#53 How to keep moving forward when life pushes you back

Rachel Denning (00:06.51)
Hey guys, this is Greg Denning and you are in the school of awesome sauce where I share with you amazing stories and strategies to help you live an extraordinary life.

Rachel Denning (00:24.078)
Hey, my friends, it's another great day to be alive. Even though my throat is killing me, I gotta share this message. It'll probably be brief, because I'm hurting. And man, life is good, right? Life is good even when it's tough, even when you feel like junk. Life is still so good. There's so many great things to be thankful for. You know what's been the most powerful thing for me throughout my entire life, you guys, is perspective.

And when you and I can maintain perspective, life is so much better. It's more fulfilling. It's easier to handle the stress and the struggle and even be grateful for it and to maintain positive emotions and feelings and behaviors, right? But when we lose perspective,

We don't think very clearly and we don't act very clearly or positively, right? We get ourselves into trouble. It's interesting that that has been such a huge part of my life by reading great books and then having great experiences. And the books and experiences that are more extreme, so to speak, are more powerful. And so right now in this youth class that I'm leading, we're reading,

the hiding place. We just finished it and I was listening to it with my family as well and just just the powerful perspective that that reminds us of. You know, one of the one of the young ladies that I'm mentoring, she just said after reading these chapters where they were in went into the concentration camp, she said she literally walked around her house looking at everything and just pausing and feeling appreciation for it.

which is exactly the right thing, right? And that's why we read great books like that. And that's why we want to have those experiences and serve and get outside of our little space, our little corner of the earth. man, it changes everything. And so even when we're feeling down, and we're gonna get into this today, but when we're feeling down, we're feeling discouraged, when we're feeling like junk.

Rachel Denning (02:49.038)
It literally is all about perspective. Because even when it's tough, when we remember that there's even harder things, like we can literally become grateful and look for things to be grateful for instead of whining or complaining or throwing a pity party. You know what I'm saying? And that's literally part of the strategy for being more effective in life and being a high performer.

because there's always ups and downs. There's days, there's days you just feel like junk, right? And there's days where you don't feel like doing anything and you're just so unmotivated, right? And there's times when you legitimately are facing mountains.

where it feels like your life and the world is just caving in on you and it's crushing you.

That's real, you guys. It's real. And I'm working with people. Can I just pause for a minute here and just express gratitude for you and for the wonderful people that I'm working with? I get a coach and mentor some of the greatest people. These guys are high achievers and top performers. And they're doing incredible things. And they've had tremendous success in certain areas of their life. And they're just ready to level up.

And I get to work with them. It's such a privilege. It's so awesome. And we just going to dive in and take a look at each area of their life. Because remember, we have to approach it holistically, mentally, emotionally, physically, socially, spiritually, financially. It's all those things. And then you just make simple adjustments. You get things dialed in and all of a sudden the efficiency, the effectiveness, the

Rachel Denning (04:44.974)
the influence, the energy, the clarity, the impact. It all just raises. man, I love it. I love it. I love the people I get to work with. I love you guys. It's such a privilege for me. I feel so grateful. But in this, I also get to help when really good people who are really successful are having like real hard struggles when they're having crazy hard...

hard experiences when literally in some cases guys the sky is falling.

It is tough.

And I've worked with people who are facing a divorce, who are struggling with a horrible addiction, who are facing bankruptcy, who've lost everything and are starting over, who've lost loved ones, who just major health struggles. I mean, it just comes along. Like, I don't want to... You guys know I'm an optimist. I don't want to be pessimistic here, but it's just life. We have our turns, right? We each have our turns.

And we don't want to sit around wishing life was easier. We want to, we want to be wishing that we were better. We're stronger and not even wishing because wishing won't make it. So we want to be preparing ourselves to be stronger and better. And, when we, when we can do that, instead of wishing things were easier, right? We're like, no, no, help me be better and stronger for the times when I need this level up and be ready.

Rachel Denning (06:24.494)
So what I want to share today is just a couple of simple strategies. When you look at the big struggles and challenges you're facing and the hardships, if you just step back and you look at it as a whole and you just like, I have to do all this stuff. I have to be great at all these things. It's too overwhelming. It feels crushing. And many of you will feel like and do you'll crawl back into bed.

