In episode 427 we talked about how to break a big habit into a tiny one to acclerate your progress and build momentum quickly.
Today, I’m showing you how to figure that out in real life.
This episode is an actual coaching call with one of my clients. I take you through the process of how we identify what’s not going well, why it’s not going well and then establish micro changes to both mindset and behavior to create change. I think you’re going to love this episode!
In October 2019, our relationship with Thrive Market changed. They decided to put their marketing dollars in avenues outside of podcasting but we still think they’re a good choice if you’re looking to save money on health & personal care products.
You become your story. Guys, I so need you to understand this. I wish someone had explained it to me years ago.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
My story was a huge part of the reason I struggled with my weight for most of my life.
I was a heavy baby. I was always the chubby toddler. The heavy kid. The fat girl. I adopted that as “who I am”.
I’m just the fat girl. I’m the heavy one. I’ve always been big.
It grew from there. I’m an emotional eater. I’m great at losing weight, terrible at keeping it off.
I was taking my past, claiming it for my present and projecting it onto my future.
For as long as I believed, “I’m just the fat girl”, my choices reflected my story. My choices aligned with my identify, it just wasn’t an identity I wanted. It was, however, the one I was claiming with my story.
Every day I point out stories to my clients and was so happy to see a related quote from Varun Soni in my Instagram feed yesterday:
We become the stories we tell ourselves.
Think about that.
I’m such an emotional eater.
I’m out of control.
I’m not motivated.
I’m such an all-or-nothing person.
I can’t lose weight.
I have no will power.
You will live right into your story.
Please understand that your past choices & patterns are not who you are. They are not all you are capable of.
Do not take your past choices and define yourself by them.
You can create a different story. You can stop limiting your present by clinging to your past.
It’s time to divorce your past. It’s time to stop defining yourself by it.
When you argue for your limitations, you get to keep them.
Use your choices today to create a different story.
When you start thinking, “I have no will power“, reframe that story by asking yourself, “What is one disciplined choice I am able and willing to make today?”
In October 2019, our relationship with Thrive Market changed. They decided to put their marketing dollars in avenues outside of podcasting but we still think they’re a good choice if you’re looking to save money on health & personal care products.
Like I shared with you guys in yesterday’s blog, while I’m away on vacation I’m working on specific targets for my first book including a comprehensive draft of the outline and a draft of the first chapter.
When I woke up yesterday, I set out to write for an hour. At the top of the page I typed, Goal: shitty first draft.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here.
It’s a notion that many writing experts espouse: just put down a shitty first draft.
Instead of trying to craft the perfect paragraph, don’t worry about if what you’re writing is good, just get it out on paper.
It can be paralyzing to hem & haw over the beautiful arrangement of the right words. But that’s not the goal. The goal is a shitty first draft.
It’s a heck of a lot easier to improve a shitty first draft than to craft a first draft you feel great about.
Plus, the target of writing a first shitty draft feels way more managable than writing something that’s amazing on the first try.
I think that’s a great approach to any task or target. Shitty first draft can be an operating system for life in general!
How often do we not eat well because we can’t eat perfectly?
Since we already had a donut for breakfast, we might as well have fries at lunch.
Or since we have to go out to dinner, why bother trying to make good choices?
We hold ourselves back when we strive for perfection.
We remove tons of opportunities for practice when we dismiss all imperfect scenarios.
There is another option.
How can you apply this idea of “shitty first draft” to your life?
You can go to the gym with the goal to get in a slow, easy workout instead of an intense or long workout.
You can enjoy one alcoholic drink instead of three.
You can choose a fat loss friendly dinner after overeating at lunch.
You can turn off the TV in the middle of a Netflix binge instead of staying up super late.
You can apologize to your partner instead of pouting and going to bed angry to prove a point.
The shitty first draft approach is about taking action now instead of wating for the perfect conditions.
It’s about doing what you can do instead of delaying because it’s not ideal.
This week is a big week for me. I’m on vacation, but I’m spending as much time as I can on the first draft of my first book. To say I’m excited is an understatement.
If you’d rather listen to this blog than read it, please click here. (This blog was initially sent out to my Primal Potential VIP email list.)
One of the first steps I took before launching into this book was to go back through all my old journals. I was looking to find what strategies & ideas pulled me out of my hardest moments – times when I felt like progress was so damn far away.
In reviewing the last few years of journals I was looking to answer the questions:
What have been the most valuable strategies for creating success amidst struggle?
What has helped me the most when I’ve been struggling?
What have I done to snap out of slumps and create change when I was feeling hopeless?
What have been my most successful strategies in creating change with clients?
As I’ve gone through hundreds of pages and countless emails, one concept keeps recurring:
You are only a handful of choices away from feeling amazing.
You are only a couple days away from feeling so much better.
I know how awful it can feel to be in a pattern of making crappy choices.
Maybe you’ve been overeating or gaining weight. Maybe you’ve been totally checked out and not even remotely focused on your goals. Maybe you’ve been making excuses and putting off doing the work.
It feels awful. It makes you feel stuck.
You are not stuck.
Feeling better is NOT far away. It’s so much closer than you think. It’s as near as just a few good choices.
Let’s say it’s been weeks or months of struggle.
A few good choices will improve your mood. A few good choices will create momentum. A few good choices will increase your confidence and bring you closer to the change you crave.
In as little as a day or two you can go from feeling frustrated and hopeless to in control and motivated.
You are only one good choice away from feeling better than you do right now.
When we break it down like that, turning the ship around feels much more manageable.
I am 1 good choice away from feeling better than I do right now. I am 1 good choice away from feeling more in control than I do right now. I am a handful of good choices away from feeling dramatically different. I am just a great day or two away from feeling amazing.
That has always been, and continues to be, a huge source of inspiration to me!
I drank a lot more than normal when I was in Punta Cana a few weeks ago. When I came home, I felt bloated and tired.
I opened up my phone and wrote to myself: you are just a couple good days away from feeling amazing! Start here, start now!
There are so many other strategies and perspectives I’ve identified while going back through client emails, webinars & journals. These realizations are leading to some crazy-exciting changes and improvements to the winter Fat Loss Fast Track!
To start, I’ve overhauled the journal to make sure it helps lead you the right actions for you, every single day. I’m also re-structuring the weekly challenges and level up lectures to ensure they reflect the most effective change strategies.
Next week I’m opening up the winter Fat Loss Fast Track to the wait list. If you aren’t on the wait list, you can hop on it super fast – just click here: https://primalpotential.com/wait18/
Love you guys! I really hope to get an opportunity to work with you this winter! Remember, you’re 1 great choice away from feeling more in control!
