More Than #Selfcare: Create Capacity for Your Success

I believe that the secret to finding and rocking your IT FACTOR stems from the inner work we do on ourselves.

When you’re clear on who you are and continually strive to become the best version of yourself, the law of attraction kicks in and others are drawn to you like a magnet.

If you’re a fan of personal development like me, listening to podcasts, books and taking online courses, you’ve most likely experienced the high that comes when you get inspired to dream and hope.

You’ve also most likely experienced the overflow of information, drinking from the fire hose of inspirational how-tos, chasing the next motivational hit, never stopping long enough to allow information to transform into knowledge.

Today I’m challenging you to consider the level of intentionality you place on your learning: are you growing in the right areas?

And secondly, do you have the capacity for the information you consume to become knowledge? Are you giving yourself space to think and reflect? This power is what fuels your success.

EPISODE  SHOW NOTES👇

➡️ https://heathersager.com/episode45/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When you're constantly adding in without questioning what's already in there in the first place, if you don't clear the clutter in your mind and in your life, do you really have the capacity for sustainable growth? That's what this conversation is really about today is how do you make sure that you have the capacity to truly absorb and truly leverage the tools, and systems, and knowledge that you're gaining through all of this quote-unquote personal development work. Are you really creating an environment for it to stick?

Speaker 2: 0:44

Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a way with words? They have this spark that lights you up when you're near them, they have the It factor. And while most people think it's something that only a few are born with, I believe that you can find it so it can become your superpower to grow your business. It's about you bringing your brand to life by becoming a magnetic communicator in person and on camera, showing up with confidence, authenticity, and inspiration. So are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor.

Speaker 1: 1:33

Hey friend, welcome back to another episode of the It Factor. It's going to be a good one today. We are just winding things up of the last, Oh, I don't know, couple months less. It's seven or eight episodes talking specifically around virtual speaking and speaking on stages.

: 1:49

Today we're going to wind it back a little bit and talk about something that I think is so important when you're putting yourself into a position to speak on stages. There's a little bit of homework you have to do internally to make sure that you're prepared to speak on stage. What do I mean by that? We're not talking about speaking today. We're talking about the inner work that needs to happen so that you can show up as the kind of person that's authentic to you and attracts your ideal audience to you. I'm a big believer, I say it in the intro. I talk about the secret to finding and rocking your It factor is working on yourself, being really clear around who you are, being the best version of yourself and bringing that to every interaction, and that's what gets other people excited to want to work with you. That means you have to be intentional on the work that you do for yourself. I'm sure if you're listening to this podcast, you probably listen to many podcasts, you probably read the books, have the audible subscription, you're taking the courses, you're doing all the things to grow. Today I really want to challenge you to say, are you growing intentionally? Are you treating your personal and professional development with the same level of specificity that you bring in other areas of your business? We need to get really, really specific around where you're growing so that you can grow your business because if you are not growing, your business will not grow sustainably in the longterm. Before we dive in today, a fun thing I like to share with you, what's going on in my life? At the time of this recording, I am celebrating because we just closed the doors on my program, which if you've been following along, you know this to be true. Speak Up to Level Up just closed. I am so proud of my team for the hard work over these last few months. I'll tell you doing a launch right in the middle of COVID and the world's shutting down, which let's be clear guys, I'm a speaking coach to teach people how to speak on stages like live event stages, which are not happening for the foreseeable future. My team and I, we had to pivot and talk about,'all right, let's pony up here and really shift into virtual stages.' In May, we made a really conscious shift to start talking about virtual speaking. Oh my goodness, so that plus obviously all the conversations around racial injustice and everything going on now, which are conversations that need to be had. The world has just been a little crazy town in the month of June, where people were getting very angsty around was it appropriate to launch? Was it appropriate to sell? I myself personally hired a diversity and inclusion consultant to come in and talk about my business around what we can do better. One of the specific conversations we had was whether or not it was appropriate to sell. I share with her my feelings around, I don't want to use my business in this yucky fashion around trying to take advantage of the conversations that were going on and pivot the,'your voice matters, share your voice now more than ever.'. I don't just jump on the coattails of a lot of the conversations. To me that felt real gross and not in alignment with my brand. She and I were having a conversation about it. She gave me some feedback and said,'Heather, you need to sell. We need people to sell now, right now. We need the products and services that are going to help us. If we stop selling, if we stop offering the things that are going to transform lives, it doesn't help. It only hurts.'. We had a conversation around me being in complete integrity with my beliefs and feelings around what I know my program can do, what my podcast can do with the things that I teach, what it can do and how it can transform the lives of so many in terms of gaining more confidence to share their stories.

