Permission to Heal

Permission to Heal Episode #21 - A Conversation with Georgia Woodbine about Changing your Life a little at a Time

April 07, 2021 Marci Brockmann Season 1 Episode 21
Permission to Heal
Permission to Heal Episode #21 - A Conversation with Georgia Woodbine about Changing your Life a little at a Time
Show Notes Transcript

Georgia Woodbine's mission and passion in life is to share the tools she has implemented to “Create the Life I Love” so you too can “Create the Life You Love”. 

She is a CHANGE AGENT, LIFESTYLE TRANSFORMATION COACH, AUTHOR, AND SPEAKER and is one of the world’s top female speakers and expert personal and professional development and has helped to motivate and inspire an entire generation. She is widely known as a change agent, author, lifestyle transformation coach, and dynamic and entertaining speaker. She has also been a guest speaker at Time Warner Cable, Columbia University, Stony Brook University, Rutgers University, Howard University, Medgar Evers College, as well as a long list of other network organizations.

She has authored several books and has over fifteen years of entrepreneurial business success as well as an extensive marketing background working in the entertainment industry. She created and developed a curriculum based on her book How to Choose Your Career Path: Charting Your Success and lectured at numerous school districts and colleges to help prepare students with employment tools and life skills.  She captures her audiences with her message of hope, inspiration, and the power of intention. Her passion continues to touch countless souls in their pursuit of happiness.

Once you start using the Create the Life You Love Vision Planner Journal you will understand the steps and process of how high achievers accomplish success. This is a Vision Planner Journal with a calendar, tasks list, daily goals, to-do checklist, notes, habit tracker, and affirmations. 

It’s ideal for both women and men, perfect for entrepreneurs, professionals, college students, and anyone who has a burning desire to turn their dreams into reality!

Everything Georgia can be found at her website - www.georgiawoodbine.com.
All her books, courses, videos, COACHING, etc... at
www.georgiawoodbine.com.
Subscribe to her website and receive
FREE 5 Secrets To Turn Your Passion Into Profits


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Welcome to permission to heal. I am Marci Brockman. I am so thrilled that you're here today. I have Georgia Woodbine with us. She is a change agent, a lifestyle transformation coach, an author, and a speaker. Georgia is one of the world's top female speakers and an expert on personal and professional development and has helped to motivate and inspire an entire generation.

She has been featured in media outlets, such as the daily news Huffington post rollout magazine, Sirius radio XM has she has created curriculum and lectured at the learning annex and one of the premier producers of seminars, lectures, classes, and workshops throughout North America.

Wow. She has been a guest speaker at time Warner cable, Columbia university, Stony Brook university, Rutgers Howard university, Medgar Evers college Monroe college Georgian court university, as well as a long list of other network organizations. She's authored. Several books has over 15 years of entrepreneurial business success as well as an extensive marketing background, working in the entertainment industry with Def jam Polygram, w N Y U radio w Q H T hot 97 black enterprise magazine and the Apollo theater where she honed her management promotion and marketing skills.

I have chills Georgia. Literally chills. She created and developed curriculum based on her book, how to choose your career path, charting your success and has lectured at numerous school districts and colleges to help prepare students with employment tools and life skills. She has been a life coach for over 13 years and has trained and coached thousands of people in love with life.

She enjoys being an empowerment advocate for others to find their true purpose. She captures her audiences with her message of hope inspiration and the power of intention.  Her passion continues to touch countless souls in their pursuit of happiness.

Wow. Wow.

You're one busy lady. Uh, you know, you know, time just goals. And I, like I said, when I hear people read my bio, it's like, Oh my gosh, when did I do all of that? But you know what? I feel truly, truly blessed that I'm able to share that with other people to help them find their purpose. And, and it all I would imagine happened rather organically, you know, one thing leads into another thing, leads into another thing and you meet someone else and they say, Oh, why don't you come here and do this? Absolutely. I think the most important question you ever ask yourself in life is why am I here? And I think for me, when I, you know, when I got into the music business, I had a passion to, I was very intrigued about entertainment. I wanted to do something that could allow me to be creative, but I think, yeah, Even though when I was younger, I didn't really know what it was, but I knew I had a passion.

