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Purpose Filled Life With Connie Sokol


Nov 20, 2018

Hi everyone! This is Connie Sokol, and you're listening to Balance Redefined Radio. I've spent over 20 years teaching people how to redefine what balance really is, meaning a more purposeful and joyful life.

 

They’ve paid off credit cards, lost weight, organize their homes, and created a meaningful life plan and they've managed their time, changed habits and experience greater success both at work and at home.

 

So now I decided to take the plunge and help about 100,000 new people who want to redefine balance in their lives. People ask me all the time, “How do I go from an overwhelming and chaotic life to more purpose and organization and joy?”

 

That's the reason why I'm doing this podcast, to give you trusted answers and create a space where you could find balance. My name is Connie Sokol and welcome to Balance Redefined Radio…

 

[00:01] Welcome back to Balance Redefined! I am giddy this morning-yeah, a new word. I'm giddy because I just finished my workout. This is the motivation and inspiration that I had literally while I am doing my Zoomba. I was holding my phone and making notes for this podcast because I felt so happy.

 

[00:19] When is the last time that you have felt happy working out? If you work out regularly or if you're doing it, then you know exactly what I'm talking about. If you don't, then I'm telling you I forgot.

 

[00:30] I forgot how good this felt and I'll tell you why. Over the last, I don't know, 10, 15, 20 years, you know, I have been up and down having seven children with weight and all of that, the weight loss, weight gain and all of that. I've exercise to some degree over those 20 years, but as far as loving it, not until I figured out my own little method did I start loving working out.

 

[00:51] And so here's my thoughts for you today: three tips to get off the couch and jumpstart your fitness. I am so excited. I'm trying to hold back my energy to not be so gushing because I will share with you what happened.

 

[01:04] I usually do a variety of things. It just depends on the season and how that works. So several months ago I was doing zumba because it was the beginning of the year into the early spring. Then when it hits like late spring and summer I like to switch it and I go walking.

 

[01:21] We have a park in an area that's just right by us and so I like to do that, but right now it's the fall and while I was doing that, you know, we had had these experiences recently where we had had Back-To-School...

 

[01:32] Then I had gone to that trip with my daughter to pick her up from nannying in France. So we had gone to Europe and then came back and then we were evacuated for the fires. Then we had the flood and sandbagging for possible flooding.

 

[01:43] Then right after that, we'd already scheduled to go to this week long orphanage trip to help with the orphans in Mexico. So we've been kind of busy and we have not really had a consistent on a workout schedule.

 

[01:53] Have you been there? You're just like, "Literally, I don't know if I can fit in sleep right now."

 

[01:58] All during that I'm doing all kinds of things because my business partner and I had started kind of exploding in lots of different things that were happening.

 

[02:04] Then I had to take care of those while the kids are at school. So it was crazy. Has it been crazy like that and you're like, "I don't know how I can fit in?"

 

[02:10] "I don't know if I even want to fit in working out quite frankly."

 

[02:14] And that's really where it stems from. It's that beginning desire. Right? But here's the deal. Sometimes we wait until that desire hits us. When guess what?

 

[02:23] We have to get that desire...

 

[02:25] We have to jumpstart it with doing something to create that desire. Because generally speaking, it's not going to like show up in our wheaties is not going to walk down upon us like a sweet little air freshener.

 

[02:37] It's not going to happen that way. So what happened this last week is I was going back through some cradle life plan things, module stuff and I started retooling at the end of the year. I like to retool my life plan and so I don't wait until January.

 

[02:50] I like to kind of assess the year, November, December, really have an evaluative, enjoyable, kind of a spiritual thinking back and evaluated last year.

 

[02:59] Really I'm calling from all the wonderful experiences I've had learning from the ones that were not that wonderful.

 

[03:04] Then I'll share more about that with you in another podcast when it gets a little bit closer to that, but how you kind of do your year end review just in a fun way.

 

[03:11] Not like in a tax audit way. No, like in a really fun way really if you can take an overnight or hotel and that kind of thing. So I want you to think of it in a positive.

 

[03:19] So this was my feeling this last week...

 

[03:22] I had this nice little time when I was by myself. It was amazing that I was able to have that...

 

[03:28] I just had my little notepad, my little legal pad, my pen, my sticky notes, and cuddled into my bed all nice and cozy with my pajamas. I was really thinking and praying about my life.

 

[03:40] Anyway, I started writing down some things and one of them was I wanted to get back into regular workout schedule because I remember my soul remembers how good it feels. Sometimes we don't remember.

 

[03:51] We forget. And it's like after you have a baby, then you say, "Oh, that baby," and you're so happy that you kind of forget after a while the birthing process and all of that.

 

[04:00] And that's what makes the, you know, the human race still, you know, continue because it propagates by the fact that we forget the pain....ha ha ha!

 

[04:09] So it's reversed...

 

[04:10] We forget the joy of working out and we only remember the pain.

