Welcome to the Mindset Coach Academy podcast. I'm Lindsey Wilson and I am a high performance mindset coach, a mom, a former professional athlete and an entrepreneur. I help coaches and high performers optimize their mindset to improve their coaching, their performance and those of their athletes and their lives. Here you'll learn all about mindset, how to live it, how to teach it and how to sell it. Okay, so we're working on belief and I wanted to talk about this because I just wanted to sort of put a little bug in your in your ear of when is the last time you intentionally sat down and worked on your belief?
Sounds like kind of a silly question, right? Like so many of us work on our health, we work on setting goals, we work on breathing maybe or visualizing it. Of course, I love all those things, those are great, but intentionally taking the time to believe, to believe in what we say we want, in other words, believe in our big goals, is so crucial. It is one of the most valuable, one of the most valuable things you can do with your time because there is one thing that we know for sure about how the brain works and that is the brain prioritizes survival, right? Prioritizes survival, which means safety.
What that also means is not wasting energy. My daughter came to the dinner table the other day and she goes, do you know that cavemen only ate one meal a week? I have no idea if that's true by the way, she's almost eight, but I thought it could have been true and we also know whether it was that exact or not that food was scarce. So we didn't want to waste energy, we didn't want to use calories on things or mental energy, which is calories on things that weren't going to work out. We know that. And even now, our brain will not invest energy, time, calories essentially on things that it doesn't believe will work out.
It doesn't. So knowing that the work on believing that what you want to do will work out is some of the most important work you will do. And make no mistake about it, it is work. It takes intentionally overriding our brain's also natural tendency to play it safe, to hold back, to not do any risky things. Because what happens is if we aren't intentional about it, the doubt's creeping. This is why I think it's, I don't want to say funny, but it's such an example of how the brain works is some people maybe won't join the Mindset Coach Academy or they won't come on board for something or they won't take some big action.
And of course, I'm talking about the Mindset Coach Academy because that's what I sell, but it could be anything. And they think, well, I'm going to do it next fall or I'm going to do it the next time it opens. I'm going to do it the next time I can, I have this opportunity for something, right, in their life. And the problem is, is that that time gives your brain the luxury of allowing doubts to creep in. It gives it that space because when those doubts creep in, they grow. And the reality of the situation you're in is not the situation you want in the future, but it is the reality right now. And so your brain, in that moment, it's that cognitive dissonance, right? It can't believe that it's going to change and also see right in front of you themselves or right in front of you that it's not any different. It's going to hit you upside the head and be like, see, this is what you're going to get in life.
This is it. And this all happens on a subconscious level. It's not like a conscious thing. And we think, yeah, okay, and we settle. This is where hopes and dreams die.
Our brain's like, we're not wasting energy on that. I don't know if it's going to work out. See? It's Tuesday and my life is not how I want it to be. And it says, okay, then we better just conserve the energy and do what we can with today. And that's it.
Because it does not want to waste energy. Okay? So you'll know that you're doing this. And by the way, we all do this.
So don't go into the shame and blame game. We all do this. This is how our brain is designed. So often with my students, and you can do it right now, we say, you can say, thank you, brain, for prioritizing my survival and keeping me safe.
Your brain is doing what it was designed to do. But we're not in the cavemen days. We're in the here and now.
And we can spend energy and take risks and push ourselves to the next level. Now, you'll know that you're doing this. And by the way, again, we're all doing it to some degree or different areas of our life. But if you're doing it a lot, you will know that you're doing it in slight ways.
It comes across as like a self sabotage thing. So you'll say you want to do something. You'll want you'll want to do some certain tasks or take some certain action that lead to the future goal that you say that you want, but then you don't do them. For whatever reason, it's usually not because you're lazy or undisciplined. It's because you've come up with an excuse, or you've found some way around it, or you've said, maybe that goal wasn't that important to me. You might fantasize about quitting because it's that difference between where you are and where you want to be. And you don't believe that it's going to happen.
You haven't taken that time to do the work of believing. So you'll just want to quit and want to hold back. You want to play small.
You want to quiet quit. And that might look like not investing in yourself. That might be not taking a risk. That might not that might be not putting yourself out there.
Just some little way of playing it safe. You could do something big. You could go do something brave, but you're like, uh, you don't believe in it enough.
Because just think of it this way. If you believed in it and you had to do this one hard thing to get to that thing, and then you'd get it, your dream is in a warehouse down the street. You've heard me talk about that before. There's a warehouse down the street with your goal. If you knew that it was there, in other words, you believed that you would get there, you would do anything. The problem is you don't believe. Right? We're often working on the tasks to get there, but we have to work on the belief.
