692: A Fire-y Message on Fear, Doubt & Limiting Beliefs

You know that frustrating feeling when you don’t get something on the first attempt?

Have you ever felt like there’s no point in trying because you keep letting yourself down?

If you’ve ever felt held back by fear of failure, doubt in your ability to achieve or a sense that it won’t happen for you, today is your episode!

Registration opens on Wednesday (to the wait list only) for the Winter 2020 12 Weeks to Transformation. If you aren’t on the wait list, be sure to get on it now!

Join the Wait List

I’ll be hosting free, live webinars this week for the wait list only so don’t miss out!

690: What Are You Still Carrying?

What are you carrying with you each day, refusing to put down? An argument last week, a mistake from earlier in the year, a belief from childhood… what do you carry with you? Even if it seems small, if you choose to carry it over time it can create great strain.

In today’s episode, I talk about carrying and holding onto things we don’t have to. I share a story that shows this in action, and the greater impact it can have on you. I also share some of the biggest takeaways from our recent Ascend Workshop, and the effect it’s had on me and those who attended.

I’ve written an article that dives deeper into what we carry with us, so whether you choose to read, listen or both… think about what you’re carrying and question if you can put it down for a while.

IN TODAY’S SHOW YOU WILL LEARN:

  1. About what happened at this year’s Ascend Workshop, and some of the core topics we discussed.
  2. An overview of how the 2 Day event is run, and what you can expect when you attend (and how the impact you get differs from the podcast).
  3. The difference between reprogramming and deprogramming, and how unless you commit to both, making a change will always be a struggle.
  4. How we’re defined as people by our thoughts, but how most of our thoughts are on repeat each day.
  5. How carrying seemingly small thoughts, feelings and memories can weigh us down over time, and how we often carry these things for years (or a lifetime)
  6. That putting down what you carry is okay, and that you can always choose to pick it back up whenever you like.
  7. The role your ego plays in all this, and how it defines your comfort zone.
  8. How you can be part of 2020’s first 12 Weeks to Transformation so you can be part of future Ascend Events.

TODAY’S RESOURCES:

I held a bottle of water above my head and asked, “how many people think this is heavy?”

Nobody raised their hand.

I stood before a group of people I trusted, as part of our annual Ascend Workshop. Everyone there has been part of at least one cycle of the 12 Weeks to Transformation. During this in-person two day event, we go deep. I work with everyone one-on-one, and everyone gets to work with other people as driven and focussed on growth as they are.

So the fact I stood in front of them with a small bottle of water above my head may have seemed strange.

What if I held it like this for an hour?” I asked.

A few people raised their hands. The weight of the water bottle remains the same, yet the idea of holding it above your head for an hour suddenly seems tough.

Well, what if you held it above your head for the entire day? or the full weekend? or a week? a month? a year? a lifetime?

It would be hard.
You’d cause injury.
It would become a massive burden… right?

The Weight Doesn’t Change, But The Impact It Has On You Changes With The Time.

The point of this exercise is to demonstrate how the size or weight of something isn’t important, but rather how long you hold onto it that is.

As time goes on, the burden becomes greater.
The energy it takes to carry it over time grows.
The thought/feeling/conversation/worry remains the same.

Yet its impact on you grows and grows and grows.

A water bottle isn’t heavy until you try and hold it above your head for hours, days or weeks.

Well, replace the bottle of water with:

  • That argument you had earlier today…
  • The email you didn’t like last week…
  • The mistake you made last year…
  • That belief you formed when you were a child…

It drains you. The longer you keep hold of it, the more energy it requires.
The burden doesn’t come from the weight, but rather how long you carry it.

This is Why CHANGE is Often So Hard!

Research shows that we have between 60,000 and 70,000 thoughts per day. That’s a lot, but what’s insane is that 90-95% of these thoughts are the same each day.

Every day, we live life on repeat.
The same thoughts, feelings and habits.
The same reactions to the same situations.

It leads us to do the same things day-in-day-out. 95% of who we are is a memorized set of feelings, actions and reactions. We can change, and we can grow… but we’re always in battle with what we know and have always done.

This makes change hard.
And what makes it harder is when you carry all that extra baggage with you.