Speaker 1: 5:44

We made the decision. We pushed back the launch a couple of weeks and we went all in. I am so glad we did. This was the most I've ever spent on a launch with Facebook ads and all the things.

: 5:56

You know this, I don't try to pretend that my business is huge or that I've been at this for years. Guys, I've been in business for, I'm technically 20 months, but full time in my business for 18 months. I'm so proud of my team. We did an incredible, we just welcomed a nice flood of business owners into the program and I cannot wait to get started with them. I wanted to share this with you because, you probably similar to me where you don't take a lot of time to celebrate along the way. I just want to encourage you to remind you in this season right now, take every win and celebrate honor and appreciate the hard work that goes to it and the results that you get, even when those results aren't what you'quote unquote' budgeted, or what your target was, or what your goals were. I did not hit my goals for this launch. I still feel like a f reaking champion because with all of the other things going on, I feel damn good about where we landed. I'm even more excited about the people and the messages that are now in the program, being able to help them share it. I just want to tell this to you today because the reminder, kind reminder, give yourself some grace and celebrate every fricking win, because that is the fuel to keep you going. You're always going to have those moments of how can I get better. Sure, do that but don't bring a big shadow over your successes with,'Oh, I'm just trying to get better.' Don't rain on your own damn party. You need to celebrate, embrace the party and then wake up the next day, and then you can get better. You can do both. They don't have to be one or the other. So just a little kind, love give yourself some grace and celebrate,. The other exciting thing for me going on right now, I am packing up getting ready to head out of town. My family, my little family, my husband and I, and our two boys every year, since my oldest was born, we go to central Oregon. We stay away for about a week out in nature. Let's just be clear. I'm not like a camping style kind of person. I'm more of a glamping person where we stay at this condo in the middle, it's like off a golf course, but it's so secluded in the middle of nowhere where we just spend time outside in the sun, plane on trails, riding bikes and in the pool, granted the pool is not open. We're not going to be around other people considering the state has shut down, but I'm just excited. I'm excited to get out and have a little bit of a pace change'cause I've been stuck in this house like so many, four months, so I'm excited about that. I wanted to share this with you because one of the things that my husband and I do every single year. We go around the same time, this week is our wedding anniversary. We've been married nine years this week, actually the day this episode comes out. One of the things that he and I do every single year in July is we have conversations around our future, revisit our goals. We start dreaming about the next 10 years. This is going to sound so geeky, but we do an assessment on our relationship, and our family, and our marriage. We sit down and we actually scorecard but we don't like write down numbers. We talk through it like, how are things going? Are we on track? Are we off track? What's working, what's not working? We can hash out any of the weird stupid arguments that we've been having continuously over the last few months. It just helps us clear our minds and reset the vision for our relationship and our goals as a family and gets us excited for where we're going next. We do this every year in July. I feel like it's really beautiful cause we do it around our anniversary. But also I feel like a lot of people do their goal setting in like the week between Christmas and new years where I do that too. But for me our best goal conversations, ones that are with my partner. He and I, we have these conversations in the middle of the year because we just have a different perspective. I feel like, with the sunshine and the outdoors, we just have a better outlook around where we're taking our lives together. I just want to give you a little shout out here that if you do goal setting, might I recommend with the mid- year celebration we have going on right now, we're now into, or halfway through the year. This would be an incredible time for you to get present again with your goals and your vision for yourself. If you're in a relationship, this is a great time to have those conversations with your partner. This is a great time to be thinking about your relationships with your kids or with your friends, with your family, with your team. Evaluating where you are right now and setting yourself some goals for the next six months but even beyond that. Think bigger. Three years from now, 10 years from now, where are you going? I think this season right now, especially as we've been through some crazy couple months, this might be a really good time for you to reset and recast your vision so that you can enter in the next six months with a bigger fire, a bigger level of intensity, and we're going to talk about today with a plan for how are you actually gonna make those things become a reality. I'm just saying it's a beautiful season for that, so that's what I will be doing at the time this episode airs. I invite you to participate in that goal, resetting, recasting, whatever you want to call it. I'm not going to put some formalities around it or give you a step by step process on how to do it.

Speaker 1: 11:19

You're an adult, you know how to set goals. You know how to read the books that tell you how to do it. This is just a really good time for you to revisit that. All right. But before we get started, I wanted to give you just a quick reminder guys. You know, this podcast is something that I do completely free showing up every single week for you. Can I ask you just a little tiny favor to help a girl out today?

