An Endless Supply of Encouragements

I can’t believe it, but this is the 250^th episode of the podcast!

And today, I’m showing my appreciation for all the things that have helped me reach this milestone. I have been the recipient of an endless supply of encouragements and today I want to take a moment to say thank you.

During the episode you’ll learn how you have your own endless supply of encouragements and how you can use those encouragements to bolster others and strengthen yourself as you meet the challenges of your life and go after the things you want. Because no matter what you’re trying to do in your life, encouragement can play a key role in whether or not you get there.

 Transcripts

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 thoughts you think. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome.

Hello podcast universe! Welcome to episode 250 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price, and today I just want to give you all a big hug and a big thank you and welcome you to the 250th episode of the podcast. Like 250 feels like a really big milestone to me, right? Like like the halfway mark or something, right? But I actually don't know if it's halfway right or if we're just like getting started or if we're nearly finished. I have no idea where we are in the grand scheme of this podcast.

I just know where we are right now. This is the 250th time I've turned on this microphone and recorded my thoughts. Actually, I probably done it a few more times than that because a few of these episodes along the way have ended up on the cutting room floor. But I am feeling really appreciative and really proud of that accomplishment today. Of 250 episodes and we're going to get more into that in just a minute. But first of all, today I just wanted to start by checking in with all of you.

How are y'all doing? I know that last week was an unexpected episode, as unexpected for me as it was for you. Actually, it wasn't even on my radar until I woke up feeling the most incredible nudge to record it. And so I just appreciate you being here and indulging me. I know that was a heavy one, so thank you for listening and for really allowing space in your life and in your mind for those thoughts. I hope that they will help you win or if you ever need them.

And I'm really grateful that this is a place where we can talk about the heavy things. And the happy things, the dark things and the light things, because life is full of all of it, right? And I really want to thank you for trusting me with such a sensitive subject and for coming back today. Okay. Not giving up on me. So I also thought this might be a really good place to point out that that is true in coaching as well. Like sometimes we talk about the heavy, hard, dark things, you know, really hard, challenging thoughts in our minds.

And sometimes we work on a lot lighter, sillier and even like amusing thoughts that our brain is giving us. And so there is a place in coaching for all of that there. And whatever is happening in your brain is part of your human experience, and all of that is welcome and mentionable and manageable in coaching. And I feel like nothing feels better than having a safe place to talk about some of the dark, challenging stuff in our minds. And sometimes the easy light things that are that are kind of like tugging at us as well, really reveal some of our most significant breakthroughs. And so, like in coaching, we do all of it. And it doesn't matter where you are in your life. I feel like coaching can be so useful. And so as always, if you want to try coaching or you want to talk to me about what it would be like to work with me as your coach, you can sign up for a free coaching session at my website Aprilpricecoaching.com. So today, being the 250 episode, I really wanted to express the appreciation that I am feeling in my heart. There is a poem that I love by David Gates that I'm going to reference throughout this episode.

And so I just wanted to start with that poem, just because as I reference it, you'll know what I'm talking about. And the poem goes, be kind about the names your friends give to their children, praise their haircuts, love their tattoos. It doesn't really matter if that's what you would do. Like every selfie, all of them clap their songs, cheer them on. You were born with a limitless supply of encouragements. Use every one of them.

Don't wait for the eulogies to speak them out loud that your friends are precious and they make you feel proud. And I love that poem for so many reasons. But especially today, I want to express my appreciation for your love and your encouragement for this episode, and I'm just feeling so incredibly grateful to be at this milestone in the history of this podcast. So today, I just wanted to express some things that I'm really grateful for. And first and foremost, I am grateful for you. For being there, for listening, for all your reviews and ratings and your encouragements and your emails. They have meant so much to me. For those of you that have followed through on the generous thoughts, you've had to let me know how the podcast has helped you either with like a no or a a DM or an email. I want you to know that those messages always came at the very moment that I needed them, when I was discouraged or wondering if, you know, the podcast really mattered.

When I wanted to give up my when my brain was telling me none of it mattered and nobody was listening, I always got a note of encouragement at just the right moment. And I love you for that. And let that be a lesson to all of you, that those small things that you do that seem insignificant, that seem like they don't matter when you act on those and you share your thoughts with somebody else, it really does matter. It really does matter. And it really is a light in the darkness. And so I'm so grateful for your endless supply of encouragements to me.

And I'm also grateful to those of you that are out there listening who I've never met or never heard from, like just you being there, just you listening, just to showing up on my stack count every week of who's downloading and who's listening was a supply of encouragement to me. And I want you to know that in many ways, it feels like we're in partnership together in the creation of this podcast. Like, I'm always asking myself what you need to hear, what is challenging for you and what would be helpful for you.

And without fail, whenever I feel lost or confused or stuck about what I need to share, as I think of you and the challenges that you face in your life, the ideas and thoughts always come to me. But I have felt inspired and almost whispered to from all of you, and so I am really so grateful that I get to participate in this partnership and share this beautiful corner of the podcast universe with you.

