Episode 140: Thoughts to Change Your New Year

Episode Summary

When we go to change our lives, our brains automatically go to work trying to figure out what we need to do differently. We make lots of goals and plans. We set up new systems and schedule and resolve to stick to them. But changing what we do without changing our thoughts doesn’t work for long.

This new year, I want you to think about the power of changing your thoughts instead of your actions. And especially, to think about the power of changing even one thought. 

Think about a thought that you think on a regular basis that causes pain or procrastination, a thought that causes regret or resistance, a thought that causes you to stall or sabotage. Think about the power of changing that thought and thinking something much more powerful for a whole year. That one change would have an incalculable effect on your life.

In today’s episode, I invite you to just choose one thought to change your new year and I’m offering a few suggestions of thoughts that have changed mine. 

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the 100% Awesome Podcast with April Price. You might not know it, but every result in your life is 100% because of the thought you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome.

Hello, podcast universe! Welcome to episode 140 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. And welcome to a brand new year, I'm April Price and I want to wish you a very happy New Year. I hope you've had an amazing holiday season, and that your New Year is off to an amazing start. The last couple of weeks have been amazing for me to be able to just be with my family to love on them, to take stock of the year, take stock of like what I was able to do, and the ways I was able to grow last year, and then look forward to what I want to create this next year. And then this week we started our brand new grooves in my coaching program. So, awesome to have all of these amazing clients just starting just setting out on their journeys to manage their brains and create the things they want in their lives. I'm so excited to be working with them and so excited for the transformation, and the change, and everything that is coming for them this year for what they have already created for themselves by deciding to be there.

And this week has been really awesome to be able to be in that room with them, and to revel in our ability to change our lives, to change our lives through our thoughts. Like, sometimes I'm just like, we are so lucky and I'm just kind of overwhelmed with that thought. So it's a brand new year, and a lot of you naturally, probably your thoughts have gone to thinking about what you want to be different in your life, thinking about the things that you want to change, the ways that you want to show up differently, and the things that you want to do differently and create for yourself this year. And I want to offer you a kind of a radical little idea this year, so bear with me. Instead of thinking that you need to change all these things to change everything in your life, and make all these plans, and make hobbies like renovations of your life, and your schedule, and your systems, and your like the way you're doing everything in your life, I want to offer you the suggestion that you just change one thought.

And I know from the outside that just sounds like so miniscule, right? You're like one thought, April my life is a mess, what is one thought going to do? And I just want to offer you that there is so much power in changing one thought. And the truth is we only ever change one thought at a time. So, it feels insignificant. It feels like it doesn't matter. And yet, nothing matters more. So, I would love to have you look through your thoughts, look through the thoughts that you think on a regular basis. Look through the thoughts that you think every day and change just one of them. I really want to inspire you about the idea of the impact of changing just one thought. Like as you look through the thoughts you think on a regular basis, I want you to consider what thought is causing you the most pain? What thought is causing you the most stagnation, the most procrastination? What thought is causing the most fear, or the most regret, or the more the most conflict? What thought is keeping you from being who you want to be?

And I want to invite you to stop thinking that thought. And I want you to imagine what a massive impact changing that one thought could have on your whole year. Like that changing that one thought is probably going to cause a change in a lot of your actions. But you go about taking those action by changing the thought first. And I just want you to know that I have taken on this challenge myself, okay? As I looks back on my year, as a great year, it was an amazing year, and yet I did not achieve all the things I wanted to do. Now, at first, I thought that was a problem, right? But I realized that there are just lessons here that I haven't learned yet, and there are thoughts that are still keeping me from all the results I want. And so, as I looked back, I noticed the thought that I had in 2021 that I feel like didn't serve me, kept me from some of my goals.

And I've decided for 2022 I'm just never going to think that thought. I'm done with that thought, okay? And now when my brain offers me this thought, I'm going to remember, oh yeah, I no longer think that thought, I'm going to think this instead. And I know you're going to be really tempted to dismiss this idea, and and really like feel like one thought isn't going to make that big of a difference, but it can make such a dramatic difference. Over time, and you might even be tempted to think, oh my gosh, well, changing one thought, that's not that hard, maybe I'll change five of them. Maybe I'll change 10 of them. Maybe I'll change a handful of them. And like, you got to understand that it takes consistent effort to change a thought. Your brain has well-rehearsed neural pathways, and so it takes a lot of effort, and intention, and consistency in order to be able to change a thought.

