Feel Better, Live More with Dr Rangan Chatterjee - #135 BITESIZE | Why Mindset Is The Key To Achieving The Life You Want To Live | Marie Forleo

Episode Date: November 27, 2020

The power to achieve anything you want in life is within you - whether it’s improving your health, starting a business or getting a relationship back on track. Feel Better Live More Bitesize is my new weekly podcast for your mind, body and heart. Each week I’ll be featuring inspirational stories and practical tips from some of my former guests. This week’s guest is Marie Forleo, a US entrepreneur, writer, philanthropist and an unshakeable optimist. Marie explains why a growth mindset is so important and how comparing ourselves to the curated lives of others online can be toxic. She suggests practical ways we can counteract this by choosing to create before we consume. Marie has interviewed many successful and influential people and she reveals the one thing that they all have in common. She believes you should do everything you can to follow your dreams. Your contribution and voice matter and your gift is unique - there never has been or ever will be another you. Show notes and the full podcast are available at drchatterjee.com/86 Follow me on instagram.com/drchatterjee/ Follow me on facebook.com/DrChatterjee/ Follow me on twitter.com/drchatterjeeuk DISCLAIMER: The content in the podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or other qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.  

Today's Bite Size episode is brought to you by AG1, a science-driven daily health drink with over 70 essential nutrients to support your overall health. It includes vitamin C and zinc, which helps support a healthy immune system, something that is really important at this time of year. It also contains prebiotics and digestive enzymes that help support your gut health. It's really tasty and has been in my own life for over five years. Until the end of January, AG1 are giving a limited time offer. Usually they offer my listeners a one-year supply of vitamin D and K2 and five free travel packs with their first order. But until the end of January, they are doubling the five free travel packs to

10. And these packs are perfect for keeping in your backpack, office, or car. If you want to take advantage of this limited time offer, all you have to do is go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more. Welcome to Feel Better Live More Bite Size, your weekly dose of optimism and positivity to get you ready for the weekend. Today's clip is from episode 86 of the podcast with the brilliant Marie Forleo. She's a US entrepreneur, she's a writer, she's a philanthropist, and above all, she is an unshakable optimist. Marie explains how you can achieve anything you want in life and why the world needs your unique voice. When people are trying to make change, mindset is clearly very important. And I just

wonder if you could expand a little bit on why you think it's so important to have the right mindset. And if people don't have the right mindset, can they change it? A fixed mindset, just for folks that aren't familiar, is when you believe that whatever talents, abilities, strengths, or skills that you were born with, that's it. Like you've either got it or you don't. And no amount of hard work, no amount of effort, no amount of training is going to make you better. It's just, again, you've either got it or you don't. It's a very limiting mindset. You kind of operate from this place of scarcity, from competition. A growth mindset, on the other hand, is when you understand that whatever you

were born with in terms of talents, gifts, abilities, or skills, that's just a starting block. And you can absolutely grow and improve and become better over time through effort and through dedication and through failure. So you actually embrace challenges. You don't shy away from them. You look for opportunities to kind of test your skills and maybe even scrape your knees because you know, I'm going to learn something and that's how I'm going to grow. So that's really kind of the core difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. And so I think when it comes to learning anything new or changing our lives, 80 to 90% of the game is mindset. Because if you don't believe that it's possible to change, you won't.

If you do believe that it's possible to change, that's again, 80 to 90% of it. The mechanics of any change, of regaining your health, of starting a business, of getting a relationship back on track, of feeling better in your day-to-day life, I don't think the how-tos, quite honestly, are that complicated. They're usually not. In some rare instances, absolutely, yes, there are some things that, again, as a society and collectively, we still have a lot to figure out. But making some profound changes in your personal life on a day-to-day basis, we know what to do. You just have to believe that it's possible and then have the follow-up and the follow-through to see it happen. In the era of technology, when every day we can see what our friends and what people around us

are achieving amazing things, our daily life can never ever live up to the highlights of someone else's Instagram reel, frankly. Yeah. Well, so let's talk about comparison for a moment because I think comparison is creative kryptonite. You are never going to come out feeling good when you compare yourself to others. It's always a losing proposition. So that's one thing to recognize. You know, when I was in college, I was a party girl and I liked to party a lot. And I used to go to the bar and drink this awful liqueur. It was called Goldschlager. And I remember just drinking way too much of it one night and just completely thrown up in the bush. And the reason I say that is because, you know, having a Goldschlager hangover was horrible. You just felt

