1. Home
  2. About Coaching
  3. Coaching Articles

What if it were EASY?

Posted on April 15, 2021 by Debbie Harbec, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Often we think change will be hard.
But what if you thought it would be easy?
A little change in thinking can mean a big change in results.

Just recently, I had a breakthrough on this idea. During a session with my own coach, I noticed a thought that’s been holding me back. It’s a thought I didn’t even realize I was thinking. And I was thinking it A LOT. The thought was “It’s going to be hard.” I was saying it as if it was a fact. Of course, it’s going to hard, all change is hard, right? But when she asked me why I thought it would be hard, I scrambled to validate this “fact.” “Well, of course it’ll be hard… All the things I need to learn, what I need to do, and …” “But what if it were easy?” she asked. What?? What if what I wanted was actually easy? What if all the steps to get there were actually EASY?? That was a new thought. I hadn’t thought that before. It kind of blew my mind. The reason I put off this change for so long was because I believed it would be hard. But now I see it. The error in that thought. Thinking it will be hard is just a thought… Not a fact. I mean, it’s just as possible that what I needed to learn and do would be easy, right? And I realized, in that moment, that believing the process would be hard, was making it, well…. Hard. And that this belief was like shooting myself in the foot before I’d even taken a step. I began to notice all the times I was having this thought. “It’s going to be hard.” I was saying it often, and not even noticing. Until now. And of course, I hear similar things from my clients. And just like me, they’re not even aware they’re saying it. It’s just seems normal, factual even. They talk about how hard it will be to lose the weight, or find balance in their lives, or become the person they want to be. It comes out in different versions of “It’s going to be hard,” like: “I’m going to have to work super hard.” “This is a huge change for me.” “I’m not sure I can do everything it’s going to take!” Can you feel how big and heavy these statements are? They sound like starting a hike at the bottom of what looks like Everest. But is there really a mountain in front of you? Do you know that for sure? I don’t think you can be sure, with 100% certainty, that the work to get what you want will be hard. Or that it’ll take a tonne of effort, or that it’ll take years. However, your mind is programmed to think it will. Because your primitive mind is programmed for struggle. Your mind has the default belief that doing something new will take everything you’ve got. It will take all your time, energy, will power, resources… And that’s how it keeps you stuck – not safe – in a comfortable place. It’s trying to protect you by resisting change. But it’s the best way to stay stuck and NOT change. What if you changed the thought? What if you had the thought, “I’ll have no problem getting there”? You’d probably think at first that you’re fooling yourself. You might believe that thinking this, would set you up for failure. That somehow believing it’ll be hard is REALISTIC, and it’ll prepare you for the work involved. But that’s not true. The truth is that believing it’s hard is much more likely to hold you back than push you forward. Whereas simple thoughts, like “I can figure this out,” or “This is easy for me,” or “This is already done,” are much more likely to help you. Imagine that just by just changing the words in your mind, you could do the amazing things you want to do. You can. You will. You have. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Is there a thought that’s keeping you stuck in place? What’s a new thought, that you can believe, that you could replace it with? This could be fun exercise. Just do a brain dump for 5 minutes in a journal. Wrtie down whatever comes into your head, unedited. And then look at it. Are there any thoughts in that mess of words that are holding you back? Are they fact or fiction? Chances are they’re fiction. And you can write a new story. Because it’s your story, after all.

LOOKING FOR A PROFESSIONAL COACH?

Browse thousands of life coaches and business coaches in
hundreds of cities