.

They are only hard because you haven’t practiced enough.

There are tons of things in my life that once felt hard that are now so easy I do them without thought:

  • Publishing a podcast
  • Driving
  • Push-ups
  • Explaining the relationship between insulin & fat loss
  • Power cleans
  • Flossing my teeth

I did them so often that I got good. Efficient. Proficient.

I want you to think of this the next time something feels hard.

It is only hard because you haven’t earned easy. There are only two approaches you can take:

  1. Put in the work when it’s hard & it eventually becomes easy.
  2. Avoid the work because it’s hard and it will remain hard.

Which will you choose today?

Get consistent and watch hard become easy.

What Is REALLY Easier?

I got an email the other day in response to the “Becoming A Warrior” episode of the podcast (episode 457).

If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.

Here’s part of what the email had to say:

Elizabeth,

I enjoyed your podcast about being a warrior. I want to be a warrior, but it’s so much easier to be a victim.

I get it. I understand. You know what it made me think of? The most random thing ever…

Learning to type. Did you have typing class in school?

Prior to this class, I used the computer regularly. Sure, I hadn’t been taught to type, but, I’d hunt and peck on the keyboard with reasonable efficiency.

Learning to type “the right way” felt so hard – much harder than continuing to do it my way. As I went through the drills in class I remember saying things like, “This is slower! It’s harder! I can go faster my way!

Initially, doing things correctly was both slower and more difficult. It took more focus and energy. It felt hard.

But that’s the wrong comparison.

These days, I realize how painfully slow it is to hunt and peck. If someone at the post office or store is using “hunt and peck” to enter my information, I always wish I could take the keyboard from them and do it myself. It’s infinitely faster to type properly. It’s infinitely easier to type properly.

But, I had to put in the practice and the work to get to that point. And that’s really the only true, honest comparison.

You have to put in effort and practice to get to that new level of efficiency and ease.

I have lived as a victim, giving in to every temptation, overeating and breaking promises to myself. It was awful. It was a hard, unhappy life. It certainly wasn’t easier than the way I work to live now.

I’ve also made many gradual improvements over years of effort. The change was, at times, a lot harder than saying “yes” to a cupcake. But, even then, it wasn’t harder than being depressed and hopeless.

It is infinitely easier to go through life and make great food choices when I’m not chronically hungry and when I’m not facing overwhelming cravings.

It’s infinitely easier to go through life making choices that make me feel amazing than making choices that make me feel awful.

But to be able to get to that place, just like with my typing class, you have to do the work. You have to put in the practice, even and especially when it feels harder and uncomfortable.

That’s the only way to ease.

If something feels hard, it means you need to practice more. Practice makes things easier, not quitting.

REMINDER: Get on the wait list for the Spring Fat Loss Fast Track! Registration opens to the wait list in mid-March before our April 1st kick off!

459: EB Talks Mindset

459: EB Talks Mindset

Last week I was interviewed about the role of mindset – the way we think and make decisions – in our quest to create change.

I talked about the most common mistakes I see that hold people back and some simple strategies to overcome them. Plus, I talk about my journey, my childhood and how I created massive change and improvement in my own life.

When the full interview becomes available, I’ll be sure to share on Instagram where you can find it. For now, this episode is a great one!

Resources

Join the Fat Loss Fast Track Spring 2018 wait list!

Ready to change your mindset and make massive change? Enroll in Breaking Barriers – the self-guided e-course on overcoming self-limiting beliefs and getting out of your own way!

What is Breaking Barriers?

“I Can’t Seem To Do It”

Yesterday, I posted one of the things I believe in most on Instagram. It said:

People are so busy connecting to the problems of their past that they cannot see the potential of their present or the possibilities in their future.

If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click play. Otherwise, keep reading below.

We get so worked up about past patterns.

We focus on frustration and disappointment about what we did or failed to do.

We argue for our limitations and project past problems onto present moments.

In response to that post, someone on Instagram sent me a direct message that said:

That’s me. In hell.

That’s not the first message I’ve received from this person and her messages have a theme: THE PROBLEM. You might think, well of course people share their problems with you, Elizabeth. That’s why you’re here. Nope. Not so. I help people find solutions. I don’t give them solutions. I help them act on the solutions they’re seeking.

But that’s the rub – they have to be seeking solutions. That’s very different from clinging to a problem.

I responded as I have several times before.

YOU are in control. You can change, but you have to want to be the change.

She said: I do want to change but I can’t seem to do it.

Yes, you can. But you’re so busy focusing on the problem that you can’t see what is right in front of you:

One good choice.

You are always capable of one good choice. One great choice, even. One choice that makes now better than before.

You simply can’t see that when you’re too busy arguing for the problem and being a victim of the past.

You aren’t a victim of your own choices.

Remember that Rumi quote? Why do you stay in prison when the door is so wide open?

Have you ever been in a bad mood and someone was trying to cheer you up but you didn’t want them to? You wouldn’t let them?

You wanted to stay in a bad mood. It didn’t feel good, but you didn’t want to shift your energy away from the problem.

This happens all the time with change. There is an easy way to make an improvement in this moment or in your next choice, but you simply don’t want to. You hate the problem but you don’t want to do the work to create change.

You don’t want to shift your energy away from the problem and to the solution.

And that’s okay. But stop putting negative energy into how badly it sucks.

You are where you are by choice.

You can be somewhere else by choice.

When you’re ready to choose to be somewhere else, you can start with these questions.

What can you do to win the day?

You are capable of one great choice – what will it be?

What can you do to make today better than yesterday?

More of this message is in Tuesday February 27th’s episode of the Primal Potential podcast. Don’t miss it!

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For more mindset coaching, hop on the wait list for the Spring Fat Loss Fast Track! It kicks off on Sunday April 1st and all the details go out to the wait list first!

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