: 11:43

If you haven't yet left a review on the podcast, could you be so kind maybe, celebrate my wedding anniversary with me, celebrate my launch with me, your wins, if you could just leave a review for the podcast with words, you know, the text reviews. Those mean a lot, but that's really how people make decisions of whether or not to start listening or stick with a new podcast.

Speaker 1: 12:07

I promise if you leave the reviews, we get people listening. I'll do my job and get those people coming back over and over again. But if you could just take a moment in iTunes leave a review right now, it would mean the world for me if you did that. And then of course, if you know anyone in your audience that might enjoy what we talk about in this show, please share it.

: 12:23

Please, please always share tag me on Instagram stories. It's the highlight of my day when I see you guys listening to this show and more importantly, sharing it with others. Be proud, rock the It Factors, share with other peoples. It means the world and it helps make sure this show is continually we're able to produce it, but by getting it out to more and more people. All right, guys, let's talk about the content for today's episode.

Speaker 1: 12:49

Now, this conversation today stemmed from a coaching call I had this week with one of my private clients. I was trying to figure out, okay, what, where should we go next with the show? I had some ideas around podcast topics, and I decided to pause on the ones that I had planned. We'll pick up on those next week.

: 13:06

What I wanted to do is talk about today's conversation around creating capacity for your next level. Okay. What do I mean by that? Let me give you this little story real quick that I hear, that I read. If you're familiar, you follow me along. You know that I'm a certified high performance coach from the High Performance Institute. You also know that I'm a huge fan of Brendon Burchard and High Performance habits. I referenced those quite often and I wanted to share with you, there's a couple excerpts from the book today to help anchor the conversation. I want to read you this line here. It's a story that Brendon tells in High Performance habits. He says, why are you so terrified to want more? He's sitting at a large Oak desk, separated from him from Lynn. She pulls back her chair and stares at the window for a moment. They're on the 42nd floor in nearly eye level with the morning mist looking over the ocean. Even before you asked the question, he knew she wouldn't like it. Lynn was one of those people you could describe as highly effective. She's focused and get stuff done. She exhibits strengths for critical thinking and leading others. She's received three big promotions in the last five years. People admire her. They say she's on her way. That she's got the it factor. Terrified is not how most would describe her, but he knew. She glanced back at him and starts to reply.'Well, I wouldn't say that I'm--'. He lands in and shakes his head. She catches herself a nod, smoothing her already smoothed brown hair. She knows she can't get away with a fake story right now.'Okay,' Lynn says,'maybe you're right. I'm scared to go to the next level.' He asks,'why?' She says,'because I'm barely surviving this one.' This story. The story of Lynne, a high performing executive in an organization, one who on the outside, everyone's like,'man, she's rocking it. She's experiencing really great success.' Finding herself scared to go to the next level because she's barely surviving this one. I share this again today because I think at times many of us find ourselves in the position of Lynn, where we are doing all the things, right? We're reading the books, we're following the programs, we're listening to the podcasts, we're applying the systems into our businesses, we're growing, we're starting to find traction and we want more. We want more, but we're kind of not sure what more looks like. And quite frankly, when we think about the, the more, when we think about the vision board, the goals, all the things that are out in front of us, it can be a little overwhelming. Quite frankly, we hear everyone else's goals and we see all their successes and so our vision boards or our goals that write down might be yours or might be these dreams that we think we should have, but aren't really our own. Maybe there are things like I want to be a bestselling author, have a successful podcast, speak on stages with the big names, become a millionaire, I want to live debt free, I want to have an exceptional marriage, I want to be an exceptional mom. All these things sound great, right? So we start dreaming, writing down all the things that we think we're supposed to have because that's the dream. And then we're taking the courses, and reading