Episode 154: See the Wonder of Your Life

Episode Summary 

Today, on this birthday podcast, when I’m pausing after another trip around the sun in this physical body on this beautiful planet, I want to stop for one moment to see and acknowledge the wonders.

They’re always there. Sometimes I don’t see them… most of the time I don’t see them. But today I want to see them and I want to show them to you in the hopes that you will see the wonder in your own life.

The wonder of growth: Joseph Smith said, “All the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement.” I am amazed at how much you can grow and how quickly you can grow when that is what you want - no matter how uncomfortable it is (and it is).

The wonder of choice: We forget that we’re choosing it all - our money, our marriage, our time, our body, and the more we understand that, the more we start getting the things we want.

The wonder of creation: Not only can we choose, we create. And we’re allowed to be THAT powerful. Powerful enough to create new REALITIES for ourselves and others.

The wonder of starting over: For so many years, shame kept me stuck. I was so mad at how I’d behaved in the past that I couldn’t choose how to behave moving forward. I love the thought that we can start again, and we can learn anything as long as we let ourselves practice.

The wonder of love: I spent so much of my life just wishing other people would be different. And now, I’m so thrilled to have the practice in love.

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 154 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price and I am so excited to be here with you. I am loving the month of April. I think it's kind of my birthright, right? But been an amazing month. I've had a lot of traveling, I'm going to be traveling some more, and of course, I had a brand new coaching group start and it just feels like all the fun things are happening this month. And so, I am loving my life experience right now and I hope that you are too. Last week, as I told you, it was my birthday. And that, like, always makes me reflective, right? Like, it's always just, like, a moment to stop and reflect. Okay, where am I? Do I like the direction I'm going? Like, you know, just to pause, reflect on the things that I did in the last year, the things that I created, and just the goodness of God in my life and the wonder of life on this planet.

Recently in Come Follow Me in our scripture reading, we've been reading about Moses, right? And his experience in getting the children of Israel freed from Egypt. And, you know, like he's so scared, right? He has like, a monumental, huge task, and he's so scared about it, and is so nervous about it. He feels so inadequate about it, right? There are like 1,000,001 things that can go wrong. And, you know, imagine like, I just I feel for Moses, right? Like, he's been sent to this, like, I guess it's not a strange land because he lived there once, but it is certainly a threatening one. And not only threatening from the Egyptians, but like the children of Israel don't like totally like love him either, right? And so, he's nervous about it. And I just love that the Lord says like, go, right? Go to Egypt and I will show it you all my wonders. And I, I love that phrase, I will show into you my wonders. I imagine him saying the same thing to me, right?

He's sent me to Earth to this strange, threatening place. My brain is like there are a million things that can and will go wrong and I will do half of them right. And I imagine him saying to me like, Oh, April, and I will show him to you my wonders. And it's hard and scary down here, but God, I think is encouraging every one of us, like, yes, it is scary. And you are inadequate, and still and still I will show you my wonders. And of course, our brains don't see the wonder, right? Our brains are programmed to see the problems and they are not like really like aware or grateful for the wonders of a time, right? But every once in a while I think we all get a chance to stand back in wonder at our life. And today on this sort of like birthday podcast, where I'm kind of pausing on another trip around the sun in this physical body, feels so lucky to be here, so lucky to be in my body, to be alive and to be on this beautiful planet and to be able to still have the chance to learn and grow.

I want to stop for a moment and see the wonders, and I express my gratitude for them and acknowledge that it truly is wonderful because those things are always there, right? Most of the time we don't see them. Most of the time we our brains are focused on the hard. But today I want to see them. I want to talk about them, and I want to show them to you in the hopes that you will see the wonders in your own life. Okay, so I have five things that I, I look at as wonders and I want to talk about each one of those with you.

