October Goals: Review

Flying back from NZ to England today!

I can’t believe we’re already done with the 10th month of 2019. Here were my goals for October:

• I will easily create a training video opt-in for my website by October 15, 2019.
  It’s up! Go and download my free masterclass to create a step by step plan for achieving your impossible goals. You can check it out on my homepage by clicking the button under the headline (just click on my name, Sarah Arnold-Hall to head to the homepage, or scroll to the top of the blog!).

• I will easily do 25 push ups in a row by October 30, 2019.
  I did this! However, in my last exhaustion test, I actually ended up only doing 22. I don’t know if that means I shouldn’t count this, but I feel like since I did actually reach the goal at one point, it should count. Now I’ve just got to keep it up!

• I will easily photograph 3 high resolution photoshoots for my blog by October 30, 2019. (Trying this again this month!)
  Done! I’m counting these posts: Push Ups: Week 8, Just Call Me Tiger, Dress for the Job You Want. I also did quite a few other blog posts where I was happier with the level of photography I shot too. Even though I had to consciously plan when I would do these photoshoots, they mostly fit as part of what I was already doing, and weren’t staged, which is great because it suggests higher quality photos on my blog are sustainable for the future.

• I will easily create and upload 2 YouTube videos by October 30, 2019.
  Also complete! It got to almost the end of the month and I thought I wasn’t going to make it, but I chose to push through and create a video! I found it WAY easier creating videos while I was in NZ, because it was sunny and I had lots of places to film with great lighting, which I don’t have in England (where I’m currently living). My two videos from this month are: How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others and my first 100 Push Ups Vlog
  

I’m super happy with completing all four of my October Goals, because last month in September I didn’t complete all my goals. I think the difference was I was more realistic about the action I could take. And before you say “Sarah! You always say being realistic is a bad idea!”, remember I believe that when you set your goals, you should set impossible goals, but when you create your commitments, they need to be realistic and actionable. Possible action makes impossible goals happen.

Birthdays

Tomorrow is my sister Helena’s 17th birthday, and we celebrated together with our mum by going out for dinner this evening since I’m leaving NZ tomorrow. 17 is a wonderful age. So close to adulthood, yet still in childhood. Feels very Peter Pan to me! We ate delicious vegan food and played a balance game that had us in fits of laughter.

Birthdays have always been so special to me, because not only do you get to celebrate someone’s existence, but it has the magic of a Fresh Start. You know, that feeling that THIS IS IT, this is the time when you will become the person you want to be, or finally learn violin, or stop biting your nails, or start exercising. Am I the only one who feels this spark of magic? I can’t be, because I think the magic of the Fresh Start is what makes so many people set New Years Resolutions, or want to start their diet on a Monday, or when they move apartments or jobs or schools. Birthdays are one of those too. Of course, it’s actually arbitrary and sometimes the Fresh Start is used as an excuse not to begin right now, but when you’ve got the opportunity of a Fresh Start, why not use it?

If you’ve got a birthday or another Fresh Start opportunity coming up, what change will you make?

P.S. Happy birthday, my beautiful sister! Thank you for always being there for me and making me laugh <3 The world is a better place because you are here! xx

100 Push Ups Vlog

Hey guys, I’m super excited to share my ‘Beginning My 100 Push Ups Challenge’ vlog! I’ve been getting told I need to create one of these for a while, so I thought it was about time (even though I’m already at 25 or maybe back down to 22 – but hey, who’s counting?).

In this vlog (my first ever vlog!) I’ve chucked in a bunch of clips from day zero to now, so you can watch my progress from the beginning. Now that I’m vlogging the challenge, I’ll be trying to get more regular footage of my progress. What would you like to see next? I’m thinking of sharing a vlog on my training routine and what that looks like in my day. Thoughts?

Dress for the job you want

Ever heard that old saying, ‘Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have’?

I love this philosophy. You have to be “on the level” of the things you want, in order for them to happen. I’d take it even take it further: Show up for the life you want, not for the life you have.

It goes so much further than dressing. As entrepreneur Jim Fortin says, If you want to get from A to B, you have to be the person at B.

How does that person dress?

How do they act?

What do they eat for lunch?

What do they do every morning?

How often do they call their mum?

You’ve got to act like your ideal self if you want to BE your ideal self. It will transform you, and one day you will wake up and realise you’re no longer acting.

If it’s too hard to figure out how your ideal self would act, pick a person you aspire to be like, and do some method acting. Be that person in every way.

Gary Vee Mode

A photo from my test shoot for one of my posts coming at you during Gary Vee Mode this week!

