The Transformative Power of Positive Self-Talk in Shaping Reality

Embark on an emotional rollercoaster as I take you through the captivating Pendulum Summit, where Charlie Engel's journey from addiction to ultramarathon glory isn't just a tale of physical endurance but a beacon of human resilience. Wrongfully imprisoned, yet unbroken, his story, alongside my encounter with Wim Hof, will leave you questioning the masks we wear and the freedom that awaits on the other side of authenticity. A heart-to-heart with a client further peels back the layers of the love we seek and our hesitations to reveal who we truly are, promising reflections that may just reshape your approach to vulnerability and self-discovery.

As we weave through the tapestry of this episode, a narrative unfolds around the transformative magic of positive self-talk and affirmations. A client's struggle morphs into a masterclass on rewriting our internal script, proving that the words we whisper to ourselves can indeed sculpt a reality brimming with confidence and success. Join me as I share strategies to harness your thoughts and actions, steering them toward a horizon of empowerment. And with a nod to Dr. Julie Smith's pragmatic mental health insights, this episode is more than a collection of stories—it's a crucible for the alchemy that turns personal trials into triumph.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Guys, I was at the Pendulum Summit last week in Dublin and it was an absolutely fantastic event. There were some fantastic speakers from all over the world. One of the first speakers that I listened to that day he was the first speaker on was a guy called Charlie Engel, and Charlie Engel was a former crack addict and drug addict who had turned his life around and then had got into ultra marathons and ultra endurance. He ran the Sahara Desert. He's done all these really big, massive feats that are unbelievable in the story that he shared in terms of how that actually came about and his story was really, really inspirational. His story was really really interesting the journey that he'd been on and how he'd kind of got himself to a level where he was then a global speaker and he was in films Matt Damon played him, I think, and a fellow as well too and his journey was really inspirational to hear. It was really inspirational to listen to. He then ended up in jail. He was incarcerated in jail for I think, 12 months or 18 months or something. So it was something that he didn't do and how everything crumbled there's marketing team, the sponsors and everything around him just crumbled as soon as that happened. And then how he began to build his life again as soon as he got out and build it back up again. And now he's back on that trail inspiring, teaching, speaking, but more than anything Dumar really loves, which is marathons and ultra endurance, performances all over the world at different events, etc. So he was fantastic. I thought his journey and his story was really, really good. Now, personally for me, I was there to see Wim Hof and I've listened to Wim Hof and so many different podcasts and so many different YouTube clips, so what I actually heard from him wasn't something that I haven't heard, and I shared this in a social media post, which was what I really got from listening to Wim Hof, which, for anybody that's listening and doesn't know who Wim Hof is, go and check him out.

Speaker 1: 2:08

He's also called the Iceman, and the best way to describe him is just, is a bundle of energy, and what I took from him in his talk was he's just, unapologetically himself. He does not care what you think of him. He does not care about how you perceive him. He just shows up as himself. Now, I can't remember the name of the lady who was interviewing him, but she had a work cutout because he was bunching from one subject to the next. He was going to the next thing and he was bunching to the next subject and there was no. There was no, really like trying to kind of rain him in and stick to specific topics. The next thing is on the floor and he's playing the bongos and it was just. It was entertaining, but it was also inspiring. They say that he's just himself, he doesn't care.

Speaker 1: 3:02

And if you ask yourself that question, like, do I really show up as myself all the time? Do I really show up unapologetically as me? Am I really worried all the time about what people think of me? Am I really worried all the time about how people perceive me? Like how I'm showing up in terms of what I wear, what I dress, what I say. Am I ever really just being myself? So for me, when I watched Whim and took everything in from just his being and how he was, that was the biggest thing that I took away. It took away that he's just unapologetically himself. And here's the thing, that sense of freedom that comes from that. That's what people are looking for a lot of the times to be themselves.

Speaker 1: 3:45

And I shared this with a client who I was coaching a couple of days later and we talked about values and we talked about being authentic, and we talked about what authenticity is, and I shared a quote with him, which was every one of us wants to be loved for who we are, but most people are afraid to be who they are. And I asked him a question and the question was who loves you the most? Like, if you're to look around at the people that really get you and love you the most, they're actually the people that know you the most, which means they're the people that know exactly who you are the positive and the negative, the up and the down, the good and the bad, the nice and the mean. That's who. That's who we are to the people that we love, and that's who actually love us the most. But so often we try and put on a facade. So often we try and think that we need to be a certain way, that we need to show up in a certain way, that we have to be this stale of person or we have to be this happy, positive, upbeat person all the time. A lot of times that's who people try and portray themselves as, but that's not really who you are, because you're both. So for me again, like when I listened to one man, I seen one man, I seen how he was. That's what I really really got from him. He's just unapologetically himself showed up with himself and it was fantastic.

