DESIRE + Learn + Trust + Nourish = VIBRANT LIFE (Part 1)

Desire + Learn + Trust + Nourish = VIBRANT LIFE

This is a formula that we will put on repeat like your favorite song! You may have noticed it as my tagline on my homepage. I wanted to tell you where it came from. In my years as a coach and through my own personal health journey, I’ve learned that these 4 commitments are critical pieces for achieving vibrancy!

 

First, simply we must have the DESIRE for change. Then we’ll want to LEARN more about the area in which we are eager for results. We’ll have to TRUST our instincts and the process. And finally we must take action — NOURISH our body, mind, and soul in a way that aligns with our goals and creates the outcomes we desire. All of these steps put together will lead to a more VIBRANT LIFE and as we put the formula on repeat, we’ll see our vibrancy continue to increase over time!

 

Now, let’s dive a little deeper into each of these areas because they really embody so much more. Today we will discuss….

 

DESIRE.

 

The first step to successful change is having the aspiration to do so! We must be ready and willing to take the steps toward what we desire. We have a choice every day to remain in the same place or to move beyond. Without a strong yearning, we’ll lack the drive to push through when we come against resistance or face challenges.

 

I’m going to use losing weight as an example since so many people have experienced this desire. So maybe in our goal to lose weight we loosely created a plan to cut back on the sugar and junk we eat. What happens in two weeks when we’re at work and someone brings in donuts? Or we go to a gathering where they’re ordering pizza? We’re like, “Oh no big deal! This is no problem,” and we partake. And then the next day, we decide, “What’s one more day of this?” We’ll just get back on track the next day, right?! But did we? Maybe we tried, but never really got as focused as we were in the first week or two! WHY NOT? In part it’s largely because we didn’t clarify our desire well enough! WHAT was it we really wanted anyway? And WHY did we want it? Setting goals (WHAT) with a strong purpose (WHY) that we really FEEL is where that true DESIRE comes into play! We may feel it so much it makes us want to get up and dance, or it literally begins to move us to tears because it brings us so much joy or hits us right in the heart space! When we hit on our true why, it will literally light us up!

 

We may feel it so much it makes us want to get up and dance, or it literally begins to move us to tears because it brings us so much joy or hits us right in the heart space! When we hit on our true why, it will literally light us up!

 

When setting our goals, it is also important to clarify and be realistic with our current status, identifying where we are at on the continuum compared with where we want to go because the tension between the two (or the contrast) is what will help to drive us forward. Picture this…If there’s a tow truck attached to a vehicle with a long, slack chain, when the tow truck moves, the vehicle will not. If the chain is rather short and taut, however, both the truck and vehicle will move together efficiently. We want to remain engaged with our goals the same way the latter tow truck and vehicle are mutually engaged. By keeping that positive tension, it will help to maintain forward movement.

 

This is also the reason we want to set “toward” goals. So, rather than declaring what we don’t want, we state what it is that we do want. For example, rather than saying we don’t want to feel so tired anymore, we would declare that we want to have lively energy all day!!! That starts to fire us up a bit more, doesn’t it?

 

Did you know that our subconscious mind doesn’t “hear” versions of no or not, such as “don’t want…” Using food as an example again, when we tell ourselves, “I’m not going to eat that brownie; I’m not going to eat the brownie!” our subconscious creates a visual of the brownie. So guess what we end of up doing most of the time? Yep, eating the brownie. So when we flip that around to, “I’m going to fix myself a beautiful salad,” that’s the visual we create which automatically starts to remove the attention from the brownie. Pretty cool, isn’t it?!

 

Did you know that our subconscious mind doesn’t “hear” versions of no or not, such as “don’t want…”

 

Another important piece we want to be sure to incorporate with our goal setting is monitoring. The frequency will be dependent on the type of goal we are setting. Often change takes time and we want to be sure to allow that time, but we want to at least loosely check/track progress on a weekly and monthly basis, with a more focused evaluation perhaps every 12 weeks (quarterly) or so. We will often likely find that by the 12 week mark, it’s time to tweak our goals again to keep that positive tension and forward movement.

 

 

Lastly, did you know that physically WRITING out our goals has an impact on whether we actually achieve them? There was a study done at Dominican University in California that showed this to be true. It also showed that making a public commitment to (letting others know your goals) and having accountability for your goals has positive bearing on goal achievement as well. Furthermore, there’s lots of anecdotal evidence from highly productive people that these things have a significant impact on our success.

 

You can find the second post in this 4-part series here.  Make sure to subscribe to my newsletter so you don’t miss out on more posts like this one!

 

Have you ever used any of these techniques and found them to be successful? 

Was there anything you read here that specifically clicked for you?