It’s often easy to identify what we want to change in our life:

  • Lose weight
  • Save money
  • Escape debt
  • Feel healthier
  • Have a stronger relationship…

You create a plan and commit to it, but if you continue to carry those old arguments, beliefs, failures and insecurities… what chance do you have of real change?

Change isn’t defined by what you do, but rather the thoughts you have.
Change these thoughts and create a new narrative… you can win.

Cling to what you’ve always known and done… well, it remains hard.

What Can You Put Down Today?

Can you put that bottle of water down? Can you place it on the floor and give your arm a rest?

You can pick it up again whenever you like. Just because you sit it down doesn’t mean you can’t grab it when you need it. Placing it down for a while doesn’t make it unimportant. It doesn’t mean you have to throw it away or let go of it forever.

It’s there, waiting for you… whenever you need it again.

What else can you put down?

  • What are you carrying from earlier today?
  • What are you carrying from yesterday?
  • What are you carrying from last week?
  • What are you carrying from last year?
  • What are you carrying from deep in your past?

It may have seemed small at the time. Maybe it still feels small. Yet the longer you carry it, the bigger its impact on you. It also means you have less energy to focus on the change you desire.

You need to set it down.
You can pick it up again later.
But you don’t have to carry it with you all the time.

It’s a choice, and it’s one that can set you free.

Thanks for reading today. Please listen to the podcast episode in full to get a complete picture of how this exercise played out at this year’s Ascend Workshop.

I also breakdown how this 2 Day Event works and what you get when you attend.
It’s something that has a profound impact on me each year.
It also brings great change to those who attend.

I’m already excited about our 2020 Ascend event, but you can only attend if you go through at least one cycle of the 12 Weeks to Transformation. The wait list is now open, so get on it and learn the details ahead of our first cycle in 2020.

Those on the wait list also get access to some unique bonuses, so Join the Wait List Here ⇒ 

Thanks again for listening and reading. If you have any questions please add them in the comments below. And to subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on social media, follow the links below.

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689: A New View on Deprivation & Missing Out

How often do you feel deprived and that you’re missing out when everyone else isn’t. This idea of deprivation often comes into play when you’re committed to losing weight, getting healthy, escaping debt or making any transformational change in your life.

Yet this notion of deprivation doesn’t come from the choices you make, rather the perspective you have toward these choices. In today’s episode, I dive deep into deprivation and the fear of missing out, and how a changed outlook can rid it from your life for good.

I’ve also written an article that accompanies this, so whether you read, listen or both… make notes and have an honest conversation with yourself about whether your supposed deprivation is fact or fiction.

IN TODAY’S SHOW YOU WILL LEARN:

  1. How this issue with deprivation is especially prevalent during the holidays.
  2. The conversations I’ve had that inspired this episode, with clients from the 12 Weeks to Transformation.
  3. How Deprivation isn’t about practice or the choices you make, but rather about your perspective toward these.
  4. What the next level to this is, and how it triggers an insecurity some many of us have.
  5. The self-centered effects of deprivation, and how to break this narrative by looking at the whole picture.
  6. The half-truths of deprivation, and how it often only creates an incomplete story.
  7. A recent story from my own life, and how I stepped back from deprivation and the fear of missing out
  8. How you can be part of 2020’s first 12 Weeks to Transformation, and how to get access to a few special bonuses.

TODAY’S RESOURCES:

I recently went out for a meal with my boyfriend and one of his friends…

We had a lovely meal and shared lots of stories, yet the two of them did something that is possibly not the best idea to do around a woman who’s seven months pregnant… they ordered a bottle of wine.

Of course, I couldn’t have any wine.
And in that moment I had a choice to make…

  1. Feel deprived, and wish I had what they had
  2. Do the other thing…

We’ll get to what the “other thing” is soon. It’s something each one of us can choose to do, but often don’t and instead feel deprived and like we’re missing out on something we want or need. It’s especially prevalent at this time of year where one holiday follows the last.

Food, drink, social gatherings, presents to buy and a house to decorate…

It’s easy to see what other people are doing or have and wish you did or had the same. Maybe you give into these temptations and eat more, drink more and spend more money. Well, we all know what that leads to…

  • Guilt
  • Frustration
  • Anger
  • Annoyance
  • Blame — either yourself or other people!

