Nancy: Your present moment choices predict your future. Your present moment choice is the crystal ball that you wanna look into to discover what your future holds. So if you want to know what your future will look like, all you need to do is pay very close attention to the choices you are making today. And then when it comes to action, we want to back up those choices with actions. It’s not enough just to make a choice. We need to support it with action.
Nancy: Welcome to Your Permission Prescription. I’m Nancy Levin, founder of Levin Life Coach Academy, bestselling author, master life coach, and your host. I train life coaches, aspiring coaches, and anyone who wants to add coaching skills to their current career to elevate their life and their business. I’ve coached thousands of people to live life on their own terms, and now I coach, train, and certify other coaches to do the same.
If you are ready to give yourself permission to finally make yourself a priority and mobilize your vision, you are in the right place. Let’s dive in.
Nancy: Welcome back to another episode of Your Permission Prescription. I am Nancy Levin and your host, and today we are going to be talking about what I have coined as my Transformation Equation. I’ve been talking about it quite a bit lately, and I’ve been seeing how people are utilizing it in real time in their lives. And I offer it to you so you can do the same.
So here’s how it goes. Change = Vision + Choice + Action. I’ll say it again, Change = Vision + Choice + Action. And I’ll break it down and show you how it works.
First, if you want to make a change in your life, identify the change you wanna make. Then invoke the vision you’re holding of yourself and your life on the other side of making that change. So envisioning yourself and your life on the other side of that change.
Your vision that you’re holding becomes the gauge by which you make your choices and take your actions. You want to be sure that all of your choices and actions are in service of your vision instead of sabotaging your vision. Because ultimately, our choices and actions do only one of two things, they will either sabotage or serve the vision we’re holding. So we wanna consciously make choices and consciously take actions that will bring our vision to fruition.
This is why vision is so essential. This is actually why vision is the first Dimension of Reinvention in my Reinvention coaching and in my book, The Art of Change. Because once you have your vision clarified, then you know your roadmap. It’s important to say that your vision is not something that needs to be created. Your vision exists within you right now, in this moment, it might just be a little dusty. So we want to bring light to your vision. Your vision is something that excites you. Your vision is something that you feel passionate about. Your vision becomes the gravitational pull that is moving you forward in your life toward what it is you want. Your vision is malleable, your vision is changeable. It’s not stuck or static. So as you evolve, so can your vision.
One of the things that people often get a little confused about is the difference between a vision and a goal. So in this Transformation Equation, think about the change you wanna make as the goal you want to achieve, and then your vision is what is going to move you powerfully toward the goal or the change.
When it comes to choices, I will always say that where we are right now in our lives, where you are, where I am, is the culmination of every single choice we’ve made up until this moment. So if we don’t do anything different, our life won’t change. This is why it’s so important to be open to making different choices.
Your present moment choices predict your future, your present moment choice is the crystal ball that you wanna look into to discover what your future holds. So if you want to know what your future will look like, all you need to do is pay very close attention to the choices you are making today. And then when it comes to action, we wanna back up those choices with actions. It’s not enough just to make a choice, we need to support it with action.
And in terms of actions, I like to look at them as micro actions.So my book Jump… and Your Life Will Appear. The subtitle is an inch by Inch Guide to Making a Major Change. Inch by inch is the key, step by step is the key, micro action is the key.
It’s essential that when we identify an action, we make sure that it is realistic, it is doable, it’s in our control, and that we set it in time, meaning we create a timeframe for it. I often refer to Parkinson’s Law, which essentially says, the task at hand will take as long as we have allotted for it. So the task at hand will take the time that we’ve allotted for it.
If we allot an hour for something, it will take an hour. If we allot a week for something, it will take a week. So it’s also important to start paying attention to the ways that we sort of give ourselves too much time to do things, or conversely, what we give ourselves not enough time to do, that actually need more breathing space. So as you are identifying your micro actions, you also wanna identify a realistic timeframe for them to be completed because you wanna set yourself up for success, not failure.
I often attract overachievers, and this is because our first coaching clients are an earlier version of ourselves. So I get the overachievers, the over-givers, the people-pleasers, the perfectionists. And when clearly stating an action, an overachiever will often say, and I’m exaggerating for the point here, but some version of, you know, I’m gonna run a marathon every single day this week. And of course, that is not realistic or doable.
So I want to support you in refining your action to, I’m gonna run for 30 minutes three days a week this week, something that is doable, realistic, bite-sized, under your control. And then you get to have the experience of under-promising and over-delivering to yourself.
