Momentum Restart Podcast

Weekly growth questions to ask yourself

• Amber Bibelheimer • Episode 102

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Are you ready to recalibrate your approach to a fulfilling life? Today I'll reveal three powerful weekly questions that could be the key to sparking personal growth and sustaining momentum. We traverse the rich history of questioning as a profound educational tool and how it can dissect complex ideas, challenge deep-seated assumptions, and shine a light on contradictions that hold us back.

This episode is particularly poignant for leaders and coaches, underscoring the necessity of self-inquiry to cultivate authenticity and fulfillment. So, join the journey, and let's navigate the terrain of self-improvement together, with practical strategies and heartfelt wisdom to keep your life's momentum in constant motion.

In this episode, you'll learn the following:
1. Thoughtful questioning as a form of education and personal growth.
2. The progress loop, which involves focusing the mind on positive achievements and wins.
3. The reason why you should start considering the impact you make in the lives of others.

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Speaker 1:

Are you a woman who runs the world but know you need a little support to Listen up? Through coaching clients and pursuing my own health and ambitions, I've found getting to a goal takes more than just willpower. It takes a mindset restart and learning how to adjust and not quit. In this podcast, you'll hear from women out there leading the way in momentum, and I'll be sharing impactful mindset strategies to help you get out of your own way. Whether you're on a health journey, starting your life after a big change or trying to keep up momentum towards your passion project, with all the ups and downs, this is for you. It's time to decrease the things that hold you back and increase the things that move you forward towards a life that you want. I'm Amber Bebelheimer and this is the Momentum Restart Podcast.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to Momentum Restart Podcast. This is episode 103, weekly Growth Questions. To Ask Yourself If you're listening to Momentum Restart Podcast, I can assume that you are a woman who really understands and values personal growth, professional development, learning from our mistakes and moving forward, teaching others. These type of qualities are so important to help you be increasing your momentum towards that life that you want, and I love asking questions. It is what I do every time I'm on a call with a client. It is why I made the planner in journal, because I truly believe that when we're planning out our week, we also need time to pause and ask ourselves some deep questions. I'm going to give you three really powerful growth questions that you can ask yourself every week, and share a few details, too, about how I laid out the journal, with different questions from one day to another, and how you can implement that yourself too.

Speaker 2:

Questioning is a type of education. It's a type of tradition that goes all the way back to in ancient Greek times. It's a disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning, and I was reading in Forbes about why questioning is so powerful for education, how it really helps us learn more than a lot of other types of learning methods, and it was saying that this practice of thoughtful questioning enables students to explore complex ideas and in the process they uncover implicit assumptions, expose deeply held beliefs and recognize hidden contradictions. So those are some big things that we're uncovering when we are questioning and we are digging in and looking under the layers of things, those complex ideas. If you listened to last week's episode, I described how, when a client comes to me with a lot of ideas and then I help them break it down to step by step, it's like taking a big tangled ball of Christmas lights. It's complex and then we explore them and we unthread each of those Christmas light strings until we're able to see everything in order and we see all the different layers. Another thing this article said and formed which I really loved and popped out at me because this is behind everything that I do. It was talking about the art of questioning and how this enables students to explore these complex ideas. And then it said, rather than the teaching filling the mind of the student instead, both are responsible for moving the dialogue forward. That there is how I coach, what the momentum restart is all about, and when I do in-person events with the restart collective, all of them are focused on this. So often we see coaches and leaders want to create many versions of them and all that does is set you up to be on a hamster wheel. You're just becoming a mini version of that leader or that coach and you're working really hard, but then you get to the end of the day and realize this isn't what. This isn't me. This is what I really wanted.

Speaker 2:

So asking questions, which is what I think is so important asking questions of yourself, making sure the coach that you're working with, your mentor that you're working with, asks you questions and listens so that you are the one moving forward. It's not them just telling you what to do. Instead, they're asking questions to dig in and helping move forward so important. So let's dig into the three questions you can ask yourself each week. It was hard to only choose three. Really honestly, I wanted there's so many more, which is why I have a journal to be able to give you so many different questions. The journal doesn't even. It just says the tip of the iceberg of all the questions I have in my notes and my folders that I use for clients. There's so many good ones. I just love these questions because I love seeing what happens on the other side of these questions. I want you to know that there's purpose behind every one of these. There's research done behind these questions, there's a reason behind them, and I'm going to try to share some of that today too.

Speaker 2:

The first question is simple what are you celebrating? I mentioned last week and please don't roll your eyes. If you are rolling your eyes with what are you celebrating? Thinking, I've heard this before. I want you to pause and check yourself. I get it, it's used a lot. It's used a lot right now, but there's a reason it's used a lot. I shared last week on the podcast that it was, or a couple of weeks ago that we are in the 100th episode 101, 102, 103, and I was talking I believe it was on the 101 episode about how I didn't really pause to celebrate that I thought, yeah, that's awesome, great, we got to 100. What's next? A friend of mine really encouraged me to pause and think through what that meant and what resistance I had to face to get to that moment of celebrating.

