Mindset Monday - Lean on Structure

This is episode 177 of the Empowered Team Podcast.

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Welcome to the Empowered Team Podcast, where we explore how to optimize your performance in career, sport and life. And now your host, executive coach and life strategist, Kari Schneider.

Welcome to Mindset Monday. You might notice a little frog in my throat and using my voice too much and had a little head cold. And this is what you get for it. So today we are talking about leaning on structure. Why? Because it's so, so important to get to where you want to go to get your goals, to make them reality. And the reason this comes up is because what happens, what I hear, I always use my topics on what I hear from my clients, what I hear from the complaints people have, why things aren't working, what the problems are. And so one of the things is actually getting to someone's goals. There's this thing in between that's called execution. And the main way to kill our goals or kill our dreams is inconsistent execution. And we always have the best of intentions or we really, really, really want the outcome and we've even taken action. But something gets in the way. So there are some key things. These are three areas that I find get in people's way of achieving their goals and the main ways why they get sidetracked. Number one is a change in routine. So they might have been taking action. They've got the best intentions. They're really, maybe even on a roll. Things are going well. They're going towards their goal. Could be a business goal, could be a sport goal, a fitness goal, a relationship goal. Whatever it is, they're on their way and a change in routine comes along. So whatever they were taking a consistent action on gets thrown out the window because of travel or getting sick or maybe school starts for the kids or the weather is bad. Whatever it is, something changes the routine. So that's one of the main reasons I see people get sidetracked from that consistent action that they might have been taking that was really working for them to get to their goals. And number two, this is one that I hear. And it kind of makes me go, hmm, it's feeling unmotivated. Somebody feels tired. And the common thing that I'll hear is I just didn't feel like it today. I just wasn't feeling it. And that is one that will show up for everybody at some point or another, and maybe even every day. So when we acknowledge that, that they're not going to feel like it, then that's an important thing to get past. And the last one is relying on willpower. So maybe there's no partner in this action that you're doing. Maybe there's no coach that you're actually paying to make you take action into the thing. Or maybe there is no sharing with others so that others know what's going on. Or maybe even someone to provide accountability for that's doing it with you. If they're not doing it with you, they know that you're doing it and you're reporting back to them. So you have that accountability. So that's something that relying on willpower ends up being the last thing that I see really sidetracking people from getting their consistent execution of the actions that they want towards their goal. So what do we do to create this consistent execution of our actions? And this is where leaning on structure comes in. It's one of my favorite techniques for people to actually get where they want to go is by leaning on structure. Now, I want you to think for a second about physical structure. Think of the concept of our bodies, for instance. If we didn't have the structure of our framework of bones, our skeleton, then we would be a pile of soft tissue. Even if we had muscle tone in shape, it couldn't even really hold that shape for long without some sort of structure. So if you think of another physical thing like our home, our houses, if we didn't have our framework of this frame of a house, a foundation, and then the framing around the house that our drywall or our backsplashes or whatever else is in our house would just end up crumbling if they didn't have the structure to be framed onto or put onto. Think of even our roads if we didn't have the structure of the lines or the lights or. Or the signs. All of that is structure. So that we don't have this chaotic scenario around us. So this physical structure can also have. You think about applying some sort of structure in those actions. Things that don't necessarily have a physical presence, but they have a sequence or they have a result, or they have an existence, even if it doesn't have a physical structure. And that's where we want to provide framework so that you can have consistency on the actions because it's the only way that you're going to get to your goals. I love to think and create, I love to come up with things that didn't exist. Ideas, all of that. It all starts with that. But unless we're taking concrete actions, we're never going to get there. So what does this look like? To have lean on structure, to have structure within the things that we want to have in our lives. So this can look like a workout. For instance. The structure would become the pre made program that someone uses in order to get to the result that they want. Finishing a workout, finishing three workouts a week, getting to a physical goal. That pre made program might get them there. Or it might be an appointment with a trainer, it might be having a training partner. All of those things, structure created in order to have consistent action in that particular realm. Think of the area of work. If there are pre structured monthly meetings, weekly meetings, or specific actions that are all pre laid out ahead of time, that's a structure to follow for specific work goals. Consider nutrition, pre planned meals, even preparing some of the chopping or buying things pre prepared ahead of time. That is some structure that can be done. Putting on the calendar, who cooks when. Those are all examples of structure that can be created in order to make the actions consistent. Or even having the food delivered, having meal prep packages. So hello, fresh chef's plate. Those things are examples of structure that end up making the action so much easier. Another example, this is a physical example for me is even with vitamins, you know, I wouldn't take my vitamins every day. It helps me to have structure them all