Weekly 3

Knowing a concept is different from having it available when you need it.

You can understand that thoughts create feelings and still forget that the moment something upsetting happens.

That is why repetition matters.

I have spent decades listening to coaching, success books, business ideas, and teachers applying their material. While other people memorized song lyrics, I was memorizing tools I could use in my life.

I think that subtle difference has had an enormous effect on what I have created.

In the third part of The Weekly series, I explained how to build that repeated exposure into your life and how to move beyond the indecision that keeps you from applying what you learn.

Practice until the ideas become familiar

The Model is the foundation of my work.

Circumstances are neutral. Thoughts create feelings. Feelings drive actions. Actions create results.

Learning that intellectually is a beginning. Watching it applied repeatedly and using it yourself makes it more available.

As I worked with clients, other tools and concepts emerged from the Model. Some are useful before you feel you have mastered the whole process.

The aim remains the same: reduce unnecessary suffering.

I want you to hear the tools, see how they work, and test them in your own life.

Give yourself fifty-two hours

There are fifty-two weeks in a year.

I suggest committing at least an hour each week to listening to coaching and seeing tools applied.

Make a simple checklist with fifty-two boxes or a numbered list from one to fifty-two. Check one off after each session.

It does not need to be complicated.

I recommend spreading those hours through the year rather than consuming all fifty-two at once.

You live your life between sessions. Old thinking and negativity come up. Then the next session gives you another opportunity to reset, see the pattern, and practice.

That was the weekly rhythm I wanted to create with the program described in this series.

Learning, seeing, and doing

My teachers offered more than audiobooks.

I learned ideas through the books, then listened to recorded seminars where they worked with people.

I heard Tony Robbins, Marianne Williamson, Byron Katie, Esther Hicks, and Jack Canfield apply their material in different situations.

Then I did the exercises and homework and used the concepts in my own life.

The issue being discussed did not always resemble my circumstances. But seeing the tool used still taught me how it worked.

Repeated exposure helped me become better at applying it to myself.

A mental board of directors

In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill offered the idea of a mental board of directors.

I created one with mentors whose work I had studied.

I had heard them teach and coach so often that I could imagine how they would respond to a question.

I could present an idea to this board in my mind and consider different perspectives drawn from what I had learned.

It was a way of accessing their wisdom through my familiarity with their work.

All those layers became what I call a stack: ideas learned, applied, interpreted, and built upon. That foundation supported creating my own material.

You do not outgrow the reset

One of my students, Corinne, immersed herself in coaching and teaching.

She listened repeatedly, studied other teachers, applied the tools, built a successful business, and began teaching her own work.

She still understood the value of listening to coaching.

Knowing the concepts did not make repetition unnecessary.

That is what I want you to consider if your response is that you have already heard the podcast or know my ideas.

The point is not only being able to explain a tool. It is recognizing your thoughts, feelings, and actions as they happen and remembering how to work with them.

Try a tool before dismissing it

Some tools may resonate more than others.

I encourage you to expose yourself to them and apply them at least once before deciding they are not useful.

Sometimes an idea creates an immediate epiphany. That happened for me when I learned that thoughts create feelings.

Other times, the understanding develops gradually.

You hear the concept, see it applied to someone else, get curious, and try it. The moment of insight may come when you experience its effect.

You do not have to keep every tool. Try it, see whether it helps, and decide.

Dismissing it before you use it can block an experience you might otherwise have learned from.

Notice the miserable maybe

Curiosity from an open, interested place of not knowing is useful.

But I also see people use not knowing to block their wisdom, and maybe to block action.

They stay between yes and no. Maybe they could do it. Maybe it would work. Maybe they are capable.

No decision means they never find out.

I call this the miserable maybe.

When you notice yourself there, explore both answers.

What is your reason for saying no? Do you like it? Is it a reason you want to live by?

If it is, choose no and move on.

Then explore yes. Why would you choose it? Do you like that reason?

Both answers are valid. The aim is to make a deliberate choice rather than remain suspended.

Give yourself a time limit

Set a deadline for the decision.

By the end of the day, for example, choose yes or no.

You do not need to keep circling while waiting for a choice that removes all uncertainty.

I teach that you can make your decision the right one for you rather than assume there is a single right answer you must uncover.

Then use your energy to live the decision instead of repeatedly reconsidering whether to make it.

Consider the opportunity you could miss

Your brain readily imagines what might go wrong if you choose something.

Consider the other possibility, too: what if it could be wonderful and you never try?

When deciding whether to marry, you might fear a divorce. But you might also miss a beautiful marriage and life together by never deciding.

Explore both what could happen if you act and what you could miss if you do not.

Repeated practice helps you become more aware of these patterns. You can notice the maybe, consider your reasons, make a decision, and apply what you have learned.

Give the tools room in your life. Let familiarity become practice, and let practice become something you can use.