Wake Me Up: Morning Positivity - New Year 7-Day Challenge: Day 7, Stick With It

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

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If you'd like to enjoy Wake Me Up completely ad-free and get access to exclusive bonus content, check out the link in the show notes for the Wake Me Up premium feed, or stick around after the show and I'll tell you more about it. Good morning, friends, and welcome to Wake Me Up, the podcast, where morning people are made. I'm Tyler, your host, as usual, and I'm so thrilled to have you back here for this episode, because it's the last day of our seven-day challenge.

I'm so proud of you for having made it this far. You're so close, so finish it out strong. Today's episode is all about overcoming adversity. Sticking with your goals isn't just something that I would encourage. It's a requirement if you want to accomplish anything you've set out for this week. There's going to be setbacks. There's going to be twists and turns. there's going to be unforeseeable circumstances.

And to bring about the life that you want, you're going to have to see your way through those things. Sometimes the problems will be foreseeable, and they'll be of your own doing. I'll use myself as an example. I so often set goals that are really lofty and exciting. I'm a dreamer, and that's what gets me going. But as I get down to the work, I realized my goal was unrealistic.

I don't have the time for it. And if I try to stick to my plan, then I know I'm going to burn myself out or not do it to the best of my ability. And that's okay. I've learned this about myself, and I've started to see it as a strength. When I recognize that I'm trying to do something too quickly or pushing myself too hard, I just pause. I reevaluate and I rethink what's realistic. It took me a long time to appreciate that this is totally normal. You may not have the same issue that I do,

but these kinds of issues happen to all of us. We're imperfect beings, and we're just trying to make ourselves better. So don't beat yourself up if you're a part of the problem. Accept it and grow from it. That's what this whole journey of life is about. It all comes back to something I've said over and over. This is a work in progress.

Life is a work in progress. I really love the idea of stoicism. It means remaining steady and unchanged when you're faced with fortune and failure, remaining even keeled through both pain and pleasure. That ideology can prove powerful, in sticking to your goals. Don't beat yourself up for mistakes.

We only have happy accidents. When you have a success, that's great. Give yourself a pat on the back and a bit of well-deserved rest. But know that more work is right around the corner. Again, life is always a work in progress. It never ends. And when you can find the fun in that, then you've found the true joy in life.

So we've got another beautiful day lying ahead of us. Let's not waste another moment in bed. Take a big breath in. And on your exhale, roll over and make your way to standing up. Now that we're all standing, let's do a couple of stretches to help wake the body. And of course, if you want to do something else, then go for it. Make sure that you can do these safely, and you're not going to hurt yourself. So take a big inhale and open your arms wide all the way to the sides.

Feel a big opening across your chest. And on your exhale, close your arms. Give yourself a big hug and wrap them around you. Let's do this a couple more times. So inhale and open your arms wide. Reach your hands toward the opposite walls of the room. And then on your exhale, wrap your arms. arms around yourself. Give yourself a big hug. Once more, inhale, spread your arms out wide,

wider than each time before. And then exhale, wrap yourself up, nice and cozy. Feel the stretch in between your shoulder blades. And then relax your arms down. Take another big inhale and reach your hands to the sky. Reach all the way out of your shoulders. And on your exhale, fold forward at your waist. Let everything hang towards the ground. Relax your neck, relax your arms, and maybe have a nice bend in the knee. Slowly roll up vertebrae by vertebrae, all the way to standing, and when you get there, roll your shoulders up, back, and down. If you want to do more stretches, please be my guest. Otherwise, it's time for a bit of mindfulness and meditation. So go ahead and find a comfortable seat anywhere in your home,

and go ahead and grab your piece of paper that you've been working on this week, the one where you did your brainstorming, and you narrowed down your priorities, and you wrote down your goals. The last thing we're going to do with this piece of paper is plot out some likely points of failure. Like I said earlier, we will all run into setbacks. That's okay. And to a degree we want to plan for them.

Even if those specific setbacks don't come up, we'll be thinking about how to adjust and how to adapt. Adaptation is key to success. So, now that you found your seat, look at the first of your three goals, and consider what one or two likely points of failure are. Is it a lack of time? Or maybe you'll have social pressure.

