Authentic Living Coaching

Do you struggle to stay on track with your goals?
Do you begin well then find you lose motivation or feel like you are failing?
Today’s tools will help you to stay on track and feel better about yourself while you’re achieving your goals.

Welcome to Authentic Living Coaching, The Podcast,
I’m your hostess, Linda Codlin

I am a certified life coach, and the founder of Authentic Living Coaching.
I am passionate about helping you to help yourself.
It is my intention that each and every one of us has the
information we need to make the best decisions about the way
we choose to live our lives.
Living life on your terms, and being your authentic self.

Hello My Friends
Welcome to Episode # 23.

Do you indulge in either or thinking?
You are either on your diet or you’re off it.
You are either scrimping and saving or you’re spending with abandon.
You are either exercising or you are not.

The either or way of living is like a pendulum, you are way over to the left, or you are way over to the right.
This is a very tiring way to live.
The thing that makes you tired is the way you think about yourself.
When you are on the wagon, which often means you are doing as you think you are supposed to, you are kinder to yourself. Your self talk is a bit gentler.
Maybe you are just waiting for yourself to fall off the wagon, again.
When you are off the wagon, you jump off completely, you give up on the idea of ever reaching your goal, you speak to yourself in unmentionably mean ways.
After a few times of jumping off the wagon, climbing back on, and falling off again, you begin to feel disheartened and begin to tell yourself, things like…
I’ll never lose this extra weight.
I’ll never save the deposit for a family home.
I’ll always be disorganized.
I’m not worthy of having nice things, I’m not good enough to look good all the time.

When you are speaking to yourself like this, notice how you feel.
Do you feel good about yourself? Do you feel motivated to pick yourself up and go again?
Whenever I speak to myself in this manner, I lose heart, I lose motivation and give up.

Either or thinking will keep you exactly where you are.
Nothing is changing, because you are thinking the same thoughts.
What if you tried on the thought, This is exactly as it is supposed to be, I am learning, sometimes things work out and sometimes I need to grow.

To help you overcome this tendency towards all or nothing thinking, I want to offer you the use of the amazing AND.
Also I want you think about your goal as a process, you gain mastery of the process as you practice it. Sometimes your practice is on target and sometimes it’s not.
The thing is there is no wagon, it is all practice.
The amazing AND is the bridge between either, or. All or nothing.
I can be on my diet, AND I can eat well, AND when I slip I can do a U Turn, without all the mind drama and name calling.
I can save for my goal, AND have money to spend in my budget. Should I break my budget, I can do a U Turn before my finances get away from me, AND feel good about myself for seeing my tendencies.

The amazing AND allows you to be human, to make mistakes and pick yourself up, dust yourself off AND keep moving forward.
The more often you fall over, pick yourself up, AND give yourself grace to be human, to learn a new way of eating, to stick to a new way of viewing money, or whatever your goal is, the easier it is to love yourself into the goal you want to achieve.
It does not work trying to beat yourself up, to become slender, to become a savvy financial woman.
Self reproach is self defeating. Give it up and give yourself grace to be.
Thinking, I may slip from my goal, AND I can pick myself up again easily.
Will get you to your goal faster, you begin to love yourself a little more, you begin to see progress on your goals because you are doing U Turns often.
A U Turn is where you decide to stop the action, or non action you find yourself in, that isn’t helping you to reach your goal. AND you do a Turn around to the action and thoughts that will support you achieving your goal.
You can do a U Turn every time you become aware you have strayed from your plan. Without guilt or shame or any other emotion, knowing that this is normal.
You are just course correcting and learning new skills.
As time passes and you consistently U Turn everytime you notice you have strayed from your goal, you will find you stray less often. That the U Turn action becomes your new normal action with a helpful and supportive attached thought.

Today’s challenge is to pick one area you find you stumble often in trying to reach your goal. Add an AND to it, then do a U Turn to match your AND.