Move Mountains

THIS STRUGGLE ISN’T EVEN ABOUT YOU. It’s about building your success story. It’s about inspiring others. You think your struggle is about you. But it’s really about your legacy. It’s about the lives you’re going to touch with the story. It’s about the people you don’t even know are watching you, who are being inspired. It’s about the impact you’re going to have on the world by overcoming this. It’s about taking every tiny, seemingly inconsequential choice and adding it up to achieve your mission.

Everything you’re struggling with – just remember it’s about something so much bigger than you.

You’ve been assigned this mountain to show others it can be moved - Mel Robbins.

Go and move it.

- Note to self.

How Bad do you want it?

When you set an impossible goal, you decide that you’ll do whatever it takes to reach it. It’s part of the deal.

And then there’s actually following through with it, which is a whole different story.

These last few weeks I’ve really been asking myself, how bad do I want it?

How bad do I want to build my dream life?

It would be so much easier to live a life in my comfort zone. But I don’t just want to live a comfortable life, I want to live an extraordinary life. 

So for the next few weeks, I’m working 80 hour weeks to crush my debt, so I can start getting hella serious about my goals that require cash to boost them.

There was a time not long ago I would never have uttered the word debt to my friends, let alone the entire world online! But committed to authenticity, and to me that means not holiday back parts of the truth.

I’m SO PUMPED to start putting 110% into my impossible goals, starting with my finances.

How serious are you about your dreams? Are you willing to not just say you’ll do whatever it takes, but actually do whatever it takes?

6 months of daily meditation: review

I don’t have a photo of me meditating because I’m almost always alone with my eyes closed (not ideal conditions for a photo!)

I’ve just hit 183 - the halfway mark to my goal of 365 days of meditating! Here’s a review:

1. It’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve really been pushing myself to meditate in the morning no matter what. It’s such a relief not to get into bed at 12:30 and think “ah! I forgot to meditate!” I’m trying to make morning meditation a non-negotiable.

2. Some days, I do a 30 minute guided meditation, and other days, it’s 5 minutes of deep, focused breathing. I’m not regimented about it - I do what I feel like, which keeps it enjoyable and fun, and not a chore. I think this is a major key to habit formation. Keeping it FUN (e.g. I could be running harder and faster, I could be doing more push up training, but I’m determined to keep them enjoyable and fun, so I just focus on keeping the habits).

3. I’m most surprised about this: I don’t think I’ve progressed in terms of being able to focus on my breath for longer. I’m equally as distracted as I was when I began. I’m not sure if this is because I’m not working on it very much (e.g. 5 or 10 mins a day compared to hours), or if I’m just not “doing it right” - an idea that I very much resist, as that’s not my aim of meditating (see point 4).

4. My aim is to feel good and enjoy it in the moment. This isn’t really about “getting to 365 days” as a goal - it’s about forming the habit of taking care of myself. I just love a challenge - it gets me more excited than “meditate every day” would. (I’ve tried that too, for the past 10 years, and failed miserably, so tip, if you’re struggling to form a habit, make it a challenge!).

5. I love guided meditations the most. Today I did an incredibly blissful 5 minute one.

6. It still doesn’t feel like a habit, because I’m doing it at different times of the day. However, I know from past experience that if I stopped, after a few days I would really notice and crave it.

7. When I’m anxious or stressed, I often think to meditate as a solution. It works!

8. I’m looking forward to the next 182 days - I’m so grateful I started this challenge.

My top 3 guided meditation recommendations:

• Calm Guided Meditation to Gain Abundance, Love & Happiness | Bob Proctor

• 5 Minute Stress Relief Guided Meditation | The Honest Guys

• Prosperity Guided Meditation | YouAreCreators

Do you have a meditation practice? Let me know about yours in the comments by clicking the blog title!

High Heels vs Trainers

Every time someone takes a photo of me, my instinct is, “Ooh, don’t get my gym shoes in!” And I thought about cropping them out of these photos. (Simple solution: don’t wear gym shoes everywhere you go.) But here’s the thing: I always thought my ideal self would wear high heels everywhere she went. But actually, when I think about my ideal self, she’s travelling, running, exercising, doing 100 push ups on the regular… my ideal self would be wearing trainers most of the time. That’s just the truth, no matter how much I used to picture my ideal self as Carrie Bradshaw (who spent $40,000 on shoes in 10 years), let’s face it, my ideal self is more like Michelle Obama. Michelle is real goals. I bet you, when Michelle is not in meetings, she’s in trainers. Crushing it. Not to meetings (currently: guilty), but mostly she would. I mean, what’s a High Performer if she can’t break into a full workout at a moments notice? But truly, I think it’s really important to recognise that our ideal selves morph over time, wich is totally okay. And that’s what’s happened to me – the old version of my ideal self has morphed. She’s upgraded. I’ve changed my aim. I still love heels, and I won’t stop wearing them. But I’m giving up my embarrassment about wearing gym shoes everywhere now.

This isn’t really about shoes. It’s about accepting that your ideal self can change over time. (When I was 14, my ideal self had flaming red hair and could ride a skateboard and speak Elvish. Yikes. It’s good that not only we change, but our ideal selves change too.

Have you checked in with the vision of your ideal self lately? Are you trying to embody an outdated version of her/him?

How to make a hard decision

I just posted my first YouTube video for the month (one of my September goals is to put out 4 YouTube videos).

Super pumped that I did it - I was starting to wonder if I’d even have time to make one video - I have a million things happening right now, but I did!

The title speaks for itself - if you’re struggling with a decision, I’ve got a fantastic mental tool you can use to figure it out.

Leave me a comment to let me know what you think, and if you’d like to see more, subscribe!

