Step FIVE to Creating a Life You Love: Monitor Your Process and Respond to Obstacles Along the Way

Step five to creating a life that you love covers the need to monitor your process and progress and respond to obstacles that will inevitably arise in order to create the change you desire. Here’s a quick review to see how these steps are flowing together. In step one, you created self-awareness through self-reflection and looking deeply inward. Step two was about aligning with your sense of purpose through creating a vision for what you want. Step three allowed you to create a plan of action in order to create the possibility for the changes to occur through goals and action steps executed consistently. Step four encouraged evaluating your current life and lifestyle to assess and assure that you are keeping your body and mind well. That leads us to step five, monitoring your process and progress and responding to obstacles as the arise. We all know that it’s one thing to create a plan, it’s another to execute it consistently over time! Step five allows you to explore your inner resistance to change and learn how to build your resilience to ensure that the change you desire shifts from a wish into reality-based action.

Resistance to change is generally the number one reason we don’t follow through consistently. Resistance dampens motivation, zaps inspiration and keeps us stuck in the discomfort of our comfort zone. Resistance convinces us that we are better off in the discomfort of our comfort zones and creates fear to stretching into change. This step will help you build resilience as an anecdote to resistance and offer some serious reality checks to keep you moving forward.

In order to overcome resistance and create the change you desire; you need to build resilience. Resilience is only created through difficulty, struggle and the need to get up, dust yourself off, and begin again…sometimes, but not always, right back at the beginning. This can be frustrating and sad and allows the resistance to settle in strong. Resilience is the ability to recover and the ability to feel your fear and persevere anyway. There is no way to hack the process of becoming resilient. The only way is to grow your resilience is through experience. People who are resilient have been through a lot, have developed grit, learned from their struggles and have the desire to create change that is stronger than the fear of failure, rejection and disappointment.

When you review your vision, goals and the action steps that will allow it to happen, are you executing your plan of action consistently? If not, what are the excuses that you are telling yourself? Where is your primary resistance to making the changes you desire? Resistance can look like a lot like procrastination, and uses pretty much any excuse, for example, “I don’t have enough time, I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll start tomorrow, I’m too tired, I don’t know where to start, I forgot, I’m worried it’ll be too hard, I got pulled away by something else, if only, I want to but…” and on and on. If this sounds like what might be churning in your head, take a moment and challenge the resistance that is showing up for you. Ask yourself the following questions if you find you are resisting getting started on or sticking with your goals and actions steps consistently:

-Why am I avoiding this?

-What am I most afraid of, and why?

-Is there something small I can do to test it out and see how it feels to take action?

-Am I ready for this change?

-How badly do I want to live my vision?

-What am I choosing over my vision?

-What is the cost to me to not live my vision and make this change?

-Where can I find inspiration to make this change?

We all have an inner need to grow, to pursue, to create and to evolve. If we are not, that is where true stress, discomfort and challenge will show up in our lives. The trouble is that we are usually the ones that get in our own way of creating the change we say we want. Fear is self-doubt and an inner belief of either we aren’t worthy or deserving of this change, or on the other side of that, that we will be successful and worry how will that will impact our current lives, relationships and way of living. I can tell you that you are deserving and worthy of what you want, however, it is up to you to create this inner belief. I can also tell you that as you create change in your life, it may impact and disrupt your life, but those that support you and care about you will be there for you, and if they don’t, maybe they’re not your people.

Self-sabotage can show up easily and it can feel like an increase of excuses that may hum in the background of your mind. Change requires that you stretch yourself beyond your comfort zone and this process is uncomfortable. No one likes to be uncomfortable. When you persevere, the discomfort is temporary—just while you are in the stretching process—yet the payoff will create feelings of accomplishment, hope, determination, worthiness and joy.

Approaching change will benefit from some solid problem-solving through monitoring your process. If this is a change you’ve attempted in the past, where do you usually bail out? Where do you foresee self-sabotage to occur? If you can manage to preempt some foreseeable struggles, you create a plan for managing those struggles. I recommend that you create your plan of action weekly and check in with your plan of action daily. Where did you execute and where did you not execute? Why did you or did you not complete your action steps? How can you keep it going (if you did!) or make some shifts to motivate yourself if you didn’t. Get deeply curious about why you did execute or why you didn’t. You might be able to borrow from where you did execute to help support the areas where you did not.

Check in with any internal resistance daily as well. Notice any fear that is there and get curious about that. Why is it here? What happened to create this fear? Does it relate to the past? What is worst that can really happen? Resistance usually shows up in the form of internal (not true and certainly not useful) stories we create and we believe those stories. This is not an effective game plan! It can be helpful to sit with the opposites, if that potential fear-based story is true, couldn’t the opposite be true as well? For example, if you find you are resistant because you don’t trust yourself to follow through for the long term, couldn’t it also be true that you have made changes and now have the support to follow through for the long term? Both are not yet reality, however if a negative belief is true couldn’t a neutral or positive belief also be true? The only person we all have any control over in the world is our future self.

