483: How to Overcome What’s Holding You Back

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Overcome What's Holding You Back

What’s standing between you and the life of your dreams? We all have invisible barriers that hold us back, but identifying and overcoming them can feel like solving a mystery.

In today’s episode, I’m going to reveal a simple and highly effective strategy that is often neglected but crucial for you to overcome exactly what’s holding you back from achieving your biggest goals and making your wildest dreams a reality.

You’ll learn to turn those vague notions about your aspirations into a vibrant, laser-focused vision that provides a clear roadmap to your success. This strategy will help you unlock your full potential and evolve into the best version of yourself, giving you the blueprint for transforming any area of your life.

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • If you’re unaware of what’s holding you back, it will continue to haunt you.
  • How dwelling on the past sabotages your success and happiness.
  • The power of scheduling blocks of time for gaining clarity on your goals.
  • The steps for changing your self-talk from limiting to empowering.
  • Tactics for ensuring your habits serve your goals – not hinder them.
  • It’s the tiny changes that will catapult you to extraordinary success.

AYG TWEETABLES

“If something in the past is what you blame on why you cannot achieve things you want in your life now, why you can't make changes now, well, then you are rendering yourself powerless.”

“If you don't have clarity as to what you want, you don't have any power to move toward what you want because you don't even know what it is.”

 

THIS EPISODE IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

Organifi makes the highest quality nutritional products, which are made from whole food ingredients (not synthetic vitamins) that I enjoy nearly every day, and have for many years. Visit Organifi.com/Hal, and use the code HAL at checkout to get 20% off of your entire order. I hope you find something there that you love! :^)

 

Rise by CURED Nutrition is a natural supplement made from CBD, Lions Mane and Ginseng (among others) that helps boost energy, performance and cognitive function. There’s no caffeine, no jitters and most importantly, no crash. Visit CuredNutrition.com/Hal and receive 20% off of your entire order. They have tons of other products as well, hopefully you’ll find something that works for you. :^)

 

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[INTRODUCTION]

 

Hal Elrod: Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod. And today we are talking about how to overcome what is holding you back. That’s right. Identifying what’s holding you back and then systematically, strategically step-by-step approach to overcoming whatever it is that’s holding you back. This is an episode that is universally applicable for every person on the planet because we all have things that hold us back from our full potential, that hold us back from making changes, meaningful changes in our lives, improvements from achieving our goals on and on and on. And if you can overcome what’s holding you back, then guess what? Nothing holds you back and you get to change, create, achieve everything that you want for your life.

 

Before we dive into the episode, I would like to take just a couple of minutes to acknowledge and thank the sponsors that bring you today’s episode. And first and foremost, that is Organifi, making the highest quality whole food organic supplements. If you haven’t tried their products yet, I have been a customer seven years myself, long before they were a podcast sponsor. It’s why I asked to be a podcast sponsor because I was a fan of their products and a customer. And you, if you want to improve your health in fast and easy ways, whether it’s your immune system, whether it’s losing weight, whether it’s sleeping better, relaxing, etcetera, head over to Organifi.com/Hal and use the discount code “HAL” for 20% off your entire order.

 

And then last but not least, Organifi’s cousin, that’s what I call them, CURED Nutrition also making some of the highest quality whole food, mostly organic supplements with CBD oil as their foundational binder that has a whole host of health benefits. Head over to CUREDNutrition.com for products to help you sleep, I love their Night Caps and their Night Time Oil, products that help you with your cognitive ability, your mental focus like their Rise which I take every morning including this morning, products for your gut health, you name it, pain relief on and on and on. You can even micro dose THC legally with CURED Nutrition’s products and they explain all about that on their website. Head over to CUREDNutrition.com/Hal and use that same discount code “HAL” at checkout for 20% off your entire order as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast.

 

Without further ado, let’s talk about it, how to overcome whatever it is that is holding you back.

 

[EPISODE]

 

Hal Elrod: Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning community, welcome to today’s podcast. We are sort of noxious. We’re talking about how to overcome what’s holding you back. How to overcome what’s holding you back. Now, you might be thinking, “Hal, how do you know what’s holding me back? You don’t even know me. We’re not talking. How do you know?” Because what holds you back is the same thing that holds me back and the same thing that holds everybody back. Now, while there are nuances for sure and there are specifics that are unique to each of us, for example, if you have a physical handicap, that might hold you back in different ways than someone that doesn’t have that physical handicap. So, absolutely, there are specifics but there are also universal truths, universal challenges, and obstacles that are part of being human.

