E7: Be The CEO Of Your Life And Business!

As a purpose driven entrepreneur on a mission to make an impact it can be really easy to get caught up in the cycle of seeking success while sacrificing your health and happiness.

So what's the key to shifting that? Recognize yourself as the boss of your own life and define success in your own terms!

It happens to most of us (myself included at some time or a lot of the time if we aren't careful!).

Which is exactly what we'll be exploring in this episode where I'm sharing about:

• A life changing exercise to guide you in your life and work that is simple yet super potent
• Tapping into the energy of creation and possibility through a potent tool available to you anytime, anywhere
• Moving beyond the frustrating push and pull of the mind so you can make it your most powerful tool
• How the quietest voice is actually the most important one to listen to

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 Gifts and Tools For You To Grab:

Register for the free ALIGN YOUR LAUNCH training session here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/a-to-a-3-secrets-ppp

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Want to learn more about Me (Megan Nolan) and what I'm up to? Check out my website here: https://www.megan-nolan.com

Please find the show notes below. Since it is a transcription there may be spelling errors and/or weird grammar. Ignore that and enjoy!

Would you consider yourself a CEO? Would you say that you are in charge of the health and the direction of at least your body, if not, maybe a business or a family or some other entity.
Because if you said yes, then my beautiful friend, you are CEO, whether you are the CEO of an amazing multinational multimillion dollar business, maybe that's what you're working towards.
Maybe not or maybe you're the CEO of a beautiful family or whenever it is, I'm willing to bet that there's something that you are in charge of, at least, at the very least that is you and your life and this beautiful gift that you've been given in the body that you have.
And so I was reluctant to call myself a CEO for a long time because I guess I really didn't understand it or maybe I didn't feel like I had quote unquote reached that level.
But here's the thing, the definition of a CEO is a visionary.
It is someone who's in charge of the life and the health and the direction of an entity.
And so in truth, we all are.
And so if you look at that definition.
There's something really important in there for us to begin to explore.
And that's the focus of our episode today is expanding the vision that you have for yourself, for your goals.
And I think this is something that we should do often, not just at the beginning of the year or the beginning of a quarter, but really having that intentional time to dream big because we are given this beautiful life and it's really up to us what we make of it and what we do with it.
Right? And, and for a long time, admittedly, I was kind of wandering about in circles and not really setting goals, not really sure how to do that, not sure if I should and really not tapped into the true intent and the potential impact for what I was doing because I felt really, you know, and it was self imposed, but I felt limited in what I was doing.
And I think that's partly because I hadn't gone into my deepest why.
And I hadn't gone from that deep place of heart connection and value to be able to expand the vision for what I saw, possible for myself and my business and the impact that I have in the work that I get to do.
And so I kind of was just wandering about and, you know, for a while I, we, I would look back at the years and I would have regrets about that.
But I've come to realize that it's, it's all part of the path, right? And of course, our mind wants to make it wrong when we haven't achieved our goals or done certain things or what have you.
And that's just the techniques of the mind and the techniques of the ego and the patterns of self sabotage.
But really when it comes down to it, it's so important for us to take moments to not only reflect and look at where we're going, but also look back and realize, you know, everything that we've been through has contributed to your growth and allowed you to be who and where you are today.
And so it's important to take a look back through those compassionate eyes.
And it's interesting when we look at people that are doing that over the scope of their whole life.
And there's incredible research studies that show us that tell us that people who sit with those who are near their end of days and they talk to them about their life and they talk to them about their lessons and they ask them what their regrets are.
And I think it's important for us to just think about this because it gives us a guidepost of what we can begin to do, how we can begin to live into our life now and create a bigger vision.
And so when the National Institute of Health and other people that were doing this research, they asked people.
The number one regret was I wish I had the courage to live a life.
True to myself, not the ones that other people expected of me.
And the second most regret was I wish I hadn't worked so hard.
So think about that for a second.
Are you living the life that you truly see for yourself, that you know, to be possible for yourself? Or do you feel like you're following in the footsteps or doing this because you're told to do it or are you taking that courageous action and creating a vision for yourself? Creating a business, creating a direction, whatever it is, maybe it's hobbies or pastimes or whatever it is that will allow you to fully and vibrantly experience life in a way that really honors you, that's so important to think about, right? And so, for example, my parents were both very highly educated and were academic professionals in that my mother was a cardiac nurse.
