Hello everyone. Welcome to the whole Human Podcast. How are you today? I am so glad that you're tuning in and you are back with me. I am sitting in my updated office and I am just in love. If you follow me on Instagram at it's Kayla jury and are listening in real time, you have seen that John, my husband, has made one of my lifelong dreams come true.

He has put in. To ceiling bookshelves in my office space, and I could not be happier. To say that my heart is so full is an absolute understatement. I get so much joy from being surrounded by my books, and I know I could just sit and stare at them and be with them and around them in such a beautiful, fun space.

It is even more special to know that John made that happen for me in my life has truly been better with him in it. I am so lucky. He is my partner in making both of our dreams come true. And I love that. What is going awesome for you today? What about your surroundings? Are you loving? Is it the room you're in, like me?

Is there sunshine outside as you're listening? Maybe fresh air. Is there crispness in the air? I know it's only January here, so we don't have too much sunshine. Is there a person you get to see? Find something today that makes your heart sing? Like my bookshelves do. . I am so super excited about today's conversation because it is one that I have often with clients of mine, and it's also one thing that I used to do and comes from my time as a classroom teacher.

It has been amazing to know, no matter our age or what the topic is, whether we're six 60 or 36, the things that we have to work on the most are the things that happen in between. ears. Our thoughts are what help us show up for ourselves. They are what help us feel happier, see the world different. They help us accomplish things and they keep us moving forward in life.

So I find it so fun when there's an activity I was able to do with my elementary schoolers and translate it to working with adults in varying areas of their life. When I say that, I don't want you to think, oh, how belittling that she thinks my brain is like a child's brain and it's, it's not belittling at all to do things the way creative children do.

Like I said, all brains have thoughts and all the thoughts are the things that we need to work on. A brain is a brain, no matter the age of it. , but also imagine if we could still have a childlike mind, a mind where everything was possible, where everything was exciting, where there wasn't heavy baggage from the realities of life.

Bogging it down. We've all said that before of like remembering back to what that felt like. So it's not belittling. A brain is a brain and childlike creativity is. . But with that being said, let's get after it. This isn't going to be a very long episode, but it's still gonna definitely come with takeaways and homework at the end.

So as this podcast has started, we've lined up with episode after episode to kind of talk about your goals. I've used. as I've begun this podcast in the new year. Um, it's a big time where a lot of you are setting goals and I'm gonna kind of wrap up that theme today. And I know so many of you have done the homework that has come along with the episodes and you've sent it to me on Instagram and I have been.

So thrilled about it. Just today I was having a conversation with Colena. She sent me her goal and what I love that she did is she really followed the episode, um, I believe it's two, where I talk about how I have beef with smart goals and I'm not a fan of smart goals. And she shared with me her real goal, rooted in her why, and did a fabulous job of breaking down her progress markers so that she can track.

All the way there. Right now we're talking about a step by step plan in the dms, um, that go with those things. But I love that because when we're thinking about our why, we are more likely to stay focused on what we want in the end and becoming that person who has reached that goal. But that doesn't mean that just because we have a great why, that it will be easy.

There's a really fine line in my mind between the idea of manifest. And action. We can think a lot and do I love that. If you have listened to every episode of the podcast, if you have been in my life for any moment, you know that I love. To think I love dreaming, planning, wishing and plotting. It's all my favorite, but all of that doesn't matter if we can't uphold the action.

I can dream all day long about speaking Spanish with people as I'm walking around or randomly being able to start a Spanish conversation or being able to speak fluently with my mother-in-law. Until I practice it, my Spanish isn't just going to appear to me in the moment, right? I can dream and think and plan and plot, but until I take action on my thinking and my dreaming and my planning and my plotting, , it's not going to happen.

So it's really important that we take those things and put that into place too. And when we plan and when we take that action, we have to be prepared and expect hard times to come. Action is a really hard piece of it. If you're assuming because you have a strong why, that great plan, you're starting at your foundations like we've talked about that it's gonna be easy peasy.

No problem. Then we are forgetting a massive piece to the puzzle. Called life. Having that plan, having all of those steps makes it easier, but we can't forget how life will life. We have to be ready for anything to happen, kind of like we talked about in our choose to and try to episode. If you haven't listened to that, go back and listen to that.

Today I want to talk to you about a strategy that I. even when very simple, very doable. That is what we do here. We make things simple so that you can apply it right away and at the end I will give you your homework to make sure that you do. So. At the beginning of the school year when I was teaching, I would do an activity like most teachers do, where I would create our classroom rules or guidelines or constitution.

With my new class of students, we would spend a couple days thinking of how we. Feel how it would look like when all of us are involved in feeling that way, and then whitt those down and group them up into like three general guidelines for our. Every year I would type them all up and I would print them out and I would put them on poster paper.

Then the next day I would have them all stand up in a line and I'd have my one one at a time. So they're all in a line and one at a time, my students would come up and they would have them raise their right hand and we would be all serious. Like, and I would say, do you Justin agree to uphold our classroom rules to the best of your ability even when you wake up late and rush to.

