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 also an executive coach with more than 15 years of experience, starting in fitness, working with athletes, transitioning to health, nutrition, recovery, executive coaching, productivity coaching all things high performance. And now I'm here creating this podcast, sharing my learnings, my further learnings. I learn every day, guys, just hopefully you do from life, from reading books, from talking to people smarter than myself, getting through certifications, working with my clients, going through all kinds of experiences and curveballs that life throws at each of us. And here I'm sharing my learnings, the best strategies, tools that will help you to create the life experience, the life path that you absolutely love living. So that's what we are all about here Today. I want to share with you two things First, my favorite questions, three questions that help me to motivate myself every single day to work on sometimes what feels impossible things to do, rain or shine. They help me to find balance, prioritize, create fulfillment in my life. And the second thing I'm going to share with you today is a strategy that I've just learned. I heard about it before, but it really don't tell me why it's so freaking effective as a strategy that I'm going to be using to make a million bucks in the next couple of years. My aspiration is to make it before next year finishes, so by the end of 2025. But life sometimes works better, sometimes works a little bit with a delay, so that's okay. But how to make a million bucks with proper decision making and strategy, you're going to learn about that today, and not from myself, but people who are smarter than me, people who achieved greater things. So stay tuned.
Speaker 1Now let's start with a story. Last Friday, I went on a solo hike up the mountain. It's not a big mountain, it's like 600 something meters and you can hike up in about an hour, depending on your fitness, but for me it's about 45 minutes these days. So sunrise hike up the mountain, and it just happened this way that I was soloing it this Friday, a couple of people canceled and I thought to myself well, that's just going to be a regular Friday, nothing extraordinary. And then, on the top of the mountain, I got up there and a stranger said good morning. And, for whichever reason, it felt like this is the person. I don't know if you ever have this feeling, but I often have this feeling that I'm meant to connect with this person and I gave myself a promise that whenever I feel that I will go out of my way and even if it's uncomfortable and inappropriate, I'm going to connect with this person. So this stranger said good morning and it felt like I got to connect and he was with a friend and at some point I did start a conversation and turned out like out of the blue, you know, on the top of that mountain at 5.45 am on Friday morning.
Speaker 1Guy's name was and is Chris, and it turns out that Chris is driven by the same things that I'm driven by Change and human potential, with a commitment to helping others embrace both. Chris is from the US and was leaving soon, so we scheduled a coffee the next day and we talked about growth, change, high performance and all things human potential. And Chris asked me this question during our conversation what do you find the most effective in helping people change, find answers they're seeking and move beyond their current level, beyond being stuck in some area of their life? What do you find the most helpful strategy? And I thought for a moment to myself questions. Without doubt, that's what I'm learning at this stage of my coaching career. Questions are the most important tool to help people change, to help yourself change. How do you overcome resistance to change in yourself and leading others? Questions how do you help people see their blind spots perhaps see your own blind spots? Questions how do you help people change habits that feel like a part of who they are? Guess what Questions? The right question is the gateway to freedom and everything you've ever wanted. And here are three of my favorite that motivate me every day, rain and shine. They help me find balance, prioritize and create fulfillment. So the questions are the secret of top coaches, our questions, my favorite ones what am I capable of?
Speaker 1When am I feel that I'm losing motivation or drive or momentum, or life starts losing its meaning or magic? I ask myself what am I capable of? And I start leading with this curiosity and all of a sudden, I have the energy, I have the motivation, I have the drive to get out there and just start doing things that drive me, that make me curious, just to see what's out there. What am I capable of creating and living and manifesting? What am I capable of? The second one am I loving living my life every day? Monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday, saturday, sunday? Am I loving living my life? Do I love my life experience, with all the goods and bads and magic and shit and everything in between? Am I loving living my life every day, with everything that it brings my way? The third question if I had to keep going like this for a decade, would I be fulfilled? And if not, what has to change For me? It's part of one question If I have to keep going like this for a decade, would I be fulfilled, living my life, my days, exactly like they are today? Would I be fulfilled? And if not, what has to change? Because magic like without your actions.
Speaker 1I was talking to my dad yesterday and he's going through this painful experience of arthritis and we were talking about how it's going for him and he said well, you know, it's kind of been better, but nothing seems to change in the moment. And I told my dad well, if you don't change what you do, nothing is going to change in the moment. And I told my dad well, if you don't change what you do, nothing is going to change for the better. That is the most likely probability in life. If you don't change, nothing's going to change for the better. It usually actually gets worse. And so what can you change in your actions to help change in your results happen? So I asked that to my dad and then we talked about a few things, but then the same.
Speaker 1Back to my favorite question, the third one what has to change in order for you to be fulfilled in your life right now or in the very near future? And you've got to change what you do if you're not fulfilled, because if you don't change what you do, nothing else will change. That's just how life goes. You have willpower to create the life that makes you feel fulfilled. You have this power. Are you using it? So these are my favorite questions. And there is magic in questions. When done right, they can pull you up when life pushes you to the ground, change your mind when you get stuck or even make you a million bucks. And then the art of prompting. Do you use ChatGPT? I do. I've been using it more and more for all kinds of research and brainstorming and figuring out different solutions. Just like with ChatGPT, everything is quite literally All the knowledge is at your fingerprints, fingertips. You just need to have the right question. I hope this part of the podcast was helpful. Again, three of my favorite questions that help me motivate myself every day, rain and shine. They help me find balance, fulfill and prioritize. What am I capable of? What am I capable of? Am I loving living my life every day? And if I had to keep going like this for a decade, would I be fulfilled? And if not, what has to change? And, guys, if something has to change, you are the one who has to change this. You are the one who has to change this.
