Shopping for thoughts to fuel your Reinvention

I am Travia Steward, and I want to help you move past barriers and obstacles that are preventing you from getting what you want in life. This is Breakthrough. Yo, what's up, my peeps? Happy Podcast Thursday, and today on the podcast We're going to explore the power of choosing your thoughts, like shopping for groceries. So I want you to right now imagine stocking up your pantry with ingredients that are healthy and good for you, that create the life that you desire. And so in order to do that, we're going to talk about where you shop for thoughts. We're going to talk about how you shop for thoughts that impact your outcome and how you can intentionally choose empowering thoughts. I'm your reinvention coach Travia Steward, and I am on a mission to help you reinvent yourself to become the person that your goal requires. And on today's episode, we're going to talk about this through the lens of how can you apply this to your life. Okay, so Jumping into this episode, I want you to think about where you shop for your clothes, where you shop for, you know, your shoes, your important items that help you to, you know, move through the world, to help you be ready for work, be ready for the next date, you know, things that you shop for, for your kids, for your significant other. And now I want you to think about all of the places where you put considerable amount— considerable amount of thought into shopping and choosing the things that are going to take you where you want to go. Like, for instance, when we want a new car and we feel like we can afford that high car payment, where do we go shop? We go shop at places like, you know, especially if we have this idea of, you know, we want something that looks good, we want something that says status, we want something that says we've made it, then we might go shopping at, you know, the Lexus dealership, you know, the Benz, you know, Mercedes. Maybe you'll get a BMW, right? And so whenever we want to, quote, upgrade we shop in different places. When it comes down to the clothes that you wear, when it's time to go work out, maybe you just kind of throw on anything, or maybe you don't. Maybe you're a Lululemon kind of person, maybe you're a Vioree kind of person, maybe you're like, whatever is comfortable. But when it comes down to let's go shopping for the special occasion, let's go shopping because it's a wedding. Maybe it's your wedding. Are you gonna just go shopping at the Goodwill? Are you gonna go shopping at a thrift store? Maybe some of you might, and I'm not saying that that's a bad thing. I'm just saying when you carefully choose where you're shopping, that has a lot to do with the things that you're shopping for and the type of things that are found in those locations. So what I want you to think about is just like when we go into a store to buy healthy groceries, we have all the options. We have, you know, we have a chip aisle, we have an aisle with soda, we have an aisle with a lot of fried goods. We have on the backs of those items, we have nutritional information. And we have all of the, the educational benefit of the food we're about to consume. And sometimes that's not beneficial. Sometimes these— this— the food that we choose is bad for us, right? And so when we're talking about where you shop for the things that you really think about, I now want you to think about Where do you shop for the thoughts that you think? So when we think about the thoughts that we think, a lot of us may go back to the past. We shop for thoughts that we thought when we were teenagers. We shop for thoughts that we thought when we were teen— you know, going through tough times. We shop for thoughts from things that we think people are, are judging and criticizing us on social media. We shop for thoughts in a way that we're comparing ourselves to other people. We shop for thoughts that were produced when we were under a high level of stress and anxiety. And so it's almost like you're going into the grocery store and just, you know, as a matter of fact, you know, when we're shopping, you know, where we're shopping, sometimes we're going into the 7-Eleven, sometimes we're going into the QT. For a thought. But if we really want to take intentional action with these thoughts, I want you to think about where you shop matters. So we don't want to shop in the past, we don't want to shop on social media, we don't want to shop through stress and anxiety. We want to shop from the best version of you when you're feeling the best, that you You know, when you're close to a 10, a 1 out of 10, when you're close to that, we want to shop. It's kind of like when people are like, you know, don't go grocery shopping when you're hungry because we grab all the stuff. The Doritos look good, the, the, the Twinkies look good, you know, those chocolate-covered almonds look good. And then you go home and actually you don't even get home yet, you get in the car and then you crack open the bag of chocolate-covered almonds and you've eaten half the bag before you even get home. And so where you shop matters. So when we go to the store and we shop for thoughts, I want you to go shopping from being centered, feeling like you're close to the 10— 8.5, 9, 10. Because when we shop, when we already feel full, we feel full of gratitude, gratitude, we feel appreciated, our shopping is different. And so right now I want you to think, where do you want to shop? I want you to shop from the aisles in the grocery store that is aligned with the future, with the person that you're becoming. And so if you are shopping for, you know, if you are becoming an athlete, if you have these things that you're doing in your life that you want to become more active, and your goal is, I am going to be a hike leader in the next 3 months, Well, when we shop on the— at 7-Eleven, when we shop in the aisles that are closer to the checkout, those are probably not the aisles that is going to be in alignment with you becoming a hiking leader. So where you shop matters. So we want to go, where are the intentional rows of items that are going to be listed that say, yes, this is in alignment with me becoming a hiking leader, right? So now we're going to talk