258: Holly Worton ~ You Have Come a Long Way, And You Do Not Know It

Today’s Guest

Table of Contents

I’m back again, with another solo episode! Today I start out with a quote that represents a concept that’s been coming into my life a lot lately: taking stock of where I am and how far I’ve come. I don’t do this often enough, and I bet you don’t, either. So in this episode I want to encourage you to take a look at just how far you’ve come in the past few years…even if you think you haven’t done enough.

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What You’ll Learn

The importance of taking stock in how far you’ve come and what you’ve achieved on your journey
How to celebrate everything, even the baby steps you’ve taken
Practical ways to look back and get clarity on just how much you’ve done and changed
Why it’s important to look at all areas of your life, not just business
Why it can be helpful to get feedback from others

Things I Discussed

Connect With Holly

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Transcript

The transcript for this episode can also be downloaded here (no opt-in required).

Holly: Hello and welcome to the Business Mindset Podcast, episode 258. This is your host Holly Worton and I am back with another solo episode.

Today, I am going to talk about the importance of stopping and evaluating and looking back and seeing just how far you have come. This is really, really, important and it has been kind of coming back into my awareness, the need to do this. It has happened several times lately in the last few days, so I thought it was a topic that was worth discussing, because I suspect this is a topic that is pretty common. A lot of us don’t stop and take the time to look back and see just how far they have come.

So, this podcast is inspired by kind of what’s been going on for me lately, but it also inspired by a quote, by author Idries Shah who I will link to in the show notes. It is such a great quote, and I love it, so the quote goes like this:

“You have come a long way, and you do not know it, you have a long way to go and you do know what that means.”

Does that resonate with you at all? I experienced this all the time. I am constantly setting goals, planning, taking action, looking ahead, doing the stuff that I need to do, working towards my goals. I have a long way to go with some of those goals and I do know what that means definitely. But, I have come a long way and, oftentimes, I forget that.

So, in today’s episode I am going to talk about, and I hope to get some feedback from you, I want to talk about how far we have come, how far you have come, and I want to encourage you to spend at least a few minutes thinking about how far you have come. Because, I am going to guess that you are into personal growth, into personal development, you are listening to the business mindset podcast, so I think it is safe to say that you are interested in developing yourself, at least professionally, but probably also personally. So, you are into growth, you are into looking ahead, you are into setting goals and it can be so easy to forget to look back and see how far you have come, because we are so focussed on the now and the planning for the future.

6 months ago

So, let me ask you this: where were you, and what were you doing and who were you six months ago? Think about it. So, in doing this I am going to look through some of my journal entries from several months, several years ago, and I would like to encourage you to do the same, because it can be easy to forget about where we were. So, I am recording this on 27 June 2018 and I don’t have a journal entry for 27 December 2017, because I don’t write my journal every day, but I have a whole page of belief statements that I balanced on 28 December 2017. So, December last year, as usual, the year is winding down, I am kind of looking ahead, thinking about things I want to do, and I had recently been to this plant initiation ceremony with my friend Suneet which was really enlightening and inspiring and fabulous.

So, some of the belief statements that I did:

I clearly see my path forward and I easily walk it.

And, I balanced for that. Now at the end of last year I knew there were some big things changing in my business, I kept talking about that, I really didn’t know for the longest time what that looked like, what that meant and what I was going to do. And now I know that my path forward is very clearly focussing on writing books, quarterly books, and minimising the one-to-one work that I do. So, that worked. I have come a long way. So that’s something that has definitely shifted, I went from not knowing to having a really clear path.

The next one that I did was:

I easily resist the temptation to make things difficult or hard work.