Speaker 1And the second part of today's podcast is dedicated to strategic thinking. Another thing I did this weekend Sunday, I scheduled my strategy session after my walk. Usually on Sundays. Here's my routine I wake up, I do some yoga and I go for a walk by the ocean or somewhere in nature, somewhere where it makes me feel open and expansive and limitless. So usually somewhere by the ocean or where I can see the world from above are two of my favorite spaces. See the world from above are two of my favorite spaces. So on Sundays I go for a walk and then around sunrise and then I have my strategy session, thinking about the future that I want to create and all the strategies that I can put together, implement, start working on to make it most likely to happen. Now the question to you guys do you love question yet Do you believe you can predict the future? Do you believe you can make your future happen? Do you believe in this Premortems and pre-parades, something that I tried this Sunday?
Speaker 1I finished the book last week, decisive how to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, and I learned about a strategy to predict the future and it's a strategy for making better decisions Because, guys, at the end of the day, the future that you want, it's one of the possible futures and the only thing that is between you and that future are the decisions that you make and actions that you take as a result of those decisions. Two well, one cool strategy that I found especially fascinating and I wanted to implement it right away. I just like with anything, any piece of knowledge, if you don't use it, you're going to lose the value that is locked in it. So I finished the book and I really loved this strategic decision-making framework.
Speaker 1When you think about your future Ah, took a sip of water. When you think about your future the future that you desire for me making a million bucks by the end of 2025. And then you do two things you think about pre-mortem and pre-parade. What does it mean and how it can help you to reach your goal by the end of 2025. Pre-mortem Think of your goal, in my case making a million bucks by the end of next year. Now imagine it didn't happen, like it just didn't.
Speaker 1Ask yourself these questions what stopped you? What problems got in the way? And those problems can be internal you making the usual stuff that you make when you get in your own way or external problems the economy you making you know the usual stuff that you make when you get in your own way or external problems the economy, the world, the business, competition, whatever that might be Like. What problems got in the way? Based on your experience, based on your knowledge of the world? Ask ChatGPT for ideas. That's also a legitimate strategy. Yeah, so that goal that you want to happen by the end of 2025, it didn't happen. Why didn't it? What problems got in the way? What choices did you make or not make?
Speaker 1Make a list, look at the problems that you put together and then ask yourself which ones are most likely to happen. Based on my prior experience, what can you do now to make them less likely to happen, so your success is more likely to happen. So this is what pre-mortem is all about, and you know your history. That is where remembering your past and your history and analyzing it actually is helpful. You look at your past and also keeping in mind the knowledge of the future and you ask yourself, like when I missed my goals, when I failed, what did get in the way? Very often it's ourselves, with our emotions, with our non-working patterns and habits. Like, what got in the way of me making a million bucks by the end of next year? Make a list and address the problems, put systems in place so the problems don't happen or are much more likely to happen. And then the second part of this exercise of predicting, of making your future happen is pre-parade Now same goal making a million bucks by the end of next year.
Speaker 1But now imagine it worked out. It worked out better than you could think of. You have all the clients, you have all the business, you have everything that you wanted to have by the end of 2025. What made it happen? What did you do to make it happen? What actions, partnerships, systems help you succeed? What do you need to focus on now to make that happen? Clients, marketing partners, systems, software hardware. What is that? And another good question what systems do you need to handle this success? If you got all your dreams clients right now, the clients that you want to work with, if you got your like 10, 20, 30, or whatever your number is clients right now, what do they need from you so you could serve them well? And what's missing between that state and your current state and then bridge the gap, build those things in advance, so when your dream clients start coming, you have everything you need to serve them at a highest level possible.
Speaker 1Pre-mortem and pre-parade, I did this exercise this Sunday and the things that I need to focus on got obvious, and that knowledge is based on my prior history, the knowledge of the industry, coaching and corporate coaching specifically and I put together an action plan, a simple one. It's a strategy session, so it's not step-by-step solution what exactly all the tactics and everything that you're going to use. No, it's more about high level view of how you're going to make decisions and choices from now on to create that future that you desire, that you say you are committed to. Pre-mortem and pre-parade and again, I got it from the book Decisive how to Make Better Choices in Life and Work, and I'm going to link this book in the show notes for you. So, to sum it up today we talked about the most effective strategy to coach yourself or anyone to change questions and and my favorite questions that help me to prioritize, feel fulfilled, get back to balance, pick myself up when life pushes me down, change my mind when I feel stuck and just love living the life that I'm given. So my favorite questions pre-mortem pre-parade If you're truly committed and serious about creating the future, you want that. This will definitely help you, and it's not just based on my experience, but experience of some of the best investing firms, decision makers and people who achieved quite a lot of amazing in this world.
Speaker 1Check out the book Decisive and that is linked in the show notes. And don't forget, guys, if you found this podcast useful, please do share it with at least one other person who you believe might benefit from it a lot. Let's make the world a better place for all of us together. I'm creating this podcast as a part of my service to the world, my service to you, so please do share if you want to spread the magic and tools to live our best life experience we are capable of. Thank you so much for tuning in. Have an awesome day and week ahead and stay tuned. For Wednesday we're going to talk about how to optimize your brain's performance so you can indeed get out there and create a lot of amazing things. Stay tuned and chat to you soon.