So when you put The Transformation Equation in action for yourself, when you, when you put it into motion for yourself, simply identifying the change you wanna make, which can also be the goal you’re setting for yourself, envisioning yourself on the other side of that change, having achieved the goal, then using that vision that you’re holding as the gauge so you can see what are the choices I need to make in order for my vision to come to fruition? What are the actions I need to take in order to move powerfully forward into the change?
One of the things that often keep us stuck is feeling like we need to take the right action. So I will let you know here and now. There is no right action. Action alleviates overwhelm, movement mobilizes possibility. So setting your foot down on either side of the fence is going to create momentum for you, and you can always course correct.
So if you put your foot down and begin moving forward and you realize it’s not quite the direction you want it to go in, you can course correct and shift. Like I said, your vision is your map, so you can follow and track yourself on your map so that you get where you wanna go.
Something else that often holds us back is feeling like we are living our lives in a vacuum, feeling like we have to do everything alone. And that’s why I often think about community and commitment and accountability as the support structures to The Transformation Equation. This way we know we’re not doing this alone. Even if we have one other person who we are in connection with, we have someone who is holding our vision with us. And sometimes even for us.
I know that one of my most sacred acts as a coach can be holding a vision that my client has for themselves that they can’t quite see coming to fruition yet. But I can hold the vision. So I will sometimes simply ask my clients, are you willing to believe that I believe? even if you don’t believe this is possible, are you willing at first to believe that I believe it’s possible for you so we can hold, hold each other in our vision.
Coaching really is ultimately about moving from where we are now to where we wanna be. So again, looking at envisioning where we wanna be on the other side, and coaching really requires a commitment to our own evolution. And as a coach, I’m here to hold you accountable to the commitment you are making to yourself.
So that’s why I bring in the sense of community and accountability and commitment as the support structure, as the scaffolding around The Transformation Equation. We don’t have to move through life alone. We don’t have to make changes alone. We can do it with support. We can do it in a community, we can do it utilizing our best ability and for our best interests, making commitments and staying accountable.
And this has to first begin with staying accountable to ourselves. That’s really the bottom line here. What’s it gonna take for me to hold the promise I make to myself? What’s it gonna take for me to stay accountable to the commitment I make? Because we all know what it’s like to decide we wanna do something and then let everyone else and everything else take precedence.
So this requires us to really stay true to what I often will share. Your first and most important client is yourself. Treat the time you set aside for yourself as your most sacred appointment. This means blocking out time for yourself on your calendar that is non-negotiable, that is immovable. I invite you to block out that time before you fill your calendar with obligations or even desires that take your attention away. Really notice what happens when you are willing to give yourself the time and attention and space that you deserve, that you desire, that you need.
I often talk about what your life would be like if you were willing to consider giving yourself permission to meet your own needs, at least as much as you’re meeting the needs of others, and notice what happens in your body as I say this, just really tune into giving yourself permission to consider your own needs, at least as much as you’re considering the needs of others. Because this is what is required. Instead of giving away all your time, giving away all your energy, what happens if you first harness your time and energy and attention for yourself?
What this looks like is every time you notice your thoughts going to, what do they think? What do they need? What do they want? What do they feel? Turn the antenna inward. Ask yourself, what do I want? What do I need? What do I think? What do I feel? And start there.
When you do this, it’s the first step toward true self connection. This can be a gateway for you into meditation or journaling. Even sitting down with these four questions, what do I think? What do I need? What do I want? What do I feel? And answering them for yourself. This is the power of self connection. This is what anchors and roots us in inhabiting our own lives.
So if you identify with being a people pleaser, a peacekeeper, a conflict avoider, if you are someone who is constantly wanting to make sure that everyone around you has what they need, if you wanna make sure that everyone around you is happy, it’s really time to fill yourself first.
So when we are wanting to make these changes in our lives, we wanna start small. Identify the change you wanna make, envision yourself and your life on the other side of having made that change. Use your vision as a guide, as a gauge by which to make the choices and take the actions that will serve you, that will bring your vision to fruition. And you can repeat this over and over and over again. The important piece here is staying connected to yourself, staying connected to your own desires, staying connected to your own needs, not discounting your needs, honoring that you deserve what you desire.
If what I’m sharing with you is resonating, I invite you to download my Transformation Equation Guide and it will walk you through a series of explorations so you can begin putting this equation into practice for yourself. You can download this at nancylevin.com/free, nancy evin.com/free for your own Transformation Equation Method guide, and let me guide you through the process.
I’m thrilled that you have taken the time to be with me here today, and I look forward to being with you again next time.
Thanks so much for joining me today on Your Permission Prescription. For even more, I invite you to head on over to nancylevin.com and sign up for my newsletter, The Practice, and follow me on social media.
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See you next time.