Because hard work is one of those things that I am constantly struggling against, because I really instilled the habit of hard work in my first business, which I ran for just over ten years. So, I am still trying to undo some of that stuff, and I feel like in recent months I have started really paring things down, I am trying to make it easier for me to write, I am ensuring that I do my monthly workcations. I will probably start doing perhaps twice monthly workcations, I am still trying to figure out how to get that into the calendars and I am trying I to remove the things that are getting in the way of writing such as complicated things like my meetup group. I just sent out a message to my meetup group saying I am shutting it down for various reasons and ideally what I want to do is just keep the people that I know will come on my walks and take them out for walks. Meetup – I was getting so many people who would cancel last minute, who wouldn’t show up, it was a pain, so I am trying to simplify that by paring the group down to people that I know really want to walk with me and there we go. I am reducing, I have already reduced the number of days per week that I take calls, so I am just usually doing calls twice a week, instead of three times a week and that is making it easier to get stuff done.

The next one I did was:

I easily and guiltlessly make time to be outdoors in nature.

And, I really feel like this year I am doing the WalkA1000miles challenge again, partly to encourage me to get outdoors more often and this year I am not tracking all of my miles like I did last year, I am just tracking nature miles and I am on track for that. So, that has really worked. I am getting outdoors more often, I am getting outdoors consistently, regularly, obviously that has increased now that the weather is nicer, but it has worked.

So, I could go on and there are a total of 10 different belief statements that I worked on, but you get the idea. That’s where I was six months ago, and I have made a lot of changes now based on those three beliefs I balanced for. So where were you six months ago? What were you doing six months ago? What were you thinking about six months ago? What were you worried about? What were you achieving? What have you achieved since then? How have things changed for you? How have things evolved? How have you grown in the last six months? So, in order to answer those questions, think back to what you were, how you were doing, what you felt six months ago and that’s December 2017. What were things like for you?

1 year ago

Next Question: where were you one year ago? What were you doing a year ago? What were you feeling a year ago? What were your business and life like a year ago? So, that’s June 2017. What was going on for you back then? How have you changed since then? How are you different? How have you grown, how has your business grown? How have things changed?

So, for me, again I don’t have a journal for this time last year, so, I kind of picked through some things and on 28 June I journaled about the Akashic records reading that I had received. So, some of you have heard me mention Vickie Young, who does these really, really, useful Akashic records weekly email. So, she taps into your Akashic records, gets a little message for you from your record keepers and then draws an oracle card for you and writes out how that relates to the message from your message keepers. So, every week when I get these, I print them out, glue them into my journal, on the left-hand side, and then on the right-hand side I journal about the topic, because often the record keepers will ask me questions and I will answer the in the journal. So, the question they asked me was: Holly, what is it that you wish you could start all over and do? This is the perfect time to take on a challenge and remake something into the perfect package you planned it to be. So, the thing I came up with was my online course which you may not know about because I did a terrible job of promoting it and I only sold a few people onto the course. I was really jazzed about it when I created it and then mindset shit got in the way and it didn’t sell the way I wanted it to, so I ended up removing it from my website. So, I did a bunch of journaling around the fact that I wasn’t happy with my online course, I say here the first thing that comes into my mind is my online course, it has been in the back of my head for months, I feel bad about it never taking off, I want the passive income, I want to work with people on a group level, I want to help people in that way, I want to have it available as an easy yes, I have fears around not being able to make it work again. Fears around launching to crickets, fears around it being difficult, lots of crap I need to clean.

So, I balanced just a handful of beliefs there. And I took the online course off my website because I wasn’t happy with it and I have not yet replaced it with anything.

Just last week I posted in the Facebook group about asking people questions about what kinds of workshops they might want to do, because I am starting to get a clear idea of wanting to do online workshops with people where we learn a bit of practical knowledge stuff and we do some heart-centred energy work to release blocks and reprogram beliefs around what you need to achieve whatever the thing is that you do. So, one of the things that I proposed is pitching yourself to podcasts, because that is something I have done a lot of and I love being on other people’s podcasts and I love meeting new people and I love talking to new people and it is something that I see a lot of people having a problem with and it is certainly something I had a problem with way back when I started pitching myself to other people’s shows. I had lots of issues that I had to work with, so I have come a long way with that. So, I am thinking in the future, yes, I would like an online course, but I just don’t have clarity on what that looks like. I might want to start doing online courses related to my Business Mindset books, which I am going to slowly start releasing second editions of, I don’t know I still haven’t decided about my online course, but I got rid of the old one and I think I am going to play around with the individual workshops before I go back into an online course. So, that’s where I was a year ago and that’s where I am now, stuff has changed but I still don’t have a definitive idea or plan as to what I am going to do about that.