So, the first one is the wonder of growth. And this is one of those wonders that doesn't always feel great, right? So, one of my favorite quotes comes from Joseph Smith, and he said all the minds and spirits that God ever sent into the world are susceptible of enlargement. And I love that thought that all of us that were sent into this world, we are capable, and susceptible to enlargement, to growth, to development, to expansion. And it is one of the greatest gifts of mortality and like a serious wonder in my life. I am amazed at how much you can grow and really actually how quickly you can grow when growth is what you want. So, for so much of my life, I just was told myself, like, this is it. This is all you can expect. This is all you can expect from yourself. Like physically, financially, mentally, creatively.

Like in terms of your relationships, like you have hit your limit and you are very limited, right? And it has only been in the last I feel like five years or so where I've really recognized no, I was sent into this world by God, and that means I am capable of enlargement. I am capable of growth. And along with that, what I have learned is that it is uncomfortable to grow, right? Like when we talk about growth and the wonder of growth sounds so amazing, right? But I have learned that actually it feels terrible when you're in the middle of it and it's supposed to, right? It has to feel terrible enough that we adapt.

So, how I the one way that I've seen this like so apparently recently is the growth in my training. I've been training for this event. At the end of the year and I, I just like my body as it, as I'm expecting it to change and grow for those muscles to grow. Like it is very uncomfortable, it hurts a lot. And actually, what I've learned to do is focus my mind on, like, welcoming that discomfort, because I know I have to be in pain in order for my body to adapt. It's the same way in my business, like when we go to do something new, and we like start a business and we say like, Hey, I can help you, it is so uncomfortable. Our brain is just like so used to like it's former limitations and you know, it just there's so many negative emotions that come up when you're required to, like, step outside of yourself and have people think thoughts about you and, and make offers to help and, and all of that growth, like, is uncomfortable.

My coach is telling me all the time when I'm like, but this feels so bad, you know, I'll be, like, crying about one thing or another. It feels so bad. And she's like, Yeah, that's what growth feels like. And that is true no matter what area you're trying to grow in. Like I just was reading a quote by C.S. Lewis and in Christianity, and he was talking about how like when we really go to change and grow and become new creatures in Christ or in our spirituality, it hurts abominably and like this is just the way of it, right? Growth requires discomfort. But I also just think like it is so satisfying and enlarging to watch herself grow. And day to day it feels so imperceptible and like our brain wants to just say, like, well, we aren't actually growing, we're just hurting, okay? But the growth is always inevitable. Like, you can't experience that discomfort and not adapt and not change.

The other day, my son texted me and he was saying, Hey, like I hit a new PR on the treadmill. We're doing the same training together. And I just texted him back and I said, like you in December would be shocked by what you did today. And it's so true. Like day to day, your brain is like, this isn't working, it doesn't matter. But like three months ago, like there has been undeniable growth from three months ago. And it's just so satisfying to see that and to see that like, while it is painful, it is always working as well. And I just feel really grateful to be given the chance to to grow and to change.

Okay, the second wonder that I want to talk about is the wonder of choice. So, like all the time I hear Mel Robbins on Instagram, people are always like using her quote where she talks about like, no one else is coming. It's like no one else is coming. You want things to be different, y ou got to choose something different, right? And I just think like it is, we are just so lucky that we get to choose our lives, right? Like, we we don't know what we're doing. And we are, like, making so many, like, mistakes at it. And yet God lets us choose, like, just keep doing it, just keep choosing. And I just think, like, it is so gracious and generous for him to let us to continue to choose even when we have proven that we are not great at it, right?

Most of the time, I think for at least for me, like I forget when I'm choosing, we forget that we're choosing it, all right? We forget that I'm choosing this money. We forget I'm choosing this marriage. We forget I'm choosing the way I spend my time or the way my body looks like I'm choosing all of it. And the more we understand that, the more we can start getting the things that we want. The other day, I heard someone talking about like the only questions that you need to ask yourself and about the way that you are living your life and the choices that you are making. Right. They were saying like, those questions are not like, what are other people going to think? Those questions aren't like, what if this doesn't work? Or What if I look stupid? Or What if I fail? Or What if everything goes wrong, right? Like those are not the questions that you should be asking as you go to live your life.

