Episode 255: How to Make Meaningful Changes In Your Life with Lucia Giovannini

Hal: Goal achievers, what’s going on? This is Hal Elrod and welcome to today’s episode of the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. I’ll tell you, I just spoke at an event in Dallas and almost every time I speak at a live event, I usually have folks approach me and talk about the podcast and mentioned that the podcast that they love it or that it’s really helped them or changed their life and I so appreciate that because of all the things that I do, podcasting is the most isolated like lonely thing. There’s no audience. Are my jokes landing? Or is anybody listening to this thing? Of course, we know from the downloads that millions of people are listening, but it is just really neat when I get to meet you face-to-face. And so, if you’re able to come to an event that I’m speaking at, please do, please say hello. I would love to hear it. In the meantime, feel free if you’re listening to the podcasts, I never ask you guys to leave comments and whenever I listen to other podcasters, I’m like, “They always ask their audience to leave comments and engage and reviews and this and that.” So, if you love today’s episode, please leave a comment below wherever you are listening to this. Hopefully, you’re listening to it on HalElrod.com/Podcast or forward slash whatever the number of today’s episode will be.

 

So, I am excited for today and this is possibly I think this is the first in the Achieve Your Goals Podcast world, which is that the woman that I’m introducing you today is from Italy and not just from Italy, but she’s in Italy and I met her in Italy. So, I was speaking at an event in Italy, in Milan a couple of months ago and not too far back and one of the other speakers, Lucia Giovannini, I loved her message, I loved her spirit, and we connected and we chatted and we followed up and I invited her to be on the podcast. And so, in case you don’t know Lucia and in the United States, she’s like kind of new. She’s very famous in Italy but we’re bringing her. I wanted to introduce her to our community. And Lucia Giovannini is a world-renowned sensation. She’s a former international Italian supermodel turned transformational speaker and author of 13 books and her work is designed to craft a synergy between traditional psychological techniques, motivational practices, and ancient Eastern rituals that really create profound experiences for her readers, for the attendees of her live seminars, and anyone that follows her work. And Lucia has been called the Italian Louise Hay and her acclaimed book, A Whole New Life: Discover The Power Of Positive Transformation, which has been translated already into more than eight languages, debuts in the US for the first time ever March of 2019. And I just double checked, it is available for preorder now on Amazon.com. So, today you could check that out. A Whole New Life is her book.

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Hal: Louise. Lucy. Sorry. Lucia. I confuse you with Louise Hay’s. So, you’re called Louise and your name is very close so it could get confusing but welcome to the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. It’s so great to have you,

 

Lucia: Thank you, Hal. Actually, I’m so excited to be here with you. Thank you.

 

Hal: You are so welcome.

 

Lucia: Yeah. Okay. So, I have to say now so at least I let it out, sorry for my English because, of course, I’m not a native speaker.

 

Hal: No. Yeah. I appreciate that acknowledgment but, yeah, I’ve heard you speak while you are, I guess you’re in Italy, but I’ve spoken with you, and I think your English is fantastic and your accent is charming, so it’s a win-win.

 

Lucia: Thank you.

 

Hal: Absolutely. So, I want to start with what I just mentioned in your bio which is that you are often referred to as the Italian Louise Hay and Louise Hay for those that don’t know, she was the founder of Hay House Publishing and wrote many, many books. She was very well known for her teachings on affirmations. And when I see you’ve been referred to as the Italian Louise Hay that’s not just by your mom or your spouse, but that’s by prestigious media like Marie France Asia, the Times of India, and Les Stamp. These are all prestigious Italian publications and Louise was famous for her teachings on affirmations so I believe personally that affirmations, when done effectively, are indeed one of the most effective practices to reprogram our mind, optimize our mindset, and create lasting change in our life. So, I would love to hear your perspective Lucia on the correct use or the effective use of affirmations and also, I’ve heard you speak about their downside so touch on that, please.

