Ep #15: Why a New Result Is Only a Decision Away

Welcome to The Life Coach Business Podcast, a show for coaches who are ready to up-level their business and take their impact, leadership, and results to a whole new level. If you’re ready to start taking powerful action and become the leader your business needs in order to grow and thrive, this show is for you. I’m your host, Amanda Karlstad, certified life and business coach, and entrepreneurial leadership expert. Now, let’s get down to business.

Hello and welcome everyone. I hope wherever you are, you’re having an amazing week. And for all of you new listeners out there, welcome. I’m so excited to have you. I’m so glad that you’re joining the conversation today.

For all of my loyal listeners, welcome. I appreciate you all so, so much. I have to say that I am really looking forward to our conversation today. And before we dive in, I want to give another listener shout-out, and this one comes from Nicky733 and she says, “Powerful and insightful. The first episode is such a powerful and insightful uncovering of what we do and think as entrepreneurs. I love how you articulate it. This is my experience right now.”

Nicky, thank you so, so much for this amazing review. I want you to know how much I appreciate you doing that. I am so glad that this content and this message is resonating with so many of you. And I am so excited to continue to bring more of it to you all, and have you listen and rate and review.

I just want to tell you all again, thank you so, so much. This is why I do this. So for those of you that don’t know and maybe aren’t as familiar with how the podcast world works, I want to say that it is reviews like Nicky’s that really do help keep the show visible. So I would so appreciate if you haven’t yet subscribed, rated, and reviewed, if you could head over to wherever you listen to your podcasts and do it.

If you do, I want to remind you that you’re also going to be entered to win one of three free VIP strategy sessions, and these strategy sessions, I am so excited to offer because I am so confident that they are exactly what you need in order to move your business forward in 2020 in a very powerful way. So again, if you haven’t already reviewed the show, I would so appreciate it if you would do that, and you might just be one of those lucky winners.

Alright, so let’s dive into today’s topic and that is decisions. And specifically, I want to talk to you all today about the power of decision and offer you some new ways to consider how you can make new decisions in your life. And there is so much that we could talk about when it comes to decisions. So, so much.

But today, and I’ve alluded to this a few times in past episodes, that I want to talk to you all about the power of decision and the impact that it really has in our lives and in the results that we have in our businesses. And I’m going to start this conversation at the base level.

And in order to do that, I think that starts with first talking about what decisions really are. Because I have observed that this distinction that we’re going to talk about today can make a huge difference overall in performance, in results, in wellbeing. I really do believe that this can change everything for you.

So something that I’ve observed over the course of the years coaching others and doing my own work is that as humans, we tend to operate as if we don’t have control in our lives. We operate as if we don’t have full control in our businesses. It’s as if we are, in most cases, living and operating at the effect of our lives.

And the truth is that we tend to operate as if we are the effect of our circumstances, of our situations, of our environments, of those that we interact with, our family, our relationships, all of it, and we do this so that we abdicate our responsibility. And for most humans on the planet, we tend to operate as if we have very little power when it comes to our lives.

It’s like we have this belief that we have no control. And so I do believe that as a society, when I look at this, that we really are conditioned from birth essentially to believe this. And it’s definitely not something that’s taught in the school system.

So I believe that this is really a conditioning that we have that’s not only embedded in our society, it’s embedded throughout our lives, from the time that we’re born up until for some of you, maybe this conversation that we’re going to have today.

So the conversation that I want to bring to you today is that we do in fact have full control of our lives. We have full control of our outcomes, of the results that we have, whether that’s in our personal life or whether that’s in business. So no matter what it is that we believe to be true, we do in fact have full control. We do in fact have 100% responsibility when it comes to our lives and the results that we have in our lives.

Now, some of you may have already heard this at some point in your life and for those of you that are coaches, that are in the personal growth industry, I’m sure that this is something that you’ve heard, something that you may even likely believe. And others of you might believe that you have no control.

And so wherever you fall on that spectrum, I really want you all to consider this and here’s why. It’s because the power of our decisions impact every area of our life, including our businesses. And we live at the effect of our decisions every single day. And here’s the distinction that I really want you to make. Our decisions at the very core are beliefs. They are thoughts that we have on a daily basis.

