Hi, guys, and welcome back to another episode of Change Wired Podcast. My name is Angela Sharina, I'm your host, I'm your change agent and coach, an executive coach with more than 15 years of experience in fitness, nutrition, health recovery, productivity, flow states, executive coaching and leadership development. And here I'm sharing with you my passion and together we are discovering tools from research, from the best of the best in psychology, in sports, in business. We are learning all these tools that work, that have proven to be effective, tools to help us change faster, change better and, ultimately, to unlock more of our potential while we are alive, creating the best life experience that we absolutely love living. Today, guys, tomorrow I'm having one of the biggest deals, or presenting the offer for one of the potentially biggest deals in my life so far and that can unlock so many more other business opportunities. And it's just an opportunity that aligned so well with the future in which I'm moving with my consultancy firm in change, leadership and culture transformation, and I am nervous, but I'm using one of the best tools known, at least from all the literature, all the tens of books and podcasts and all the best in their fields. Again, whether that's sports performance, whether that's business performance, one of the best tools to remove anxiety and allow yourself to do your absolute best. And that's the thing. Research shows, guys, that when we are nervous, when we are worried, when we are too much in our heads, you probably know that we don't do our best job, we don't speak in our best capacity on stage, we don't do the best we are capable of in tests, which is not our best. So how do you reduce the nerves? And, guys, nerves are a sign, one of the signs that you are operating or about to operate, about to do something outside of your comfort zone. And the reason why it is so important to take on more assignments or more tasks or more challenges outside of your comfort zone things that you're not ready yet, for that you are not good enough. For the reason why we need to take more of this is that's the only way to grow faster and continuously keep reinventing ourselves and increasing our capacity to do better, to grow and to increase our impact and things we accomplish in this life.
Take an athlete why so many athletes grow so much faster than a regular person I'm talking about professional athletes and also why so many people, when they feel they need to grow, they sign up for all kinds of fitness competitions, from some CrossFit competitions to some Tough Mudder, to marathons, half marathons. Why do people do that? Because something in us know that in order to grow, we need to have some sort of competition. We need to have a task that is outside of our comfort zone. And that's what athletes do. They sign up for a competition, they decide that they're going to run for Olympics, they decide, or they are chosen, to compete in the next level game, in the next level arena, and the preparation for that competition. That's what makes them grow, makes them grow, get better, makes them increase their capacity to perform.
Speaker 1Just like this four-minute mile by Bannister. He trained and trained and trained and then he improved his capacity. He beat the record and then a bunch of other people beat it as well. But in order to improve his capacity, he needed sort of milestone, something to reach towards, and that's how we grow. It's kind of like trees and the sun. The tree grows because it sees the sun, it gets all these nutrients and there is space, but it looks like it's reaching to the sun. Reaching to the sun, you know, like reaching to the unreachable, and in the way of and while doing that we increase our capacity, we build up our skills, we improve, we grow, and it's very important. It is essential for our growth to reach for the things outside of our zone of mastery, of our experience and expertise, and swing at things that we are not ready for yet in order to increase our capacity, and at some point we're going to become ready for that thing, but then we're going to be reaching for the next thing. So the more we learn how to work outside of our comfort zone and take on bigger and bigger challenges, bite bigger and bigger chunks of different tasks or different projects, so the more we do that and the more often we operate again outside of the zone of our comfort and our mastery and what we're already good at, the faster we grow. So that's why it's important to swing at bigger things, and athletes, professional athletes especially are great examples of that. They increase their capacity, they grow more and faster the more challenging competitions they sign up for.
But but we also want to do our best, if not winning, then just giving ourselves the best chance at succeeding, and so we need to remove as much of this nervousness and worrying as possible. And how do you do that? There is actually a very simple way, a proven tool by psychology researchers, and it's used in therapy, it's used in coaching. How do we remove nerves and worrying in order to give ourselves the best chance to perform at our best? I always start with question. I always start with question. I understand that not all of the things are in my control at all and there is no guarantee that any of us win. You know, just like Olympic athletes, you do your best, you prepare, but then you go to the arena to compete with the world's greatest and, yes, there is no guarantee, no matter how much you prepare, that you're going to win.
Speaker 1But what do you do in this case? You ask yourself this question what do I need to do to give myself the best chance at succeeding? What do I need to do? How do I need to prepare to give myself the best chance to succeed? And back to my example of pitching for the biggest project in my life so far. So I ask myself this question what do I need to do my best job to give myself the best chance at succeeding?