the books, and listen to podcasts, and listen to all the thought leaders and still feeling a little frustrated. Why am I not further? We're thinking like,'man! I know this is supposed to be hard, but it is also not supposed to be fun.' I don't know. Maybe I'm alone in this that sometimes it feels like it should be moving faster. That's how I felt last year. I felt like everyone is dreaming. I am dreaming, but it was overwhelming. The traction wasn't happening. And I had left this life at corporate, although very excited to leave the corporate life and move on a different pace. It was hard. It was super hard. I knew it was going to be hard. This idea of hard, always thinking about the future, always dreaming, always analyzing the past, trying to grow and improve, it left me never in the present moment, never in the present moment. And even if you're like, if you don't feel like you're drowning, Brendan writes this in one of his books. He says, even if you don't feel like drowning, you might sense that you're plateauing or maybe that you have the sinking feeling that you're about to be left behind. That resonated a lot with me is that I didn't always feel like I was drowning. I didn't really feel like I was like, hold on, yes, I totally. Entrepreneurship guys, it's always like, I'm on cloud nine. And then you're like,'I'm a failure!' And then you're like,'I'm claiming the world.' And then the world is ending and your niche sucks and all the things, right.?That's entrepreneurship as we know it to be. But even still, sometimes it can just feel like we can't get out of this funk. We can't get out of this funk and not really quite sure what that looks like. But the question is, is does this life of entrepreneurship always have to be this really hard, heavy grind where you're always trying to figure out what the next level is, always trying to figure out what the next step is, always trying to figure out how to frickin breathe? I think we get caught up in the cycle of self evaluation, wanting more constant comparison, constantly putting ourselves into action. And that we move into this pace and this frenzy that does the opposite of what we're after, because we create this energy that's frantic, quite frankly, at times is desperate. It does the opposite of attracting and growing your audience. It does the opposite of wanting to create a life and a business that we enjoy. How do we enjoy life? How do we enjoy this world of entrepreneurship if the expectations are always changing, if the world's always changing, if the algorithms are always changing, if we're being marketed to left and right that there's a new way to do this, or if you're not doing this, that you're failing? It feels like a lot at times. I'm telling you this because I know to be true that this world of entrepreneurship is filled with ups and downs. And the conversation that I wanted to have today is I want you to imagine this for a moment. Let's say that I don't know you like to shop. I like to shop. One of the things that I realized over the years is I like to buy clothes. I would buy clothes and continually come home, put them in my closet. When we moved from our old house into our new house and I realized just how many clothes I had. Oh my gosh, it was insane. The volume of clothes that I had stick with me on this for a moment. I was like, Holy crap, going through things that I hadn't even seen in years, things that I didn't even like. I had so many fricking clothes that I went through and had to Marie Kondo my close. Ask myself what sparks, joy, and talk to my clothes and thank them for their time and donate them. I donate so many clothes. I tell you this, because I think a lot of times in this world of entrepreneurship, when we are assaulted with all of these buy my programs. You need this product or program. If you want to reach the next level, you need this or that, or read this book, read this thing. We're always in your face of more, and more, and more, more and more. We're always adding all these tips, and strategies and tools in, but I want you to ask the question is when you're constantly adding in without questioning what's already in there in the first place, if you don't clear the clutter in your mind and in your life, do you really have the capacity for sustainable growth? That's what this conversation is really about today is how do you make sure that you have the capacity to truly absorb and truly leverage the tools, and systems and knowledge that you're gaining through all of this quote-unquote personal development work. Are you really creating an environment for it to stick? And if you're like many entrepreneurs, I would imagine that oftentimes we read the books, we consumed the podcast, we take the courses. It's one of those, it's in one ear out the other.