Speaker 1: 5:03

There's also a few psychologists who were speaking. One was dr Julie Smith, and I thought that she was fantastic as well too. She shared a lot of insights and one of the things that I took away from her was she was asked a question that what can you really do to improve Mental health, what can people do to really improve mental health? And, as a psychologist, what do you teach him? What do you look at for people to really improve their mental health? And I thought it was pretty for me it was pretty Warm and the here that the basics are always the things that actually really build the true foundations for you to really improve how you think, how you feel, how you perform and how you show up, and that is exercise. So she mentioned exercise and I've been teaching and preaching and coaching people on exercise for the last 20 years and it's always good for me to kind of hear other people, even from different backgrounds, still go back to the very basics that if you want to think different and feel different. You have to move. Like your physiology Impacts your psychology. They're not Separate, both are interlinked.

Speaker 1: 6:07

So she spoke about exercise, spoke about nutrition good nutrition, like we all know that we can't expect the E-crap and feel great. It just doesn't happen. Then you can look at the likes of meditation and breath work, etc. These are tools that you can use to balance out the nervous system. I've shared a lot of stuff on this podcast around that before, and then sleep is another one as well too.

Speaker 1: 6:27

That Three foundations and the real three fundamentals that will really help you improve all areas of your life Really if you really begin to tune into them. And that is exercise, nutrition, and the third is sleep. Sleep you could probably put that first, because if that isn't Something that you're using and getting proper, deep, restorative sleep every evening, and everything else is kind of gonna be negatively impacted because of that. So it was good to listen to her, it was good to see the, the pointers that she gave, but it was also really kind of it was really good to just hear go back to the basics in terms of what people need to do to improve their mental health, the things that always work time and time again is Building the good foundations. If you haven't got a good foundation, then of course everything's always gonna be shaky, and For me, that always comes back to the same things time and again, which is improve yourself physically.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Can you like Train at the gym? Can you do yoga? Can you walk? Can you do something every single day? They get you to move and change your state. What are you eating? What are you drinking? What type of food are you feeding your body? Because everything that you give your body is information, not just and put through the eyes and through the ears, but food also. That's also information that you're feeding your body, you're feeding your shells. So can you improve on your inf? Can you improve on your nutrition? Can you clean that up? Can you eat whole, real foods and then minimize all the ultra-processed foods? Then you can start to implement all the other tools like meditation and breath work as well too.

Speaker 1: 7:59

But really, really good to hear her speak Again. There were some other fantastic speakers. I got to meet up with the former guest in the podcast, dr Brian Penning, who was speaking on day two they didn't get the chance to see day two a travel back up again, and I also got to meet one of my former coaches come along who helped Help me with my TEDx talk back in 2020 2021. I think I might have been Really good to get to meet her in person as well too. So it was fantastic. It was a really, really good day. It was a good event and I got a lot from it Even though I didn't get to see everybody on day two and made some good connections, got a good bit of network and done, and for me, that's what it's about.

Speaker 1: 8:41

For the last 20 years, I've been traveling like literally all over the world to different coaches, different mentors, different seminars, different events, and At every event, I always get something. I always get to take away something. It's nothing that you're gonna like Now. You think at this stage, you're never gonna come away with like one big something that changes your Trajectory in your life or your business and, to be fair, a doubt that I'd ever really happens anyway. But it could be one knock at, it could be one conversation, it could be one thing that you hear that you can take back and implement, that you can begin this shift and see the changes in your life over time, and for me, it's just being around like-minded people. It's been around the right type of people. It's been around people who are looking to improve themselves, because that rubs off in you, that energy rubs off in you, and I love using that quote by James Clare From the book atomic habits.

Speaker 1: 9:38

If you haven't read it, the highly recommend that you read it. And the quote says Environment is invisible hand that shapes human behavior, and it's so, so true. Who you surround yourself with, the people that you surround yourself with, what they do, how they think, how they perform, is going to influence you. So if you surround yourself with people who are not where you want to be and they don't look like changing, then it's a really good sign that you need to change that environment. Get yourself into the right type of environment, get yourself around the right type of people. Ask yourself those questions like what have they got me thinking, what have they got me reading, who they got me becoming? And, most importantly, is that okay with me?