But then again, maybe you don’t give into temptation.
Maybe you’re on a diet, trying to drink less or committed to escaping debt.

You hold strong but it’s a struggle too because you feel like you’re missing out. You work so hard, yet here you are, deprived of having a good time where everyone else seems to do what they want to do.

It isn’t fair, is it?
Well, that depends on how you look at it.

I felt compelled to record this episode of the Primal Potential podcast because I’ve had a lot of conversations with clients (those inside the 12 Weeks of Transformation), and one topic that keeps coming up is DEPRIVATION.

For instance, while speaking to one client, she told me how she was struggling with the feeling of missing out. She felt like she couldn’t have certain things because she was committed to losing weight,

So I asked her what she was missing out on.
“Chocolate cake,” she said.

Because she’s committed to losing weight, she doesn’t feel like she can have it. Yet, is this true? If she had a piece of chocolate cake would it have a massive impact on her end result? If she had one piece over the holiday, would it mean all the progress she made was pointless?

Of course not!

She feels deprived, but that’s all it is… a feeling.

How To Step Away From Deprivation Once and For All!

Deprivation isn’t about what you can and can’t do, it’s about your perspective toward these.

 

It’s not the list of things you should say no to, it’s your feelings toward these. Being on a disciplined diet doesn’t lead to deprivation. My client isn’t deprived because she can’t have chocolate cake. It’s her perspective toward all this that deprives her.

The story she tells herself.
The inner narrative.
The perspective you have!

Deprivation comes from how you see the issue, not the issue itself. You can choose to eat chocolate cake and still stick to your diet, and you can still lose the weight you desire. Yet you can also choose not to.

You can choose to see saying no to chocolate cake as deprivation, and that you’re missing out while everyone else around the table gets to enjoy life. Or you can change the narrative and focus on the bigger picture.

I choose to say no to chocolate because I want to be healthier, fitter and happier.
I can have it right now if I want… nobody and nothing can stop me. But I can choose not to.

Deprivation comes from your perspective.
It comes from the stories you tell yourself.

Deprivation Comes From a Selfish Place

There’s another level to all this that I go into detail in the episode that accompanies this. I encourage you to listen to it in full as it shares a few stories and examples from my own life.

What I know is true for me is, when I’m struggling with something in life I tend to get pretty selfish. Less so these days, as I’m more conscious of it. But in the past, sure… I made it all about me.

Let’s go back to the dinner table with my boyfriend and his friend…

They ordered wine that I cannot have. Here I am, seven months pregnant. I would love wine but cannot have it. How selfish of them. Do they not think about me? Do they even care?!

If this narrative played in my head, maybe you could understand it and appreciate it. It would be easy to validate, that is for sure. Yet who does this take into account? ME! That’s it. It’s my side of the story, and how it affects me.

It doesn’t take into account my boyfriend or his friend.
It doesn’t take into account the lovely meal we got to share with each other.
It doesn’t take into account the food I got to eat and the stories we shared.

It’s about me and what I don’t have.

Deprivation is a very self-centered perspective!

It’s very one-sided and doesn’t look at the whole story. It’s not an accurate story. It’s a half-truth at best, and you cannot make good decisions based on half-truths. You lead with emotions and it fuels the feeling of deprivation and that you’re missing out.

Which makes the whole process worse…

It’s Time To Change Your Perspective

Oftentimes, we focus on the negative instead of the positive.

  • You feel deprived because you can’t have dessert, even though you’ve had a lovely meal and are full.
  • You feel deprived because you can’t have a drink when everyone else is, even though you’re having an amazing night with friends you love.
  • You feel deprived because you can’t spend the money you would like, even though by escaping debt it will allow you to live the life you desire.

It’s not that you’re deprived or missing out… you simply see it this way. Well, you can choose to change your perspective and focus on the bigger picture; the positives that often outweigh the negatives.

We often see discipline as something that steals from us.

  • The discipline of losing weight
  • The discipline of escaping debt
  • The discipline of working out

Well, discipline is something you do for yourself, not something you do to yourself.