 

And very often, right, this is the Achieve Your Goals podcast and obviously, we talk about all sorts of different topics outside of just achieving your goals but today is very much related to achieving your goals because one of the most overlooked topics when it comes to goal achievement is identifying and overcoming obstacles. Very often we just skip that and go right to, okay, here’s how you achieve your goals, right? You set the goals and you figure out the reasons they’re important to you and then you make a plan and clarify your action steps. And that’s all good and well, and that’s all important and necessary and fundamental to achieving goals but here’s the problem. If you don’t identify the obstacles that are often unconscious, you’re not even aware of these obstacles, they call that unconscious incompetence where you’re not aware of the areas where you are incompetent or lacking or facing these obstacles that are holding you back or there’s the other side of that which is conscious incompetence. Conscious incompetence is where you are aware of your obstacles that are holding you back.

 

And that’s where I want to get to today is to a place of conscious incompetence so that you can then move to the next phase, which is conscious competence, where you are aware of what you need to do, what’s holding you back, what you need to overcome, how you’re going to overcome it. You’re conscious, you’re aware, and you become competent. You identify the habits and/or the mindsets, the rituals, the routines, the strategies that will enable you to overcome what’s holding you back and move forward.

 

And then the highest level is what they call unconscious competence. Actually, I might be getting these backwards. If anybody is an expert in this, you can correct me. In fact, I might actually have to google this. I haven’t studied conscious incompetence or conscious competence. Sorry. I can’t type and talk at the same time. The four stages of competence. I’m just going to read this real quick to see. Okay. I’m going to read this to you actually because this will probably give a better description than I did. So, the four stages are unconscious incompetence, which we talked about. The individual does not understand or know how to do something and does not necessarily recognize the deficit. They may deny the usefulness of the skill. The individual must recognize their own incompetence and the value of the new skill before moving on to the next stage. The length of time an individual spends in this stage depends on the strength of the stimulus to learn. It’s a little bit out of context, I think.

 

Conscious incompetence is, though the individual does not understand or know how to do something, they recognize the deficit as well as the value of a new skill in addressing the deficit. The making of mistakes can be integral to the learning process at this stage. And then conscious competence, the individual understands or knows how to do something. However, demonstrating the skill or knowledge requires concentration and effort. It may be broken down into steps and there is heavy conscious involvement in executing the skill. So, you’re consciously competent, you’re aware of what you need to do, but it takes a lot of energy and a lot of effort and a lot of willpower and a lot of discipline to do it. And then the final stage is unconscious competence. The individual has had so much practice with a skill that has become second nature and can be performed easily. As a result, the skill can be performed while executing another task. The individual may be able to teach to others depending upon how and when it was learned.

 

So, these are the four stages that you want to move through. And today we talked about how to overcome what’s holding you back. There will be little pieces of each of these stages that are kind of incorporated. So, the objective here is for you to achieve your goals, make changes in your life that you want to change. The problem is we all have self-imposed limitations and also limitations that we are unaware of. So, the solution is to identify and overcome them. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. I’m going to give you four, three steps with a step zero, if you will. So, step zero is kind of a preliminary step that must be taken in order to engage in the three steps to move forward. It’s almost like it’s the pre-work, if you will, the preparation to give you some context, etcetera. So, step zero in this topic today of how to overcome what’s holding you back, step zero is to identify what’s holding you back.

 

As I mentioned earlier, this may be one of the most overlooked aspects of personal transformation of making meaningful changes. If you’re not aware of what’s holding you back, it will continue to hold you back, often unconsciously or even consciously. You’ve got to identify it. You have to clarify it. You have to name it. You have to get really clear on it and then enable. Once you’re clear on what’s holding you back, then you can take the three steps I’m about to share with you in a few minutes to overcome whatever’s holding you back. But the step zero, right, you’ve got to identify what’s holding you back. So, there are three. As I mentioned, we got nuances to this. There are specifics, especially someone who has a victim mentality, which I’ve had at times in my life, and I still have at times in my life. So, no judgment from me here, no pointing fingers.

