What a powerful message!

I was invited by my coach to join the coach's Facebook group yesterday, and I readily accepted.  What I didn't realize was that Optavia was having a coaching summit live stream, which I immediately began watching.

One woman named Joanna Mitchell really caught my attention.  Not only does she look like Marisa Tomei, but her message blasted through my very soul.  Everything she said hit its mark.  I re-watched it again today and transcribed most of what she said (I only left out anecdotes and a couple small stories).  Other than that, it's virtually word for word, with some tenses changed.  Please find it below.  I hope it inspires you like it did me.  The items highlighted in red spoke to me the loudest.  Enjoy.

Your life is a series of old tapes telling you who you are and what you’re not.  Shift your thinking.  You have to decide who you are without any evidence from your past or any evidence in your present.  Most of us come to the table with a tape in our head telling us all the things we’re not from years of programming and all the reasons you can’t and all the reasons you shouldn’t.  You’re looking for evidence every day to prove exactly what you believe about yourself.  As a man thinks, so he is, and you manifest what you believe.  It starts with dismantling the story.  You have to dismantle the story, and you have to create a new one – a new one of your future self, a new one of your power, a new one of who you are.  You need to make a decision of who you are, even if there isn’t evidence yet.  And just because there isn’t evidence doesn’t mean you’re not becoming a student of that person you’re becoming. 

The first thing you have to do is you have to make a decision that you ARE a leader, you ARE creative, you DO bring value, you ARE disciplined, you DO show up, you DO conquer hard things.  Your words have power.  Instead of listing what you WANT to accomplish, pivot and shift your thinking to saying, “I AM a leader.  I DO bring power.  I BRING joy.  I BRING awareness.  I BRING awakening.  I BRING empowerment.  I AM an overcomer.”  As you think, so you are.  It starts with the decision to decide who you ARE – regardless of evidence – and practicing this.

It takes practice.  Set a schedule where you remind yourself of your decisions – who I am, what I’ve decided, how I’m showing up.  It takes practice.

The next thing is learning to honor the struggle.  Growth is hard.  Stepping into discomfort is hard.  And when things start to shift is when you stop resisting hard and start honoring it.  Feel your emotions.  Don’t numb them.  Start accepting them and learn how to honor and feel them and allow them to direct you to your thoughts, thoughts that may not be serving you.  Start learning how to honor the hard by using gratitude as a strategy.  Things pivot when you choose to be thankful. 

Learn to honor the hard by making decisions to no longer view people and situations as your enemy but, rather, your allies.  We honor the hard when we make a decision to learn and grow from them rather than resist them.  Learn to start honoring the hard when you make decisions to redefine your wins.  Life happens.  There will be seasons where you have more output and less output, but it doesn’t change who you are and what you’ve decided about yourself at all.  But, it does call for you to redefine your wins.  What can you do on your worst day?  What actions are you committed to do to step into that future that you’re wanting to create, even on your worst day?  And step into that action, that one thing!  Your capacity for doing will actually grow as you make the decision to honor the fact that you feel overwhelmed and you take that one single action.

When faced with challenges or adversity, decide who you are.  It has nothing to do with your output, and then redefine your win.  If your goal for the day is sitting on the couch with your kids and snuggling them, YOU WON.  You will expand your capacity for more wins, and you feel better.

As you step into the hard and growth, you are going to want to hide.  You’re going to want to start productively procrastinating.  Many may have amazingly organized drawers or closets because you’ve been procrastinating because you’ve gone to do that instead of doing the things you SHOULD be doing to move you forward in your health journey or coaching journey.  Don’t do these other things to focus your attention and to feel productive without having to face the hard.  Step in and honor the hard.  This is going to take practice.

The final thing you have to do is you need to destroy the belief that the evolution of yourself, that the empowering of yourself, that the creating something bigger for your life and for your family was selfish.  This new power you’re stepping into, this new evolution of yourself, this new version, this new life you’re creating is completely for you.  But it ain’t about you.

Everything can shift for you when you start believing that this new version of yourself is so that you can better serve others when you make the decision that you know what you want people to experience when they experience you.  When you’re faced with the unknown like big holiday celebrations and don’t know what to expect, expect greatness.  Expect healing.  Expect joy.  Expect memories.  And the reason you can expect that is because you’re going to decide that that’s what you are bringing.  What will people experience when they experience you?  Your goal should be to make it so every person who is in your presence experiences me listening to them, honoring them, and improving them. 

When you enter that health assessment, make it your goal to learn, to honor, and to offer improvement.  When you enter social media make it your goal to learn about a person, to honor that person, and to offer improvement.  When you enter a Coach Explore, make it your goal to learn, honor, and improve.  It is totally for you, but it ain’t about you.  This takes practice.

This isn’t a one-and-done.  It takes practice.  Your path toward freedom and growth is going to have ups, downs, and sideways.  Some days will be two steps forward, some days will be one step back.  Some days will have bad choices.  The difference now is not to let shame get the upper hand.  Use the tools that we have.  What happened?  What was missing?  What’s next?  Eat something healthy and move on.  Keep coming back, and come back faster, and come back stronger, because we are learning there is no such thing as failure, only feedback.

Say yes.  Say yes to the belief that you are created for more than surviving.  You are created to reign in this life in order to empower and equip others and make this place better.  And the answer to “how” is always going to be yes.  Yes to believing in your best version of yourself.  Yes to honoring the hard and the uncomfortable growth.  Yes to believing this is for you but not about you.  Yes to more conversations.  Yes to stepping into fear.  Yes to imperfect progress.  Just say yes.