And he would say, I do, and he would sign our big poster. I would go kid by kid, but as I did the even whens would change? Do you, Michelle, agree to uphold your classroom constitution to the best of your ability even when you wake up late and your baby brother pukes on you. They would all giggle and she would agree, and she would sign, she'd make her crazy face, right?

Do you, Zach agree to uphold our classroom guidelines to the best of your ability even when you wake up late, your baby brother pukes on you and you trip and fall on your way to breakfast. Oh, now everybody's catching on. They're giggling a little more like ew. Puke sign and agree. From baby puke to bad haircuts to your hair turning blue or your hair falling out to alien invasions and having three arms, we would promise to uphold our values.

It was a serious and silly activity, but what it did was brought us together to show us how there are things in our life that will come in our way that will try to trick our brain into not doing the things that make us feel good, to not uphold the guidelines. That we set for ourselves. When you are creating a goal and you are creating a plan, and you are creating steps to become your best possible future you, you are creating new guidelines for yourself, those guidelines.

In order to become that future, you need to be honored and need to be upheld. Even when there are some of you who do wake up late, who do get covered in baby puke and do trip and. This is life that happens. But so often we allow things like that to change the dedication that we have to our guidelines and to our goals, to who we want to be in the future.

And they stop us. They distract us. They trick our brain and keep us from doing the things that will actually make us feel better in that scenario. If you wake up late, you're probably feeling frazzled and you're like, Ugh, I have no time. I'm not going to be able to do this. I can't go on my morning walk, but maybe your morning walk is the thing that helps you feel better physically and mentally every single day.

But when we wake up late and we get frazzled, the first thing that goes is that guideline. To what's gonna keep us feeling our best. The first thing that goes is what we need to feel physically and better feel physically and mentally better in a time when we need it the most. Our brains are tricky creatures and what we need to do.

Is to control our brains, to take ownership of our thoughts and our reactions, and maybe your first reaction. You feel like it's hard to control that one. That's okay. You get to choose your second thought after that. in. Even when we can take something that we know about ourselves, know about our patterns of our reactions, and plan for them and think ahead to them and start reflecting on things that have happened in the past and prepare ourselves for even whens for the future so that we can uphold our new guidelines to become that new, wonderful person in the future that we are dreaming of.

That has reached our. What are things that happen in your day-to-day that might stop you from those guidelines, from those goals, from those action steps? What are things that don't happen in your normal day that might happen in life? Right? With my students, I said alien invasion. Not likely. With you, you can think of things, right?

Your car gets broken into, you get in a car accident, you know, all sorts of different things like that. Maybe your daycare gets canceled or the snowstorm comes. There's a lot of different things. Being tired, busy, cold on your period and having cravings. These are all things that can stop us, but we can work on our goals.

Even when I will work on my goal, even when I'm tired, I will work on my goal. Even when I wake up late. I will work on my goal, even when I'm cold. I will work on my goal even when I'm busy. I will work on my goal, even when I'm on my period and having. Cravings. And how we do that is we use a different sentence starter.

So you can start with saying, I will work on my goal, even when, but that's kind of like ahead of time. That's us right now predicting that. But when you're in the moment, I want you to try on these sentence starters for size, see how this fits on you. I am tired, but I am still able to fill in the. Maybe that is go on a 10 minute walk, maybe because you woke up late, you don't have time for your 45 minute walk, but maybe you still have time for a 10 minute walk.

That is you still upholding that guideline of your daily steps of you still working towards reaching that guideline to the maximum ability that you have that day. You are still working on your goal. I am cold, but I am still able. , what are you still able to do even if the cold is trying to stop you? I am busy, but I'm still able to, I'm still able to make 10 minutes for myself to sit down, do some deep breathing and journaling because I know that me time that fill my cup time is what helps keep my brain even what helps keep my stress lower.

It's what helps me arrive as a mother, a friend, a boss, a coworker, my. , I'm on my period and having cravings, and I'm still able to eat the chocolate. Eat the ice cream. Yes, but you're still able to also add in a salad if that's part of what your goals are, because a salad makes your body feel better. Right?

Maybe you're that person who loves broccoli and you're like, I'm on my period and having cravings. But I can still also add broccoli today. Your homework today is to think what has life already thrown at you today that is challenging you from upholding the guidelines that you've set for yourself to become that future you to be getting a little bit better every day?

What are those challenges? What is life already thrown at you today? You have to rearrange what your brain is thinking. Our brain is tricky, but we can control. What has happened to you this week so far, or over the weekend that has distracted you from thinking about and focusing on your goals? What are your things that you have to be prepared for?

Even when I am tired, but I'm still able to, I can reach my goal even when send those sentence starters, send to me your, even when. In my Instagram dms, I would love to hear from you. Like I've said, and I've said this in every episode so far, hearing from you is the best part because the whole human community would not be community without you.

As my listeners, my clients, everybody who shows up and part takes, I cannot wait to hear what you say and to help keep you motivated and excited, all the way to upholding those guidelines to being your best future. You.