ο»ΏHey, my friend! What's up and welcome back to another episode of Do Life Big. I'm so excited to have you here today. Today is going to be a really great episode for you. If you're someone who's been trying to get out of your comfort zone and take risks, this is probably your biggest hang-up what I'm about to go over in this episode. And it's one of the biggest problems with your mind. And I really want you to get a good grasp on this and understand this so that you can have the courage to take the risks and go after whatever it is that you want in this life. I want you to be able to move away from analysis paralysis, and into inspired action and take those risks towards what's been on your heart that maybe you've been shoving down and ignoring for far too long now.
But before I dive into this episode, make sure you go on over and take my FREE 60 second quiz at kathireuter.com/quiz, it will be in the show notes. I have put together this incredible quiz. Like I said, it's only 60 seconds. And it's to help you identify what your entrepreneurial persona type is. There's four unique entrepreneurial persona types, which one are you, it will tell you exactly what to do to break through and get to your next level in business, whatever that might be. So go check it out. It's awesome. I know you're gonna love it.
All right, let's dive in here. So, usually people have a pretty good idea about what they need to do to create the life that they want, right? And every single one of you has something different, that you really want, you have something different you want to do, but you probably aren't doing the things that you know that you need to do. Or even if you are you might not be doing it to the full capacity. Or you could just be just going through the motions hamster on a wheel, which we all know it isn't enough to produce the result that you're looking for in your life.
So one of the biggest decisions that we have to make every single one of us is are we going to go for the life we want or not. So right now you're at a fork in the road, right? And so you've got to ask yourself, am I going to stay in the exact same place I am right now? And then fast forward 20 years of my life will look pretty darn close to what it does today because you'll be a little bit older, have a few more gray hairs, or I'm going to change. And it's going to require a decision either way, a decision has to be made. And decisions require you to come out of your comfort zone and get uncomfortable. And what we really need to work on is getting comfortable, being uncomfortable, and embracing that. And so if you do decide that you're going to do what it takes to create the life you want, then you have to understand how the brain works. Once you actually make that decision, like you've made the decision. That's it, I'm doing it, I'm making this change, whatever that is in your life that you want to go for. The decision has been made, I'm going to go for it, I'm going to do it.
So it's always going to come down to opportunity versus obligation. And let me talk about what I mean by that here. But every decision that you make in life is always opportunity versus obligation. There's always opportunity out there of what our life could be like, what our life could look like, how we could feel more happiness, more fulfillment, have more income, be able to travel more, whatever it is, if we decide to go down that road, right? But we usually don't focus on what it could be in one year, five years, 10 years down the road. We don't usually focus on the opportunity of the positive things and changes and how our life could be enhanced. If we went down that road. We usually focus on the obligation. And the obligation usually makes us honestly a little bit negative, actually a lot negative, which makes us not want to do it because that's what we're focusing on.
So your brain has this absolutely incredible protection mechanism built into it, you probably know this, maybe you don't. So you got to understand this. And that protection mechanism is meant to keep you inside your comfort zone to protect you and keep you safe and keep you alive. And that mechanism is absolutely fantastic in terms of keeping you alive, but it's absolutely horrible when you're trying to build a life, that's amazing. And when you're trying to build a life of your dreams, and you're trying to make a change, and do something different than what you've always done.
Because if you're trying to change your life, and really go after what you want, that's going to require you to come out of your comfort zone. And guess what, that right there, coming out of your comfort zone is absolutely terrifying to your brain, because the brain will almost always try to pull you back. So you can consciously be trying to build the life of your dreams, right? But then your brain is going to do whatever it takes to keep you right where you are in the same place. Even if you know, you're miserable, and you're not happy. And this is not how it's supposed to be. And it could be so much better, your brain will do whatever it takes to keep you right where you are on the same place. So it's gonna come down to you versus your brain. Right? It's like a frickin game, you versus your brain. And I do this with myself all the time.
So here's an example of opportunity versus obligation. So you can see, right, you're in debt, and you need to earn more money in your business. And you know, the only time that you have to actually build your business is at night, but you're also tired at night, and you'd like to chill on the couch and watch Netflix and all of that. And so there's always an opportunity to do nothing. And sure, it's a heck of a lot easier to do nothing, right? So your brain will immediately go to Yeah, well, you know, staying up late and work on my business at night. It's so exhausting. And it doesn't give me any time to just chill on the couch with my husband, yatta yatta yatta. So you have to always start focusing on the opportunity.