And I think that, that, that's the thing that triggers you to really figure out what your gifts are, what your talents are, what your natural abilities are, what your skill sets are maybe through education or the work experience. And then you can learn how to really connect these dots to make it work for you, to create the life you love.

And, and you have to get really quiet with yourself in order to make that happen. Absolutely, absolutely. Silence in the mind. That's one of the things I always talk about, you know, they say the average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day. And of those thoughts, 95% are repetitive and 85% are negative.

So because we're creatures of habit, it's always easier to think negative than it is to think positive because statistics. Yes, exactly.  I mean, it's mind blowing. When you think about how your mind works, you know, and that's part of what I teach as a life coach. I always tell people when they say Georgia, who are you?

What do you do? And I just tell them my mission statement. My mission statement is I Georgia would, I'm here to inspire, motivate and empower 1 million plus people to transform their mindset, to change their lives because that's hugely powerful. You can't change what you don't confront, change involves confronting what it is.

You want to change intentionally examining to figure out what works and what doesn't and go for. What gives you joy and meaning? Absolutely. You know, when clients come to me as a life coach, I've been doing this for 13 years and when people come to me and they say, Georgia, You know what? I have a passion, but I'm not really sure what it is.

I always say, you know what, or I have a purpose that I don't really know what it is. I say, go back to your childhood, go back to something that brought you great joy that weren't you, happiness. That makes you feel good. Cause you're passionate in your purpose. It's always tied to those emotions, things that bring you joy and happiness, the statistic, again, it says 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts.

A day average person has between 12,000 and 60,000 thoughts a day. And of those thoughts, 95% are repetitive and 85% is negative. Huh? So we're repeating the negative thoughts as well. Absolutely. Wow. Now I'm like, my head is spinning because now I'm thinking about all the things that I think about and on  your right.

And a lot of them are like shoot from the hip emotional things. Very few of them are intellectual or cerebral things. They're all other stuff. I, I was listening to another podcast today at Bernay Brown was saying that we, we as humans tend to like to think of ourselves as intellectual beings that, that processed feelings or something like that.

But we're actually feeling human beings who occasionally have intellectual thoughts.  It's totally the other way around it is because why we are creatures of habit. How long does it take to form and habits? They say to form a habit, you have to do something 21 times. To make it a habit. That means if you do it 21 times, it's going to come naturally to you.

Just like, if you go somewhere 21 times, you're going to know exactly where you're going. So, because we're built that way,  it's so easy to, to continue to embrace the negative thoughts. And one of the things I teach too, is like, when people say, well, Georgia happened to change my life, how do I transform?

What do I do? I said, forget everything you was taught.

Let's start from square one, forget everything you ever did. Let's start all over again. because think about it even as a child, , we're always given labels,  your name, that's something that somebody gained to you, right? Your mom gave that to you. When you go to a job title, that's something that somebody gave to you. Society put labels on you as a human being. So we're constantly being labeled. So,  a lot of people in life, sometimes they never get to find out who his true self, I mean, who am I really beyond my main, beyond my title, beyond my job, beyond my family, beyond being a wife and a mother and a daughter and a sister and a friend, and a competent, who am I?

Who am I really, I had that moment after my divorce, the first weekend that my kids went to my axes for their shared custody time with him. And I sat in my new house and I was like, what the hell do I do now? Absolutely

you to self reflect. And I think as human beings, like even thinking about me, like my clarity began about 16 years ago,  I was single mom. I was in tons of debt. I lost my home. I lost my car. I was working in unfulfilling jobs that wasn't satisfying. My passion I was in failing relationships and serious extreme health issues.

And I think that in life, once you are what's, your back is up against the wall. Meaning like what's your force. We don't about this pandemic. Once you are forced to do something different, you have no other choice. You cannot run anymore. You cannot. put it onto the sheets and say, I can deal with that later.

No, because in your face you have to confront this. It's like right here. And this pandemic is a perfect example of forcing people to really think about what's important, how to prioritize your time. You know, what, what should I be doing with my time? I think, listen, I think there's going to be a lot of great stories out of the pandemic.