Speaker 1: 10:17

Now I want to share a week quick story. This was a post that I shared a while ago and this is something that I actually spoke to Brian Penny Dr Brian penny on the podcast about, and we talked about self-talk and how important that is, and most people Don't know that we speak to ourselves. Now, if we're conscious of it, of course we can begin to hear what we're thinking about, what we're sharing their shelves, but for most people it's completely unconscious. But we all speak to yourselves. What's important is is how we speak to ourselves. So I want to share a story of a client that I had my office.

Speaker 1: 10:58

Now this was years ago when I was a personal trainer and she came to me for advice. She was feeling fed up, she was looking to change. She didn't like how she looked. She told me how she felt about herself, etc. And I spoke to her just about like self-talk. I spoke to her about like that she use affirmations. Does she have anything that she says their shelf daily to try and empower herself, to get her to change how she's thinking and feeling about herself? And I asked her that you do that and she says no. What are they? I says they're like Words that you would say to yourself as an affirmation, something that you make firm in your mind. That's what an affirmation is. It's what you make firm in your mind. It's it's not a positive, only statement Like I'm always happy, because you're not always happy. You're sometimes happy and sometimes you're not. So it's an, it's an affirmation, something that you can make firm in your mind. And I use the words like I am strong, I am cam, I'm beautiful, I feel empowered, I feel successful, I am successful.

Speaker 1: 12:01

And with no joke, she laughed and I said what he laughs match. He says not a chance, I wouldn't speak to myself like that. And I says why not? And she's I just couldn't. I says right, okay, hear me out, but you do accept on yourself that you're not good enough. You do accept on yourself that you don't like how you look, that you don't like how you Feel, that you tell yourself that you're not confident, you can't do this, that you're overweight. You, you accept speaking to yourself I got is a true, I do, and I say it on a daily basis and I have done for years. I says okay, so why not tell yourself a different story? And she said I've never seen it that way before and I've never even heard it put that way before. So that's just an example of how and why.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Self-talk is important, because what we repeat to ourselves over and over and over again, we eventually internalize, we set up an emotion, we set up a belief and If we keep repeating that story over and over again, we feel it, we believe in it and our actions and our habits and our behaviors and our results will conform to what it is that we're telling ourselves. So what if you told yourself a different story? Maybe this is something that you struggle with it. Maybe this is something that you're unaware of Now. We all become Unaware of it at times, but it's really important for us to catch ourselves. So what if you told yourself a different story and you began to empower yourself? You began to say different things to yourself, like you are strong, that you are confident, that you are advancing, that you are happy, that you are healthy, that you're grateful for everything that you have in your life. Imagine that you began to shift and change that internal dialogue on a daily basis. How would that make you think? How would that make you feel? How would you show up?

Speaker 1: 13:48

So for me, like when I was growing up, I never had really confidence in myself. It was something that I lacked. I didn't have confidence myself, specifically in certain areas that I wanted to Grow into and perform into. I just didn't have that. But when I learned about things that I could implement, that, the simple stuff, the very basics, like these. I started doing it, started doing it on a daily basis. I started doing it driving to the gym. I started do it driving back from the gym. I started recording it, I started listening to it. I recorded self-image scripts or recorded all these different things that I would use on a daily basis to help me feel empowered. And it's so simple, but, again, it's something that a lot of times we don't take on board.

Speaker 1: 14:32

So what I want to leave you with on this podcast is if you can become conscious on a daily basis of what you're saying to yourself and if it's not empowering you, if it's not making you feel good, if it's not helping you move forward, if it's not Shifting your belief, if it's not helping you think bigger, if it's not helping you feel camera, if it's not something that you would say to another person and stop saying it yourself.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Change that internal dialogue, begin to take back control of your thoughts, begin to take back control of what you say to yourself, begin to take back control of your habits and your decisions, because it's a choice and every single day you get to choose what I also want to say, guys, just on ending the podcast is Thank you very, very much for all the reviews that I've been getting through. I really, really appreciate them. And, again, if you are enjoying the podcast, if you're enjoying this information, could you please share it with other people? And also, if you can give me a review on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen to Podcast, that helps me know that I'm doing a good job and providing information for you. That's inspiring and it also helps me grow the podcast so more people can hear it. Okay, guys, speak soon. Bye.