Changeability Podcast: Manage Your Mind - Change Your Life

We often look to the future to make us happier. We think about the changes we want and that somehow we’ll be happier once they’re in place. Or we think we want more of something to make us happy, more money, more cars, more holidays, more tech.

It might seem counter-intuitive but studies indicate that in reality these aren’t the things that make us happy.

It doesn’t mean we don’t want to change or improve things in our lives, or indeed have more – but that those things alone are unlikely to increase our happiness and fulfilment, if we’re not happy now.

They may give us a temporary lift but all too soon it becomes the norm and we’re looking for the next thing, when we might be better finding ways to bring more joy, time and experiences into our lives.

Gratitude and appreciation can help us do this by focusing on what we have rather than what we want.

We can train our brains to look for the positive and the good and what we appreciate and are thankful for, and as we seek it out we will find more.

“Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough” ― Oprah Winfrey

Research indicates that one of the best ways to be happier right now, in the only time we know we have, is by practicing gratitude – or appreciation.

But how to do it?

Here are 15 ways to practice the art of appreciation.

Choose those what appeals, try it out, pick and mix:

1. Write a list of 3 or 5 or 10 new things you appreciate – daily or weekly
2. Tell yourself why you appreciate each item on your list
3. Appreciate yourself – at least one day a week make it about you
4. Start with the big things and hone into the detail – you’ll never run out of things to appreciate.
5. Reflect on the minutiae - find gratitude for the mundane
6. Appreciate the people who’ve influenced you in some way
7. Write a letter of gratitude to someone – send it, deliver it or keep it
8. Tell one person a day something you appreciate about them – your spouse, partner, friend, family, colleague
9. Write your list at the same time every day or every week
10. Make your gratitude practice a habit by tying it to another habit like taking a shower
11. Set the timer on your phone or use a productivity app to remind you to appreciate
12. Share what you appreciate about your locality– show a visitor around
13. In annoying situations dilute critical thoughts and irritation by finding some aspect to be grateful for
14. Spend 10 minutes immersed in full on gratitude and appreciation of things around you right where you are – don’t writ, just experience
15. Kick-start your habit with the 'Appreciate to Accumulate' guided gratitude mp3

You’ll find all of this and more in episode 36 of the Changeability Podcast, including:

• 15 ways to build and hone your appreciation habit
• Why you deserve your own appreciation
• How to never run out of things to appreciate
• Finding joy in the mundane
• What Kathryn appreciates about Julian
• A simple tip to help you, your marriage and relationships
• What’s the OOPs Game and how to play it
• How to never get annoyed at another driver again
• Going on a rampage of appreciation
• How to make good use of your time in the supermarket queue
• How to quick-start your gratitude habit
• How to supercharge your appreciation list

• Episode 34 – Is gratitude the best attitude?
• Epsiode 35 – Getting the gratitude habit
• Audio (.mp3) product - Appreciate to Accumulate
• Dr Hyder Zahed, Cultivating an Attitude of Gratitude
• Esther and Jerry Hicks - Ask and it is Given

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to experience the benefits of using your imagination to visualize the future you want.

But how to visualize to get what you want? What’s the best way to do it?

In episode 27 of the Changeability Podcast we take a look at what you can do to get the most out of visualization.

These are the little tricks of the trade of how to visualize for maximum effectiveness – in other words – how to visualize to get what you want.

It’s got a lot to do with rehearsing and making it as real as you can.

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will. – George Bernard Shaw

• The vital link between visualization and rehearsing.
• It’s all about acting – luvvies!
• How Julian’s turning bad
• What Julian’s doing to a song from 'The Pirates of Penzance'
• And other slightly off subject but loosely connected stuff - including how Kathryn and Julian met.
• You’re the actor and director of your own show
• About the power of an emotional punch
• How evocative music is
• What is Julian’s favourite song
• If your subconscious cares about the future

‘Goals are dreams we convert to plans and take action to fulfil.’ Zig Ziglar

As we write this, we’re three weeks into 2016 and so far this year we've been thinking about goals. In episode 74 we looked at why some people don’t like the idea of goals or setting goals and some ways to overcome those objections.

We chatted to Richard Scott in episode 75 about his experiences and insights into goals and how to achieve them.

On last week’s show, in episode 76, we thought about why our brains like having goals.

We’re at the end of a very goal focused week ourselves, having been working on two specific goals of our own simultaneously. One of which is ironically about goals – to finish writing all the scripts for our new goals course. And the other goal is to transfer this website over to a new theme (Thrive themes if you’re interested), so it will look better and be more responsive and therefore more useful. So far so good, though there may still be some glitches to sort out but we’re getting there. We like to set challenging goals that gives us lots of things to do at the same time!

As we’ve got goals on our minds this week we thought it would be good to think about different types of goals, and more specifically about one type of goal which is incredibly popular in personal development and business - the SMART goal.

You can’t go very far in the worlds of business or personal development without coming across SMART goals, so listen to the show to hear our smart guide to SMART goals.