Most importantly, not quite this time last year, it was around April/May of last year, was when I launched my heart-centred-energy work and that was a massive, massive change for me. It was a big shift in how I work with people and it gave me a lot more freedom than the system I was using before. So, that was a huge shift and that was another thing that took me some time to develop and channel and put out into the world. So, that’s another massive thing that was going on just a little over a year ago.

So, again, where were you a year ago? What have you changed? What is different for you? How are you feeling different? What’s the journey that you have been on? How are things better, different, worse for you now? Where were you three years ago? So that would be June 2015, what was going on for you back then?

3 years ago

June 2015 was when I walked my first long-distance trail, the South Downs Way, now that’s not business related but everything is related so I am going to bring that up, because that was a really important experience or me, it was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be and it was the source of my first books. And one of the first books where I shared a lot of personal stuff, including how difficult it was for me to do that walk, just unexpectedly difficult. So, I opened myself up in that book in a way that I hadn’t before in my Business Mindset books which will be changing, and I will be sharing a lot more stories, and that was really challenging, it was a really important step outside my comfort zone, when my books, and I think that every time we step outside our comfort zone, it kind of has a ripple effect in all other parts of our life and business. I was just looking through an old journal from that time where I had written my list of walks that I wanted to do, and I had these really long trails and States and I had my mapped out in terms of what year I wanted to do them, and yeah, I haven’t done any of those because I learned a lot from that first trail and I learned that I really like to take my time and enjoy my walks. So, I kind of kept it easy rather than doing a crazy long North American trails. So, lesson learned.

So, where were you three years ago? What was going on for you? What was different for you? How have things changed for you since then? And what were you up to five years ago? So, that’s June 2013, that was a really pivotal time for me because in late July 2013 was when I did my PSYCH-K® training. I have said many times on this podcast that my life was before and after PSYCH-K® because that was when I learned how powerful this mindset work is, and when I eventually added it to my social media business and then shifted my business all together to focus on business mindset because I think it is so important and we don’t talk about it enough. So, that was a pivotal year for me and that was five years ago and I look back and I think how much work I have done with myself, using PK, using Heart-Centred-Energy-work, to shift my mindset and to shift my fears and to shift my blocks and to let go of those limiting beliefs and to reprogram positive enhancing beliefs, it has been, it has been the most intense period of personal growth I have had in my entire life, the last five years. From July 2013 to now. Massive, massive, massive growth, massive changing, I have learned so much about myself, I have peeled off so many layers of crap, I have let go of so much stuff in my head that didn’t serve me. It as been huge, I think this is the most definitive period of my life in terms of personal growth and development. So much has changed. I went from being really low-self-esteem, low self-confidence, really, really, struggling to be visible, struggling to market myself, struggling to market my business, despite knowing all the practical actions that I needed to take. I really struggled so much with that and it all changed when I learned to work with my mindset at the subconscious level.

5 years ago

So, the last five years have been a huge, huge, huge, period of growth for me, I am not the same person I was five years ago when I walked into that PSYCH-K® workshop, I am absolutely a different person and I have grown so much. So, who were you five years ago? How were you feeling five years ago? What were you doing five years ago? How have you changed in the last five years? Were they as life-changing for you as they were for me? Have a think. Go through your journals and look at what was going on for you five years ago.