The freedom that discipline offers you is huge. Maybe not right now, but further down the line… sure. This is the new perspective you need to take. Once you do you’ll never feel deprived again.

I didn’t feel deprived as I sat around the table with my boyfriend and his friend. As they drank wine that they couldn’t, I focussed on the lovely meal we shared and the stories we told. I appreciated what I have, and reminded myself why I’m not drinking wine right now.

Because soon I’ll welcome my daughter into the world, and that’s more important than a glass of red.

Thanks for reading today. Please listen to the podcast episode in full to get a deeper look into deprivation and the role it plays in your life.

And if you would like to surround yourself with people who strive to change their perspective like this, and have a platform to share your worries and wins… join the 12 Weeks to Transformation Wait List.

It’s now open, and those on the Wait List get information first about what to expect in 2020.

Join the Wait List Here ⇒ 

Thanks again for listening and reading. If you have any questions please add them in the comments below. And to subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on social media, follow the links below.

GET INVOLVED:

 

 

684: An Open Letter About the Holidays

The Holidays are an amazing time of year, but can also bring a lot of stress, worry and overwhelm. I struggled with them for a long time. I would over-indulge and commit to too much, and come out the other side exhausted and unhappy. It got to the point where I dreaded the holidays.

In this episode, I explain how I escaped this, as well as the six things I’m focussing on ahead of the holidays that are approaching very soon. I’ve written an article that accompanies this, so whether you read, listen or both… think about how you can make the holidays easier and better for you and your family in the coming weeks.

IN TODAY’S SHOW YOU WILL LEARN:

  1. About the Free 7 Day Challenge I’m running that will help you make the most of the holidays this year.
  2. An important lesson I learned from James Clear about how you need to serve yourself before you can serve others.
  3. How I struggled with the holidays for nearly a decade, and how I dreaded them each year (avoiding them as much as I could).
  4. How your life isn’t black or white, and how a binary approach like this does not serve you or those around you.
  5. The 6 aspects I’m focussing on during the holidays this year to ensure I have a good time while sticking to my goals
  6. How this doesn’t only apply to the holidays, but if you go on vacation, out for a meal or even a weekend away.
  7. Why you should stop using the phrase “Holiday Season”!
  8. The steps you can make TODAY to ensure you reduce stress and overwhelm so you can enjoy the holidays without guilt or worry.

TODAY’S RESOURCES:

Until relatively recently, the holidays have always been a tough time for me.

For starters… the food!
As someone who struggled with her weight, the holidays brought temptation and guilt.

I’d be nervous in the lead up to them. I would set a goal and say “this year I won’t overindulge”, yet once the Halloween candy hit the stores the temptations would begin. Thanksgiving would soon follow with a lot more food. And then Christmas. And New Years. And valentines shortly after that…

I’d give in to my temptations once and more would follow.
After a few weeks of this, it’s hard to think of those goals without feeling the guilt.

And looking in the mirror… well, let’s say I didn’t enjoy doing it.

Yet it wasn’t just the food. As an introvert, the holidays bring a lot of social gatherings. This, combined with all the food and deserts led me to dread this period each year. I’d feel anxious about them. I’d avoid them. For around ten years, this was the case!

I no longer feel this way… I talk about why in the latest episode of the Primal Potential podcast. I encourage you to listen to it in full, as I share my personal story from avoiding the holidays to embracing them.

With the holidays approaching fast, now feels like a good time to share this with you.

A Lesson About Filling Your Cup From James Clear

I recently came across this image from James Clear.

I thought about the holidays approaching as soon as I saw it. How, during this time of year, so many people stop filing their own cup.

  • The lack of sleep due to all the parties and family gatherings.
  • The lack of recovery and time on your own, for the same reasons.
  • An overindulgence of food, and a lack of good food entering your body.
  • Too much drink and not enough exercise.

All the while you travel more at this time of year, still have work and life’s general stresses, and the worry of buying presents, cleaning the house before guests arrive and carving enough time to spend with family and friends.

As the image above shows, you need to put into your cup before you can let anything out.
Yet how often does this faucet stop in the lead up to the holidays?

Is it any wonder this time of year brings so much stress and overwhelm?

