Reflections of 2016

I don't know about you but this year flew by fast!  So much went on around the world it's hard to think what to cover in this post....

2016 in Review

 

Accomplishments

• Group Exercise Instructor and Wellness Coach certifications
• Soft launch of the Brand New Me Wellness Coaching Programs
• Announcing the launch of Fit Indy Parties 
• Hired on at the Baxter YMCA as a Wellness Coach on Wednesday nights (stop by and say hi!)
• Purchased a tablet and laptop
• Enjoyed Fitbloggin'
• Walked in The Great Pumpkin Run

Challenges

• Finding the elusive first paying client (the only goal I did NOT accomplish this year)
• Gaining back ~30 lbs
• Making the decision to quit Beachbody since I had no clients 

 

Looking Ahead to 2017

 

Theme

For 2017 my focus is on relationships.  According to Jennifer Dunham's Happiness Quiz I crave improved relationships, with both family and friends.  There are two aspects of this for me.

1. Heart Happiness (aka romantic love):  Greater relationship satisfaction, feeling Benny is there for me.
2. Family/Friend Happiness:  The fundamental need to belong.

Relationships with potential and actual clients will also come into play.

Goals

 

Business

I shared my main business goals on Instagram during The Recharge Challenge.

Success for me would be completing these goals next year plus any others that come along. A possible reward for me reaching these goals is hiring a VA to do the stuff I don't like or am not good at in my business. #TheRechargeChallenge @risingtidesociety #success #TheFitpreneurLife #goals #goalsetting #BrandNewMe #FitIndy #LAWRTW #longandwindingroad #longandwindingroadtowellness #WellnessCoach #rewards #progressnotperfection

A photo posted by Cassandra Schmigotzki (@longandwindingroadtowellness) on Dec 15, 2016 at 11:30am PST

To work on these goals I could use your help.  Please share this little video clip with your networks.

Now that the presents are bought for everyone else it's time to invest in something for yourself. I'm looking for 5 women in the US aged 40-60, who are looking to kick off the new year on a journey to discover their brand new healthier selves. 

Please complete this form to schedule a Wellness Strategy Session.  Together we can find your path through exercise, healthy eating, personal development, and self care.

Personal

At my physical earlier this month my doctor said he's OK with my weight being up but my clothes are too tight.  So one of my goals is to lose the ~30 lbs I've gained back.

As you may or may not know Benny doesn't work and hasn't since he came here from Germany to marry me.  He tried to run a flea market type shop early on in the marriage but that failed miserably.  He has not tried to work or find employment since and, as far as I can tell, has no legitimate reason why.  On top of that Benny's not supportive of this whole coaching business, thinking it's a fad and not my passion/purpose, telling me I have to quit.  This has created much tension that occasionally bubbles to the surface, greatly decreasing my heart happiness.

Normally for improving heart happiness Jennifer recommends things like

• Hug your spouse when they get home every day.
• Go to bed together each night at the same time, even if you aren’t tired.
• Set aside 10 minutes each day to simply sit and have a conversation with your spouse.
• When you feel angry at your partner, practice the habit of breathing and counting to 10 before speaking. 
• Actively replace critical comments with supportive, loving words.
  

Some of the things she has recommended for me:

• Start happy every morning.  What the heck does this mean?  Starting out your day with a positive attitude sets the tone of the rest of your day.  So while you brush your teeth or shower, set your intention for the day.
• Create a safety net.  A safety net is used so you can bounce back faster when negativity or difficult situations arise throughout your day.  I call this your “Recovery Plan”.  You can re-program negative thoughts by actively thinking ahead of time of how you will react. 
  By reacting differently to and handling the situation with your planned reaction it will deflate the situation before it turns negative. So plan ahead to all the things your hubby might say when you ask him to do something and attempt a different reaction.
• Learn a new language.  I don’t mean that you will literally go learn German, Spanish, or Russian.  The language you need to learn is what you tell yourself.  Nine times out of ten, we tell ourselves things that just aren’t true.  We only speak them to ourselves because it’s been a habit for too long.
• Every night, while you brush your teeth or put your PJs on, practice appreciation.  While writing down gratitude or appreciation is suggested, it’s not necessary.  So long as you make it part of your happiness practice as part of your nightly routine, you will end happy.
• Plan 1x per month do a day trip 

Family & Friends Happiness is the necessity for people to belong and feel happy together. We don't have any local friends to hang out with since the Bible study I was involved in disbanded.  I did sign up for my first book club but am waiting to find out where it'll be held before I commit.

