Episode 55: What My Most Successful Clients Think

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

Hello podcast universe! Welcome to episode 55 of the 100% Awesome Podcast. I'm April Price and I want to welcome you to the podcast today. I am so happy to be here. I have been thinking a lot about today's podcast and I hope that it will create a totally new way of thinking about things for you. I hope that will create some shifts, that will allow you to move towards a life you really want to be living, and I hope it will move you there faster.

I see so many people waiting, and waiting, for things to get better, waiting for things to change. Waiting to love themselves, and their life, and I really just want you to stop waiting, this is your life, this is it, there isn't another one coming. And so today I want to talk to you about the things that my most successful clients think, because they are just like you. They are amazing, extraordinary, people with limitless potential, but they are also ordinary, and normal, and human in every way. They are people with brains just like yours, but they are also people who are creating exactly what they want in their lives, and they know that the only difference between the life they have, and the life they want is their thoughts. And so they go to work every day to think powerful thoughts, so that they can get incredible results in their life.

And so I thought it might be really helpful for you to be able to see some of their beliefs. Some of the beliefs that have made the biggest difference for them, so that you can consider adopting them for your own. Their brains are just like yours, but the thoughts that they choose to think on purpose may not be. And so I want to show you a few of them today, and see if they will help make a difference in your life.

2:28
Okay so, the first belief that my most successful clients have is the belief that it is possible to achieve their goals. This is the starting place for each of us, right? In order to create something different in our lives, we have to start by believing that it's possible that we can create it. We have to believe in our own ability enough to try, and start, and sometimes this belief is a very big. When my clients start, sometimes it's just barely there, and it sometimes requires some piggybacking on someone else's belief.

So, let me give you a little example of this that I was recently reminded of, so last week I was interviewed on another podcast about my weight loss journey. How I reprogram my brain, and the way that I thought about my weight, and the limitations of my body. And the coach who interviewed me, Molly Zemek, asked me, how I decided to change things for the place where I was at the time, which was just like completely miserable, and discouraged. She asked me, how did I decide to change things when I was in that place? And when she asked me this question, it just kind of brought all of that back for me. I remembered what it was like to be so discouraged, and disheartened, and disgusted, with myself. I remember how deep my belief was that I couldn't change, and that the life that other people had was just not for me. I didn't have what it takes, other people were just somehow stronger, and more disciplined, and more committed or something, right? Like they had something that I didn't have, I had in that moment zero faith in my own ability to change.

So, when Molly asked me this question, I started thinking about what made me believe that I could change, and it came down to the fact that I knew my coach had done it. I had known her when we were young mothers raising our kids, and so I knew she was a lot like me. I knew that she was busy with kids, and knew that she liked food, I knew that she had babies like I did, I knew she was middle aged. I knew that she was not a unicorn.

I knew that she wasn't always fair, and she wasn't always athletic, and that being all those things hadn't just come like super easy for her. And so, while I had very little belief in me, I believed that if she could do it, and if she could figure it out, someone who was so much like me then, I might be able to too. Like if she could do it maybe she could show me how too, and this is how it works for my clients as well. They believe that they can have something else, and that things can be better, and if they can't quite believe it about themselves yet, they can borrow my belief, right? And I want you to know that you can borrow it as well.

5:22
So, maybe from where you are right now it feels sort of impossible, but I want you to know that I have been all those places that you are right now. I have been overweight, and deeply in debt. I have been heartsick about my most precious relationships. I have been estranged from God, and angry at the way that I was living my life, and squandering my potential. I have hated myself and hated anyone who tried to love me. I have been there, and I have been able to change all of that, but it started with the smallest kind of belief, that if my coach could do it, then maybe I could to. And from there my belief in my ability just started to grow a little bit at a time. So, what do you believe about your ability to reach your goals, or change your life, or just change one small thing?

I want you to start there, and nurture that little belief, that little belief in yourself, and your ability to change. Believe in your own ability to get what you want, and if you can't believe in that, you can borrow my belief, and believe that if April you can do it, truly anyone can.

So, I love watching "Fixer Upper," right that show with Chip and Joanna Gaines, or really like I'll watch any random reality show, I love a good before and after. But in Fixer Upper, like Chip and Joanna, they always take their clients to see three houses in Waco Texas, right? And they show them three total dumps, like get progressively worse, right? They all need work, some of them more than others. They all have issues, many of them are completely uninhabitable the way they are. All of them are ugly, and old, and falling apart. But no matter how bad it is, or no matter what the condition is, Joanna Gaines is like "No problem! It's going to be gorgeous! Believe me." And half the time you look at the clients and you know they do not believe her, they have no idea how this shack is gonna be a place where they want to live, and raise their families, right? And so, they just use her belief to build their own, and then they go buy the shack.