 

Lucia: Yes. Most definitely. I mean, I love affirmations obviously and I use them a lot and sometimes I hear people especially in the field of psychology saying, “No, it’s just turning away from problems pretending they don’t exist.” But in reality, we use affirmation to see things in a new way, to give a new direction for our mind. It’s like planting seeds. So, that’s the idea of the use of affirmation and, of course, what’s the risk there? Because it’s true, there is an inherent risk. The risk is just to do affirmations without doing any actions and sometimes I’ve seen that in people like you do affirmations, you do affirmations, and they put you in a good mood, and they put you in the right mood to act but then if you don’t act like, “Okay, I now have a wonderful new job. I now have a wonderful new job,” but then if you don’t send resumes, if you should go out and look for a job, if you don’t propose yourself to people then you do just half of the job in a way. So, this is the first downside of affirmation. And then sometimes what happens is that people do affirmations but sometimes if we use affirmations that are too far from our truth, then there’s part of our unconscious mind that goes, “Uh-uh, I don’t believe that. Uh-uh, no way.”

 

And so, what I normally suggest to people is to start do affirmations with, “I’m willing to,” or, “I now give myself permission to,” or, “I deserve to,” or, “I choose to deserve to,” or, “I’m open to,” or, “I’m preparing now for.” So, those affirmations like introductory affirmations for a while and then when they’re more ready, they go to the full affirmation. So, that’s another trick that I found very useful.

 

Hal: No, I’m completely with you. I think that that’s one of the biggest problems in affirmations is that the way they’ve been taught by self-help pioneers is to, you kind of touched on it, to lie to yourself to say, “I am _____,” whatever the blank is and it’s not a reality yet, but it’s your desired reality. And that’s what I find is that people do that and then affirmations don’t work for them because they’re fighting the truth. If you lie to yourself and say, “I am wealthy,” when you’re broke. Yeah. Then you’re piling liar on top of your financial challenges and struggles and that sort of thing. So, I love that you said that and I think I cut you off. You were going to share another challenge with affirmations.

 

Lucia: Yes. So, adding action is very important. And so, we could also add some questions like, “I am lovable,” for example. Okay. How does a loveable person behave? Or I am wealthy. How does a wealthy person behave? I am fit. I am slim. How does a fit person or a slim person behave? So, add some action and in order to add some action, a good point, a good start is also to translate them into questions. For example, I am loveable. Okay. Why am I so loveable? I am in my perfect health. How am I in my perfect health? My life is balanced between work and play. Again, how? So, I’m not saying don’t do affirmation. Absolutely, do affirmation and also once in a while, translate them into questions so that the unconscious mind can start filling the questions and finding the answers to move you into action. Because when you combine affirmations and action, you sort of combine the law of attraction with the law of action and then it’s a very powerful process so that’s the other thing. And also, often people ask me, “Okay, how often should I do affirmation? Like 10 minutes. 20 minutes?” I mean, of course, a good practice like 20 minutes is already a very good practice. But also, the other thing is be aware of how we talk to ourselves, the other 23 hours and 50 minutes of our life. Because if I do affirmation, “Life loves me. Life loves me,” and it’s okay. It’s fantastic for 10 minutes. And then for 23 hours, I say, “Life sucks,” then there is a discrepancy there.

 

Hal: Yeah. That’s something that I taught my daughter recently is that every word out of your mouth is an affirmation essentially and I talked to her about every word that we speak to other people is an affirmation to those people. And so, for me, I’m really cognizant of how I talk to my wife and my kids, particularly my wife and my kids, but to where I use affirmations where I’m affirming to empower them in their beliefs and their mindset and their confidence and their self-love if you will. I’m trying to reinforce all of those not only by doing my own affirmations in the morning but then throughout the day really speaking life and belief, and power and love into every person that I come in contact with.