Speaker 2:

When you celebrate, here's what happens. Maybe you've heard me talk about the progress loop before. If you haven't, I'm going to share it with you right now. If you have always a good time to be reminded and ask yourself which loop you are in. Really pause and ask yourself that, because we can easily jump from the progress loop to the being stuck loop, too, of negative stories in our head. So the progress loop is what was described in Harvard Business Journal about when we are mind is focused on a win, something that we did well, it keeps us in the progress loop. Imagine your brain in figure eight in a loop and your brain tells your body hey, this is good, we won, you did it. Well, let's keep doing that.

Speaker 2:

For instance, let's say you got up early five days a week and worked out and you're celebrating that. You tell yourself wow, I got up five days this week and worked out. When you're looking at it from the positive, you're telling yourself you're a winner, you did this, you got this, and you are naturally going to feel motivated to keep going. And on the flip side, this article also talked about what happens when we focus on what we didn't do. Well, yeah, I got up early, but I only did half of that one workout, or I didn't work out every day, or I didn't lift very heavy weights, or I really didn't give it all I got, or I ate XYZ, and so we're focused on the negative things that we didn't do instead of focusing on what we did do. And what that does in our brain is it tells us to stop. It sets up resistance against what you want. It tells you wait, this isn't working, protect yourself, be safe, don't do it. And all of a sudden you have more resistance that you're actually just creating in your own mind. That's keeping you from moving forward to what you really want. So it's so simple, yes, to answer.

Speaker 2:

What are you celebrating today? But let's remember the layers under that, the why. It's because we want to stay motivated. We want to celebrate today because I know it's going to help me stay motivated. You want to celebrate today because you know it's going to help you keep going. So pause, share with a friend, think through on your next walk or journal it out. There's proven power about taking pen to paper. What are you celebrating today? I think the progress loop really lines up and can be similar to or different than the what, the gratitude that we've all heard about, and that's another one of those things that it's been overused, because it really does work. It truly does work when we are grateful. More abundance comes. When we are grateful, our energy shifts. When we're grateful for what we already have, we will have our eyes open to how much more we have.

Speaker 2:

There was a really difficult week I had the last couple of weeks ago. I did not want to do the day. I did not want to do this day, and what I did is I knew my one of my favorite quotes was when we're thankful for what we have, more abundance comes. And what I did, laying in bed that morning and in the car on the way to bring the kids to school, is I went through every in my brain. I went through every thing that was on my calendar for that day that I did not want to do, not one of those things that I want to do. I went through every single thing that was on my calendar and I gave thanks for it. I found a reason to be thankful for every one of those things on my calendar. And you know what? The end of the day? I had an awesome day. It was a day.

Speaker 2:

I would have looked at any other day and thought, oh, this is going to be terrible, I don't want to do any of these things and I would have just moped through it and at the end of it I would have been so stressed and frustrated and just ready for it to be done. But instead, that simple act of looking at every one of those things, knowing I'm grateful for these. I know that there's more for me and I'm grateful for what I have right now. It changed everything. I had such a good day when I picked up the boys. I was so excited to pick them up and I know it's because I took the time to be grateful, and that is easier said than done. I 100% understand that it's easier said than done.

Speaker 2:

But these simple things that we hear a lot what are you celebrating? What are you grateful for? Yes, we can eye roll, but there is proven research behind why and I challenge you, if you're looking at your day, you're weak and you're looking at things and thinking I don't want to do these things. Write down why you do want to do them. Write down why you're thankful for them in the moment. Find a reason. There's always something.

Speaker 2:

That's the first question. The second question this is a good one. This is actually the very first question in the 90-day journal in Planner, because I wanted to come out with a bang and ask you if you knew that there was nothing to stand in your way and you knew that you would be able to help someone today and make a difference, make an impact, what would you do today? What would you do and this goes out to all of my female business owners out there. Business owners we wake up, get a long list of things to do right, a lot of behind-the-scenes work. We have client work, we are trying to think of how to expand our network. We're doing collaborations, all of the things. But if you knew that today you are going to make an impact in someone's life in a positive way and nothing is going to stand in your way, what would you do? All of a sudden, it takes away a lot of that resistance that we didn't really know was going to be there. We didn't really see it. It kind of put new glasses on our eyes and we can see ooh, I realize if nothing was stopping me and I could help this person. Feel relief when they looked at their schedule, feel belief in themselves to do the thing that they are made to do, then what I'm going to do are these hard things on my list, because I know. Nothing's going to stop me from making that happen. It gives us renewed sense of motivation.

