Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 3 - Episode 84 - Uncertainty can be used for your greater good

Transcript

Season 3 - Episode 84 - Uncertainty can be used for your greater good · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

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  Welcome to the Good Morning From the Chicken Coop Podcast with
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  Kim Johnson, your creative strategist and mastermind set
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  coach. Filled with inspiration,
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  distinctions, perspectives, and possibilities, we help you to
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  cultivate a mindset that leads you to create the best version
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  of yourself you could ever imagine.
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  Join Kim every morning from one of her favorite happy places,
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  her chicken coop along with all her chickens.
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  Hey, everybody, good morning from the chicken coop.
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  So with everything that's going on in this world and how quickly
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  and fast-paced it seems to be every day, if it's not one
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  thing, it's another. I would like to talk to you
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  about living with uncertainty. So we all have it.
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  We all understand what it means. We all understand the concept of
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  uncertainty. And I think that for most of us,
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  we don't realize how much of it is around us and how much it's
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  played upon every day in our media, in our families, and how
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  much time we as human beings spend thinking about what if if
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  this goes on, if this goes on, if this goes on.
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  Now don't get me wrong, that is an actually really good part of
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  who we are that we can project and future pace and think about
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  something and say how will I handle that if this happens?
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  The challenge we have is when it comes into our lives and stays
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  there and it just ruminates in us, it gets into our bones, it
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  gets into our very fiber, into our soul and it creates havoc
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  because we can't stay in that state.
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  Part of our well-being, part of our psychological well-being as
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  human beings is to gain certainty and it makes us feel
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  safe, right? We all need safety, We all
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  understand the concept of basic human needs and we all need
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  shelter. We all need food.
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  We all need to feel like we have a safe umbrella, if you will.
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  Well, when you stay in uncertainty, it does a lot of
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  things to your biochemistry that are not great.
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  So on a very basic level is why they say stress is the worst
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  thing for your health. Well, it really is Because when
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  you stress all that, that energy has to go somewhere and it
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  shifts your biochemistry. So that's why people who are
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  very stressed out have heart attacks.
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  Typically it leads to other behaviors that aren't great as
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  well, such as abuse of alcohol, abuse of food, abuse of drugs,
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  abuse of sex, lots of different things.
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  Because that stress, that is energy, and that energy has to
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  go somewhere. So you can't just like ignore
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  it. It's got to do, you got to
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  transfer it into something. That's why if you quit smoking,
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  let's say, often the person you're working with to help you
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  quit smoking will say, well, we have to replace that with
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  something. If you replace that habit with
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  something, well, think of the habit as energy.
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  That energy has to go somewhere. So uncertainty for us is a huge
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  build up of energy that blocks us, it blocks our systems.
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  And the more we focus on uncertainty, the more we
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  actually get uncertainty. Because as you've heard me say
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  and you will continue to hear me say, it's such an important
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  factor to realize energy is everything and emotions are
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  nothing but pure energy and their potential energy, right
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  That can go in either direction. It can go left or right, it can
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  go to the dark side, to the light side, however it is that
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  you want to look at it, but their emotions are pure energy.
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  So when we start focusing our attention on uncertainty and
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  giving it undue attention too long of an A stint with it, we
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  do ourselves psychological damage and we do ourselves
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  physiological damage. So why am I bringing this up
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  today? Well, it seems that lately
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  again, here we go again. With all the drama of everything
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  that's going on in the world, you can't escape it.
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  It's always been this way. However, since we've had the
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  pandemic, it's gotten more and more and more intense, and it
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  seems to get more and more intense because they have to get
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  our attention, because we have been desensitized.
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  So everything is made into drama, everything is big,
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  everything is huge. And we have to choose to dial it
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  back in our heads and we have to decide how we want to show up
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  and who we want to be. The fundamentals of this process
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  are pretty simple. I can tell you shut the news
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  off. I can tell you to do tactical
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  things. I can say, you know, for those
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  of you who want to be informed, you can dive in for one minute,
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  set your timer and say, let me just take the USA TODAY version
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  of the news and walk away. But even at that state, it
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  doesn't mean you're letting it go afterwards.
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  It doesn't mean that you're going about your day and you're
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  not having it dwell inside of you, having it sit there and eat
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  at you all day long, because that's what it does.
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  So how do we actually live in with uncertainty?
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  What do we do with it? Well, the fundamental piece that
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  I think is so critically important is to constantly be
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  monitoring your attention where it's going.
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  If your attention and you find that your attention is
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  constantly floating, to worry, If you find that your attention
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  is constantly going to uncertainty, well, I don't know.
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  I don't know. Listen to how many times a day
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  you use the words. Well, I don't know because
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  that's that actually denounced the fact that you are in
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  uncertainty and you're kind of processing, looking for answers,
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  but you don't know how to get there.
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  And that in itself is stressful. You've got to become OK with not
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  knowing. You've got to become OK with it
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  doesn't matter how much I know or I don't know.
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  What matters is that I'm OK when I do know.
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  So for me, I'm hyper certainty driven.
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  I want to know on a Monday what we're doing on Friday.
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  I want to know where we're going to eat.
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  I want to know how the whole year is going to lay out.
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  I get very hyper focused on things like that and I have to
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  work really hard personally on not driving everyone crazy
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  around me because I might like certainty.
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  But my husband does not even come close to that.
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  So I have to realize it's his space too.
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  And when I get over certainty driven, I push that to him and I
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  look to him for answers. And he's a guy that's like OK
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  with not knowing. He is, he is really great with
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  uncertainty. He's just like, all right,
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  whatever's going to happen is going to happen, and he can just
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  check out and let it go. So the first thing you have to
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  do is recognize you don't need to know everything.
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  And it doesn't help to know everything.
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  I remind myself constantly, this isn't something I need to know
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  right now, but I do need to be healthfully prepared and taking
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  care of myself. So if something does show up, I
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  can be good to deal with it. The second thing is you need to
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  monitor that internal dialogue and ask yourself how much am I
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  saying? I don't know, I don't know, I
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  don't know. And is that creating angst in my
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  body so that you can stop that process and slow it down and say
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  I don't need to know I am OK not knowing, I am OK not knowing.
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  I am fully equipped to be able to figure this out on the fly.
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  That's one of my favorite statements to tell myself I can
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  figure this out on the fly. I'm good because I'm centered
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  and I'm taking care of myself. And the third thing is really
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  start to dial back how much you tap into things that bother you.
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  It it becomes an addiction in itself.
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  So shut the news off. Don't pay attention to
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  everything because tomorrow is going to be the same thing and
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  you can always catch up if you're someone who's really
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  addicted to it. Just realize you could skip a
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  whole week and come back and you'd be hearing the same crap
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  all over again. So it's really important to pay
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  attention to that. Dial it back, go to things that
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  make you happier. Go to things that make it easier
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  on your soul so that you don't have to deal with it non-stop
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  and give yourself a little break and a little grace and realize
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  this is a practice. This isn't going to happen
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  overnight, but it's the beginning that I wanted to
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  introduce you guys to and we will talk about it more.
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  And this is awareness is the fundamental piece of it.
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  So let's start there and I will see you guys tomorrow.
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  Have a great day.