Welcome to Mindset, Mood and Movement. A systemic approach to human behavior, performance and well being.

When we think about our lives, our businesses, our actions, a lot of the time we're thinking about our choices. Now choice is such a beautiful thing, it's a gift, it's a power that we all have. But my invitation for you today is to think about, is it your choice? Now I'll expand. So this came into mind recently with many of the coaching sessions, but I was working with someone and we were working on them making a different future. So we won't get into all the details, but nice and simple. We were taking them from where they are into somewhere in the future. Now, The way our mind works and the brain, it uses information today, right now, and it goes into the memory banks and goes, Oh, what do I know? So with my client, they were wanting to change their future, what I call vision thinking. Now they said to me, Hey, I want to go do this, this thing in this area. And I said to them, Is that your choice? And they were baffled. They stopped for a moment and they went, Yeah, of course it's my choice. And I said, hold on, let me just slow you down for a second. Is this your choice today? Is it your choice right now about the future? Or is it predicated and built on your past experience and your past narrative? And that opened up a wonderful conversation to help this person move to where they wanted to go. So today's episode, I want to talk about choice and is it your choice? So let me expand. I was, um, I was in the kitchen earlier and I was feeling a little peckish. Now what I noticed was one of these, look at that. Oh, it's beautiful. Shiny red. I think it's a Royal Gala apple. It's delicious. Now I thought I needed a snack. So, obviously my body was telling me that's the choice. And I looked and I saw this apple. So, I hadn't gone in deciding to eat an apple. I was drawn to it because in my visual field there was the stimulus. Now it's a simple analogy. This is pretty much how marketing and media works. But something in our field of awareness, we start to connect to it. So let's expand upon this even more. Another client I was working with who was, Looking to shift their identity. So they are a founder, like many of the people I coach, and they're looking to shift their identity from where they are and the limitations that that had to where they want to go. And the big issue that we really had here was they were holding on to the past. And I said, well, you know, again, whose choice is this? Their idea that they needed to be this particular person and they couldn't move on was really not serving them at all. Their idea was built from what their parents had told them. Their idea was built on what culture had told them. And they hadn't stopped to think like, is this my choice? So my invitation right now for you is anything you're going to be choosing, like you're choosing to listen to spend time with me. And thank you for that. Is it your choice? Now, of course, if you picked up on the title and you're interested, then it's peaked your interest. But what we want to get into as we're moving through life is how do we make choices, which are as clean owned as possible. Um, I see this all the time. I work in the space of increasing performance, increasing fulfilment helping people have a peace of mind. That happens when we are living by choice. So whose choice is this? Now on another podcast recently, which I can put some links in, my business friend, Ben Johnson, we were discussing his world peripheral thinking, thinking on the margins. And Ben shared a really interesting idea with me, which is called lean mind. Now Ben's work is infused by Buddhism and other practices. Mine, my work's infused by a synthesis from psychology to Eastern practices to philosophy, many, many fields, multiple fields. But one of the things Ben said, and I've got the notes here. He was talking about being intentional with clarity, and it really struck me with this concept about whose choice is it. If you are intentional, like really intentional, but with clarity, yes it might be the choice that you want to earn a certain amount of money. You want to grow your business, and that may be intentional and built on the fact that, you know, that's what you'd like to do to be in a level of life that you'd like. And that's okay. The intentionality plus the clarity was really revealing and this is Ben's principle of a lean mind. He also said about not holding on, which is, you know, a very Eastern principle, a very Buddhist principle, you know, non attachment. And he shared with me this thought about that you don't have to let anything go. You just need to know where you're holding on. And I was really intrigued by this principle because if we're holding on to an idea, If we're holding on to a belief, if we're holding on to an identity, client, you know, anything like that, we are stuck. And then the question gets posed, is that our choice? So around this whole premise, I bet if we pick an example in your mind about something you did in the last 24 hours, was any of it your choice? Now, if we were in conversation, you might say to me, of course it is Sal, I chose to do this thing, I chose to contact that person, I chose to make that decision. But actually most of our choices are influenced by people, parents, culture, media, it happens. The mind of the smart thinking person says, I understand this and accept it, but I'm going to clarify that and clean that up a little bit and go, is that a choice I want to make in this moment going forward? And that helps separate us out from the world. Unconscious, or perhaps non conscious way of living, to a highly conscious, intentional way of living. So whose choice is this? My invitation for you is, as you go about your next six hours, making choices, wherever it is, ask yourself, is this my choice? Food you might be doing, something you might be watching, someone you might be speaking to, a business decision you might be making. Is it my choice? And at that moment, reflect on all the influencing factors that might have built that. And then notice, can you clean that up a little bit? Can you be intentional? Can you make it your choice, even with the influence of life around us? Because here's what I know, everyone I've coached that wanted more purpose and more performance, was far more aligned when their purpose and performance came together because it was their choice and like a cleaner choice as opposed to people I've coached who've got to a high level and gone, I've been really successful. I don't feel that fulfilled as a person, as a business person. So it comes back to this intentionality and choice. Can we clean it up? That's my invitation for you to play with. Do let me know what happens. Do let me know if you have some insights around your choice making faculties. And then ask yourself, is it my choice? Can you own it? Until the next time, take care.

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe, and if a friend would benefit from hearing this, do send it on to them as well. If you would like to get in touch with Sal, then you can go to my website, which is saljeffries. com, spelt S A L J E F F E R I E S, saljeffries. com. Hit the get in touch link, and there you can send me a direct message. If you'd like to go one step further and learn whether coaching can help you overcome a challenge or a block in your life, then do reach out and I offer a call where we can discuss how this may be able to help you. Until the next time, take care.