Hey guys and welcome back to another episode of your Brains Coach podcast. My name is Angela Shurina, I'm your host, I'm your Brains Coach and it is my job here to simply, guys, give you all the tools that I've gotten through my life experience coaching work, 15 years of coaching work I think it's even more. I just don't want to age myself or date myself too much. Certifications in fitness, in nutrition, in health, in executive coaching, in high performance and productivity a ton and ton of certifications. And then also books every two, three books a day, and all of that and living life to the fullest expression, as I'm capable of All of these tools coming from neuroscience, from psychology of change, from coaching science in a sense of how to drive excellent and performance in people, health, stress management, organizing your work in the most effective way, rewiring your mindset using science-backed tools that's what we are all about here Giving sharing, learning tools to take better control of our thoughts, of our emotions and, most importantly, of our actions, so we could create the life experience we absolutely love living in whatever shape or form that means that manifests for you. I read a post from an entrepreneur. He was posting about how now he's getting into fatherhood and he wants to slow down and live his version of rich life. I also believe that in life, everyone has their own rich life version that you vibe with, like things that make you tick, things you want more of, less of, and I think in our life it's our responsibility and it's our meaning and purpose to create that kind of life that feels rich and fulfilling to you in a very unique, specific way that is, again, unique to you, and the purpose, the also sub-purpose of this podcast is to help you to live more of that, your version of rich, fulfilling life, and the definition or what it looks like in reality. It's going to be different guys. It's going to be different for you today and tomorrow, and definitely months and year and five and 10 years from now.
Speaker 1So don't be afraid to change and don't hold yourself accountable to staying the same, because, if we learned anything as humanity over the past decade, life is anything but consistent thing that is unchangeable. Life is change, and so it's very natural for you to change for your aspirations, your goals, to change for everything about yourself and about your life. To change your goals, what you value and how you go about doing things, and that's the foundation of growth mindset. You are in the process of growing. I think the tricky part about growth mindset that I only now start to truly understand and leave it fuller.
Speaker 1The tricky part about growth mindset is that you can have it in one area, but that is not the guarantee that you're gonna have it in the other area, like you can have it, for example, for your work, but then, when it comes to healthy lifestyle and your habits, you kind of don't have it. You still think in black and white terms or nothing, like I'm either on some healthy eating wagon or I'm off it, and there is no gray in between. There are no other colors but black and white. I either eat chicken breast and broccoli, metaphorically speaking, or I go all out on pizza, beer, chocolate and ice cream by the gallon. But that's not actually how life works and how sustainable, solid, long-term change happen for the majority of people. That's been not my experience. I have clients who stay with me for years, literally, and what they're learning in the process relearning this idea is that they thought or in order for me to stay healthy and fit, I gotta like work out for an hour every day, or I gotta eat this and never have a piece of I don't know cookie or chocolate again, or never have a drink if I decide that it's not good for me. Or again, like I need to work out every day and 6 am for an hour, or you know, I don't do it at all out every day and 6 am for an hour, or I don't do it at all. What my clients learn is that there is a lot of space in between and, yes, growth mindset can help you to stay fit as fuck Sorry for my French, not sorry and you don't have to do anything specific every day to actually contribute, to invest, to keep building this vision.
Speaker 1I've been going to the gym for more than 20 years. I said it when I was 13. Okay, so it's more than 20 years. I'm like I'm dating myself again, but it's like a long time 20, 21, 24 years. Now. A friend of mine she wanted to lose weight and we were in our teenage years and she's like let's go to the gym. And I didn't specifically think anything of gym. I was more into athletics, dancing et cetera. But I'm like, okay, I'm trying new things, let's go to the gym. And then she left after a couple of months and I just stayed for my life. I'm like this is just going to be the thing that I do, the consistency of it. I just loved it and that kept me coming back. And also, with all the traveling around the world, living as a digital nomad for 15 years in 15 countries and changing so many things, team and community there and people there, it brought me some feeling of community, consistency, safety, certainty, like all of the things that I was missing in all the other parts and areas of my life. So I think that was the main reason for me to stay there to have this consistency and certainty and also social circle of like-minded people, minded people.
