Episode 13 Transcript | Coach Kendra

EPISODE 13

TRANSCRIPT

Hey guys, welcome to A Lifelong Habit of Exercise. I'm Coach Kendra, and this is episode 13. Today we are going to be talking about things getting easier. Do things get easier? My answer to you is no, things do not get easier, but what does happen as we get better at doing things, we get better at the things. They don't get easier, we just get better at them.

And I think the most visible, the most tangible thing that we can wrap our heads around very easily, because we see it is physically. When we exercise when we work out, we physically gain strength. We physically gain endurance. We get stronger, and that may be strength and endurance. And that may be strength as far as physical body muscle getting stronger. And that's easier for us to see, that's easier for us to see the progress, but that is the thing that we get stronger when it comes to exercise. Today I was working out and today there was an exercise that I did, it was something that I've never even seen before. It's something on my workout that I've definitely never done before, and I haven't had an experience doing it. And when I do my workouts at home, I just recently got a new app, and it gives me my workouts for me. And so I am looking at this app, I'm looking at this exercise, and when I was ready to do that exercise, I press the play button, because it shows you a little short video of what it is that the exercise is. And so I was watching it. And like I said, I've never seen it before, but it didn't look easy at all.

And it moreso looked very hard and very challenging. And I thought immediately that it was going to be very difficult, and I was terrified. And so I did it, and it was extremely difficult for me to do it was definitely different. It was definitely harder and yeah, so it was just not pleasant. But it was definitely hard, and it was something that I hadn't done before. So I moved on and continued my exercises and continued to do different reps and different things with different exercises. And I came back and when it was time to come back to that exercise in particular, I prepared myself better, obviously, I had a chance to do at one time. Whereas the first time all I had done was see somebody else do it, which doesn't necessarily apply directly to me doing it, it doesn't transfer over just by seeing it. So I had to do it one time, and when I did it the second time, it seemed easier. And that caught me a little bit funny because it made me start thinking about do things actually get easier. And in reality, I caught myself thinking about it and I had changed my thoughts about it because I had prepared myself a little bit better. I knew what to expect. And so my thoughts about the exercise changed. I felt more capable of doing it, because I had done it once before. So I don't think things get easier. But I definitely think what happens is we get better, just like in that situation. What happened was my thoughts changed. And, like I said, an exercising a lot of times like as you get stronger physically as your muscles grow, as you get more endurance, as all of that happens, what happens is we can actually see that progress, we can see that at one point, we were able to lift 10s. And then next time, maybe we're able to lift 12 and a half or next time maybe we're able to lift 15, we're able to increase because we are getting stronger. So what happens as a life coach and as a mental performance coach, I work with people and what we do with you guys listening to this and what I do with my clients that I work with one on one, and that I work with, we do that mental strengthening. We strengthen the mind and we hope that gets stronger so that we can get better mentally. I do this with myself. We all do this and this is what I help teach and this is what I coach is it is a causal coaching which means we work on the thoughts that then cause the emotions that cause our actions and as to do things and I've talked about that before. And what we do is get stronger. We get stronger at being able to manage our mind we get stronger at being able to find those thoughts that serve us so that we can get the results that we want. We get stronger and that mind management. Things don't become easier the struggles that we have in life, the things that we consider problems and struggles and all of those things, those don't become easier, we just become better at them.

Building a lifelong habit of exercise, the exercise doesn't necessarily become easier, we just become better at it, because we're able to manage our minds around it. Because we're able to have those tools in place to manage our mind in the way that we need to to get the results that we want. So it was really interesting today when I was exercising, and I caught myself doing that. And I caught myself this exercise that, yeah, my sore right now after it absolutely. But I caught myself the second and the third sets of it weren't nearly as terrifying to me. And obviously, if something's terrifying, it's going to be harder to me, it was harder, it didn't get any easier. It was the same exercise the entire time, it was the same weight that I used, it was the same number of reps that I did. The only thing it actually should have gotten harder, because I should have been more tired, or it should have been whatever. But it got easier, because I got better at it. Because my thoughts got better towards it, it got easier, because I became better at it. But it actually didn't get easier. Nothing changed about the actual exercise.

