You are listening to The Life Coach School Podcast with Brooke Castillo, episode number 16.
Welcome to The Life Coach School Podcast, where it's all about real clients, real problems, and real coaching. And now, your host, Master Coach Instructor, Brooke Castillo.
Hey everybody, how are you guys? How's everybody doing? Is your summer going amazingly well?
I hope so. I am so stoked. I just released my new product, How to Solve Any Problem.
And you can check it out if you want. It's at thelifecoachschool.com/how to solve any problem, one word. And I'm just so proud of this product.
I think it's amazing. And what's so interesting about it is I'm using it all the time in my own life. And I love it when I create something that I can use.
I feel that way about the life coaching model that I use all the time. I love myself for creating that for myself, and I feel the same way about how to solve any problem. So check it out there.
I'm going to be doing a whole episode on it coming up. But in the meantime, I have a video there on that page. You can check out lifecoachschool.com/how to solve any problem.
Oh, right. So let's get to today. Today, we're going to talk about massive action.
And this is one of those topics that I am right in the middle of doing. So it's perfectly time for me to talk to you about it. first, let me kind of define the difference between massive action and passive action.
A lot of us get caught, especially when we become life coaches and become familiar with the terminology of cognitive work and emotional work. We can get locked into that and forget about the action piece. Now, we get clients that come to us that are taking all these action, and they're not getting anywhere because they haven't figured out the cognitive and the emotional piece.
So that's really important. Once you understand that your thoughts create your feelings and your feelings drive your action, then it's time to really commit to taking action, to really commit to on-going action. And that's what I call massive action.
The definition that I use for massive action is taking action until you get the result you want. So when someone says to me, I'm taking massive action on this, and it's usually, you know, my life coaching students or my weight coaching students that are building their business, and they'll come to me and they'll say, I've taken massive action. And I said, well, you haven't taken massive action because you aren't still taking action until you get the result you want.
And I understand that that can be very frustrating to take action, not get the result you want, take action, not get the result you want, take action, not get the result you want. There's always a reason, always an excuse to stop taking action. In fact, it's so much easier to quit than it is to keep going.
And massive action is a commitment to keeping taking action until you get the result you want. One of the examples I like to use is going to the grocery store. Can you take massive action to go to the grocery store?
Yes, because what happens is you get in your car and you start driving to the grocery store. Now, if you hit a red light and you have to stop, you do not panic. You recognize that red lights are part of the deal.
And in fact, before you even get in the car, you anticipate that you're probably going to have to hit some red lights. You're going to have to stop. You're going to have to break.
Now, is that enjoyable? Is that something you want to have to do? Of course not.
But you know it's part of the process. And you keep going and you keep hitting red lights and you keep stopping. And then you go again and then you hit another red light and then you go again.
And you don't make it mean that you're a failure or that it's taking too long. You don't mean any of that. Some of you may even hit traffic on your way to the grocery store, depending on where you live and how far away that grocery store is.
You do not use that as a reason to stop taking action. And in fact, you're willing to take all the action you need to take in order to get to the grocery store. That is what we want you to do when it comes to your goals.
When you set a goal and you commit to a certain result, you are going to hit obstacles. You are going to hit many, many red lights along the way. Most of us turn around after the first red light.
Oh my gosh, I had to stop. There's other cars. It's red.
I'm just sitting here. I'm not getting any results. I don't have anything from the grocery store yet.
I've driven all this way, and here I am. Forget it. I'm not doing this anymore.
Literally, that's what we do when it comes to our goals. We hit one obstacle, and we throw our hands in the air, and we say, this isn't working. I'm out of here.
Now, when it comes to going to the grocery store, we have some experience knowing that we can do it. The first time we try something, we aren't anticipating the obstacles. We don't know what they're going to be.
So when they come, we make them mean something that makes us quit. So massive action for anything that you do in your life is the process of anticipating those obstacles and being willing to fail and fail and fail and stop and regroup and do it wrong and try again and hit an obstacle and get a result you didn't expect and try again. That is massive action.
And let me tell you something. It is very, very rare. Most of us take action once, and then we give up.