so sick for days. These days, people do shots of Compare Schlager online, on their Instagram feed, or floating around the internet, or wherever it is that they kind of consume all of that comparison and doing shots of Compare Schlager. And then for days, if not weeks, they're off their game. They're not really creating. They're not in rooted in their own gifts and talents and the difference that they want to make. They're like trying to bounce off what someone else does and thinking through their own life in terms of how they're measuring up or not with people around them, which again, completely takes you off track. So I think that it's important to recognize how you feel after you engage with your phone. One of the best habits you can build is to create before you consume. So rather than wake up

in the morning and scroll your feeds or take in your email or look at the news, create a stronger mind through meditation or start writing the next chapter of your book or get a workout in, like create a stronger body rather than just consuming passively the work of others. And if you just build that habit in, anytime you're going to go to consume something, is there anything you'd like to create first? And if the answer is yes, do that. And you'll see before you know it, the ratio will shift where you're creating a lot more than you're consuming. And then comparison becomes a thing of the past. In all those interviews that you have done, are there common themes that come up from a whole variety of different people

in different industries, doing different things? Are there some common themes that you have learned that all of these different influential people are doing or sort of principles that they are applying in their own lives? They believe that they can make a difference, meaning that their contribution, their voice, their ideas, their product, their service, whatever it is that they're up to, they actually believe in it. They believe it has merit and value

and that it could actually make a difference. And I've seen that to be true across the board. So again, it could be an author, it could be a scientist, it could be someone who started some kind of business or a creative in any sense. There's something in them that believes that they have value and that that value is worthy of sharing. Whenever anyone says like, what do I have to offer?

Everything's been said before, everything's been done before. All of these other people who are so much more experienced or accomplished, they've already got it in the bag. There's no room for me. Here's what I would say to offer. Everything's been said before. Everything's been done before. All of these other people who are so much more experienced or accomplished, they've already got it in the back. There's no room for me. Here's what I would say to you. Think back to Oprah in her early days. What if she said to herself, you know, this Phil Donahue guy who's got all these talk shows, he's really got it covered. There's really no room for me. There's no, why should I do this? He's already done it all. Or think about, let's say, Beyonce, right? Can you imagine her just going and looking out in the music landscape and going, you know what? There's

already enough pop stars. There's just all the world ever needs. Why am I going to sing my songs and dance my dances and add my voice to it? It's all been done before. Or I think about this in a really small and acute way. So I love eggplant parmesan. And I have a particular restaurant in New York City. It's a tiny mom and pop kind of shop. So I love eggplant Parmesan. And I have a particular restaurant in New York City. It's a tiny mom and pop kind of shop. It's called Peperoso. And I often think about like, can you imagine when whoever started Peperoso, they started it and they were kind of unsure. They said, you know, it's New York City. There's enough Italian restaurants. There's more than enough eggplant Parm. We don't need to add our eggplant Parm to the mix. I would have missed out

on so much eggplant Parm goodness if they didn't add their voice and their creation to it. And what people don't realize is that when you have a dream or a gift, a product, a service, a message that you want to create and share with others, if you don't actually bring that thing to life and do everything in your power to share it, you are stealing from those who need you most. Why? to share it, you are stealing from those who need you most. Why? Because there never has been, and there never will be another you. Your genius is unique and your DNA is unrepeatable. And if you don't do everything you can to follow those dreams and to share your gifts with others, the world will have lost something truly irreplaceable, which is you. irreplaceable, which is you. I hope you enjoyed this week's Feel Better, Live More Bite Size.

Please do spread the love and the feel good vibes by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And for more content from me, please do sign up for my weekly newsletter at drchatterjee.com forward slash subscribe, where I share every week things that I do not share on social media, topics that I'm thinking about, quotes that I'm pondering and articles that have moved me that I think may move you as well. And sometimes even music that I'm currently listening to. Around 100,000 people already subscribe. You can check it out at drchatterjee.com forward slash subscribe. As always always i'll be back next week with the long form conversation on wednesday and the latest episode of bite size next friday have a wonderful weekend