#121 Progress IS Happiness. Happiness is progress.

Rachel Denning (00:00.846)
Good morning my friends. Welcome to another episode of the Extraordinary Family Life podcast. I am so stoked to be back. I was gone for several days and so that's why I didn't get to another podcast episode sooner, but I've been in some intense training, crazy awesomeness. I've been pounding books, training hard, went to a four day event. It was a training 13 hours a day.

fully engaged with the family. It was extra ordinary and man, why I'm alive with progress and that's what we're going to dive into today, but just feeling fantastic. We stayed up even stayed up intentionally. You guys know, I like to get to bed early. I'm usually crashing at nine 30 or 10, but we stayed up intentionally till about 1230 and then, uh,

talking to the kids, working through it, goals. I mean, just hype up the whole family and not, not just hype, not just silly motivation, but real strategy and real motivation, real plans to just fully optimize our lives, which is so crazy, exciting and so amazing. Uh, so we're, we're, we're all on fire and feeling it and just leveling up again. And I mean, that's critical. We have to do that. So, uh,

you know, got in bed about one up around six. The boys were already hitting the weights hard downstairs. I went down, hit weights with them. And then, um, after I got a really great upper body workout on the weights, then I ran a 5k and the whole time listening to another training that I've been going through. And I'm mad at you guys. I've been pounding the books and memorizing and writing and creating. I'm creating some un

believable stuff for you guys. Oh, I guess I'm so stoked. So so stoked. In fact, I'll give a little teaser right here. One of the things I'm going to be creating, it was just this idea that just struck me so much force today was a peak performance practices, PPP peak performance practices masterclass of just the best practices that have

Rachel Denning (02:23.854)
Totally transformed my life and are still doing it. I know I'm leveling up. I'm hitting new levels new heights new achievements We're doing things we've never done before and doing it but a better level it is awesome and So that's one of the things that's in the works and just man. We're just going our the business is growing and scaling and Fitness, I feel fantastic. Oh, I feel fantastic and just feel tight and energized and we're going

And the family's in great condition. I mean, everything's just absolutely phenomenal right now. And we're working on it hard. We're giving it the time and attention. And what's interesting is like, we started 2020 this way, right? With this kind of motivation, inspiration, this kind of drive of like, yeah, it's 2020. It's a new year and a new decade. Let's go. And then the whole thing with COVID, which, you know, you guys know now COVID turned out to not be really a big deal. Yes. I mean,

people are still dying and that's a total tragedy. But the reality is that the numbers are so small, literally so small now that it is legitimately comparable to the seasonal flu. But the number of deaths that are happening in other areas every single day are not being reported like they are with COVID. And that's why it seems so deadly and so scary and so traumatic.

is because those aren't being reported. So now it is not a pandemic. We are not in a pandemic. What we're in now is this weird government control and tyranny where governments are still enforcing total control over their citizens. And that's actually, I mean, totally different topic. That's really scary. And they have no justification to do it. None. Because there are more people dying from other things.

all the time, way more. The numbers are way more. And they don't shut down for that. Like this is, this is crazy. And this isn't me. This isn't my opinion. These are the brilliant scientists and researchers who are watching all this. And they're like, Hey, there's, there's no reason for this. There's just no reason for it. And, but it still continues and there are states and countries shutting down again. Um, and it's, it's just nuts.

Rachel Denning (04:43.758)
Oh, it's crazy. Anyways, total side note there. But we let all of that come in and mess up our year and deflate us, demote us. It was a negative pattern interrupter, right? Where a lot of us were going into the year like, yeah, this is going to be it. We're going to hit our goals. We're going to smash our targets and hit the objectives. And then, blech, we had the negative pattern interrupter.