about how you shop, because how you shop for thoughts impacts your outcome. Are we going to just run in and get something? Are we just going to think something? Are we going to just be reactive? Again, when we pull from our thoughts of the past, when we pull from comparison, when we pull through stress and anxiety, we tend to revert back to the old thinking, to the old identity. And so right now I'm asking you to decide in advance how you're going to shop for the thoughts, because they absolutely impact the outcome that you are going for. Just like you guys hear me talk about all the time, you know, what is it that you are believing that's creating the thoughts that you're thinking? That's provoking how you're feeling, that's motivating the action you do or do not take, and that's creating the results you have in your life. So how you shop and where you shop matters when it comes down to shopping for thoughts that are in alignment with the person you're becoming. So just like we want to choose ingredients for, you know, this healthy new dish we're creating, this delicious meal. We want to create a pile of thoughts, you know, like a bowl of thoughts that we're going to pull from that is going to help us get to our goals faster. And we don't want any of that— but we don't want that bowl to contain any negative self-talk. We don't want the bowl to, to contain shoulds or musts. We want the bowl to contain empowering thoughts, inspiring thoughts. And that brings me to my third thing, that you can intentionally choose these empowering thoughts. And so when you become an intentional thought shopper, when you choose how you're going to shop for these thoughts, when you choose where you're going to shop for these thoughts, We are now intentionally choosing these empowering thoughts that we want to think on purpose, because I want you to get used to talking to yourself more than you listen to yourself. Because we get into these old patterns of conditioning that we have fallen into over and over and over again, and now what has happened is we begin to continue to play out those same patterns and it— we act like it's the truth. Well, that's just who I am. I've always thought negative. We can always change those things. And so right now, if we're going to talk about intentionally choosing these empowering thoughts, I want you to explore and identify when the thoughts are negative. We want to place it— we want to pull a positive thought off the shelf to replace that. Now, it may not be just the opposite, it may be a bridge thought, right? So let's make this even more applicable. I want you to consider a recent event in your life and something that may have triggered you, something that, you know, made you feel something maybe you weren't ready to feel or you didn't want to feel. And then I want you— I want you to ask yourself and think about what was the story you were telling yourself. Was it someone else's fault? Was it that they did this thing? Were you down on yourself because of the thinking? I want you to think, if you had this presentation to do for work or for school or whatever and it didn't go the way you wanted it to go, did you immediately go to, well, I must not be good enough? In that situation, I want you to choose another thought from the store that you're shopping that is better, how you're shopping, and intentionally choosing a thought that is better than I'm not good enough. And so I know that choosing to talk to ourselves more than we listen to ourselves is an active— it's an active ongoing process. And when we can replace these thoughts with intentional thoughts that we want to think, now that becomes our conditioning, that becomes our norm. And so what I want you to do is think about what are some of those past thoughts that you thought. Like, I remember You know, my mom passed down to me that, um, if you wanted to, to get, get ahead in this life, you had to work hard. You know, money didn't grow on trees. I had a default thought that who I was at my core is not acceptable. So I went shopping for better beliefs. I went shopping for things that empowered me. I went shopping for things that helped me to show up in the way that I wanted to show up. And so I'm going to leave you with this: if you could choose your thoughts on purpose, would you choose some of the same thoughts that you're thinking right now? And I want you to imagine a person in your life that you love the most, and then I want you to think about some of those negative things that you're thinking. And then I want you to use those thoughts as if that person that you love the most is saying those thoughts to themselves. Use them as you are saying those thoughts to the person you love the most. If it's your daughter, you're telling her— if you felt not good enough, you're telling her that she's not good enough. If it's your spouse, if you didn't feel good enough, you're telling your spouse you are not good enough. So I want you to imagine trying on these things in different ways, and I want you to really think of the detriment and what's happening when we swim in these thoughts because we continually keep shopping at the same stores for thoughts in the same way. When what I want you to know from this episode is that you can choose your thoughts. Intentionally, to help you reinvent yourself, reinvent your thinking, to become the person that your goal requires. And so choose on purpose, choose with intention. And so I want you to think about— a couple days ago I did a post on what is the belief that's holding you back. Do that as a journal exercise. Is there a belief that you're— that you're— that's holding you back? And if you change that one belief, would it be a domino effect to— oh my goodness, if I just believed enough in myself, would it be a domino or ripple effect in all the things that you can accomplish? So that's what I have for you, my peeps, today.. And yeah, I want you to think about going shopping for different thoughts, putting all those empowering, intentional thoughts in a bowl, and pulling from that bowl so that you choose intentional thoughts. Because again, I want you to talk to yourself more than you listen to yourself. All right, my peeps, take care. We'll talk next week.