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219. Challenge Changes You · Your Enriched Self

0:15
Speaker 1: Hello, my friends from all across the globe, and welcome
0:19
Speaker 1: to Your Enriched Self Podcast. I am your host, Myleine Noir.
0:24
Speaker 1: I am an emotional wellness and empowerment coach, and what
0:28
Speaker 1: that means is I am looking out for you, particularly
0:33
Speaker 1: your mindset. Listen, you feed your minds all day long,
0:36
Speaker 1: but what are you feeding your minds? When was the
0:40
Speaker 1: last time you spent time understanding what you're thinking and
0:46
Speaker 1: why you're thinking about it? If you haven't done that exercise.
0:50
Speaker 1: That's what we do here each and every week on
0:54
Speaker 1: the Your Enriched Self podcast. And I know if you're
0:56
Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, you were brought here on purpose,
1:02
Speaker 1: for a purpose. So I want to thank you for
1:04
Speaker 1: being here, for choosing to be here. There are many
1:07
Speaker 1: places you can be in these podcast streets, but you're here,
1:11
Speaker 1: and if you are a repeat listener, I want to
1:13
Speaker 1: thank you. We are now at episode two hundred and
1:18
Speaker 1: nineteen and I have to thank you. Because of you,
1:23
Speaker 1: we are still able to provide a weekly podcast, So
1:29
Speaker 1: thank you from the bottom of my heart. Now, before
1:32
Speaker 1: we get into the episode, if you know, you know
1:35
Speaker 1: one of the things I do each and every week
1:38
Speaker 1: is I make a deposit into the bank of you,
1:43
Speaker 1: and I do that by way of affirmations. Affirmations are
1:49
Speaker 1: a great way to start your day and to command
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Speaker 1: your mourning. And this week's affirmation is every challenge I
2:04
Speaker 1: face is shaping me from the inside out. Every challenge
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Speaker 1: I face is shaping me from the inside out. Every
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Speaker 1: challenge I face is shaping me from the inside out. Now,
2:29
Speaker 1: let's get ready for this week's episode of the Your
2:33
Speaker 1: Enriched Self podcast. I want the people who feel like
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Speaker 1: they are struggling or they have come upon hard times
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Speaker 1: or tough challenges. I want you to come to the front.
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Speaker 1: This conversation is for you. It's really for all of us,
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Speaker 1: because if you're not going through thing, you've been through
3:02
Speaker 1: a thing, or you are going into a thing, and
3:06
Speaker 1: a lot of those things end up being challenges, struggles,
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Speaker 1: new things that we need to learn about our jobs
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Speaker 1: or life in general, adopting or adaptations of things that
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Speaker 1: we never thought we would have to participate or partake
3:27
Speaker 1: in just because life is changing, or as many people
3:31
Speaker 1: would say, life is lifing. So I want everybody to
3:34
Speaker 1: really come up to the front in this conversation. I
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Speaker 1: really like when topics like this help people understand scientifically
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Speaker 1: what's happening. A lot of times we talk about these concepts,
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Speaker 1: and we have these conversations about self care and soul
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Speaker 1: care and thought processes. But I really love when science
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Speaker 1: ties it together and you get to see how not
4:03
Speaker 1: only are you changing and you're seeing the physical changes
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Speaker 1: in your life, but you are also changing internally, Like
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Speaker 1: there's physical things that occur in our bodies when we
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Speaker 1: go through life and go through these challenges and tough things.
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Speaker 1: And that's really what this week's episode is going to
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Speaker 1: explore is doing hard things. And I know you've heard
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Speaker 1: someone in your life or maybe you've self stated this
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Speaker 1: as a talk track or self talk to help you
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Speaker 1: through difficult moments. Right maybe you're having a difficult workout,
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Speaker 1: you're doing something new in a workout and it's really challenging,
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Speaker 1: or you're having to have a tough conversation with someone.
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Speaker 1: This conversation is not just about pushing the limits. This
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Speaker 1: conversation is going to help you understand how you are
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Speaker 1: literally changing your brain and I want to help unpack
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Speaker 1: that for you to lean into the discomfort. Yes, I
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Speaker 1: know we say do hard things, do hard things, and
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Speaker 1: there's a reason for that today, there's a scientific reason
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Speaker 1: that when you do these hard things that you're of
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Speaker 1: course challenging the comfort zones, but you're also getting true change,
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Speaker 1: you're getting true growth, and it really helps you understand
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Speaker 1: the resilience and the importance of having that peace in there. So, yes,
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Speaker 1: we've heard a thousand times to do the hard things.