Speaker 1: 22:04

I used to do this back when I was in college and high school. Guys, I was really good at taking tests. I was really good at taking tests because I can cram really, really well the week before, sometimes even the night before.

: 22:16

Let me give you a little example here. I got really good at memorizing things where, you know, in college, a lot of times on tests, you can bring like a one page cheat sheet with you. You can take one page of notes. Got really good at organizing my notes on a one pager, but even on, on tests that I couldn't bring a notes. What I would do is I would create a page of notes at home and I would memorize the crap out of it, all the formulas, all the things, whatever it was in Calculus or whatever class I was in. I would memorize it.

Speaker 1: 22:44

When I would go into a test, the teacher would hand out the test. The first thing I would do would flip the test over backwards and I would create my page of notes from memory. Just dump everything I memorized, write it all down. Write all the formulas, write everything down. Then I would have from memory, a full page of notes on the back of my test that I could then flip over, breathe easy and take the test.

: 23:07

I know that might sound really freaking crazy, but guys, I was a really good quote-unquote student, because I could take tests. But here is the problem. When you just cramped things to memorize them for the moment your brain doesn't really retain them and you're not actually absorbing knowledge, you're absorbing information. What I want to challenge you in thinking is about how much of it, when you're listening to podcasts, when you're listening to books, when you're taking little mini courses or whatever else that you're doing where you're putting information in your brain, how much of it is just information that's coming in and how much knowledge are you really creating for yourself, and that knowledge driving meaningful change in your lives that improves the quality of your life and your business? You have to create the capacity for you to think about the things that you're learning. It's like a really good wine. I'm a wino, but granted, let me be clear here. I'm a wino. Oh, I have boxed wine in my fridge right now and I love it. It doesn't have to be fancy wine. It just has to taste good, but we all know a good red wine tastes so much better when you let it breathe. You pour the glass, you let it sit. Or if you're fancy, you put it in a decanter and you let it just decant. I don't know if that what you call it. You let it breathe and things open. I don't even know how it works. When I say I'm a wino, I don't know much about wine. I know how to drink it, but when you let it go things open and the flavor profile changes and all of a sudden it takes on a new life. The same is true for the information that you're bringing in. When you just crammed through books or crammed through podcasts, and it's like onto the next, onto the next, onto the next, how much of it do you really let take legs? How much do you let take life to really help transform your life and your business? That's what I want you thinking about today. Creating the capacity for your own personal growth, that is the secret here. That is the secret here. And what I want you to be thinking about is relating this back to you wanting more, I would imagine back in the story that I told about Brendan, then from his book with Lynn, if you're in this position where you want more, but you're a little scared of it because you're not holding on right now. I think part of that might mean as you're cramming so much in that you are not creating the capacity for you to enjoy the success that you are having. You're not even honoring or acknowledging the success that you're having right now. I want you to take a second. Think about that. Is that true for you? When was the last time that you sat down and said, damn I did that. Do you take time every day and acknowledge the successes, the wins, no matter how big or small that you have that day?

Speaker 1: 25:54

I know many people, the idea of a gratitude journal is something that's really let's say on trend right now. A gratitude journal, if you're writing a generic phrase or a generic statements around what you're grateful each day- grateful for life, grateful for health, grateful for my family, grateful for my home, grateful for my kids.

: 26:13

Those things are all well and true, but also I want to encourage you to be more specific because when you start focusing on gratitude for specific moments that have to happen through the day and you can close your eyes and re-experience those moments, that's how you start appreciating the wins from your day. The note you got from your email subscriber telling you how much they appreciated your message, the share that somebody gave of your Instagram stories and they actually said,'Oh my gosh, have you listened to this person's podcast?' Maybe you and your child read a book together and you stayed up late telling fart jokes. That was hilarious. Maybe that's just me. But that was a moment that happened with my five-year-old this week. He's really big on joke books right now and he's five, so of course he thinks farts are hilarious so I do too. You have to think about the moment it's that you have when you write down those moments in a gratitude journal, two amazing things happen. One, you get to relive those moments, which hopefully bring you joy but also those are wins that happen in your day. The more that you catalog, those wins for yourself, the more you'll find of them. This idea of creating capacity in your day, I'm going to give you a couple of lenses I want you to start thinking about around how you're creating space in your own life for your growth. I'm a little guy, so I'm g oing t o be honest with you. I had so many things I want to tell you about today. This conversation is one I'd want to have for a while, but I'm like, damn, how do I organize this in the best way possible, considering that I teach how to talk about like, how to organize your thoughts for a living. I was struggling articulating this one because I feel like it's so important that there are so many things that I wanted to share. Today I'm just speaking from the heart. I'm just speaking from the heart and sharing with you what's on my mind because I think if it's on my mind and my heart, it might be something that you need to hear, and just something to help you recenter back for why you're doing all this, back for why we're in the grind for leveling up and doing all the things. How do we recenter to ensure that we're doing this in a way that's in alignment? Another quote that I love from Brendon's book, High Performance habits. He talks about achievement is not your problem, alignment is. He talks about this in this capacity around high performance. H. He defined type performance as succeeding beyond the standard norms over the long- term. This is something that Brendon taught me a lot. I actually learned this a lot in my former position back when I was doing consulting for companies. Our organization was really big around helping people achieve their personal professional and financial goals. We felt like alignment was when we were winning in business and in life. When those things were growing in tandem, that's when amazing things could start happening because people felt really compelled and excited to do the work because they were winning outside of work. That message really, it got propelled even further for me when I came across Brendon Burchard's work because when he talks about high performance, it's this idea around performing at peak in every area of your life, not just your business. So the question I want to ask you around your personal growth right now, I'm sure, as I mentioned before, you're reading the podcast, you're doing the audio books, your taking the courses, you're reading the physical books. You're doing all the things. The question is, is, are you being intentional with how you're growing? Are you giving yourself space to grow? I want to give you a couple recommendations around where you might want to do a little tune-up right now, where you might want to do a tuneup in how you're treating your own personal development, or as many people call it#self-care.