What you could be what your business could grow into in the future. So you could focus on the amount of stress, that would be for example, reduced if you started earning more money, right, if you chose to actually work on your business at night, instead of watching all those hours of Netflix, which isn't going to change your life start to focus on well, what could happen if I did start to actually put in some time in my business here. At this time of night, you could focus on the lack of arguments in the house, that would happen with your spouse because of it because you wouldn't be so strung out about the income anymore. The vacation that you could finally book for your family, because now you actually have the money, the fact that you could actually tell your friends, yes, when they asked you to go out for a double dinner date night, and you actually have the money to pay instead of just charging on the card and getting yourself deeper into the hole of debt, you could focus on the pride that you'd feel, the happiness, the more confidence that you'd have, the energy, that you would have all of those things that you could focus on. That would be an example of focusing on the opportunity versus just focusing on the obligation about how there's going to be hard, I'm going to be tired.
So you have to consciously make yourself think of the opportunity, and of what could come of that. Listen, I will tell you, and I know you've heard this plenty of times, you know, the path of least resistance go the path of least resistance. And I'm here to tell you that that is a total bullshit. The path of least resistance is not the right path. If you are someone looking to change your life, and create a life that is absolutely friggin amazing, the path of least resistance is not the path that you want to take. You have to consciously fast forward to the future and tell yourself, I'm going to make this decision right now. Because I know that it's better for me long term. And even though you may not have any gratification right here in this actual moment, you will have it long term. And so again, it's always this instant gratification versus delayed gratification.
You know, honestly, the brain left to its own devices will always go to the negative. It's how it's wired. It's how every single one of our brains is wired, it's always going to focus on what could go wrong, the pain that could happen, the pain that you could feel if you did this. And so you consciously need to take yourself and be super intentional and fast forward to the future that you actually want of how making this one decision is going to help you create the life of your dreams, the life that you actually want to live a life that you're proud of. You know, I'm going to be able to make enough money for example, to finally be able to purchase a home or to be able to put my kids in that private school or to be able to move out of town or to be able to move to a better place. Whatever it is for you. These things are way more important to me than the temporary bit of discomfort. I may feel being out of my comfort zone, doing the things I need to do to get myself to that point, you picking up on and putting down.
You know, for example, waking up early, there's another great example, the obligation is, you gotta wake up and you gotta get out of your nice, warm, cozy bed. And you know how it is when you know that you need to get out of bed, right? I don't know about you. But the second that I know that I need to get up for the day, is the moment that my bed becomes the most comfortable place on the planet, right? It's like, Oh, you're so warm, and so snuggly, and your pillow is just right in that moment in your blankets, and you just feel perfect. And now I have to get up out of it, to do a workout, to do a meditation, to do my morning routine, so much easier to just stay in bed and not do any of that, you know, I gotta leave the most comfortable place in the universe right now to go work out.
So much easier to just stay in bed, it's so much easier, just lay here, Kathi, you're so comfortable, you're tired, stay right where you are. That's the obligation. Now the opportunity would be and I don't know if you have a morning routine, or something that you like to do every single morning, or whatnot. But I know for me personally, if I don't start my day, with taking care of my mind and listening to the right kind of personal development while I'm getting ready in the morning, and I don't get my workout in and I don't have my big glass of water, that my day is just completely off, I don't feel good. I just don't, I don't feel great. It's like something is missing, my energy is off, my mindset is off, I'm not as happy, I'm not as possible, I'm a little more cranky. And I just feel so much better when I actually do those things. And so that's the opportunity, the opportunity is focusing on that feeling, the feeling, after you do those things, when it's done, you know, I'm going to be in a much better mood, I'm going to be happier, I'm going to be more positive, I'm going to have less stress and less anxiety today. Those are all the opportunities you need to focus on.