Your Life is NOT Black or White

I don’t like to look at life as black or white. It isn’t binary where you have to choose one or the other. You can have both a fun, exciting and enjoyable holiday period without needing to overindulge in food, drink and anything else.

It isn’t either-or.
Yet this is the mindset most people take.

Myself included, for many years.

Binary is the opposite of creativity. With a little thinking and planning, you can enjoy the holidays ahead without having to say no to every dessert and glass of wine. You can have both.

I talk about how in the episode that accompanies this article.
It goes into everything in greater depth, so be sure to listen in full.

But to overview, here are the 6 Aspects I’m focussing on as we enter the holidays…

1: Find The “Bliss Point”

I talk about the “Bliss Point” in episode 537, so you may like to listen to that in full to get a complete picture of what it is. The premise of it is simple enough:

a quantity of consumption where any further increase would make the consumer less satisfied

The bliss point is relevant in all walks of life: in business, with your own health, at home… everything!

It’s certainly present during the holidays. Think about how easy it is to go past this bliss point:

  • Where you spend too much on things you don’t need…
  • When you eat more food than it is enjoyable…
  • How you drink a few too many…
  • Where time with your family becomes too overwhelming and overbearing…

You have control over this, though. You get to choose when to stop. But first, you must appreciate what is too much and too little. Find that bliss spot and commit to staying inside it.

2: Stop Using The Term “Holiday Season”

Once Halloween arrives, we seem to enter the “Holiday Season”.

This is a dangerous term because before long you use it as an excuse:

  • To eat what you like
  • To go out and enjoy yourself too much
  • To drink and socialize
  • To get back to your workout when it’s all over…

It isn’t a season. Each holiday lasts a few days.
So, stop using it as an excuse to fall short of your goals.

This leads us to the next point.

3: Never Skip Twice

It’s Thanksgiving, so you skip your workout and indulge in a lot of food. Fine. Enjoy yourself.

But tomorrow, get back to it.

Don’t let it happen twice. Don’t let eating pizza at lunch be a reason to have ice cream after dinner. If you make a mistake or fall short, accept it and move on. Just commit to getting back to what you need to do tomorrow.

Never skip it twice.
Don’t let it become a habit.

4: Take Full Responsibility

I used to struggle with this, and it’s something I continue to work on each day.

It’s often easy to assign blame elsewhere.

As though the reason you ate seven cookies is that they brought out a plate full of them. Like you had to eat them all. As if you couldn’t have just had one or two!

It’s your choice. What you choose to do and not do is on you. Take full responsibility for it.

Practice taking ownership for all you can.

5: Do NOT Make it All About You!

This is easy to get caught up in during the holidays because you often have more to do.

  • Clean the house, as you have family coming over.
  • So much food to cook and prepare.
  • Presents to buy.
  • Travel to arrange for when you visit home.
  • Work to get finished before you take a few days off…

It’s easy to get caught up in all the things YOU have to do.
To the point where you forget what other people are going through.

Take a step back. Think about what’s going on with them.
Make it less about you, and more about those around you.

6: Plan Plan Plan!

This one helps to overcome making it all about you!

 

Create a plan. Make a start. Each day, make progress.

 

  • Plan the presents you need to buy and purchase one each evening.
  • Clean a section of your house every weekend.
  • Decide what is the right amount of food to eat and what’s too much ahead of time.

Start early and do something every day / few days / each week… this way the stress doesn’t build up until you have to do everything last minute. Have a plan and then stick to it.

I go deeper into all six of these in the episode that accompanies this.
I encourage you to listen to it in full, as I share a lot of my own story.

This began as a letter to myself. Yet I wanted to share it with you because I know the holidays are a struggle for so many. I found it difficult for 10 years, always dreading the holidays as soon as they arrived.

As we move into the holidays this year, these are the 6 aspects I’m focussing on.

I plan to have fun.
I WILL indulge in the food I love.
I’ll have a great time with family.

But I’ll also workout, have time on my own and stick to my goals. I won’t allow myself to enjoy too much short term pleasure if it’s at the expense of the life I desire. You can do the same. It’s a choice.

And it’s one of the things we’ll focus on in the Free 7 Day Challenge we’re running.

There are two ways to get involved.

