Hi, brave hearts. This is your girl, Coach Dawn Damon, and today I am absolutely giving you solid gold. This is gold. You don't wanna miss that. Because you know what? You are one decision away from changing your life. Now, maybe your life won't change overnight, but you can change the trajectory; that's always a hard word to say, you can change the trajectory of your life with one decision, because decisions shape our destiny, especially when they're backed up with action. And you're a woman of action, I can tell. If you weren't a woman of action, you probably wouldn't enjoy this podcast

Now, listen, one of the first things that you can do, before I get started with all of this today, is one action I strongly recommend is to get my program on the Brave Life Transformation. Get the keys to the car and drive your own life. Get out of that ditch, okay? You can make changes that will improve and advance your life. So I'll leave the link in the notes for you, but it's braveheartedwoman.com/bravehearted-transformation.

All right, today, four things that you need to do to bring change into your life. And if you are saying, "You know what? I'm just this way. Nothing I can do will make a difference. I've always been this way. My family's this way," hey, I'm gonna interrupt that noise right now. Those are not true statements. I know they feel true. I know, thus far maybe they've been true, but they're not true. You can change. Your brain can change. Your actions can change. You can change your vocabulary. You are empowered to make a difference in your own life based on what you think and what you choose. All right, so I'm gonna give you four things today. You ready? Hook up. Here we go.

Number one: know exactly where you are. Oh, yes, that's like you think, "Okay, I should duck because you're gonna throw something at me. Really, that's the first one?" Well, of course it is. You can't create a meaningful future if you're unwilling to honestly assess your present reality, where you are right now. Because denial is a beautiful thing, but it's also a painful thing. Sometimes we can overlook, minimize, excuse, deny, or block out the reality of where we really are in life. And when we don't pay attention to where we are, things can go out of control faster and further than we really wanted. Many women spend years wishing things were different while avoiding a truthful inventory of their lives. Don't be that. Don't avoid it. I know it can be painful, but it's so important. Where are you thriving? And where are you struggling? What habits, relationships, and beliefs or circumstances are producing your current results? Because listen, awareness is not condemnation, it's just information. Because if you don't change what you're thinking about, the relationships you have, anything in your life, this is where you will be next year as well. So every breakthrough begins with clarity, a clear picture. Know where you are. You can't chart a course forward if you don't know where you're starting from.

So here are a few things you can ask yourself. Ask yourself, what's working in your life right now? I mean, where are all the green lights? It's go, go, go time, and it's just really working well for you. And then what isn't working? Be honest. What's not working? Is your morning routine working for you? Are your habits working for you? Is that friendship really working for you? Is that an eating habit, or is that an exercise habit, or is that a vocabulary habit really working for you?

Ask yourself this: What patterns keep repeating? Life leaves clues, and patterns come around, and you're going around a mountain, and after about the second or third time, you should begin to recognize, oh, this is a pattern right here in my life. What would I like to do about it? Would I like it to continue? Would I like to change it? Would I like to modify it, or would I like to end it? You get to decide, but you gotta be aware of it. Ask yourself, what am I tolerating that needs to change? We do tolerate things. I learned a saying a long time ago that you cannot complain about what you tolerate. Listen to what you're complaining about, and then ask yourself the question, am I tolerating it? Am I putting up with it? Either change it or quit complaining about it. But also do an inventory. What are the consequences of putting up with what you're putting up with? Is it keeping you stuck? Is it for your benefit? So number one, write that down, where am I right now? And I can help you with that. If you need a one-on-one, if you need to take the assessment of where I am, my current situation, it's in the transformation course that I mentioned to you at the top of this episode.

All right, number two, it'll make sense. Should I duck? Know exactly where you wanna go. Of course. A destinationless life will just drift. You'll just end up somewhere, anywhere. If you don't have a vision or a plan, I guess it really doesn't matter. But you don't need to figure out every little detail, but you do need a compelling vision. You hear me say that a lot. What is your compelling vision? What is your one clear passion? What is it that you see or hope for? And if you don't see anything, it's because it's being blocked by all of the confusion and the circumstances that you're in right now. What do you want from your life? And not just from it, but for it. What do you want for your business or your ministry? What do you want for your finances? What do you want your relationships to look like right now, one year from now? Many people focus on what they don't want, but successful transformation focuses and begins when you become crystal clear on what you do want. If you see it, you will move toward it. When you see it, you've given your brain a roadmap, instructions, bring me here, and your brain will go to work for you to figure out how to do that.

