And She's Only 22

Have you ever heard the saying, “you’re never too old to follow your dreams”?

It’s great advice. But if you’re like me and you’re relatively young, you probably think you should wait until you’re older or have ‘more experience’ before you can really do what you want to do. Wait until you’re 30 because THEN you’ll be good enough.

Major imposter syndrome, right?

My age used to be my biggest hang up in following my dream to be a life coach.
I thought, “who in their right mind would want to hire a 22 year old life coach?”

Well, as it turns out, people - young and old - do want to hire me, because I’m actually great at what I do.

But I still had imposter syndrome.

“I’m only 22” just kept playing in my head over and over and over.

Who would hire me? I’m only 22.
Why would they want to work with me? I’m only 22.
Who will take me seriously? I’m only 22.

Until one day, I was at a life coaching event and I overheard someone say about me:

“…and she’s only 22!”

That little ‘and’ made all the difference.

“She’s doing all this amazing stuff, and she’s only 22! I wish I had started at 22. Imagine where she’ll be at 40!”

Suddenly, it was like the cloud cleared in my head.
Ohhhh! My age could be viewed as an advantage.

A tiny shift in perception can change the way you see your whole world.

You’re never too old or too young to start. Your experience is valid, just for being you on this earth, you have wisdom and gifts to share with the world. And honey, this world could use every little bit of help it can get!

So next time you’re feeling inadequate, remember that it’s your own bullshit talking and you get to CHOOSE how you see yourself. Even if you’re only 22.

Who is the secret jury you are trying to impress?

This photo is unapologetically yet nonetheless entirely staged as I often meditate at 1am in my pyjamas in the dark and that doesn’t make a good photo!

This is the guided mediation I’ve been listening to recently and I love it. It’s so relaxing and uplifting.

Sometimes I feel like I have a jury in my head, a panel of people I know in my real life who have gathered to approve or disapprove my actions. Exhaustinggggg.

It’s not often I feel that way. But sometimes, when I’m making a decision, I can feel the presence of that jury. Kind of like the classic angel/devil on the shoulders in a cartoon. Except it’s my entire extended family and my 500 Facebook friends.

When I first set my challenge to meditate for 365 days in a row (currently on day 154), I imagined myself being some enlightened Buddhist nun on a hill with her head shaved by the end of the year. I imagined that my jury would be pleased with me for attempting to become an enlightened human being.

So I feel like I’m “cheating” because I’ve actually been listening to guided meditations for 10 minutes at 1am, and I’m not sitting cross-legged in silence in a cave for 4 hours everyday.

But I remember that I WAS THE ONE to set the challenge! I’m not doing it to be ‘right’ at meditating, or to impress my jury. I have to remember WHY I am doing it. I began the challenge because I wanted to reduce anxiety and enjoy the many benefits of meditation. I totally believe I’m doing that. Bye-bye jury. Bye, Felicia!

Who is the secret jury you are trying to impress with your actions?

There is nowhere to 'get to'

Sometimes I think “I should be there by now” or compare myself to others who are further ahead. But remembering to celebrate my attempts is the real triumph.

The real secret of impossible goals is that there’s nowhere to ‘get to’. The end goal is only there to give us the opportunity to grow. Trying IS the success, because trying means we are growing. Attempting an impossible goal, putting your whole heart and soul into it - that is the reward. It doesn’t matter if you succeed or fail.

Today I worked on my 100 push ups a lot. I can do 5 now - (well, an average 5, I wasn’t going as low as I need to be). But that’s the point! I don’t want to think it’s not good enough because I can’t do 5 perfect push ups yet. Reframing my thoughts: I’m actually super stoked to be at 5 already!

One of the ego’s favourite stories is “Things aren’t happening quickly enough.”

I heard myself think that (but not say it - that would count as a complaint and I’m not complaining for 21 days!) when I woke up this morning and saw 47 people had seen my YouTube video (last time it was more). But HOLY MOLY 47 people! Imagine if they were all in the room with me right now?! That’s a heck of a lot of people to impact.

I’m happy when I’m growing.

That’s my new mantra. It doesn’t matter when I get there. It could take me 50 years to reach 100 push ups or 100k subscribers. But I’m happy, because I’ll still be growing as a person, still be growing towards something bigger.

It’s so easy to think “I should… blah blah blah”.