If you don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuk is, he’s an entrepreneur and advocator of the arguably toxic “hustle” ideal, which suggests we should all be working 18 hour days. While the hustle hustle hustle, work work work mentality is not great for people who are already overworked and I can see the damage it can cause, I don’t think his message is aimed at that audience. I think his message “Patience & Hard Work” is aimed at so many of us (myself included – they tend to describe us as lazy millennials) who actually have a huge capacity for more work and patience if we are hungry enough to actually put in the effort.

I’m passionate about Gary Vee’s content, and I could watch it all day. His work ethic is insane, but he’s achieved results from it – and he’s loved every step of the way. He LOVES putting in the effort.

If you’ve watched my Impossible Masterclass (which you can get free access to on my homepage), I talk about the difference between hard work and effort. It’s a concept I originally came up with thinking about relationships (I can’t stand when people say relationships are hard, or hard work. They shouldn’t be hard). Calling something hard work means you give all your power away to the thing in question. You make it so that the thing you’re trying to achieve has some mystical level of difficulty when in actual fact, it totally doesn’t. You have to take back the power, by recognising that it is in fact the level of effort you are willing to exert that will determine your success, and not how hard something is.

Think about it. It’s not hard to get in good physical shape, for example. Everyone knows how to do it. You eat better, you exercise more. It couldn’t be less difficult. You put different food into your mouth, you move your body more. So why do so many people (including myself) struggle to get in great physical shape? Because they’re not putting in the mental and physical effort it takes. (I’ve had people argue that what I mean is that it is simple but not easy, but that’s not what I’m saying. Im saying it IS easy, as long as we choose to view it that way.)

A couple of days ago I shared my fear that I’m not truly putting in the effort required to achieve my dreams. That’s a bitter pill to swallow. Unless you spit it out. So here I go, spitting it out, refusing to let it be true.

Today, after watching one of Gary’s videos, I realised I’ve been doing it all wrong: trying to cut corners to make everything easier, when in fact, I need to make myself better.

I’m committing to what I’m calling “Gary Vee Mode”, and for 4 days I’m going to live how he would live if he were in my shoes.

Here’s my commitment. Every day, for the next 4 days, I will:

1. Post on my blog (as usual)

2. Post on Instagram

3. Post on Facebook

4. Post on Instagram stories (10x minimum)

5. Film and post a YouTube video

6. Post on Tik Tok (a platform I’m new to, as of today – find me at @saraharnoldhall)

And I’m going to give it my absolute ALL.

Today, I have completed everything on this list, so that’s day 1 DONE.

I’ve chosen 4 days instead of 7 as the last 3 days of my week this week include extensive global travel from New Zealand to England.

Initiating Gary Vee Mode.

How to Stop Comparing Yourself to Others

I’ve got a video for you today, woohoo! <3

It’s true what they say: comparison is the thief of joy. I know I’m not alone when I say that I’ve spent far too many hours scrolling Instagram, comparing my life to other people’s lives. In this video, I share my kind of bizarre technique to stop comparing yourself to other people. It works for me every time I’m feeling that icky feeling of comparison, and I’ve been using it for years, so let me know what you think in the comments, I’d love to hear if this works for you. The more feedback I get, the better, because I really want to make videos that you guys enjoy watching.

Hustle

This is me right now, snuggled on the couch contemplating goals (as usual).

Tonight we went to the cinema to watch the new Jennifer Lopez film, Hustlers. It’s based on a true story deemed a “modern Robin Hood”, the tale of a group of strippers who stole from rich men on Wall Street after the 2008 financial crisis. And man, did it make me think about goals (I’m always thinking about goals, so that’s really not surprising). These women, as criminal as they were (it should go without saying, I don’t condone stealing), were absolutely dead set on getting what they wanted. They had a goal in mind (making a lot of money) and they would do almost anything to get it.

Of course, drugging and stealing isn’t exactly the kind of thing I have in mind when I say “You have to be willing to do anything for your impossible goal”, but if there’s one thing we can learn from these women, it’s dedication. It really made me think about a recipe for success. You’ve got to want it enough (drive), and apply yourself to it with grit and a take-no-prisoners attitude.

It comes back to my Impossible Indicator I shared a few weeks ago. These are my (work in progress) criteria to indicate whether or not you can achieve your impossible goal.

1. Why do you want your impossible goal?

2. What are you willing to do to get it?
   

   If your answer to number 1 doesn’t make your whole body shake with excitement and your heart beat with exhilaration (and terror), then you need to come up with a stronger why.

   If your answer to number 2 isn’t “anything and everything — whatever it takes”, please revise your answer to number 1.

This is what the women in the film knew. They each had a strong ‘why’, and they were each willing to do “anything and everything – whatever it takes” to get it. Additionally and crucially, they actually turned their willingness into action and made it happen.