So here are the questions to ask yourself for where I wanna go. If nothing were impossible, what would I pursue? And I love the word pursue, pursuit. I love chasing after the dream, going after... I'm not saying the ridiculous impossibilities, but there's much more possible than what we might think about. Pursue, run after your dream, brave heart. Number two, what kind of woman do I wanna become? You don't have to stay the same. You are becoming. You can become. Now, at our age, I watch things, not to judge, but to learn. I watch to educate myself on what I wanna do and what I don't wanna do, and right now I'm getting a whole big fat lesson on what I don't wanna do. I see things around me. I see friends around me. I see situations, and I recognize that after a few years of knowing people, I could predict this today in your life because of how you were living yesterday, because of what you didn't take authority over yesterday, because you wouldn't confront yesterday, and so you became not a better version of yourself, but you became less than you had hoped for. Don't do that. Be honest with yourself. What kind of woman do you wanna become? I know who I wanna be. I know what kind of woman I wanna become. Get clear on that.

And then, what do you wanna be known for? At this point in life, we're all thinking about our legacy to some degree. What are those things that are gonna be said of you during th- the end of your life, maybe even after you're gone? Well, you don't have to wait. We can grab onto that right now. Do I wanna be known as a great author? Sure. For being a lovely woman? Yes. A loving woman? Of course. Do I wanna be known for being a brave-hearted cheerleader that led the way for other women? You bet I do. What do you wanna be known for?

And then finally, the question to ask yourself is, what would success look like for you in this season? And it doesn't have to be spectacular to be significant. You know, often we think, oh, you know, I wanna do this, I wanna do that. Great, if that's your dream. But don't be embarrassed or ashamed if you just say, "What success would look like for me is to have a marriage where I'm married to my best friend. I wanna, I wanna do some marriage retreats. I wanna pour into that." That's success for you, go for it. Hallelujah. Right on. Whatever else I can say to encourage you. But if maybe success for you might mean that you wanna hit six figures in your career, and that you, you have a vision or a dream or an idea or an invention that you wanna bring to market, okay, go for it. A business you wanna start. Maybe you think, "Okay, I love animals, and I've always wanted to do doggy daycare." Whatever, what does success look like for you? So where am I right now, honestly and truly? Where do I wanna go?

Now, here's the key. This is where we get down to it. Number three, the thing that you have to be honest about and do is eliminate the habits that sabotage you. Okay, you cannot build a new life while maintaining the behaviors that created the life you have right now, the old one. It won't work. You can't do anything different and expect beautiful, wild change. It won't happen. Every dream has enemies, and many of them show up disguised as habits. They're enemies of your success. They're saboteurs, and they're stopping you from getting to where you wanna go. Procrastination, negative self-talk, perfectionism, people-pleasing, putting yourself last all the time, and putting your priorities on the back burner to run out to help somebody else do something that's important to them, distractions or inconsistency, just no discipline in your life, the fear of failure, so therefore, why bother? Why try? The fear of success. Will I wanna do this once I do it? What if I'm successful? Can I handle the responsibility? I don't know if I wanna work that hard. All of those quietly erode your progress and work against you to keep you stalled or stuck or spinning your wheels. Like being in a rocking chair, just because you're moving, just 'cause you're busy, doesn't mean you're making progress. The challenge is not merely identifying these habits. What you repeatedly do becomes who you become. So what you do over and over and over, that's who you become. It's shaping you. It's molding you.

So here's what to ask yourself in this scenario: What behaviors repeatedly derail your progress? Hmm. What do I do that derails my progress? Ooh, some things pop to my mind right away. What about yours? What do you wanna do with those things that you see that derail you? Do you wanna make a decision today that you're gonna eliminate those things? Or are you gonna start with one and eliminate it, and then move down the list? Here's the next question: What excuse do I most often use? I mean, we can be strangely loyal to our excuses. We can defend them all day, every day. But as I said to a client recently, you can have results, or you can have your excuses, but you're probably not gonna have both. So, what do you want? Do you wanna move forward or do you want to stay stuck? You can choose every excuse; they might be reasons, but there are solutions. I want you to become solution-oriented around the reasons that you are not moving forward.

What habit is costing me the future I desire? Let's name 'em. Let's say, "What is the habit that I do?" And be honest. Like, yep, I do that, I like it, and maybe I'm not gonna change it. So two things have to happen. If it's derailing you from the future that you desire, one, you either don't desire that future enough, so just give it up, or two, you're gonna have to come up with a plan somehow to reach your goal while at the same time navigating this habit that you don't wanna give up. And then the fourth question: What would happen if you did stop all the things that are sabotaging you? What would happen? Could you see yourself in the future that you really long for? Well, what would happen if you could get there? Would you be more fulfilled? Would it solve some problems for you? Would you make more money? Would you close the gap to the complaining and the sense of dissatisfaction that you have? Would it change your relationships with your family? Would it be a blessing to your kids or your grandkids? What do you wanna change and what would happen if you did?

And then fourthly, as we come to the fourth thing that needs to happen for you to make a change in your life, what habits do you need to build that will help you? That makes sense, right? Okay, if we're gonna get rid of the bad habits, it means we're replacing them with good habits. Now, we know that success is rarely the result of one dramatic decision. It's usually the outcome of small, consistent, repeated actions performed consistently, as I said, over time. That's how you get to your goals. I call it the slight edge. Todd Olson wrote a book called The Slight Edge, and I love it. Little baby things incrementally bring you consistently over time as you do them right to the middle of your desired destination. If you want different results than you have right now, you have to install habits that support you and that support your goals and that will bring you there.

