Episode 81 Summary

 
You have heard us say time and time again that many people have the knowledge but implementing that knowledge is the sticking point. 
 
This is all about understanding how your mind works. 
 
It is only you know the stories in your head and the thought processes that lead to those stories, can you truly change the way you think and the behaviour that follows 
 
Join Dr Lucy as she chats with mindset expert and coach Michelle Johnson. 
 
Michelle is an impressive woman and has achieved an enormous amount through the balance of calm focused thinking. 
 
Michelle Johnson is a mindset coach for mums in business who want to get control of their time, be calm and achieve their goals. Michelle is a multiple business owner, corporate manager, wife, mum and juggler of all the things.
 
Michelle started coaching after constantly being asked about how she get’s so much done and now offers a combination of one on one coaching and online courses at The Mindset Corner.
 
You can follow Michelle on Instagram @the_mindset_corner
 
You can connect with Michelle here  - https://www.themindsetcorner.com/

Show notes:

 

Mindset is everything

 

Dr Mary Barson  

Hello, my lovely listeners. I'm Dr. Mary Barson.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

And I'm Dr. Lucy Burns. Welcome to this episode of real health and weight loss. Good morning, lovely listeners. It's Dr. Lucy here this morning. And I don't have Dr. Mary with me. But I have a very special guest, this beautiful woman I met as part of our business coaching. So you will remember that Mary and I often talk about the fact that we didn't know anything about business when we started. So we needed to get some expert help. And I guess surround ourselves with other women on the same journey, much like many of you when you're losing weight, so we met this beautiful woman in our little coaching circle. So I am so excited to because I think she's going to have some absolute gems for you. And I would like to welcome to the podcast, Michelle, who has a business, which is such a wonderful name called The Mindset Corner. So welcome to the podcast. Michelle,

 

Michelle Johnson  

Thank you, I'm so excited to be here.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

I know it's so good. And I just, I just love like I speak a bit about this. But I just love the idea that women who are in business, the stories that are in their head are very similar to the stories that many of us will have on on a health and weight loss journey. So understanding your mind is so important. And that's your genius zone. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you developed your skills in this area?

 

Michelle Johnson  

I would love to thank you. It's a very nice introduction. I, I started this particular journey about a year ago, I started looking into doing coaching as a way of improving my own mindset and being able to coach employees around me. So my background is as a corporate manager in a fairly big organization. I've been with them for 10 years and was in a different corporate organization for 10 years before that. So I've had a few forays into business as well during that time, my husband and I bought an aquarium business about five years ago, which was a very unusual move for us because we knew nothing about aquariums, I think we always knew we wanted to be in business. And so this opportunity came up. And we thought about the risks and what the reward was. And we decided to back ourselves to do something completely different and really challenge ourselves. And you'll see that it's a bit of a theme through this discussion that I love a good challenge. So then we decided to buy a salon business, which we also knew nothing about salons or hairdressing or beauty therapy. But we really backed ourselves that we know about people, we love coaching people, and we knew we could get these employees to see our vision and help them to understand more about business and about how to build business and customer loyalty and things like that, which are consistent across all businesses. And so that's been running for about three years. So I'm pretty busy, I'm running my full time corporate job, I run the administration of the aquarium business, and then I run the salon business and the staff that are there. And then I have two kids that are under six. And in my spare time I started this coaching business because of my absolute love for wanting to help other women and other mums to be able to manage their time, like I do. And I want to share my secrets and help other people to be able to Yeah, just achieve more than what they think they can.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Wow, that's like I'm sitting here blown away, because listening to your enormous list of things that you juggle, and you seem to do it with out fluster and frenzy. And one of the things that just jumped out at me then is you're absolutely right. So for many people who who are on their health and weight loss journey, one of the things that they will, that they find as a roadblock is time they'll go I just ran out of time I ran out of time to do the shopping, I ran out of time to make the dinner. And so you know, I just got takeaway. So I'm thrilled to be listening to some of your secrets, and may well be taking my own little notes here. So yeah, tell us tell us more. Michelle.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, I think the first thing is becoming aware of what you're doing with your time. Now like so many people have that story going on in their head, like you said, I just don't have enough time. And if you really investigate that for yourself and pay attention to what you're doing during the day, or even like tracking a little notebook, what you're doing every half an hour, every hour, have a couple of dates and just see, oh, well, this is what I'm doing with my time. And maybe it's not getting me towards my goals. Maybe I'm spending lots of time on social media, for example, and that makes me feel like I have no time. But maybe I'm just not using it strategically. I guess it's a bit like when you keep a food diary, when you're trying to make a change with what you're eating, creating that awareness can help you make a change. And so if you track what you're actually doing with your time, that's a great first step to be able to make a change with it.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Absolutely. I love what you mentioned there the story, the story in our head is that yeah, I haven't got any time. But it's when you do a time audit, you got Oh, yeah, I do. I do waste time. And in sometimes we will, we will think that we're resting, but we're not really we're not making good rest. But interestingly, and I don't know, if you come across this, there will be for some people, their first thing is I don't want to do that. Like there's resistance. What do you think that's all about?

