Start Rising Podcast
The Start Rising Podcast, hosted by Caiti Courtier, is a show for entrepreneurs seeking personal growth and heightened positivity who are taking imperfect action. The podcast focuses on the topics of resilience and overcoming obstacles to achieve success, with an emphasis on questioning old beliefs and learning valuable lessons along the way. The podcast is aimed at entrepreneurs who may feel isolated on their journey and are looking for support during the beginning through growth stages of their business. By listening to the Start Rising Podcast, individuals can connect with like-minded individuals and gain inspiration to pursue their big audacious goals.
Start Rising Podcast
Episode 51: From Comparisons to Power Statements
Ever battled with the relentless force of comparisonitis? It's that nagging little voice that compares your journey to everyone else’s, making you feel inadequate. Well, I've been there, and I've got some powerful tools to share on how to conquer it. Listen as I narrate my own personal combat with comparisonitis during my recovery period after a C-section and my journey into the world of entrepreneurship. Learn how to create your own pace, focus on your path and use the power of I am statements to shape your daily realities.
Searching for the right teaching program can be as daunting as charting the course of a new business. I found myself right at the heart of this experience, with little relevant experience to rely on. Yet, I kept my determination burning, asking different questions until I found a program that was right for me. My journey to becoming an internationally accredited teacher in Iowa was far from a walk in the park, but with perseverance and determination, I made it. Now, I'm inviting you on this journey of self-discovery. Learn how to pen down your I am statements to unlock your potential, and how determination can help you leap over any obstacle. Let's together make these powerful affirmations a part of our daily routine and witness the transformation unfold.
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Hey and welcome to another episode of the Start Rising podcast. I am your host, katie Cordier, and coming to you with lessons that I've picked up along my merry little way. Essentially, I was at the gym after finally being cleared to be able to go back and exercise after a C-section for those who might not have heard some of the previous episodes and it drew the parallel for me, for at the pace that I was going going slow and steady and focusing on muscle control and coordination, which was far slower than I would typically have done at the gym beforehand and looking around at the gym and noticing that other people are going at a very rapid pace, or seeing someone else and going, wow that's, I can't wait to do this exercise and I started to notice the comparisonitis come up to the surface. But now that I'm a little bit more aware of it, I was able to catch myself on that and basically kind of notice it and then disregard comparisonitis, which is incredibly important.
Speaker 1:When you are recovering from surgery or an injury or anything like that, or you're just starting back at something you haven't done in a while. That comparisonitis can either be really bad, essentially, for you. So if I was to look at someone across the gym and think, oh, I'm going to start doing these, I don't know, box jumps or something like that, where it's like heavy, dynamic movements. It would end up being really bad for me at the time because I'm not doing the thing that suits for me and my current moment and I think the comparison there as far as a connection was me noticing that this also applies to the journey of your business, the journey of entrepreneurship and I say journey all the time and you're probably sick of me saying the journey of entrepreneurship, but it's something that this entrepreneurship is. It's a journey. There will be ups and downs, there will be things to expect, there will be seasons where you go faster, seasons where you go slower. And the comparison of being at the gym and seeing other people doing different things that I really wanted to do is that, parallel to sometimes you're in a season of slow, sometimes you're in a season of grow and it's okay. It's okay that maybe you did a coaching program or you did something where you went through with a cohort and other people are further ahead than you and you are moving a little bit slower. It's okay. We all have our own pace, we all have our own path to work and it's all. We each have our own piece that we need to accomplish or overcome, or do or reframe. There are so many different things below the surface it's that old adage of that iceberg you can only see a small amount, and there is so much beneath the surface. So my session at the gym made me realize how important it is to just focus on what you need to do for yourself, and it's so easy to get sucked into that vortex, both at the gym and both in your journey of building your business. So that's one reminder I have for you today.