 

[04:14] So I am here to tell you, I just finished my workout and I feel so fabulous. I feel energetic. It's like my soul just went, "Oh Connie, thank you..."

 

[04:24] "Thank you for cleaning me out. I feel like I just got rid of toxins. I just was able to get all that oil out of the car, all this fresh clean stuff."

 

[04:33] I felt like I drank 64 ounces of fresh clean water. I had so much fun. And guess what? It was only 20 minutes. Twenty minutes.

 

[04:42] So I've just got three quick tips for you today. If you're like, "Man, do I get out of bed? Do I get up off this couch? Do I stop watching Netflix and do I really do something?"

 

[04:53] I'm here to tell you, "Yes, yes."

 

[04:55] And it doesn't matter if you do it for five minutes, for 20 minutes, for 45 minutes...

 

[04:59] It doesn't matter. What matters is you move. If you don't remember anything else I say in this podcast, move.

 

[05:06] Your body craves movement and we know all the benefits...

 

[05:10] We know all the benefits. We're not dumb. We know it helps our incredibly helps our immune system, our nervous system. It makes her skin glow already. I feel like I just had this cute, shiny face. Your metabolism is higher.

 

[05:24] You burn calories even after you work out. I mean...your bones are strengthened. There's so many benefits of working out. I seriously want to smack my head on the wall and go, "Why don't I do this? This is a no brainer."

 

[05:37] But we still end up making it a choice, don't we? And I'll tell you why we make it hard on herself. So here's three quick tips, okay? First and foremost, you must make it enjoyable. It has to be enjoyable.

 

[05:51] So let me tell you the three right away, enjoyable, simple, and sustainable. So the first one, enjoyable. You've got to find something you love.

 

[05:59] If you don't like walking, then don't start with walking. If you don't like yoga, don't start with Yoga. Start with something you love. And if you're like, "I don't know, when I like," stopped whining and find something. There are 50 bazillion things out there.

 

[06:13] Find something you love...

 

[06:14] There is yoga, tight-chi, maybe bowling, gardening, yeah. All of that is a workout, right? So figure out what it is that you love to do.

 

[06:25] I love to dance. Now I always say there's two kinds of workouts, right? Really two kinds of workout people. There's athletic and there's dancy and the Dansie people, they love Zoomba.

 

[06:36] They love Yoga. They love flexing their body and doing kind of cool things.

 

[06:40] I would say sometimes even for dancing people, yoga is a little bit of a stretch. Ahah! Pun intended...

 

[06:46] So the dancing people though, they like to move...

 

[06:48] They like that quick step. They like to feel their body do all these kinds of contortions. The athletic people, they're like, "I can't do three steps together to save my life, but I can do burpees like for an hour..."

 

[07:00] So you get what I'm saying?...

 

[07:01] So find something enjoyable, find something you love. I love Zumba and I love the movement,and oh my gosh!

 

[07:09] I have these dvds and I put them on this morning and I thought, I'm just, you know, I might got my kids out the door and I could have gone back under the covers. It was such a cozy fall morning and I didn't. I said, "You know what? I'm just going to try it. Do a couple of minutes, just kind of get back in the groove, see what I need to do," and guess what?

 

[07:25] My shoes were where they were supposed to be.

 

[07:27] My clothes are where they're supposed to be, and that's in the simple. You put those things exactly where they need to be so that it's simple to do. I knew where the DVD was. I knew I had to bring the clicker. I knew I had to pull the little decorative carpet off the hardwood floor downstairs so that I could dance. I knew this rhythm...

 

[07:45] So give yourself a couple of times to be able to get in that rhythm. Once you find something that you love to do and it's fun. In fact, I even call my workouts in my program, the balance redefined program, FUN workouts, and it stands for-For Your Nurture- so FUN workouts.

 

[08:02] Once you find that FUN workout, then go to that next step. Make it simple, have FUN. Have those clothes where they need to be, have the dvds where they need to be, have your gym pass where it needs to be. Have your car ready to go. You know you have gas because you're going to go in the morning. Do all of those things so that you are prepared for success so that it makes it simple.

 

[08:20] If it's not simple, I'm not doing it...

 

[08:23] In fact, this morning when I had that first thought I was getting the kids breakfast and blah, blah, blah, and I thought, "Oh, I'm going to go change my workout clothes right now because I know my personal success mantra is if I put on my workout clothes, I will work out."

 

[08:37] The percentage of success for that is 99 percent, because I will not take off my workout clothes unless I've done something. It feels like a waste of energy to me. Now it takes me about 35 seconds to change clothes, but it is a mental game.

 

[08:52] This is all a mental game, so mentally I know if I've got my workout clothes on, there's 99 percent chance I'm working out, so find a way that makes that simple for you. And again, if it's a DVD, make sure you find it. I want to start doing some melodies and I know I have some dvds that I like and I'm going to go find them in the workout drawer so that they are handy for me to do.