 

Lucia: Absolutely. That’s the idea because words can be a blessing or a curse. So, we really have to be careful of, I mean, how we use our words. We know ourselves in our inner talk, in our thoughts basically and with other people, especially the people we love because for some reasons we tend to be more less conscious of how we speak to our children, our spouses, and for some reasons we behave badly with them and it’s really something that, I mean, it’s not right. Yeah,

 

Hal: Yeah. I completely agree. So, one of the things that you’re known for is change. That is your expertise, meaning if I’m wrong, but I think it’s how to help people make meaningful changes at last, how to cope with unwanted changes that kind of fall into your lap. Derek Sivers, when it comes to your new book, A Whole New Life, I read this endorsement from Derek Sivers who he is if you don’t know who Derek is if you’re listening, the former president of CD Baby, multimillion dollar company. He wrote a book, one of my absolute favorite books. I love this book. It’s called Anything You Want. And Derek said, “Wow, about your book, Lucia. Wow, this is the most insightful and profound book on life and change in many, many years. Clear observations, wise, insightful and un-judging tone sprinkled with amazing quotes and relatable anecdotes. Very powerful. Highly recommended.” So, one of the most important abilities for us as human beings is the ability to make changes, to make meaningful, lasting changes, and to be able to cope with the unwanted changes that fall into our lap. Because often those are what derail people the most and then they can’t make meaningful changes because they can’t cope with the changes that happened to them, right?

 

Lucia: Yes.

 

Hal: So, one of the most important abilities for us as human beings is the ability to make change. That’s the only way for us to live to our full potential is to have the ability, the skill, the will to make meaningful changes that last, but then also it’s how to cope with unwanted changes. We’ve got to be able to handle both of those. We’ve got to actively make the changes that we want and then be able to cope with the unwanted changes that fall into our lap that kind of happened to us if you will. So, this is your expertise, making change, coping with unwanted changes. I’d love to hear your take on both of those, Lucia. Number one, how do you make meaningful changes that last? What’s the first step or what’s the process? And then after that, how do you cope with unwanted changes that happened to you?

 

Lucia: Yeah. So, first of all, how to make meaningful changes that last. First of all, know what kind of changes you want and it may seem stupid, obvious, but it’s not because many people don’t have actual clarity on the changes they want to make or they just follow what their spouse’s, their family’s, or society, “You got to have a good job,” and then those are the changes they want to make. But it is not their true calling. If it’s not their true goals then it’s not meaningful. So, that’s I would say step number one and then be aware that you do have the potential to make that change and in order to do that, sometimes we need to unlearn all the rules, unlearn old conditioning beliefs that we learned when we were children that said, “You don’t have enough capacities. You’re not good enough, blah, blah, blah.” So, this of course are the basics. And then I would say, “Stop being driven by pleasure and, instead, go towards yourself upon actualization or towards happiness.” And I think the problem in our society is that we tend to confuse pleasure with happiness and by happiness, I just don’t mean enthusiasm but, I mean, your full true realization. So, and I went through that myself as well.

 

I now can clearly understand how, for example, my frantic search for pleasure when I was still modeling, doing my old job prohibited me from finding my real happiness for many years. So, knowing the difference between the two is extremely important because real happiness emerges when what we do makes our lives and the world around us better when we follow our mission. And happiness is found by doing the right thing, by making investments that allow us to accumulate emotion and mental wealth, helping us to grow, to develop our good quantities, to find new talents, to build our life the way we want to. But pleasure has other characteristics. It’s more short-term reward. We taste pleasure then we are consuming something. Happiness, on the other hand, implies making an investment of our time, money, attention, energy, and sometimes it’s not so pleasurable. Like what you do with the Miracle Morning, every day waking up early sometimes especially at the beginning is not pleasurable but it helps me to go towards your true happiness or towards self-actualization. So, and this is a clear distinction that the thing to keep in mind every day because every day we come across this kind of choice even in the simplest of things. Like, when we get home from work, do we invest our time in reading a stimulating book, in volunteering, in taking the guitar or a painting class or do we sink in front of the TV?