And it came up and it disrupted our positive patterns, which man, those are the worst things. Usually we want to have pattern interrupters that disrupt our negative patterns. So a lot of people got deflated. And I know maybe some of you are still being affected by this in a negative way. And my heart goes out to you. You have my empathy and my compassion. And you also have my commitment and love and support to like help you level up whatever you're facing. Some of you may still not be able to.

have your business back up and going or may have lost employment or may have, some of you may have lost somebody to, they may have gotten sick and died and my heart goes out to you and that's, it is a tragedy, right? And a pain point for all of us and for some of us more specifically where we just get hit hard and that's how life is like that, man. Some things hit.

some harder than others in different areas of life. And I feel that. So I'm not trying to be insensitive to that. But what I want to do is like today, like, let's get back in the game. Let's turn it back on. In fact, here's my, my challenge and invitation to you. Let's turn it on so much and so hard with so much excitement. It's so much fun that you literally create experiences and memories that are even bigger than COVID like

What can you do in 2020 with the rest of the year here? And we only have a few months left. We're already past the halfway mark. And what can you do with the rest of year that is so big? It totally dwarfs COVID, right? What could you do that would be more memorable than with COVID? Like what would define this year for you, for you individually and for your family?

Rachel Denning (07:03.694)
Because here's the big message, right? Progress is happiness, my friends. Progress is happiness jot that down. And you could flip it. Happiness is progress. We feel fantastic when we are green and growing. Right? When we are moving forward, we feel great. And when we are not, think about it, you know this, right? You've experienced it. When we're not we feel like crap. And you feel just blah.

and you feel frustrated and irritated and annoyed and discouraged or hopeless and helpless or depressed. Think about it. And a lot of you might be experiencing those things and not realizing pinpointing it like, Oh, Oh man. Like, I hope, I hope a lot of you right now are having this aha moment. If you've been feeling those things, you might be like, Oh man, that's it. I haven't been progressing. I haven't been moving. We are made to move. We were created to create.

Right? Our creator put us in this earth and put like life into us that we are made to be moving upwards. And so I always say reach upward. That's the whole thing. Keep reaching. You're training for greatness, moving and progressing. Right? We have to be going. And even if we've achieved great things, it doesn't last. Think about it. When you've achieved something spectacular, how long did like the thrill, the

the joy, the love, the amazingness of it. How long did it last? Was it years? Were you able to bank on that thing for years? You hit some great achievement. Was it even months? Was it days? Like we achieve things that feels absolutely fantastic. But then we can't just sit there and try to ride that out. People who do actually get really depressed, um, from Olympians to businessmen to

Musicians they push and push and push and train train train for this great achievement and then once they get it right after that They're like crap now what? Right, and if they don't have something to keep moving towards keep progressing into they lose their happiness Right. So that that's this key. We're just created for that We are made to move and to move upward and move forward and if we're not doing that then

Rachel Denning (09:25.742)
all those negative symptoms will come in and your life will feel really boring. And in one sense you say, life isn't boring, you're boring. And I say that with love and compassion and understanding because I've done it. Like it's you being boring because you're not pushing, you're not growing, you're not going, you're not going anywhere. And you might be busy, you might be like, are you kidding me? I'm going every day. I'm just, I'm exhausted. I'm just going, going.

But the problem is you're going and going but not going anywhere. And a lot of you just feel this blah or oh here let me back up here because you might be like well Greg I do have goals and I am moving. I'm so busy I'm so tired. My schedule is packed. I'm just going from morning until night and I have goals. But for many of you your goals are impotent. They're

They're not powerful enough, right? So your life feels empty or dull and discouraging and you feel bleh because your goals aren't big enough, aren't exciting enough. They're not measuring up to the progress that you know you can make, right? I think we have this spiritual DNA that lets us know what our true identity is, where our true height is, where you are, you at your best.

Now we beat ourselves up and others beat us up and we second guess ourselves and we doubt ourselves and oh man what a mess. And we get into this space where we kind of tear ourselves down but it's not true to our real identity. And so then we get out of alignment with who we really are and we're not aligned with that spiritual DNA that says no greatness is within you.

that you are just chock full of pure awesome sauce. Right? You have so much potential. It is unreal. But if we're, if we're setting our goals and measuring our progress by our limiting beliefs, then we're always going to be trapped. And we're always going to feel incongruent and out of alignment and a little bit of blah. And we're going to feel impotent. Right? We just don't have the strength and the

Rachel Denning (11:47.502)
the, oh, just the thing that lights you up, right? That's why so this year, if we don't do something about that, then the year would be like, Oh, yeah, 2020. That was the year of COVID when we all just sat in our houses and really didn't do much. Or it can be the year like, holy crap, I will never forget that year. I did such big things. I did things that pushed my limits.