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Speaker 1: I'm sure someone has said that to you along the way, right,
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Speaker 1: that new skill, that new workout. Like I said the
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Speaker 1: tough conversation, you're building your character, but you're also building
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Speaker 1: neural strength. So this conversation today is about the neural
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Speaker 1: science of struggle and why your brain. Yes, your brain
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Speaker 1: grows when you choose challenge over comfort. And I've talked
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Speaker 1: about doing hard things the comfort zone, all of those
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Speaker 1: things in the past, right, I've talked about getting out
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Speaker 1: of the comfort zone and all those things in the past,
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Speaker 1: and today I want to tie it up together with
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Speaker 1: how your brain, first of all, responds to a challenge.
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Speaker 1: There is a science of the AMCC. The AMCC, and
6:37
Speaker 1: I'll put this in the show notes, is the anterior
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Speaker 1: mid singulate cortex. Not AMC the movie theater, but AMCC, right,
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Speaker 1: and it's a part of your brain that activates when
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Speaker 1: you're faced with discomfort in purpose. So you got some
6:59
Speaker 1: discomfort with purpose. So I want you to think about
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Speaker 1: your brain like this. I want you to think about
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Speaker 1: the mental muscle that you are building, that is growing
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Speaker 1: when you persist through the struggle. So, for example, I
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Speaker 1: have been talking all year long about my workouts, about
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Speaker 1: the challenges that I've had on these workouts, and it's
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Speaker 1: so interesting. I was having a conversation with a friend
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Speaker 1: of mine about how I've increased my weights. I remember
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Speaker 1: when I first started. My gym offers several different classes,
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Speaker 1: and there is a powerlifting class, and I remember when
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Speaker 1: I started a class. I started with some really low weights,
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Speaker 1: and for a long time I had said to myself,
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Speaker 1: you have a weak upper body. I said to myself,
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Speaker 1: my upper body is weak, And I just kept replaying
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Speaker 1: that same story. That belief system, right, and I just
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Speaker 1: kept that muscle memory going that that's my story. That's
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Speaker 1: my story. Well, as I've progressed, as I've learned to
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Speaker 1: not just choose weights, but choose foods and choose fuel
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Speaker 1: and do all the things along the way, I'm growing stronger.
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Speaker 1: And so yes, I've grown stronger physically but I'm also
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Speaker 1: getting mental muscle from going through the hard things. And eventually,
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Speaker 1: as I was explaining to talking to a friend of
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Speaker 1: mine about the fact that how I started this course
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Speaker 1: or this class that I took that I take regularly,
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Speaker 1: and how I, you know, carry the weight or use
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Speaker 1: the weights or select my weights is so different than
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Speaker 1: when I started. And it's because of that mental muscle,
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Speaker 1: not just that I'm getting physically stronger, but mentally I'm
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Speaker 1: willing to because they don't tell you what weights to get.
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Speaker 1: There's a suggestion, but I go now and I get
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Speaker 1: weights because I know that I can test those limits
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Speaker 1: and I can persist through the struggle. It's not easy,
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Speaker 1: but I'm persisting through the struggle. So I'm sending new
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Speaker 1: neurological messages to myself. And that's where the AMCC comes in.
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Speaker 1: And it's linked to a greater sense of purpose and motivation. Right,
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Speaker 1: It's linked to higher emotional regulation and stronger resilience and willpower.
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Speaker 1: So essentially what happens is every time you do something
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Speaker 1: hard and you stay with it keywords stay with it,
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Speaker 1: you are literally strengthening the region that helps you find
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Speaker 1: meaning in the hard things. And I know that you
9:58
Speaker 1: right now are thinking, WHOA, Because when I heard this,
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Speaker 1: I thought, you know, I've been challenging myself, but I
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Speaker 1: didn't understand what was happening. I'm not only getting stronger physically,
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Speaker 1: I am getting higher emotional regulation. I can manage my
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Speaker 1: emotions better. Right. My willpower is stronger, my resilience is stronger,
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Speaker 1: all because I'm deciding to persist through that struggle. So
10:30
Speaker 1: what's interesting here again is that your brain doesn't grow
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Speaker 1: when it's comfortable. And I always talk about the comfort
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Speaker 1: zone and how the comfort zone keeps us, you know, quiet,
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Speaker 1: and it keeps us stagnant, and that is so true.