Examples of what to do to improve family & friends happiness:

• Leave a note for a loved one to surprise them each week.
• Smile and give direct eye contact when talking to your family and friends.
• Make a habit of thanking someone with a hand written card as soon as possible after they give you a gift or do something for you.
• Choose to stay in regular contact with your family/friends and to see them frequently. 
• Create special traditions that involve your friends or include them in family

How was 2016 for you?  What are some of your goals for 2017?

Know What You Want & Go After It

In the last couple of chapters, we’ve focused on using CBT to reduce stress. And we’ve seen how this can indirectly lead to advancements in your career thanks to things like the law of attraction.

But what about motivating yourself toward something? What if you’re not frozen by fear and stress but simply by tiredness and indifference? What if you don’t know what it is you want out of life, or how to structure a goal so that you can get there? You can’t very well work toward what you want when you don’t know what that is! 

The first thing we’re going to do is to introduce just a very subtle shift in the way you approach these ideas. And specifically, this will mean having a vision and not a goal.

What is the difference between a vision and a goal?

A vision is much more abstract but at the same time, more tangible.

A goal is to lose 15 lbs in 10 weeks. A vision is to be the same you, but fitter, healthier and more attractive – running outdoors with a healthy looking tan and waking up every morning with tons of energy to get up and attack the day.

Which of those things is more motivating? For most people, the answer will be the vision.

The other great thing about visions is that most of us already have them, even if we don’t know it. If I ask you what your goal in life is, then you might not be able to answer. But if I ask you to just imagine your perfect life, then you might find it easier to do. Perhaps you’re sitting on a beautiful beach somewhere? Perhaps you’re living in a massive mansion? Maybe you’re rich in a skyscraper somewhere?

If you’re still struggling to come up with a vision that you can work toward, then some other questions to ask are things like: who are your role models (and what do they have in common)? When was the last time you were truly happy? What did you want to be when you were a kid?

It doesn’t have to be super concrete – wanting to be rich, wanting more time with your family or wishing you weren’t at work is fine! And if you do have something really concrete – wishing you were a famous rock star – then that’s fine too.

From here, the next thing to do is to take that vision and break it down into steps. This is another important point and it’s once again something that a lot of people get wrong. If you are working toward a goal rather than a vision, then you might, as per our previous example, be working toward losing X amount of weight in N amount of time.

This is a fine aim but it’s far too distant and too outside your control to be useful. When it comes to the crunch and you need to force yourself out the door to exercise, it’s all too easy to just tell yourself you’ll catch up on what you’ve missed later. You end up putting it off or making excuses and by the time that amount of time has passed and you haven’t achieved what you were hoping, you just feel disappointed, disheartened and possibly depressed. Eventually, this leads to you giving up entirely!

So instead, we make steps toward our vision. This means coming up with a plan first and often you’ll find it’s easier than you think to accomplish the impossible – it just requires a bit of creative thought. For example, if you want to be a rock star you might take a less obvious route such as creating your own YouTube channel and posting your music regularly. If you build up a big enough following and you have enough obvious skill, then eventually this is highly likely to lead to an offer for a recording contract!

In other scenarios it might be a very easy set of steps – in order to lose weight you might eat no more than 1800 calories every day and workout five times a week for 30 minutes. If you want to write a best selling novel, your goal might be to wake up one hour early and write for 40 minutes before work.