Speaker 1But then how can you also have that exercise fitness habit? You see, again, I was talking to a client and that will help me to explain the concept better and he expressed this concern that you know, angela, I did exercise before and then I stopped and then I picked up like 20, 30 kilos and then we started with you together and now I have again this really good strength, consistency and he lost 26 kilos and he started riding his bike for 130 kilometers again and he's in his 60s like an amazing individual. All of this I'm saying to you that you understand that it's never late and whatever pattern or whatever history you have with fitness and exercise, you can start now and build pretty awesome results and keep going for the rest of your life, and your life quality is just going to expand in so many different ways. So, anyhow, he expressed this concern. Well, I did that before and I'm afraid that when we finish our coaching that at some point I'm going to get back to not doing the exercise, like not wanting to push myself hard but choosing to be sort of lazy. And then I said well, you know, maybe we should work on the growth mindset skill set more so you make it easier for yourself to stay in the game, because the role of fitness for most of us mere models who are not some professional athletes making career of it and getting very specific results.
Speaker 1The purpose for most of us in fitness and exercise is to just stay in the game, not to hit certain amount of workouts or certain hours or minutes or intensity or do very specific thing, but to keep moving Once you realize that your goal actually not to push yourself as hard as possible every day, showing up at certain time and doing a certain workout and feeling that hardness and push. Once you understand that the purpose is to stay in the game and keep going, you all of a sudden start seeing, oh, but there is a whole range of other things that I can do and the way I can do it. And so with my client, I said well, look at it like this. He already said this. You know that when you start, even when you don't feel like it, your feelings change and all of a sudden you feel more like doing that right? So what if next time, or many times in the future, when you don't feel like exercising, you just remind yourself that, yeah, I don't feel like it, but I'm going to feel a lot more like it once I get started? And then also, I told him that you don't have to push yourself hard and go for an hour workout every day.
Speaker 1You can also do a five-minute workout. You can also do a five-minute workout. You can do a 10-minute yoga. You can do a 15-minute dance routine. He likes learning dance moves. There is all this variety. And plus, he loves new things. Like most of the brains love new things. And I told him a sip of water, stay hydrated, guys. And I told him. So there is all this variety.
Speaker 1And in coaching we also have this notion, that skill of learning to scale down the actions that you want to take to a minimum effective dose, or to any dose really, that still counts as progress towards your aspiration but which doesn't feel that hard Like, for example, five-minute action. If you don't feel like eating healthy, or if you don't feel like exercising, or if you don't feel like doing a specific kind of work, you tell yourself, well. Or if you don't feel like doing specific kind of work, you tell yourself, well, if you don't feel like reading or learning and you know that it is important for you to keep doing that to, let's say, advance your career you ask yourself what is a five-minute action that I can do right now that will move me towards my aspiration of being excellent at that skill, or being an exerciser for life, or investing into my health with nutrition, or investing into my sleep. What is a five-minute action? Maybe it's scheduling five minutes more of sleep. What is a five-minute action? Maybe it's scheduling five minutes more of sleep? Maybe it's telling yourself and I did it so many times, guys I would just tell myself I don't feel like exercising today, but I'm just going to go to the gym and do five minutes of something, and if that's all I got today, that's going to be it. I allow myself to just do five minutes and I would go in the gym and do five minutes and then I want to do more and I'm like, oh, I want to do this and that I actually feel pretty good now, and almost never did I leave after five minutes, and that's the point. But then also the point is that even if you do just five minutes and sometimes it might happen you might really not be in the place. You still invested into this identity and into this goal of being an exerciser for life. Again, the purpose, the purpose of our exercising habit, for most of us is to just stay in the game and keep going, and five-minute action helps, and doing mini workouts helps, and doing whatever you feel like doing helps, like dancing or doing stretching or yoga, instead of doing squats and deadlifts, like it was for me this morning.
Speaker 1I went to the gym at 5.30 am and it's leg day. I'm like I got to squat and I got to deadlift and I don't want to do it, and what did I do? I'm like you're just going to start and take it slow. So in my mind I actually just didn't want to do it fast and heavy. In my mind I actually just didn't want to do it fast and heavy. So I'm like I'm just going to do it slow and if I have to use lighter weights I can do the two. But that allowed me to actually get into the workout and do the weight that I wanted to do and feel like doing that and do everything that I wanted to do in the first place.
