[00:01] Welcome to The Focus B Show, where Katie Stoddart, high performance coach, interviews experts around the world in performance and mindfulness. Now, here's your host. Katie.

[00:34] Welcome to a brand new episode of the Focus B show. I am super excited about today's topic. It's a deep and interesting topic on how to transform your life and your business or your work or your career. Essentially, how to transform anything you want to in your life. The first obvious question is if you're listening to this episode or if you're watching this on YouTube, why is it that you're interested in transformation? Because if this catches your interest, it means that there's something in your life that you are fully or truly dissatisfied with. It seems pretty clear if you're looking to transform it, you're not satisfied with the place you're at. So that's the first question. Looking at the different areas in your life your health, your relationships, your family life, your friendships, your work, your finances. Think which area are you most dissatisfied with? And what transformation would you like to see happen? What would you like to put in place? Once you're clear on the outcome that you'd like to have in this area, that's when you can start to put a transformation process in place. But first, you need to be really clear what is it about this specific area, maybe in your health or in your business, that you're not actually happy with? Transformation often comes more from pain than from gain. I E you're more likely to be inspired and motivated to take action by really feeling the pain that you have while staying where you're at in this area of your life, rather than looking at the gain of what it would look like once you've transformed. You'd think, we'd be more inspired by these wonderful visions of us being successful or healthy or happy, but actually it's more the pain that we're suffering right now that motivates us most of the time. Most people are most motivated by pain, although both are nice. So become really clear on this gap between where you are right now and where you'd like to be in one specific area of your life. I'd recommend especially for transformational work because it's so deep and intense to really do it one area at a time. What you'll find is when you start to put the transformation in place in one area, it can impact all the other areas in your life as a bonus. But if you want to transform everything in your life, start by doing it one area at a time. Take the most urgent, pressing need that you have and focus on that one area. So look at the gap. Where is it that you're now? And where would you ideally like it to be? What would the ideal scenario look like? As I've often talked about in many of my other videos, clarity is absolutely essential if you want to see any transformation result or achieve any goal in your life. So the clearer you are on exactly what it is you want to change and what ideal would look like, the easier it will be for you to make this happen, to see the actual transformation. Once you have this really clear picture, you can see the gap. You're really clear on where you're now and where you want to be. Take a moment to think about what is holding you back. It's probably not the first time you've thought a transformation. It's probably not the first time that you've wanted to change. What's keeping you there? Why haven't you changed until now? If your mind and thoughts are coming up with a bunch of excuses such as I don't have the time, or I was too busy, or there were other things, try and look beyond them. What's really there? What's the core reason or the core reasons that you haven't made this change yet? The truth is that we're always gaining something and that you're always gaining something from staying at this place in your life. Whether it's having a conflictual relationship, whether it's having a business that isn't growing as much as you want, or you're not being as healthy as you want, you're gaining something from it. This can be hard to admit because you might not want to see what you're gaining, but it's not necessarily something extraordinary. Most of the time you're gaining at least a form of certainty and psychological safety from staying where you at. Let me explain. When you're used to a certain pattern in your life, whether it's unsuccessful relationship one after the other, or struggling financially or not being healthy, or being slightly overweight, whatever it is, once it's something that you're used to, you become comfortable with it. Maybe you don't like it, but you're comfortable with it. And indirectly or directly, this is linked to your comfort zone. Therefore, and I know this is devious, therefore, some of your unhealthy habits, patterns, behaviors are actually in your comfort zone. They feel comfortable for you. And that can even be struggle. Struggle can feel, neurologically speaking, because you're so used to it, it's comfortable. Therefore, transformation includes leaving your comfort zone. It makes sense. It makes sense to achieve results that you haven't yet achieved, you need to leave this comfort zone which is leaving the ways you're used to thinking, feeling, acting, perceiving the world. All of this needs to change in order for you to obtain new results. So that's the first step to really look at what you're gaining from staying where you are, what is your secondary gain, and start to be honest with yourself, looking past the excuses and really reflecting on what are you gaining through this? Is it helping you to feel certain? Are you comfortable with this? Even if you don't like it? And this is why fear is one of the main obstacles to transformation. Because we're afraid of what we don't know. Therefore, if we stay with the same patterns, at least we know it. It might be unpleasant, it might not be what we want in our life, but it's familiar to us and that makes it comfortable. That's why fear prevents transformation. And courage comes down to not eliminating all fears, but confronting them, observing them, accepting these fears and moving past them. Want to dance with fear and not let it control you. Looking at this comfort zone, looking at the fears that maybe come up perfectly natural when you're doing transformational work. To have fears that come up, look, really analyze them deeply, maybe journal on this, maybe pause the recording or the video and think about it more deeply. Because the clearer you are on what is holding you back, the easier it will be to manage it. Because if you have these obstacles that are holding you in this position and you can't move forward until you're clear what it is that's holding you there, you can't deal with it. So if it's fear, it's fear, comfort zone probably. And all of these are fine, they're just a matter of once they're clear and you've identified them, then you can do something about it. So those were the first two steps, looking at the comfort zone or what are you gaining from staying there? Comfort zone is one of the aspects you could be gaining, then diving into the fear which is directly correlated to the comfort zone. And then we want to look a bit at the beliefs because the thoughts that we have dictate the way we act every day. And the way we act has a direct impact on our results. So it literally goes thoughts and emotions, actions, results. And when we're not used to thinking this way, we can blame outside circumstances and the weather and the political situation and the country. But once we understand that really what we can control is our actions and they have a huge impact on the results, then we start to realize, but what dictates