 A lot of people choose to look at it. I always say, you can choose to let this moment paralyzing you, or you could choose to make this moment and liberate you. You have a choice, it's your decision. And I always shoes, liberation, you know? And so it's really about how you look at things. There's a quote that I love.

It says. When you changed the way you look at things, the things you look at change. So it's always about perception. It's about what we are perceiving and how we're looking at it from the other side. And we have the free will, , the greatest gift that we have in life is what the gift of choice we have to give them choices.

It's always up to us. Very profound. Beautiful, beautiful. Okay. So let's start with the six quick questions and then we'll dive into all the juicy stuff about your books and all the many amazing things we have to chat about. So six quick questions.  What five words would you use to describe yourself?

Five words. Five words. Okay. So passionate is one.  Spiritual. That should be number one, spiritual. I'm a very spiritual person. I'm passionate. I am self-aware. I am very creative and I'm super focused adjectives. So that would describe me in a nutshell, I think. Excellent. What would be your favorite way to spend the day?

Oh my gosh. So many different things and a lot of these things as a life coach, I share with other people so that they can learn how to solve their problems. They say you become successful. When, when you learn to solve a problem for yourself and you share how you have solved that problem with others.

And for me, the favorite way to spend my day is one in prayer. And meditation, , exercising. Why? Because exercising the least certain endorphin, certain feel-good endorphins. , I love to drink a cup of decaf coffee, like simple things like that. That, that makes me feel good. That brings me joy, , inspiring others to live in their highest potential.

Like that is where I am in my zone. It makes me so happy and so excited when I am sharing the tools that I have implemented with other people. You know, a lot of people that saying, they say, Oh, knowledge is power. And what I say to people, or when I'm doing presentations in front of people, I say, no, Knowledge is not power.

And they may look at me like I have two heads and I said, knowledge is not power. It's the implementation of knowledge. That makes it powerful. Right? So it's always about implementation knowledge in private has no bearing no power at all. You have to share it with other people. There you go. And I would say peace and simplicity.

I like to have a peaceful,  like to keep it drama free. I like to keep it free from negative energy. And I, as an individual, you have to learn how to protect your well-being. People might think it's selfish, but it's not selfish because they've about how many times in life you have been a people pleaser.

And what does that create? It creates stress. It creates anxiety. It creates frustration. And it creates,  a health sentiment on happiness, those negative emotions. I spent 40 years of my life in that horrible, toxic little hamster wheel. Exactly. Toxic relationships, not being able to tell people no, I think so.

Listen, one of the, one of the ways you can learn to live with peaceful light is to learn, to tell people no meaning, learn how to prioritize your time based on things that's important to you and not letting people consume or monopolize your time. Absolutely. It's so important. It's a hard thing to learn how to do, but once you do and you see how it's liberating, liberating, and, and it's, it just, it eliminates all the drama, all the anxiety, all the tension that erupt around all of those things.

It just disappears. If you become free. Yeah. Free, , free from all of those entanglements that really close you hostage in your life. And then you can't get the clarity that need to move forward because you're joining tangled with being a people, pleaser or worrying about what this person feels or what this person's going to think, or comparing yourself to this person that you're not good enough, or you need to live here or you need to drive this, or you need to work there.

You need to have this vital. And all these things is just becomes this big old ball of negative energy. Yeah. For, for too long in my life, I felt that somehow it was my job to help people fix their lives or to fix their lives for them. Or to solve problems for them. Like if it was something that I knew how to do, that was in my wheelhouse and somebody came to me and said, you know, I need you to rewrite my resume, or I need you to help me figure out how to pay this bill, because I don't know who to contact or instead of saying no, or instead of helping them do it, I would drop all my own stuff, add it onto my plate.

And I would do it for them because I felt like I had to be the rescuer. And it wasn't until a lot of therapy. When my therapist finally got through my thick head, that it is not my job. And the only reason I kept failing at it over and over and over again is because you ultimately can't fix anybody.