I think sometimes people look at me with my goals and they assume I’m working on them 24/7, and crushing it all the time. It’s just so not true. Today I woke up at lunchtime, and did not go for a run! It’s so easy to look from the outside of anyone else’s life and compare yourself to them. I’m totally guilty of this. Some of my biggest inspirations are seemingly SO far ahead of me. BUT THERE IS NOWHERE TO GO, NOWHERE TO GET TO. This is it, right now. This is enough.

How I overcame my fear of flying

I have a video for you guys today! It’s all about exactly what I did to overcome my fear of flying, and the steps you can take to overcome it too. It’s not like every other video (believe me, I’ve watched almost every video on YouTube about fear of flying!), it’s not even about planes or flying, it’s about your identity and your mindset. You have the power to change your thinking! I have no idea when I even discovered this cure, but I feel so incredibly free. I feel like it’s my duty to share it! (In fact, that’s what got me to create the video when usually I’d be so concerned about lighting and camera and everything - but I feel like this video can help so many people, I couldn’t wait another day so I just made it!).

Let me know if you have questions, you can comment by clicking the title of this blog post, or on the actual YouTube video itself.

I hope it helps you! <3

Complaint free challenge

The other day, someone responded to an Instagram story I’d posted about being too hot, forced to buy plastic bottled water, in an overpriced airport cafe after my favourite cafe was shut. She said “STOP COMPLAINING!”

My immediate reaction was, “I’m not complaining! I’m just…” Oh wait. I watched the Instagram story again. The last 3 videos were all of me complaining. I had no idea I complained so much! I thought I was such a positive person! (I do still think that - but there’s always room for improvement!)

There’s this challenge called “The Complaint Free Challenge”, where you try to go for 21 days without complaining. You have to wear a bracelet or watch (or even a rubber band) on your wrist, and each time you complain, you switch it over to the other wrist, and you go back to day 1. So even if you’ve gone for 15 days without complaining and then you make one complaint - you have to start from day 1! It takes the average person about 4-6 months to complete the challenge, apparently!

So today I’m beginning - let’s see how long it takes me! I’ve chosen this rubber bracelet so I can wear it in the shower. Are you keen to try this challenge? Let me know in the comments (just click the title of this post).

Growth = Happiness

Do you ever feel like the anticipation of your birthday is more exciting than your actual birthday?

It’s not to say that the birthday isn’t enjoyable, but that the imagining, the anticipating, the planning - they are all what make it so special.

It’s my 30th day of daily blogging today, and I’m super pleased I’ve made it this far. I can feel my writing and my content evolving already. One month down, 23 to go!

Although achieving the final goal and passing the finish line is important, I discovered that it’s actually more about the growth.

It’s not about “being there” (I don’t want to wake up tomorrow and find out that I’ve blogged for two years already, that would be awful because I would have missed out on the experience of doing it) and it’s not even about the journey - it’s about the moment we’re in right now. Enjoying writing this, right now.

But how can I be 100% happy with now, if I’m so ambitious?

A while ago, I wrote my own definition of happiness. It took me three days (I’m not kidding) of introspecting and researching to figure out what happiness means to me.

I came up with this definition:

Happiness is being content with the stage of growth you’re currently in.

So, while I’m on day 30 of my two year blogging challenge - I’m not trying to rush ahead to the last day. I am content with the stage of growth I’m currently in.

Quick Life update

I’ve got so many thoughts and exciting things to share coming up over the next few days, so for now I thought I’d give you a bit of a life update!

Oh my goodness I’ve had such an incredible response to my last post on my First Year in Business: Honest Review, thank you all for your messages, I will be sharing more content like that soon!

I also shared an Instastory about how I finally overcame my fear of flying, and I had loads of messages asking how I did it. I was considering sharing it in a blog post today, but I want to make sure I really do it justice, so I’m going to create a video about it over the next few days so I can take you guys step by step through the process.

I’m getting seriously excited about what’s coming up on my YouTube channel. I spent the weekend in Budapest with my friend Laura, a YouTube vlogger, and she was filming so naturally all the time and I realised how easy it can really be (clearly I had a mindset block around this!). Keep your eyes pealed!

Today I played Tennis with my boyfriend and his parents who are visiting, and I was expecting to get really hot and sweaty (so I could earn my shower!), but I actually found it quite relaxing and slow (so I didn’t take a shower - I’m holding myself to the rules!). That means I’ll definitely be getting a run in tomorrow morning (hack: I’m even sleeping in some workout gear so I can just jump up and go!).