laid out ahead of time in an actual structured container. The container holds the vitamins. Another one is mindset vitality. If you've heard me before, you know that I rarely say the words mental health. I don't like the meaning that a lot of people give that. I love mindset vitality. If you think of supporting your mindset vitality, what's the structure? The structure might look like being in our coaching program, the Empowered team. It might look like meeting with a friend once a week. It might look like a family get together once a month. Those could be structured things, planned things and scheduled things that revolve around creating consistent action. Now you've also been hearing me describe that sometimes it's a physical container, sometimes the structure is a schedule, sometimes the structure is someone else. There are different ways to utilize structure even in creating expectation with others. That can be a structure as well. Many of you know that I run Sweet Free September. Well, even in the word, the phrase sweet free September, there's the expectation that it might come every September. And if that's the case, then I've created a structure of expectation within others for me to create consistent action. That's another form of structure. So all of these examples that I'm giving you are different examples of types of structure for you to be able to create the ideas of what's the structure structure that you can create. Because if we don't have these types of structures, you know that it can become a little bit chaotic, a little bit disorganized, and then we don't execute on the freaking actions that we need to get to where we want to go. Another one is even thinking. So even thinking can have structure. I know that for myself, if I've had a really intense week or day that might lead into my thinking and going all kinds of thoughts at night. Well, if I don't create the structure of training my brain to stop at certain times, or even saying to my husband, yeah, we're not going to talk about that right now. He's been fantastic in saying, you know, I'm going to wait to talk about this tomorrow so that we can go over it then. Better time for both of our brains to be able to shut down, especially mine. He falls asleep. Well, mine not so much. So structure around all sorts of things to get the actions and the results that you want. In this last example, it's even the action of going to sleep and having a restful night by having the structure of stopping conversation at certain point about certain things or stopping thinking about certain things like work by a certain time. So those are examples of structure that might not seem so conventional when we think of structure, but this is leaning on structure. So I'm going to give you three primary ways that we do this. Number one, you've seen this in my examples is planning ahead. The important, the most important part about planning ahead is the state that you are in. If you are deciding to plan ahead when you are at your most fatigued, when you are already frustrated or you are upset about something else. That is not when you are going to go into your planning mode for your best results in whatever those areas are. So you're going to plan ahead when it's a great energy time for you, when you have fabulous focus, when you're in a positive state or a peak state. This is really Important for when you plan, make sure that you've developed or you've used the skill of getting into state for your planning. Number two, another way to have lean on, to be able to lean on structure is by stepping into a pre existing structure. When you step into a pre existing structure, then you're just going along with whatever has been created. I've seen so many physicians have this for their years and years of medical school and then they may want a certain type of lifestyle or certain type of growth after medical school, but it's not necessarily all laid out. Unless they step into a certain career within a hospital or if they start their own practice, they might feel lost because they didn't have the structure that they had in medical school. The same thing goes into, when I worked with a lot of national teams, when someone made that team, they stepped into a high, high standard of structure and then they performed through that in order to meet the requirements and get the goals and the outcomes that were required for that team. However, when somebody retired from national level sport or professional level sport and they're out of that structure, those who didn't adapt it as an identity simply went back to their old ways of doing things and then they didn't have the same types of results in their life, maybe in their life, their physicality or their work. And those are the people who you might see they're off of a national team and they've gained a lot of weight or maybe they've struggled in work. But when they apply similar structures from what they learned on a national team into work or into life or into their relationships, then there's often a lot more consistent action going towards whatever the goals they have in those particular realms. So the second thing is stepping into a pre existing structure that someone else or some other entity has already created. That's another way to to get consistent execution of the actions. And lastly, by creating an accountability situation or a partnership by having that, then you're relying or you have an agreement, maybe it's even a paid agreement with someone else for that particular structure. And what that does is it creates an incredible amount of consistent excellence execution of actions. So those are the three steps in order to really find structure or create structure in the ways that are going to be powerful for you. So what I want to leave you with today to really to create this powerful Monday and powerful week for you is to create it. Create what you want, feel what it's going to feel like when you follow through, feel that ahead of time, create the thing you want feel what it's going to feel like when you follow through in all of those actions and then freaking take action. So much is all in the action, so leaning on structure is going to allow you to take that action consistently. So go for it. Have a freaking outstanding day, an incredible week, and so much love to you. You.

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