Else's stuff. You can only fix it. And so on you. And then it becomes like this thing where it's like, Oh my God, he's got another kid. Yeah, yeah.  It takes time too. Like I said, part of what I teach is it like to get everything that you've been taught and retrain your thoughts, retrain your thoughts, because it's really about retraining the way you think it's so important mindset is so important.

Why? Because my set  basically controls the decisions that we make. And if you don't know kind of mindset that you have, and don't really understand why you keep making the same decisions that you're making, right? So you have either a fixed mindset or growth mindset that really determines everything.

Exactly. And so if you don't know that you have a fixed mindset or growth mindset, then you're going to keep making the same choices, the same decisions, and then your life is going to be like, It's going to be going like this in a circle. , it's like you to start here, you're going to keep going around for another five years, another 10 years, another 15 years.

And you'd be like, why am I still in the same spot? Because you cannot change what you do not confront. You have to figure out what is it in my life that I need to change in. How can I start to make that change? Because your mindset is the biggest barrier between you and what you want out of life.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Question number three. What is your favorite childhood memory? Wow. Wow. Oh my gosh. I have so many, but I can think of one that was very meaningful and I think it was when I was a teenager and I remember I loved love and still love Diane Ross. And I w I would look at her and see her performance.

She's so elegant. She's so fast. And she's so confident. She's so talented. She's so comfortable in her own skin. And I really admired that, that inspired me. And I always dreamed of going to see her on stage, and I actually visualize it. But at that time I was a teenager. I didn't know what visualization was.

I was actually naturally doing it and didn't realize it, but I would just visualize seeing her on stage. And then I remember my parents got a ticket to see her , at, central park. Wow. I just remember I just in my heart and my mind and my soul, I want to see her. I want to see her. I want to see her.

Yes. I remember that's the fear. I remember going with such a part, it feeling so exciting because I remember her performing and I remember at some point it started to rain in her performance at central park. And I didn't even think about the rain. It was just, I was just so happy and so much great joy because I didn't realize at that point I was joyful because I had manifested what I was thinking about, but I didn't know anything about manifestation, visualization about putting emotions and feelings and thoughts into things and how you can create them.

So I would say that's actually my first probably, experience of visualization. That's awesome. That's awesome. What is your favorite meal? I love Italian food. My husband's Italian and he loves to cook and I love Italian food and I love it.  yeah,

that's so good. So good. I'm hungry right now. So  that's really good. What one piece of advice would you like to give your younger self? Oh my gosh. , so funny, you asked me that because I remember I posted it on social media the other day, and I said, what would you tell your younger self?

Same question. You have the power to change anything. Absolutely. Anything in your life. That's not allowing self-worth. There is so much more to . Then what you see on the surface and that you can discover your best self. Once you let go of fare of how other people see you, once you let go of fear of failing.

Once you let go of fear of feeling pain, fear of change, and fear of the unknown. So that's what I would tell my younger self. Brilliant. Yeah, I think we could, our youngers, all of our younger selves could use to hear that advice. Absolutely. Absolutely. And some of it I'd like to think that you get with age and experience, but I think it's still dependent on your ability to look inward and be quiet with yourself and.

To really confront the things that the demons or the, you know, the dragons you have in your closet, or, you know, it's an individual self journey because look at how many people that are still stuck in the same mindset that are still doing things the same way. They're still treating people the same way.

They still blame others for where they are in life. And you still look at everything the same way. And so it's not really necessarily an age thing. You would hope that as you get older, you would get wiser, but it's really about,  a self-awareness state. It's more of you taking that time. Like you said, to silence your mind and to really start to dig deeper, to find out well, who is true self, not the person that everybody told me, this is who I am, but who am I really underneath all this stuff and how to really take that time to.

To find out who you are. Really. Absolutely. Yeah. You have to, you have to, and you and I have both been doing that with journaling and meditation and visualization for, for decades to try to come to terms with this ourselves. That's a very important thing. Last question. What is one thing you would most like to change about the world?

I think I had mentioned that earlier. It's basically, it's all tied to my mission. My mission statement. One of the things I tell people is that they should create a mission statement when it aligns. So people say that when they hear me say that they're like, no, mission statements are for companies, therefore organizations they're for nonprofits.

