Tag Archives: habits

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Episode 092: Reaching Your Full Potential with Shannon Kaiser

Learning to Embrace Your Authentic Self

Are you living up to your full potential? If not, why aren’t you? Odds are, you have unknowingly developed habits that are actually holding you back. In today’s interview I talk with someone who has learned how to recognize, confront and overcome these damaging habits.

Shannon Kaiser Adventures for your soul

Today’s Topics

In today’s episode, our guest and I talk about:

  • Getting past our distractions
  • What is the “joy route”
  • The effect of limiting beliefs
  • Learning to love and accept yourself
  • The importance of self care

About Today’s Guest

Today’s guest is named one of the Top 100 Women to Watch in Wellness by Mind Body Green, and labeled a modern thought leader on the rise by Café Truth. She is an inspirational author, speaker, travel writer, and life coach who left her successful career in advertising to follow her heart and be a writer and the best selling author of Find Your Happy, Find Your Happy Daily Mantras, and the new book, Adventures For Your Soul: 21 Ways to Transform Your Habits and Reach Your Full Potential.

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The 5 Hidden Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Lessons in Greatness from Peter Voogd

Expressing your desire for entrepreneurship 15 years ago would have created laughter and an assumption you’re crazy. The tables have turned, and entrepreneurship has become one of the most respected and intelligent paths to take. It’s saved our economy and continues to move our culture forward.

The 5 Hidden Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Dream “jobs” are disappearing fast, while creating your ideal opportunity is the new normal. A lot of people are getting into entrepreneurship with a blurred perspective. They think all they need is passion and work ethic. Those people are in for a rough ride, unless they learn these simple yet powerful tactics.

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How Leaders Use Rules to be Good…and then Break Them to be Great

“If we do what comes naturally, we will not be great leaders.”

That’s a quote from an upcoming podcast guest, Hans Finzel (check out Episode 24 in about two months). No one is a naturally great leader. By default, we all have characteristics that prohibit us from being great leaders.

Shyness, self-centeredness, inability to handle conflict, reluctance to speak up, not listening to others’ ideas. The list could go on and on. No one is just born with all of the traits necessary to lead others. So how then do great leaders evolve? I think I learned that lesson a long time ago, but just realized it.

Learning to cook No great chef becomes great by following the rule book. The same is true for leaders. (Tweet That) | Share this Graphic on Pinterest | Share on Facebook

When I was five years old, I began to learn how to cook. Not peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, mind you. I’m talking about chicken and dumplings, lamb chops, pork tenderloins with cherry horseradish glaze, you name it.

I was blessed to learn two very different styles of cooking. My mom’s mother cooked traditional southern cuisine (mmmm…cornbread) while my dad’s mother taught me the art of gourmet cooking.

By the rules

When I first started learning to cook, I had to follow the rules. That meant that I had to mix the cherry horseradish sauce exactly according to the book (the book being whatever my grandmothers told me). I still remember it today:

1 cup of cherries, crushed

1/4 cup of apple cider

2 teaspoons of sugar

2 tablespoons of horseradish

Cornstarch to thicken

The only area where I got to “experiment” or play it by ear was with the cornstarch. It always seemed to require a different amount based on the juiciness of the cherries.

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Breaking Bad Mind Habits

How do you break bad mind habits?

That is essentially the question that Jim Ryan asked last week on the post "Change Your Mind." Here is his exact question:

I’ve been thinking a lot about Mind Habits lately and this relates. To break our bad mind habits takes effort. Any suggestions on techniques that people use?

Breaking Mind Habits is Hard Work
By definition, habit-changing is forced. It’s hard work to replace the familiar with the unfamiliar. (Tweet That) | Share this Graphic on Pinterest | Share on Facebook

Here are five proven ways to change bad mind habits:

    1. Change your terminology. To this point, I have used the phrase "breaking bad mind habits" because it is familiar. But from now on, it is important that you change your terminology and your mindset. You are not breaking a habit, you are changing (or replacing) a habit. Habits do not go away. They are replaced. Just like you don’t stop eating altogether to lose weight, but rather you replace bad foods with good foods, our mission is to replace bad ones with good ones.
    2. Fake it until you make it. As I mention in my reply to Jim, changing a habit is an active process. By definition, habit-changing is forced. You are taking something that is subconscious and familiar and replacing it with something that is conscious and unfamiliar. It takes a lot of hard work. My father used the example of someone who has always used his right hand to turn a doorknob. This person has "practiced" that potentially hundreds of thousands of times. If he tries to switch to his left hand, he must force himself for approximately 28,000 repetitions to use his left hand. The ensuing months will be full of slip-ups and near slip-ups, reminders, and over time the development of a new, ingrained habit. At any point, especially early in the process, if pressure is applied (i.e. a fire in the house), odds are he will use his right hand to open a door. But eventually, using his left hand becomes the new norm and subconscious habit.
    3. Convince Yourself. I’ve gotten flak from some for my belief in the power of visualization and self-talk. Some think that they are too "new-agey" and nothing more than pop-psychology. But I know that they work. I have written about visualization here, here, and here. I have written about choosing to be happy here. These things work. There are two ways to convince yourself of something: to see it and say it. There are two ways to change bad mind habits: to see the right ones and say the right ones. Just like you must fake it at first and act in a manner that may not be consistent with your feelings, you must visualize and say things that are contrary to what you feel at the time. If you are constantly seeing the cloud in every silver lining, practice seeing yourself being positive and say to yourself, "I am a positive, upbeat, happy person" (Or better yet, write your own script).

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