She was a doula, my father was a, an anesthesiologist who specialized in neurosurgery.
And so it was expected that I was going to go to university and I didn't really know if I wanted to or what I wanted to do.
And so I defaulted into gerontology, which is the study of aging because I was made to go to university.
I didn't really have the choice of like let's go off to Europe and backpack to many countries or what have you.
I didn't get to do that at that point in my life.
And I went off to university, I went as, but as far as I could go and stay fairly close to home.
So I'm from Ontario, Canada.
And so I went to University of Guelph and studied Gerontology.
And then, you know, interesting was that after I graduated, I thought I just can't do this.
I, I'm a really empathetic, sensitive person and this isn't my path.
And so one of the main courses that I really liked was occupational psychology.
And it was all about how we can enhance productivity and performance and workplace wellness and health and retention and all of that stuff.
And so for me, that was really quite interesting as well as I loved movement.
I love the study of the body.
I love the study of the mind.
And so, you know, although technically, I'm not in gerontology, I've taken a more preventative approach to aging.
This is how I pitched it to my parents when I told them I was moving to Hawaii to become a personal trainer.
It's preventative aging and it is right exercise is the fountain of youth.
And so, although, you know, I didn't follow that path directly initially in a roundabout sort of way, that's really what I'm doing is I'm helping people to thrive in the workplace.
I'm helping people to overcome anxiety so that you can achieve your goals without exhausting yourself.
I'm helping you to be, you know, holistically healthy and holistically successful because you're not just successful in your financial impact goals and your income goals, but you're happy and healthy and thriving.
And so it's been part of the path.
And so, you know, although initially I kind of wandered about a little bit, what I came to realize is that what I was doing actually really did serve my soul and an exercise that maybe you've done, you know, in your personal growth or your business development or understanding your aligned right? Client is people ask you about your why, you know, and this can be, this is true for anybody.
Why are you doing what you're doing? Why are you living the way that you're living? Right? It's important question.
But we often, when we first answer that question, it's, it's surface, you know, and this takes time because I've been doing personal training, yoga for 18 years.
But I didn't really get to the depth that I'm at now until within the last year.
And you know, before I would say, oh, I want, I wanna keep people healthy and happy and I love working with people and I love exercise and then I started to go deeper and deeper.
And so the exercise I would suggest that maybe you play with is you start with your initial y and then you say, why do I want that? And why do I want that? And so it's seven layers deep right, seven layers deep, not seven layer dip.
If you're hungry, don't think about snacks, delicious snacks.
Just kidding.
Going seven layers deep.
And so what it took me to was a realization that when I was a little girl, my, I'm the oldest child.
When I was a little girl.
I, you know, and I still am, although bless his heart and soul, he's off in another realm.
I was a daddy's girl and I loved when my dad would come home from work and I'd want to see him, but because of the intense effort and I'm sure the energy required and certainly the brain power required of what my father was doing, he would get home from work and he would be exhausted.
We'll combine that with the fact that he would leave really early in the morning.
He'd been be in the operating room for, you know, 1012 hours seeing patients, et cetera, but he also had bipolar and he also likely was on the autism spectrum.
We're not sure.
But, you know, based on how really, really intelligent he was.
Um and so he had his own internal challenges.
So I remember as a child, he would come home from work and he would just be so flat out exhausted, you know, admittedly as an adult, I understand why, you know, he had four Children.
He was doing a really intense job, you know, really, really high level knowledge required to, you know, keep someone alive while they're under anesthesia.
Like that's a lot.
And so he would come home from work and he'd be exhausted.
And I remember feeling so upset and sad and rejected and disappointed.
And as a child, what I made this story mean was you can't have both, you can't be happy and be successful in your job.
That's what I made it mean because he was very successful in, in his job, but he wasn't happy at home.
And so I realized when I was doing my seven layers deep exercise that I believe that in order to be truly successful, we do also get to be healthy and happy that we in theory can have it all.
And it's of course, you know, where you live in a society that relies on money.
Thank you, Siri.
I don't know what you want me to do.
You know, anyways, I have it on airplane mode for a reason.
But anyways, I don't know if you could hear that.
I somehow just activated Siri without even saying his name.
So what would happen is that I, I realized that because of my own mental health challenges, right? As, as you may or may not know, having high functioning anxiety, having seasons of sadness and you know, wanting to be in this state of, you know, really creating an impact and a ripple effect with the work that I'm doing through yoga and exercise and all of that stuff.