When we do things in life. When we do those type of things. Those things don't necessarily get easier. The things that we go through right now. They don't get easier, we just become better at it. We become better at the way that we handle it, we become better at the way that we manage our mind about it, we become better at the way that we think about it. Because now we know we're capable of going through it because we've gotten through it before. Or we've gone through a similar situation so that we know we're capable of it.

I also like to think about like my daughter, I always talk to you guys about my two year old and I like to think about it, because I was sitting here and I was thinking about how when she writes her alphabet, I was thinking about me personally like what's easy. Oh, well, writing my name is easy, and of course, I'm coming up with these things just to counter it to see like, well, writing your name is easy, right? But at one point, it wasn't for us. I watched my daughter trying to trace the alphabet, and learning how to write those letters, and she is struggling, like it is frustrating for her. Sometimes it is hard for her. So it's not like it became easier. We just became better at it, I became better at being able to write the alphabet, I became better at writing right? With practice, and with repetition. And as that happened, my thoughts about it changed. I don't think twice about writing my name now. I don't think twice about writing things, but at one point, we all struggled with that. And so there are certain things that maybe it seems easy to begin with, but a lot of things it's, we first had to learn the skills somewhere else, or we learned something and maybe we applied it to something else, and maybe that's why it's seems easy at that time. But we really just got better at those skills, we got better at the things that make up doing whatever it is that is now easy to us.

And again, that's with practice that's with repetition, things don't get easier. They're the same things, we just get better at them. And that is so refreshing to know that is so encouraging to know, because I think about some of the things in my life right now that are hard. And I look around and I'm like, "Man, that's hard." And a lot of times those things, a lot of times what we want to do is our me, I don't know about you, but a lot of times what I want to do with things that are hard is you want to avoid them. I want to avoid them. Things that are hard. I'm kind of like, "Oh, man", but what if we lean into them? What if we lean into the hard things? And understand that the more we do it, the more we change our thoughts about the more we manage our minds around them. The more we are able to lean into it, and commit to continuing to do it or commit to not avoiding it. The more that we do those things, does it become easier or do we just become better at it? We become better at it. It still is the same thing, but all of a sudden we lean into it. We lean into it and our thoughts start to change about it. Whereas before we were avoiding it like like I said some of the hard things for me like I want to avoid them like oh, that's gonna with exercise. I'm going to be sore after that workout. I know that that's going to be hard. And so we want to avoid it but what if we lean into it?

I think about when my exercise used to be inconsistent, and I was stuck in that cycle of inconsistency and how much when I would want to when I'd be beating myself up about it. But then I'd want to avoid it because I knew it was going to be hard because I knew it was going to be uncomfortable, because I knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant. And there were so many other things that I could be doing. Whereas now I'm like, it's second nature for me to get my workout done. Even on the days that I look at my exercises, and I'm like, "okay, like, that's not gonna be fun." Like I said, Today, all of a sudden, "I don't know what that is. But okay, like, I'm terrified to do it, but it's not going to stop me from doing my workout." Like now, it's like, actually doing my workout actually getting started. I've gotten better at that. The getting started, I've gotten better at the continuing on, I've gotten better at it didn't get easier, it was still the same thing, I got better at managing my mind around it, I got better at really managing my mind around getting started using the tools that I know, to get me going and to keep me going day after day. That's what I've gotten better at with it. It hasn't gotten easier. My brain is still a human brain. I've gotten better at that, where it's become second nature for me to get going for me to do it. As soon as it comes on my calendar. Now I just get up, stop what I'm doing, I look forward to it. I'm excited for it, stop what I'm doing and get going and do my exercise. But that wasn't because it became easier it was because I became better at managing my mind around it. I became better at using the tools that I have the tools that I have to give to all of you guys. Because I want all of you guys, I want all of us to be really, really good at managing our minds to get the things that we want. If you want A Lifelong Habit of Exercise, I have the tools for you, I have the tools for you to get better at that to get better at managing your mind. So that you never stop exercising again. The more we are able to practice managing our mind, whether it be in a specific situation, or whether that skill can be then learned and applied to another situation, the more we practice that, the better we become at doing it, the better we become at all of those things. The easier they seem, but they don't become easier, we just become better at it. I can't say that enough.