 

But a victim mentality is where you blame things other than yourself. It’s about not taking personal responsibility and blaming that this is what’s holding me back. It’s because my parents weren’t supportive when I was younger. So, you’re blaming something in the past, something that’s out of your control now. If something in the past is what you blame on why you cannot achieve things you want in your life now, why you can’t make changes now, well, then you are rendering yourself powerless. That’s what blame does. Because the things in the past and unless you’re Michael J. Fox with a DeLorean, right, Marty McFly with a DeLorean and can go back in time, which, by the way, speaking of Michael J. Fox, I just finished today watching a documentary.

 

This is a total tangent but it is Michael J. Fox related. If you have Apple TV and if you don’t have Apple TV, like, I don’t know, do a free trial. You can actually watch the trailer for this on YouTube. But Michael J. Fox has a new documentary that was so well done. It is called STILL and it blends. It is current day Michael J. Fox struggling with Parkinson’s disease and then sharing his story from being a little kid until today and everything in between. It’s just masterfully done, bringing in the past, the present, etcetera. So, total tangent, total side note but I don’t recommend enough good films I think on the podcast. So, there’s one for you. Again, it is STILL. It’s on Apple TV and I highly recommend it. You can watch the YouTube trailer. And I sent this to like my mom, dad, sister. So, you’re family to me, right? So, I’m sharing it with you like I shared it with them.

 

All right. Back to the topic that’s at hand here. If you’re Michael J. Fox, the point was, I was saying, unless you’re Marty McFly in a DeLorean, Back to the Future reference, of course, you can’t go back in time and change the past. So, if that is what you are blaming your present circumstances on, if that’s what you’re blaming your limitations on, you’re rendering yourself powerless and therefore it’s your excuse, “Why I can’t change because…” That’s the victim mentality at work. That’s not one of the steps I’m sharing but you got to overcome. You got to decide, “I am no longer going to be a victim and I’m not going to blame anything that’s out of my control for what is in my control. And what’s in my control is what I do from this moment forward.” You can’t change the past but you can change everything else. You can’t change unchangeable limitations, such as if you’re missing a limb.

 

In fact, that documentary by Michael J. Fox is wonderful because he has every excuse to give up on life. I mean, his life is hard. It is. And it’s been increasingly hard for the last 30 years but he doesn’t have a victim mentality at all. And you get that in the documentary. He takes complete responsibility for his life. He doesn’t blame his Parkinson’s. He admits life is hard but what is he? He said something along the lines of, “As long as I have gratitude, I can move forward. As long as I choose to see and find and experience something to be grateful for, I can take another step. I can live another day. I can smile. I can be happy.” So, you can, too.

 

All right. A little bit of a tangent. Hopefully, it was valuable for you and let’s try to tie it back in here. So, step zero, identify what’s holding you back. So, there are three universal obstacles that are holding us back as human beings that hold almost everyone back in one way or another, and to varying degrees and at different times in their life. There are times in my life where I’ve overcome these obstacles and they weren’t holding me back and then there are times in my life where I’m absolutely unconsciously incompetent, where these obstacles are holding me back. And until I make the unconscious conscious, they will continue to hold me back, and same with you. Here are the three obstacles and then we’re going to dive into three steps to overcome them.

 

Number one, lack of clarity. The first obstacle that holds us back is a lack of clarity. You may have heard Tony Robbins said decades ago, I mean, sure he still says it. Clarity is power. I never quite understood what that meant when I first heard him say it. You know, I heard him say it 23 years ago when I went to his event, Unleash the Power Within, when I was 20 years old. And clarity is power. I was like, “What does that mean?” Here’s the way that it helps me to understand is to look at the opposite. So, imagine not having clarity. Well, how does that impact us when we don’t have clarity? Well, think about if you’re not really clear on or even generally clear on what you want in your life, what you want your life to be like, what you want to accomplish, specific results that you want to achieve, such as how much income you want to earn, what kind of shape you want your physical body to be in.

 

If you don’t have clarity as to what you want, you don’t have any power to move toward what you want because you don’t even know what it is. So, lack of clarity, it’s very obvious when you look at it that it’s a total lack of power. But if you get really clear on exactly what you want, now you have the first spark of power to create what you want. You have clarity as to what it is, and you go, “Wow. That’s step one.” Now, that’s only step one in terms of clarity. You’ve got to go beyond that. You’ve got to be clear on why you want it. If you’re clear on, well, “Gosh, I want millions of dollars,” and if somebody said why but you hadn’t really thought about the why, you’re like, “I don’t know. It’d be cool to be like I could buy stuff, you know?” But if you’re not clear on the why, like clear on it in a meaningful, thoughtful way, then it’s not going to have much of an impact on you.