If you’ve been reading my latest posts you’ll know I’ve been working majorly on mindset (and already reaping the rewards with overcoming my fear of flying!). Today I purchased a physical copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, the number one most recommended-to-me book of all time (and other people, it seems, 15 million copies sold!). I usually consume all of my content on digital devices, and I’ve already started reading it on my phone, but it’s just not as satisfying as turning pages. I figured, if this book is as good as everyone says it is, I’ll want to highlight bits in it!

I’m really interested to find out what kind of content you guys want to see from me, so let me know if you enjoy reading updates like this, or if you prefer “how to” content, or stories from my goals/life.

Talk soon!

First year in business: Honest Review

I’ve been coaching since February 2018, but at that time I was working full time as a receptionist, right out of University (with zero idea what to do with my degree).

I consider my business a full time business since August 2018. So as it’s 12 months later, I’d love to share my honest review of how my first year in business has been.

ONE YEAR AGO, AUGUST:

• I’d just finished 3 months of travelling to 18 different countries in Europe with my boyfriend (I thought I’d be able to travel and work but I was SO wrong - travelling and working only happens if you aren’t actually travelling 24/7! We went to a new city every 2-3 days. It just wasn’t possible for me to coach people - I was constantly changing time zones, on buses, planes and trains, as well as staying in accommodations with no privacy and dodgy (if any) wifi).

• Had set foot in the UK, unsure yet where we would settle. Considered London, Cardiff and Brighton. Fell in love with Brighton!

• Travelled around England and Wales for 2 months for free staying with family and friends while I started to set up my life coaching business.

• Signed my first 1:1 “results coaching” client for 1 month rolling contract, and immediately signed someone else the next day. It felt amazing!

SEPTEMBER:

• Felt major imposter syndrome. Although I saw my clients getting results, I felt like the world didn’t see coaching as a “good enough” profession. This made me feel like I wasn’t a good coach (although looking back I know I was actually pretty qualified after a psychology degree and thousands of hours of my own personal development).

• Decided I wanted to get certified as a coach so I could be really sure I was good at what I was doing. Chose to get trained as a Certified High Performance Coach in Arizona, and invest more money than I’d ever invested into ANYTHING before (besides my degree). This was majorly scary. It was $10,000 USD to do the course. I spent every last penny that I had, trusting it would work out.

• Signed up for a group coaching program to find my niche.

• Signed 2 more 1:1 clients!

OCTOBER:

• Moved to Brighton! Even though we could have got a 3 bedroom house to ourselves in Cardiff for the same price as a house share in Brighton, we went for a house share because didn’t know anyone and wanted to make friends ASAP - which we did (got so lucky with the incredible people we met!).

• Launched a course: “How to start your business in a weekend.” Total flop - one sign up, who changed her mind and asked for a refund before we’d even started.

• Made my first $2000 month. My living costs were only about $800 a month, so I felt so proud and excited that my business was taking off!

NOVEMBER:

• Got to Heathrow airport at 7am for my flight at 9am. “Where's your visa waiver?” Huh? I had no idea I would need a visa waiver. Ended up missing my flight because they wouldn’t let me on until the US had issued the document. There was a lot of stress and crying. I was about to miss a course I’d invested so much money into (I called them - they said no refunds). At 3:30pm the document was approved, and I had to make a choice to buy a $2000 flight on the spot. I’d already spent EVERYTHING I had, so I had to borrow money from my boyfriend.

• Booked the flight. It immediately got cancelled. I ended up on a new flight, but to the wrong airport. I had to take a one hour taxi across states, from JFK New York to New Jersey in the middle of the night. My taxi driver was speeding, and we got pulled over on the highway. He kept the meter running, so I asked for a discount at the end. He locked me in the car! (Thought I was going to get kidnapped, I was terrified so I just paid the $150 and ran away). Finally made it to Arizona, 2 hours late to the beginning of the course.

• The course was fantastic. I learned SO much and up-levelled my skills as a coach majorly. I also made an incredible network of friends.

• My imposter syndrome disappeared and hasn’t returned to this day. It was a combination of mindset and actually taking action to get better at what I do so I could prove to myself I was actually awesome at coaching (I’ll do a separate post about this!).

• Daniel got a marketing job in Brighton.

• Coming back from Arizona, I was so pumped to turn my business into a massive success!

• Instead, I earned zero dollars in November.

• Started working with a free client as a favour to a friend. Learning lesson from this: I learned so much about how to coach someone who doesn’t really want to change their life.