5:58
I know I gave you this this analogy before, but when we were renovating our kitchen, I told you we had to move a light switch that used to be on the left side. When you walked in the room, the lights which used to be on the left side, and we had to move it on to the right side. And for like two months after we made that switch, every time I walked in that room, I hit the light switch on the left. Well, there was no light switch there anymore, what I was doing? I was just hitting the wall on the left and I'm like, wait a minute, why isn't that working? And I literally had to retrain my brain to lift my hand on the right. And that took a lot of intention. Sometimes I would walk in the kitchen, and I would think to myself, I know I'm supposed to remember to do something here like which one which is it? Is it my right or my left? And I would have to think about it like intentionally, purposefully. But now I don't, I don't even think about it.

So, I just want to offer you, like, let's just change one at a time. It's going to take consistent effort. It's going to take recognizing, oh yeah, there's nothing over there on the left, I got to move it over here to the right, and your brain is going to offer you the old thought. And because that's how our brain works, I think it's most useful to just choose one at a time, okay. And once your brain has really like integrated, and doesn't have to, you know, use a lot of energy to think the thought, then you can pick another one, okay? But one at a time, you will build a life you love. You will create the results you want. And every time you practice that new thought you increase your skill of being in charge of your brain, okay?

So, today I just thought I would give you some really powerful thoughts that you might want to adopt this year as you're thinking about, okay, what is the new thought that I want to use this year? I wanted to offer some of these. Now, let me say right at the outset that there isn't a right one. There isn't a right thought for you. There are only ever useful thoughts. So, I want you to pick a thought that is useful to you, that will make you feel empowered in your life. So, as I give you these thoughts, I want you to test them in your body. I want you to see how they make you feel like and what they will fuel you to do, okay? And if you if they make you feel amazing, and really empowered, and ready to go to work, then that is a great thought to have for this year.

Okay, so I just picked five thoughts I think can make a really big impact on your year. But like I said, they may not be the right thought for you. You need to like, go into the dressing room with these thoughts and try them on and see how they feel. Is this the thought that it's going to help me create what I want in my life, okay? So, the first thought that I want to share with you is that you are responsible for your results. Now, right away, some of you might not like how this thought feels okay, right? Like sometimes when we think the thought I am responsible for my results, I am 100% responsible. I am the creator of all my results. Sometimes that makes us feel terrible. Sometimes that makes us feel so much shame, and will use that power to make ourselves wrong. But I have to tell you that when I was first introduced to this thought, I had never heard such good news. This was a life changing thought for me, like because for so long I had believed that like, like I couldn't get what I wanted, that it was like outside of me and that, like, I just wasn't lucky, or I just didn't have the right.

It just felt really outside of my control. Like, trying to get what I wanted out of my life didn't feel like it was accessible to me at all. Sort of just felt like, Well, my life is what it is, and it just sort of happened to me, okay? So, I loved learning that I was responsible for my results. This one thought gave me a huge shift in my life to know that the answer isn't outside of me, which was like so good for me to know because I had very little control outside of me, right? I mean, I had pretty little control inside of me as well, but I knew I had zero control outside of me, so it felt really good to know. Listen, I am responsible for my results. Like, it just isn't empowering to think that the results are outside of us or outside of our control. So, I just want you to test this. I want you to think about something in your life that you wish was different. And I want you to think about like does knowing that you are in control of that result? What does that change for you? If you knew that you were responsible for it, that you had created it and that you had the power to change it? What does that change for you as you think about that thing?

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The second thought that I want to give you is you don't know that you can't, okay? So, the thought that I find my brain offering me all the time is like, you can't do that, you can't do that. It's not available to you. That is not for you. I don't know how other people did it, but definitely you can't do it. And I just want to offer you the thought that actually, I don't know that I can't. Like right now my brain thinks I can't, but it doesn't know. I can't possibly know that I can't do that thing. So, a few weeks ago, I heard Leah Goldstein talking and she is a cyclist. I might have told you guys this already, but it like, really stuck with me. But anyway, she's a cyclist. She had this really, really terrible bike accident like so bad that the doctors told her that she would never walk again. She said as they were telling her that, she said, I just had this moment where I thought, they don't know. How could they know? How could they possibly know what I can and can't do? And I was just like, I mean, this is just such a cool thought, right? Like, they don't know your brain doesn't know so many times.