I consider it an incredible privilege to have a place in your ears and your minds and your hearts and your lives, and I am so grateful for every one of you. Thank you so much for being here. Next, I just want to express appreciation to my podcast team. You probably don't know this, but this podcast comes to you every week through a group effort and I'm only one piece of that group. I have an incredible editor that is not only excellent and skilled at her craft, and always makes me sound way better than I am, but she is also an incredibly sensitive, wise, encouraging voice in my life, with an endless supply of encouragements for me.

And I think that she cares about you almost as much as I do, because her encouragement and her confidence is so helpful to me when my doubts are raging. And believe it or not, even after 250 episodes, my brain still gives me a lot of critical, disparaging, mean thoughts about my work here on the podcast. And her endless supply of encouragements, as the poet says, are such a balm to my fears and inadequacy. And I also want to give a shout out to my daughter that has worked for me for quite a few years now.

She's the one that loads the podcast onto the server every week so that you can hear it. She creates the transcript every week, and I'm so grateful to her for making sure that everything is loaded and ready to go for you every Thursday morning. Next. I just really want to express my appreciation to David, my husband, who has always been my biggest cheerleader. I cannot tell you how many times I have gone to him about the podcast, with a load of insecurity and fear and frustration and doubts about what to record.

And then I would record it and doubts about what I had recorded and if it was useful. And it doesn't matter how many times I go to him, he never gets tired of hearing it. He's never impatient with me. And if you've been listening for a long time, you probably know that the podcast exists today only because of him, right? Because the beginning especially was so scary and vulnerable for me. And week after week he held me together. Like for the first 50 episodes, for sure.

It was like weekly therapy with him to try to get through those episodes, and especially at the beginning, he listened to every single episode and he would tell me the parts that he liked best, and he would laugh with me at certain parts of it, and he would read your reviews at the dinner table to be encouraging and help me keep going. And he was then, and he still is my biggest supporter. And it's not too much to say that I don't think there would be a podcast here without him. So one of the best things about David is his cheerleading, and he believes in me and cheers for me and roots for me, way more than I am capable of doing for myself.

And it doesn't matter what I'm doing. Right? Like I told you about 2929 and how much support he gave to me during that event and the like, incredible joy and pride he felt at the end of that. Like, this is really one of my favorite things about him. He is so good at it. He has an endless supply of encouragements and he is so good at handing them out. Last week we went to Hawaii and I took my first surf lessons and like first of all, like my brain really was trying to talk me out of even signing up.

And he insisted that I sign up for them. Even when I tried to say like it doesn't matter, and like my fears were like really raging and I was worried that I was going to look stupid or dumb or really fail. Like he was just so encouraging. And he got up at 530 to drive me to the beach for that lesson. And then he proceeded to watch the entire lesson and record it all on video. And when it was over, he made sure that I signed up for a second lesson and a video, that one as well.

And every time I actually caught a wave, he was shouting and cheering and waving from the shore. And so like, maybe this feels a little bit indulgent for me to just gush about him for a minute and maybe you're like, okay, that's great, we get it. Haha. But I think there's something here for all of us to learn. And again, to borrow from David Cates from that poem, like we were each born with an endless supply of encouragement, and we might as well use them.

And David has taught me more than any other person I know, that it only gives back to you when you use them, like it brings him so much joy. And watching him makes me want to be more indulgent and expressive in my encouragements. So you have an endless supply and there is no downside to using all of them up like you can't use them all up. There's an endless supply and they can mean everything to someone else. Finally, today I just want to thank the 250 past versions of me that showed up every week when I was scared and when I was confused, and when I felt inadequate.

And I want to thank myself for doing it anyway. And maybe it will surprise you to know how much dread and fear my brain would create every time it was time to make a podcast, like a few weeks ago. Remember we talked about cortisol and how your brain produces. Cortisol in anticipation of pain. Right? And every week, even though the podcast is something that I love, something that I cherish. One of my favorite things and something that I want in my life.

My brain still releases all this cortisol every time it's time to record it. All this cortisol just in an effort to stop me from doing it. And I'm so grateful. I'm so grateful that I didn't let my brain stop me, that the past versions of me felt bad. Felt scared, felt anxious, felt inadequate, and did it anyway. That the past versions of me saw those feelings for what they were very real, but also not an accurate reflection of the danger that I was in.

So my brain was producing all this cortisol and all this fear and all this emotion, all this negative emotion, because it thought recording my thoughts and sharing those on the podcast was dangerous. So it wanted to keep me from that, right? It creates all kinds of negative emotion about it. And those feelings are real. But the danger isn't. The danger wasn't real. And that's the key to doing anything hard for any period of time, right? Acknowledging that your feelings are real, your brain is creating, and that is a real experience, and allowing that experience to exist and to be there, but also not seeing those feelings as a reason to stop.

And I am so grateful that somehow I didn't let them stop me. That week after week, I felt my feelings and managed my brain and decided I was going to show up anyway. And I'm proud that the things inside my own head, the things that are only in my head. That I didn't let them keep me. From doing what I wanted, from creating what I wanted, from getting what I wanted. And every episode here, like, represents a victory for me.