 

So, this is really, really very important. Then, of course, the other thing is that we often when we think about change, creating the changes we want, we look at the end result and it’s important to be motivated but at the same time, sometimes it feels daunting. It feels too much at first step. So, the other trick is really to take little baby steps. And sometimes change is not a revolution but more of an evolution and I think it was an American poet, Thomas Elliot, who used to say that our life, human life, is measured in teaspoons, in little steps, and this again is something very important that keeps us towards change. And so, now how to cope with change, how to cope with unwanted change, I would say…

 

Hal: Actually, Lucy, before you go to that, I wanted to comment on a couple things that you shared if that’s okay. You mentioned taking baby steps and I believe that that is overlooked and so important, and I just want to give you a real quick example. I was recently feeling, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed with I’ve got so many big projects on the horizon. So, I have a new book, The Miracle Mooring For Couples, comes out in February, I have another book coming out in April called The Miracle Equation, then we have the Miracle Morning Movie. So, I’ve got all these big, big, big projects and I was feeling really overwhelmed and in the other day, I had a realization and it’s so often it’s not that we need to learn something new. We need to just fully get something we already know or relearn something that we’ve known from the past.

 

Lucia: We are.

 

Hal: And so, that I created an affirmation or almost for a mantra that really helped minimize the feeling of overwhelm and it was that, “I can do anything one step at a time, one day at a time,” and that was it. And now, whenever I’m thinking all these million things I need to do, I take my vision from the big picture and I bring it into the moment and I go, “Okay. What’s the one thing I can do for the next 30 minutes or 60 minutes?” It’s amazing that when I just focus on that, just that next step, the anxiety, the fear, the overwhelm goes away. It only exists when we’re not clear on what are the baby steps, what’s the next baby step that I need to take?

 

Lucia: Absolutely. And I do the same. For example, when I write a new book, I also tend to feel overwhelmed about all the projects that I’m managing, etcetera. So, when I write a new book instead of thinking, “Okay. I want to write this new book. Okay. It’s 300 pages with everything I want to put in it, etcetera,” what I started doing, I focus on half a page a day or one page a day and that’s my goal. I mean, I know that the end goal is the book but my goal becomes writing, I don’t know, ten or half a page a day and it changes the game completely.

 

Hal: Yeah. You’re absolutely right. Yeah. And that’s why I think it’s roughly according to the USA Today, I think it’s 80 something percent of people in the United States say that they want to write a book, but I believe it’s less than 1% that actually do and I think that your point exactly is why and that’s so applicable to every goal or dream that we have which is when we think about how far away the finish line is, we often get discouraged, we often get overwhelmed. When you think about a 300-page book, I don’t even know how I’m going to write 300 pages. How am I going to think of all that stuff, fill that up? I don’t even know but wait a minute, can you write one page? Of course, I can do one page. All right. Why don’t you do that today and then tomorrow do the same thing? And then the next day do the same thing. All of a sudden, in 300 days you have 300 pages and all of a sudden, a year from now your dream of writing a book is a reality. I guess you focus on those baby steps one step at a time. I wanted to share just one other piece to add to this that I was reminded of when you were sharing how you go about making meaningful changes and it’s spend time with it.

 

And that’s one of my favorites where just simplifying when we’re feeling overwhelmed, when we’re feeling, when we’re lacking clarity wondering, “What’s the next step? I don’t even know what to do now,” if we just schedule an hour and spend time thinking about brainstorming, working on, figuring out the steps, but that’s when the ideas come but very often, if we don’t have clarity, we don’t even schedule the time to get clarity. We just go, “Gosh, I don’t even know what to do.” And so, I think one of my favorite things is if it’s writing a book, whatever your goals, whatever your dreams are, especially ones you’re putting off, just schedule a time to spend time with them and initially it might be where that time is spent just figuring out what the heck you’re going to do. You may not even know what that is. Yeah. So, I love your tips, very simple but really effective at having meaningful changes.