Speaker 1: 30:08

I think that term has been really overly used, but you know, you most likely know the metaphor that's often used around all these things. There's this metaphor, I don't know who came up with it, but it's this idea that you need to be able to pour from a full cup.

: 30:24

Imagine that there's this glass sitting on a table and the glass is has water in it. And it's constantly trying to fill up the cups of other, like other glasses around it. When you're constantly picking up the cup to pour into other things, the analogy is if you're trying to take care of other people, or you're giving everything to your business, or giving everything to your career, when you pick up the glass and start pouring it, what happens eventually the glass runs out of water. But instead, if you were just to set the glass on the table and take a pitcher, or a hose, or a faucet and just fill the glass and keep filling it, what happens? Eventually, the glass overfills and water starts pouring out of it from the sides.

Speaker 1: 31:08

Now, the problem with this analogy is then you have a giant mess on the table so maybe you're not quite as intentional with where the water overflows, but you get the gist here, right?

: 31:17

What I want you to think about is if you want to succeed in business and you get to define what quote-unquote succeed looks like, you have to be able to pour from a full cup, which means you need to be taking care of yourself. Self care, if that's a thing that you either have embraced and loved, or quite frankly, you roll your eyes at, because you're like,'Heather, I'm trying to take care of tiny humans, and run a business, and pay the bills and do all the things. I don't have time for taking care of me.'. Challenge yourself and say, if you aren't taking care of you, how can you really be aligned in your success? Because success, you have to define what that looks like. Success isn't just about hitting a revenue number in your business, hitting the list size of your business. Success is about you having the kind of life that you want. Speaking of an alignment in business, I was just interrupted like 73 times by my five year old, who had to tell me about a badminton set that he found in the garage? Oh my goodness. Okay. Let's refocus here. What I want you to think about, coming back to it, I mentioned that this whole stems from a conversation with one of my clients. I work with my private clients, yes, on speaking, but oftentimes we're focusing more so around how they show up in general, in different interactions, on video, in meetings, on stages, all the things. This specific client works in corporate, and she wants to get better for how she shows up in any situations, sales calls, on phone calls, in meetings, in presentations, all the things. The analogy that I gave her was, you know what, when it comes around growth, when it comes to your growth, when we're thinking about our personal growth or professional growth, we often envision the metaphor is used a lot around climbing a mountain. I want you to envision this for a second. Usually we think about climbing a mountain. I know there's a lot of conversation around growth related to mindset. You know, there's that book by Carol Dweck, where she talks about, she's a researcher from Stanford. She talks about, here's actually the quote from her. In a fixed mindset, students believe that their basic abilities, their intelligence, their talents are just fixed traits. They have a certain amount and that's it. And then their goal becomes to look smart, all the diamond never looked down. That's a fixed mindset.

Speaker 1: 33:33

And then she goes on to define in a growth mindset, students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, good teaching, and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein, but they believe that everyone gets smarter if they work at it.

: 33:49

That's the idea around a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. I think that's conversations that we all have all the time. I think it's a very common conversation in business. I think it's easy for us to be like, of course we don't want to have a fixed mindset. I want to challenge you to start thinking about what in your world right now, are you really sitting in more of that fixed zone? Are you saying things like, I'm not a video person? I'm not a morning person. I always get flustered. I never stick to routine. I'm a flake. I'm forgetful. I'm always late. This is my personal favorite, Oh, I'm just realistic as, an excuse for staying comfortable and poking holes in everything or setting your goals too low because for quote-unquote, just a realistic kind of person. I want you to think about this for a second, because a lot of times when we think about growth, I think we think that growth has to be climbing this huge mountain. Coming back to it, an analogy we use a lot is growth as this idea of scaling a mountain. Life is a climb of the mountain. In fact, there's that Miley Cyrus' song called'The Climb' where it's like about the climb.

Speaker 1: 34:56

I think a lot of times when we think about our growth, when we think about approaching our own personal development, our own professional development, we think that we have to scale this really huge fricking mountain in front of us.

: 35:08

But friend, let me ask you a question. Have you ever been on a mountain? Have you ever been snowboarding? I'm not allowed to do that anymore'cause the last time I went, I shattered my wrist and had surgery. But maybe you go skiing, snowboarding, have you ever done a hike up a mountain? Mountains aren't always this crazy steep situation where you're like climbing a cliff. I think in our minds, we think around growth and discomfort needs to be scaling a cliff. Have you ever like walked up a hill?

