It's that time of year when we want to take stock of our life, decide where we want to be going and plan on how to do that.

But this year - let's do it the smart way.

In this special Episode - which is more of a workshop than a podcast - I take you through the smart way of using the classic Wheel of Life coaching tool to get clear on all of the above.

After going through this process you'll have gained:

appreciation of how far you've come

awareness of where you're at

insight into where you want to be going and

ideas on how to get there

Here’s what you're going to need to do:

Get yourself a journal and something to write with, as well as some different coloured pens.

Create some alone time and space, listen to the podcast and get to work!

This week, join me for a game of Snakes and Ladders on the board that is Lasting Change.

You'll learn about all the obstacles to lasting change (and how to circumvent them), like:

internal change-resistance

pushback from peers, friends, family

self-sabotage

negative bias

running out of willpower

And you'll also learn about lots of ladders that will make achieving lasting change a lot easier, like:

focusing on your growth

practising your new identity

organising support

loving where you're at

Lasting change is possible - if you come prepared with knowledge of all the above, and the willingness to accept the inevitable setbacks

Welcome to the final part of the mini-course in emotional agility.

In this Episode, I’m going to bring all the things you learned about your emotions and how to manage them in the past four episodes together and show you how to integrate them and apply them in your daily life.

I’ll give you a decision tree for emotions - as well as my shortcut for emotional management.

And I'll take you through four real life examples of emotional management in very different situations.

In this fourth part we’re going to dig a bit deeper into the art of influencing your emotions by changing your thoughts and thought-patterns.

Remember, your thoughts influence your emotions - whether they’re conscious or not.

And some of these have been imprinted in your brain so many times that they have become what I call solidified stories.

They seem so obvious and true to you that you won’t even consider questioning them.

You have solidified stories about the world, about money, about other people, about yourself.

And these solidified stories are a massive contributor to your emotions (remember: thoughts and beliefs in the database co-create your emotions in the moment as I explained in the first part of this mini-course).

So in this fourth part we’re going to look at how you can

Identify them

Unravel them

Replace them

We’re in part 3 of the mini-course on Emotional Agility - here's a quick overview:

In Part 1, we looked at the neuroscience of emotions. How they’re created - and how they shape both your experience and your future.

In Part 2, we focused on how you can create a healthy baseline for emotional wellbeing, and what you can do in the moment an emotion arises in your body.

In this third part we’re going to look at one component of all the ingredients that create emotions: your thoughts.

I'll show you how to modify your thoughts to change your emotions.

You'll also learn when you should NOT change your thoughts to change your emotions (we don't want you to gaslight yourself), and when wanting to change your thoughts is actually a strategy to avoid doing something you'd rather not.

I believe Byron Katie's The Work is one of the best introductions to thought work, you can learn how to do that here:

https://thework.com/instruction-the-work-byron-katie/

In this second instalment of the Mini-course in Emotional Agility, you will learn lots of tools and techniques to become more emotionally resilient.

You will learn how to create a healthy baseline for emotional agility by:

1. Seeking out nourishing physical tactile experiences

2. Getting exposed to natural light on a daily basis

3. Spending time in nourishing environments

4. Getting into a FLOW state

5. Tracking positive experiences and achievements

And how you can create immediate relief when experiencing an unsettling emotion through:

1. Moving your body to the emotion

2. Self-soothing

3. Reset your state

4. Noting technique

5. Emotional processing

6. Transforming the energy

Over the next couple of Episodes I’m diving into something that has a massive impact on our life and well-being: emotions.

In this mini-course on Emotional Agility you’ll learn:

1. What emotions are and how they are created

2. Why you want to intentionally manage your emotions

3. How to decide which emotions you want to change

4. How to change the way you feel about pretty much anything

In this first part we look at the neuroscience behind emotions and all the way they impact our life and well-being.

You'll also learn the answer to the question whether there are good and bad emotions and, if so, which are which.

At the end I give you an exercise to prep your mind for the next Episode, which has tons of tools on how to manage (and even change) your emotions.

This week I look at something that can secretly sabotage your plans to change your life and relationships: confirmation bias.

You'll learn:

1. what confirmation bias is

2. why your brain is prone to it

3. how it can be harmful

4. how to unearth it

5. how to rewire your neural pathways towards better biases

Do you have a hard time asking for help?

Feel like it's faster to do it all alone?

Or that you should figure it out by yourself because you have such a smart mind?

Then you want to listen to this week's Episode.

You'll learn:

• the thought errors that stop smart humans from getting help;

• the one thing you forget about when you think you should do it all alone;

• how to do an inventory of what you could stop doing using the willing/able quadrants.

This week, I dive into something that plagues many smart humans: being chronically under-challenged.

I explain what it means to be underchallenged - and what you can do about it.

You'll learn about the comfort, growth and terror zones, and how to identify which one you're operating in.

And I'll help you do an inventory of different areas of your life to find out where you're under-challenging yourself.

Last but not least I give you lots of ideas on how to gently start challenging yourself in constructive AND fun ways.

Your smart mind deserves to be stretched and challenged, and so do you.

So give it what it needs.