 

So, the degree of power that you gain from the clarity as to why do you want what you want, the degree of clarity on that why, and the depth of connection that you have to your why determines the amount of power that it will give you. Think of an extreme example where you’re facing death or a loved one is facing death and you don’t want to die or imagine it’s a loved one. It’s a child. Them dying would be just devastating for you. You’re very clear on what is you want them to live and the why is because them dying would break your heart. It would devastate you. I’m not going to go in detail but I know someone right now whose teenage child is suicidal, and they’ve told me or they’ve said that, “If they take their life, I will take my own. I won’t want to live without them.” It’s their only child.

 

I’ve never been in that person’s shoes, but I can’t say that I blame them. Honestly, I could theoretically say, “Well, no, I’d be positive and I’d be at peace and I would follow all the advice that I give you on this podcast,” but I don’t know. If I was a single parent, had one child, and I loved that child more than anyone in anything in the world, and then I lost that child. So, my point being, that’s an extreme example of that parent will do anything, everything, and anything in their power to achieve what they want, which is for their child to live. And they’re doing everything in their power because their why is so clear and it is so important and strong and meaningful for them that it gives them power to do whatever it takes. When, by the way, talk about feeling powerless. Your child is suicidal. They’ve attempted multiple times. Talk about feeling powerless but they’re clear on their outcome and they’re clear on their why.

 

And so, in the midst of feeling powerless, it gives them power. It’s not easy. In fact, it’s probably the hardest thing any parent could ever endure other than losing a child. Although in some ways it might be even more difficult because the prospect of losing the child is there and you can imagine that as a realistic possible outcome but then also you’re dealing with this, “But I still might have a chance but I might not,” like the amount of fear. If someone passes away, at least there’s no fear of loss. They’re gone. Now, you’ve got to move into the grieving process. So, anyway, I mean, this is just splitting hairs, I guess, but what this parent is going through may be even more difficult than losing a child is watching your child attempt to take their own life and tell you they don’t want to live anymore. I can’t imagine. But the point being, it’s an extreme example of this person’s why is so clear that it gives them power to do everything in their power to achieve the result that they want.

 

And the third aspect where we lack clarity, even if you know what you want and why you want it, you’ve got to invest some time in getting clear on, “Okay. What do I need to do to achieve that result and when am I going to do it? What do I need to do? Which actions will I take? And when am I going to do it?” And in the beginning, this isn’t related to the affirmations formula I teach, which is you affirm what are you committed to, right, in terms of your habit or outcome or result? Why is it a must for you? And which specific actions will you take and win? That’s the affirmation formula that I use, that I’m teaching in the, I don’t know if it’s in the original Miracle Morning book but it’s in the new one. So, this third lack of clarity that holds us back is if we’re not clear on what we need to do, well, we have no power to act. You got to have clarity on what you need to do.

 

Now, if you have clarity on what you need to do but you haven’t clarified when you’re going to do it and written it in your schedule, made a commitment, you’re still lacking power. Because even if you go, “I know what I want. I know why it’s important. I know what I need to do,” how many people can say those three things but they don’t have the fourth one down? They go, “I know what I want, I know why I want it, and I know what I need to do, but I’m just not doing it.” Raise your hand if you can relate to that. I’d imagine that 99% of hands are being raised right now, including my own. I’m not clear on what I need to do. I’m sorry. I’m not committed to when I need to do it. So, all four of those pieces of clarity, if you’re lacking on any of those four, you’re lacking the power to move forward and to take action and to make changes or improvements in your life. But here’s the good news. You get to generate that clarity.

 

How do you do it? It’s simply a matter of scheduling time to do it, scheduling 30 minutes to clarify what do you want in your life. And you can do it category by category. Terms of in my health, I want this. You want to lose 20 pounds. I want to stop drinking soda. I want to quit smoking. In my marriage, I want a better relationship. I want to spend more time with my spouse. Maybe that’s actually into the, you know, what are you going to do piece but I know I want a better relationship with my spouse so I want a harmonious relationship. I want romance or whatever it is. So, what do I want? Why do I want it? What do you need to achieve it? And when will you do the things that you need to achieve? So, lacking that clarity is one of the first and foremost and biggest obstacles that holds all of us back but the good news is you get to set aside some time.