Speaker 1So the trick here was just start and allow yourself to not necessarily push that hard. There is again. There is not just black or white or all or nothing. There's also a whole freaking rainbow and all kinds of gray and ways or degrees of intensity and trying maybe dancing and putting on your favorite music and trying maybe doing exercises from the last one to the first one and trying to use lighter weight and so many ways of doing that and still putting in the work and growing and developing that identity of an exerciser and then moving closer towards what your probably goal is to stay active for life. And this is how you practice growth mindset in your fitness habits. It doesn't have to be anything specific, all black and white. You don't have to grow and push harder in every workout and you don't have to feel all that motivated to start or to continue. You can just take it day by day as it comes and still keep moving forward. And life is change and so you're going to feel differently in your body, in your mind, your emotional state, and understanding that that's okay, that's how life is and I can still do the thing and I can change the thing and I can still move forward. That's what growth mindset is all about having that flexibility and working on different things and being okay with being in this stage of growth, with good and bad days, and still putting in the action, however small, but still the one that invests into the vision of yourself that you aspire to be. That's how growth mindset helps you to stay in the game for life and keeps you fit as fuck Sorry for my French.
Speaker 1These days, people come to me in the gym seeing my physique and my stretch routines and everything, and they're like oh, that's amazing. What sports do you do? And these days I just say consistency, like you know, if you go to the gym every day or do exercise every day not every day, I go to the gym, but exercise every day. If you do that every day and, by the way, when I get sick it didn't happen for quite a while, but when I do I just walk. You know, unless I have like fever and I really cannot get off from my bed, I just walk and that also count as my workout and I just keep going. So when you do something consistently for 20 years, you can get mind-blowing results without ever feeling that you're pushing that hard. And that can happen in your fitness, in your healthy eating, in your relationships, healthy eating in your relationships, in your work, in your craft.
Speaker 1Consistency is a superpower that can get you any price and, just like investment, it compounds and can make you a millionaire without you even doing something special or having to invent something super duper awesome on you. Consistency is a freaking the most wonderful thing to get everything you want. It's just the game doesn't have all this fancy blows and whistles and, yes, it's going to take a little bit of time, but if you stay consistent it's going to take actually much less time. You know, these days I always tell myself and tell my clients and whoever needs a little bit more of inspiration the slow way is the fast way If you're chasing some fast hacks and tricks and tips, very often what would end up happening is you never get to where you want to go Because all these hacks and there is no hack to mastery, there is no shortcut to being amazing and incredible. You just have to put in the work. And the only way to do it consistently is if you take your humanity for the ride and allow yourself to have good days and bad days and anything in between, and not always feeling like it and not always pushing hard. And that's where, again, growth mindset, you get to exercise your growth mindset, you develop the skill set, this mindset in your health and fitness and you get any result that you want. So that's how growth mindset can keep you fit as fuck. Again, sorry, not sorry for my French, and that's it for today, guys.
Speaker 1So if you are struggling with some healthy habits whether that's fitness, eating, sleeping or anything in between, like stress management and breath work if you're struggling with that, ask yourself how can I just stay in the game? How can I stay consistent? What is my game plan for the times when I'm not going to feel like it? How can I scale down? How can I try something new? How can I just keep going and brainstorm some ideas, create a plan?
Speaker 1Whenever I'm attempting to get to a difficult goal, I always ask myself this question bad day is going to happen. So, angela, what's your game plan for the bad days? What are you going to do when you feel tired, unmotivated, frustrated and discouraged? What are you going to do then? How will you make sure that you keep going? And what are you going to do then? And once I have the when shit hits, the fan game plan, everything else just falls into place and I just keep going and I started getting results and I have no doubt that in a year, in two years, I'm going to get some super incredible results in my business, because now my consistency starts matching my vision. And again, that's what I learned Stay consistent and that will get you any price you want. And practicing growth mindset, I also learned it doesn't have to be perfect, it doesn't have to be anything, you just have to keep going. And it's going to be different and you got to have your plan for the times when things don't work.
Speaker 1Hope this was helpful. Hope this was helpful and it gives you a feeling that your goals, your hard goals, don't have to feel hard every day, and that's what this podcast episode is all about. So thank you for listening, thank you for your attention. Get going after your goals, relax and just putting one foot in front of the other. And, guys, please do share this podcast episode with at least one other person. That's someone who is really inspired to deliver something amazing into this world, or just be their best and feel and live better. Feel and live better. Share this podcast episode with that person. That will help them to feel at ease while pushing hard things up and forward, and that's how we create a better world for all of us to live. Spread the news, spread the good, uplifting content, and thank you for your attention. Until next time, keep growing.