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Speaker 1: Now there is science to back up the conversations we've
10:50
Speaker 1: been having, and growth happens when you're outside of the
10:55
Speaker 1: comfort zone. Growth literally happens physically in your body. That
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Speaker 1: part of a region of your brain actually physically grows
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Speaker 1: when challenged with intention, right, So think about that. The
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Speaker 1: other part of this is that when you choose challenge
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Speaker 1: over comfort, it literally rewires the reward system inside of
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Speaker 1: you choose challenge over comfort, And I know that doesn't
11:28
Speaker 1: feel right, right. It's kind of like putting on some
11:30
Speaker 1: brand new shoes, right, But I promise you the benefit
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Speaker 1: is what happens is your brain releases dophamine not just
11:41
Speaker 1: when you succeed, but when you engage in effort towards
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Speaker 1: something meaningful. I mentioned this, and I keep going back
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Speaker 1: to my workhouse because I spend a lot of time
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Speaker 1: in the gym. But I remember, or recall a few
12:00
Speaker 1: months back, by early summer, my trainer had us do
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Speaker 1: this crazy workout where we had to put ninety pounds
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Speaker 1: on our back while we planked, and she actually demonstrated
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Speaker 1: how to do this exercise and how to do this plank,
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Speaker 1: and she had somebody put, you know, the first forty
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Speaker 1: five pound weight plate on her back and then the
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Speaker 1: second forty five pound weight plate on her back, and
12:29
Speaker 1: then she asked us to go do it. And my
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Speaker 1: first instinct, my first thought, the words that came out
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Speaker 1: in my mouth is that's something she does. That is
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Speaker 1: not something I do. And how many times do we
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Speaker 1: limit ourselves by saying those words? Now? What transpired Now,
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Speaker 1: I do understand what happened in a neuroscience way, right.
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Speaker 1: What I did after that is, of course, my partner,
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Speaker 1: because we were partner exercise. My partner demonstrated the same
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Speaker 1: and he was able to execute it, and he said
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Speaker 1: to me, I think you can do this right. I
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Speaker 1: did the first plate for the forty five pound plate,
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Speaker 1: and then the second forty five pound plate. What happened
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Speaker 1: in that moment is that my brain was rewired to
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Speaker 1: see the rewards in the process, not just the outcome.
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Speaker 1: The reward is I am now able to do something
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Speaker 1: that I initially declared I couldn't do. I initially said
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Speaker 1: was not a thing that I do. It's a thing
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Speaker 1: that she does, meaning the trainer. But now I'm getting
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Speaker 1: that reward. It started to shift my relationship with this comfort.
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Speaker 1: And I've been on this journey not just to be healthy,
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Speaker 1: but to challenge myself on my health journey. It's not
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Speaker 1: just about getting healthy and eating right. It's all of
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Speaker 1: those things, but it's also to challenge myself along the way.
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Speaker 1: And part of that has helped me to shift my
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Speaker 1: relationship with discomfort. You know, initially what happens is you
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Speaker 1: fear the growth. Now I'm in a position where I
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Speaker 1: crave the growth. I want to be stronger. I want
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Speaker 1: to be stronger by way of new challenges. I want
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Speaker 1: to be intentional about those challenges. I'm willing to do
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Speaker 1: things that when I first started this journey back in
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Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, I wasn't as willing to do those things.
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Speaker 1: I saw those things as things I cannot do, things
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Speaker 1: I've never done, and I kind of left it there.
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Speaker 1: And as the time has unfolded and I started getting
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Speaker 1: that reward, and I started getting the rewiring of the brain,
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Speaker 1: and I started to choose more challenge. I've always liked
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Speaker 1: the challenge, but I started choosing challenge more than comfort.
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Speaker 1: And once you start doing that over time, which is
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Speaker 1: what happened to me and what is probably likely happening
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Speaker 1: to you or will happen to you, because let's face it,
15:21
Speaker 1: in life, you are going to be faced with challenges.
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Speaker 1: That's just part of the story of life. But to
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Speaker 1: know now that you're gonna be rewarded, and over time,
15:34
Speaker 1: as with me, your brain will associate that reward with
15:42
Speaker 1: the effort or the effort rather with a reward it
15:46
Speaker 1: will know. Your brain will now know that every time
15:49
Speaker 1: you put in these additional efforts, you will get a reward.
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Speaker 1: And what that will do is make your resilience, your
16:01
Speaker 1: default setting, your ability to persist and go through it
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Speaker 1: and face the challenge and handle the struggle. You are
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Speaker 1: going to have a default setting that says you can
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Speaker 1: be and you are resilient, and that's really really cool.