And I want to reiterate that. The beliefs that we have and the thoughts that we think on a daily basis, those are all actually decisions in and of themselves. So let me explain. Even as children, we make decisions from a very early age on how we choose to perceive things, how we choose to react to things, how we think. It’s totally normal human behavior. It’s what happens.

And from there, these decisions come from an unconscious operating system that forms heavily in the first years of our lives. And I’ve been talking to this in some of my previous episodes, but I want to get into this distinction deeper because it can make a huge difference once you really get this.

So as children, as we are experiencing things in our life and from that experience, we then attach particular meanings to that experience. For example, a few episodes ago I talked about this specifically as it related to my daughter and her fear of dogs. And if you know of anyone or even yourself have a fear of something, like dogs, you can relate to this.

So what happens is that we have these experiences in our lives and our brain processes that experience in a way that then creates new neurosynaptic connections. So in the case of dogs, as an example, if as a young child you had an encounter with a dog that was frightening, what happened was is that your brain then registered that encounter as frightening, and therefore now whenever you encounter a dog in your life, your brain automatically brings that same perception, that same reaction that you had years ago, even if you were a very young child to the present.

So this is why if you know of someone who has a fear of dogs, it’s a really hard fear to overcome. And that’s just one example. There’s countless examples for every one of us have we have, that we’ve experienced. So this distinction that I really want you to see today is that yes, even though using my daughter’s experience as an example, that might have been a rational fear, given her age, really, at the base level of it, it really was a decision that her brain made.

And that decision was dogs are frightening. And so because of that, that’s a subconscious decision that is still with her today, even though she’s a few years older and she rationally knows now at her age that really, dogs aren’t frightening. But at the core level, it was still a decision.

And it was a decision that her operating system made in that moment that now impacts her today. So I really want you to see that. This is why understanding this is so, so important. And it’s extremely important for you to understand this for yourself.

Because the general way that we tend to move through life is in a way where we accept the perceptions that we have. We accept the beliefs that we have, even though we might be aware of them and know that on a logical level, they don’t serve us. So it’s especially important if let’s say you’re trying to overcome something in your life, or if you’re trying to get different results in your business, let’s say.

And the reason that it’s so important is because so often on a daily basis, we’re just operating as if our results, as if what we’re experiencing in our lives, it’s that we’re just at the effect of it. And what I mean when I say that is we’re operating and moving through our life as if we have no control over what happens. As if we can’t change certain things in our lives, or we can’t create certain things in our lives or in our businesses.

So I really want you to think about something for a minute. I want you to identify what do you want most in your life right now. I want you to think about what that is. Maybe you want better results in your business. Maybe you want to be making more money, or maybe you want a better relationship.

Whatever that is, I want you to think about it. I want you to identify it. And once you’ve done that, I want you to think about what are all of your current beliefs, all of your current thoughts that you have about that particular situation. So when you think about that thing, what are your thoughts about why you don’t have it yet in your life?

What are your thoughts on why you don’t have the results you want in your business? In many cases, especially in the coaching industry, I see a lot of times especially for newer coaches that the thought is things should be easier, or there’s a thought or a belief somewhere, and sometimes this is subconsciously until we really get to a level of awareness with it that maybe it’s about having a successful business, the belief is that it’s just not possible for me.

And maybe you think, let’s say if you’re trying to leave your corporate job and become a full-time coach or entrepreneur, that you’ll never be able to replace or exceed your current salary. This is another one I see quite often. And so in any case, there’s thoughts typically that we have, beliefs that we have underneath the surface that relate to building a business equals struggle.

And maybe you think that you don’t have the confidence you need to do what you really want to do, or that you don’t have any control over something. So whatever those thoughts are, I really want you to identify them. This is really, really important.

Whatever those beliefs are, whatever those thoughts are that you just thought, I want you to go a step further and consider that all of those beliefs, all of those thoughts, those are all decisions that you’ve made, and I want you to consider that at some point in your life, you made this decision to believe that thought. You made the decision to think that thought and thus approach your circumstances in a certain way.