Now go ahead and do this same thing with your second and third goals. Again, just plotting out a couple possible points of failure. I'll give you about 30 seconds to do this. Now that we've thought through a couple possible points of failure, let's think about how we might deal with them. So for each of these potential setbacks you just came up with, think of one way you might adapt to it. And I'll give you an example.

Maybe one of your goals was to quit smoking cigarettes. Well, a common thing that cigarette smokers have to deal with is social pressure. They've smoked with their friends, and they've smoked with their coworkers. People know them as a smoker. And so, inevitably, they'll be around smokers, they might even be handed a cigarette, and they'll have to be able to say no. So preparing that response is extremely important to the smoker's success at quitting.

So for each of these possible setbacks you have, come up with one or two ways that you might deal with it or adapt. And I'll give you about a minute to do that. And keep in mind, you're just brainstorming. There might be a thousand ways to deal with this setback. Just come up with one or two. The point is to get your mind working around adaptation. All right, friends, now you can put your piece of paper away.

And let's meditate for just a moment. It's the last day of our challenge, so I want to leave you feeling on top of the world. Make sure you're sitting nice and comfortable. And take a big breath in, on your exhale, close your eyes. Let's take a couple of deep breaths to get. So inhale, fill all the way into your belly, hold it at the top, and then exhale. Once more now, inhale, filling all the way up, hold it, and release.

Perfect. Now I want you to know I am so grateful that you made it all the way through this challenge with me. You should know that most people start things and they don't finish. Well, you are not one of those people, and I applaud you for that. So in that vein, let's do a little bit of gratitude, and we'll do this as affirmations. So you can repeat after me, either verbally out loud, or just in your mind. I am grateful to be where I am in life.

I'm grateful for the ups and downs I've had so far. I'm grateful for the road I have yet to travel. I'm grateful to have the opportunity and skills to create the life I want. I'm grateful to know I'm capable of accomplishing anything. I'm grateful that I am me, wonderful. Now just sit here with your breath for another moment or so. All right. Begin to bring yourself back into the room, back into your body,

notice the chair beneath you and your feet on the floor. Give your fingers and toes a little wiggle. Take a deep breath in, and as you exhale, slowly open your eyes, and just take a second to gather yourself. Congrats on making it to the end of this challenge. You've already shown that you have what it takes to make your life into whatever you want it to be. You've assessed where you're at. You've owned your strengths and weaknesses, your successes and failures. You've driven self-belief deep into your mind.

You've decided what you want to prioritize in your life. You've set goals around those priorities, and you put them into action. I won't lie to you and say that changing your life will be easy. The road up ahead has plenty of bumps, plenty of twists and turns. But improving ourselves is the ultimate challenge in life. It's a worthy cause to know yourself and to grow yourself. I hope you show yourself the tender-hearted care and support that you deserve. I hope you push yourself to grow beyond every limit you want to be.

perceived. I hope you try everything you want to experience. But most of all, I hope you find true joy in the journey of being you. You have no doubt experienced highs and lows in life, and many more moments in between. And I think you'll agree that there are plenty of highs, lows, and in-betweens left. So whatever you choose to do with your life, I hope that you believe in yourself because you are truly capable of anything, no matter what anyone else says,

so long as you dedicate your time and effort to it. Thank you so much for joining me and taking part in this challenge. I can't tell you how much it means to have had you here for seven days straight, and each of us making something better of ourselves. I hope you realize that my seven-day challenge is making this content. I've been here with you every day, doing my very own version of this. And so I mean it from the bottom of my heart.

I'm proud of you, and I'm so glad to have shared this with you. I hope you've found it helpful and enjoyable. and I hope that you go out. You live your life to the fullest, and you have an absolutely fantastic day. Are you enjoying Wake Me Up? Well, then you should know about the best Wake Me Up experience available, the Wake Me Up Premium Feed.

It offers ad-free access to the entire Wake Me Up catalog, plus monthly bonus content. In just a few taps, you'll have instant access in your podcast player of choice, even Apple and Spotify. There's a seven-day free trial, so you can try it out and decide whether you like it or not before you commit. Just follow the link in the show notes to learn more and sign up. Thanks so much, and I'm looking forward to many more great days with you.