Okay? Other ways, you'll know you're doing this. You won't be able to see opportunities or creative solutions. So there'll be an obstacle or there won't be momentum or there won't be opportunities hitting you upside the head. And you won't be able to see them when they are there. You won't be able to go find them because you won't believe that they're there.
So you won't do the work to create them. You won't have the conversations. You won't, again, think creatively. You'll get the tunnel vision of like, this isn't going to work. Then you want to even see how it could work. This is one of the craziest thing our brain does.
When we tell ourselves it won't work, we can't see the ways that it could work, as it's not possible. Things will also feel really hard. Not in the like, I have hard work things to do. There's a lot of tasks to do. It's like the drudgery.
That's the difference. It's not like, oh my God, I have so much to do. It's like, oh, that's what it's going to feel like. It's going to feel like, uh, you'll avoid doing things. And that also doesn't match up with probably who you think you want to be or who you are as far as discipline and willpower. And then you'll blame yourself. You might have a little bit of a victim mentality, like the failure kind of feels good. You're like, see, that was right. Not going to work out.
Here's a big one. You won't reach out and ask for support or help because you don't want to be vulnerable because you don't think it's going to work out. Again, why ask for help with something you don't think is going to work? Your motivation is low and you really don't know why. You procrastinate like a lot. We all do it to some degree a lot and you wonder why you can't make yourself. You're trying to white knuckle it.
That's a really big sign that you don't believe that it's going to work out. And in that same vein, even easy tasks take a lot of intentional focus. Like you have to force yourself. I don't mean there's not things in your business or in your life that you do have to force yourself to do. I just mean like a lot of things feel that way. Like simple things feel like it takes so much of your discipline and focus to get them done. In other words, things are hard and strudgery.
That is how you know people that there's a belief problem. It's not necessarily the action problem. We get this wrong so often. We think if I just do the actions, if I just work hard, if I just do this, then it's going to work out. But there is a part of us that doesn't believe it's going to work out. And when we believe that, we want to pull back. This is how our brain works. This is how our human brain works. So if this is happening to you, put aside the blame and shame. Congratulations, you are a human having a human brain experience.
This is a thousand percent normal. So the question becomes then, if you're doing this, which so many people are, again, you have a goal. You're working, working, working for it, but you're not taking time to really believe in that goal.
Okay? So everything feels hard. Your brain is literally pulling you back to safety even as you're trying to accomplish that goal.
You have these, I always call, I always say it's like having the brake on in your car and the gas. You're not going to go very far. And you'll be like, why am I not going? My foot's all the way down on the gas. Your foot is also on the break and that is because we haven't taken the time to believe.
And this is like crazy. But where do we learn this? Where do we actually learn how to and that we should prioritize believing? What grade was that in? It didn't exist. Okay? So we need to have belief work, intentional time where we work on believing. I'm going to give you a few examples.
Okay? The belief work, journaling, this is a really powerful way to get in your belief work. Because when you write it down, it gets more solidified in your brain. Some things you can you can future pace, you can just write about what it's going to be like when you get there. But I like also to write about the thoughts that you're going to need to get there. Another prompt that's really good is what if I believed that making a million dollars in my business was inevitable?
What if I believed that my offer is the absolute best thing someone could spend their money on? Give yourself prompts that get you in the mindset of believing in your future. We'll put some of those in the show notes. Journaling and I would also add in one and this is why we teach the braver, right? We'll put those in the show notes too. The braver then adds in that level of visualization to your affirmation and your goal.
And that's really powerful too. Because when we close our eyes and we visualize the future, our brain doesn't know the difference between real and imaginary. So you're going to get a deeper level of believing that goal is possible.
Okay? So belief work, journaling and visualization are two of your best bets. And so journaling and visualization, those are the first two that I would recommend. Because those are like, again, those are things that you can do at any time as part of your routine.
They don't take that much time. And again, you can think of this as your belief work. I think the third thing that is really important is surrounding yourself by other people that are doing what you want to do. This is a really natural and pretty easy way because it's kind of like osmosis, right? You're around these people and your brain is consistently getting that message of like, oh, they're doing it. Clearly, it's possible.