They just believe that she can turn anything around, and that is the same kind of belief I have in every one of my clients. No matter how unfixable things look to them, I know the truth, you just have to clean out the old thoughts. We just have to take down a few walls that are limiting your view, and put some new thoughts in their place, let the sunshine in, right? It works every time, it never not works, because every brain, like every house in Waco Texas, is 100% changeable.

8:19
Okay, number two, the second belief that my clients have is that they believe that it's okay to ask for help. I know this is something that might be holding lots of you back from the coaching that you really need, and want, but my clients know that they know all the things, they know what to do. They know that if you want to lose weight, you have to eat less than you use. They know that you should love one another. They know that you should spend less than you earn, and live within your means, and get up early when the alarm goes off, and exercise three to five times a week just like you, right? Like they know all the things, of course they know what to do. We all do.

The problem is that we don't do them, and we don't really understand why. We don't understand that our thoughts about all the things we should do are not driving our best actions. And this is why my clients hire a coach to help them see where their own thoughts are getting in their way. Of course you can do it on your own, I just had a client ask this very thing a couple days ago she said, "Why can't I just do it on my own?" And I said "Well of course you can." Of course you can, the real question is why you don't? And I find that having a coach just allows me to do all the things I want to do, but do them faster. My coach shows me the lies my brain is selling me so that I can stop buying them, and move on with what I want to create in my life. My coaches show me when I'm choosing indulgent, childish feelings that caused me to stop taking action, or moving towards my goals. Having a coach shows me how to take more action, faster, with less fear, or how to carry the fear with me as I do them.

Having a coach allows me to stop giving excuses space in my life, and this is what my clients believe as well. They believe that doing it on your own has its limits, because your own thoughts are limiting you, and they believe that they are worth the investment. And they're asking for help is the beginning of something completely different in their life. They believe that asking for help, and being vulnerable in the safe space of coaching allows them to more easily drop all the baggage they've been carrying, and move on with the work they came on Earth to do.

So, I remember when I hired my first coach, I didn't want anyone to know, I didn't want anyone, even my husband, to know that I was paying someone to help me to know what to eat, right? Everybody knows what to eat, why do you have to pay someone to help you with that? You must be an idiot. Well I no longer believe that, I have coaches for everything, I have a nutrition coach, I have a fitness coach, I have a business coach, I have a life coach, I know I need help to get what I want. And I think everyone should want a coach, because it allows you to be your best self, right? The whole point of hiring a coach is to be able to get to a new level, and have someone in your life who challenges you to grow. And I love that, I'm all in.

11:44
So, a lot of times I think about my life, and my coaches like a seed, and I want you to think about a seed. A seed as it is, is 100% whole, it is perfect, it is fine, it has everything it needs to be a seed. It is whole and enough as it is. But when we planted, and nurture it, and water it, and give it sun, and compost, it grows bigger. It becomes more, it can contribute to the world around it. It creates fruit to eat, and more seeds that can grow from that, and I like to think about my life like this. My life as it is, is whole, it's perfect, it's fine. I am whole and enough as I am. But my coaches nurture me, nurture my thoughts, and help me grow, and magnify my abilities, and contribute in the world in ways that I never could have without their help. To bring forth good fruit right, and create more seeds in the world, and in my life. You don't ever have to be more than you are, but you can if you want

Okay, the next belief that my most successful clients have, is that coaching actually works, it's a thing that works. Now for the most part, coaching is completely an unknown, most people have never been coached. From the outside it kind of seems too easy to believe, it's like a little bit out there, right? Like how can just changing my thoughts change anything? It sort of seems like too good to believe, like you feel like this might be a little sketchy, and I know what you're thinking, because I have been there. You're like "April, I'm a mess, my life is a mess. How can something as small and as simple as a thought, be the cause of all this mess? That's impossible!"
But when you really understand that every result in your life right now is there because of a thought that you are thinking, then you are opening the door to an alternate reality. Because then anything you want is possible, any result suddenly becomes attainable, it's like the most incredible realization to stop thinking of all the probable things in your life, and start entertaining all the possible things in your life.

And the only difference from where you are now, and where you want to be, is the thoughts you think, and this one principle is the key to all of that. The thing that I really love about coaching, is that it always works, for every one of my clients. It's practical. It's based on the way the universe works, and so these principles work on every person, and every problem. There is no problem that the model can't solve, and I love that, because no matter your situation, no matter your walk of life, no matter your educational background, no matter how you grew up, no matter your personal challenges, it always works.