Like, every episode is a victory where I overcame those feelings and showed up for myself anyway. And I guess that's really what I want to tell each of you as you think about the things that you want to do, and all the doubt and the fear and the inadequacy that comes up and gets in your way and keeps you from starting or keeps you from continuing like I want you to know. Of course, your feelings are real. Your brain is really good at creating them. It thinks that that's useful.

It thinks it is keeping you safe. But our brains are confused about what's dangerous. Other people's opinions are not actually dangerous. They can think things about us and it's okay. We are actually still okay. Failure is not actually dangerous. Looking dumb doing it badly. Not actually dangerous. Putting in effort and energy and work. Not actually dangerous. Doing things that are emotionally or physically painful.

Not fun, but also not dangerous. And maybe the real danger is what we miss if we let our feelings keep us from creating the things we want. Maybe the real danger is that these 250 episodes are just as likely not to exist. As they are to exist. Like maybe the real danger. Is that I could have lived a life without recording any of them. Right. I could have lived the last almost five years without recording a single episode, that is a possibility.

Which would have meant that I would have missed out on that experience. I would have missed the relationship that I have with you. I would have missed the learning that came by overcoming my brain, and all of these episodes would be missing from the world. Like I remember a few years ago watching a movie, I think it was called yesterday, and it's been a long time since I've seen it. So like I'm just remembering bits of the plot. But in the movie, the main character, he's like the only guy that knows the Beatles songs.

And the Beatles songs don't exist in the world. They only exist in his mind. He like starts playing them and people are like, oh my gosh, what is that? Right? And in the movie, it just there's other things in this alternate world that he lives in that also don't exist. Like there's no Harry Potter and there's no Coke, I think. And there's other things that like, don't exist. Right. Because, you know, nobody created them. Maybe somebody's brain stopped them and they didn't create them. And I remember being so struck by that movie. Right.

Like, what are the things in the world that I have not created that won't exist unless I do like those things will change the world. And I want you to really think about that. I want you to know that every moment our choices are creating the world. Yes, they're creating our personal world, but they're also contributing to the world at large. And there are versions of your life and versions of this world that don't exist if you don't do them. That are different. If you let your brain and your feelings keep you from creating them, keep you from doing the things that you want to do in this world. And and maybe that is the real danger. Maybe your brain is wrong about what the real threats are, right? And what that means is that feeling bad feeling negative emotion. Wow, that's a real experience. It's just not a reason to stop there. Just not a good reason to not start. They are real feelings. They just aren't accurate.

They are created by your brain because your brain thinks you're doing something dangerous or risky, or something that we use too much energy or expose you to too much rejection or ridicule. But your brain is wrong about what's dangerous. That's what I mean when I say they are real but not accurate. They are not accurate about what the real threat is. Don't forget that. The truth is that you cannot create what you want without coming up against this part of you. The part of you that feels bad, the part of you that's like resisting it, the part of you that's talking you out of it. You can't create what you want without coming up against that. And if you want to do anything in your life, that's more than what you are doing now. That's different than what you are doing now. It's not that you have to make that part go away. It's that you have to make it not matter. You have to let it be there and not let it stop you. And that's why, as you think about this endless supply of encouragements, you got to know that you have to use a lot of them on yourself.

What you are asking yourself to do is hard, and you need as much encouragement as possible. You have an endless supply of encouragements and yes, use them on everybody in your life, but don't forget to use them on yourself as well. You need yourself to be encouraging, to be proud, to be appreciative. To say kind things, to say encouraging things when it feels bad. You know, every time I go to record the podcast and that fear and that anxiety, like, comes into my body, the cortisol gets released and I feel scared. I tell myself, it's okay that you're scared. I'm going to go with you. You have an endless supply of encouragements. Don't wait to use them until you've accomplished something. You need to use them right now.

The poem says, don't wait for the eulogy, don't wait for the end. And it's the same when it comes to you. Don't wait till you get to the end of your goal. Don't wait till you get to the end of the accomplishment. Use them up right now. Your brain is there making you feel bad. You got to be there making yourself feel good. If I can steal and rewrite part of this poem, clap your songs, cheer yourself on. You were born with a limitless supply and encouragements. Use every one of them.

Don't wait for the eulogies to speak out loud that you are precious to you and that you make yourself feel proud. I promise you there is no downside to encouraging yourself. Okay my friends, that's what I have for you today. A big, huge thank you and a reminder that you have an endless supply of encouragements. Go ahead and spend them extravagantly. Use them on the people you love. Use them on the people you care about. Use them on the people that you don't, and use them especially on yourself. Because as you go to create the things that you want most in your life, it's going to feel bad. And that's okay. You can do it anyway. The real danger is not doing it at all. And that, my friends, is 100% awesome. I love you for listening. I really, really do and I will see you next week.

Thanks so much for joining me on the podcast today. If you're serious about changing your life, you first have to change your mind. And the best way to do that is through coaching. I work with my clients one on one to help them change their thoughts and their feelings about themselves, their lives, and their challenges so that they can live a life they love. If you'd like to work with me one on one, you can learn more and schedule a free call to try coaching for yourself at Aprilpricecoaching.com.