And so there's always going to be things that you have to do. I mean, that's just life, right, we always have, we have a ton of shit we got to do all the time. There's always going to be things I should say that you should do, I shouldn't even say have because let's be honest, none of us really have to do anything. But there's always going to be things that you should or could do, there's always going to be things that need to get done in order to live the life that you want. And you have to get to a point where you make the decision to do the hard things. And if you don't want to do the hard things, then you need to just make the decision right now that you're not going to do the hard things and you're just going to stay as you are forever. But either way, you've got to make the decision, you just can't be on the fence about it, am I going to change, I don't really know it's too uncomfortable, I think I'll stay the same, oh, I want to do this idea, oh, that means I get to actually discomfort myself for a little and get about get out of bed early to go to the gym, because I want to get in better shape. So I have more energy to keep up with my kids back and forth, back and forth. You can't keep playing this back-and-forth game, just make the decision.
It's either I'm going to change my life, or I'm going to stay the same.
So make the decision of what it is that you want to do. There's no such thing as staying the same. Right? If you don't do anything differently, and 10 years from now, the only difference is going to be that you're older, and you have more wrinkles, and you have more gray hair, but you're not any wiser. You haven't learned anything new, you don't have any more income, what you don't have any more freedom in your life or flexibility in your life, because you haven't actually done anything to produce that outcome. So you'll be exactly the same, just older, you're either green and growing, or brown and dying. It's one or the other. There's no in between. So you're at the fork in the road right now. Are you going to decide to be green and growing, or brown and dying? It's totally up to you. This is your life. I'm not telling you what to do. You shouldn't let anybody tell you what to do, either. You have to live your life.
But if you do truly want to change your life, which I have a funny feeling if you're listening to Do Life Big Podcast, you obviously want to improve and change your life, right? So this probably maybe doesn't apply to you. But if you do truly want to change your life, then at some point you're going to need to step up and put the work in that's required for you to get there because no one's coming to save you. You know, there's no genie in a lamp that's going to pop out and say, okay, Kathi, you know what? I know you're tired today. And I know you love your bed and it's so comfy cozy. You know, you can just stay in bed and nap and watch your Netflix reruns of those romantic comedies that you like that your husband can't stand while I build the perfect most successful business for you.
Or you know what? Go ahead, skip out on those workouts and eating healthier, I'll just do all the work for you so that you can feel and look better than you've ever looked before. And you'll have all the energy in the world to keep up with your kids, I'll go ahead and do your morning routine for you. So you don't have to do it. No, that's not how it works. It has got to be you, it is all you the decision is up to you because it's your life. And it's a decision that you've got to make, and you've got to make it now.
So I want you to just kind of take a step back. And I want you to think if there's something that you've been really wanting to do, but you haven't yet, you probably haven't done the actions that you needed to do yet, because your brain has literally just taken over. And it's focusing on all the obligations, and all the negative things and how hard it could be, and what could go wrong. So I want you to challenge that. Remember, it's you versus your brain, I want you to challenge that, and start to focus on the opportunity and all the good that could happen instead, all the positive outcomes that could happen by you making this change and putting in the work to get you there and create that kind of life.
And the last thing I want to say, before I close this out, is whatever decision it is that you're doing, or that you want to do, or maybe you've started a business, and you've been doing business now for a while, or maybe you've been on this health and fitness journey, because you've been overweight your whole life and been unhealthy and you're sick of feeling like shit. And whatever it is, there was a reason why you chose that path. There was a reason why you chose to start that business. Right? Like, for example, when I started my first business 11 years ago, the purpose of me starting that business was because I had to either find a way to earn some income, so I could stay home and be a stay-at-home mom for my children, or choose to do nothing and go back to my teaching career and put my kids in daycare, which I didn't want to do. But that was my decision. But the reason why you need to know why you're starting is because there are going to be times where you feel like quitting and throwing in the towel. And you have to always go back and remember why you started in the first place. And so if you can always keep that in the back of your mind. Every time things get hard, because it's not all sunshine and rainbows. We we would we wish it could be all sunshine and rainbows but it's not. But when the shit hits the fan, or you start to want to give up or you start to think this is getting too hard. I can't keep eating healthy like this. Alright, don't want to do another workout. I'm sick of waking up early. I'm sick of staying up late at night working on my business. Maybe this isn't for me, when you start second guessing yourself. Go back to why you started in the first place. What was the reason for wanting this change, and never lose sight of why you began or why you want to start and make this new change in the first place.
So I hope that you enjoyed today's episode. If you loved it, share it with a friend. Thanks so much for being here. You know, I love you. I think you're awesome. And I will see you the next time. Bye.