No, you shouldn't have a mission statement for your life. Why? Because a mission statement helps you to stay focused and helps to give you clarity. And as a change agent, as an author, as a speaker, as a lifestyle transformation coach, I'm here to empower, to inspire, to motivate people, to transform their mindset, to change their lives.

So,  for me, the key to changing anything is to confront it. And I think it's hard for people when it's hard, when you're not changing the way that you see things, because it's really holding you hostage. And all you see is all the bad. Like I've been dealt a bad hand. Why did this happen to me? Why am I feeling this pain?

And why did this person leave me? And why did this person hurt me and why? And it's always external and it's never as, okay, I'm going to be accountable for my decisions. What do I need to start to change right. In my own personal life. And so. For me,  changing the world is all about sharing my story.

It's all about being authentic. It's all about sharing my failures as well as my successes. Yeah. And what's interesting. And what makes you, you, and then the story about how you recognized the things that needed to be changed and then figured out how to and implement the changes is infinitely interesting and very relatable.

And I think that's what creates the connection in our humanity and opens up the paths to empathy for us, that we begin to see what, okay, Georgia had this sort of situation. And although I didn't have that situation, I did have the same feelings from my thing, and this is how she handled it. And if she can do it, so can I exactly.

If I can, you know what I mean? Like really being so open with people that they can. Connect to that. Like you said, that feeling of yes. I experienced that. You got through it. That means that I can get through it too. Yeah. People, they need to hear the truth, not the, the, you know, the beautiful things on top of this shouldn't voting.

No, they need to know like, wow. Yeah, you lost your, lost your home. You lost your car. You know, people are going through that right now. Who depend on it? You know what I'm saying? So it's really about letting people know that, you know what? Yes.  The only thing that will remain constant is what  change.

Change is always going to come in your life no matter what, why? Because you're always going to change a job. You always going to change your relationship. You're going to change where you live. You're going to change. There's always going to be change.  Yeah, you have to so that you can learn how to be flexible and not break to be so inflexible that you snap.

 Absolutely. Absolutely. So you are quite a prolific author. I was looking at your website. You have total BS, body and soul. How to attract the right man into your life. No more settling. I think I could have added a chapter to that.  Juul is of inspiration and reflection, the journey, how to make big bucks without selling your soul, the do's and don'ts to living a successful life.

How to choose your career path, charting your success. Minute of motivation, just when you need it, make it happen. The secrets to manifesting your dream. And now you have the create. Create the life you love vision planner journal. You want to tell us about that? It's such a beautiful cover. Oh, thank you so much.

 I would just like to say that the common thread through all of my books,  whether it's talking about total BS, body and soul, you know how to become a healthier you or how to attract the right man, you know how to attract the right relationship or you know how to choose your career path. If the common thread is really about how to become a better you and how to really live in your highest potential.

And so this create the life you love journal vision planner journal is, is actually the latest product that I released, this year. And the funny thing, cause I know we were talking about that , this changed my life. Okay, let me just first start off saying that this journal changed my life, not this particular journal, but actually writing in a journal and writing things down.

And I can remember back in 2005, that's when I wrote my first book, I had a major flood in my home. I've lost  everything, all my furniture, all my clothes, everything was my own. It was like a fire damage. I don't know if you haven't seen a flood damage, but it's like you had a fire and I lost everything.

And I remember the only thing that survived in that flood was my germ. I had that I would keep it in the bottom of my closet and it was papers for 10 years. And,  journaling for me was just therapeutic.  It was like helping me to get through the things I was getting through in life. Some of them were letters to God.

Some of them was just writing out how I was feeling at the moment,  just really expressing myself. And that journal became my first book. And so,  writing things down is so important as far as when you're trying to change your mind. Why? Because out of sight, out of mind, I started writing in a journal 16 years ago.

And so something inspired me this year to, to write this,  create the life, love, vision planner, journal, you know, a lot of people, I don't know, they do know about vision boards, how many people actually lose vision boards? I don't know, but vision boards and writing things down and setting goals.

It changed my life. It transformed my life. What do I mean? I mean, it transformed my life. I went from feeling like my world was over to. Creating the life that I love, meaning doing the things that I love and getting paid for it. And, , I remember when I was on this job that I really, really didn't like it.