DECEMBER:

• Zero dollar month again. Panic.

JANUARY:

• Panic really started to set in. Told myself if I didn’t start making enough to cover my own bills by Feb 30, I would get a full time job (I majorly didn’t want this!).

• Did a zillion discovery calls. Signed one client for $100 a month.

• Started my YouTube channel (actually, I’d started it in 2012 but never posted anything), and created content.

• Daniel payed my rent & bills.

FEBRUARY:

• Signed two High Performance clients via Instagram/my website. (I’m still working with one of them, more than 6 months later!). Started paying my own bills again!

• Stopped creating youtube content because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with it.

• Closed my Facebook group, after feeling like it there was zero engagement and my posts were only reaching 1% of people.

MARCH:

• Went on holiday to New Zealand to visit my family, and did a lot of work/soul searching. Decided I wanted to serve more people. I had achieved goals I once thought were impossible for me - not working a 9-5 job, starting my own business in another country, changing my entire mindset. I wanted to help other people change their lives too - so I started creating Impossible Incubator, my members club for people with impossible goals. I thought it would come out in April (Didn’t come out until August!)

• Signed another 1:1 client. Things are starting to pick up!

ARPIL:

• Re-enrolled 2 of my clients for more coaching. Woohoo!

• Launched my High Performance Group Coaching Program with 3 sign ups.

MAY:

• Started doing some freelancing, helping a growth agency with their clients’ social media. I chose to do this so I would have consistency in my income. Although I was making enough, it wasn’t guaranteed to arrive every month (client’s not paying on time) and it wasn’t consistent long term.

JUNE:

• Put all of my energy into creating Impossible Incubator. Morning ‘til night, I was creating workbooks, organising payments, writing plans, contacting experts, filming videos, and everything else that goes into creating a membership site.

• Had my second guest expert pull out last minute, and I wasn’t ready to launch end of June as I’d planned. Pushed launch of Impossible Incubator to August.

JULY:

• Wasn’t happy with the quality of Impossible Incubator videos, so I hired a videographer to shoot with me. So happy with how they turned out.

• Made my deadline July 31st to stop working ON my business (re-designing the website, branding, logo anything that is to do with “set up” - I heard someone say “procrasti-branding” the other day. That pretty much sums it up) and start working IN my business (actually marketing, creating content and coaching more).

• Started showing up every single day online, on my Instagram, Instastories, Facebook page and blog - putting loads of effort into it. This made a big difference to my engagement. I actually lost 300 followers on Instagram, but my comments and DM’s went up. The people who wanted to consume the content were engaging a lot more. I went from posting once a month on Instagram to posting nearly every single day.

• Committed to daily blogging every single day for 2 years! Today is day 28 of 730. Discovered that big challenges motivate me because they’re exciting, and daily habits are the easiest to keep.

AUGUST:

• Properly started emailing my email list. I’d had one for a while but resisted it because I thought it would be too complicated.

• Launched Impossible Incubator! Had a sign up every single day for the start of the launch.

• Flew to Budapest for a VIP mindset day for entrepreneurs. Up-levelled my mindset 10x.

• Making enough extra money in my business to start doing things I enjoy, like a weekend away!

• We’re not even done with August yet - I’ll update anything else that happens!

Conclusions:

My first year in business was AMAZING. I moved countries, started my own business, coached amazing people, invested in myself and my business and reaped the rewards. There were ups and downs along the way, but even on the bad days, I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for the world. I’m so grateful for the freedom I have to design my days and my life. I’m not where I want to be in business YET (although, will I ever be? I’ll just keep moving the bar to a new goal!), but I’m so content and grateful to be making my income from my business and freelancing.

The hard parts sucked. So much. Not knowing if you’ll make money next month is not a fun feeling. But I always had faith that I could make it work. To me, that’s what confidence is: it’s not about knowing how to do everything, but knowing you have the ability to figure out anything.

Where to from here?

Heading into my second official year in business, I’m ready to go big.
Things I’m changing:

• Working on my mindset actively, every single day. This weekend at the Budapest VIP day, it really hit me how paramount this is. Without making deep mindset work a habit, without getting into a high vibe state of mind, there really is no business.

• Changing my business model to include my membership. So many people have asked to work with me 1:1 but don’t feel ready to invest the higher ticket price. I want to be able to serve more people, so I’m excited to work hard on delivering loads of value for my monthly Impossible Incubator members.