And they said the question that you should be asking is. Number one, what would eight year old me think of the way that I'm living? And number two, what would 80 year old me think of the way that I'm living and the choices that I'm making? And I think this is like really good questions, especially like right here on my birthday. Like, I'm just like, I'm trying to, like, explore that, right? Like, what do I think of the way that I'm living and the choices that I'm making? But it's kind of good to reflect. Like, what would the young version of me, the eight year old version of me think, and what would the 80 year old version of me think? And the other day I read the first chapter of Benjamin Hardy's new book about Creating Your Future, and he talks about how one day he was driving home and he had this thought about how, like him in 20 years, of him in 20 years could come and live this day and live this moment, what they would do and how they would live it.

And I think it's really powerful to you for you to actually, like, think about this, like if your eight year old self stepped into your life today and they were living this day today, your eight year old self, and they saw where you were living, how you were living, who you were living with, like what you did on a daily basis. Right? Like, what would they think and what would they do differently? And as I did this exercise, I would be like, you know what? My eight year old self would say, my eight year old self would be like, Where are the books?

Because like since I was eight years old, I wanted to write a book. My eight year old self would be like, so disappointed that there wasn't, like, a shelf of books, let alone one, ight? And it was really, like, instructive for me to see, like, oh, yeah. Like, there's a part of me that's been scared to do that. And eight year old me was not like eight year old me. It was like, where are the books? Like, we're supposed to have the books written, right? And then when I have, like when I kind of picture 80 year old me living this life today, living this moment today, what would she think, right?She would be like, Put on your shoes. We are going to go run a mile. Like, I am not a runner and I've never wanted to be. But if 80 year old me could step into my body today, she would be, I know, so thrilled with, like my abilities and the condition of my body and the lack of aches and pains. And I would just, like, go forever, right? She would have done the treadmill exercise today and just been like, let's get it. And she would have just gone till everything her right. Because like, she knows what a treasure today is.

And if she could like, like meet my husband at the door when he was my knees 50 instead of 82 or my children at this like, you know, my son who's graduating from high school and like he's still at home and he's in that bedroom down the hall. Like 80 year old me would just be like, sit down with him and just be like, tell me everything, right? And when you do that exercise, it just helps you, you know, on one hand be a little bit braver and worry less about failure and the judgments of others and not sweat the small stuff, right? And on the other hand, like to savor the sweetness of where you are, the sweetness of your life, and and to be proud and excited about, like where you are and just like, you know, kind of bask in the wonder of it. And so I think that's a really powerful exercise to see, like, am I really choosing what I want? And if I'm not, maybe it's time to choose something else, right? Maybe it's time. Because, like, I get to, I get to choose and what am I so glad I'm doing and what is it that I want to change is such a blessing to be able to have the privilege to change it at any time and have that choice.

Okay. Number three, I just that goes hand-in-hand with that is the wonder of creation. Like, not only do we get to choose, but those choices create realities. Like we as humans, as, like I said before, is like insignificant, mistake prone humans. We are that powerful that we get to create new realities for ourselves and for others. Like I was thinking about the other day, like I went to a mastermind for my business and I was thinking like, How lucky am I like that I'm just allowed to have a business that I can just say like, Yeah, I'm going to help people. I'm gonna do this thing. Like, nobody stops me. Nobody says, like, you don't have the right, you don't have the qualifications or you don't have like what it takes. Like, I'm just allowed to create what I want. Like, I'm just allowed to sign up for endurance events. Nobody says, like, nope, you're disqualified. You can't you don't have the body for it. You don't have the willpower for it. They're just like like you get to create whatever you want. And there are no, like, obstacles to that. There is no bar or disqualification or committee that's saying like no to you.

Like there's no application process. Like you just get to decide and then create it and like, is that a freaking miracle or what? I just think it is a wonder that anything I want to create I get to and there's nothing that can stop me except my own brain. It's pretty amazing.
Okay, the next thing that I wanted to talk about is just the wonder of New Days, the wonder of starting again, the wonder of getting to try again, the wonder of brand new years on the calendar.