 

Lucia: Yeah. And also, to build on that, I totally agree. Have some time to reflection time, thinking time, and I found for myself that when I do that in nature, it’s even more powerful and when I do that walking in nature because when you move your body, you’re self-producing the B&D, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor which is let me say let’s call it a booster for our connection for our brain, and neural connections, and it really when ideas come up. And the other thing or the other option is which I use quite a lot is I write a statement like an affirmation. I am now writing my book, for example, or I’m not writing a book that is helping thousands of people around the world and then on a blank sheet of paper and then I start asking any kind of questions to that affirmation like how am I going to do? Am I really going to do it? Or what do I need? Which kind of book? Any kind of question that comes to me I like to spend half an hour just finding questions to that goal, to that affirmation. And so, in this way, the unconscious mind again got stimulated to answer those questions and find ways.

 

Hal: I love that. Yeah. My business partner, Joh Berghoff, he says I believe the quote that he says often is, “That when you ask yourself a new question, you change the future before the answer even arrives.”

 

Lucia: Yes.

 

Hal: Because by asking the question, you change your focus and then you create new possibilities for new answers, new solutions, new ideas, new directions that didn’t exist before you asked that question. So, I love that you use questions to really direct your focus and figure out how to make these changes. So, let’s talk, yeah, if anybody is listening and they’re dealing with unwanted change right now, maybe they lost a job or they lost a relationship or for all of us, unwanted changes are around every corner. I mean, we’re always in life. You know, there’s always ups and there’s downs and things happen that you’re not expecting. I crashed my car a couple weeks ago. I bought a brand-new car and a week later drive my daughter to school. I crashed it. And I don’t know if it’s totaled yet. We’re still figuring that out but that was unwanted change. So, how do we deal with unwanted? And maybe even what are some examples on unwanted changes, but how do we cope with unwanted change, Lucia?

 

Lucia: Well, in a nutshell, I would say accept and reframe. So, accepting that there are things beyond our control and choosing to be comfortable with that. This is likely to bring greater peace of mind because otherwise, the other option would be really waging an unwinnable war. Because if there’s one constant, one certainty in life, it’s change. And so, I mean, we change continuously. The human body itself is constantly changing and I see as a woman, for example, I went through menopause and all that and my body started changing even if I do a lot of physical activity, I do yoga, I go swimming. So, and this is not such an unwanted change. It’s a natural change but even in small things like time that goes by, our body changes and sometimes in life we go through other experiences, unwanted experiences like breakups or illnesses. And so, the first thing really is to stop personalizing or saying, “There’s something wrong with me. Why did it happen to me?” Because that’s the first question that we humans tend to ask ourselves, “Why did it happen to me?” And with that question, we started going into a downward spiraling like we can find thousands of reasons, negatives, why this thing happened to us.

 

I am worse than the other people, etcetera, etcetera. My life sucks but reality is that this is just part of life. And so, and maybe just lowering our expectation that everything should always go well, that should never feel this kind of setbacks. Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese monk has a very nice way of putting it. He says, “Wilting flower do not cause suffering. It’s the unrealistic desire that flowers will not wilt that cause us suffering.” So, this kind of acceptance and then reframing. But what do I mean by reframing is that, for example, instead of fasting ourselves, why did this happen to me? We just need to change the question and say, “Why did or what or why did this happen for me?” Meaning what is the lesson here? What is the possibility here? Because in every experience, and this I found it also in my life, in every experience, also the most difficult ones, there’s always a possibility for growth and sometimes it’s when you’re wounded, your heart opens and then the light can go through. So, really the idea is to accept what happens and flow through it. This is the best advice that I could give.