15:00
So, sometimes when people don't understand coaching, they sometimes think that they have to clean everything up, kind of get their act together, before they can hire a coach, right? This is like when I try to clean up my house before cleaning lady comes, right? I hear myself telling my family, "Okay, we need to clean up, because the cleaners are coming. We can't let people know that we live like this." And sometimes I think this is how people view coaching, they think "Holy cow! My life is such a mess. I need to clean some of this up before I let someone into my head, before I show someone what I'm really thinking.

But I promise you that my clients know, and believe that they are gonna be most successful when they can stop judging their own thoughts, and their own feelings. And when they see that I never judge their thoughts, and their feelings as their coach, they start to give themselves the same permission. I always explain that we have a good reason for feeling, and acting the way we do. I show them that they have a good reason for not acting, or continuing to stall in taking action. I show them it's always because of their thoughts, and I even show them that their brain has a good reason for thinking the way it does. And then we can just look at it together, without judgment, our brains always have a good reason for thinking the way they do. But when we want different results, then we can go in there, and look at those thoughts, and change the ones that we get offered on default, and we do this best from a place of non judgment. You don't have to clean it all up first, I'm telling you you don't have to get your act together before coaching will work. It always works. My clients know this, my clients believe this. The bigger the mass, the more obvious the transformation. Coaching always works.

Okay now another belief my most successful clients have, is that making a decision today is so valuable. So you might have been listening to this podcast for a while now, you might have recommended it to a lot of friends, and a lot of family, and you might have thought someday it would be really nice to work with me, and someday it'll be really nice to invest in yourself, and hire a coach, but someday never comes. My most successful clients know that they have to do something different today. That it is today that matters. They have to make a decision, and take a step today, instead of just hoping, and praying, that somehow tomorrow it's going to be different.

17:46
Right? Just please, tomorrow I hope is different. They know that the change they want happens today, and this requires them to stand up to their own brain, and even to be a bit uncomfortable. Our brains love to put off change, they try to talk us into doing everything tomorrow. It's gonna to be easier tomorrow, right? And they offer us so many compelling reasons to just wait. Your brain says "We'll figure it out tomorrow. Things are gonna get better. It's going to be okay later, right? I'm just not ready."

But what my clients have figured out is that there are opportunity costs to waiting. What are you giving up, by putting off the decision? What are you risking? Every one of us has dreams, has things that we want, has the life that we wish we were living. But we continue to put off having it, when we wait for tomorrow. Things don't ever change, my clients believe that waiting is going to impact their life long term, and they're unwilling to wait anymore. They recognize that they don't get to have an alternate future, until they take action today, in the present. And I know it takes courage, I have so much admiration for my clients who decide today, no matter what my brain says, I'm going to decide. I'm going to choose something different, and I want it enough to do something about it today. Right now, regardless of what my brain is saying, I love the idea that my clients are making a vote for another version of themselves every day.

Each of us gets a chance to make a vote, right? We're either voting for the present version of our life, or voting for another version, the future version, of the life we really want. And every day, my clients are voting for that future version, the version that they want to be, that they know they can be. And every day is a chance for each of us to vote for one, or the other. And I hope that you'll be brave enough, to vote for the version you want to be.

Okay, the last belief that I want to share with you that my most successful clients all share, is the belief that change is uncomfortable, but it is always worth it. And even at its most uncomfortable, it is better than the status quo. So, the work my clients do is not easy, right? The work that I do on my own brain is not easy. My clients have to give up belief that they have helped for a long time, and so do I. They have to spend time with thoughts that they have never thought before, that are a little bit uncomfortable, and their brains protests, their brains resist, right? This is not easy work to do.

20:43
And the reason is, that even though the thoughts that don't serve us are painful, and they don't give us great results in our life, they are also familiar. They are what we know, they are the thoughts we have practiced over, and over, and over, again. They are old friends. Last week I told you about the cave, and the house metaphor, right? Those old thoughts are like a cave, and our new thoughts are like the beautiful new house, and as my clients moved from the comfortable cave into the gorgeous new house, their brain freaks out a little bit. It takes bravery to stand your ground in the new thought, and remind yourself that you deserve to be there, that anything you want is yours. If you can stay in the house, and believe it, and this is hard work to do, but it is always worth it.