our actions? And those are the thoughts behind them. And thoughts include beliefs. If you believe that you will never be in a happy relationship, you will look for information to confirm you'll never be in a happy relationship. If you believe you can never lead a healthy life, you will act in a way that is unhealthy to confirm this belief, changing your beliefs takes work and can be done through reflection. Journaling, working with a coach, watching my other videos on beliefs. This is also a fundamental pillar of transformation because when you understand which beliefs are holding you back and you start to rewire your brain and your perception to think differently, then beliefs no longer are an obstacle. So we have the comfort zone, the fear, the beliefs. And one of the huge pillars of transformation is identity. Identity work linked to beliefs. But bigger health is a fantastic example. If you're a person who's always been overweight, let's say, and you want to be this really dynamic, healthy, slim person and you just can't manage to do it. You've done the strategy, you do the work and you go that whole seesaw up and down, up and down. Maybe it could be identity work. Because if this is something that you've had your entire life, then you think of yourself as an overweight person, for example. And then if you want to become this totally different person, there's a part of you that thinks, yes, but that wouldn't be me, because you don't see yourself as this type of person or as a slim person. That's just an example. In health, it can be exactly the same with the pattern of unhealthy relationships or with a struggling business owner. If you started your business for several years and you've always struggled, then you have this identity belief or view or perception that you are a struggling business owner. And then stepping into the shoes of a successful business owner can be a huge shift. The transformation I feel, really lies in the identity work. So yes, comfort zone, fear, beliefs, but they're all tied in some ways to the identity. What needs to happen is you need to shed your previous identity to leave room for this new identity to grow a bit like a snake letting go of its old skin. This can be done in multiple ways and is really the fundamental pillar and core of inner transformation. First of all is identifying. It identifying what identity you feel and you see for yourself, identifying which one you'd like to have, and then looking at what is tied to this identity. So once more, the beliefs that you have around this identity, maybe the habits, the behaviors, maybe also the role models you have around you, your peer group, because all of this influences your identity. It's easier to change if you're surrounded by new people that see you in a new light than if you're surrounded with the same peers. Because if they've always seen you as the smoker and you want to stop smoking, it'll be hard to change your identity. Still possible. But that's one of the ways that can influence the way you see yourself. And then as you gradually shift identity, you start to think, if I was a nonsmoker, a healthy person, a really successful business owner, how would I act, how would I think? A bit like role playing. Start to put on this new identity just from time to time, see how it feels, get used to it, put it on a couple of minutes, couple of hours, like trying on a new cloak. Because while you do this, you're gradually rewiring your brain to think differently and you're transforming your identity. The more you get used to thinking, as a healthy person would, as a successful business owner would, the more you'll find that you're taking these actions and then your outside world will shift. The results will change on the outside, which will send messages to yourself. And you'll think, oh, I am doing quite well, or I am becoming a lot healthier. And then you can start to think of yourself as healthy or successful or happy relationships or whatever area it is you're working on. I choose health, relationships and business because it's three of the most common areas in general, but can be absolutely anything from friendships, from family life, it can really be any area you're working on, any pattern, any addiction, anywhere you're seeking a transformation. So it begins within, as all transformational work, you knew this was coming, the work is within and then that impacts the outside. As I said, through changing your actions, it changes the outcomes and then this mirrors back to you, reverse back to you and you think oh wow, this is going really well. So it changes again your internal world and it's a virtuous circle and that's how transformation happens. It begins within with the identity work and then as you see results in the outside world, it confirms the internal work, but first the internal part needs to take place, the thoughts, the emotions, the actions. Actions could be seen as external, but they're so directly linked with the thought process that it's a mixed. So this is really where all the transformational work happens? With the identity, with the beliefs. Looking at your comfort zone, looking at what you're gaining from where you're staying at, and being super clear on what you want to achieve, what it would look like, what beliefs do you need to have? How do you need to perceive the work world around you? And then you will see magic start to happen. And transformation is a very interesting journey because it isn't a straight line, it can go through many ups and downs and variations and you might just suddenly find from one day to the next that indeed you have whatever it is, lost weight, earned money, it can be anything. But the one day to the next happens because before that you've done weeks, months, years, it depends of transformational work. But the results don't come in a linear way, they don't just fall every day to confirm that you're doing well on your journey. That would be too easy, that would be too much confirmation. Wonderful. So this is really the essence of transformational work, of how you can go from where you are if you're not satisfied in this area of your life or your business to this wonderful outcome. Results of the transformation of the change that you want to put into place and obvious tools such as journaling to get deeper insights on your identity work and your beliefs and where you want to be. Or meditation, which helps you to have a clear mental space and more mind place so you can think effectively and working with a coach or a therapist or someone to dig these answers out of you and help you embrace this transformation and put it in place. It can involve quite a bit of emotional work, so managing your emotions around this is also essential. Taking time to rest and recuperate and reflect because it's something that slowly seeps in and you need to embrace it and ground it. I hope this episode has been useful for you. It's a wonderful topic. There's so much to be said around transformation. I am extremely passionate about this topic, so I hope that you've enjoyed it. Please let me know in the comments or in the review what you've taken away from this episode, how this has helped you in your life and what you will be implementing. Thank you so much for tuning in. Please subscribe to the channel. If you want to see more videos like this one, share with a friend, a family member, someone that you think can benefit from it. And thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you.

[20:34] You thank you for listening to the Focus B show. We would love to hear your feedback. Let us know in a review how this episode inspired you. Keep buzzing.