The Ripple Effect: Personal Growth & Mindset Coaching for Lasting Change | Coaching In Session EP.718

0:00Welcome to Coaching in Session, where limits end and growth begins. Hosted by Michael Reardon, this is your space to challenge the ordinary. Unlock your potential and step boldly into your next chapter. Your mindset journey continues. Many modern mindsets today consider large or big the way to go. Think of how we have our homes designed today. We have these cathedral ceilings. We have these open space layouts for our home. And it's funny that we are going in this direction because before things were more compartmentalized, where we had everything in this right place. And now it's like this can be that and that can be this. And it's very confusing for the mind because we think that we need the large. We need the perfect. We need the now or we need the instant verses.

1:00Sometimes the build up is okay. Sometimes the come up is all right. Sometimes the beginning is exactly where we need to be. I think of how this transformation begins in our mind, where this dramatic shift from small to large or vice versa. We want to have change. We want to have momentum. We want to become disciplined, but it doesn't just happen because we wish for it. As much as I would love to give everyone a genius in a bottle, and people can just wish what they want for, and they can have the life that they dream of, the life that you envision for yourself, that you desire for yourself. It can be attained, but you have to put it to work. So this work that has to happen, something has to give. Either you have to give up this comfort, this security that you have maybe given yourself or that you're living in right now, because there's a reason you don't have what you want.

2:00Of course, there can be circumstances. Of course, there can be time constraints, for example. Maybe you're 18 and you want to drink, and you're in America. You have to wait until you're 21, but then again, maybe you're in Europe and you're drinking at 16 or 18, and whenever you're allowed to drink. The world is going to give you different things to worry about. And sometimes you yourself are going to give yourself different things to worry about. Maybe even different things to focus on. And so when we start to look at the things that we do every single day, they're a drop in the bucket of what life is. Because if you think of what life is, maybe every single day is a drop in a bucket. And when that bucket is full and is filled, we have a couple of options, right? Depending on your mindset, we can say, okay, the bucket is full. My life is complete. We can say, okay, my bucket is full. Let me empty it. How are you going to empty it? Are you going to just go to throw it in the trees?

3:00Are you going to throw it on the street? Are you going to throw it in your car? Is it cars dirty? Or maybe you're going to be meticulous about it. And you give the water to someone who's in need of water. Maybe a plant or something, right? So there's different things you could do with this water. Now, the bucket is the figurative metaphor of life. We can consider that once this bucket is full, life is over, or we can say that once this bucket is full, we can begin again. Depending on where your mindset is, that drop is still happening. Whether the water is trickling over and it's being wasteful or maybe that, you're thinking that you're living in abundance, right? You're overflowing. There's many mindsets that can occur here. But what I want you to understand is that when that drop hits that water, whether it be when there's nothing in the bucket or when there's everything in the bucket, that drop creates a side effect, a splash, a wave, a ripple.

4:01Today, we're going to be talking about the ripple effect and how one small decision can change your whole entire life. In this article, the ripple effect, I talk about how that one small thing that you can do can create something that's going to be paramount in the whole encompass of your life. Because when we look at what the ripple effect is, it's essentially a decision that is going to shape our behavior and that behavior is going to shape patterns and that pattern is going to create an identity and that identity is going to become what we put forth every single day. Now, many people, they don't give themselves enough credit. They underestimate themselves. Most people think that if they just do one little thing today that they only did one little thing, right? I didn't do enough. I can do more. I can push myself more. And of course, this is a nice thing to have if we're super competitive, if we're in sports or something along those lines. But when we are trying to grow,

5:02especially when we're growing from nothing or if we're going from a hard place, we need to give ourselves a bit of understanding that that ripple effect is not going to be reaching the end of our life or the end of the pond or to the destinies that we would like to reach like this. Because if you drop a rock or that figurative drop into the bucket, that ripple is slowly makes it way to the end. Now, we can see it very easily, of course, because we could have the bucket and the bucket is going to be able to be in our hands and with our grasp. But what if we put something into the ocean, like we did a huge rock or into the pond or whatever, right? We can see that the ripples are slowly going, slowly going, slowly going, until they hit the size of the pond. And depending on how big it is, those ripples might become so minute that you don't even see them. And sometimes we don't see the daily progress

