Have you ever tried to change something in your life, only to find yourself slipping back into the same thoughts, feelings or behaviours?

We often focus on the result we want to change. We tell ourselves we need to behave differently, try harder or make better choices. But what if the result we can see is actually the end of a much deeper sequence?

In this episode of Growing Plants, Growing People, Kristian and Daniel explore the connection between our programming, beliefs, attitudes, feelings, actions and ultimately the results we create.

Drawing on the pioneering work of Dr Shad Helmstetter, they work backwards from the results we experience to explore where those results really begin — and why changing our actions alone may not always create lasting change.

In this episode you will discover:

• How programming creates beliefs, beliefs create attitudes, attitudes create feelings, feelings influence actions, and actions create results
• Why a belief doesn't necessarily have to be objectively true for it to influence the way you live
• How the things you believe about yourself can affect the opportunities you take — or avoid
• Why repeatedly trying to change a result may mean you're starting at the wrong end of the sequence
• How to work backwards from a result and become curious about what may be driving it
• Why understanding your programming can give you a very different place from which to begin creating change

Free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet

We've created a free reflective worksheet to accompany this episode and help you explore the ideas for yourself.

Choose one result in your life that you'd like to understand better and use the worksheet to work backwards through the sequence — exploring the actions, feelings, attitudes and beliefs that may be sitting behind it, before considering the programming that may have helped shape those beliefs.

You don't need to change everything at once. Start with one result and get curious about where it really began.

Download your free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet here:

Where Your Results Really Begin Reflective Worksheet

And there's something special coming next.

After six episodes exploring the foundations of Self-Talk, Kristian and Daniel will be joined in the next episode by Dr Shad Helmstetter, widely recognised for his pioneering work in Self-Talk, for a special conversation about the story behind the work and what decades of studying Self-Talk have taught him.

The most important conversation you'll ever have is the one you have with yourself. Make it count.

Have you ever noticed how one thought can quickly lead to another — particularly when something goes wrong?

In this episode of Growing Plants, Growing People, Kristian and Daniel explore what happens when the messages we repeatedly give ourselves become familiar patterns, and how those patterns can influence the way we interpret situations, respond to experiences and ultimately behave.

Daniel introduces the memorable Golden Brain illustration to help explain how the programming we accumulate can influence the messages our brain feeds back to us. We also explore the extraordinary number of thoughts we may experience across a lifetime — and why the goal isn't to make every thought positive, but to become more aware of the messages we repeatedly reinforce.

In this episode you will discover:

• How repeated thoughts can become familiar patterns
• What the feedback loop is and why it matters
• How existing programming can influence the way we interpret new experiences
• The Golden Brain illustration and what it can teach us about the messages we repeatedly reinforce
• Why two people can experience a similar situation yet respond very differently
• The important difference between what happened and the story we tell ourselves about what happened
• Why Self-Talk isn't about pretending everything is wonderful or denying reality
• Why you don't need to control every thought to begin changing the patterns you reinforce
• How the brain's ability to learn and adapt gives us the opportunity to begin strengthening different patterns

The thoughts and messages you've repeated in the past may help explain some of the patterns you experience today — but they don't have to decide the patterns you create next.

And as we prepare for Episode 006, we'll begin connecting those patterns to something even bigger: how programming creates beliefs, beliefs create attitudes, attitudes create feelings, feelings determine actions, and actions create results.

Free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet

Want to take today's conversation a little further?

We've created a free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet to accompany this episode, helping you notice some of the messages you repeatedly give yourself and begin exploring the patterns behind your own Self-Talk.

Download your free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet here:

Episode 005 Reflective Worksheet

Episode 005 Bonus Reflective Worksheet

Because the most important conversation you'll ever have, is the one you have with yourself.

Make it count.

Have you ever discovered a great idea, started with every intention of sticking with it...and then watched everyday life get in the way?

In this episode of Growing Plants, Growing People, Kristian and Daniel explore why struggling to maintain a new habit, goal or personal-development practice doesn’t necessarily mean you lack commitment or discipline.

Every attempt to change has to compete for three limited resources: our time, our physical energy and our mental energy.

Through the story of Dr Shad Helmstetter’s own experience with goal setting, along with a rather familiar gardening analogy, we discover why even a good idea can gradually become another chore — and why having the right tools can make all the difference.

In this episode you’ll discover:

• Why even good ideas can become difficult to maintain when everyday life gets in the way
• Why time, physical energy and mental energy all influence our ability to stick with something
• Why struggling to maintain a new practice doesn’t necessarily mean you lack commitment or discipline
• The three important requirements for a personal-growth approach that is going to survive the realities of everyday life:
  • It needs to be simple
  • It needs to be easy to use
  • And when you put it into practice, it needs to work
    
    

Perhaps the question isn’t:

“Why can’t I stick with it?”

Perhaps there’s a better question:

“Am I using the right tool?”

Free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet

We’ve created a free reflective worksheet to accompany this episode and help you explore how these ideas apply to your own life.

Use it to consider the things you’ve tried to introduce or maintain, what may have made them difficult to stick with, and whether the tools or approaches you’ve been using are realistic for the time, physical energy and mental energy available to you.

Download your free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Worksheet here:

Why Good Ideas Are So Hard to Stick With Reflective Worksheet

Download your free Growing Plants, Growing People Reflective Bonus Worksheet here: Your Three Resources

Bonus Reflective Worksheet

Listen now and continue the journey as we explore how lasting change really happens.

Growing Plants, Growing People — because the principles that help gardens flourish are often the very same principles that help people grow.