We are such in a hurry to disqualify ourselves and tell ourselves we can't do that thing or we can't have that thing. And it's just not true. Like, we just don't know, right? And your brain will tell you that you can't, but it doesn't know. So, I recently set a goal with my son to be in an event next September, okay? So, it's like nine months away and every day I go to work on this goal. We're doing this climb. And so, every day I get on the treadmill and I do some climbing and every day I get on that treadmill my brain is like, You can't do this, you can't do this. You're never going to be able to do this right. Like, I just like, I'm just walking along there and I'm like, How do you know, right? We are so far from September, how could you possibly know what I'm capable of, right? It's January, there's no way I can know what I'm capable of if I get on here and climb on this treadmill every day, right?

So, my brain is just trying to get out of the work, right? It doesn't want to put in the energy and effort and the work on that treadmill. And so, it's just like, okay, what do I got to do? What am I got to say to get this girl to stop, to get her to get off this treadmill? And the thing that offers me all the time is like, You can't do this. This is pointless. You're never going to make it. But listen, like just because I'm not there yet doesn't mean I can't. And so many times that's exactly what our brain is doing. It's looking at the present moment. It's looking at our capability right now and saying we can't do that thing in the future, but it can't know that. So I really want to like remind you that when you set the goal, your brain wants you to already be there like your brain wants you to be it already able to do that goal.

But what would be the point in setting it if you were already there? That's what makes it a goal. And so, I really want to encourage you to be bold with your goals, be bold with the results you want to create, like be brave, and be exciting, and and do things that your brain says you can't. And then like, remind yourself that it can't possibly know. It can't possibly know what you can, or can't do.

All right, that brings us to the third thought, I want to offer you, and that is I'm going to figure this out no matter what. So, like I said in 2021, I did not I had some big goals set, and I did not hit all of those goals. They are still a work in progress and I found myself like, really discouraged about mid-December, like sort of discouraged with myself and like, Oh, like, this is so disappointing. And like, I didn't get where I was supposed to go and I'm in the wrong place now, and this is so disappointing. And I had this moment where I was like, Wait a minute, like, what's going to happen on December 31st, right? Like that was the the deadline for my goal. I was like, what's going to happen on December 31st? Like, I'm still going to be here. What's going to happen on January 1st? I'm still going to be here. Life keeps going. I still have runway to figure this out. Think just because the deadline came and passed doesn't mean I don't get a keep figuring it out, right? My brain wants to throw in the towel and say, Well, that's it. Then like, I guess that's it. We can't do that thing.

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But I'm still here. Life is still going. I still get to figure it out. And in fact, I am committed to figuring it out no matter what. And that thought can be so useful to you along the way this year because you could make changes in your life. You're going to face obstacles. You're going to face like road bumps that things are going to come up that you didn't know. We're going to come up. It's going to be harder than you think and your brain is going to want to like, stop. And that's why this thought, I am going to figure this out, no matter what is so useful. Like, you just get to keep going. You just keep to keep on figuring it out. There isn't a finish line, there isn't a deadline here like this is just your life and you are totally capable of figuring it out. Just keep going.

Okay, that brings me to the fourth thought that I wanted to share with you. And that is that the results you create this year, whatever you're going to like, set and create in your life, those results are the least interesting thing about you. Okay, so let me explain that like so many times when we're in pursuit of a goal, we get confused, and we start thinking that the goal is the point. Like, we start thinking like the result or the outcome is like the only thing that makes it worth it. And I want you to know we aren't here on Earth for the outcomes. We actually aren't here for the results, we are here for the growth. We are here for the learning. The other day, I was listening to Tommy Ribs and he was talking about how, you know, he ran these marathons in like 2018 or whatever, and he was talking about how, you know, when he gets to the other side, he's like, Nobody's going to care that I ran a marathon in 2018. Just like, like, what am I going to do? I'm going to tell a God like, Hey, look at me, I can run really fast, like I ran to 2018 and like, What is that going to matter? Right? He says, like, it's not going to matter if I can run at 2:18. What's going to matter is like who I became.

