Insider Tips
Now that January has ended, we start to ask, “wait what happened to my New Year’s resolutions: the goals, wishes, hopes, or intentions?”
This year I kept my New Year’s goal simple. I committed to dance once a week. Now if you’ve followed me for a long time, you know this is not as simple as it sounds. For years, I’ve said that I want to find someone who teaches dance the way I teach swimming. To develop my self-concept (feel like a dancer), while developing the physical skills. Because yes, alone in my kitchen with some random music playing, I have been known to make a little wiggle and squiggle around that some might call dancing, but inside I didn’t feel like a dancer.
This year will be different. In the past, I’ve made the same error so many of us make to keep ourselves from changing. If you actually want to grow, your focus must be on the growth zone.
When you want to learn something new or make a change in your life, (dancing, loving your relationships to stepping onto a scale while being kind to yourself) we could put it into a pie chart.
Choose your goal. Any goal from dancing to swimming, loving your relationships to stepping onto the scale with kindness. This is what it looks like when you accomplish your goal.
This is your goal, fully realized.
When you start a new goal, the pie chart may look like this:
If you have ever missed a goal or dream it is because you spent your time on the red part of the pie (unknown). You thought about it, worried about it, and were overwhelmed with all the different steps involved.
You will always go where your thoughts and attention are directed.
The red zone can be overwhelming, feel impossible, confusing, and hard. If you focus on the red zone, the goal will fade away (look for the next article to tell you why this makes you happy).
What you really want is to grow the green zone, no matter how big or little it is. The goal is to expand the green zone, to build up the green part of the pie to widen its area.
The focus needs to be in the green to expand it.
Now you may be screaming, “BUT I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING!!”. Your brain is wired to keep everything the same, “no changes please, just keep it the same so I don’t have to work hard”.
This is when the green zone can help you answer with what you do know.
For my goal to dance, I need to answer with what I know about dancing. I can actually dance in my kitchen…all alone with no one watching. Showing myself that I do know things allows my brain to build on this self-concept with confidence.
What do you know about your goal? What can you do already?
Before even coming to a class you are able to, choose swimwear, visit pools, watch youtube lessons, dip your toe in with online membership. These are things you can do without overwhelming fear. Let yourself do these. This counts. This focus on the green growing part will allow you to expand it., Expanding into it.
As you expand the green zone, little bits of the red will start to become fuzzy lines of yellow. You will be tempted to chase something in the red zone. But stay in the green and get curious about the yellow. Expand yourself.
Use the yellow zone to be curious; Be willing to explore, ask good questions, and investigate. Allow yourself to grow with confidence, grace, and ease.
When you are ready for some help expanding your green growing zone, we are here for you. Join us at the pool, if swimming is your goal.
Do you have a non-swimming goal? Get started with building your Foundation of Change with Cori as your life coach.
Jump-In Membership
If you’re like many adults, you’ve been frustrated or embarrassed that you weren’t free to swim “like everybody else.” Half of adults can’t swim, like you! We meet them all the time. They’ve tried every system, including the traditional programs, with no success.
Since 1999, we’ve helped hundreds of adults overcome their fear and discomfort in water with our proven system built on the Jump-In Membership. Our Jump-In program uses the nuts and bolts of mindfulness to address the root of the problem and will transform the way you feel and think about water for the rest of your life.