Well, I could learn from people who've done it. I have a few workshops on crafting, winning offers from other consultants. I can listen more to that and implement the advice, the tips that they have given. I can ask AI to help me craft the best offer that it can create, based on best practices. I can prepare for the presentation itself and ask AI to ask myself all the tough questions so when I'm asked those questions or similar questions, I'm not caught off guard and I have prepared my answers. I can then do the run through my presentation. I can then make sure and set up lighting and the environment and branding, so I also create a feeling of trust in people who I present to to and that I can show up and get into action, focusing on my client, my potential client, and their problems and how I can do my best to solve their problems. And yes, I also can sleep well, so my head is clear. I can eat well and exercise, so all of my machinery in my brain works the best, and then I let it go.
Speaker 1So here are two things. Number one, this question what can I do to give myself the best chance of succeeding? It focuses me on my zone of control. What's in my control? What can I do to ensure the best possible outcome? What happens exactly? It's out of my control, like who's going to be there, what mood they're going to be in, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But what's in my control is the preparation, is the environment, is all the work that I can do in advance, given the timeframe, given the resources that I have. It does this beautiful thing. It helps me to focus on what's in my control. It helps me to take more action. And what research shows?
Speaker 1Taking action reduces or completely eliminates anxiety. It gives us more confidence. It creates energy needed to take action to again prepare the best we can and then giving ourselves the best chance at succeeding. But the main idea here is taking action reduces or eliminates anxiety altogether and boosts your confidence. And you boost your confidence because you take action and you prepare better, and just this fact is going to give you more confidence. And the more also we work in the zone of our control, the less anxiety we feel, the more confidence we feel and the better we perform. So focus on what you can control and take action in the zone of your control, and that's how you reduce anxiety, you increase confidence and you give yourself a better chance, much better chance at succeeding. And there is no better way to focus yourself on the things you want to focus on, like what's in your control, than questions Asking yourself these specific questions in some form or shape. What can I do to give myself the best chance at succeeding? How should I prepare to give myself the best chance at succeeding? And then you take action and again, reduce anxiety, increase confidence and do your best, and that's how success happens. So focusing on what we can control and taking action in the zone of our control is what reduces anxiety, boosts confidence and gives us the best chance at succeeding. So, to recap, you can only grow as fast and as far as many challenges outside of the zone of your comfort you can take on.
So my challenge to you in the upcoming days, in the months in front of you in April, to take as many swings at bigger things as possible, with doing your best at focusing on what you can control, taking action there and focusing on getting better. It doesn't matter how many successes you're going to get from those bigger swings, but what matters is you learn, you increase your skills via taking on all these challenges and practicing new skills, and that's how you grow and that's how, at some point, you're going to be succeeding beyond what you thought was possible for you. That's how athletes do it. Not everyone's going to win at the Olympics, obviously, but everyone who swings at getting there to the arena is going to get better, a lot better, than people who don't, and that's as simple as that. So, winning, guys, it feels good, it's amazing, but that's not what makes you grow.
Speaker 1Swinging at bigger things, taking things, taking steps in your control to be good enough to have a chance at winning, that's what makes you grow learning, expanding, taking on bigger challenges. So, again, my challenge for you for the month of April is to simply take on more challenges, bite bigger chunks of everything that is on your plate. Just say, yes, I will. And bite and do your best at preparing and becoming the best version you can be while preparing for this big swing, this big competition, this big project, and do it repeatedly and see where you go. So, take this challenge for the month of April. Whatever things you thought, oh, I can't do that. It's this challenge for the month of April. Whatever things you thought, oh, I can't do, that, it's too big, it's too complex take it on and see what you're capable of doing. That's it for today, guys.
Speaker 1Don't forget to share this episode with at least one other person to just talk about that, about this concept of swinging at bigger things, and maybe share it with that person. Who you can talk about that or who can challenge you to take on bigger things, because very often our own head protects us from swinging at bigger things. So who can challenge you? Share this podcast episode with them and buddy up and challenge each other for the month of April. And don't forget to stay tuned for the next episode this Wednesday, where we're going to talk about wellness tips that help you grow, that help you to rewire your brain a lot easier. Stay cognitively flexible, adaptable, so you can succeed in the future. That is changing too damn fast. So stay wired, get wired, get rewired until the next episode and take the challenge. Challenge yourself more.