Today, attempt to do your future self a favor and commit, stick with your goals and take action. Practice taking action to cure your fears and allow your vision to become your life. A helpful mantra to remind yourself in any moments of resistance is, feel the fear and do it anyway! When you do, notice how you feel about yourself, notice your self-worth increasing. That is how you will continue to manage obstacles, build resilience, determination and a new way to focus on you!

Step FOUR to Creating a Life You Love: Evaluating Your Current Life & Lifestyle

“The concept of total wellness recognizes that our every thought, word, and behavior affects our greater health and well-being. And we, in turn, are affected not only emotionally but also physically and spiritually.”
--Greg Anderson

Step 4 to creating a life you love is all about evaluating how well you currently care for yourself in mind, body and spirit. Through this step you will learn about the foundations of wellbeing. You will have opportunities to evaluate how you are currently functioning in each of these foundations in order to assess how you feel you are doing in terms of living well, feeling well and being well. Through self-evaluation you can determine if there are any shifts and changes you would like to create. There will be opportunities to reflect and notice where you can create more fluidity in your lifestyle that will help lead you to the changes you desire.

No matter what your vision for your life may be, when you are taking care of yourself in mind, body and spirit, you will be more likely to have the energy, mental clarity and the necessary inner spark and desire to work towards your goals. If your goals fall within the foundations of wellbeing, then you will really enjoy this step. If they don’t, this step will be important for you too as this foundation creates more freedom for you to create whatever you desire within your life. The foundations of wellbeing are movement, nutrition, sleep and intentional relaxation. When your foundation is strong and your wellbeing becomes a priority, you will be unstoppable as you propel towards pursuit of your life’s vision.

Take a moment and assess your current state of wellbeing. Ask yourself the following questions.

-Do you move your body regularly in a way that keeps it feeling mobile, strong and healthy?

-Do you eat vegetables daily and pay attention to how what you eat makes you feel?

-Do you eat mindfully, meaning pay attention to the process of eating without distraction?

-Do you get adequate and quality sleep?

-Do you take time to relax in an intentional way? Meaning, do you give yourself space to calm and center yourself in mind, body and spirit?

-Is your current lifestyle reflective of your vision and purpose?

-Does your current lifestyle reflect your personal values?

Any wellness routine and way of integrating wellbeing practices into your life will look and feel different from person to person as we all have individual preferences, needs and ways of being. One person might find that within the movement foundation, gentle yoga is what suits their body best while someone else might find that preparing for a half marathon is more fulfilling. With nutrition, we all have different needs. When you assess if you get adequate vegetables, what does that look like for you? No matter what you are eating, paying attention and noticing how what you eat makes you feel is one of the most important elements of being nourished by food. The same is true for sleep, although this tends to be something many people let slide out of focus easily. Intentional relaxation is different than Netflix and chill. While this might be how you unwind or have fun, it is not a true state of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual relaxation. Examples of intentional relaxation include meditation, creating art, reading, taking a bath, having lunch with friends, praying, spending time in nature… Intentional relaxation provides fulfillment, rejuvenation, vitality and pleasure in your life that feels good to you and creates inner peace.

Creating a strong state of true wellness is a journey. Most of us are stressed, tired and live in an overall imbalanced way. When the foundations of wellbeing become a priority, your ability to cope with stress, solve problems and feel mentally and physically well enough to take on much of what life delivers will be far more available. When you create a strong foundation for your physical body, your mental and emotional world can become more available to explore and you can continue to grow and expand mentally and spiritually.

The process of focusing on your own wellbeing requires commitment. When you have a vision for your life and a sense of purpose—and a plan to make it happen—your focus can shift to your wellbeing. When you create true mind, body, spirit wellness within your life, you set the groundwork to live your best life. Begin by choosing ONE area that may be out of balance for you and start with ONE element that you can incorporate in a positive way. Continue building slowly. Once your body is vital and healthy you can dive deeper into mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. This is where personal growth becomes a daily process and daily opportunity. As you move through these steps to leading yourself to living your best life, be sure to offer yourself ample time to creating a solid foundation for wellness and overall wellbeing.

Step THREE to Creating a Life You Love: Create a Plan of Action

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” ― Benjamin Franklin

Today I am talking about Step three to Creating a Life You Love: Creating a Plan of Action. Creating a plan of action allows you to take your vision and purpose and make them a reality. Without a plan, your vision will remain only a dream. This step will help you outline your specific plan through goal setting and use it to create consistent action towards what you desire. Once you have a sense of purpose and a clear vision, you will focus with a new mindset so that you can execute effectively in order to create a life that you love.

