I explore the concept of genuine choice-making. I challenge listeners to question whether their decisions are truly their own or influenced by external factors. I share insights from my coaching experiences and introduce the idea of "lean mind" thinking, emphasising intentionality and clarity in decision-making.

This episode is essential for anyone looking to improve their decision-making process, increase self-awareness, and achieve greater fulfilment in both personal and professional life.

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Key Learnings:

Question whether your choices are truly your own or influenced by past experiences and external factors.

Practice intentional decision-making with clarity to make cleaner, more authentic choices.

Recognize where you're holding onto ideas, beliefs, or identities that may be limiting your growth.

Regularly reflect on your choices and their origins to increase self-awareness.

Aligning your purpose and performance through authentic choice-making can lead to greater fulfillment.

Show Notes with Timestamps:

[00:00:00] - Introduction to the episode's theme: Whose choice is it?

[00:00:40] - Sal shares an anecdote about a coaching session on vision thinking

[00:01:30] - The apple analogy: How external stimuli influence our choices

[00:02:10] - Example of a client shifting their identity and overcoming limitations

[00:03:20] - Introduction to the concept of "lean mind" thinking

[00:04:00] - Discussion on intentionality and clarity in decision-making

[00:04:30] - The principle of not holding on and knowing where you're holding on

[00:05:00] - Challenging listeners to reflect on their recent choices

[00:05:40] - Invitation to practice conscious, intentional choice-making

[00:06:30] - The connection between authentic choices, purpose, and fulfillment

[00:07:00] - Conclusion and call to action for listeners

Please check out episode 46 with Ben Johnson. Peripheral thinking. for more about 'lean mind'

Contact me here 🔗  to learn more

Welcome to Mindset, Mood and Movement.

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A systemic approach to human

behavior, performance and well being.

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Sal Jefferies: When we think

about our lives, our businesses,

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our actions, a lot of the time

we're thinking about our choices.

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Now choice is such a beautiful thing, it's

a gift, it's a power that we all have.

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But my invitation for you today is

to think about, is it your choice?

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Now I'll expand.

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So this came into mind recently with

many of the coaching sessions, but I

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was working with someone and we were

working on them making a different future.

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So we won't get into all the

details, but nice and simple.

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We were taking them from where they

are into somewhere in the future.

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Now, The way our mind works and the

brain, it uses information today,

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right now, and it goes into the memory

banks and goes, Oh, what do I know?

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So with my client, they were

wanting to change their future,

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what I call vision thinking.

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Now they said to me, Hey, I want to

go do this, this thing in this area.

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And I said to them, Is that your choice?

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And they were baffled.

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They stopped for a moment and they

went, Yeah, of course it's my choice.

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And I said, hold on, let me

just slow you down for a second.

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Is this your choice today?

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Is it your choice right

now about the future?

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Or is it predicated and built on your

past experience and your past narrative?

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And that opened up a wonderful

conversation to help this person

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move to where they wanted to go.

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So today's episode, I want to talk

about choice and is it your choice?

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So let me expand.

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I was, um, I was in the kitchen earlier

and I was feeling a little peckish.

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Now what I noticed was one

of these, look at that.

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Oh, it's beautiful.

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Shiny red.

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I think it's a Royal Gala apple.

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It's delicious.

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Now I thought I needed a snack.

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So, obviously my body was

telling me that's the choice.

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And I looked and I saw this apple.

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So, I hadn't gone in

deciding to eat an apple.

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I was drawn to it because in my

visual field there was the stimulus.

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Now it's a simple analogy.

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This is pretty much how

marketing and media works.

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But something in our field of

awareness, we start to connect to it.

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So let's expand upon this even more.

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Another client I was working with who

was, Looking to shift their identity.

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So they are a founder, like many of

the people I coach, and they're looking

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to shift their identity from where

they are and the limitations that

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that had to where they want to go.

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And the big issue that we really had here

was they were holding on to the past.

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And I said, well, you know,

again, whose choice is this?

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Their idea that they needed to be this

particular person and they couldn't move

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on was really not serving them at all.

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Their idea was built from what

their parents had told them.

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Their idea was built on

what culture had told them.

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And they hadn't stopped to

think like, is this my choice?