 

Michelle Johnson  

That's a great question. It's good to interrogate what's going on for you in that situation. So if you're feeling like this isn't right for me, or I'm not ready, or anything that's kind of stopping you from starting, ask yourself some questions like, what's going on for me here? Why am I feeling this way, where you're probably scared about something, and just pay attention to the language that you're using in that situation and really decide like, is what I'm saying to myself true? Or is this just something that my brains presenting me with to try and keep me safe, try and keep me from taking a risk or doing something out of my comfort zone, because our brain is spending all this time trying to protect us, it's like this ancient part of our brain that's like, you know, we don't want to go outside of our community or outside of what I know, because I might get eaten by a tiger. And that's not really useful for us right now. Because there's not that many tigers roaming around my house. You know, it does serve a purpose. And we need that part of our brain to keep us safe in some situations. But we don't want to be triggered. Every time we try and do something new and different and go outside that little circle. So being aware of like, all I'm feeling this feeling, that must mean I'm right on the edge of my comfort zone, I'm, I'm in this space right now where I'm uncomfortable. But like, for me, I've learned over time that I love that space, that space says to me, we're about to learn something cool, here, we're going to do something different, we're going to achieve something we've never achieved before. Because if, if you stay in the same place, you only really get the same results. So if you can push outside of that feeling and push it outside of the zone, that's where all of the cool stuff is where you can really make a change and make a difference in your business, in your life, with your weight, whatever it is that you're trying to do. That's different than what you were doing before.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Absolutely. And sometimes we use this phrase where if you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got. And if what you've been doing in whatever part of your life isn't working for you, you'll need to make changes. And sometimes change is scary.

 

Michelle Johnson  

And it's good that it's scary. Because sometimes we do need to, you know, be aware of why we're making those changes and whether they are good for us. Because sometimes things come up that you can think oh, no, that's actually not for me. And that's a great decision. But being aware of like what your goals are. So for example, if you're trying to make a change, how much do you want that change? And how much do you want to feel comfortable? And really deciding, like, well, I want the change more than I want to feel comfortable? So I'm going to go for it? Or what would I need to do to make it okay to make the change? What would I need to do that didn't feel so uncomfortable? And think about that for you?

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Yeah, yeah. So you're breaking it down a little bit, instead of making it a big leap? You make small steps to get to that same spot?

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, I think something that I encourage my clients to do is to, once they've done that kind of time audit and become aware of how they're using their time now to really reflect on what their goals are, what they want out of their life. And is that reflected in their calendar? Like, are you purposefully setting aside time and planning things that are actually going to get you towards your goals? Or are you just traveling along on autopilot, letting life happen to you, which if you're not unhappy is fine. But if you feel like you want something to be different, then you're going to need to make some conscious changes and take some steps towards the place where you want to be. So one of the things I get my clients to do is to create this ideal week plan. And what that means is, you think about what's important to you, and then you schedule your week with that in mind. So for me, I always say you know, my kids are my family is really important to me. But when I first started this journey, I would look at my calendar and there wasn't really anything in there to do with my kids or my family. I was like, Oh, that that might be why I'm not feeling like I'm achieving in that area. So in my first version of my plan, I had specific times in there where I would have you know, quality time with my kids or where I had a date night with my husband every Thursday, because I knew if I booked it with myself in my calendar that then it would happen. And I would, over time achieve the goal of spending more time with my family, if I want a bit of my own health journey this year, and I have been trying to exercise more often. And so I actually set aside time every day where that's going to happen. So it's not just oh, if I have time, I'll go for a walk. Because we all know how that ends up with all the other priorities in the day. I'm saying, this is the most important thing to me right now. So I'm going to make this a priority and do this at seven o'clock in the morning. But it's about thinking, what will work for you, you know yourself really well. And you know how to set yourself up to succeed, is to investigate, you know, what works for me today, reflect on it, that didn't go well, next week, let's try eight o'clock, and kind of over a few weeks, just really refining that ideal plan. So that, you know, if you do that every week, you will meet your goals, and it just reduces your mental load. So you're not constantly worrying, am I spending enough time doing this? Am I spending enough time doing that? You know, do I have quality time with my kids? You know, yes, that's in every week, and I'm doing it, or I have coffee with a friend every week in this time block. And then you get to get excited about which friend you're going to choose this week to put in there. And you're going to meet your goal of spending more time with your friends.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