And literally instead of instead of working on making progress, you think it's too much. It's too overwhelming. Why would I even try? And we crawl back in bed. And. And so. And so. Instead of here's what's interesting is we get in these patterns, you guys, and we actually end up producing and creating the results we don't want that we're trying to avoid.

Because when we feel overwhelmed, when we feel like it's crushing us, or we feel like it's futile, what's the point, right? If I'm really overweight and out of shape, like what's the point of eating a salad right now? What's the point of going to the gym? Like, this is ridiculous. And it gets crushing, right? Because we lose perspective. And so we get in this spot where we're like, why? Why even do that? Forget it. I'm just going to eat this whole box of cookies. I'm just going to, you know what?

I've already stayed up too late. I should have been in bed so I could get up early, but I didn't. I've been sitting here watching Netflix. forget it. I'm going to the store for more ice cream. Right? And we just, we actually self -sabotage, my friends. We become the villains in our own story instead of the heroes. And again, I'm not making anybody feel bad here. I'm just, I'm relating to you. I'm connecting with you. Like we do this, we get in these patterns because it looks too daunting, too big. We lose perspective.

And so what I want to share today, just a brief message, is whether your throat's hurting and you just don't feel like recording a podcast, or you're just kind of dragging through life. You're, ugh, you feel blah and lack energy, or you're facing something daunting, or maybe you've made a really bad mistake. Maybe you've seriously screwed up.

Rachel Denning (08:41.741)
And I've heard my cl - ugh. I feel like crying.

I've heard my clients and friends and good people say to me, maybe it would just be better if I wasn't here anymore.

Rachel Denning (08:58.798)
Maybe if I were dead, things would be better. And that is not the case, my friends.

don't ever believe that.

It wouldn't be better if you were gone. And even if you've made big mistakes and if things are really bad, there's still hope. There's still light. There's still goodness. There's still a chance to turn things around.

And if we can maintain perspective, then that helps us get through it. And so whether you're facing something small, like I just don't feel like getting up in the morning and working out, or you're facing something huge, here's what I want you to do. Whatever it is you know you need to do, and if you don't know, that's what you need to do. You need to find out what you need to do, right? That's your next step. Whatever that is, just break it down into really small steps.

and do the next thing and make them small, make them so small. You're like, I could totally do that. It's so small. It may be just getting up five minutes earlier. It literally may be exercising for five minutes. The first step is to show up. It may be going from drinking a six pack a day to, five or four. I'm all about like making changes.

Rachel Denning (10:22.734)
But if you just have to show up first because it's too daunting, too overwhelming, if this first step for you is just a small step, do it because great journeys begin with a small step and you can like Tolkien said, right? Little by little one travels really far.

So just whatever is you're facing, get perspective about it. Get perspective about it. And try to maintain that perspective. Set alarm, set alert, set reminders. Write it on your wall, write it on your mirror. Maintain perspective around it. And just take steps. Every day, just take a step. Just get up and take a step. Take a step in the right direction. So at the end of the night, you lie down to bed and you ask yourself, did I take one step, at least one, in the right direction? And yes. And if you didn't, say, okay, self.

Come on here. We got this. It's just a step. Tomorrow I'm taking a step. So break it down. Small steps show up and then we'll start talking about the big stuff. We can make, we can create big changes my friends, but it's little steps in the right direction. Okay. Awesome is always an option. Reach up.

Rachel Denning (11:30.766)
Hey everybody, thanks so much for listening to this episode. I hope you got a lot of value out of it and found some things that you can apply to your life right away. Hey, I'm being totally sincere when I say I live to help you live your extraordinary life. So I hope you'll reach out to me if you have any questions or let me know how I can help you in any important area of your life. And in fact, you know, this, this podcast is brought to you by the school of awesome sauce monthly coaching program. Take advantage of that. Get in there. If it's the,

best way to get a breakthrough to the next level so you can level up your health, your spirituality, your emotions, your mind, your relationships, your finances, business, every part of your life. Just get in there where you have a coach and a mentor, you have a supportive community to make things happen. So jump in there, take advantage of this, try it out, get in there with us and level up your life. See you on the inside. Reach upward.