• Increasing my 1:1 prices. It’s currently $1500 USD to work with me for 3 months (I have monthly payment options too), to change your life, and create a transformation like I did, so you can go after your wildest most impossible dreams - no matter what they are. Why am I increasing them? Because the work I’m doing is getting more and more transformative. The change I could help people create a year ago was worth $1500. Now with my new skills, certification and experience, it’s worth far, far more. (If you’re wanting to find out more about my coaching or jump on a call with me to chat about creating more freedom and achieve your impossible goals, email me at hello@saraharnoldhall.com or send me a message on Instagram).

• Showing up on VIDEO. It’s amazing how much more engagement I get with my videos on Instagram than my written posts. YouTube is coming back for good, now that I understand how much it really impacts my audience.

• Raising my standards. My identity has been “I need to earn x dollars to get by” and I’m not longer subscribing to the survival mentality. Going into my second year of business, it’s time to THRIVE.

What do you think of my first year in business review? Click on the header to comment, or send me a message on Instagram! I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Insights from Budapest

Budapest is MAGIC. After 20 thousand steps of walking around the city today, I wrote 15 pages of mindset journaling! I feel so inspired, the people I have met here have absolutely transformed my thinking and my mindset. As cliché as it is - I feel like I’m a different person.

More learning lessons from today:

1. I am abundant NOW. I have everything I need right now to step into the future, ideal version of myself. I choose to step into that identity right now.

2. Changing your IDENTITY is at the core of any problem you think you have. If you think you are a healthy, wealthy, happy person - that is who you ARE, and who you will become more of. If you’re not those things - look what you’re holding onto as part of your identity. Is this problem you have part of your identity? Let it go. Choose a new identity.

3. There is literally nothing stopping me (or you) from being exactly where I (or you) want to be. I just need to step into my ideal self’s mindset and start taking action from the place she would take action from.

I’m so excited to elaborate on all of these concepts over the next few days and really speak about them in depth. I don’t feel like I can do the energy of my excitement justice in writing, I think this has come to a point where video is necessary too. I’M SO PUMPED!

Heading back to England tomorrow as a whole new person with a new identity (might need a new passport?!).

Budapest VIP Day

I feel like my mindset has had a facelift.

How is it even possible to do this much up-leveling in one day?
Today I attended Mindset Coach Susi Kaeufer’s Budapest VIP Day, and the only way I can explain it is like when you know something, but then you hear it another way, and you REALLY get it. That a-ha feeling, that click.

I got that with so many things today. Susi trained us from a workbook and then coached us all individually, which was ah-may-zing!

I’ve just been journaling for 2 hours frantically trying to download all the insights I received from my brain onto paper, and here are my main takeaways:

1. I can actually run my business now exactly the same way I want to run it when it’s as big as I envision it to be - just do it on a smaller scale. For example, in my ideal version of my business, I’ll have a fantastic team of people supporting me and get massages every week. So:
   Hire my first team member now. Even just for one hour a week.
   Get a 15 minute massage every month or two.

2. As soon as I embody the person who meditates/blogs/exercises daily, I don’t need to schedule them on my to-do list everyday. Breakfast isn’t on my to-do list. It’s just a task I do everyday because it’s part of who I am. So why is “mindset work” still on there, when I’ve naturally been do mindset journaling and personal development work everyday for years? (I deleted it from my habit tracker). My to-do’s can graduate to “of course I do’s” (of course I do work on my mindset everyday!).

3. My daily blogs don’t always have to be written ON the day. If I need a day off, I can write one ahead of time. (So obvious, but for some reason I was locked into “I have to write it ON the day”).

4. My youtube channel: Taking the pressure OFF making perfect content and reaching my goal of 100k (still a goal, just removed the pressure that was paralysing me from creating any content at all). Doing it for FUN.
   Journaling prompt: Now that I’m creating content totally for fun with no expectations, what do I want to create?
   This has really made me think. I’ll keep you posted.
   

I could write this blog to be 10,000 words long (I’m pretty sure that I’ve written half a journal full of thoughts already, and I’m not done for today), but I’ll leave you with my biggest takeaway from the day. If you are struggling with ANYTHING, ask yourself:

“Now that I am already the person who X, what would I do?”
(X = is successful/got the A+ grade/got the job etc).

Essentially, imagine you are already the person you’ll become once you’ve achieved the thing you want. What would that version of yourself do in this situation?