These are now incredibly simple steps that are highly within your control. You either fail or pass but it’s entirely down to you. And if you do fail? You can simply try again the next day. Each day is a fresh challenge and there is no putting things off. Ultimately, this makes a goal much easier to stick to – especially if you use the chain technique a lot of people use: creating a string of X’s in a calendar so that you will find yourself not wanting to break the sequence by missing a workout or writing session!

This will seem detached from the goal at times but if the steps are good, then taking them every single day, week or month on a consistent basis will mean you’re getting gradually closer to your aim.

Now all that’s left is to motivate yourself and to get yourself in a mind set where you’re willing to put in the time and work to get to where you want to be. How do you get yourself to get out of bed to go for a run at 5am when it’s pouring with rain outside?

The answer is that you need to use a slightly altered form of CBT by focusing on the emotional reasons behind what you’re doing. In other words, you need to think about the vision and you need to feel the vision. This is what will give you the release of the correct neurotransmitters to have the motivation to do it. You can also focus on what it is you’re trying to avoid.

So if you’re thinking about running in the morning and you can’t find the willpower to do it, the answer is just to make the connection in your mind so that you link that step to the outcome you want. Visualize that version of yourself who is fit, healthy and ripped and picture yourself running in the sun during the summer. Think about how it feels to never have this low energy and think about the alternative – getting gradually less and less fit and feeling gradually worse and worse with nothing that you can do to fix it.

And if you try this a few mornings and you find it doesn’t work, then another consideration is to try setting yourself up some kind of video or script that you can read or watch when you wake up to do that for you. Feel the emotion, know that the step you’re considering is what can get you there and then take the next step!

Next week we'll talk about increasing your confidence.

It All Starts with Your Mind

I believe that knowledge is power.  Everyone should improve themselves no matter what stage of life they're in.  Moving forward is key.

No matter what it is you want to achieve in life, what makes you happy, or how you hope things are going to turn out – it all starts with your mind. That is to say, that your mind – and your mindset more specifically – is responsible for how successful you are in any pursuit, how others see you, your health, your physical strength and even how happy you are with what you have accomplished.

Any change you want to create in your life starts with the decision to make that change. That alone is enough to mean that all change necessarily must come from within to begin with. It is then your conviction about that change that ensures you’re able to accomplish it, your planning and your determination. And finally, it is your perception of that change that determines whether or not you are content with it.

Take a look at any of the most successful people in the world. One thing they almost always have in common is an absolutely unwavering commitment and determination to what they want to achieve. Take Arnold Schwarzenegger for instance – reportedly, he was so determined to become a champion bodybuilder that he would even break into the gym on the days when it was closed in order to train. He once even snuck out of army barracks during his conscription in order to attend a competition!

People who are truly committed to what they want to achieve will be more than happy to wake up at 5 am every morning in order to workout, to work on their project, to research, to learn or to train. They never tire and they never simply give up. This same commitment and passion is what helps you to focus on boring work, to finish early or to see breakthroughs that you otherwise might have missed.

And simply having the conviction and belief that you can and will success is often enough to draw people to you and to increase your chances of success. When you are truly driven and when you have complete faith in yourself, you exude passion and confidence – which inspires others and convinces them to take risks on you. This is called the ‘law of attraction’ and in a nutshell, it means that for others to believe in you, you first need to believe in yourself!

But perhaps you don’t need any of those things? Perhaps you already have everything you already need to be completely happy but the problem is simply acknowledging that and being content with it. Perhaps it’s just the ‘hedonic treadmill’ that keeps you in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction and prevents you from living life to the fullest and making the most of your opportunities, experiences and relationships.

I'm about to change all that, teaching you the skills you need to really take control of your own mind and to thereby take control of your body and even your situation. 

In this Monday Motivation series, you will learn:

• How your brain works and how this impacts on your experiences and your capabilities
• How you can take control over the workings of your brain in order to alter your emotional state and more
• How controlling your own mind can help you get into the best shape of your life
• How to be happier and more content
• How to manipulate others by understanding the workings of their mind
• How to increase your confidence and use the ‘law of attraction’ to get whatever you want in life
• How to overcome your fears and other obstacles
• How to increase your energy levels and never have a lazy evening again
• How to accomplish incredible focus and tap into ‘flow states’
• How to be engaging, charismatic and attractive
• And much more…

There are 14 days until Halloween, 38 days until Thanksgiving, 69 days until Christmas, and 76 days until 2017.  What are some changes that you want to make by these deadlines?