I expanded fact I exploded that year 2020 that's the year I exploded to new heights and I'm never going back. You with me? Woo! So break out of your boredom. Break out of the limiting beliefs. Just man I gotta pound that home. Picture yourself in this little cube right? And you're setting these goals.

and they seem big, but they're all limited. They're all restricted. They're all within certain boundaries. And maybe it's boundaries within your own limiting beliefs or boundaries within the limiting beliefs of the space where you live, like the people you surround yourself with. And if you're surrounded, and most of us are, most of us are surrounded with people that are just, they're just in survival mode. They're just going day to day. They're not big dreamers. And so when we come up with a big goal, the people around us are like, are you crazy?

That's insane. My clients do this all the time. They're like, they'll tell me like, man, our family or friends, they think we're nuts. And they meet with me and I'm like, ah, why are you thinking so small? Right. And when we get around big dreamers and big thinkers, then it totally shifts our reality. I just heard one the other day, Sarah Blakely, Richard Branson invited Sarah Blakely to climb up on top of a hot air balloon to have a proper English.

tea, right? To have a little a little picnic on top of a hot air balloon. Um, yes. See what I'm talking about? That is awesome. And so when we get around real big thinkers who are accomplishing unbelievable things, they'll look at us and say, why are you playing so small? But if we stay on the porch with our little kitty gate playing with the neighbors in our extended family and they're like,

Rachel Denning (14:10.222)
Why are you so crazy? You can't step off the porch. That's insane. Right. It's all perceptions, all perspective. It's all these reality checks. I love this stuff. So dream it, my friends, dream it, then conceive it. So start dreaming, let yourself dream, then conceive it and then plan it. And then here's where like, here's where you're, you're, you're

You're the whole thing gets teeth so to speak where you have a bite is when you schedule it Right if it's not on the schedule You haven't got there yet So you can dream about it. You can talk about it. You can write about it. You can conceive it You can even plan it but until it's scheduled it lacks the teeth the bite the strength like the the final touch where this happens Right you with me?

Whoa, I love this stuff. And we have to move into a place where we're playing a lot more offense in our lives. Too many of us are on the defensive. We're just on the reactive. We're letting, and I've been there. I lived like this for all three, you know, my teens, especially, and early on I was like, well, I'm just kind of going out. You can picture me, right? Can you picture me just hesitating, just kind of looking around everywhere with my hands up and.

and just kind of waiting for life to happen to me so that I can react, right? The reality is life is happening for me and I'm taking the offensive position where I'm moving forward and I'm making my life happen instead of the defensive position of just sitting around waiting for something to happen and then reacting to it. Totally different posture. Whoa. Get in an offense posture.

where you're moving, you're making things happen and then responding to them along the way, instead of waiting around for life to happen to you, make life happen for you. Oh yeah. I love this stuff. So my friends, progress is happiness and happiness is progress. Are you moving? Honestly ask yourself right now.

Rachel Denning (16:34.19)
Are you moving?

If not, why not? Why aren't you moving? And the question why not is not so you can share your excuses and blame and justify and rationalize the why not is a really honest in your face coaching question of like, why haven't you done this yet? What's stopping you? And once you identify that, get it out of your way.

Cause remember you're creating an explosion this year. Ah, yeah. Right. And then if you are moving, are you moving at a fast enough pace? Some of you need to pick up the pace. You with me? Who gets this? Right. You with me? And I hope you're like, yes, yes, I get this. I'm in like pick up the pace.

So make sure you're moving and make sure it's at a pace that is awesome. And then again, I'm going to come back to this challenge invitation. Do something so big before the end of the year that you redefine the year.

that it just dwarfs and overshadows the whole COVID thing. You're like, yeah, that happened. Jeez, I hardly remember because what I did was so awesome.

Rachel Denning (18:06.829)
Lean in my friends, get in the posture of offense and make things happen because awesome is always an option. And every day we're training for greatness. Love you guys. Reach upward.