We try a diet. We try a food plan. We try thought work.
We try to do a cartwheel. We try yoga. We try everything once, right?
And it doesn't work out the way we wanted it to. It doesn't give us an instant result. And so we quit, right?
That is just taking action. What I'm inviting you to do is to take massive action. I'm inviting you to keep taking action until you get that result you want.
Let me tell you my experience recently with massive action. I am currently working on a project with some other students that are in my school. And it's the first time I've done this project.
So I've told them, hey, this is the first time I've done this. You guys are lucky because you're going to get a lot of experience and a lot of me and a lot of time with me as I figured this out. So I've been working very close.
I've probably put in about 40 hours worth of work. I mean, then that's really focused, consistent work working with them. And we did some work together and we did not get the first anticipated result.
And in fact, it wasn't even close the first time. And I was devastated. What the heck is going on?
Why aren't we getting the results I want? And it made me think about y'all. It made me think about how, you know, brand new coaches trying something could run up against something, work so hard for something and not even get close to the result they want.
I could see how easily you would want to quit and say, okay, I'm not even going to try that again. So, but because I'm very experienced with going to the grocery store when it comes to this work, we tried again, we changed everything up, we reworked it, we practiced, we did it again. Still, not the result I wanted.
Oh, that was round two, still didn't get the result we wanted. So I'm thinking, ah, throw my hands in the air. What's an easy way to just make this go away?
And one of the things that's really important to me is to focus on helping my students in a way where I can work with what they've got instead of working with what I've got. So when it comes to business, I'm a lot further down the road. I have access to a lot of different things that other people don't have.
And it's very easy for me to utilize those things and help my students get the results they want. But I don't want to do that because I want them to be able to see the results that are possible for them. So that's why we've been trying all these different things.
Now, one of the things that I told myself was, okay, I still have to get the result that I want. I'm still focused on it. I'm still committed.
And once I think about the future, I stop focusing on the red lights that I've already hit and I start focusing on the future, my brain goes to work. It knows that these two things didn't work. We're going to have to come up with something different.
And I give it time to come up with that answer. If I'm inclined to do research, if I'm inclined to talk to people, if I'm inclined to get different ideas or take a training or whatever, I do that, I follow that intuition, but I still keep my eye on the ball. So I'm actually right in the middle of this process, and I feel so excited about it.
I feel like I'm getting the feedback that I need in order to make it even better. And I really am excited about some of the pitfalls we've run into, some of the obstacles, because I can see myself working with my certified coaches and sharing these experiences with them and letting them know, hey, these are the things that we ran into. This is normal part of achieving any kind of goal.
So understanding that massive action is you keep moving, you keep swimming, you keep going until you get the result you want, will really help you get your mind straight. So massive action, you keep approaching it from different angles, from different ways. Sometimes you have to regroup, go right back to the drawing board and try again.
But if that result is important enough to you, you have to find your way to tap in to that positive emotion, that excitement, that commitment you have to massive action, and then take the action required in order to get it done. Even if the action doesn't look anything like you thought it would, you might have to completely change it up. That's a beautiful thing, and it's worth it.
And I think it's one of those things that you can do for yourself that teaches you that you will honor your commitment to yourself. Now, here's the other distinction that's really important when it comes to massive action. There is massive action, and then there is passive action.
So many of us get these two confused. And I just recently have been exploring this concept in my mind and understanding the difference, and I think I have a better way of explaining it now. So I want to share it with you.
first of all, passive action does not get you the results you want. It doesn't get you closer to the results you want. Passive action has to do with consumption, and massive action has to do with creating.
And so when you're taking action, you need to ask yourself, am I creating or am I consuming? Here's what I mean. I can read books on a topic.
I can take classes on a topic. I can talk to someone about a topic. I mean, literally, I could read four days on a topic and search the Internet on a topic, and then go to four more classes on the topic.
That feels like action to me. I feel like I'm moving. I feel like I'm taking steps.
But all I'm doing is consuming in those situations. Even though it's active, it's consuming. I'm not in the process of creating.
