Awesome Scholars Coaching with Brooke

You can know the concepts and still miss what your brain is doing in the moment.

You call yourself stuck while taking steps forward. You call it evaluating risk while asking why you aren’t good enough. You call it planning while making belief in your goal depend on the first strategy working.

Coaching gives us a way to see those patterns.

Episode 369 brought together excerpts from my coaching in Self-Coaching Scholars. Across the different subjects, the work returned to the same place: noticing your thoughts and deliberately directing your mind toward the life you want.

Clear your mind instead of rearranging the clutter

Clutter isn’t only about the belongings in your home. It can show up in your mind, body, and life.

If you don’t understand why it accumulates, cleaning the surface may be temporary. You can create the same mess again.

A thought download lets you begin with the mind. Write down the thoughts you are having: positive, negative, tasks, worries, and reminders.

Think of emptying a closet completely instead of leaving items tucked into corners. Once everything is visible, you can decide what belongs back inside.

You can choose thoughts that are useful and purposeful. You don’t need to keep every sentence simply because it was already there.

Thoughts create feelings, which drive actions and results. Choosing them consciously changes the way you create your life.

Let the calendar hold what your brain keeps carrying

A lot of mental clutter comes from trying to remember everything you need to do.

In Monday Hour One, you get the tasks out of your brain and onto a calendar. You assign time rather than keeping an endless list circulating in your mind.

Once something has a place on the calendar, you can stop holding it so you won’t forget.

That frees space for creativity and new thinking. You can focus on what you want to create instead of continually rehearsing everything that needs attention.

Stop adding unhappiness about being unhappy

Life includes joy and pain. When you decide that being unhappy means something has gone wrong, you add another layer of suffering.

You can be content with knowing that the emotional balance is part of your life. You can show up for all of it rather than reject the half you don’t prefer.

That expands the experiences you are willing to have.

Ask what happiness seems to promise you. Is permanent happiness what you want, or do you want a fuller life that includes challenge and growth?

Ask questions that direct you toward the opportunity

When you want a job, asking where your doubt comes from can keep you studying doubt.

Try asking why you are a great person for the job, how you will pursue it, and what makes the opportunity exciting.

You may think you are protecting yourself by being disappointed ahead of time. But being excited isn’t a mistake, even if you don’t get the job.

You can enjoy the possibility, show up fully, and move to the next opportunity if this one doesn’t work.

The experience of participating matters. You don’t need to remove anticipation to prepare for an uncertain outcome.

Set a measured goal and expect the obstacles

When I think about goals, I ask what is working, what isn’t working, and what I want.

Look at what isn’t working as information, rather than evidence to use against yourself.

Choose a specific, measurable result. You should be able to tell whether it happened by looking at the result, rather than needing a long explanation.

In the coaching, I asked people to choose something they could accomplish in 31 days that would change the rest of their year.

Then expect your brain to resist. It will tell you it is too hard, you won’t feel like doing it, or you won’t have the discipline.

Don’t immediately reduce the goal so you can feel better. Don’t ignore those thoughts, either. Write them down.

Each anticipated obstacle is an opportunity to make a plan. When you know what might get in the way and already have an answer, you become stronger in pursuing the goal.

Recognize the movement you are already making

You may think you are stuck because progress isn’t as fast as you want. Look at the actual steps you are taking.

If you are moving toward the goal, talk about that movement. Describe where you are going and what you are doing.

Your brain may pull you toward the past and what went wrong before. Redirect it toward the future.

This is thought discipline: focusing on what you need to believe so you can feel the emotion, take the action, and create the result.

Big goals can help because they give your attention somewhere compelling to go. Keep bringing your mind back to the game plan.

Give worry a different job

You don’t have to make worry the full-time job of your brain and then spend your life reacting to it.

Decide what you want to focus on. Let worry be present without making it the center of your work.

I have described doing this with my own anxiety. I notice it, allow it, and channel energy into work rather than only studying the worry.

What could you create? What value could you offer? Give your mental energy a direction.

Believe in the goal without leaning on the first how

If you believe only after calculating a strategy that looks certain, your belief is leaning on the strategy.

When that attempt fails, doubt rushes back. You lose energy and may quit.

You can practice believing in the result before knowing every step. Then each strategy becomes an attempt rather than the entire foundation of your belief.

One doesn’t work, so you try another while remaining committed to the goal.

Be creative about what needs to change in your business or life. Don’t insist the current approach is the only possible one.

And celebrate what you have already done. Take time to acknowledge yourself before racing to the next result.

You can pursue more while loving yourself along the way. Direct your mind toward the future, and let the work create a stronger relationship with you.