That's so wonderful. And I love that sentence that you said there that you know yourself well. And interestingly, I suspect some people are still getting to know themselves. And, and being aware, which I think was what you mentioned, to at the start aware of the stories in your head is part of coming to know yourself. Because sometimes our brain doesn't tell us the truth. And it'll come up with reasonable stories that sound believable. And they'll be serving a purpose of some sort, but they're not actually true. So, you know, like everything, I think, you know, for us, we always say weight loss is a personal development journey. It's not just a meal plan, meal plan is one of the tools. But if you're relying solely on that, you're not going to get to where you want to go. Okay, so we're going to do a time audit, and become really clear then on where we're spending our time and perhaps where we're wasting our time. And then what happens.

 

Michelle Johnson  

So then we develop our ideal week plan. So what I would encourage you to do is to, if you're good with an electronic diary, that's great, because you can put recurring appointments in. So you only have to do this once you plan out your week, and then you put it on a recurring schedule. And then as things come up in your life, you can put them in the blocks that you've allocated for that task or similar tasks. So, for example, one of the things that I struggle with is like Home Administration, because I obviously have a lot of things going on. And you know, sometimes things like school photos, or paying council rates, all those like things that are just coming in randomly, sometimes get forgotten. And so what I implemented was this block in my ideal week at 7pm, on a Monday is my home admin block. And so whenever things come up during the week, I just move them into that block, that's when I need to decide on the school photos, that's when I need to pay this bill that came in. And it's so much more efficient to work on similar tasks together. So like as a business owner, you want to be spending, you know, quality, time focused on business, and then quality time focused on your personal stuff. Whereas trying to switch between activities all the time can make you quite unproductive and kind of flighty. If you can focus on one activity, I've got my credit card out, I've got my wallet out, I'm paying all my bills in one go. I'm not you know, everyday going, Oh, I got one more bill, I'll go get my wallet, I'll go pay that, or all week thinking, let's pay that bill must pay that bill must pay that bill. And the mental space that it takes up of constantly having to think about remembering to do something could be better used in dealing with other things or being more present in the moment and like knowing what the right decisions are to make, because I'm totally focused on the current thing. I don't have 27 things floating around in my head that need my attention later. Absolutely. Yeah. I think having that plan makes a big difference.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Yeah, totally. I think you're right with decision fatigue. You know, we've all done it, where you stand in your wardrobe in the morning, you go What am I going to wear? And it's like, you know, however many outfits you've got in there and you can't like none of them sort of appeal and then you discard and Oh, and you spend 10 minutes trying to decide. And the same with your food. You'll open up your cupboard. What are we gonna have for dinner a couple of we'll have to eat again, this is ridiculous. And it's because every single time you have to make a decision, it's another little bit of energy that is taken out a battery.