 

Right now, pull out your schedule, pause this, and schedule a time to gain clarity. By the way, this isn’t a one-time event. It’s something that I do every week, a little bit every day, even more every month. I do a bigger session every quarter. So, I’m always renewing clarity because a lot of times you get clear on something but then if you’re revisiting that clarity, it changes. You’re like, “Oh, actually I don’t want that. I want something different.” So, schedule a time to gain that clarity. That’s the first step in overcoming the first obstacle. The first obstacle is lack of clarity. The first step to overcoming it is to establish clarity in four areas, what you want, why you want it, what specifically you need to do, and when you will do it. And then write that in the form of – once you write that out, you just journal it out and brainstorm, then transferred over to an affirmation that you read every day so that every day you are affirming that first step of establishing clarity in those four areas so that you have the power to move forward.

 

The second obstacle that holds us back is limiting beliefs that are perpetuated by our self-talk. We all have limiting beliefs. Who am I to be special, great, talented? Who am I to become wealthy? You may remember if you read the Miracle Morning book, I talk in there about rearview mirror syndrome, and rearview mirror syndrome essentially states that we all have an unconscious rearview mirror, and that rearview mirror shows up unconsciously. We don’t usually even, we’re not even aware of it. Whenever we’re faced with an opportunity, big or small, when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, that’s an opportunity to wake up, we check the rearview mirror and we go, “What I usually do when the alarm clock goes off? Oh, yeah, I hit the snooze button three times.”

 

And so, what we do is we continue to repeat the same behaviors that we’ve always repeated because it’s what we’ve always done. And it’s one of the hardest things to do is for us to behave differently than we’ve always behaved or at least than we’ve behaved for a considerable amount of time, a consistent period of time. And so, hold on. I’m writing down a note, everybody. Okay. So, limiting beliefs that are perpetuated by our self-talk could be limiting beliefs based on this rearview mirror syndrome where you go, “Well, who am I? You know, based on who I’ve always been, I’m not capable of achieving this thing.” When you check the rearview mirror, you might go, “I’m lazy,” because you were lazy. “I’m unmotivated,” because you were unmotivated. “I’m inconsistent,” because you were inconsistent. So, these are limiting beliefs that are your past reality but again, remember, unless you’re Marty McFly with the DeLorean, you can’t go back in time and change the past but you can change everything else, beginning with your limiting beliefs.

 

And so, replace any limiting beliefs with, “I am,” followed by some limitless belief. “I am capable of overcoming or accomplishing anything in my life that I fully commit to.” Overcome your limiting beliefs, design new beliefs such as “I am” and “I can” I can do anything another person has done. What they’ve accomplished is evidence of what’s possible for me. And then last but not least, “I will.” That’s where you transfer what you are, who you are, the “I am” statement. The “I can” statement, what you’re capable of into the commitment statement, which is “I will.” I will overcome my limiting beliefs. I will see myself as limitless. I will base my potential not on my past but on my limitless capabilities and who I can become. So, the second obstacle that’s holding us back from achieving what we want in our lives, becoming who we want to be, and who we’re capable of becoming are the limiting beliefs that we perpetuate through our negative self-talk.

 

So, step one, establishing clarity to overcome that first obstacle that is a lack of clarity. Well, step two to overcome our limiting beliefs is to intentionally design empowering beliefs, intentionally design them in writing, and they don’t have to be perfect. And I literally this is coming through me because I’m sure many of you were thinking just like, “Oh, I don’t know what to say.” And maybe you liked what I said earlier, and you’re like, “Well, I don’t know how to talk like that. I need to rewind it and I’m going to forget to rewind it because I always forget to go back and listen to audios. And what’s the point? I’m not going to change. I never change.” You’re literally by listening to this podcast, I’d imagine your limiting beliefs are literally reaching up and pulling you down right now. They’re stopping you from absorbing this information from an empowered lens of, “Yes, I’m going to do this. I’m going to make changes. I’m ready. I’m committed.”