So passive action is kind of another word I use for it is like intellectual action. You're thinking about doing something. You're writing down ideas about doing something.
You're talking to other people about doing something. You're not actually doing something. And that's really important to know the difference, right?
Because when you're taking massive action, you're creating. So when you look at your action and you think, okay, here's a goal that I have. How much action have I really taken?
We have a program. Susan Hyatt and I have a program called The Weight School. And we have so many amazing students come through that school, and they learn all about the concepts.
They learn all about the different kinds of eatings and the hunger scale, and how our thoughts create our feelings, and how our actions are determined by how we feel. They understand it inside out and backwards. They tell us, we've been taking so much action, we've been reading and listening to everything, and we've been to it.
And I say, okay, well, how much have you been applying what we've taught you? Have you been eating two to two? Have you been keeping a food journal?
Have you been doing and creating in your life the results that you want based on what we've taught you? Are you taking massive action or are you taking passive action? And what's so fascinating is most of us don't even realize that we're just taking passive action.
We think that the reading and the studying and the understanding is the action. It's not. It's not the action.
Thinking about eating less is not eating less. Learning how to eat less is not eating less. Thinking about working out, planning your workouts is not working out.
And that's the difference between passive and massive action. So think about a goal you have right now. Think about how much massive action you have taken towards achieving it.
And here's a great way to know if you've been taking massive action, you've probably fallen on your face more than once. You've probably fallen on your face five, six, seven, eight, nine times. Because massive action is what pushes you up against your obstacles.
Passive action doesn't require any failure, because all you're doing is thinking about what's possible. You're not creating what is possible. Huge, huge distinction.
Now, I know this for myself. I am a huge consumer of materials. I love passive action.
I love reading. I love taking classes. I love getting coached.
I love talking to people. I love all of it. I will never give it up.
But I need to balance that out with my massive action, because I can hide in passive action all day. And that's another really important distinction. If you feel like you are hiding in any way, but you are still taking action, that's passive action.
Massive action requires you to fall on your face, usually in front of a lot of other people. So I want to encourage you to take massive action and fall on your face in front of other people, because that's how you get the results you want. You can't just think about getting them.
So it is much easier to consume information, to learn information, to read information, than it is to take action. And I, for one, prefer to consume than to create, because creating is very scary. But I also prefer to create, because it's the only thing that gets me the results that really excite me.
I love creating results in my life. I don't necessarily love the process of creating results. I don't like the part where I fall on my face a lot of times in front of other people, but I love the end result.
And the journey creates so many things for me. It helps me evolve. It helps me learn that I can overcome anything.
It helps me manage my emotional life. It brings me up against myself. It shows me where I still need growth.
I just recently, it was actually just yesterday, something had happened in my business. Someone made a huge mistake, and I found myself wanting to scream and yell and lose my mind. And I noticed that that desire to do that had nothing to do with creating a good solution.
It wasn't going to help me take massive action towards my result. It was just me spinning out, right? It was the opposite of taking action.
It was not utilizing that energy towards something positive and something creative. It was just turning it against myself, onto myself. And, you know, it's hard to recognize that in the moment, but I was able to recognize it shortly after and turn it around and start thinking about the solution instead of the problem and using all that energy, all of that emotion towards something much more powerful.
Towards something much more creative and useful in my life. And that was so exciting for me. And so I like to think about, you know, resistance and railing against myself as all, you know, internal action that doesn't serve me.
I need to pay attention to that and not react to it. And then take action that's not reactive. Take action in a way that serves me and the people around me.
So I want to end this with just talking about the gift of taking massive action. I think massive action is the thing that's going to introduce you to yourself. Whenever I'm dealing with weight loss clients, I say, hey, if you stick with that food journal for 30 days, you will meet yourself.
Hello, there you will be. If you commit to eating two to two on a hunger scale, you will meet yourself in all those moments you want to eat when you're not hungry. If you want to build a business and you commit to taking massive action, you are going to go through it, sister, brother.
You're going to go through it. You are going to fail, and that's part of the process. You're going to do it wrong.