So, if it's reading more books or sitting down with a calendar and making a plan, you need to pray more, yes, absolutely, exercise more, learning, networking, taking that class, creating a sacred space, getting rid of the clutter in your home, that is such a time-waster, setting boundaries, investing in a personal growth coach. All of these things you may need to do. Those are examples of habits that compound over time. They literally will deliver you to your preferred future. So, don't focus on massive change. We know that that can be overwhelming, and if you focus on too many things at once, you can stall out because a confused mind won't take action. And I learned that when working with different clients, we can only introduce new things at a steady pace that each client can handle. One client I have, too much information, it doesn't stimulate her or motivate her, it overwhelms her, and just shuts her down. So we're gonna just focus on one or two things that you could change right now, little small actions, baby steps, the slight edge, and then repeat them daily, and just watch what would happen because you can become extraordinary. You can reach extraordinary goals and have extraordinary outcomes if you just take little steps.

So here's what I'd like you to ask yourself. What one habit would make the biggest difference in your life? What one thing could you start doing that could make a huge difference for you? Man, that's so interesting to me. I wanna think about that. What can I do daily that moves me toward my vision? What might I be doing right now that if I changed it up a little bit, I would be so much closer to the vision that I see of myself? And then thirdly, what support systems do I need? Do I need to get into a community of people, women who are also going for the same goal, so we can mutually support one another? What support system do I need? Do I need alarms, bells, and reminders? Do I need an accountability partner?

As I said a moment ago, do I need a coach? Let me know. I can help you. I don't have a lot of room for new clients, but I could squeeze in a few, a few women who are very serious and very hungry about making change. And then the fourth question is, how will I measure progress? How will I know that I'm growing? What is a measurable goal that I can put in place? If I wanna read more, I can definitely measure those pages, but if you just say, "I'd like to exercise more," well, you did one sit-up more than you normally do, so, is that the goal, or would you like to plan, "I'd like to do 10 more the first week. I'd like to do 12 to 15 more in the second week." Build a system that way. Be very specific and make sure that you have a way to measure your progress. Your future is shaped by what you repeatedly do today.

So get honest about where you are. Get clear about where you're going. Remove what's holding you back and add to your life what can move you forward. 'Cause over time, those simple steps can completely transform, as I mentioned, the trajectory of your life and bring you to the winner's circle. You know, it's really not about being superior or outdoing another woman. It is about being superior or outdoing the woman you were last year. That is always growing, always stretching, always becoming better. Okay?

So I hope today you will take solid action, you'll make a firm commitment, you'll get moving. Just launch out into the deep. Go ahead. The treasures are in the deep end of the ocean. You've been splashing around in the shallow end of the pool. It's time to go after what you want in life. I'm gonna end by quoting Ed Mylett. This is not an exact quote, but, uh, the ideas come from him, and I think he's an amazing thought leader in our culture today. But he said this, "In 10 years from now, you can show up in one of four ways. You can show up invisible." Hmm. Nobody knows that you exist. You feel like you've just kind of blended into the wallpaper. You've just kind of faded to black, invisible. Boy, I don't want that. What are the other options?

All right. Well, you could show up in 10 years as a victim. Nobody helped me, everything went wrong, I was never able to, my husband never, my kids didn't. All the reasons, all the excuses. I'm not saying some of them don't have validity, but you are responsible for making changes in your life. So I hope you don't show up in 10 years as a victim. You can show up in 10 years as a hero. I'm the one who made it. I'm the one who was dreaming and believing, and I gained that success, and now I'm doing all the things that I've ever wanted to do. That's fabulous. That's wonderful. Ed Mylett says, "That's just incredible. Great. Good for you." But after being there for a while, it won't be enough. He said another way that you can show up in 10 years is as a servant leader, a person who gained that success, a person who made that money, who found that success and goals that they were looking for, and then turned around and said, "I wanna help others make it, too. It's not enough for me to show up there by myself. I need to make sure my friends get there, my girlfriends, the world, the people I don't know, maybe my kids, my grandkids. I wanna leave that legacy." I want to be a person who's a servant leader. I hope I'm serving you by doing this podcast for you.

Again, all of the treasures are in the deep end of the ocean, the deep end of the pool, whatever. Get the floaties off, take a dive, and find them. This is Dawn Damon, your Braveheart coach, and I hope that you'll take time to jump on over to my website braveheartedwoman.com/resources. There you'll find those downloads. You'll find my course. You'll find free downloads and gifts that I have for you, and an opportunity for you to join my mailing list. I'd love to see you join in so you can be a part of all the ways I communicate, write you, treat you with free gifts throughout the year, and all kinds of coupons and discounts. So I'd love to see you there.

All right, everybody, this is Dawn Damon. I hope that this is your moment to find your brave and live your dreams!