 

[09:13] I know my daughter, she loves yoga and she has these youtube videos that she does with this Gal. Please post your comments below. I would love, love to hear what you have to say about the workouts that you love so that we can all get some fun ideas and maybe some things we hadn't considered, so please comment and post away. I would love it.

 

[09:31] It will help and bless other people's lives. But she loves yoga and it's funny because she won't do it for awhile, but then once she starts it, she can't stop. She loves it, like loves doing it and she does it at night.

 

[09:44] I know for a long time I did body for life and I loved it, but I got so freaked out about not working out at night until I saw that there was a couple in there that had actually lost weight and gotten fit and in shape and they did it at night together.

 

[09:57] So that's a great thing to do. Do it in a way that makes it simple and doable for you.

 

[10:03] That takes us into the last one which is sustainable. Make it sustainable...

 

[10:06] I have started looking at gyms that are right around us so that I only drive five to 10 minutes because if it's longer than that, not going to do it.

 

[10:16] If I have to drive longer than I would work out, I'm not going to go there. That's all there is to it. That's just me and I want to find a gym that I can take my kids to because guess what ?

 

[10:26] I talked with my kids. I got the family buy in and they said they would love to go to a gym a couple of nights a week. There's a place that my child, my six year old, can play and the rest of them can do the things that they want to do. Their total family experience. Right?

 

[10:39] And we're not doing it all the time. So if we do it on our family night night, then we can do our regular kind of learning life skills. Part of family night on Sunday night works great.

 

[10:48] Then we can go party on a Monday night and then afterwards if they want a smoothie that's healthy, great, because I'm telling them stop worrying about carbs and calories and all of that.

 

[10:58] Move and eat balanced and eat healthy and at this stage of your life you will be great because they're young, they're teenagers and it's working. It's keeping them healthy and strong without being obsessed. So sustainable...

 

[11:11] That's why I do the Zumba Dvds. I know that if I can get up and do that 20 minutes then in the morning it's done. I'm showered, I'm ready for the day. I'm not worried about anything after that. It's optional.

 

[11:23] Another thing is, the reason why I switched to walking in the summer is because, like I said, I can do it with my kids.

 

[11:30] My six year old can go play on the swings. I have my teenagers. One of them stays right there and she does her art because she likes to do more stretching stuff and then she'll do her art right there, so she's watching him and the others will go walk around, but we still see him as we walk around and take our laps and it's beautiful.

 

[11:45] It's outside. It's in trees. It's lovely. We have just this gorgeous park area where you can still see things, but then there are these trees that are dotted around. It's beautiful.

 

[11:55] So make it sustainable, make it something that you'll love to do.

 

[12:00] Again, three quick tips to just get you jump started because we forget...

 

[12:04] We forget how good it feels and that's why I wanted to podcast right now. I don't know if you can feel it, but I hope you can feel my energy and my desire and my joy because I feel so good.

 

[12:16] I am ready for this day and it's a Monday. I am ready for this day. I've got meetings, I've got a bunch of errands. I got stuff to do with my kids. I've got a whole bunch of stuff. We've got a holiday coming up in a few days. It is just, it's busy, but I am clean and clear and I have this energy boost.

 

[12:33] I know I did it for the right amount of time because you should feel energized after you work out. If you're not feeling energized then you either didn't do it for the right amount of time or you did the wrong thing, so find that thing you love, do it for the time that feels good and do it in a way that is sustainable for you...

 

[12:50] I promise you it is something you will keep doing for life. I keep coming back to these. It's been 20 years. Like I said, I keep coming back to doing dvds and walking and Zumba palates, doing a little bit of weight training.

 

[13:04] I do strength and toning. This little lunges and squat routine that I do, it's like 15 minutes, and I do lunges and squats and some jumping jacks and some crunches and I love it.

 

[13:18] I do it while we're listening to scripture. I do it while we're watching a show in the morning if the kids are getting ready. There my little one just wants to watch wild kratts. I'm doing it quick while he's doing that and just getting kind of awake for the day.

 

[13:29] So like I said, it brings joy. It brings joy to me, brings joy to my family, and it's something that is doable for a lifetime. So I invite you.

 

[13:39] Get up off that couch, get up out of that car. Go walk extra to the grocery store. Park farther away from work, all those extra steps, they matter, they count. Do things that will make you happy and that you can sustain...

 

[13:53] ... and you will feel the benefits of fitness. Not just weight loss or weight maintenance, but that beautiful skin, the higher metabolism, that beautiful appetite for healthy things and that feeling of your body moving in such a beautiful, happy, healthy youthful way. You will be thrilled. All right, stay tuned for more balance redefined.


You got it. Thanks for listening and remember to rate and subscribe. And if you are feeling the need for real balance in your life, get your free 3-Step Life Plan, and get started today! Just go to conniesokol.com/download.