I'm going to bathroom and I'd be crying my eyes out St. Paul.

And I remember just feeling like I didn't know what to do when I didn't know where to go and I didn't know where to start and how was I going to change my life and how was I going to get out of the situation and how was I going to leave my job? And I wasn't going to pay my bills and, you know, just not knowing.

Absolutely. And I remember just sitting in my bathroom, just sitting on my bathroom floor and I remember just praying, like, please sign these immune sign. Please show me something. I need a sign of need to know what my next step is. I need to know where to go. I need to know what to do. And, and that was the vision that God gave me through my book, which I didn't know, you know, but I didn't know.

I had the ability to write a book. I had writing skills that that's something that I knew that I had, but I didn't know how to put it in a book form. It's a monumental task writing. Well, once I surrendered, it's really about writing goals about surrendering, your thoughts and, and allowing yourself to do something different that you've never done, which can be a great task.

If you've never done anything that is new, it seems hard because you're like, I don't know how to do this. Like, think about right now with technology and, and everybody having to use zoom and people having to figure things out. And yeah, it's a challenge at first, but you know what, once you learn. You, you learn it, you get used to it and it becomes easier to figure it out.

You figure it out. And so yeah, you have to stop judging yourself,  like holding yourself up to this ridiculous notion of perfection. Like, I can't make a mistake. I can't let somebody see that. I don't know what I'm doing. I can't let them see behind the curtain. , they were all just fumbling through life and making mistakes along the way and screwing up.

And if you just have to laugh at it and just put your shoes back on and try it again, you know? Absolutely. And so when I came up with this, and I said, I wanted something, that's like a vision plan. Like a vision board, but something that's on the go meaning you can take it with you. You can put it in your pocket.

You can put it in your briefcase, put it in your book, bag and tabs for every month. Yes. There's tasks from January through December. And then when you open it up, you have your affirmation cursors. So there are about 50 plus stickers in there that you could stick up for each day.  Do what you love.

Smile. To live, live in the moment, believe in yourself, all of these affirmations that we need. Why? Because once you have positive affirmation, it reinforces that. So sounds like a simple, silly thing to do, but it works. It works, absolutely works. I give myself pep talks with affirmations all the time.

Invisible high-fives

you got it. You can do that. You know, we meet that and then you have a monthly calendar where you can put all your appointments in there. You have your, what I love, love, love about it is that it has a section where you can write down your goals. So if you have daily things that you can write down, so let me go back to the beginning of month.

So you have your goals. So you put the date, you put your tasks down that you need to put your affirmations. So you actually could write out affirmations, you can write down your goals and then you have a weekly reflection, which I love because , it's your wiggly reflection on what do I want? And by when, what am I grateful for?

How many times did we actually write down what we're grateful for? We don't even think about things that we're grateful for, but what this does is it keeps it right in front of your face. And what are your rewards for achieving your goals? So  it's really like a vision board, but it's a life plan.

And a lot of with you as you go, it's not just a static thing. You've created this vision board, you hang it up. And that's the end of that when we look back at every month and then we will look back next year, you're like, Oh my gosh, look at what I accomplished. Yeah. Look at what I,   soap reflection, because like I said, out of sight, out of mind,  a lot of times people take it simple and say, , what a vision per how's that going to help me change my mind.

But I gambit my promise to anybody. That's committed to get it, this journal and actually implementing what I tell you how to do things, how to write it down, how to really, because. It changed my life and that's why I don't work. That's amazing. Yeah. My, four years ago, my husband and I decided that we were going to try to bring a little more gratitude into our lives.

And I went and I bought a very large Mason jar and,  a couple of little pads of paper and we have them sitting on a dresser in our bedroom. So it's right there. And there's a pen in the jar and we, every time something good happens, we hear from one of the kids, , we have a nice day. Someone says something nice.

, we feel particularly good,  whatever it is we went out to eat. Not that we do that anymore in the pandemic, but , anytime we have a good thought or where something wonderful happens, we write it on the little piece of paper, put the date on it and stick it in the jar. And then throughout the year, You can see the jar filling up incrementally all the way.