When you create and use a clear, specific plan, you will create an opportunity to live your vision in action and this is an essential step to creating change. Creating a vision is fun and creative, while formulating a plan is practical and action focused. Your specific plan will allow you to move into a space of action, a space of change that you desire where you will live your vision and purpose.

This time of year, we often have a vision of a better version of ourselves, a hope that we will make better choices and set a resolution of sorts to move in that direction. How many people still remember or are actively working towards a new year’s resolution by February? Unfortunately, not so many. This is most likely because they did not have a plan, they got stuck in the wishing and hoping phase. The process to create a plan of action is this: 1. Set specific doable and desirable goals, 2. Create 3-5 specific action steps that will allow you meet that goal 3. Write in your planner/calendar when you will complete the action steps each week 4. Execute your plan! 5. Reward yourself.

These steps are the essential formula to living your vision and creating a life that you love. These steps create order and opportunity to put your vision into action. If your vision for your life is to live a long, healthy, happy, vibrant life, without a starting point of a goal or any action steps to take, it most likely will remain a hope, a wish for it to happen one day... When you put this system into place, change will have to happen. When you begin to make the changes, no matter how uncomfortable that may be in the beginning of the process (the execution/sticking to the plan) you will feel good about yourself. We all know that it feels good to feel good, so you will want more of that, which is positive motivation to keep executing your action plan.

So let’s get started on formulating your goals, action steps and a plan of action today. First, review your vision for your life that you created during step 2: Aligning with Your Sense of Purpose. When you review it, what stands out the most? What do you truly want and why do you want it? How does what you want align with your greater sense of purpose and personal values? As you review these elements of your vision, what is ONE goal you can set that will help you create your vision? Write this down. Now ask yourself, is this goal specific, meaning is it measurable? How will you know when you’ve reached this goal? Ask yourself if this is doable, meaning will you be able to put it into action within your current life, schedule and routines? And lastly, ask yourself, is this goal desirable, meaning do you really want it? Read your goal out loud to yourself. Now let’s work on the steps you will take to make this goal accessible within your life by creating the specific action steps.

Write down 3-5 action steps that will make this goal a reality. Let’s say your overall vision is living a long healthy, happy, vibrant life. For example, one goal to support this vision could be to exercise for at least 30 minutes 3-5 times/week. It is this specific? Yes, it describes what: exercise for at least 30 minutes and when: 3-5 days each week. Now let’s create the supportive action steps it will take to make this happen, where you will get even more specific. Some examples of action steps that support this goal are: 1. To hit your 10,000 steps at least 2x’s/week 2. To take a movement class weekly that you enjoy (yoga, dance, something at the gym…) 3. To take the stairs anytime they are a reasonable option 4. Take a hike in nature 1x/month 5. Break a sweat at least 2x’s/week (jog, HIIT, brisk walking, vigorous yoga, barre class, strength training…) These are all specific and you want to ensure that whatever action steps you develop, they are also doable and desirable within your current life.

Now it’s time create your plan. When you pre-plan exactly when you will do these action steps you will be 90% more likely to make it happen. So get out your planner/calendar and write down specifically when you will do each of the action steps that you created, including the day and the time. If you’d prefer to focus on 1 or 2 action steps to begin, then do that. When you integrate change slowly and consistently you will be more likely to sustain the changes. Create this as a weekly practice, planning what, when, where etc…to ensure that it becomes a habit within your life. This is how your vision becomes a reality, by taking consistent action.

This brings us to execution, meaning actually doing what you planned to do in the first place. It’s one thing to make a plan, it’s a whole other thing to execute it consistently. This is where mindset is super valuable. Visualize yourself taking action, allow it to become nonnegotiable (no excuses!) When you create a sense of alignment with your vision and purpose and remain connected to why you want what you want, you will be motivated to execute your plan consistently. Do something that allows you to stay connected to your vision in some form each day to increase your motivation and commitment to take consistent action.

The last element of creating your plan of action is to reward yourself when you meet your goals. As humans, we are driven by rewards. For something such as an exercise goal, you might set a monthly reward if you stick to your plan of action and consistently execute your plan 3 out of 4 weeks. What reward feels motivating and equal to the work you will do towards creating this change? Maybe it’s a new pair of shoes or clothing for a specific exercise routine, maybe it’s a class at a favorite yoga center, or a new water bottle—anything connected to supporting your goal. If that doesn’t feel motivating, then it’s not the right reward for you. Maybe you would feel more motivated by a spa treatment, a nice dinner out or anything else you find enjoyable and worth the work you are doing to create this change. Celebrate your accomplishment and recognize the work you do to create the change you want.

Once your goal has become a part of your routine and it’s no longer something you have to think about and something you no longer resist, it will be deeply integrated into your lifestyle. This is when you know it is time to move into the next goal, where you will start at the beginning of the process, reviewing your vision and determining where to go next. I hope you have fun with this step of creating a plan of action. This step is about committing to yourself, your vision and your purpose so you can bring your vision into reality, starting today!