Do Life Better Podcast

It’s springtime, meaning the Jacaranda trees are in full bloom, reminding Dave of his time at uni - and of exams! How well do you prepare for exams? Are you like Dave and leave it all to the last minute? Cramming the night before doesn’t always lead to the best results. When you’re tired and stressed you can’t give study - or anything else for that matter - your best. Many of us procrastinate. But there is something we can do to when to redirect our focus. Get to know your “WHY?”. Make the connection between what you’re doing and where you want to get to. For example, Jared didn’t do great at Study of Religion when he was in high school. But when he got to uni that changed because he was focussed on becoming a great Religion teacher. Sometimes it’s easy to get energised and focus in on what you’re doing. Sometimes it’s easy to connect with the why. But other times it can be hard, monotonous or even boring. What can help is connecting our “WHY?” to a “WHO?”. This creates a sense of necessity: I need to do this because of this greater goal. So, by doing this I get closer to becoming the person I want to be and/or because of the influence I get to create for others. A quick hack is before you begin a task or job, spend a minute bringing to mind who you’re doing it for. This helps you connect to that deeper purpose or reason underlying the task and creates greater motivation and desire to work towards completing it. Another way of looking at it is by doing the task or job, what will it bring you? For example: doing ten minutes extra study - what could that bring you? Well, it could bring you better results, which could bring you to a university course you want to get into, which could bring you to a job you love, which could bring you to a position where you can create a positive influence for many more people. It all connects in the end. Another quick hack: every 45-50 minutes take a 2-5 walk or break and then come back to what you’re working on but do some deep breathing first to connect to that deeper meaning, the why, for who and what it could bring you. Challenge for the week: when you sit down at your desk to study or work, or when you’re about to begin a task, spend one or two minutes to close your eyes, do some deep breathing and ask yourself who or what needs am I doing this for right now? Extra challenge: set yourself a reminder on your phone at the start of each day that says “Who needs my A-game the most right now?" Follow us at facebook.com/projecthatch and Instagram at @projecth_hatch. To contact us about retreats, leadership training and workshops, visit www.projecthatch.com.au or email us at [email protected]. Remember to subscribe to, rate and review the podcast to help spread the do life better message. Now, go out and create a great day.

Have you ever made a mistake? Jared accidentally left behind a microphone stand after a retreat day at a school 3 hours away. Was it a failure? As we get older, we start to see failure as a bad thing. But it doesn’t have to be. Through our mistakes, we can actually learn how to do things differently or even better. We can turn failure into success and we can even become good at failing. It’s all about not believing our thoughts. When you experience a failure, you might experience one of three responses. The first is fight - where you might assign the fault to someone or something else. The second is flight - which is avoiding those things or people that caused the mistake. These are both negative responses and we can’t learn or grow from them. The third way is to reflect on the situation. There are a few ways you can be more reflective of your failings: You can acknowledge the things you did do well, even if you didn’t get the outcome you wanted your left with a series of things that you can focus on next time to do that thing even better By discussing with someone what you could have done better, you can identify other options to succeed next time. By journalling about the situation, you can process what happened and even give yourself advice about the situation. Lastly, you can talk to yourself. You can see things from a different perspective by talking to yourself in the third person. By reflecting on failure we can actually get excited about it because we now have new information to have more success in the future. Even big companies like Apple and Google reward staff who make mistakes because it helps their companies grow and become even more successful. Before Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he found 10 000 ways not to invent the light bulb! In his words, “There’s a way to do it better - find it!” Challenge for the week: write down “learning or success” and display it somewhere visible you will see it often as a constant reminder for yourself to reframe your thinking and see each failure as a learning moment or a success in helping you do life even better. Follow us at facebook.com/projecthatch and Instagram at @projecth_hatch. To contact us about retreats, leadership training and workshops, visit www.projecthatch.com.au or email us at [email protected]. Remember to subscribe to, rate and review the podcast to help spread the do life better message to more people just like you. Now, go out and create a great day.

You are the average of the five people you associate with the most. Your income, values, beliefs, aspirations, confidence, and more are directly related to the five people you spend the most time with. When you spend time with people who are negative, who hold themselves and others back and who treat others poorly, you are most likely to become that way yourself. However, if you seek out those who are positive, inspired, excited, have high aspirations, chance are you will end up like that too. How are you going with your five people? You get to choose who you associate with the most, so choose well. We are not saying to remove negative people from your life because you can still be there for them, support and encourage them. What we are saying is choose to spend more time with people who are good for you, people who are a great positive influence in your life. Seek out those who believe in you, who see the greatness in you and who see what your capable of now and who you can become. Challenge for the week: contact someone who is a positive influence in your life and spend more time with them. Follow us at facebook.com/projecthatch and instagram at @projecth_hatch. To contact us about retreats, leadership training and workshops, visit www.projecthatch.com.au or email us at [email protected]. Now, go out and create a great day.

When you call a difficult moment a stress, your brain’s capacity to think clearly, creatively and positively is dramatically decreased. Therefore, when you are stressed, your performance suffers. For example, the emails or assignments you are trying to write wouldn’t be to your highest standards. Instead, if you call that same moment a challenge, your brain steps up to the task. Chemicals are released into your brain and body which help you perform better. You think more clearly, you are more focused, positive and creative. Next time you feel stressed, remind yourself that it is a challenge, not a stress. Set yourself some fun, challenging, rewarding goals to help you perform better. For example, instead of being stressed about doing house work, put on your favourite music and see how much cleaning you can get done before the songs end. Or, instead of stressing about having to reply to 10 emails during a 10 minute break, challenge yourself to do only five now and to make them as positive and clear as possible. The words you tell yourself make a big difference. Choose well. Thank you for joining us for another episode on the Do Life Better podcast. Remember to leave a rating and a review in the podcast app or in iTunes. You can follow us on facebook.com/projecthatch or instagram at project_hatch. You can contact us or find out more about our retreats, leadership programs, workshops and teacher training at www.projecthatch.com.au or [email protected]. Now go out there and do life even better!