And I saw this question posed by James Clapper the other day. He wrote, If someone took control of your life tomorrow, what is the first thing they would change? And I just want you to know, like, you get to start again. Like, if if the answer to that, like, whatever came to mind, I just want you to know you could change that. You could start again. Tomorrow is a new day. You get to just wake up new and do new things.

So, many times we feel obligated to keep living out our same identity. We feel obligated to keep living our same life. But like you are not you're not obligated. And you I just think it's a miracle that you could just start again. Any given moment, any given day. The other thing I want to say about that is that when we show up in a way that we don't like and, you know, our brain creates so much shame about that, and it's just like, I can't believe you did that again. Like, what is wrong with you, right? I love the idea that I get to try again. This thought that I am practicing has been so helpful to me in changing my mind and changing how I feel and changing my actions for so many years. Like shame kept me stuck. Like I was so mad at myself for the way I had behaved. I couldn't change how like I was going to behave from then on and really thinking about like I was never supposed to do it right and I'm supposed to be practicing.

It was a really life changing thought for me. I'm sure that you've heard a lot of people talk about how easy it is for kids to, you know, start new things and try new sports and try new activities and, you know, learn to ride a bike and, like, do all those things. Right. But I think it is because they allow themselves to practice, because they never have the thought I should know how to do this or I need to know how to do this right. And I, I just love the thought that, like, we can start again and we can we can learn anything if we're willing to, like, let ourselves practice.

And the really good example of this to me is Jonathan Van Ness of Queer Eye. He just decided, like, I want to learn gymnastics and he'd like let himself do tumbling. He did the same thing with ice skating and he just lets himself practice. And he even films like all the mess ups and finds joy in it, finds joy in the practice. And I just, like, want you to really think about like, what would I allow myself to do if I didn't have to do it right? And you just kind of try again.

And I just got a practice. And recently I've just had so many shifts in my business thinking about it this way. Like, you know, I, my brain wants to make, like, my success really, really heavy and really, really important and, like, mean things about me. And the other day, I realized, like, you know what? I just think creating a business is really fun. It's kind of just like the most entertaining thing for me in my life right now. And that was like, even if I'm never successful, do I want to do this just for the fun of it? Just because this is kind of like just the funnest game that I could play and it's really just lighten things for me and help me just look that look again at.

At the joy of. Learning new things and starting again, trying new things. So this year. Like, what do you want to learn? What do you want to start? What do you want to allow yourself to practice? And even if it's just like I want to practice love a little bit better. And that brings me actually to the last thing that I want to talk about, and that is the wonder of love. Okay, and I feel like for most of my life, I was only looking at like how I wasn't good at love. Like, you know, when you talk about the gap in the game and like, I could only notice where, like, my gaps in love and how I wasn't good at it. Like, like how bad I was at love. And this is one of those areas where I feel like is kind of a wonder to me because I have found so much peace in my current capacity to love. And that has given me so much hope and excitement to expand and grow that capacity.

So, for most of my life, I just like had this story that I was really hard hearted and really. You know, just critical and mean and hard to live with. I know if you listen to this podcast, you already know this, but I have loved deciding that this is one of those things that I get to practice and I get to develop my capacity to write.

Like, I mean, Jonathan Nez is going to learn how to, you know, tumble and I'm going to learn how to love. It's just like for fun, right? Anyway. And whenever I would read the scriptures, like those examples of people who are really hard hearted, really judgmental, like they always just like I was just remember reading those accounts and just thinking like, what is wrong with you? Like soften your heart? And then I would look at myself and I'd be like, What is wrong with you stuff in your heart? Why do you have to just be so awful all the time? Right? And when I learned that love was a choice that I was making in my mind and not my heart, it changed so much for me and it kind of became like an adventure for me to, like, increase my capacity to love by deciding to think differently.

And I, instead of spending my life wishing that other people could be different so that I could feel loving, right? I could see everything as just an exercise and and an opportunity. Can I love them here? Can I love them here? Right. And I instead of being resistant to people as they were, I started seeing people as, like, an incredible opportunity to. Practice love exactly as they are thrilled for them to be who they are and show up in the way that they wanted.