 

Michelle Johnson  

That's true. I think the good thing about having that plan upfront is you're not deciding every single week. You already decided once. And now you can do other things. Or you can just use all of your bandwidth to respond to what's happening right now, rather than every week thinking like, oh, okay, when am I going to pay this bill? Okay, when am I going to my business? Okay, when am I going to have a date night this week, if you have all those things planned in, you can kind of relax a little bit. And that helps you to make better decisions. Because when you're in that, like, fight or flight, responsive mode, you have this tunnel vision where you're only focusing on exactly what's in front of you, or you're making quick reactive decisions to what's happening around you. And those decisions don't tend to be aligned with your big picture goals. They tend to be to relieve some pain right now or get some pleasure right now, but not getting you to where you want to go in the long term.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Absolutely. And it's so interesting, because one of the things that is I'm you know, as you're talking my brains going a million miles an hour and thinking, yeah, magical time, I've just got this idea that time, you can just create more. And you actually, obviously, you can't, but we think of it as an infinite resource sometimes, and then wonder why we run out of it.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, I think it's really an epiphany for a lot of people to actually think about that you can be the boss of your own time. It's not that everyone else has these priorities. And then you have to kind of respond and decide what to do with it. You are the boss, if someone calls you, you can decide if you want to answer your phone or not. If someone messages you on Facebook, you can decide, do I want these notifications or not? If you're on autopilot, all of those things are just influencing you every second of the day. But if you decide upfront, this is my plan, this is how I want my day to go. On the one hand, you are more likely to achieve the right outcomes. And on the other hand, your brain goes to work all day trying to find the answers to what you've set out to do. So you're more likely, again to achieve the right outcome, because you're focused on your goal, the big goal, instead of all of the things coming at you.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Yeah, absolutely. So not so reactive. And we certainly know for, you know, lots of women, they're juggling big loads their carers, they've got, you know, the caring for their family, their kids, their parents, their husband, their partner, as well as sometimes working part time, full time, as well as running a house all of which all of those could easily be a full time job in their own right. And yeah, competing demands is hard to deal with in the moment, if you haven't been clear on what you want to do in advance.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, even, you can even think about how you want to respond to things in advance. I used to think about this when I was on a weight loss journey after I had my first baby. And I would plan when I was going to go to a function, how I was going to deal with the fact that there might be chocolate cake or something. And I would say to myself in advance, okay, if there's chocolate cake, I'm going to eat this other thing instead, or I'm gonna go get a glass of water and kind of plan my reaction in advance. So when I was in the situation, it wasn't relying on willpower, I'd already decided what my plan was. And the same thing can happen with your week. So if you go in with a plan of how you're going to respond to people, for example, when my mum calls, I'm not going to answer. In the moment, I'm going to call her when it's convenient for me, sorry, Mum. And you know, if my boss wants something from me at work, I'm going to decide how that fits in the plan I already have and be conscious about how important that is, rather than just responding automatically, and maybe isn't the most important thing on your plate. But just because your boss said. So you sort of assign this extra accountability, extra responsibility to that item. So coming up with what your boundaries are in advance can be really helpful. What are you going to say no to? What are you going to say yes to. And then you're not relying on willpower because I heard something the other day, it might have even been on your podcast. That willpower is it's you against you, which is a really unfair fight because your brain is just as capable of telling you one thing as it is I'm telling you the other thing

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

It wasn't on our podcast, but that is gold. That is absolute gold. And it's interesting we we talk a lot about willpower, as you know, it doesn't even exist for a lot of it is just patterns and rubbery boundaries. And, you know, I will use the example of you know, if you're walking down the supermarket, the majority of people don't crack open a packet of Tim Tams when they're walking down the aisle. They might look at it. They might decide whether they're going to put in their basket but they don't actually scoff it there. They don't stand there, scoffing it. But it's like when once a Tim Tams come home into the house, they take on some magical quality that makes them irresistible to people. And the thing to remind yourself is that the Tim Tams are the same whether they're in your cupboard or on the shelf, they haven't actually changed, the thing that's changed is your thoughts about them. And you can decide at any stage, how you want to react to that packet of Tim Tams. And recognizing that, for example, the reason that the Tim Tams seem easy to resist in the supermarket is because that's how you've been conditioned. That's how you've been trained. Most people don't every time they go into the supermarket, start eating all the food in there. And so it's a pattern in our brain, whereas and so it's easy. Whereas the ones at home, the pattern might be that you eat them at home. So therefore changing the pattern is actually the thing that people think is the willpower. 

