Written by: Brooke Summer Adams, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
For those of you who also have the goal of making 2022 your year, you would have realised the plethora of contradictory information out there telling you how to go and get it done. Brooke Summer Adams, Yahoo Finance Top 10 Female Life Coach from 2021, Founder of the Best-Self Blueprint and Internationally Accredited Transformation Coach and NLP Master Practitioner, has drawn from her years of experience with fresh starts, new beginnings and transformation to boil down what you ACTUALLY need to make this new year, YOUR year.
No more reading about, follow these five simple steps to step into the best version of you, for 2022:
1. Get clear, and be intentional
The first step to any process of change is to get clear on the result you are seeking. This bit will save you SO much time, all too often we see people spending so much of their time and energy climbing a ladder just to realise it was propped up against the wrong wall. Every result in life has a process. Get clear on the result that you ACTUALLY want and you can get clear on the process to get you there.
Who is it you intend to be this year? What does that look like? What specifically do you intend on changing in order for that to happen?
The trick is to get specific, and to get intentional. When we set an intention (something like, “this year I’m going to be happy”) we marry the conscious will power with the subconscious ability to make it happen. When we put something into our focus, the RAS in our brains (the reticular activating system) alerts us to any information in our surrounding environment that relates to that something. Just in the same way as you notice the roads plastered in the brand new car that you just bought, if you focus on being happy, you’ll notice you’re surrounded by happiness.
If you get specific and intentional about what you want, your RAS will literally guide the way for you.
2. Get motivated, and use the right motivation
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of thinking that you’re lazy, or undisciplined, or any number of labels relating to that when we see ourselves failing to take the action we want to take. Even more so, consistency can sometimes feel so hard that we wonder how we will ever keep up a new habit, and we assume it's because there’s something wrong with us.
The bottom line is, the way you feel precedes the action you take. If you’re struggling to take action, you’re either not feeling motivated enough to make it happen, or you’re using the wrong motivation.
When we say “wrong motivation” what we mean by that is you’re doing something because you think you should, not because you want to.
Think back to the last time you did something purely because you wanted to, was it hard to do? Probably not. Think about that, make sure you’re only pursuing the things you actually want to do and you’ll notice yourself feeling a lot more motivated.
Aside from this, find your WHY! Our true levels of motivation are always so much deeper than we originally think. Do some digging to find out what’s really driving you forward.
3. Address your mindset
Addressing your mindset is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself.
Have you ever heard the saying “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change?”. For many, this means forcing yourself to adopt a positive thought in order to drown out the plethora of negative thoughts we are currently thinking about a situation in the hope that we feel a bit better about it. While this may help, forced conscious positive thinking is not the life-changing mindset work we are referring to here.
To address your mindset, means to teach your brain a new way of looking at the world, a new way of thinking about the world and a new way of feeling about the world. This isn’t the forced conjuring of positivity, it’s the automatic tendency to focus on everything that's already positive. This isn’t forcing yourself to find the “silver lining”, it’s automatically being aware of the opportunity for growth you are currently blessed with. Mindset isn’t a rescue remedy for dealing with your world, it’s your way of changing your world. As the globally-renowned life coach Michael Neil once put it “you think you have a reality problem, when in reality, you have a thinking problem.”
It may seem like you need to change your job, home environment, romantic partner and body weight in order to be happy - but the only reason it appears that way is because you think it does.
If you truly believed that happiness was unconditional, you’d find yourself feeling happy regardless of your physical circumstances. You’d find happiness not by changing the physical reality, but by changing the way you think about it.
When you realise the experience you are faced with is based entirely within your thinking, you’ll find that the effect that experience has on you - is totally up to you. Essentially, you become the creator of your own reality, and that’s a powerfully liberating position to be in when you're trying to make this year, your year.
4. Check on the relationship you have with yourself
Everything changes when you start keeping the promises you make to yourself - and keeping the promises you make to yourself becomes a lot easier when you get yourself on your own side!
Put the work in to build a positive relationship with yourself, one where you believe in yourself, support yourself, take care of yourself and protect yourself. When the relationship is good, the way you feel about that person is good. Think about it, would you love someone who constantly talked to you negatively, doubted you or dishonoured you?
Once you address the relationship you have with yourself, you’ll be able to find that unconditional self-love and acceptance that just changes the game. You wouldn’t believe how much simpler life becomes when you realise you’re already enough exactly as you are.
5. Adjust your lifestyle
The power lies in the stuff you do everyday. Create daily routines that move you closer towards your goals, even if it's only by a tiny bit each day. Use some flexible time management to make time for not only everything you want to achieve, but for the things you want to do. Do what is within your power to create a lifestyle that serves you and allows you to feel the way you want to feel.
Making small adjustments to your lifestyle, one at a time, will eventually create the life you want to live. All you need to do is make a start. Once you get into a habit, consistency becomes easier, and you’ll find yourself closer to where you want to be at the end of every single day.
So there we have it. Get clear and intentional on where you want to be, get motivated to make the changes that get you there, address your mindset, sort the relationship you have with yourself, adjust your lifestyle and you’ll find that 2022 is the year you finally become that best version of you.
For FREE tips, tricks and training on how to practically apply each of these five steps to your life, make sure to check out Brookes free Facebook Community here.
People can connect with me via Email, Facebook, Instagram or my Website. Wherever you go you’ll find helpful training and info on things transformation. Read more from Brooke!
Brooke Summer Adams, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Brooke Summer Adams is an Internationally Accredited Transformation Coach and NLP Master Practitioner. Rated 'Top 10 Female Life Coaches to Work With in 2021' by Yahoo Finance, Brooke runs her 'Best Self Blueprint' course, provides expert training in various online communities including her own, and works 1-2-1 with clients to help other women transform into the very best versions of themselves. Following her own personal transformation, Brooke acquired an honors degree in psychology, certification in coaching, business and NLP, an international accreditation in coaching and qualified as an NLP master practitioner in order to truly understand the process of transformation - in a way that could be used to also change other peoples lives. This combination of study, practice and personal experience has allowed her to piece together a step by step process for moving someone from where they are, to where they want to be. Transforming mindset, self-esteem and lifestyle, this process can be applied uniquely to each individual to allow them to step into alignment with the person they've always wanted to become.