 

Hal: Yeah. I love that and I’m a big believer that all of our emotional suffering is caused by the opposite of acceptance which is resistance. And to the degree that we resist reality is the degree that we create that emotional pain. If you are really wishing something were different that you can’t control then you’re really going to be upset about it. So, yeah, no, I think that you’re right on. In fact, I call one other way of looking at it too is accept life before it happens meaning you decide that I’m going to accept all things that happen to me that are out of my control because there’s no point in wishing they didn’t happen. It’s futile as they say.

 

Lucia: Yeah. It’s, again, an unwinnable war and most of the times, actually, I mean we create in our mind, we create worst images and worst thoughts that gives us anxiety even worse than what in fact is happening. So, one good question is here is ask ourselves, “Okay, what’s the worse that can happen?” Because most of the times, we are scared because we are afraid of the unknown, a new equation. So, it’s unknown and a good way to deal with the unknown is to think things through carefully and imagine all the different possibilities or the different possible outcomes and then decide even the worst case scenario will, I mean, can I take it? Okay. And then gone. And sometimes even write it down has. So, just letting your emotions because the option would be to suppress your emotions, which is not good and on the other side to make your emotions bigger and stronger and going to panic. And I remember one of my teachers, meditation teachers, used to say there are two ways to make panic bigger and stronger, treating it like a boss and obeying it every order or treating it like an enemy and wishing it to go away. So, the idea is to find the line between these two opposites.

 

Hal: I love that. I love that. I like what you said a few minutes ago about and I forgot who you quoted, “Wilting flowers do not cause suffering. It’s the unrealistic expectation that the flowers won’t wilt that causes suffering.” There’s such wisdom in that. It’s our expectation that everything is going to go according to plan and when it doesn’t go according to plan, and our expectations aren’t met, then we’re distraught, we’re upset, we’re angry, versus just saying, “Well, it is what it is and I can’t change it.” Do you have any affirmations or mantras or anything that help you to accept these unwanted changes?

 

Lucia: Yes. Very basic, very short affirmation, “I am safe.”

 

Hal: I love that.

 

Lucia: The universe supports me. Universe. God’s spirit, whatever, I mean, you want to call it or him or her. I don’t know which kind of name, I mean, people want to give to spirit. But spirit loves me or life loves me. I am safe. I am safe is really the deepest one. So simple, so short, so deep.

 

Hal: I like that. I think it goes great with you talking about asking that question, what’s the worst that can happen? And very rarely the worst that can happen would defy that “I am safe” affirmation because it’s like whatever is going to happen, I’m safe.

 

Lucia: Exactly. What am I going…  

 

Hal: It’s always helpful. I’m sorry.

 

Lucia: Yeah. I was saying and also in other affirmation, “This is happening for my highest good.”

 

Hal: That’s a great one. I’m writing that one down too. I have so many notes here for listening to you. This is happening for my highest good.

 

Lucia: Yeah.

 

Hal: I love that. I am safe. This is happening for my highest good. Lucia, how do you keep your motivation high? Whether you’re in the middle of change or you’re trying to make change or achieve your goals, do you have any tips or tricks or strategies for keeping your motivation high?

 

Lucia: Yes. I got some questions. I come from the coaching world. I founded a coaching school so I use the questions a lot. And why? Why am I doing this in this sense? Like for example, I decided to wake up every day at 4:00, for example, and being a night person is not easy. And then I ask myself, okay, why am I really doing this? I’m doing this because I want more time for myself. Okay. And why do I want more time for myself? Because then I can write and read and meditate. Okay. And why is it important for me to write, read, and meditate? Okay. Because then I can really be in touch with my soul. And why is it important for me to be in touch with my soul? Because then I can really be in touch with my life mission. Okay. And why is it important to be in touch with my life mission? Because so I could lead my life mission and leave a legacy in the world. Okay. Then I link that to the higher purpose to the activity, to waking up at 4 o’clock every morning. And then it becomes so meaningful that motivation is there. So, asking why but not stopping at the first why, a few why, I would recommend at least five, and then you ask why to the answer that comes out. And so, you go up in layers to your higher intention and when you’ve done that, you link it to the activity.