I think I can do it too. And that is such a powerful, like forcing function that is it's actually less effort, right? Because your brain is just looking around and that's how our also how our brain is designed is to like look around and get clues on what is safe and what is possible and where to spend our money or many, sorry, where to spend our energy. And so it's doing that and you'll automatically get that message and your brain gets that belief work in by seeing other people. Now, sometimes you have to one, be intentional about getting in those groups and those communities because if you don't believe it's possible, you may even avoid them or not see them. You may have to invest time or money to get in those groups and put the work and to earn your spot in those groups.
So there may be some work that is involved in getting in those groups that which also takes belief. But I can tell you how and not hiding in those groups also. But I can't tell you how much of a like mindset hack this is is to be around people that are doing what you want to do. And in those groups, you also have to manage your thoughts. So you're not like, oh, well, they're doing it because, you know, they're smarter than me.
Or, you know, just managing your thoughts about them and comparing or feeling bad because they're further ahead than you. Like there's a lot of thought management that goes into joining those groups in those communities. But that work is 100% worth it because those are the things those aren't like new thoughts to you, they're just getting illuminated by the people around you.
And those are the thoughts that you're going to have to shore up to get to that next level. So you're going to be uncomfortable probably in those groups, especially in the beginning, which is why a lot of people don't do it. A lot of people don't find those groups of people that are like smarter than them, you know, or more successful than them or whatever. So getting in those groups, surrounding yourself by people doing what you want to do, and then being able to manage your thoughts, that is belief work.
Okay. And then I would say another, the fourth thing that I would say is doing something physical to remind yourself that that you're badass. Like, and there's lots of other things, but those are the four things that I would say like are really, really powerful work. So again, journaling, visualizing, surrounding yourself by doing something so that your brain gets the message that it's possible and safe to do the thing that you want to do. And then forth doing something physical. I think that this is just that like, practice of believing you can do a workout or believing you can do a run or believing you can do something that you haven't necessarily done, at least on that day, and practicing that process of like, I believe I can do it, and therefore I'm going to do it. That's just that like, practice in a short period of time that gets you that belief work. So that's a short list. Maybe there's things that you do.
I would love to hear them come on over to Instagram at Lindsay Positif Perform and let me know either DM me or tag me in a story or something. I think that belief work is really important. Really, really important. And I'm going to give you a bonus little exercise right now. Okay. And it's this, whether you're in the car or running or emptying the dishwasher. What I want you to do is I want you to think about that thing that you want, the goal or the next level. And I want you to think 10 thoughts that you can have to reinforce your belief that think that that thing is possible. Okay. So for example, for me for my big income goals, I have to work on the belief that that's possible.
Right. And a couple of thoughts that I could have about, let's say my company or my certification is, I'm a sure bet every time. The mindset coach academy is the best way someone can spend their money.
We create entrepreneurs. That's just a few of my examples. But do you see how those thoughts are allowing me to stay in belief? When I'm in belief and I've done the work, and that's a constant work, by the way, to believe in my big goals and I work on the thoughts that reinforce that, then the action becomes so much easier.
And again, I'm not putting my foot on the gas and the break. Belief work, you guys, this is one of the most useful, powerful ways you can invest your time spending that time believing in your goals. So I'm going to recap, journaling, journaling, journaling, journaling about your future self and the goals that you want, really being there, believing in it to visualization. We do that with a braver. You can do that other ways too, just seeing, hearing, feeling that future. So your brain gets the message that it's okay, you can do it.
It's possible. For three is surrounding yourself by other people doing something at least similar to your big goal. And fourth is doing something physical to remind yourself periodically or very often that you can believe in something and then go do it. And then the bonus would be thinking of your future goal and coming up with 10 thoughts right now that allow you to believe in that goal. Okay. So that's my thoughts for today.
Belief work. Come on down to Instagram and let me know how you're working on this. All right, guys, I love this process. I hope you do too. And hey, if this was helpful for you, please, please, please rate and review this podcast. It really does help.
And go ahead and click that little square with the little arrow and send it to a friend. Guys, belief work, again, we're not taught this. We have to go out and learn this on our own.
And I can guarantee you know somebody in your life today that could benefit from belief work. So I'd appreciate you sharing it and we'll see you again next week. All right, guys, bye for now.
Hey, guys, if you are an aspiring mindset coach, or maybe you already have a little baby business as a mental performance coach, I want to invite you to download my free new ebook, which is How to Become a Mental Performance Coach. You guys, I packed in so much useful information into this book, because I know so many of you are wanting to move forward or wanting to move forward more. And you have some really big questions on how you can make money, where you get your first client, what would you even teach? It's all in this book. Go to positiveperformancetraining.com forward slash guide to get your free copy.