How to Find the Drive and Determination to Work Out Every Day

Working out is something that many of us feel we should do more of – whether that means jogging, lifting weights or training for some kind of sporting event. The hope is that by training, we’ll be able to build more muscle and burn more fat, which in turn will give us the physique that we’re looking for.

Thus we go about creating these elaborate training programs, filled with multiple workouts throughout the week. We combine this with some kind of diet that involves eating a very small number of calories and we generally just force ourselves to live in discomfort for days and months to reach our goals.

Except come day two, we will often already have abandoned that goal. Why? Because it’s just too intense to stick at and we were too ambitious. If you’re already tired and you’re inactive most evenings as a result, how do you intend to add 5 hours of training to your current routine? And how do you intend to do all that while also factoring in 30 minutes of travel, washing and cool down after each session? Or when taking into account a calorie deficit giving you less energy than you would normally have?

Be Realistic

The first problem with this type of training and thus the first thing you need to fix, is your ambition. It’s great to be realistic of course – but not at the extent of being realistic. There’s only so much you can expect your body to accomplish in a given week and your energy (not just your time) is finite. Instead of starting with five one hour workouts, who about starting with three half hour ones? And find other ways to make it easier too; such as training from home.

Focus on the Vision

What’s also important is that you focus on the vision and you focus on ‘dream’. Why is it that you want to work out? What are you hoping to achieve? What would it feel like to have that body you’ve always wanted? To feel confident and energetic?

It’s too easy to miss that connection between our dream and the steps we have to take to get there. So to make sure that you’re driven in the right direction, really focus on that dream and what it can deliver you. Really imagine what it will feel like to accomplish your goals and use this to drive you!

When You Meet Your Goal

You’ve worked hard and accomplished your goal. Now, you deserve to kick back and celebrate your success. There are many ways that you can choose to celebrate.

You could buy yourself something new, which is a great way to celebrate reaching an ideal weight. You could take a day off and spend the time with your family, which is a great way to celebrate leaving your day job. You could get a relaxing massage or visit a local spa, which is a great way to celebrate the success of a difficult goal.

Create a Keepsake

You can also mark the completion of a goal with a keepsake. You could add a charm to a necklace or bracelet. You can buy an art print to hang on your wall. Some people even choose to celebrate by getting a tattoo.

The important thing is to not let your success pass you by uncelebrated. You worked hard and you deserve recognition for your hard work and personal growth.  

Review Your Successes

No matter how you choose to celebrate, you should also take time to review your journey. Recording your thoughts and feelings in a journal is a great way to do this.

While you’re journaling, you might want to include what made you decide to go after your goal, what worked for you, setbacks you experienced, and how you feel now.

Show Your Appreciation

Once you’ve celebrated your success, it’s time to thank your supporters. Maybe your mom watched your kids three times a week so you could make it to the gym. Maybe your spouse believed in your business when you were just starting out. Maybe you had a mentor who provided advice that helped you succeed.

You should always thank the people in your community that stood by you during the journey. But don’t stop there. Ask how you can return the blessing. Look for ways that you can support the dreams of the community that supported your dream.

Decide What's Next

It’s not uncommon to reach a goal you’ve been after for a long time and suddenly find yourself restless. You took the time to celebrate your accomplishment and you thanked your community. But now you’re filled with energy and don’t know what to do next.

Now, you should begin looking for your next goal. It doesn’t have to be directly related to the one you just accomplished. But do pick another goal that makes you just as passionate as the one before it did.

If you don’t acknowledge your journey, then you can’t learn from it. That’s why you should always celebrate when you reach a goal. You’ve earned it.

The free bonus workbook includes questions that are perfect for helping you review your accomplishments.