Push ups: Week 6

Day: 39
Push up ability: 18

I went for a gorgeous walk today, I usually go running around here, but this week I’ve been a bit unwell so I didn’t want to push it too much. However, when I got back I managed 18 press ups! Woohoo!

I wasn’t sure if I’d still be able to even do 13 like I did a few weeks ago, because I haven’t been training much at all, just a few here and there when I remember. I’d really like to work on my form more too, perhaps a few YouTube videos and maybe asking a personal trainer for pointers.

I’ve been crazy busy the last few days, and have a really busy two weeks coming up, so I’m actually a bit concerned how I’ll get my daily blogs done because my schedule just so chock-a-block.

Should be some vlogs coming your way too if I can create the time to edit them 💪🏻

So let’s see how we go this week!

Ask for help - no, really.

I’ve been exhausting myself the past two weeks, trying to do it all on my own, juggling a million things, when really I have so much amazing support. It doesn’t even matter what it is for you - if you’re getting overwhelmed or stressed or exhausted, don’t forget to ask for help.

I did, and now I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders because my friends and family are INCREDIBLE.

Just a short but seriously important message today. Don’t forget your support network. Go and ask for help.

Do it.

Veganniversary

Did you know in 2017 I had a vegan t-shirt line?

This September marks 3 years of being vegan! Hands down, best decision I’ve ever made.

Shall I get a tattoo?! Haha - maybe one day!

I made the decision in a split second. I watched this video and it just hit me. I’ve never looked back.

Why am I vegan? It comes down to this: Why would you kill someone when you don’t have to?

If you’ve been hearing about veganism but not really sure why people are vegan, then watch THE BEST SPEECH YOU’LL EVER HEAR.

I used to be really angry. I was the classic angry vegan everyone hates. There was a point were I cried almost every single day for a month. I was distraught.

I’m not less angry about it now, I’ve just channeled my anger into activism.

I have hope in my heart that we will have a vegan world one day. That’s what keeps me positive <3

If you want to chat about going vegan or veganism in general, please email me at hello@saraharnoldhall.com or message me on Instagram! My arms and heart are wide open for you!

Counting my blessings

It’s so easy to think we aren’t doing well. Not succeeding fast enough, not making enough cash, not getting enough likes on Facebook. I hate to admit it, but I get caught up in this trap sometimes. The “I should be further ahead by now” trap. I was feeling it today.

But I just went out now to get something to eat from the corner store, and outside there was a man begging for £2.30 so he would have enough to get a room in a hostel for the night. He was sober and really quite sweet. I gave him the money - which I don’t ordinarily do passing by - but I just felt today it was right. When someone is begging me to help them get a bed - what would I want someone to do, if I was in that position? I know there’s a lot of politics around whether you should give money or not, but in the end, I just have to go with my heart. I wouldn’t sleep tonight if I knew he might not have a bed because of my actions.

I remembered something I’d heard a while ago - that when someone asks something of you, they are really giving a gift to you. I didn’t help him, he helped me. He helped me by giving me the opportunity to walk my talk of compassion. He helped me by reminding me how grateful I am to have a roof over my head, food, a support network of friends and family, and my health. He helped me by giving me an opportunity to make this world a better place - even in the smallest, tiniest way - something I want my life to represent.

And now he’s helping share a message. Count your blessings. Your worst-case scenario is probably someone else’s dream life. I’m not even really writing this for you, reader. It’s just a note to self: don’t forget this.

Consistency

Does this quote haunt you? It kind of haunts me. I think about all the things I would have achieved had I followed through with my plans. All the things I had planned to do. But I didn’t do them, did I? (E.g. when I was 16-18 it was my dream to be a DJ/producer like Avicii or Martin Garrix, and I didn’t take enough action. I bought a turntable, but I didn’t practise!). Not even because I was lazy, or didn’t work hard enough. Just purely because I wasn’t consistent enough with my actions.

Some of you will be thinking I’m totally right. And there are others who will be thinking I’m being way too harsh. I don’t believe I’m being too harsh. Because I think in general, we let ourselves off the hook too easily for the things we can control, and we blame ourselves too easily for the things we can’t control.

Here are some of the things that are waiting for me on the other side of consistency:

1. A thriving YouTube channel. I know very well that the only reason I haven’t progressed my YouTube channel is because I haven’t been posting consistently. That’s about to change, because this month I committed to creating 4 videos.

2. Long term financial stability. I didn’t ever have a decent plan. I just sort of thought “I’ll save up money and then spend it and then save again.” Isn’t that what people do? (The answer is yes. But that doesn’t mean it works well!) Now I’m following financial guru Dave Ramsey’s 7 Baby Steps for financial peace. It really has given me peace of mind.

3. 100 push ups. I can do about 10-13 at the moment. I haven’t progressed very far from my last few weeks because I haven’t been making training a priority (so just got down and did 10 right now - gotta walk the walk if I talk the talk!).

4. Windmills. I’ve been wanting to get this breakdancing move since I was 15. Have I been practicing consistently? Nope. I haven’t even attempted one for a couple of years. And you know what’s crazy? I reckon I could get it in a few months if I practiced consistently enough, because last time I tried, I could do half a revolution. But I’ve been stuck at half a revolution for 8 years! It doesn’t need to take that long. I never mentioned it, but this is my main motivation for getting 100 push ups. My upper body strength (and balance) has been holding me back a bit. I don’t currently have a plan for when I’ll begin training again. But it’s one of my 8 Impossible Goals currently on my list (which you can read here).

5. French. I studied it for FIVE YEARS and I still can’t speak it properly. Did I work hard? Yes. Was I consistent? Nope. Still a major goal.

What is waiting for you on the other side of consistency?