10 years ago

What about ten years ago? Where were you ten years ago? How were things for you ten years ago? So that’s June 2008, and that feels like a lifetime ago to me. And, again, that was another really pivotal year in my life. So, June 2008, I was still married to my ex-husband, still work in my ex-business, and having a really bad time of it. If you want more details about that, I am not going to go into it here, you can look for the old bonus episode I have from Shelby Forsythia’s podcast that you can find here on this podcast feed, I have imported the feed for that episode, so you can learn the details there of all my terrible unhappiness. Basically, it was a really dark, really unhappy, really, really, bad period of my life, and that all changed one month later — July 24^th 2008 — when I left my ex-husband, I continued to work with him in the business for another year but just leaving that home with him was a massive, massive change, again my life is before and after that relationship, because it was so difficult and such a dark, dark, period of my life. So, that was another pivotal year for me that was a huge change, and at the time, leaving was the hardest thing I had done, I was so scared, I didn’t know what I was going to do, I didn’t know how I was going to do it, I didn’t really have any friends where I was living, it was tough. And it was a huge change and my life has been just exponentially growing in leaps and bounds ever since I made that decision. It was a life-changing year for me, massive, massive, massive, change. So, go back to June 2008, what was going on for you? What was your life like? How have things changed for you since then? It might have been a pivotal year for you or maybe it wasn’t but think about the big things that have happened to you, the big decisions you have made, the big changes you have made, the ways tat you have changed over the last ten years. Look back to who you were ten years ago and compare that to who you are now, I was absolutely a different person back then, I don’t know if I would have recognised myself if I met future me back then. I don’t think I trusted in life, I don’t thin I had the faith that it could change and get better, and then it did because I took action. So massive changes for me.

Celebrate!

Think about all the stuff that you have done, all the decisions you have made in the last ten years, how you are different, how you have grown, what you have achieved. This is really, really, important. Just skim over the years, maybe year by year, go back through your journals, read, remember how you were feeling, what your goals have changed, which of those goals you have achieved and see just how much you have done. And, I think a lot of times, we only celebrate the big things in life and business, if that, some of us don’t take the time to celebrate anything, because we are all focussing on the future still. I think it is really important to take time and focus on celebrating the baby steps. Maybe you used to be afraid to send out an email to your list, I was just talking with Jo Casey on an episode and I mentioned that I used to be terrified to send out an email to my list because I didn’t want people to unsubscribe. I have gotten over that now. I don’t really care if people unsubscribe, because I feel like that is kind of self-selecting and de-cluttering, but I used to be terrified. I used to be terrified of doing a solo podcast episode because I didn’t think I could fill up half-an-hour with interesting and useful and helpful things to say, which is why I started out this podcast with pure interviews because I thought other people would have more important interesting and useful and things to say and as it has evolved I have done more and more solo episodes and now this is pretty much half the podcast. So, celebrate the little things, celebrate the baby steps. Make yourself a sign in your office, if you need a reminder to celebrate the baby steps. In this time I have written four business mindset books, and three walking books, and I am about to release another walking book, to make a total of eight, by the end of the year I hope to have two more books out, that’s ten. I always wanted to write books, I always wanted to be a writer. And I have wanted to self-publish since (I don’t know) 2011, so finally doing it in 2016 was huge, huge, huge and it was terrifying: who am I to write a book? And I did it anyway. That’s a massive achievement and every single one of my books is an achievement, did I celebrate them? I don’t honestly remember but I aim going to remind myself to celebrate from now on, because a book is a huge achievement.

So, even if it feels small to you celebrate it. Get into the habit of celebrating the small stuff, because every little baby step that takes you towards your goals is super, super, important. So, what can you do to look back and see how you have grown and celebrate your achievements? So, like I said look through all of your old journal entries, if you don’t journal look you through your calendar maybe and see the things that you were doing and use that as a catalyst to trigger how you were feeling and look back over your memories. Look through stuff from the past and see how things have changed and what you have achieved since then. Make a list of your accomplishments, maybe year by year think about how you have done each year, no matter how small, celebrate the baby steps, celebrate the tiny steps because it all adds up. It is not just the big stuff that is important and is worthy of being celebrated, it is all worthy of being celebrated because it all compounds. Take a look at your testimonials and look back over the clients that you have worked with in the last few years, think about how things have changed in the way that you work with clients. Think about how things have improved as a healer or a practitioner or a facilitator or a consultant. I am sure you have grown professionally over the last few year, if not last few months but we need to remind ourselves of this.