Speaker 1: 35:40

Mountain, a climb, growth doesn't have to be these really steep inclines all the time. I want you to envision, if you slowly are on an incline, getting better and better and better and better, just 1% better every day. It might not feel like a hugely uncomfortable growth, but if you're intentional climbing a little bit, every single day, it makes a difference.

: 36:04

I think about this as like slow, steady growth i s kind of like inflation with money where every year it's just going up and up and up. So I want you to think about always putting yourself on a path where you're always getting a little bit better every single day. I want to give this with a big asterisk meaning there's a big caveat to this because if we're always on a path of just getting 1% better every single day, what happens when we slide back, we lose a lot of momentum that we've built. I am a huge believer of getting intentional climbing cliffs every once in a while. The example I was giving to my client this week, we were specifically talking about habits and how--. We were going back to when she was really successful in certain areas of her career and in her life and what she was specifically doing for showing up that well. She had shared with me, it was when she was when in her morning routine. When she was doing her good health habits, when she was following her routines during the day and setting up her schedule when she was doing that, she was having great success but she kept struggling to get back to that. The example I gave her was like, okay, I want you to imagine this right now. You're on the steady incline, little one, 2% grade, going up the hill to your goal. What I want you to think about is what if we set intentionally for the next 30 days, you're going to climb a freaking cliff, which means, you know, it's a cliff. You know it's going to be hard. But you know, when you get to the end of 30 days, you're going to be able to like climb up and go, and then see another slow steady hill in front of you, not another f reaking cliff. I want you to think about this with a mountain there's like a base camp, right? The base of the mountain. You can set your camp all like up the mountain. You can set a base camp. There's like a new normal for yourself as you climb, and that new normal doesn't have to be another freaking cliff. It can be another place where you can take a breath. Take a breathe, find your footing again, and then lean in to climb another cliff because upleveling in your business and in your life, yes, it's about climbing cliffs, but sometimes it's just about getting yourself out of the bad habits you have right now and getting to that next level so you can breathe for a moment. Here's what I want you to consider. When was the last time that you intentionally climbed a cliff? When was the last time that you put yourself on a challenge or taken on something to increase your discipline in a certain area of your life whether it was your health, whether it was your habit, whether it was your daily routine, whether it was your productivity, whether it was your relationships? I'm not sure you have to pick which area of your life is most important. But when was the last time you intentionally climbed a cliff to uplevel in that area? Have you done it lately or have you been on a slow, steady climb? Have you let yourself slide back especially these last few months since the world has been a little bit of chaos? What does it look like for you to take an intentional uplevel this summer? For me, you know, I've shared this with you before. I did a challenge in the month of May. It continue to all throughout the month of June. My challenge was getting back into a morning routine and working out every single day without fail every single day, morning routine, every single day. It was working out and it was wonderful. And guys, I am on a, like the next, next, next, next level for my relationships, for my business, for my health, where I am now, intentionally this week, I'm like, Ooh, I'm gonna take a couple of days off because I can. Now I'm at a new altitude in my life in just 60 days. I feel phenomenal both in health, but also in my mind. I feel I'm ready for my next round of growth. So July, I have a couple of other things that I'm doing, but essentially getting really clear up every month, I'm having an intentional challenge. The month of July for me is my breaking up with my cell phone challenge. I recently read a book how to break up with your cell phone and it was phenomenal. So I made the decision that in the month of July, I am breaking up with my cell phone to change those habits around technology that we all lean into. For you, I don't know what you're challenge needs to be, but I want to give a recommendation for you. Is it time for you to take on a challenge and intentionally uplevel? Is it time for you to revisit your habits? Is it time for you to revisit your morning routine? Is it time for you to do something about your health, working out 30 minutes a day, or cutting out the soda that you've been drinking, or drinking more water in your life, or cutting the crap out of your diet? I'm not sure what that looks like, but we know when we are healthier, we show up better.

Speaker 1: 40:56

In other aspects of our life. We know when we have our habits dialed down, we know we do better. I want to challenge you when you go back to it, creating capacity for your next round of success.