And then it's our ritual that on new year's Eve, we dump them all out on our bed and we closed the door and we read them all to each other. That's so awesome to like relive all the things that we experienced throughout the year. And, just like you said, out of sight, out of mind,  like you think, Oh, this is so wonderful.

I'm going to remember this always. And then it's gone like a puff of smoke. You don't remember it. And so, as we were reading ours this year was like, Oh yeah. Cause you tend to think like you're in the middle of a pandemic. There's not that much to be grateful for. And yet we still wound up filling up our entire jar.

Yes. It just, yeah. Retrains, like you were saying about habit, it retrains your brain. So, you know, I might have 57, 50 or 70,000 thoughts in a day and maybe 85% of them are negative or were, but maybe I've knocked that down a few percentage points because now I'm looking for things to write, what am I grateful for?

And yeah, maybe I had a really shitty day, but I'm really grateful for being able to come home and have a hug from my husband and a cuddle from the cats. And I'm grateful for my warm couch or my hug from my daughter or, you know, those, those things are what really matter. Absolutely. So those are the things we write on the little pieces of paper.

Yes, absolutely. And it makes a different, like you said,  going back and looking at all of those things, what it does is it makes you become more self-aware right. When you are aware. You're able to let appreciate it, when you're aware of it. So , it's so it's so true. It's so it's awesome that you guys do that.

And  I think more people need to do something like that to help, help them really start really easy. It's the little piece of paper, the little pad is there. The pen is in the jar. There's no, excuse it takes 30 seconds, , stick it in the jar and just leave it there. It's exactly, exactly.  It's so important, like you were saying about writing things down because there was a study that was, conducted by,  a psychology and some professor at, , a university in California.

And I think her name was Dr. Gail Matthews and she confirmed the importance of writing goals down and how it really makes a difference. And she would prove it about maybe 267 people from various backgrounds to participate in this study. On how you know, goal achievement is influenced by these key actions, one writing down your goals to committing, to goal oriented actions and three creating accountability for those actions.

And the study showed that 76% of the participants who wrote down their goals and took action and maintain weekly progress. They actually successfully achieved their goals. Yeah, yeah. Really works. It absolutely works. And, and having people who. Your at least sharing your progress with, and you've shared your goals with, to help keep you accountable is, is helpful.

I mean, I could be accountable to myself and I often am, but when I wanted to start writing my book, I joined a writing club, a writing group, and they kind of were really and helpful and a little cheering section that I could count on to get me through the roadblocks. If I were to find any or stumbling blocks or moments of hesitation or,  am I good enough to write this?

Is anyone going to care?  There are so many other stories out there, all the things that we say to ourselves, and it really helped keep me accountable because I wanted to have. Something to share with them. Every time we met online,  it was all a, an online thing and, it was infinitely, infinitely helpful.

And I made new friends. Yes, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It makes a big difference. Huge difference. So, so what do you say to somebody who wants to change things, but has trouble sticking through new things? Longterm,  like I'm really gung ho about X, Y, and Z, but after a little while I Peter out and I lose steam and then I go back to my old ways.

What do you, how do you help them through that? , I recommend start out setting, setting like short-term goals. So let's say for instance, for the first month you said three things that you want to accomplish for the month. So really it's really that one big thing that you're trying to accomplish, but you want to segment your goals.

You know,  health wise, what are you trying to accomplish financially? What are you trying to accomplish, on your family? What are you trying to accomplish and look at all these different pieces of your life and think about what are three to five things I want to do this month to work on this goal.

So segment your goals and have short-term goals, because what happens is you're working your way backwards, everything that you do daily, that you do weekly, that you luckily is contributing to that yearly goal. So just breaking them down and segmenting them. And even though. , you're setting deadlines to these goals.

Don't worry about that. If you don't need it on that date set a new date. It's okay.  I think sometimes people, when they say, Oh, yes, it goals and I don't need the state. They get so discouraged and so frustrated and so overwhelmed. It's okay if you don't need it at that particular time, but you have to have a plan.