And for me to get the chance to practice love and instead of seeing other people as an aggravation is sort of felt more like a gift, like we get to practice here once again. And I just recently had another experience with this. I don't know if I've already told you this, but I was at church and the person that was conducting the meeting said, okay, we're going to, you know, make these four walls today a non-judgmental zone and we're going to, you know, anything goes.

You can say anything you want and we're not going to judge each other. And and you can just you can ask any question. And we're not going to be judgmental. Well, eventually, somebody raised a hand and asked a question that made the person who was leading the meeting like visibly uncomfortable, at least in my view. Right. And I felt like in my brain, my brain, like watched the person leaving the meeting and was like, oh, I guess it's not a non-judgmental zone anymore, right? Like, it's all of non-judgmental zone. And tell somebody ask the question that you have judgment about, right? And in my mind, I was kind of judging him, judging who was leading the meeting because he said, I'm not going to judge you. And then he did. Right. And in that moment, I could just like watch myself do it. I was just like observing myself be judgmental of him being judgmental.

And like I said, like it was this moment where I got to practice again. I watched my thoughts and was so grateful for the chance to practice none judgment again. And I think that they're like, we just have opportunities around us because we live together, because we do things that hurt each other and offend each other and like are inappropriate. We have so many opportunities to love and it is a wonder. It is it is like it is one of the joys of mortality to get to do that practice.

It is a privilege to get to do that practice. And I want to say that one place that I have found even more like wonder in the practice of love is with myself. So it's no secret that I had to do a lot of work to come to a place where I love myself, actually, where I could even stand myself. And I, you know, I did and have done a lot of work to choose loving thoughts about myself.

And yet what is wonderful to me is that that work never ends, that there is no like limit to the amount of love that I can extend to myself. And I just find I'll just catch myself in my life resisting myself or withholding love, like thinking, okay, these things need to be slightly different for me to love you fully, and I will find myself in little ways and big ways doing that very thing. Just the other day I was getting coached, I was struggling and my coach said like, this is an invitation to love yourself.

And my mind just wanted to like push back against that and like, no, I've already done that work. I already love myself. But like, she was just like, there's a place here to have even more love and compassion. And I just want you to know that just as it is limitless to love other people, it is limitless to love ourselves. And the other day, I again, like I said, I was having kind of this struggling moment. And David just said to me, you know, April, if you really want the mind of Christ, you have to have the thoughts that he has about you as well, right. Not just the thoughts he has about other people, not just the thoughts he has about, you know, the hope of the world and. But the thoughts that he has about me. And David said, you have to have at least as much grace and compassion for yourself as he has for you if you want to think like he does. And it was a moment where I realized, like, this is still an ongoing practice and it's a wonder to me the love that Christ extends to me, his grace and his compassion.

And I am grateful that I get to continue like doing that same practice on myself. There is always more to love, even about me, even about you. And so I invite you to that work. Okay, my friends, that is what I have for you. Those are the things that I have been thinking about. Your life is a gift. Because you get to grow. You get to choose. You get to create. You get to start over. And you get to love.

And your life exactly as it is right now, is the perfect vehicle to do all of those things. You don't need another life to come along first. I heard this awesome quote by Chris Bowers the other day, and he said, The goal of adulthood is to let go of the other possible existences and to make the best of this one. A successful adult is one who understands that it doesn't matter which life you ultimately pick, only that you live it well.

I love this thought and it perfectly summarizes how I am feeling right now at this point in my life. To let go of all other possible existences, to stop arguing that my life should be different, that it that I should be different, that it should have turned out differently. And to recognize, like this is the creation that I have made through my thoughts. And I get to continue to grow and to choose and continue to create and start over as many times as you need to and love myself through all of it. And that is the gift. It is such a miracle. It is such a wonder. I hope you will look around at your life and decide how you want to grow and choose and create and start over and love and do all of that so that you can make the most of this incredible earth life experience. 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.