Moving from the person who believes she had nothing to offer or contribute, to the person who could create a business, and offer others another way to think about their lives was not easy. And my brain screamed, and protested, and threatened to give up every morning, but it was worth it. So, the other day I heard Ryan Holiday ask this question, he said, "Are you designing a life you actually like living, or are you just going through the motions? Or are you just carrying out the decisions, and thoughts of the past over, and over, and over, again until you're done? Are you just doing what you've always done, not because you love the life you're living, but because it's what you know, it's what you've always done?" I want you to ask yourself what is the cost of not changing? What is the cost of being unwilling to be uncomfortable? In other words, what is the cost of doing what you've always done, what are you giving up in terms of time, and money, and energy, and life, to live a life you don't really like living? What is the cost for you of living like you always have?

When we boil everything down the number one reason we are taking action in our life is fear, right? The fear of changing, of something different. Our brain thinks that taking any action outside of our comfort zone is very dangerous, and it tries to talk us out of it every time. Even when we are miserable, even when we want something else so desperately, even when we hate our current results, and don't like the life we are living. Our primitive brains will still try everything they can not to get us to act or to do things differently.

Our brain doesn't want us to change, and so it offers fear every time. That's its job. You want something different, the brain is going to offer fear to prevent it. And it's super effective at it, right? As soon as fear shows up we retreat, so the key is not to wait for the moment when fear doesn't show up. The key is to make peace with the fear, to allow the fear, to be scared, and have that be 100% okay, and move forward towards change anyway. We would do that is to make peace with the worst case scenario, so that means looking at the very worst thing that can happen, and understanding that the very worst thing that could happen to any of us, is a negative emotion. And you can handle any emotion no matter what.

24:04
So, for myself, and many of my clients, we have dreams, and things we want to do, but we're scared that we're gonna be ridiculed, or rejected, or laughed at, or scoffed at. But notice that if all that happened, all that would result from the ridicule, and rejection, and laughter, and scoffing, would be a negative emotion. For example, if I finished my book, and no one wants to publish it, and people tell me it's terrible, I'm gonna feel ashamed, and embarrassed, and humiliated, and probably heartbroken if I'm being honest. But that is all the worst thing that can happen to me, is I will feel bad, and I will only feel bad because of what I am thinking, which by the way I'm in charge of. But even being in charge if I decide yeah, this is a good time to feel humiliated, and heartbroken, then that is all that will happen.

So, the key for me is to make peace with the very worst case scenario. Am I willing to feel humiliated, and heartbroken, in order to get the change I want? If I am, then I can move forward even though my brain is offering me fear, and that is the key to getting any change you want in your life. When you can make peace with the worst case scenario then fear doesn't have the power to stop you from doing what you really want. And the other idea with fear that I want to offer you is you can use the fear for you. When you get to the place where the fear of not doing the thing, of not changing is greater than the fear of changing. When the fear of not changing, not living the life you want, outweighs the fear of all those negative emotions, then you're ready to get what you want.

So, have you heard about this guy named Nick Butter? I hadn't heard of him, but recently I listened to an interview with him on the Rich Roll Podcast, and last November he set the world record for being the only man to run a marathon in every country in the world. He ran a marathon, one hundred and ninety- six marathons, in one hundred and ninety- six countries. It took him six hundred and seventy-four days, almost two years, and then ended up being about three countries a week. He ran three marathons a week, traveling around the world for ninety- six weeks. And what was so amazing about his story was the running wasn't even the hard part, right? On the way through the one hundred and ninety-six countries of the world he ran through fifteen war zones. He had to get visas and permission to enter all of these countries. Countries that didn't want him there, and didn't care at all about his goal. He had a like a myriad of dangerous border crossings, he spent nights locked up in customs. He was mugged twice, he got shot at, he was repeatedly attacked by dogs, right? One time when he was in the Marshall Islands he actually had to run the marathon in a car park, three hundred thirty- five laps around a car park to avoid their overrun population of rabid dogs. He had his luggage stolen, he had his stuff stolen.

27:13
He ran in extreme cold, he ran in like incredible unbearable heat, sometimes over 140 degrees, there were places he couldn't get water when he needed it, and so he would have to drink out of like unsafe water containers. He got food poisoning, he ran 22 marathons with food poisoning, multiple marathons with kidney infections. He said he had a close call with a cheetah. He got hit by a car, broke his arm, like there were so many obstacles to this goal, and he said that after all of that, the running part was easy. When he had a running day where he just had to run twent -six point two miles, that was easy. The travel, the security, the lack of water and food, the logistics of getting into, and out of certain countries safely, the flights, the transportation, the lack of rest, and sleep, those were the hard parts. I just think of the visas, and regulations, and all the things that he couldn't plan for.