 

It’s time. If not now, when? So, that step two is to intentionally design beliefs in writing, empowering beliefs in writing. “I am” followed by who you are committed to being, not who you were in the past, who you’re committed to being now and into the future. And “I can” based on your capabilities and “I will” based on your commitments. Hold on. I’m writing down notes. I have notes but I’m writing more notes because stuff is coming up. “I am” based on your potential. I like that. So, I didn’t have that before. So, “I am” statements are based on your potential. “I can” statements are based on your capabilities and “I will” statements are based on your commitments.

 

All right. And last but not least, the third obstacle that holds all of us back from fulfilling our potential and creating what we want in our lives, which I am inviting you to proactively overcome today, not just to listen to the podcast and be like, “Oh, yeah, it’s good stuff. I’m going to go back to being the same. I’m just going to go back to allowing what’s holding me back to keep holding me back.” No. Let’s make today the day that we draw our line in the sand and make some changes and don’t change everything. If you remember, a few weeks ago I did a podcast on You Only Need To Change One Habit. That was the title of the podcast and you can find it at MiracleMorning.com/Podcast. Just search through them. It’s probably five episodes ago or so. You only need to change one habit. And that was based on the simple research-backed concept that the less we try to change at once, the more likely we are to be successful with following through and making the change.

 

Well, the third obstacle that holds us back is incongruent habits, meaning we have habits in place that are not congruent with the things that we want in our lives. So, you establish clarity. That was step one as to what you want in your life and why you want it and what you need to do and when you’re going to do it. But you’ve got to look at, “Okay. What are the habits I have in place or the habits that I need to put in place that are congruent with the changes I want to make in my life, with the goals that I want to accomplish in my life, with the improvements that I want to see in my life?” Identifying the congruent habits because that third obstacle is that we have incongruent habits. So, for example, if you want to lose weight but you are eating late at night, well, then that’s a habit that you’ll probably need to change.

 

In fact, certainly need to change, because if you’re eating late at night, then your body is going to store that while you’re sleeping because you’re not moving your body and you’re not converting those calorgies. Calorgies? I just combine the word calories and energy. You’re not converting those calories to energy, maybe calorgy is a word. Anyway, calories to energy. And because you’re not needing energy because you’re sleeping. So, then what happens? Your body stores them as fat and that’s an incongruent habit to losing weight. Let’s say you don’t exercise regularly, right? Okay. Well, not exercising. There’s an incongruency once again in your habit. So, well, you need to stop eating late at night. That’s a habit that’s already in place that’s incongruent. Well, if you’re not exercising, that’s a lack of a habit that is causing an incongruency in your outcome that you want of getting in shape.

 

So, you identify, obviously, that and again this is not rocket science but sometimes I think that the most important lessons are the ones that actually work and are simple to understand and simple to implement. And one of the biggest another obstacle, like a side obstacle, is the whole idea of our conditioning with society, which is like if we know something, we tend to dismiss it like, “Oh, I’ve heard that before, I already know that.” But the question isn’t, “Do I know this?” It’s, “Am I living this?” And my living this? Is this applicable to my life? Would this work? Would this change my life? And you go, “Oh, yeah, I might know it but I’m not doing it or at least not at the level that I could be.” So, the third obstacle is incongruent habits, and the solution is simply to identify and create congruent habits.

 

Now, I mention the podcast episode, You Only Need To Change One Habit. In that episode, I talked a lot about making the change as easy as possible and starting extremely small. So, for example, let’s say you want to get in better physical shape, lose weight, put muscle on, whatever, and you know that you need to incorporate regular ongoing exercise. You know that’s one of the habits, right? You’ve identified that that’s what you need to do. So, you might be overwhelmed like, “Oh, my gosh, I don’t like exercising and I’m so out of shape. The idea of like going to the gym for 30 minutes is just it’s like it’s not pleasant and I don’t want to do it.” So, again, this negative self-talk perpetuates not just limiting beliefs but also incongruent habits.