 

Hal: I love that. It’s going down the why rabbit hole so to speak, just why am I doing this? Why is this important to me and why is that important to me? And why is that? I love that and it’s getting – because where you get leverage, right? That’s where you get the leverage that you need to stay motivated is when you’re really clear on why you’re doing something at the deepest, truest, highest good for yourself, right?

 

Lucia: Then I have another thing and the process side because the access of motivation in reality and I talk a lot about that in my book is the dance between the drive toward what we want and then an escape from what we don’t want anymore. So, sometimes I feel I also need to work on that path on the away from path. So, I asked myself a very simple question, “What will happen if I don’t do this? So, what will happen if things stay the same? What will happen if I don’t make a good choice? What will happen if I don’t wake up at 4 and keep on doing the things as I always do?” What will happen if I don’t write my book? Etcetera, etcetera.

 

Hal: I love that. So, it’s looking at the other side of the coin in terms of what are the consequences of staying the same, not making the change, right?

 

Lucia: Exactly. Exactly. Because many people even when they want to make when a change in their life, they want, I don’t know, to leave a job, an unfulfilling job and find a new job, etcetera, then they start asking themselves questions like, “Oh, what are the consequences if I leave the security of this job, the safety of this job? What will I lose, etcetera?” But they don’t reflect on, they don’t ask themselves what will happen if I stay in this job my whole life in an unsatisfying job my whole life.

 

Hal: Yeah. That’s a great point and to your point, I think that often it was Tony Robbins that talks about how we will do much more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. And there’s another book called Following Through that talks about that same principle and so what you’re talking about I think the question of why is important because that gives the leverage, gives yourself the leverage of, “Well, this is what I really want. Here’s why it’s important to me. Here’s how it’s going to benefit me or my family or my future,” but I think that the second question that you gave maybe more important based on that principle of how we will do more to avoid pain is to go, “What are the consequences if I stay the same if I don’t change?” And Robin Sharma one my favorite quote I always, in fact, I think you’re there for my speech. It’s in my speech. Robin said that, “One of the saddest things in life is to wake up one day and realize you could’ve been, done, and had so much more.” And to me, that’s a universal answer to the question what will happen if I don’t have the courage to make this change, to do this thing is I will wake up one day and realize that I could’ve been, done, and had so much more. Yeah. I love that. One last question just because you touched on it. You mentioned that you get up at 4 AM. I would love to know, do you have a morning ritual that you could share with our audience?

 

Lucia: Yes, I do actually and it’s very similar to your SAVERS.

 

Hal: Okay.

 

Lucia: Yeah. Because what I do is depending on where I am, because I live the part of the year in Italy and part of the year in Thailand and Bali. So, when I’m in Thailand and Bali, definitely I do more activities outside. When I’m in Italy if it’s winter, I prefer to do activities inside so depending but definitely, I do meditation and then I do breathing exercises because I also teach breath or rebreathing. And so, I spend at least 10, 15 minutes doing breathing exercises and then I do some prayers. And the prayers are really what is in my heart in that moment. Because I think that in a way, a meditation is kind of listening to God or spirit and praying is kind of speaking to God or spirit. So, a good conversation, a good communication needs too, needs both of them. So, I do that. And then I do some physical activity like I do walking or swimming or yoga depending on where I am. And, yeah, that’s my base for the morning.

 

Hal: That’s your Miracle Morning. I love it.

 

Lucia: Yes. And then of course, during the whole so sometimes I do in the morning but maybe just four or five minutes because when I wake up, when I go to the toilet and then I look at myself in the mirror, I do lots of affirmations in front of the mirror or when I’m driving, I do affirmations so I tend to spread them moreover the day. And in the evening, I do journaling and reading.