6:05of what our life is. Because the things that we do are so small. Sometimes the smallest step we can take is a step that we should be taking. Of course, there's going to be people who can take great leaps and bounds, and then there's going to be people who need to be methodical about how they progress. It's not so much of, hey, let me burn out and treat this like a sprint when we should really be treating it like a marathon. Some things are going to take longer to get done. I think of David Goggins. He did the 24 hour race, and I forget what time it was, but he essentially did this race nonstop, and he didn't even have teammates. He thought he just had a run to race. It's like, I guess I have to run this race. Sure enough, he did what people thought maybe wasn't possible, because he's like, wait, wait. I got to run this race 24 hours. Okay, deal. I'll do it, right? Maybe he's that bit of ignorance that allowed him to push himself, because he just didn't know any better.

7:05But yet, other people, they're camping. They're taking time out. They're working with groups and teammates and all of a sudden you have this one man. It's like, yeah, I'm doing it by myself, and I'm doing a 24 hour race, and I'm not stopping. I'm just going to keep on going. That's the race for me. It wasn't about competition. It was about the goal. 24 hours. And in our 24 hours, we can create many ripples. Ripples that are going to lead something good in our life. Ripples that are going to be the inception of something new, something powerful. But then we also have the choice to make sure that nothing happens in our day. I hope you're not one of those people. Because the ripple effect can also work in reverse. It's not so much of in life as today's progress. There's always going to be a ripple that occurs. If you take no action, there's no ripple that's going to be ineffective to your life. Because what happens is that we become less aware.

8:06We are not looking at what can be in the small decisions of us not taking action can be big. Because what happens in our mindset is that we learn something about ourselves. Oh, wait, this is the standard. I can give up on some days. I don't have to try. I can tolerate this for myself. All right, deal. Cool. I like this. I don't have to show up. How easy is it to just live? I'm not saying that life is not challenging. I'm not saying that you don't have to go out and eat or something along those lines. I'm talking about how we can just be passive about life. And most people are. Most people, they live a very passive life and they only do what is necessary to stay afloat. They'll work their nine to five. They will come home. They won't do anything extra. They won't do anything that's going to change your circumstance. They are filling themselves with distractions

9:08and things that are not going to bring about any level of advancement in their life. Maybe they're waiting for the right opportunity or the right time or the right moment or burst of energy. But the thing is you don't have to wait for the ripple effect to take effect. You can just start. You don't need a new year. You don't need a New Year's resolution. You just need you in your choice to begin. Your choice to be pronounced. In this article, I talk about different ways that you can treat this as a potential growth opportunity because growth is going to begin when you recognize that every decision is either reinforced in the direction you want or is pulling you from it. And I tell people this all the time when they're trying to change their circumstance. It's not so much that we do everything at once. I understand that people they want to dream

10:08as soon as we visualize it. We're working on our dream. And we say that this is what we want to do. But you know what? That happens during that time. The hard parts happen during the time. Oh, I got to do all this. I thought my dream was going to be easy. No, no, no, no. Anything in life worth having should not be easy. Think of dating, right? Like, let's say you're a guy. And it could be girl, too. But let's say you're a guy. And the girl that you want say she's smoking hot, 10. And you say, hey, how are you doing? And she says, I love you. I want you to put babies in me. Very easy, right? He probably would oblige. But just going to be part of him that died. Hunter, within him, that animal instinct of going after something he desires and attaining it through trophy,

11:09meaning he's wanted, not just given it. Now, of course, he had to have some level of action to go up to her. But maybe we take away that level of action and we say that the girl that he liked or the girl that hope will come and talk to him magically did. And so all of a sudden, he didn't have to do anything and he got everything. Well, I think of in life, right? And you can think of it this way, too. You can be given everything. You can be given a house. You can be given riches. You can be given good health. And it won't be enough. You might ask why I want to be enough. These are all things I want and all things I desire. Number one, we have been led to believe in consumerism. So it's always going to be what's next versus, let me enjoy what I have. This is this idea of we are always going to be chasing something.