And I know some of you might say, “Well, but these are all actually facts,” and I get that. It very often tends to feel very true. And you might be saying that you don’t believe that you have any control when it comes to others in your business. And if you’re wanting a better relationship, you might be saying that you really don’t have any control when it comes to your relationship.

So whatever that story sounds like for you, I want you to see that no matter what that story is, I want you to see that it’s still a decision. And it’s a decision you made to believe something. So in the case of business let’s say, you made the decision to believe that you don’t have confidence.

Let’s say you made the decision to believe that you’ll never make the type of money you really want to make, or that building a business is hard. So whatever that is, I want you to see it because it’s a decision that you’ve made.

Now, in most cases, for most people, this is totally subconscious. For most people in our society, we make decisions every single day about those circumstances, about our environments, about others in our lives, about ourselves that come from this unconscious operating system.

So this is all very, very tricky, and it’s because we’re dealing with our brains. But I also want to recognize that as we’re talking about this, this really is our brains doing its job. Our brain’s main job is to keep us safe. So it’s really fulfilling its purpose.

But because the brain’s main function is to do that, to keep us safe, that’s why when it comes to evolving yourself or becoming something different from who you are currently, this is why we have such strong internal conflicts. Because any time we’re trying to up-level in our lives or in our business, our brains are at the very core level trying to keep us within the realm of what is familiar to it.

So for you, if building a highly successful business has never been in your realm of familiarity, well then guess what? Your brain is going to try and keep you within that which it already knows. And for some of you, that might be a safe, cushy, predictable nine to five job. And for others of you, it might actually be a cycle of struggle.

You might be in this cycle of survival. So this is why understanding that our beliefs, our thoughts are just decisions is so empowering. It’s understanding that although we perceive something in a certain way, that we also have the power to change how we’re perceiving that thing. There’s so much power in this.

And you know, Tony Robbins says your decisions shape your destiny, and that is a fact. Every decision we make creates a cascade of action or inaction in our lives, and that then creates our reality. And so there is real power when you come to know this, that at any given moment, whatever it is that has your attention, whatever it is that you’re spending your energy on, it’s knowing that you do in fact have the ability to make a new decision.

And you do that by creating a new thought, by creating a new belief about something. It’s extremely liberating. So I want you all to consider this. Go back to what you identified earlier. What is that thing or that result or that outcome that you want most in your life?

Go back to what you thought about a few minutes ago. Now, I want you to ask yourself, what if you just gave yourself permission to think something else about that circumstance? What if you no longer chose to believe whatever it is that you’re believing about that circumstance? What if you were to decide in this moment that you were no longer going to believe that it was impossible or that you don’t have what it takes?

What if you were to believe instead that it was totally 100% possible for you? That you do in fact have what it takes. I want you to check in. How do you feel when you think about that? I’m guessing for most of you, well, for all of you, it probably feels much lighter. Much more empowering, much more positive.

And that, my friends, is the power of decision. So know this; your decisions do in fact create your destiny, and know that your decisions at the end of the day are your beliefs. They are the thoughts you’re having in your life that lead to your emotions, which lead to your inactions, which create the results that you have.

So if you really want to change your life, if you really want to change the results that you have in your business, then you must first change the decisions that you are making in your life. Allow yourself to make a new decision. Give yourself the permission to make a new decision starting today. Alright everyone, I hope you have an amazing week. I’ll talk to you all again very soon. Take care. Bye-bye.

Hey, before you go, I have something amazing I want to share with you. To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m going to be giving away three free VIP strategy sessions where I’ll be diving deep into your business and help you put a strategy in place for the next 90 days, so you have a real game plan on how to create results in your business and finally gain momentum.

I’m going to be giving away one free VIP strategy session, the same VIP strategy session I offer to all of my highest level clients to three lucky listeners who subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. I’ll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode. Thanks so much.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Life Coach Business Podcast. If you want to learn more about how to build, grow, and scale your business and accelerate your results visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com.