So, I want to read you one of the things that he said I think is really helpful to each of us who want something different, who want to push ourselves, who want something more from our lives. So this is what he said. He said, "One of the hardest parts of the trip was actually country number five." Now remember he went to a hundred and ninety-six countries this was country number five, he went to Haiti. This is what he said. "I had run in the Bahamas, I had run in Miami, I had run in Toronto which are all westernised. Then I came to Haiti, and it was a big culture shock. I was completely immersed in a different poverty level. Their culture was completely different, and on top of that I hadn't learned my lesson. I'm not running in the middle of the day, I was running at midday and people were coming up to me trying to steal things he said. Imagine the busiest station you can imagine and then fill it with mopeds and cars as well. I was just weeding through people for hours, and hours, and then it flattened out into a very dusty long road. Every mile felt like a week, I was so tired after my initial marathons, and mentally I was just getting into my stride. I was thinking what am I doing? I've got another seven hundred days of this, and this is just crazy. Then I finished the run and I felt accomplished. After that everything seemed to be easier. I think Haiti was one of the hardest mental battles."

So, as I heard him talking about this, I couldn't help but think that for each of us no matter what we're doing running marathon number five in Haiti, or trying to change the way we eat, whatever each of us are doing, what we are really facing is the mental battle. A part of us that doesn't want to change, the part of us that doesn't want to do it, the part of us that says it's too hard, right? Our primitive lower brain the part that says change is too painful, and too uncomfortable, and we don't have to be doing any of it, that's what my brain always says, "You don't have to do any of it!"

Here's the thing. You don't, you don't have to do any of it. Nick butter didn't, and you don't. The question is if you want to, if you want to change, if you want to grow. And if you're willing to be uncomfortable to get what you want.

So, one time when Nick butter was trying to get into Syria he had a driver who was supposed to drive him across the border, but the driver got shot the night before taking someone else across the border, right? And so, he's supposed to get a cross this border, he hires somebody else to take him across the border where people are being killed every single day. And that's when your brain's going to pipe up, and say, "Yeah maybe none of this really matters right? Maybe this goal really isn't that important?"

31:05
But notice what Nick Butters said about it. He said "It was stressful." He said "Going into Syria, and Yemen, and Libya, and Iran, I was scared, sometimes physically shaking, because I was thinking not only do I not want to get shot, kidnapped, or killed but I actually need to run this marathon today, because otherwise I won't get to the finish line in time."

I want you to notice what he said there, he said he was scared. Yes he was scared, he was going to die, but he was more scared that he wouldn't be able to finish, and reach his goal. Now I'm not saying that you need to put your life on the line to get the life you want, but what if you were that committed to getting what you wanted out of your life? What if you were more scared of not living the life you wanted, then you were a failing at trying? What if I was more scared of not writing my book, than I was doing a bad job at it, and having someone tell me it was no good? What if you were more scared of not changing, and getting the life you want than you were of changing?

What if you are no longer willing to wait for the life you wanted and you just decided? In many ways it was this way for Nick, but so many times he would have preferred to wait, right? To wait until it was safe, to wait until the rain stopped, to wait until he stopped throwing up, or until it was cooler, or until he could find food, and water, but he didn't have time. He had another plane to catch, and if you missed that one he would miss all the other countries, and planes, and flights, and marathons that were already lined up. He would miss his finish line, and that was more unacceptable to him than anything else.

Here is what I want to offer each of you, you do not have to change. You do not have to believe in yourself. You do not have to ask for help. You do not have to believe that coaching can work for you. You do not have to believe that today is better than tomorrow for change, and you do not have to believe that it's worth the effort.

But do you want to do you want something else? Do you want to believe you can? Do you want to believe that the best way to get there is to ask for help, and hire a coach? Do you want to believe that coaching can work for you when nothing else has? Do you want to believe that today is where your future is created? And do you want to believe that any discomfort is worth the price?

If you do then it's time to sign up for a coaching consultation with me, and see what it would be like to work with me, and change your life. I want you to know that anything is possible for you, when you are willing to believe the things my clients believe. All that is probable for you, and your life can just as easily become, all that is possible for you in your life. 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 that I've talked about and apply them to your life sign up for a free coaching session at aprilpricecoaching.com This is where the real magic happens and your life starts to change forever. Believing your life is 100% awesome is totally available to every one of us. And as your coach. I'll show you exactly how to do that so that you can truly love your Earth life experience the way things are is not the way things have to stay.

And that my friends is 100% Awesome!