You're going to send an email out where that link's not working. You're going to send an email that no one responds to. You're going to offer a product that nobody buys, and you're going to use that as a reason to quit, or you're going to use it as a reason to make that product better, to get more customers, to show up even more.
And that invitation is always available to us, right? The invitation to quit and the invitation to step into ourselves, to fail and fail. How many times are you willing to fail to get the results you want?
Because if you're willing to fail as many times as it takes, then you're willing to take massive action. And so few people are willing to do that. That's why most people don't get the results they want.
So if I was going to sell you on something, it would be you. You have what it takes to fail as many times. There is no emotion that you can't experience, right?
Whatever desire you have to quit is because you want out of that emotion that you're experiencing. If you failed at something, let's say you've launched a product that not one person bought, right? This has happened to many of my students.
You launch a product, you've put your heart and soul into it, you try and sell it, nobody buys it, right? That feeling that comes up for you, that feeling of discouragement, that feeling of shame, that feeling of fear, of disappointment, whatever it is that comes up for you, that's what you want to escape when you try and quit. But if you're willing to feel those emotions, if you invite them in, if you say, bring it on, I'm willing to go through these emotions and I'm willing to create again, then you will.
And you know that the worst that can happen is another emotion, and there is no emotion that you can't handle, right? Humiliation and terror, I think those are the worst two. You can experience them, and if you're willing to experience them, there is no amount of action that can discourage you.
There's no amount of mistakes that can discourage you. You'll find another way. You won't give up.
You'll take the action that's required to get the result you want. That's why it's such a gift. Your willingness to take massive action, to recognize the difference between passive and massive action, recognize when you're hiding versus when you're resting.
Like people will say to me, massive action just sounds exhausting. I'm tired already. And I'll say, but it's also exhausting to hide.
I've talked about this before on this podcast. Think about hiding from someone that you're scared of, right? And they're coming to find you, and they will get you, and they're going to find you, right?
That's exhausting. You're like tense. You're like hiding.
You're like, oh my God, I hope they don't see me, right? That's its own kind of exhaustion. Not showing up and getting the results you want is its own level of exhaustion.
Passive action, hiding, using passive action to hide is its own layer of exhaustion. But if you're willing to be exhausted in a way that gets you closer to your goal, yes, it's exhausting to try and fail, to try and fail. I'm not saying it's not, but I'm just saying at least that type of action is getting you closer, closer to the result you want, not just spinning you around in circles and circles and circles.
So here's what I want to invite you to do today. I want to invite you to find a goal that means something to you, and be willing to commit to massive action for 30 days. I will do this for the next 30 days.
If you're a coach, write a blog post every day for 30 days. If you're trying to lose weight, write down everything you've eaten, everything you've eaten every day for 30 days to open up your mind to curiosity and compassion. Pay attention to your thoughts.
If you're just learning this work and you just started following me and you want to learn more about what's going on in your mind, commit to writing down your thoughts every day for 30 days. Take the massive action. Will you miss a day?
Probably. Will you fail? Probably.
Will you want to use that as a reason to give up? Probably. But the difference between whether you get that end result that you're looking for or not is if you try again.
Will you try it again? Will you show up for yourself again? Will you fail 100 times and pick it up again at 101?
That's going to be the difference whether you get the result you want. Make excuses and quit and go back to passive action and hiding, or be willing to do it again and again and again until you get the result you want. Massive action is the secret sauce to whatever you want in your life.
You keep taking action until you get the result you want. Please come to the comments, thelifecoachschool.com/16, and tell me what you're committed over the next 30 days to taking action on. I am totally all in with my students taking action on building their businesses and trying as many things as I can until they get the results they want.
That's what I'm willing to do over the next 90 days. What are you committed to doing for the next 30? Share it with me in the comments underneath the show notes.
It's been my pleasure to talk to you guys today, and I will talk to you next week. Massive action, everybody. Peace.
Thank you for listening to The Life Coach School Podcast. It would be incredibly awesome if you would take a moment to write a quick review on iTunes. For any questions, comments, or coaching issues you would like to hear on the show, please visit us at www.thelifecoachschool.com.