12:09Now, these things that we chase or the things that we chase, sometimes they're going to be good. Maybe we have a dream of starting a business and the business is going to be a service-based business helping people. That's going to be a good business. But maybe we have a bunch of challenges and struggles along the way. I can't say you have many businesses closed doors. Look at the pandemic. How many businesses shut down because of funding or they didn't have customers or because of the government and their business was in-person businesses. So they got decimated. Of course, they can lick their wounds and start again later. Or they can say, all right, I'm just going to not do this anymore. I'm just going to become a regular worker and get a paycheck. Because what happened during that time was stability has become so important to many people who have livelihoods to maintain. Think of families. So people would step into a corporate 500 job

13:09or a corporate job and suffer because they want security to a degree. But then again, the status quo or the cash-22 is there's no security in a corporate job. I had a contract with a big four to five hundred company during the pandemic. Guess what happened to the contract? It ended. Not because they didn't like me. Not because of who I was. It was because of the pandemic. It was me or just how I was operating at the time. It was like, okay, this guy is dispensable. Now, of course, we know coaching is indispensable. But when you're trying to stay afloat and you're trying to make ends meet and there is so much happening, you're worried about living. You're worried about surviving. You're worried about staying afloat. Let alone the ripple effect that you can do today. Because most people are living in survival. And as long as you're living in survival,

14:10you are not going to push yourself in any given way to the next tomorrow. Why is this mindset occurring so prevalent in our world today? Because change is not easy. Change is hard. We know that. But we know that change is going to help us get to what we want. Because there was not just one four to five hundred company but multiple four to five hundred companies. Companies that stayed with me, companies that didn't. Now, I can look back and I can say the companies that stayed with me they are doing better today than ever before. Now, this is not to say that it's because of me. I think it's more of a mindset thing. They said that we will find a way versus of let's get rid of the dead weight. Let's get rid of all the things that are not serving us right now. And this can be a good business aspect, right? You have to look at your numbers. You have to look at things. You can stop the bleeding, right? 100% do it. You are not going to say,

15:10well, I'm just going to keep everyone and I'm going to suffer because you're margin for cash or cash flow. You don't want it to be negative. You want it to be having a healthy margin. So you might be thinking, all right, I'm doing good profit and you're losing a dollar a day or a dollar of transaction. And before you know it, that's going to add up to big problems. It's just a dollar, right? But that dollar, again, it could be that drop. It could be that ripple that causes everything to topple over. The game of Jenga, as an example, you take these blocks and you put them into a three by three and you have to alternate which direction. So they're going this way, then they're going that way. And before you know it, you have this tower of blocks. As you are trying to remove the blocks which what Jenga is, or the game of Jenga, is you're trying to remove these blocks and then you're going to place that block on the top of the column that you've been building.

16:10And eventually that column becomes unstable. And there's going to be a player that will try to get one of these blocks and the whole thing topples over. Now, I say this analogy because when we are trying to advance ourselves, right? These ripple effects are these small steps that we can be taking the things that we can be doing in our life. In the sense, it could just be that one block and we just put it to the top and we try again and we put it to the top. But then sometimes we can get a monsoon or just like it's crazy and then we have chaos. And all of a sudden we're left with a tower that's now toppled over. All the work that we have done or tried is there for us to rebuild upon our startover. I think of how intentional we have to be to just want to start over because when I'm talking in this article about what the ripple effect is,

17:10I'm also talking about not only the small decisions that help us get started but to help us keep on going. Because when we have moments like that, that toppled over our tower that throw our world into chaos. It's something that, you know, it's good to tell the mind. It's like, man, I got to start over. I got to do this again. The challenge, whatever it be, it could be daunting. And most people, when they get to that moment or that choice, they would rather not allow any small changes to occur or take any small steps. They only want the big jumps. So now we're thinking right back to where I was in the beginning, where people want perfect. They want instant. They want the big changes versus the small incremental changes. You go to the gym, for example. You don't just all of a sudden are this magical beauty or this magical stud in the mirror.

