Self Improvement Daily Podcast

I want to share a snippet from the book I’m currently reading to prepare for an interview I have booked with an amazing, world changing guest! Her name is Radha Agrawal and her book is titled, Belong. There’s a part in the book I love about that compares the different voices you have in your head. But, she distinguishes the two as the “Mean Girls” and the “Soul Sisters”.

The Mean Girls are exactly what you’d expect from the movie. They’re comparing themselves to others to see how they stack up. They look for the imperfections and nitpicking away at the blemishes and things that are wrong. And they’re judgmental. When things are different they make assumptions that are rooted in negativity, scarcity, and poor intentions.

Then there are the Soul Sisters. They look at others and they’re inspired and interested. They have a lens of positivity and gratitude, and see things for what’s right not for what’s wrong. And they’re curious, in search of ways to better understand and integrate their models than finding the differences.

If you didn’t hear it already, the Mean Girls and the Soul Sisters directly contrast each other. When looking at others, you can come from a place of comparison, or inspiration. When looking at the quality of something, you can notice the imperfections, or be grateful for the things that are right. And when things are different, you can either judge or be curious.

Each of these three points are all a matter of perspective. It’s the way we choose to see things in the world, and living like a Soul Sister is way better than living like a Mean Girl.

Born out of his own mental health challenges, Mark Metry has educated himself on the mind-body connection specifically as it pertains to the influence your diet has on this interaction. We’re going to cover the concept broadly.

Mark argues that in order to make progress on mental health challenges, we need to get our biochemistry right. And that starts with what we put in our mouth.

“Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you, but to help you realize your hidden potential and power”.

Difficulties come with purpose. They have been placed in your life for a reason. It’s hard to see in the moment how this could be possible, but that’s only because it is meant to make sense in hindsight. An unfortunate door closing might push you to pursue another path. A difficult circumstance prepares you to be strong when the next adversity comes, and that wisdom and experience can be shared with others who could use the support. Yea, you might feel destroyed in the moment, but that’s not the final intent. It’s a mechanism of growth for everything. It’s the philosophy that what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

That’s exactly what lies on the other side of a challenge, which speaks to the second half of the quote, “Difficulties in your life do not come to destroy you, but to help you realize your hidden potential and power.” 

Now knowing that a challenge is just the top layer to a magnificent gift, we can find appreciation for it. That doesn’t mean it isn’t hard in the moment, but it serves a larger purpose that we can accept.

Everything in life can be viewed from the lens that you choose, and it’s a strong perspective to take that difficulties breed potential.

You have more power and influence on your future than you know simply in the choices you make. It goes like this.

“When people talk about traveling to the past, they worry about radically changing the present by doing something small. But barely anyone in the present really thinks that they can radically change the future by doing something small".

Isn’t that powerful? You can go back into your history and make sense of what happened through hindsight. When you’re doing that, you’re looking at the choices you made in the moment and how that crafted the future.

When you choose right, it can be your first moment that creates the future you want to have. I’m a firm believer that our choices determine our actions, which become habits, that generate outcomes.

You can’t change the past, and you can’t get stuck trying to. But you can make the first right choice with something that has the radical power to influence your future, and that’s something I want to help you do.

You have the power to change your future, and I’ll do it with you.

Jasmine Star is a self-made, inspiring leader who believes that we can accomplish anything we set our mind to. Recently, I had the privilege of listening to her speak live, and she said something toward the end that really stood out, and fortunately I was able to record it. 

In the face of our dreams, many of us come upon a similar objection. My family doesn't understand what I’m trying to do, and therefore aren’t very supportive of it. I know, this comes from a place of love, but that doesn’t mean it’s what’s best for us. I’m going to let Jasmine take the stage here and share her thoughts on this.

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Yes, it’s important to respect your family. Yes, it’s important to be calculated and intentional about your choices. But, no one knows what you want, what you need, and what you’re capable of like you do, and that’s something you need to trust.

I want to take this one back to an early lesson I learned in life from my mom. Since then, it’s taken a few different forms, but it remains sound advice.

It is not a race.

Now, my mom said this to slow me and my older brother down from competing against each other in everything and anything we did growing up. When the competition got to dangerous levels, either from a safety or relationship standpoint, my mom would get in between us and shout "I.N.A.R.", which stood for  it’s not a race. Her words would immediately moderate the situation. My mom was helped us reflect on the state of our effort, and bring us down back to a more reasonable and sustainable level.

As I said that out loud, I heard just how true that is today also. We expect such big things from ourselves which causes us to stretch ourselves thin and push ourselves to what could be considered dangerous levels. I’m guilty of this too, but I try to remind myself that it’s not a race! In order to do great things, we need to be patient and understand that there is a process and incremental progress. If we ramp up too quickly, and don’t incorporate sustainable practices, we won’t make it to that future pay off because we will feel invalidated, burn out, and lose motivation.

Now, having said that, yes, ambition is good. Dream Big is one my personal core values, and there are ways to improve our productivity while catering to baseline sustainability. But that doesn’t mean we should expect immediate results. It is not a race, and we’re all on our own trajectory and path. It’s not the difference between a marathon and a sprint, it’s understanding that the core objective is to finish to the best of your capabilities.

lex Sheen is the founder of the non-profit “Because I Said I Would”. The mission of the charity is to give people the resources and accountability they need to live with courage and honor. Let’s learn an important lesson central to Alex’s mission. Promises are heavy and they shouldn’t be taken lightly. We need to make promises only when we mean them.

In the interview, we go on to talk about how we make promises everyday just by saying yes, and how dangerous that is for the relationships and expectations around us.

This positivity quote is a poetic little quip. It’s something you should keep in your back pocket so that when others question your methods you can pull this quote out and effectively explain your reasons.

“When you summon the courage to do what others won’t, you will have in life that others don’t". If you want to be average, then go ahead and follow the crowd. I can guarantee you it will take you where everyone else is going. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, and there’s plenty of fulfillment to be found in that kind of life. However, the fact that you’re listening to this self improvement podcast means that you know you are destined for more.

That’s why I challenge you to “summon the courage to do what others won’t”.

This will take courage. Courage is defined as “the strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”. In the face of doing something different, you’re going to face challenges and you’re going to have to work through them. Failure is a real possibility. Nothing good comes easy, and in order to have a life that others don’t, you have to draw outside the lines where doubt and uncertainty lie.

A life like that is subjective. It could be a life of personal happiness and joy, it could be growing a business and getting results, or it could be a life of impact and service. In any case, it takes the courage to be extra-ordinary.