Speaker 2:

The third question, and you're going to need a word for this one, so I'm giving you a reminder to make sure to have your word. This is something I still do. This for every momentum restart client. When they are starting with me, I ask them to pick a word for our time together and then send them a screenshot image of that word, because I always ask them on the call how are you living out your word this week? How are you living out your word? How are you moving towards it? And that's such a great test for ourselves.

Speaker 2:

To get really honest, my word for this year. I have a few words. I know I've shared a couple times, but clarity is the big overarching theme of my year 2024. And there are a few subwords. Value is one of them. I've talked about that with you. Sharing value and sharing in that.

Speaker 2:

I want to value myself this year.

Speaker 2:

I want to value my work.

Speaker 2:

I want to value my body. I want to value who I am. I want to stand up for myself. I look back at last year with clarity and when I did the word of the year and really noticed. It was a wonderful year. I am so thankful for all the things I got to do and there were a lot of times where I needed to stand up for myself and I didn't see them in the moment. And this year I'm asking for clarity so that I can see those moments and I can value myself to speak up. I'm really excited and nervous to do it, but it's going to be good, because at the end of each week, and the beginning of each week too, how am I living out my word? How are you living out your word? Now I can ask how did I value myself this week? See how that changes different, or that hits different, and that changes the way you look at your week when you have your word and it's really specific to you. I've heard some of your words. Thank you for sharing that with me. Keep them coming. Someone shared that their word was embrace. How are you embracing life this week? And one of you shared your word is action. How are you leaning into action this week? Are you leaning into action this week? Someone's word was confidence. How are you living that out this week? What's on your schedule? A friend has a word pursue. And I said, look at your schedule every week when you make it and then ask yourself does my schedule reflect that I am pursuing what I want? The word really hits home and makes it unique for you. So asking those three questions what are you celebrating If nothing could stop you and you knew you can make an impact on someone today? What would you do? How are you living out your word this week? Those are going to uncover big things for you. Add those weekly growth questions into your week. The journal has different questions from one day to another. The way that I mapped them out is knowing that we go through. We go through ups and downs during the week. Most of us start Monday feeling ready for the week. We need motivation. We need to feel ready to go all in. So you're going to have those big questions that are really going to move you, like that question of if you knew there was nothing stopping you Midweek. We need a pause. We need to take a moment and remember to live in our bodies. So we're working hard Monday. We're working hard Tuesday In midweek. I know it's important to pause and think you're okay, wait a minute. Am I taking care of myself too, with all these to-do lists that I still am only halfway done with, and it's Wednesday, so some of the journal questions in the middle of the week in the planner and journal are about you how do you love? Write down five ways you love to move your body? And I love this question. This is something I love to ask clients when we're talking about self-care what do you do? How do you love to move your body? And I didn't say how are you supposed to move your body, what is someone, something that someone told you that you should do to move your body? No, no, no, no. We're not talking about that right now. We're talking about how do you love to move your body. What's fun to you? Yes, I know, for me, my age, midlife lifting heavy weights is super important and I'm doing it and I'm committed to it and I'm getting it in. Also, I love to move my body in yoga. I love to move my body in yoga. I love to go to my dance jam class and dance and have fun with this group of women and laugh and smile and sing along to ridiculous songs that are forever stuck in my brain from the 90s. I love that and it's so important to make sure you're also doing what you love. Yes, I'm going to have to do things that I don't want to do too, because I know the outcome is worth it. But also, self-care is making sure to do the things that you love too, that bring you joy. So how do you love to move your body? That's a great midweek question, and on the weekend is when you have time to dream and you have time to reflect back at the week and how things went. Hopefully you're not doing client work. If you are, let's do some quarterly planning and talk about how we can get your weekends back for you. But the weekends are time to dream, and those questions in the journal for the weekends are all about dreaming that big vision what you want your life to look like, hoping that you'll take a little more time on the weekends with a hot cup of coffee and really soak in what you want that life to look like before you get back into your Monday and, of course, sunday's full of prep work and planning your week as well. So knowing too, when you're asking these different questions, some days you're going to be motivated to ask the am I living out my word? This week and others you might need a softer question and that's okay. Just making sure you're asking yourself the hard questions and if you're not, grab the journal, they're going to ask them for you. Or get in a room or get with a mentor who's going to ask you questions, to challenge you Questions, to help you discover more about who you are, what you're doing, what you want, because that's going to help you find that dreamy, ideal life. Thank you for listening to this episode of Momentum Restart Podcast. I would love to hear what you think about it. What were your takeaways? What action steps do you now want to take? Dm me on Instagram at coachamberby, and let's keep this conversation going.

Speaker 2:

I promise I respond to every message. I get Talk with you soon.

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Coach Amber Bibelheimer

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