We need to be conscious to master ourselves.

We all have loops of unconsciousness.

We gain mastery of our health, our habits, our lifestyle, our relationships, our lives when we learn how to be conscious.

The old patterns are traps. They keep us stuck.

We must form new methods, create supportive structure, automate beneficial and desirable habits.

To do that, we must become conscious, aware.

1: Unconscious Incompetence

2: Conscious Incompetence

3: Conscious Competence

4: Unconscious Competence

We all have cravings and excuses. The question is what choice do we make when we have them?

When you are hungry, do you just eat whatever, or do you have a strategy of how to eat to make food work FOR you and stay in alignment with what you know is best?

If you are feeling super stressed or tired, do you forgo your workout or do it anyway?

When it’s time to wake up but you don’t feel like getting up, do you stay in bed or get up anyway?

I say, if you struggle following through, you have habituated a non beneficial pattern of response to discomfort, and/or you are bound up/controlled by your emotions and feelings so they are in charge, not you. It’s time to start imbedding and automating the healthier choice so that becomes your new pattern.

To master something, it takes repetition.

It doesn’t happen at all without consciousness every step. Mindless repetition gets us nowhere.

My violin students don’t get very far just by playing their violin each day. They get better with conscious awareness of what it is they are doing compared to what they know they must do. Practicing poorly just ingrains the things we don’t want.

The same goes for all things we want to be excellent at.

Note: We won’t be able to get and keep that which we don’t ultimately believe we deserve. Listen to this podcast to hear more about this concept: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-ed-mylett-show/id1181233130?i=1000615260390

Feeling great and knowing I am serving my God given purpose in my one life requires that I show up every day. If I only show up sometimes, I am ingraining the attitude of mediocrity, even creating distrust and therefore disrespect toward myself.

Great intonation doesn’t happen with sometimes attention.

Is it hard? Yes. But do isn’t staying stuck and unconscious.

We have to always be contending for it. It’s an upstream swim. It’s a fight. It’s a forever pursuit. I look at it more like a quest. I think it’s wonderful to be in pursuit of consistent and continual growth. I believe that aligns with what God wants for me.

Growth has stages. It requires consciousness to even know what stage I might be in.

Mindless, habitual, non aligned behaviors that don’t help me be my best are SO easy to give into, but are destructive long term. An example is being stressed out and opening the pantry as a trigger response.

Stress is the cue, opening the pantry is the action, being comforted by favorite foods (the ones we usually eat when stressed) is the reward.

We must find a new action and way to deal with stress. It takes practice. Consistent practice. Sometimes practice and sometimes giving in won’t work. Sorry!

It’s easier to stay in momentum than it is to start stop start stop.

What does it serve, what good is it to give in to the excuses or the cravings that provide pleasure only momentarily and give up the great feeling of knowing that I’m doing my best and living closer to my potential in this gift of life I have been offered.

Each breath is a gift.

Each movement is a blessing.

I don’t want to waste it.

Mindfulness comes when we are clear about what we want, why we want it, how we will get it and awareness of how we feel and think while on the journey.

Ask:

Are my words, thoughts and actions in alignment with what I really want and what serves that the most?

What am I actually doing?

What would the person I would be most proud of do?

What is the difference between the two?

Now, how can I take steps to get myself there?

The better the questions, the more curious we are, the better the answers and the outcomes.

#onelifecoachingwithkim

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