 

Michelle Johnson  

Hmm, yeah, I see exactly the same thing when people are trying to make habit changes with time, because you're so used to doing something a certain way. And obviously, you've developed this strategy, because it works for you in some way, like, yeah, maybe eating the Tim Tams makes you feel good. And so your body's like, tick, we're gonna continue with that strategy, because that, quote, unquote, works for us. And so if you're constantly doing things, that are just kind of a habit, then you're just going to be achieving the same results you've always got. So becoming aware of those strategies is so interesting, when you just become aware of your own thoughts in the process, and kind of, I have to actually consciously tell myself to stop, and then just just observe my own thoughts like, how did I get you? What's happening, this wasn't my plan for today, what's caused this to happen. And sometimes those thoughts were really helpful when you were 12, or 15, or 20. And were helpful. But now, trying to make my parents happy isn't the most important thing in my life. So you know, to use the example of answering my mum's call, you know, I see her name, and I think, Oh, I have to answer it. But I don't have to do anything. And when I, when I'm aware of my language of like, I have to answer that I could think, what's going on here? Why do I think I have to answer that? Oh, okay. This was a thought that was really helpful to me a long time ago, but isn't really serving me anymore. And I'd like to redirect that pathway now. So that when I see that, I'm just going to be conscious of making the right decision in this moment. So is answering the phone the most important thing now or not, and just rewriting the process, sometimes they think of it like a train track, your brain recognizes this situation, this is what we've always done, here's the track, go down here. And what you're doing when you become conscious is sort of making a fork in the train track and deciding next time with the situation we're going this way. And the more you repeat that, you can actually change the pathway in your brain so that you get the story you want, instead of the story that you always were using previously. 

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Absolutely that is total gold. Michelle, thank you, I think that you'll find our listeners will totally resonate with that because you use one of my favorite words, which is helpful, versus unhelpful. Because you know, again, for a lot of diet culture, we've been told good or bad, naughty, all sorts of words. And really, at the end of the day, it's just helpful and unhelpful. And sometimes we all do unhelpful things. It doesn't make us bad people, its just an old story that no longer serves us.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, even as a mindset coach, sometimes I have this real pressure on myself, like, Oh, you're supposed to have really elevated thinking, you should never have unhelpful thoughts. But you know, part of the journey is just being kind to yourself, and just being aware, that's like, 90% of the journey that you realize you had that thought, the old you would never have even notice that happening. So having that awareness, now you can make a change. Or even if you just some of the first steps in this process, you would just be aware of something happening, almost like you're observing it as, like when you're in a dream, and you can see yourself, you're just seeing something happening and it ends. And then later, you might reflect and think, Oh, why did I do that? And then maybe next time, you can start thinking differently, but that pressure of having to be positive or thinking the right way or you know, not have that thought that pressure probably won't help you. You just need to be sort of relaxed and like curious about your own thoughts like, Oh, where did that come from? That's so interesting that I would have this bad moment at work. And now want to reach for those Tim Tams. Like, why is that happening? How often do I do this? And then you can unpack it and maybe you do something about it after you've seen it a few times. You'll be a little beat up in the corner watching yourself and then you can change something whereas Yeah, I think it could be really destructive to put a lot of pressure on yourself. And you know, be hating yourself about it. You shouldn't have thought that or you shouldn't have that story because that won't change the story either. That'll just make you feel bad.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Ah, absolutely. And you know, Are we know that we can be our own worst enemy, our own worst critic. And, you know, it's common, lots of people do that they, you know, berate themselves beat up on themselves for all sorts of things, whether it's choosing food, that's not helpful, whether it's having thoughts that are unhelpful, so much shame and guilt around our, you know, our brain, our behavior actions, that is that actually understand why we do it. But at the end of the day, it doesn't help us either. So letting giving yourself the grace to let go of some of that, that's really the key as well. Okay, so we've done the time audit, we're making some intentions. Are we writing these down there? We're putting them in either our electric calendar or if we've got an old fashioned diary, what about? Sorry, here's another question without notice, what about when you see, like, you know, you've got you thing that you've said you're going to do, and then your other brain goes on to do it later. So the thing might be, you know, fold the washing, or it might be, it might even be something nice, go for a walk, take yourself out for coffee, and then you brain goes, I don't want to do that. I want to do something else. Yeah.