  1. via the 12 Weeks to Transformation Wait List
  2. join the free Primal Potential Facebook Group

Each day I’ll send you a series of questions or journal prompts designed to make you feel more centered, grateful and fulfilled (and less stressed and overwhelmed).

It’s the perfect remedy to the holiday struggles so many face.

Thanks for reading today. Please listen to the podcast that accompanies this article in full, as I talk more about the holiday struggles I faced and how I overcame them.

The holidays can be a tough time, but they’re also a great opportunity to recharge, reflect and spend time with those you love (let alone enjoy some amazing food). You can both enjoy yourself and stick to the goals you set. It’s possible. It’s within your control!

I invite you to join me on the Free 7 Day Challenge that’s coming up. There are two ways to get involved.

  1. via the 12 Weeks to Transformation Wait List
  2. join the free Primal Potential Facebook Group

Thanks again for listening and reading. If you have any questions please add them in the comments below. And to subscribe to the podcast and connect with me on social media, follow the links below.

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683: Are You In “The Gap”?

Hi, friends! It’s Elizabeth here, and I am so excited to share Episode 683 of Primal Potential with you today! Primal Potential is a podcast all about you — your ability to change is not defined by yesterday and doesn’t need to wait until tomorrow. Your transformation is now, no matter what stage you find yourself in life!

I just got back home from an absolutely fantastic weekend in Portland, Oregon hosting my annual weekend workshop, Ascend. This workshop is an incredible weekend of inspiration and opportunity for women like you who are ready to take charge and reach their full potential, and this year was such a success! I met with so many ambitious women who have really wonderful goals for themselves. I know we all left feeling more empowered than ever to succeed in our businesses, relationships, and personal lives.

I have so many massive takeaways from the event this year that I could talk to you about, but there’s one, in particular, I want to share today. At the very beginning of Ascend, I shared with the women who attended that I felt a huge sense of responsibility. Of course, I felt a responsibility to add a lot of value and exceed people’s expectations. But I also felt this huge and specific responsibility to ensure that nobody would come in, learn a lot, massively raise the bar on their potential, and then go home and not make any changes. 

So I want to talk to you about that space between learning and development — the space that I call “The Gap.” And by talking about “The Gap” and how it makes us feel, I hope to empower you to close the gap and start living out your highest potential!

 

What Is “The Gap”?

 

Let’s talk a little bit more about what exactly “The Gap” is. I define the gap as the space between where you are right now — what you’re doing right now, your habits, patterns, and behaviors — and what you know you want to be doing. It’s the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

This is a huge topic of discussion in the personal development world, and of course it is because it’s such a common experience! Have you ever found yourself living in the gap? I know I can raise my hand for this question.

Have you ever listened to a podcast or attended an event like Ascend, learned so much, and felt so empowered, only go back home and return to your life without implementing any of the new strategies you’ve learned? Maybe you’ve invested in some fantastic financial coaching, but you haven’t actually used what you’ve learned to start making better financial investments. Or perhaps you’ve spent time consulting with a nutritionist and a fitness instructor, and you’ve attended workout classes and weekend fitness workshops, but when it’s all over, you fall back into your old patterns. 

And what so many of us do in that situation is actually make the problem worse. We go back to our podcasts, we read more books, and we gain more information, but we continue not to take action. That widens the gap. 

And the worst part about all of this is that we start to feel discouraged. As the gap widens, we experience loss of self-esteem and feelings of being overwhelmed. Shame goes up, worthiness goes down, we feel terrible about ourselves, and the gap continues to widen even further. 

I think that the desire to improve yourself is a real gift. I’m so inspired at events like Ascend because I get to meet so many women who have an honest desire to improve themselves, their business, and their families! But the truth is, we have a responsibility to close the gap. But how can we do that? What does it take to close the gap?

 

You Can Decide To Close The Gap

 

Have you ever ridden on a subway in London? Do you know what the announcer says over the loudspeaker when a subway train is boarding? One of the attendees at Ascend this year mentioned this to me, and I think it’s so relevant to this discussion. When a new subway train is boarding in London, the announcer says, “Mind the gap.”

And what she means is, “mind the gap between the platform and the train, so you don’t fall down or get stuck!” But I think this applies to “The Gap” we’ve been talking about.