Holy wow. You and I need to not just be willing to do whatever it takes – we have to actually DO whatever it takes. That’s a whole other ball game.

My current impossible goals are to do 100 push ups and reach 100k subscribers on YouTube (read my thoughts on reviewing this goal). I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve only been putting in half-hearted effort into them.

My why is strong. My willingness to do whatever it takes is there. But my actual action is not at 100%. Time to step it up. How do I make that happen? As is my answer for most things: accountability. I need tighter and stronger accountability – if you’ve got a strong why and a die-hard willingness and you’re still not achieving your goals, then you also need tighter and stronger accountability.

I’m unsure what that will look like at this stage, but I’m going to figure it out and update you. Stay tuned!

Gratitude cake with guilt frosting

One of my favourite daily practices is to do a gratitude journal in the morning. Just asking 3 things I’m grateful for, and being super specific (not just “food” but “the delicious avocado on toast I ate this morning”).

However, I was talking with my cousin’s girlfriend this week, and she mentioned something I thought was quite profound: being grateful for something doesn’t mean you don’t deserve it.

There is a stigma – especially for women – that they should be grateful to some external source for what they have because they are just lucky to have it, and none of the gratitude is for themselves. That we should be grateful for what we have, but at the same time, feel guilty about it, because we don’t deserve it. We’ve been icing our gratitude cake with a thick layer of guilt frosting.

And while there is almost always an element of luck involved with the things, experiences, resources and people you have in your life, gratitude is mutually exclusive to luck and deservedness and worthiness. Being grateful is only about being grateful. It’s got nothing to do with anything else.

In fact, the whole notion of “deserving” something has, in my opinion, gotten completely out of hand. In our society, we talk about “deserving a break” or “deserving a cup of tea”. If you think about it, it’s preposterous. You don’t need to justify a certain level of effort has been exerted before you can give your body and mind the things it needs. You would never ask a baby to do anything. It’s deserving of everything it needs (and wants) because it just exists. You being right here, that’s enough. You’re enough.

Dont punish yourself with guilt for the gifts you have received in this life. Treasure them and pay them forward.

Push ups: Week 11

Where I went running today, to warm up before my push ups.

Day: 71
Push up ability: 25

I made it to 25! That’s 1/4 of the way to my goal. I’m determined to speed up the process a bit too, so I’ve added it to my habit tracker so I’m reminded to do them daily (that’s where I track all of my other habits, like meditation, running and blogging). I said last time that I want to work on my form, and I feel like my form is definitely better, so I’m counting that as a win.

Today I did them just after I went for a run, and I found I had more energy than when I do them later in the evening, so I’m going to try to keep that up too.

I’ve also had a few people ask me to create vlogs about it. With my hectic schedule at the moment, I’m not sure if it should be a priority on my list, but it would be so cool to have a record of it for when I reach 100 in a row. Hopefully I can get some sorted!

For now, celebration that I’m at 25! I feel like I’m beginning to break a belief ceiling, because I genuinely believed for most of my life that I wasn’t physically capable of doing more than 10 or so (and I had never even done a single push up successfully because I didn’t ever train – I could only do knee push ups). Isn’t it amazing what the mind can do when it’s put to the test?

How to solve any problem

In my first year of university, my friends and I would always talk about “The Ideal Woman”. We’d think about how The Ideal Woman would have both sparkling and still water to offer her guests, and she’d always look her best and hand in assignments before the due date. When we were out, and we’d spot someone who looked like The Ideal Woman, we’d call each other to describe why she was so ideal.

Obviously, our idea of The Ideal Woman is just a joke, and I certainly don’t subscribe to the idea that women (or anyone) should be a certain way. However, The Ideal Woman represents a wonderful idea I’ve thought about since I was old enough to conceive of a better, future version of me: Aspiring to become your ideal self. Ideal meaning YOUR ideal – not societies ideal.

What would your ideal self do? This question is possibly one of the most important questions you can ask to move forward in life – or more accurately, “Now that I am the ideal version of myself, what do I do?”

I love this question because it so simply helps us work through problems from the perspective of having solved them. The beauty of it is that you remove yourself from the struggle and the fog that comes with not knowing what to do, and you put yourself in the position where you know exactly what you need to do.

Here’s a list of the problems it can help with:

1. Everything.

Here’s a list of the times you can ask it:

1. Any time

It doesn’t necessarily mean every problem is solved on the spot, but it does mean you’ve got a direction to go in, and sometimes that’s the game-changer.

I’m off to do some more journaling on it now. “Now that I am the ideal version of me, what do I do?”