: 41:05

I'm going to just go out on a limb here for a moment and say, the next round of your success is not in some savior email funnel. It is not in a secret online course for how to get better on Pinterest, or on Instagram, or how to create your next low product priced offer or whatever. I don't know. All those things are great strategies for business, but if you do not, I have the capacity for growth in your life, meaning having your habits, your health down, and also your happiness, your sense of fulfillment, joy throughout the day, experience love and laughter and just general contentment. If your life, if you don't have those things down, it does not matter how much you ramp up your businesses, growth your business's revenue, your number of followers, all those things, because success in your business without contentment and enthusiasm in your life what's the freaking point for it. I want to challenge you to think about how could this be the month? How could this be the season where you take a little bit of time to say, how do I get back in alignment with what success looks like for me? How do you define success both in business, but also in your life? And then what could be one challenge you could offer to yourself for the next 30 days to get back on track? How could you climb the cliff intentionally for the next 30 days? For me, it was a morning challenge. Here's a book I might recommend. I'm actually gonna give you three book recommendations right now. If you would like them. Book recommendation, number one, the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. It's a really, really quick read I've talked about before. If you have not read it and you want to have a jumpstart to your day and finally to a morning routine, I highly recommend that book. Note: I do not feel like you need to follow his recipe to a tee. I don't follow the Miracle Morning. For me, it was a kick in the pants for me to establish my own version of a morning routine. So that's number one, recommendation. Number two, I am a huge fan of Brendon Burchard, you already know that. High Performance Habits, everyone needs to read that book. Read the book and also take the high performance assessment because if you're trying to figure out where you should be focused on to improve in your life, he gives you an assessment to baseline yourself and then measure your progress. So that's book number two. Book Number three, I also mentioned this. If you are finding yourself on your phone too much, chained to social media, change to apps, using your phone for everything, and you're not creating any capacity to think.

Speaker 1: 43:41

Remember before when I talked about this challenge that we have. We consume information and we don't turn it into knowledge that actually serves us in our life or in our business. I think a lot of that is because we're so chained at technology devices. We're not giving ourselves any space or capacity to think.

: 43:57

Friend, you're brilliant. You have so many good ideas. You've had so many rich experiences in your life. When you give yourself space to think, to be creative, to ask yourself some inner questions, instead of going to internet chat rooms, asking strangers. If you got present and quiet with yourself, just to think, Holy crap, incredible things are happening. So if you are finding yourself, maybe a little too tethered to your phone, you can maybe join me in a challenge. The book, How To Break Up With Your Phone. I'll link to all three of these books in the show notes. All incredible. I highly recommend them, but those are three places that I might recommend starting. This all comes down to, you have to be intentional with what you do next. Sofriend, remember this, you have one life and you get to design what it looks like. Stop and take a moment to create your definition of success and chase it on your terms. If you're liking the things that I'm happy that I'm talking about today, I know I'm just kind of speaking from the heart and sharing with you some of my philosophies around personal development and growth. But if this is the kind of thing that you're jiving with, I want to tell you where we're going next on the podcast. Yes. We're still going to be talking about speaking. Yes. We're still going to be talking about online entrepreneurship, but you are going to hear me talk a lot more about personal growth and making sure that you're showing up as the best version of yourself.

Speaker 1: 45:27

One of the things I am introducing to this show on next week's episode is I am bringing in something called Backwards Cook club. What do I mean by that? This was a thing that my team and I did at my old job that I loved, that we did in one of our training platforms with students.

: 45:44

Essentially, we worked a lot of times with students that were still in their doctoral degrees, who didn't have a lot of time for personal growth. They didn't have a lot of time for reading, but they wanted to still experience the benefits of books so what we did was Backwards Book club. Normal book club is you read the book and then discuss it. A lot of us don't have time to read all the books or we're trying to figure out which ones we should read. So Backwards Book Club is I'm going to read the books and I'm going to be bringing you my favorites along with some of the key pieces of the book so that you can apply them in your life and in the ones that you're excited about, then you can choose whether or not you're gonna invest the time to read and absorb the knowledge into your life.

Speaker 1: 46:25

Backwards book club, it's something that I'm going to cycle into the show every once in a while. I'm not going to do it like every month or every episode. It's just going to cycle in, but we're going to do our first backwards book club next week, and I can't wait to see you there.

: 46:40

So friend, thanks for tuning in today. I hope you enjoy this episode. And if you did, please tag and share all about on Instagram or send me direct messages and let me know what habits or thoughts you are going to put in in a more intentional way into clearing out the clutter in your life and creating capacity for your next round of growth. I'll see you next week. Guys, thanks so much for listening to Finding Your It Factor. And hey, if you have a talk coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called Nail Your Next Talk. 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talk into future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my life talks, and they're going to help you ask the right questions of the person who booked you for the event. So the meeting planner or the client, and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's going to help you anticipate potential tech or 80 snags. Turn the Q&A time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity, a lead generator for your business. So go get it. What are you waiting for? It's over at heathersager.com/10Questions