“Mind the gap.” Grow your awareness of it; that’s always the first step. When you’re aware that you’ve gathered all this knowledge and the tools and resources you need, but you’re not taking the steps necessary to implement that information, you can actually start to bridge the gap.

From there, you have to choose to take action. That’s your true responsibility here: decide to close the gap through action. You don’t need a 30-day plan or a 90-day plan. You just need to act.

And you can do it today. You can decide to close the gap. What choices can you make today, in the next hour, to propel you toward your goal?

Maybe your goal is to change your relationship with food. And you’ve spent time talking with a nutrition coach, and you’ve listened to fitness podcasts and memorized the Golden Rules of Carbs and Fat Loss, but you haven’t taken any action. You’re still in the gap, and you know it because your actual relationship with food hasn’t changed. As a result, you feel increasing shame and frustration and defeat.

So how can you close the gap? Decide to take action. What action can you take right now that will help close the gap? It doesn’t have to be big — any action at all starts to close the gap. Maybe you go through your grocery list, cross off some junk food, and add some healthy fruits and vegetables. Perhaps you do all your meal prep for the next three days. Maybe you finally call a friend and ask them to be your accountability partner. You could do all those things today! With each small action you take, you make the gap between who you are and who you want to be smaller.

 

The Gap Is Always Changing

 

Here the other thing about the gap: it’s always changing. As your goals shift and you change your lifestyle to fit them, the gap will get wider again. That’s okay! It’s normal! The key is to continue to mind the gap and take new actions to close it again.

But it can be difficult. As we’ve already talked about, when the gap gets wider, we start to experience shame, discouragement, and defeat. But I want to empower you today to believe that those feelings do not define who you are. They’re just the world’s way of telling you that you’re in the gap.

Let me repeat that: Your feelings of shame and unworthiness and defeat do not define who you are. They are absolutely not a reflection of your characters or your ability to change and grow. They’re just signals that the gap is widening. They provide an opportunity to mind the gap, evaluate where you need to take action, and reorient yourself to continue pursuing your goals.

And remember, it doesn’t have to be a Herculean effort. You don’t have to dash through every obstacle and build a perfect business and perfect marriage and perfect body in the next 15 minutes! All you have to do is take some simple action. Small steps will ultimately close the gap and transform you from who you are into who you want to be. 

I talked with one of the awesome women who attended Ascend, and she put it like this: every choice I make either widens the gap or closes the gap. And it’s true — all you have to do is make choices that close the gap. And when the gap shifts, reevaluate and continue making choices to close it again.

What can you do today to close the gap? What choices can you make to ensure you’re making the gap smaller and not wider? Seriously, ask yourself these questions, and choose to act on them today.

 

Are You Ready To Close The Gap?

 

Take a few minutes to evaluate yourself — are you in the gap? Are you experiencing feelings of overwhelm and frustration and disappointment and shame? Are you ready to take action to reach your goals today?

Remember what I said earlier: It is a real gift to desire to improve yourself. Not everyone has that desire; some people are content to live their lives without changing at all. They’re not interested in extending to that outer edge of the spectrum. They’re not listening to the podcasts, reading the books, or attending events and workshops. They’re not interested in growing, and so they’re not creating the gap.

But if you’re Primal Potential and reading this post right now, you probably do want to change. You’re ambitious. You have goals and dreams that you are worthy of achieving, but when we don’t take action to reach those goals and dreams, we can fall into the gap. It’s just a fact. 

But you can close the gap. I hope that you feel empowered to do that. You ladies are incredible, and your transformation starts the moment you decide.

Now, if you’d like some extra support, a little more coaching, and accountability, I want you to get on the waitlist for our next 12 Weeks of Transformation! In this program, I work with people in a much more personal and structured way to create change. We tackle our excuses head-on and find the core values that will motivate you to take action. If you’re not sure what to do next, I encourage you to check out 12 Weeks to Transformation and get on that waitlist! 

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I’d also love to connect with you via text! I send out text messages with my daily mindset upgrades and daily encouragement. I know they will empower you as you take action and close the gap!

Thanks, everyone! Talk to you later!

 

Elizabeth Benton

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