 

So, in the episode about choosing one habit, I talked about, okay, let’s say you need to exercise on day one, so commit to a 30-day challenge and exercise for one minute on day one. That takes almost very little effort or discipline or mental fortitude. A minute of exercise, just about anybody could do. Go for a walk for a minute, walk in place for a minute. If you’re in decent shape, do a minute of jumping jacks. It’s actually harder than most people realize if you’re not in shape. That’ll get you out of breath but point being, on day one, do one minute of exercise because it’s so easy that you can fully commit to that with anybody. Step two, sorry, day two, only add one minute of exercise. So, on day one, do a minute. On day two, do 2 minutes. And once you do one minute on day one, you’re like, “Oh, that was not that difficult. That was pretty easy. I could do 2 minutes tomorrow, no problem.”

 

And then on day two, you do 2 minutes, and then on day three of your 30-day challenge, do 3 minutes. Three minutes of exercise still, I mean, you could do that on day one and it would be easy but don’t get ahead of yourself. Three minutes on day three and every day, every subsequent day add one minute of exercise. So, on day four, you do 4 minutes. Day five, you do five. And here’s the thing, by increasing only one minute each day within 30 days, obviously, you’ll be working out for 30 minutes but the increase from one minute to 30 day-by-day is so gradual that it allows your body and your mind, your psychology, to acclimate to the change. It’s taking baby steps and it’s an invaluable strategy.

 

Going from on the day you exercise, 6 minutes, 7 minutes is going to feel like no big deal. On the day you exercise 13 minutes, 14 minutes is going to feel like no big deal. And when you’re up to 29 minutes, which you did because the day before, it was 28 minutes, so 29 didn’t feel like much of an increase and now you’re on 30 and now it’s like wow. And you might even go, “Wow. I can keep going if I want to.” Now, you might be like me. I don’t like to exercise more than 30 minutes because I’ve got other stuff to do but to overcome what’s holding you back in terms of your habits, simply determine which habit. Remember, my podcast a few weeks ago was you only need to change one habit, and the point being, one habit at a time. Keep it simple.

 

So, determine which habit and if you want to do more than one, of course, you can which habit or habits are congruent with the improvement, the changes that you want to make in your life, the goals you want to accomplish. Start small and before you know it, you will be on your way to achieving your goal. So, to recap today’s episode, how to overcome what’s holding you back, number one, a lack of clarity is holding you back, not being clear on what you want, why you want it, what you need to do to achieve it, and when specifically, you’re going to take those actions to move forward. That lack of clarity holds us back. Number two, limiting beliefs perpetuated by our self-talk. That rearview mirror syndrome, where we constantly check the rearview mirror any time we’re faced with an opportunity or a challenge and we tend to act the way we acted in the past and therefore we don’t improve and our life doesn’t improve.

 

That second obstacle are the limiting beliefs that we continue to perpetuate and the third obstacle is our incongruent habits. Either we are doing habits that are counterproductive to our objectives, our goals, or we don’t have habits in place that are necessary to achieve our goals. And so, the three steps to overcome all of those, number one, establish clarity, what you want, why you want it, what you need to do to achieve it, when you’ll do those things, put that in writing as an affirmation. In fact, all of this should be in writing as an affirmation. Step two, design empowering beliefs. Often the opposite of whatever your limiting belief is the empowering belief that you need that will serve you. And step three, identify which habits that you need that are congruent with your goals.

 

Do this in writing. Don’t just listen to the podcast. I am inviting you. I am challenging you. I’m encouraging you. Please schedule time to do this ongoing. Do it once a month. Do it once a quarter. At the bare minimum, do it once a year. And this can transform your life. And it’s foundational, right? Nothing I taught today was rocket science but hopefully, I taught it in a way where it resonated with you, where it landed, where it made sense, where you feel you’ve got a grasp of it. You go, “I can do that. I can schedule 30 minutes to establish clarity, design my empowering beliefs, create congruent habits, make my plan to transform my life, and then commit to 30 days starting very small.”

 

And whatever it is for you, if you want to do the Miracle Morning, start with one minute on day one or 6 minutes on day one and increase it over time. If you want to start writing a book, start with writing for one minute on day one or 5 minutes on day one, and 10 minutes on day two. The interval, the duration you can play with. The point is start small, make it as easy and effortless as possible so that you aren’t intimidated or overwhelmed so that you can do it, and then acclimate day by day by day with a slight increase. And within 30 days you can literally be on your way to becoming a different person, living a better version of yourself, living an even better life, transforming any area of your life that you want to. Alright, goal achievers, members of the Miracle Morning community, friends, and family, I love you. I hope today’s been valuable and I will talk to you all next week.


[END]

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