Listen to episode 77 of the Changeability Podcast to find out more including:

• What a SMART goal is
• Why they’re called SMART goals
• How it’s not easy to say smart guide to SMART goals quickly
• A description of what each letter stands for and alternatives used
• Examples of SMART goals
• Why we want you to like our Facebook page
• If we love SMART goals or not
• How to help us meet a SMART goal
• The questions to ask when you’re setting SMART goals

If you want to know more about goals sign up at briliantlivinghq.com/goals and leave your name and we’ll get back to you with more information.

Nobody likes the ‘f’ word. And we’re not talking about that old Anglo-Saxon epletive some people call swearing. No, this is much worse!

This is something that absolutely nobody likes or wants to be familiar with. It’s FAILURE.

No-one wants to fail. In fact we’re programmed to avoid it where possible – or at lest to avoid what getting out of our comfort zone might do to us.

The fear of failure runs deep in all of us.

It lurks buried in our psyche, only to raise it’s head when we want to change something in our lives or business or try something new.

It seems virtually impossible to become an adult and escape picking up a fear of failure along the way.

The fear of failure scuppers invention and enterprise; stops us fulfilling our potential and living our best life – if we let it.

We try to avoid it where we can, either by staying safe, living small within our comfortable familiar world, or by procrastinating over any action that might incur failure.

But if we want to live an examined life – if we want to reflect on our progress towards the life or business we want – then open honest reflection with ourselves is the way to go.

Many resist such honesty – either from within or from others. We don’t seek out the critique that might help us change or be more successful.

We carry on doing the same things we always do, and you know where that leads – nowhere.

“Insanity is doing the same thing, over and over again, but expecting different results.” Narcotics Anonymous

We like the familiar – because our subconscious wants to keep us safe and that means sticking to what we know – even when it’s not serving us well.

And facing up to things not working might make us feel like failures and that we’ve wasted the time and effort we’ve already put into it that thing. It might be years - with a job or business, or a relationships.

We shy away from failure because of what the word means to us – the negative connotations.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all - in which case, you fail by default.”

But what if instead of avoiding the ‘f’ word, we were to embrace it? Make a virtue of it? Change the way we think of it and even the very word itself.

What if you were to look at things not going as well as you’d hoped as simply feedback rather than failure.

So every time you thought about potential failure you saw it as feedback.

What if you were to reclaim the ‘f’ word in a positive context.

No need then to avoid the ‘f’ word.

“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those 10,000 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.” ~ Thomas Edison

You are like a scientist observing an experiment of honest reflection without a failure label.

If we change the way we look at failure to see it as feedback, we don’t need to be afraid of it. In fact we can totally change our whole approach to life and how we do things.

Imagine if you weren’t afraid of failing – what would you do?

In episode 51 of The Changeability Podcast we chat about all this and more including:

• What gets in the way of reflection
• Where our fear of failure comes from
• Why it’s good and bad
• What makes us procrastinate
• When we’ve been afraid of failing
• Avoiding the ‘F’ word
• How to reframe (even though Julian hates that word)
• What a difference a word makes

• Episode 50 - Be accountable
• Episode 13 - Discover your limiting thoughts and beliefs
• Episode 14 - What self-beliefs hold you back
• Episode 15 - Letting go of limiting thoughts and beliefs

If you like the Changeability Podcast please nominate us for a UK Podcasters’ Award at http://ukpodcasters.com/directory/podcast/changeability-podcast-manage-your-mind-change-your-life

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Today’s guest on the Changeability Podcast is Brisbane based, Richard Scott at mynd.works. We asked him onto the show for his valuable insights on the subject of goals, goal-setting and making your goals a reality.

Richard’s work combines Psychology, NLP and CBT with traditional and modern hypnosis to bring the latest techniques in mindset motivation, psychotherapy, and stress management.

Richard's highly successful techniques are world renowned with clients spanning over 30 countries, including celebrities, world champion sports stars, members of royalty, X-factor finalists, government, special forces and everyday people from all walks of life.

We’re sort of guessing, we’re the latter of that list!

On this week’s episode:

• Why Richard is collecting the alphabet!
• Why set goals and indeed should we set goals?
• The value of SMART goals (and the debate over the realistic element of SMART)
• The place of visualization in achieving your goals
• The accountability factor
• The question that Richard’s never been asked before on goals, and his response!
• What are the most popular goals people want to achieve?
• Can you fear ‘success’?
• Taking the emotion out of goal-setting
• Planning for things going wrong when goal-setting
• Techniques for removing negative emotion or emotional trauma
• How trauma in early life can sometimes defeat goal-setting
• About the lady in her 70s who had a trauma when she was two
• The main reasons why people don’t achieve their goals
• The “disillusionment stage” in achieving your goals
• Resilience and goal-setting
• Tracking your progress – and the goal you shouldn’t do this with
• Why giving up some things needs realism in your goal-setting plans
• Soda-pop addiction and more.

“If you slip try harder the next day or try a Plan B, or side step around the challenge, but don’t beat yourself up.” ~ Richard Scott

• Find out more about Richard Scott at mynd.works and receive a stress buster .mp3 plus details of a free 25 minute ‘rapid change’ consultation.
• Richard on twitter @myndworks_intl

If you want to achieve your goals, it starts with setting goals that work.

Find out about our new course on how to set goals for success in life and business at BrilliantLivingHQ.com/goals

We look forward to hearing from you and are excited to see what's going to happen for you and all of us this year. Let us know your plans in the comments below.