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So my invitation right now for

you is anything you're going to

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be choosing, like you're choosing

to listen to spend time with me.

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And thank you for that.

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Is it your choice?

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Now, of course, if you picked up

on the title and you're interested,

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then it's peaked your interest.

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But what we want to get into

as we're moving through life is

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how do we make choices, which

are as clean owned as possible.

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Um, I see this all the time.

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I work in the space of increasing

performance, increasing fulfilment

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helping people have a peace of mind.

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That happens when we are living by choice.

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So whose choice is this?

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Now on another podcast recently,

which I can put some links in, my

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business friend, Ben Johnson, we

were discussing his world peripheral

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thinking, thinking on the margins.

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And Ben shared a really interesting

idea with me, which is called lean mind.

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Now Ben's work is infused by

Buddhism and other practices.

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Mine, my work's infused by a

synthesis from psychology to

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Eastern practices to philosophy,

many, many fields, multiple fields.

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But one of the things Ben said,

and I've got the notes here.

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He was talking about being intentional

with clarity, and it really struck me with

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this concept about whose choice is it.

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If you are intentional, like really

intentional, but with clarity, yes

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it might be the choice that you want

to earn a certain amount of money.

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You want to grow your business,

and that may be intentional and

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built on the fact that, you know,

that's what you'd like to do to be

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in a level of life that you'd like.

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And that's okay.

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The intentionality plus the clarity

was really revealing and this is

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Ben's principle of a lean mind.

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He also said about not holding

on, which is, you know, a very

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Eastern principle, a very Buddhist

principle, you know, non attachment.

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And he shared with me this thought about

that you don't have to let anything go.

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You just need to know

where you're holding on.

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And I was really intrigued by this

principle because if we're holding

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on to an idea, If we're holding on

to a belief, if we're holding on

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to an identity, client, you know,

anything like that, we are stuck.

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And then the question gets

posed, is that our choice?

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So around this whole premise, I bet

if we pick an example in your mind

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about something you did in the last

24 hours, was any of it your choice?

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Now, if we were in conversation, you might

say to me, of course it is Sal, I chose

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to do this thing, I chose to contact that

person, I chose to make that decision.

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But actually most of our choices

are influenced by people, parents,

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culture, media, it happens.

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The mind of the smart thinking person

says, I understand this and accept it, but

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I'm going to clarify that and clean that

up a little bit and go, is that a choice I

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want to make in this moment going forward?

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And that helps separate

us out from the world.

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Unconscious, or perhaps non

conscious way of living, to a highly

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conscious, intentional way of living.

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So whose choice is this?

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My invitation for you is, as you

go about your next six hours,

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making choices, wherever it is,

ask yourself, is this my choice?

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Food you might be doing, something

you might be watching, someone you

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might be speaking to, a business

decision you might be making.

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Is it my choice?

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And at that moment, reflect

on all the influencing factors

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that might have built that.

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And then notice, can you

clean that up a little bit?

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Can you be intentional?

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Can you make it your choice, even

with the influence of life around us?

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Because here's what I know, everyone

I've coached that wanted more purpose and

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more performance, was far more aligned

when their purpose and performance came

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together because it was their choice and

like a cleaner choice as opposed to people

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I've coached who've got to a high level

and gone, I've been really successful.

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I don't feel that fulfilled as

a person, as a business person.

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So it comes back to this

intentionality and choice.

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Can we clean it up?

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That's my invitation for you to play with.

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Do let me know what happens.

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Do let me know if you have some insights

around your choice making faculties.

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And then ask yourself, is it my choice?

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Can you own it?

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Until the next time, take care.

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Thank you so much for listening.

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If you enjoyed the episode,

please subscribe, and if a friend

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would benefit from hearing this,

do send it on to them as well.

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If you would like to get in touch

with Sal, then you can go to my

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website, which is saljeffries.

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com, spelt S A L J E F F

E R I E S, saljeffries.

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com.

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Hit the get in touch link, and there

you can send me a direct message.

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If you'd like to go one step further

and learn whether coaching can help

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you overcome a challenge or a block

in your life, then do reach out and

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I offer a call where we can discuss

how this may be able to help you.

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Until the next time, take care.