18:10It takes time to get to that figure. And I can't imagine how many people they stop just after a few short months because they're not seeing the progress. But going to the gym, fasting or eating well or going to do more steps, all of these things are literally the ripples that you're putting toward the goal of your physical fitness or maybe your mental fitness or the growth of your business, right? It doesn't just have to be about going to the gym or looking in the mirror and seeing results to a healthy body or healthy mind. We are looking at all aspects of things that can be the ripple. Now, what I want you to do right now if you have a piece of paper or if you have a phone, if you're not driving, if you're driving, I want you just to think about it. Is I want you to write down, let's say, one to three areas of your life that you would like to see some change in. It could be your business. It could be your relationship, your love life.

19:10It could be your physical fitness. It could be your family life or your kids or whatever. It could be anything you want, right? And as you think of these areas where you want to see some improvements or you want to make some changes, I want you to write logical, feasible, super simple, stupid steps that you can take. And I only want you to write one step. I don't want you to write three steps or 50 steps, just one. Just one. Just write one step. The easiest one you can think of. For example, if fitness is your goal, that one of the obstacles that you have to fitness or for fitness is that you don't like to go to the gym, okay? Well, you can maybe spend some time looking up some different types of online classes. It could be YouTube. I know certain gyms, they have a classes that you can partake online for free.

20:12You also have this option for certain fitness apps that have classes or videos that you can just watch and there's only a couple of minutes. So instead of spending time scrolling through TikTok or YouTube shorts, why not scroll through some videos of Zumba or things along those lines? Or maybe instead of looking up cats purring and it's so cute, maybe look up how to start working out or something along those lines, right? The simplest step. And then you just figure that out, right? It could just be, I'm going to do what I'm already doing on my phone just I'm going to do it in a different mannerism. I'm going to do it to what I want to have some intention to. So the focus is not entertainment. It's about progression, right? It's about your personal development. Now, that first step as well as it is some level of action, I can see the easiest step I can think of. You literally just move your fingers and you get some information, right?

21:13Now we have to give ourselves a medium step. Now the medium step, as I said, is going to, but you have to do the first step first. The medium step is going to be a level of action, right? Meaning you have to have a more significant action than you did previously. So if it was just moving your finger or calling the gym or going online to sign up for a gym membership, now we need a bigger step. So if it was maybe signing up for the gym, now we're in the gym. I'm not saying you need to go work out, sweat or anything, you just need to be in the gym, right? You're just helping your brain, helping your life understand that you're creating this ripple effect where you thought about it and now you're creating it. We're not going to talk about step three today. I will bring it up at some point and I will give a hint to it, the ripple effect is going to be how one small decision can shape your year, or maybe even your life.

22:13So in this article, it's going to give you all the clues and all the nuggets to understand step three. I will give you a hint because sometimes I know people are like, well, I just want things given to me and I want to be told what to do. Step three is hard. Step three is not easy. Step three can be big. But the ripple effect is the smallest one, right? It's the action. And then that creates those big ripples because again, as you throw that pebble into the lake, pond or whatever, the first circles are very small. I don't know if you noticed that. They're very small, they're very close and then they get a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger and a little bigger. So what they're huge, sometimes we have to fill in those huge circles with huge tasks. Again, we can keep on creating ripples and ripples and ripples and ripples

23:13and eventually we can just become so enthralled or entangled into doing this but we need the next step as well. So the ripple effect is great to get you started but we need to figure out ways to get you finished. If you are a person that has started things or who has a hard time started things and you think you need some support and some help, I encourage you to reach out to us ReverendConcepts.com, get yourself some coaching. And this right here is going to be one of the keys that are going to be helping you get to where you want to be. Sometimes in life we can look at just all the things that we want, all the easy things. But when we can do the hard things and at some point whether it be instantaneously or through time and progression, we're going to say wow, look at what we accomplish and this can be in so many aspects of your life. So allow a small decision today

24:13to shape your whole entire year or your whole entire life.