Positive self talk could actually be working against you, unless you did it correctly. When you use false positive self talk, your brain knows that you are making it up, so it doesn’t work. An example is when you tell yourself, “You are awesome so you will nail it!”. However, deep down inside you know that you are just making up that statement to make you feel better, and so it doesn’t work. Instead, if for example you are worried about low confidence and not being accepted, find moments from the past when you did succeed, when you were confident, and when your were accepted. Then, use these moments to remind yourself that you do have what it takes, because you’ve done it before. When you use these evidence based memories as the basis of your positive self talk, it is far easier for your brain to believe you because it is connected with real events and real emotions. So, allow your positive self talk to be, “I’ve got this because of the time when I … .” Connect your real positive self talk with a power pose to create an even bigger boost in confidence. A power pose is when you take up as much space as possible, like a ‘Super-Man’ pose. More on the power pose another time. Your challenge: set a reminder in your phone that says, “I’ve got this because …”. Leave a rating and review in the podcast app or on iTunes as a way to help these messages reach more people just like you. If you leave a review, we will give you a shout-out on an upcoming episode. You can follow us at facebook.com/projecthatch and instagram @project_hatch. You can contact us at www.projecthatch.com.au and [email protected] Thank you for joining us!

Thanks for joining us for episode 2! What if you can take incredibly difficult, positive action even while you are scared, fearful and nervous? What could you achieve if fear wasn't holding you back? We believe that there is an unhealthy pursuit of fearlessness. If you strive to be fearless, every time you experience fear, nerves or anxiety, you may think that there is something wrong with you. You may think that you are weak or broken. You may think that you simply can't take the action that's needed. But, that is simply not true. Fear is a natural reaction. It's your body's way of telling you that something important is about to happen and that your body is getting prepared to take action. It tells you what you are at risk of gaining or losing something and that helps you form a greater understanding of what you value and what is important to you. When you experience fear, figure out what the fear is telling you and let that guide you in taking valued, positive action to help you move forward. Instead of letting fear tell you that you can't do something, ask 'How can I do this?'. Of course, when it is a dangerous situation, allow fear to tell you to protect yourself - that too is valued action. Your challenge for the week, create a daily reminder in your phone that says, "Don't be fearless, be brave!". And, when faced with a positive, valued action that scares you, instead of saying, "I can't", ask "How can I?". Please rate this podcast and leave a review. We'd love to read out your comment on the podcast. Also, share it with other people who are just like you and could really benefit from hearing these messages. You can follow us at Facebook.com/projecthatch and instagram @project_hatch. You can contact us at www.projecthatch.com.au or [email protected]. Now, go out and do you life even better!

You can't alway control the events that occur each day, but you can control what you do next. In this episode, Dave and Jared share some proven methods and tips to help create a great day, everyday. A lot of people allow themselves to be victims to their day. They don't know what their day is going to be like until it happens to them. It can be easy to think that you will have a bad day because you missed the bus, or because someone gave a 'look'. Has this happened to you or someone you know? It doesn't have to be this way. You can choose what comes next. You don't choose to miss your bus, but you can choose how you interpret missing your bus and what you do next. Even in really difficult moments, you didn't choose for the event to happen, but you can control how you interpret it and what do you next. For example, you can choose to find good people to talk to and someone you ask for help. You can also choose to look forward with hope that things will get better. The choices you make and the habits you keep create and determine who you are and who you become. Each and everyday, you make around 30,000 to 35,000 decisions. These choices determine who are being in this moment right now. Your mood, energy, and ability to focus right now was created by these choices and habits. For example, the amount of sleep you had last night, the foods you've eaten, the thoughts you believe, whether or not you exercise and the people you spend time with create you are being right now. You choose that. One of our habits is to say to each other, 'Create a great day for yourself today'. This reminds us that we get to choose who we are being today, regardless of the events that come up. Jared's is currently working teaching himself, spending time in mindfulness even just in small moments during the day, listening to more podcasts, and getting more positive influences in his life to help him create a great day for himself. Dave's morning routine: glass of water first thing in the morning, the 7 minute workout (between 7 to 21 minutes) or go for a run, time in gratitude and thinking about what can I get excited about today, breakfast smoothy or an omelette, and listen to podcasts or audiobook in the car, and then mindful driving for the last 10 - 15 mins of the morning drive. To help gain greater presence in the moment, remind yourself that no other moment matters as much as this moment right now. This is the only moment you can control, therefore it is the most important. There is only one of you. There is no one else in this world like, and there never will be. That's not by accident, it's on purpose. The people in your life and anyone you meet to today, their world, their day will be a little better when you are at your best. They want and need you to be at your best. Your family and your future self deserves you to be at your best. This podcast will share many more proven methods, tips and strategies to help you do just that, to do you life even better. Please let us know any topics you would like us to talk about. Your challenge for this: set a reminder in your phone that goes off each day that say, "Create a great day for yourself!". And, start thinking about your morning routine. You can find us at www.projecthatch.com.au, on Facebook.com/projecthatch and on instagram @project_hatch. Thanks for joining us!