Speaker 1:The second piece that I wanted to speak with you about is the power of I am statements. So those I am statements we may not give much, much thought to them really, as because they're just two words, how powerful can they really be? I saw this recently and someone talked about I wish I remembered who to give credit to but they talked about the power of starting their day with the I am statements. So I thought, well, let's do this, let's, let's give this a go, let's start my day with my I am statements, because when I wake up, when my brain is in that kind of like a beta brainwave, like impressionable, when you go to bed and when you wake up you say your, I am statements about your like vision. So I say I am a six figure earning entrepreneur. So that's what I say when I fall asleep and that's what I say the first thing that I wake up. So I'm embodying that and everyone probably has their own version of their statement. And if you don't, I highly encourage that as something. You figure out what works for the statement and the direction you want to go and then start actually practicing it.
Speaker 1:But to build on with that daily practice that I've been doing for a while, I've also now added in getting my notebook. So, side note plug, it's one of my journals that I created. So it's, it's a journal with a cover I designed. It's lined hundreds on pages and I grab that and I use it and I write out my I am statements on the date and it's something that's special to me because it does have a picture of a mother embracing her little baby, a little son, on the front and has like a love heart and says mom. But anyway, I just think it's cute and I always like some fancy stationary.
Speaker 1:I feel like if I like the stuff that I use and I write with, I'm more likely to use it, which is the point behind this daily practice. So my I am statements, I basically take a page of it, I write the date and I begin to write out my I am statements and there's something that just they free, free flow on the day that I'm doing it. I'm not writing it out, copying and pacing like we were writing lines at school, I'm just writing what's coming to me in the moment. So some days there may be a half page worth of I am. Some days there may be a full page of I am's and I'm writing things like I am fit, healthy and strong, I am an excellent leader, I am a great partner, I am a excellent mother to Olly Hank and Stella, who are my, my son and my two dogs. I am the type of person who flies first class. I'm writing these I am statements, so I'm embodying them.
Speaker 1:And if it's something that feels a little rejected? So you know, when you say like the, the affirmation piece, like people talk about, oh, affirm this, affirm that If it's something that you haven't quite affirmed, to the point where, even close to it, your brain might reject it. So in those cases I write. I am the type of person who so you're giving your brain the lead in, or I am on my way to, so you're prefacing this point with your brain. So it's not that auto-rejection as far as how you write it down and receive it. And I've only been doing this for I want to say maybe, I don't know coming up to probably about two weeks worth of doing this and already my mind shit, my mind that, and my like I don't know processing has started to change.
Speaker 1:I see things on like I've spent a lot of time on TikTok. When I get the chance and I'm on the learning side of TikTok, or sometimes the vacation pieces pop up, what I'd previously see is I'd see like a vacation thing. That'd been like, oh, this is this place, come, stay here. And my brain would imagine to go wow, wouldn't it be great if? And I would be imagining, oh, I can probably only go here on like vacation or holiday, like I can only go there temporary. And it'd be like I'm in the US, I'm an employee. Currently you don't only get the two weeks of vacation a year, so you'd only get a small window. That's how my mind was thinking.
Speaker 1:An interesting thing happened today as I saw one thing that was beautiful. It was like in essentially I think it was Belize beautiful like green jungle-esque pool with those like swings that are over the top of it, and just beautiful tropical food, and I thought, wow, that would, that would be amazing. And I didn't have that initial hesitation and the initial rejection that I would typically kind of have, that little tripwire in my brain to make it sound like it's something I could never have More. So I had the feeling of yep, I can see that I can do that, and I had that embodiment of it's not, if I want something, I will have it. Not, I can't have it Like there's two very different feelings and, even saying that, I feel in my body like the expansion or the contraction when I say those two statements. So these I am statements, they are true power statements. I've noticed it in myself and I'm embodying it and along with a whole host of other things, that my mindset's changed. As I've been sharing with you on the podcast, like in previous episodes, like I am, my mindset is shifting from a lack mentality to a if I want it, I can make it happen mentality. And once I lock in on something, I find out a way to do it. I don't back down and it's happened a few different times prior to this but, like, once I decide this is what I want, I do everything I can to achieve that.