 

Michelle Johnson  

I think on the one hand, I've spoken a bit about preparing for that situation. So when you you know yourself, well, you know that these sorts of things are going to happen, I know that I will probably never feel like folding the washing. So being aware of it, I can come up with my plan beforehand of how I'm going to respond when that comes up. So that's one thing that we've already talked about that you can have your strategy planned out in advance. The second thing would be to realize, or to investigate why you're having that thought, what's the resistance? Why don't you want to do the washing? And then the third thing is to think about how do I get myself to do things I don't want to do? I can, everyone's probably leaning forward now great, how do I do the things I don't want to do, one of the things that I really like to do is to create rewards for myself, at the end of doing things that I don't want to do so, okay, maybe I don't want to do the washing. But I do really want to watch this show on Netflix later. And so I kind of create these little accountability loops, where I'm like, if you fold the washing, then you can watch the show. But if you don't fold the washing, you can't. And obviously, we're going to be kind to ourselves, but I think it's great to use those things to your advantage. So you know, you like these things, but you don't like those you can pair them together to encourage you to do the things that you don't want to do. If it's something like a bit bigger than that, like maybe, maybe you're trying to start something that's really scary that you haven't done before. Like maybe you're going to go to a networking event. And you've never done that before, for example, or you gonna go to a school P&C meeting and you've never been in, you're worried about it. My favorite question in these situations is, what is the worst that will happen. And it can be so powerful, because straightaway, you will realize that you probably won't die when you go to the P&C, you probably won't die when you go to the networking event. And that straightaway just takes up all this tension out of the situation. And rather than catastrophizing, and think about all of the things that could happen and, you know, get stuck in this overwhelm of, there are so many things I can't possibly get past so I can't start, you can really just focus on. Okay, the absolute worst that would happen is that no one talks to me. And that's it. Yeah, I will stand in the corner and drink my water. And I'll learn something. And maybe I'll learn what not to do next time or, you know, you might just learn something from watching something that's going on. So what's the worst that could happen? And you know, what could I get? Even if that's the case? Like, how could it be good, even if the worst happened? And then it really just lets you off the hook, you can again, go back to that sort of curious place like, Well, I wonder what will happen when I go to the meeting? Or yeah, just being a bit creative with yourself and thinking about, like, what are the possibilities. And the other thing about overwhelm which this comes up a lot in business as well, is like, when you're overwhelmed about all the things, it's very hard to move. And something that can really help is just to think about, what am I actually worried about? It might be what will people think of me? Or what if it doesn't work? Or, you know, what if I'm embarrassed or what if I fall over? Yeah. And then just thinking again, about the answers to those questions. And is it that bad? Are you worried about all of these future things that you probably have no control over? And what do you have control over in this situation? So if you're feeling really overwhelmed about going to the networking event, because of all of these things that you've come up with If there's a problem about going, just focus on, what's one good thing about going and focus on that, because I think Tony Robbins says, where attention goes, focus flows. And if you're just concentrating on all the things that are too hard, and all the things that are a problem, your brain will just stay in that space and focus on the problems. If you think about what could be the good outcomes of this situation, what could be the good outcome of doing the washing now, it will be done, I won't have to do it later, I'll have this sense, mini sense of achievement, little dopamine hit, see them all folded, you know, that be enough to get you into action.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

And I love that idea that you just said of where your attention goes, your focus flows. And I often think about the idea of when when I used to ride a bike, if there was a pothole, I'd be looking at it to make sure I didn't hit it. And nine times out of 10, I hit it. Oh, my God. And I realized just because I was looking at it, if I just looked past it, or beyond it, I didn't hit it. And I think the other thing you mentioned is that the overwhelm comes because you think of all the things and you think you have to be doing all of them perfectly. And certainly for health people go well, you know, it's all or nothing mindset that we have, you're either doing it all perfectly, you're doing all the eating from scratch, you're walking, you're meditating, you're getting eight hours of sleep, and if you can't do all of that, then there's no point doing any of it.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, I think that keeps a lot of people stuck. One of my little mottos for myself is progress over perfection. always just come back to that if I feel like resistant, that I don't have all of the information to make the decision, or I don't know exactly how it's going to go before I've decided, I just think about doing something is still better than doing nothing. I'll be much happier in five minutes. If I've done, you know, one small thing towards my goal, even if the huge big picture version, maybe it's a very, very small step. But it's still one step. And future me will really appreciate me having taken this one step, because otherwise, I'll just be exactly where I am now. Exactly. And that really helps.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Totally, totally, that is I love that. I love that. So with your business, tell me, how do you how do you help people? What do you actually do?