 

Hal: Okay. So, you have your Miracle Evening as well.

 

Lucia: Yeah. I do and it’s very, very powerful because especially after a day of hectic activities in the evening when I go to bed and then normally, I do that in the bed like at least half an hour, sometimes a full hour. Journaling, reading, celebrating the positives of the day. Yeah.

 

Hal: Beautiful. Well, and I don’t think it’s any coincidence that almost every highly successful person that I speak with, they have a morning ritual. It’s few and far between for those that don’t. So, I think I love seeing that correlation.

 

Lucia: It’s so important. Actually, also in my book I speak about having a morning routine as a tool for transformation because it keeps gives you energy, it gives you focus.

 

Hal: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more. So, your new book is A Whole New Life: Discover the Power of Positive Transformation. Congratulations, by the way, on you published in Italy and now it’s making its way around the world. Eight different languages and now it lands in the United States. It’s available I know for preorder on Amazon right now. What is your desire for that book and just your work in general right now? What’s your highest vision for your book and for your work?” Well, what I really want is that my work and my book has people to live better, to have the strength to believe in themselves, in their talents, the ability and the courage to develop them. I believe that personal improvement, of course, goes through the increase of one’s patience and compassion, the diminish of judgment, the search for purpose on one’s life, and of course, the desire to share it with the world. So, I hope that my book and my work, in general, can really be of help for that. And I believe that by doing this, and by bringing peace within ourselves, we can really help the world to live in peace and to live really, I mean, to be better. So, I hope…

 

Hal: Well, that’s beautiful. Sorry. Go ahead, Lucia.

 

Lucia: I was saying that in Italy I created, I mean, probably I was just the start and then people just gathered but a strong community and of people who really were able to make the changes they wanted in their lives. And they are still doing, I mean, and also cope with unwanted changes and also in other countries, unexpected countries, like Bulgaria for example. And so, I hope that it’d be the same for the United States too. Of course, I’m struggling with some fears.

 

Hal: Of course. Yeah.

 

Lucia: Yeah. Because I think we never at least this goes for me. I never stopped working on myself and at every level. When I first published a book, I had the fear of I’m not good enough, who am I to write a book, etcetera, etcetera, because I really wanted for the book to be helpful for people. And then I saw that it really helped thousands and thousands of people and that fear melted away. And now, with the launch in the US, my fear is my English isn’t good enough.

 

[CLOSING]

 

Hal: Well, I think if today was any evidence of what’s to come, I think your English rocks and you are brilliant and you have a spirit about you of love and truly desiring to help others and I think it’s a fantastic combination. I learned a ton from you today. I got a lot of value, Lucia, so thank you for bringing your work to the United States.

 

Lucia: Thank you very much for your words, for your kind words.

 

Hal: Absolutely. And last but not least, where can we reach you?

 

Lucia: So, my website is www.LuciaGiovannini.com and Facebook I created a Facebook group called A Whole New Life.

 

Hal: Based on the book. That’s great.

 

Lucia: Yes. And, of course, also on Facebook I have my main page, public page, Lucia Giovannini.

 

Hal: Awesome. Well, everyone, if you want to learn more from Lucia, reach out to her, go to her website, and I think most importantly check out her book. It is available right now for preorder on Amazon. It’s called A Whole New Life: Discover the Power of Positive Transformation. Lucia, it has truly been a pleasure and an honor today. Thank you so much for joining me.

 

Lucia: Thank you. Thank you, Hal. It’s been such an honor and a privilege for me. Thank you.

 

Hal: Awesome. You’re very welcome. And, goal achievers, thank you for tuning in to another episode of Achieve Your Goals Podcast. I love you, I appreciate you, go out there and achieve some awesome goals and create that whole new life that you deserve. I love you and I will talk to you next week, everybody. Take care.

[END]