I would really push myself and I would try to be quote unquote successful.
And I had this story in my head, like you can't have both.
You can't be healthy and happy and thriving and be abundant and be successful and you know, living the good life quote unquote because that's the story I had a had created as a child based on that experience.
And so for me, my seven layers deep became being able to help you to thrive by having this foundation of lifelong vitality, eating while moving, while lowering your stress, sleeping better.
All of the things that make up the foundation for a vibrant, healthy, happy human.
Because when you are thriving, you're able to go into your business from that place of alignment and center and creativity and focus and happiness and energy and, and confidence and all of the things that come as a by-product of you being healthy.
So I believe that you are your number one asset.
Your health is your most valuable asset.
And that of course, will then have a a really beautiful ripple effect into your business and your profitability and your impact and your patience with your clients and your team members and all the things, right? And so that's my deepest.
Why is that I want to help people to truly be sustainably and holistically successful in that you are thriving in all areas of your life.
And so for me that deeper, why then led to the creation of a vision of having this vision of being able to live this life that I feel and see in my heart now and that I understand and be able to live into it.
And I didn't really understand that because what I did understand was that I was seeing until I started to really do this work and learn to, you know, truly think on purpose and use my mind like a powerful tool and use the tools of mental fitness and identity evolution.
And all of the things that we're talking about today.
And really, you know, breaking the habit of being negative, being critical of being hyper achiever pushing myself too hard, being kind of nitpicky for details.
I really would just see myself and feel myself creating the same patterns over and over.
And that was frustrating.
And what I have learned is that we either get pushed forward by the pain of the past and we recreate the same cycles because we've wired them into our nervous system.
And that's what we perceive as safe or we begin to stretch ourselves, we begin to expand from a place of safety, right? And, and that change happens at it only at the speed of safety.
So we must continue to recalibrate your nervous system to a place of that connected awareness to that place of resiliency and centered and grounded so that we can rise to the challenge, right? We can do the up, up up, but we can also ground back down without kind of dropping into the sink.
So it's interesting that sort of dance between the, you know, getting into that wound up energy that can so easily happen with anxiety or getting pulled into the spirals of sadness and doubt and confusion that can happen with depression or other challenges, right? And so see how this is kind of playing out, is that what I saw in my life? And what became my deeper purpose? I want you to look at where that is for you, you know, and challenges that you have been through that really have led to where you are because you know, as, as you've likely heard your, your mess is your message.
And so what you've been through has allowed you to grow and learn and become the version of you that you are now.
But that means that you can take a look back and help people that are on that same path to be able to move forward towards their vision.
And so that's, you know, really what we want to sit into as, as a CEO is creating that vision for yourself and what that means from these different facets of you, right? And this is a really an important 5% activity is, is really asking yourself what you really want and going a little deeper, right? Because oh, I wanna be happy, I wanna be healthy.
I wanna be financially free.
Well, why, why is that? Right? And so what we want to do is begin to dream, bigger, expand the vision so that you can become a steward for the vision that you are living into.
And we want to begin to get so familiar with that vision and what you see for yourself.
And this can be done on a scale of, you know, maybe it's 510, maybe that feels too long for you.
Maybe it's this year, maybe it's three months, maybe it's this week, whatever it is, right? Whatever scale feels comfortable to you, but then stretch it just a little bit, right? Because if we go too big, too fast, then we have that internal reaction and we go, we retract into fear because, you know, we're stretching herself and it's un it's unfamiliar to the brain, therefore, it's unsafe.
And so that's when we'll get tripped up and we kind of get in our own way and all of that stuff.
And so what happens is that when we're so in the go go, go of running a business, a family, whatever it is, we, we get into that, that pattern of just doing the things we have to do, right.
And we kind of treat ourselves and we behave as though we are an employee or we turn that into, oh, this is what have to do.
This is, you know, so many things to do and that cycle of just the the go, go, go till you can go no more of the what I would call the worn out entrepreneur and not having a vision that we're living to and from and within as, as the purposeful powerhouse CEO does.