Along the way, what I had to overcome to to create that in my life, who I had to become in order to create that result. And it's true for all of us, right? So for example, like one of the goals I didn't hit last year, I had a revenue goal in my business and I haven't hit it yet, and my brain wants to tell me, Hey, like, you failed, right? But the truth is that like that result, whatever result that I created in my business is the least interesting thing about the work I did in that business. It literally doesn't matter the revenue I created in that business. What matters is how I grew in that creation. What I had to overcome in my in my own mind in order to create that the fear I had to overcome, the doubts, the insecurities, the all the like noise and chatter from my brain that told me I couldn't. And so, I just want you to know that like is awesome to have goals. But sometimes we we make the result the most important part, and it's the least important part. The least interesting part. Like, the real work is what is happening to you as you achieve it.

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I was just talking to a client who had a big goals set last year and she actually achieved it about mid-December she achieved. She was showing me photos of it and like all that, she had accomplished and in like, it's so awesome, right? Like to see her results is really awesome. But it is nothing compared to the work that she has done inside. It is nothing compared to the work she has done on her own brain, like her brain did not want to do that goal. It was kicking and screaming and fighting her the whole year, offering her excuses, offering her like doubts, offering her all the reasons she couldn't or or she shouldn't, and like she had to overcome all of that to achieve her goal. And that is what matters.

Not only that, but the relationship she developed with herself and the confidence she developed in herself as she overcame her brain. So, I just want to offer you that like as you go to work on your goals, your brain wants to discourage you with how far you are in terms of your results. And I want to offer you that that is the least important thing that really and truly we are here for the growth. We are here for the learning. And that matters more than anything.

Okay, the last thought I want to give you to help change your year is the thought that all of your work here on Earth matters. So, sometimes we use this idea that, like our Earth, life is precious and limited and finite, and we use that idea against ourselves and we tell ourselves like, well, then I got to just do the important things and then our brain will minimize all the things that we want to create as like, not important enough, right? So, many times I will have clients who come and say, well, like, I want to do this thing, but like, I don't know if I should be spending my time and energy on that thing. You know, I want to lose weight. I don't know if I should be spending my time and energy on that. I want to build a business, but I don't know if that's like a really good use of my time. I want to like and on and on and on, right? And we kind of like, tell ourselves like, this is an important enough night to use my precious Earth life experience. And then we just sort of like go through the motions of our life without going after the things we want. And your brain is going to do that to get out of the work and wants to tell you that the work you're doing doesn't matter and that you shouldn't be spending your time and energy on it.

And I want you to know that whatever work you do. Matters and. Is allowing you to become in all the ways you need to. So, whatever thing that you're working on, it requires you to overcome your brain. It requires you to think different thoughts. It requires you to answer your brain when it says, let's not do this thing, and that is the work that matters. You came to learn to choose, you came to learn to be an agent of your own life. And no matter where you're doing that, work in your life, it's working. Whether it's in your finances or your health or your relationships or your spirituality, you're like, there's no place that's not spiritual. There's no work that's not spiritual. There's no work in which it's not your spirit being in charge of your physical body. So, I want you to know that whatever it is you want to create this year, it is work worth doing and all your work matters. Don't let your brain tell you otherwise. Don't let your brain tell you that it doesn't matter. Of course it does.

Okay, my friends, that is what I have for you today. I want you to know that you are responsible for your results, that you don't know that you can't do it and it's just as possible that you can. I want to encourage you to figure it out, no matter what. And to know that your results are the least interesting thing about you and that growth is why you are here. Growth is what matters. And finally, I want you to remember that that growth can happen no matter what you are working on. Your work on Earth matters. It all counts and you are capable of creating anything you want. If you work on just one thought at a time and that, my friends, is 100% awesome, I love you for listening and I'll see you next week.

Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. If you want to take the things I've talked about and apply them in your life so that you can love your Earth life experience. Sign up for a free coaching session at Aprilpricecoaching.com. This is where the real magic happens and your life starts to change forever as your coach. I'll show you that believing your life is 100% awesome is totally available to every one of us. The way things are is not the way things have to stay and that my friends is 100% awesome!