Speaker 1:A story I'll share with you as well is gosh, a couple different suggestions to think of, but I think that the two that I'll share with you is so in the previous episodes, you met my husband. We met when I was studying abroad at Iowa State, and I met him in the last two weeks that I was there, didn't think anything of it, because he is this person who I've met, spent some time together, and then I have no ability nor no tangible means to go back to the US unless on a short trip. So we started dating, we started getting to know each other and we essentially knew we wanted to be in the same country as one another because, oh, imagine that wanting to be in the same country, same area, same time zone as someone that you are dating. So I was getting to the point where I was finishing my degree in teaching and I was looking for a way to be able to come back while he was still studying, for me to be able to basically be in the US, to continue to be in the same place as one another, and I spent hours on hours on hours looking for programs, looking for visas, looking for ways to basically have the ability to spend a year abroad, if not more, or even like maybe half a year. So I decided, because of this relationship and because of my care for one another, it was on me to be able to make that move to the country, because he was still studying and he wasn't in a position to be able to do a study abroad. I decided that by hell or high water, I was going to be able to come back and basically date in the same country.
Speaker 1:And I went through. I couldn't even tell you how many things that I was looking for exchange programs, and all I kept on finding was teacher programs that you had to have a certain amount of experience in the classroom, and here's me, a new graduate not having that and not wanting to wait four years for the eligibility factor to kick in. They're just. I'm horribly impatient and four years was not something that I was willing to wait it out. I was going to find a way. So I went through round one of thinking, okay, well, what's something that I can ask a question? And then I figured out a different way to ask the question and lo and behold, the first, basically company I initially reached out to because I phrased the question in a different way, they were able to identify a program that I was eligible for that they were essentially piloting. Someone else would have given up in searching these things out when people said no, but because I had such a strong why and I had locked in on the goal, there was no way that I was backing down.
Speaker 1:And the same thing happened when I on that on that program essentially was when I wanted to continue teaching. So I was going to work as a substitute teacher, I was going to get my teaching license in the state of Iowa and I was going to see if I can apply for teaching jobs to be sponsored, to stay on permanently. There was obviously there's different international things with different degrees, different all of these things but basically there was a whole host of hoops I needed to jump through in order to be eligible to apply to have a teaching license in the state and it was another loop-de-loop-de-loop thing basically where it was incredibly hard to do that and incredibly hard to find to sit an exam in a different country, to figure out fingerprinting in a different country, the whole host of things. But because I had locked in on knowing that there is nothing that's going to stand in my way, I figured out a way to do it when most people didn't, and I ended up being the first internationally accredited teacher in the state of Iowa to go ahead and attain the Iowa teachers license, because of all of the hoops and all of the everything that you needed to do in order to get this. So I hold that very true as an example of when I lock in on something and I'm determined. Those are my examples of when it happens. So, with my mindset and the I am statements, I'm beginning to feel that same level of locked in.
Speaker 1:By doing this daily practice, in embodying this person who is saying those things and who is writing her I am statements, I'm getting that same feeling and it means that I'm getting determined and it means that nothing is going to stand in my way. So I encourage you, I would highly, highly encourage you to start writing out your I am statements so you can start embodying this too, because I know, if you're listening to this podcast. You are someone who is you're driven, you're someone who is dipping their toe into entrepreneurship. Maybe you've made a few sales, maybe you're building things, maybe you're trying new things and you want someone who can talk about those hurdles that you're experiencing on the rollercoaster that is being your own boss. It's a powerful, powerful tool. I initially thought, well, might dismiss it, but no, it's. Don't dismiss this, do not dismiss this. Go ahead and get yourself a notebook.
Speaker 1:I feel like writing in like pen to paper physically helps me process. So I feel like that's more powerful than doing it on your phone. But do it in whatever means you want to and whatever means you can, and do it daily. It can be whatever time you want. You just need to do it and be consistent and start embodying those. I am Like what are the things that are important to you, that you want to embody and be these powerful things? That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you continue with your I am statements and hit me up on Instagram and let me know how you're going and let me know how your transformation with your I am happen. Talk to you later.