And so this is where we can really just take a step back and, and look at when you look at what you would like your life to be like, what your vision is for how many people you would love to serve and support how big you grow the movement of people, right? You probably have heard me in the intro talking about leading a movement.
Well, because of the deeper why I am so passionate about leading a movement of people who care so much about how they feel.
And I wanna grow that movement.
I wanna grow that movement to hundreds thousands of people because this is so vital and you know, I'm passionate about entrepreneurs because I am one but I believe we're change makers.
And so I wanna grow the community, the power pause movement.
I wanna grow that to 500 people start there.
I know it's bigger, but that feels safe.
Ish to me say fish, right? We're always stretching ourselves yoga, we get the the opportunity to stretch ourselves.
But from that place of connection and then we expand from there, right? So that's where the the applicability of the yoga practice comes in is because we're always creating safety and expansion, we create safety and expansion with the breath with the poses.
So we're literally doing that on a very micro level on the mat so that we can do that on a macro level in our lives and our business.
And so how many people do you want to support? What does that mean for them? What does that mean for you? What does your life look like? Right.
These are probably questions that you've explored before.
But what I want you to do is when you drop into that energy of your vision, I want you to feel into the emotions of it.
Because what we want to do is memorize these emotions as our emotional signature because otherwise we tend to by default, by way of the way that we're wired and what our nervous system has deemed to be safe, we recreate the same patterns because we are used to them, right? And we're creatures of habit.
So when you sit into the energy of your vision and you feel into what it feels like, what are those emotions? Because I call those emotions, your North Star emotions because like the travelers, the celestial navigators, like the beautiful people here of Polynesia that managed to travel all the way from Tahiti to Hawaii and on the boat and like in the canoes and be able to do it at night, like mind blown, but they use the stars.
And so the North Star is that guiding point that guiding light.
And so having that North Star of how you wanna feel, because for the most part, we want things because we believe it's going to make us feel a certain way and we can begin to expedite the process and enjoy the moment that we're in even more right and live into that moment and not push ourselves to live somebody else's life because you're creating a new life for yourself based on how you want to feel.
You can begin to feel into that.
Now that North Star emotion collection, what is that for you? For me, it's playfulness, gratefulness, and joyfulness.
And I believe that those are really important because those are aligned with my values of appreciation and connection and community and growth and impact and joy.
I believe that it's so important for us to tap into that playfulness, that light hearted jovial energy because hell otherwise it's gonna be hard and heavy and that's certainly not my North Star Motion collection.
So sit into that for a moment and see what that is, right? And so I know there's a little bit of dispute around who actually said this.
I mean, it may have been Einstein, it may have been his wife because I read an article recently because of the times that they were in and the culture that they were in.
She actually gave him a lot of ideas and inspiration, but he took credit because he said that no one's going to allow this to be received the way it should be because it's so important if it was said by a woman.
And so that was like, whoa, wow.
Ok.
So I know he's super smart guy.
He's an Einstein after all, but she maybe contributed to this.
It might have been somebody else, you know, and so there's a bit of dispute around it but either way it's still power powerful, he or someone else said everything is energy and that's all there is to it, match the frequency of the reality that you desire and it cannot help but be yours.
This is not philosophy, this is physics, this is because everything has a vibrational frequency to it and we can get into that vibrational frequency by thought alone.
And when we wait, like I did for a long time and maybe you for the things to help us feel the way, then we're gonna be waiting a long time because we're focusing on where we are not.
And we're in that gap.
And when we can begin to at least glimpse at those North Star emotions and spend some time, maybe it's during your meaningful morning routine, maybe it's somewhere throughout the day.
Maybe you take a power pause and you get into the vision and the energy of it, which we do in power pauses, but really allowing yourself to feel into that because you are an emotional creature, right? You, you have a frequency to you.
So how can you get into that energy, right, or the alignment with it, right.
As many people like to say, and this truly is so that you are feeling that way so that you are vibrating at that frequency because that's where everything has that vibration, that the law of vibration and then, and then from that vibration, there's an attraction point, right? So it's like magnets or certain things that are drawn to each other.
So how can we begin to spend some time in that? Because you get to choose where your focus is, you get to choose your thoughts which then impact how you feel and we can choose uh the station that we turn, tune ourselves to, right? We can choose what we're focusing on because that way we can really impact our innerstate.
