Ever catch yourself offering to give everything you’ve got AND MORE?
Hopefully you’re so excited about transforming your self-image through this 66 days to Change series that you’ve even said something like that about this process 😉 but I want to help you set yourself up for success in this and any other changes you want to bring about in your life.
To do so I’m going to be the bearer of bad, good and great news.
The bad news is you can’t give anything more than 100% because that’s all you’ve got to share between everything in your life combined.
The good news is that you get to choose what to invest your T.E.E.A.M. players into – that is your Time, Energy, Effort, Attention and Money; each are interconnected.
The great news is that when you stop trying to be all things to all people, you can bring yourself fully back into the present moment and give what you’re doing your full focus; the only way to give anything 100% in the moment is letting go of your attachments to the past or future so you can return to the present moment where you are most powerful.
It’s like each distraction you give your attention to fragments your energy by leaving part of your energy and focus with the idea or situation you’re attending to.
A time management strategy that will be essential for you to consider as you make changes to who you believe yourself to be is a habits box that will help you stay mindful of what behaviours are benefitting, hindering, harming or helping you.
You would be well served to keep a running list of how you’re currently investing your T.E.E.A.M and how that’s working for you. If it’s working well, keep doing what you’re doing but if it’s not, use this exercise to figure out which changes to prioritize first.
Make a list of behaviours spread over 4 quadrants in a square each labelled start, stop, change and continue.
Intentionally track your behaviours on this chart and keep it where you can see it as a visual prompt to keep you mindful of where you are directing your attention, with an added step.
Once you have identified the behaviour, you must consider what stories, or BS, reinforce it.
Work to retrace your Belief System back to the original story that made you judge that aspect of yourself in the first place; that is how you will meet the aspects of yourself that you are ready to reintegrate.
A simple system for changing habitual thought patterns and the life you get to enjoy because of it is as follows:
1. Catch yourself running an unhelpful story
2. Intentionally interrupt it by saying “that’s interesting – I no longer believe that”
3. Redirect your attention to an alternative story that will serve you better “Now I believe that…”
4. Compliment yourself for catching the story before you ran away with it
Celebrating each win, no matter how seemingly small, will help you in overcoming the cognitive dissonant phase of change that often sabotages us and keeps us stuck in patterns that do not serve us.
Much love,
Laura JeH
PS. Tomorrow marks a big day in Canada with the legalization of marijuana because of how it changes the cultural BS connected to it and the people who do it. More on that in the AM – a good reminder to be sure to include your substance(s) of choice in your list above too as accountability is a key component of self-responsibility.
PPS. This email was originally distributed to my people on October 16, 2018.