16:28
Speaker 1: That's how the strong gets stronger because it's not just
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Speaker 1: the physical nature of all of this. It's all the
16:33
Speaker 1: things that are happening to you internally, all of the
16:37
Speaker 1: internal wins that you get in this season, and it's
16:43
Speaker 1: an ongoing thing. I really want you to think about
16:49
Speaker 1: doing hard things differently. I mean that is the premise
16:55
Speaker 1: of this podcast is to rethink what we have or
17:00
Speaker 1: or you know, challenge what you've thought before. When you
17:03
Speaker 1: do a hard thing right now, I want you to
17:05
Speaker 1: realize you're not in a state of punishment. This is
17:10
Speaker 1: not punishment. When you do hard things now, you are
17:13
Speaker 1: programming yourself. You're programming your brain right again, learning that
17:20
Speaker 1: new skill that eventually gets you sharper mental agility, Having
17:28
Speaker 1: a hard conversation, which some of us. I know there
17:32
Speaker 1: was a time in my life that I was averse
17:35
Speaker 1: to that type of conversation. But when you get in
17:40
Speaker 1: that and when when you are in a position where
17:43
Speaker 1: you have to do it, you must do it, you
17:46
Speaker 1: need to do it. Think about the clarity and the
17:49
Speaker 1: confidence you get from having that conversation, and that creates
17:54
Speaker 1: for you reward system of your emotional control. Okay, let's
18:01
Speaker 1: talk about hard work, which I talked about that kind
18:03
Speaker 1: of with my workouts. Right, doing that hard workout releases
18:08
Speaker 1: a dophamine which then brings us to a space of
18:13
Speaker 1: resilience again getting on that default setting. So I hope
18:18
Speaker 1: that helps you understand that all in all, struggle creates
18:26
Speaker 1: internal growth. Yes, external growth is great, but when you
18:31
Speaker 1: lean in to the hard thing, you're not just becoming
18:36
Speaker 1: better at the task, You're becoming stronger. It doesn't get
18:41
Speaker 1: easier to do these things, you get stronger. And it
18:45
Speaker 1: is so true. So the AMCC actually grows, emotional control improves,
18:55
Speaker 1: your will power expands. That's why you are now going
18:59
Speaker 1: to be willing to take on the next thing that
19:03
Speaker 1: comes your way, not because you think it's going to
19:07
Speaker 1: be easy. You start to see challenge as an opportunity
19:11
Speaker 1: to change. You start to realize that when you're comfortable,
19:15
Speaker 1: you're stagnant. That means you're not growing and nothing's moving.
19:19
Speaker 1: Everything is kind of at a standstill, at a pause.
19:22
Speaker 1: So challenge champions change where comfort stagnates. Life is going
19:31
Speaker 1: to challenge us. We are going to face struggles, and
19:35
Speaker 1: you're probably in the midst of one today. Like I said,
19:39
Speaker 1: you're probably going through a struggle, coming out of a struggle,
19:42
Speaker 1: or you're getting ready to get into one. However you
19:45
Speaker 1: do it, go into it knowing that at the end
19:48
Speaker 1: of it you will have growth. You will have physical growth,
19:53
Speaker 1: and you'll have an internal growth. Choose to walk in
19:58
Speaker 1: discomfort on purpose. The next time life hands you a challenge.
20:04
Speaker 1: Don't rush to escape the challenge. Recognize it for what
20:08
Speaker 1: it is. Now that you know what it is and
20:10
Speaker 1: what it can do for you. It's a chance for
20:14
Speaker 1: you to grow stronger, for you to get wiser, for
20:18
Speaker 1: you to get more grounded. Then that sound like the
20:21
Speaker 1: type of person you want to be and you need
20:23
Speaker 1: to be. You're training your mind, you're strengthening your brain,
20:27
Speaker 1: and you're creating this emotional core. You're creating this sense
20:32
Speaker 1: of purpose, and you're doing it through the struggle. You're
20:38
Speaker 1: being challenged on the outside with whatever it is you're
20:43
Speaker 1: dealing with, but you're getting built on the inside. I
20:59
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed this week's episode of the Urine ritsub
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Speaker 1: podcast and the Only Way I'm gonna know this is
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Speaker 1: if you leave me some feedback. Feedback is a gift
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Speaker 1: show notes. In the show notes, we have the affirmation
22:28
Speaker 1: of the week, the quote of the week, and there
22:31
Speaker 1: you can also find my Amazon shop that your rich
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Speaker 1: Self shop has two items right now, a journal which
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Speaker 1: the Show Up Everyday Notebook, So check those out in
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Speaker 1: my Amazon shops. And finally, take what you can from
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Speaker 1: this episode and do what you must in the next
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Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty eight hours so that you can
22:56
Speaker 1: become more of your enriched self until we meet again.