I want you guys to take a moment. And this exercise that I'm going to have you do just right here right now is going to be something that some of you may be able to do a little bit easier, and some of you guys, it may be a little bit harder, just remembering because I want you to remember something in the past and your past that you consider or considered at one point to be hard. What is something that you in your past, once thought was hard? And I want you to think back to that time when it was hard for you. And I want you to try to remember what your thoughts about that thing were, it could have been you doing something it could have been cleaning, it could have been playing a sport, it could have been learning a new skill, learning how to cook learning how to play the piano, it could be anything. What was something that at one point you thought was hard? And what were your thoughts? What were your thoughts at the time about that thing? And then I want you to kind of go through in your mind a little bit the journey of you getting better at it? And what your thoughts along the way were. It would be fun to sometimes, at some point to really write this stuff down. Write down what were your thoughts when it was hard, and it was a struggle and things were really tough. When that thing was really hard, what were your thoughts about it? And as you progressed, what were your thoughts about it as you got better at it, what were your thoughts about it? Now, do you consider that thing easy? Is that something that now if you did it, it just seems easy? And write down your thoughts about it now. So thoughts about it when it used to be hard when you used to think it was hard. What were your thoughts at that time? What were your thoughts as you progressed through it as you continue to get better and better? And then what are your thoughts about it now, especially if it seems like it's something that's easy. Notice that the thing has not changed? Like for instance, I know I keep saying playing the piano I really want to learn how to play the piano but if it was playing the piano, if that seemed hard to you at one point, and then you got better, and now it seems easy to you what are those thoughts along the way? Just look at those thoughts, it would be interesting to see those thoughts. Just see how you were thinking about it, and how you got better, you got better and better, even if you're not even to the point where you think it's easy now just look at those thoughts through the progression.

All right, for the next week, I want you guys to do a different exercise, it's similar for sure. And if you didn't have a chance to really do that exercise, I want you to try to do that something that was difficult at one point for you. Something that was hard at one point, especially if it's something that now you think is easy, or seems easy, or something that you're able to just do now, without really thinking about it. I want you to go through that progression of your thoughts in that, then I want you guys for the next week, I want you guys to think about your hardest thing, what is the hardest thing in your life right now, right now, just like we were saying, and write that down. Write that hardest thing down. And I want you to write your thoughts about the hard thing. Right now, as you think that it is hard as you see it as being something that is hard. I want you to write all of your thoughts about that thing. It could be an exercise, it could be cleaning the bathroom, what is the hardest thing you have right now in your life. And I want you to write your thoughts about it. For the next week, I want you to lean into that thing and do it and see how your thoughts change. If you're able to do that first exercise and you're able to see your thought progression that may be able to help maybe you're able to use some of those thoughts from along that way to transfer over how do you apply those thoughts to this thing that you think is hard right now? Remember, the thing doesn't change, it didn't get any easier, just like the past thing that you're looking at, that didn't get any easier, it stayed the same? What happened is you became better at it. So I want you to apply that to this thing that right now you see as hard. And I want you to write down those thoughts, and I want you to see what happens when you lean into it. What happens if you just decide that you're going to lean into it? If you already know if I told you right now you're definitely going to get better at it. What happens? How does that change? How do your thoughts change about that? Then what do you think? What do you think about it? Do you feel more capable? Do you think different thoughts that lead to you feeling more capable? Like, Oh, I got this? If I knew for a fact that I could do it? I would absolutely do it, and just do it and keep trying and keep trying and keep trying. What are those thoughts about it? It's hard right now, but what are the thoughts that you have right now? And what are the thoughts? If you already knew that you are going to be able to do it and get better at it, What are those thoughts? And do those help you along the way? How did those look at that just kind of evaluate that and watch it progress.

That's kind of always like a fun exercise to kind of see like, What's something that when you think about it, what's something that was really hard at one point for me and now all of a sudden it seems easy, but in reality, it didn't change. I just got so much better at it. I got so much better at managing my mind around it. I got so much better at being persistent at it. I got so much better at being committed to it. What are those things? Alright guys, until next time.

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