Get some feedback from your business friends, if you have a mastermind or a master-gut, like I have, or business friends, ask them for feedback, ask them what they have seen and how you have town since the group first started. It can be really, really, helpful to see ourselves through other people’s eyes and to hear what other people have to say about us because other people see things that we don’t see, it can be really, really, useful. And, look at other areas of your life, not just business, because everything is related. Look at your personal life, look at your spiritual life, look at your personal growth, look at your health and wellbeing, how has that changed? Look at the sense of balance that you have in your life, look at your money situation, look at your social life, your relationships, your family. Look at all areas of your life and think about how you have grown and how you have changed and what the journey has looked like for you for the last ten years, maybe even go beyond, go into the past 15, 20, 30 years, go however far back you want to, but take the time to look because you have come a long way and you do not know it. You have a long way to go and you do know what that means.

So, take the time out this week, please, I encourage you, to just go through the past and celebrate everything that you can celebrate, even the little baby steps and actually I would love it if you would either hop into the Facebook group, or drop me a line, and let me know what you would like to celebrate. Come celebrate in the Facebook group, or send me an email, or tweet to me or whatever, send me maybe the top three things, or a whole list of things, or whatever you want to send me that you would like to celebrate, and we will celebrate together, how does that sound? I hope that sounds good. When I post this in the Facebook group, you have already heard me talk about myself for the last half hour but maybe I will get the ball rolling by picking some things to celebrate and you can share as well. So, please drop me a line, let me know what you would like to celebrate, let me know what you thought about this week’s episode you can email me at [email protected] or you can find me at Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and get in touch I would love to give you a shout out on the show, I would also love to see you in my private FacebookGroup so we can continue the conversation there and continue to celebrate in there. If you head over to http://HollyWorton.com/Group you will be redirected to the Facebook group and I would love to see you in there.

Finally, thank you so much for listening, if you enjoyed this episode please leave a quick review on Apple podcasts, or iTunes, it would mean the world to me. And, keep your eyes peeled because I am going to be launching a Patreon. You may remember from about two years ago, I set up a Patreon account and then mentioned it on this podcast and then never did anything else with it. So, I have been taking some time to look at how other authors use Patreon, how other podcasters use Patreon and how I want to use it. So, that might be an episode, so I am thinking about that because I was just thinking I really want someone else to do an episode on that, but maybe it is something that I have to do. So, perhaps that will be coming in the future. But, keep your ears peeled, I will mention it on the podcast and I will also mention it online and I think it will be useful for you to see how I am using Patreon, how other people are using it and how you might be able to use it for your business.

Next week

Next week I am back with another co-hosted episode with the fabulous Jo Casey, we are going to be talking about one of the biggest things that we have experienced in business, and that we work with clients on, which is the fear or limiting belief of: what will people think, will they like me? And that worry that we get when we put out a blog post, or a podcast episode, when we say anything online: what are people going to think of me? Now, some people suffer from this more than others, some people it looks like they just don’t give a shit which is fantastic, but it is something that a lot of us find really, really, painful. So, Jo and I talk about what our own journey has been like in dealing with these fears, and how this shows up for us in business. Why this happens, why do we have these fears, why do we care what other people think of us? We talk about how it shows up in business, why it holds us back? Why it is a problem and why we need to work on it. We talk about how perfectionism comes into play and why we need to get used to taking imperfect action. We talk about how this is related to resilience and how we can strengthen our resilience muscle which is something we have talked about before, but it is always worth repeating because resilience is a very important part of business. We also mention why we need to step outside our comfort zone in all areas of our life, not just business. We talk about what we can do to change this and release these fears, so you can take action more easily. We also mention very specific practical baby steps that you can take to get used to speaking out and taking action even if you are afraid of what people will think and whether or not they will like you.

So, that’s all for today, I really look forward to seeing you next week and I look forward to celebrating with you all the stuff that you have done in the last few years. Remember to visit: http://HollyWorton.com/258 for the show notes on this episode. And I will see you next week, thank you so much and have a great week and enjoy your summer if you are in the northern hemisphere and if you are in the southern hemisphere enjoy your winter, hope you have beautiful snow.

All right, thanks so much and have a great week!