 

Michelle Johnson  

So I love to help women in business, mainly, I help them to get control of their time, by conducting online coaching courses, and also through one on one mentoring and coaching. So yeah, I find both of those really rewarding, being able to see people make a change in their life, whether it's in the group program, or one on one, being able to have that awareness and within, you know, six or eight weeks totally changing their mindset around their time and having that feeling of being in control. It's just so nice for me to see that for other people.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

So interesting, Michelle, because again, as you're talking, I think, Mary and I need to do this, because both of us time is our it's just something that sort of slips through our hands. And, you know, is is intention? Well, you know, again, little story in my head, my story goes, I try to run on time I try to be efficient. I'm actually not like I pretend I am. But I'm not really I don't have a lot of intention, I wake up in the morning, and they go, what are we going to do today? I haven't even thought about it half the time. So you're absolutely right, having somebody to I guess, again, that's like weight loss, you need someone to give you your information. So your education, your content, the strategies that and helping you unpick your resistance and why why you perhaps your brain goes, I'm not doing that. I don't want to do that, that's too hard, all of those little stories, and then someone to keep you accountable.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Yeah, it's such a good opportunity for business owners, because I think you get so caught up in what you want to achieve. And you just get on this like hamster wheel, where you're just doing the things that you think you should be doing and trying to go as fast as possible and do all the things and stay up really late at night. And if you do that for a while you burn out and realize you're not going to achieve your goal, even though you worked really, really, really hard. So being able to do it in like a smart way up front. And strategically think about what's going to work for you, then you're probably going to achieve a much better outcome and more successful business, a happier home life and hopefully happier for you as a purpose and that you are achieving what you want.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Absolutely. And I think what I love is that you're you're absolutely right, in that it's actually about your mind management. And things like calendars are a tool. But sometimes people think if I get the calendar or I get some app, that's all I need to do, and then I'll be able to manage my time. You know, especially if it's got colors, then then I'll be right. Where in fact that's the tool much like a meal plan. using that tool and understanding why your brain may not want to do the things it says it's going to do is really That's your genius zone helping you unpack those resistances in the stories.

 

Michelle Johnson  

Thank you for putting it so eloquently.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Do you ever need a marketing manager? for it? No, no, not. Wonderful. So if people want to find you, where did they find you, Michelle.

 

Michelle Johnson  

So if you're interested in making some changes in your life, you can download my six top time tips, which is at themindsetcorner.com/timetips. And you can follow me on Instagram at The Mindset Corner, which is @the_mindset_corner.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

Yes, and underscores that little line at the bottom, I always used to get the underscore and the dash mixed up there. So

 

Michelle Johnson  

you can search for me, Michelle Johnson, or The Mindset Corner and and find me, I would love to connect with you. And let me know any takeaways that you got from this episode. Because I always it's always interesting to hear what things resonate with different people and helped me to understand my audience a bit better, too.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

 Oh, wonderful. And you've got a podcast. Don't forget that. What's that called?

 

Michelle Johnson  

Oh, yeah, The Mindset Corner so you can follow along with my episodes weekly. And you might find some familiar guests on there soon. Excellent.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

And we will put all the all the links to those in the shownotes too peeps. So if you are looking and you can't quite remember, just go to the show notes, and you'll find it all there. And you'll be able to find the show notes either at the bottom of this podcast on your device you're listening to or at our website, which is our rlmedicine.com. Michelle, it has been delightful. You are a wealth of information and I'm sure your clients must benefit enormously. And thank you very much for your time, and we will be catching up soon. Thank you. All right, lovelies. That's it for another week. I will see you all again next week. No, I won't see you. I will, infact, I won't even listen to you. You'll be listening to me. But have a wonderful, wonderful week. Take care bye for now. So my lovely listeners that ends this episode of real health and weight loss. I'm Dr. Lucy Burns,

 

Dr Mary Barson  

and I'm Dr. Mary Barson where from Real Life Medicine. To contact us, please visit our rlmedicine.com.

 

Dr Lucy Burns  

And until next time, thanks for listening. The information shared on the real health and weight loss podcast, including show notes and links provides general information only. It is not a substitute, nor is it intended to provide individualized medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor can it be construed as such. Please consult your doctor for any medical concerns.

 

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