And so that's one tool that I would love for you to play with a little bit.
What are your North Star emotions? And I'd love, I'd love to know.
So take a screenshot and tag me and share away or just send me ad m if you'd rather be more uh private, I would love that too.
And so when you know the vision, when you know the version of yourself in the vision that knows the deeper why that is impactful and living into your mission is creating a movement, leading a movement, writing a book, I don't know whatever, whatever your beautiful heart desires what are some power statements that you can really use as anchors creating that belief? Right? Again, because this is where we want to start to use your mind like a tool, stating these statements to yourself from that place of that elevated emotional state.
So you have the clear intention of the way that you wanna feel, the thoughts that you wanna think the signature that you're memorizing so that you can tune your station.
If you will, if you are a radio or Wi Fi, you can tune yourself to that so that you show up from that place.
And let's be real.
This is something that is an ongoing practice that we keep to get coming back to.
Right? It's not, you know, one and done.
You're locked in on that station for the rest of your life because things are gonna happen and we're gonna get tripped up and we're gonna get upset.
But it's a matter of learning to witness ourselves in that state of contraction and shut down or overreaction or whatever it is and just pausing and recognizing if we are living from the vision or are we getting pushed forward by that forceful energy by that energy of I'll be happy when you gotta do more.
It's never enough.
You're not, you know, all of that stuff that our brain is very happy to sing a tired old song.
But the song of the heart, the song of the deeper y the song of the North Star emotions.
That's a quieter song.
And this is something that we also know as a CEO is that in order to really get into that aligned place, to really create the vision, to really have those inspired moments.
It's not in your head, it's in your heart.
And that's why it's important to have this dedicated time where you give yourself time to learn.
Maybe it's listening to a podcast to move your body, to breathe, to do your yoga, to do your meditations, your prayer, whatever it is because it quiets the noisy chatter of the mind so that you can listen to the quiet wisdom within that voice is soft.
That voice is loving.
That voice is kind, that voice is encouraging and supportive.
It's gentle, the voice of the mind, I equate it to a squawky hungry seagull.
If you don't know what seagulls sound like, they are just like squawky.
That's what mine sounds like.
And mine is a jerk.
I'm not gonna lie to you.
I probably probably got that already, but it's all about and that was actually kind of judgy.
So, you know, loving myself for having the thoughts.
I'm going to say that I'm working on it and it's a work in progress as it is for all of us.
So that's what I wanted to share with you today.
I wanted to hopefully inspire you to go a little deeper into your why.
So that you can expand the vision that you have for yourself so that you can truly sit into that energy of knowing that you are in charge.
You get to create your own life.
You get to really prioritize how you feel by living into the North Star emotions.
You get to be intentional with your time so that you are not getting to end of days and saying things like I wish I had lived my own life.
I wish I had the courage to create my own life.
I wish I hadn't worked so much, you know, being really intentional with this beautiful gift that we have in this day, right? The now the present.
And so that's what I wanted to share with you today.
I would love to hear your seven layers deep y or anything that you wanted to share.
So feel free to reach out to me.
And I will let you know if you are wanting to really streamline your processes so that you can stay in that place of connected to your North Star emotions so that you can overcome anxiety, whether that's in, you know, a regular business situation or life situation or in a higher stress situation like a launch so that you can achieve your goals, your sales goals, your impact goals without exhausting yourself.
Because you're doing it from a place of alignment and connection, then come and join us for align and achieve it is a live training that is happening on February 22nd and it's totally free so you can join as my guest.
So the link to grab your spot is in the show notes and we would absolutely love to have you there.
You're gonna learn three secrets to be able to really align your sales and your self-care strategies so that they are seamless so that you are overcoming anxiety and making your mind a powerful tool in just 15 minutes a day.
Yes.
Yes.
It's possible based on incredible neuroscience, behavioral science, positive psychology, performance, psychology, understanding of the way you work and I love you.
And yes, you are unicorn, but we're all wired the same in when it comes to the brain and these different patterns.
So you can learn how to do it in a way that really supports your business.
Growth supports your vision in just 15 minutes a day.
And let me tell you it's a game changer.
So the link to grab your free spot is in the show notes or in the comments nearby, come and join us.
And until next time, thank you for taking the time to learn how to think on purpose and use your mind like a powerful tool to move your body on purpose, to keep it strong and aligned so that you can show up on purpose as the purposeful powerhouse CEO that you truly are sending you lots of love and Aloha.
And until next time, take good care