It was say you fail to plan. You plan to fail after that some type of plan on how you're going to achieve your goals. You know? I want to share a quick story with you over the holidays. I'm a, grandma's over a lot of people can't believe that, but I am a grandmother. I have a grandson, my grandson is four years old.

And I remember over the holidays, he just turned four on February 15th. And I remember the holidays getting him some puzzles, and this is his first time actually getting puzzles and trying to figure out how the puzzles work. And there were like various puzzles with different animals and  each one of the puzzles, they weren't that many pieces of probably a little bit.

We need maybe 12 to 16 pieces in each puzzle. And so when I took the puzzle out, I don't all of the pieces on the table and I could see the look on his space after I dumped all the pieces on the table and for us to put the pieces back together. He had this look of confusion, frustration, what are you doing?

Do you mind, what am I supposed to do? You know? Cause he's looking at all these pieces, like what,  how do they fit? What am I going to do? What am I going to do with all these pieces?  , how do I pull all the pieces in the right spots? And so that made me think about nice. It made me think about life is a great big puzzle and you have all these pieces and you're trying to figure out what piece fits, where to complete this puzzle of your life.

And there's going to be times in your life where the puzzles don't fit, where you initially put them. And so it becomes more difficult to figure out. Where does this go? And you get to a point where you'll have to make a decision, whether you want to keep forcing the pieces that don't fit, where they don't belong or start over from scratch.

And even though it may be difficult to start over again, you have to experience to know which pieces that fit and don't fit this puzzle of your life. Absolutely. Right. Brilliant. That's the perfect metaphor. Exactly.    What was the look on his face when he saw you starting to put the puzzle pieces together and show him how to do she started to feel amazed that.

Wow. These pieces actually do fit. And just taking that time with him to really show him that they're going to work, they're going to fit, just be patient, be patient, take it one step at a time. Don't rush it. Don't force it. You know, don't abort the process. Just let it flow. Yeah, he was so amazed. Yeah. You have to sort of release your attachment to the process or to the goal.

Still keep it in mind. But somehow it's like a Buddhist thing. I haven't quite a hundred percent figured out yet, but releasing your attachment to it so that you can let it happen organically and let it take you where it's supposed to go. Absolutely. So that you're not. I guess so that you're not forcing it and butting your heads against it, and you're not, it increases the patients that you have and the calm that you have around the thing you're trying to, or the direction that you're trying to head in.

Absolutely, absolutely. So important. Yeah. I actually learned that lesson through painting really or not. I was always a very impatient person when I finally figured out what I wanted. I wanted to be able to do it immediate.

And I was patient with others, but not with myself. Right. That's always the case. That's always the case. And when I first started painting again, which was right after my mom died, I was actually writing a lot more and I had this need. I hadn't painted in like 15 years and I had this need. And so I, I just bought some stuff and started doing it.

And I was really being very, hyper-critical really harsh on myself. It's not coming out well, it's not good. You suck at this, you know, why are you doing it? And I, but I enjoyed the process, even though I was being mean to myself. And, and over time I realized that if I rushed layers of paint on top of paint, that wasn't dry, I got mud.

Right? All the colors got mushed. The shapes got mushed. It just, it didn't turn into anything. So I had to wait for the paint to dry before I worked on it some more. And that. And then if I didn't like the way it was coming out, rather than being harsh and , scraping my finger at myself, you suck at this, I could start over and either throw the canvas out or whitewash it and, or Blackwash it, or whatever, and start again.

And the earth didn't cave in and the roof didn't fall off the house and there wasn't a nurse quake. It was fine. And it was that process over many months that finally made me to calm the hell down, stop being so damn critical,

 And then I looked back at my journals that I wrote. During those period of time. , and now I look back, I mean, like you were saying about being able to look back at the end of the year in your journal, and I'm amazed at the progress. I'm amazed that where I thought I couldn't possibly figure the way out of this problem I did.

And it wasn't as torturous as I imagined it to be. And it didn't take as long, or maybe it took longer. It didn't really matter, but it, it wasn't. Okay. Right. It worked out, it worked out them, maybe not the way I thought it would, but it worked out just fine. It does. And you know, one of the things I always tell people, stop worrying, stop reading about your future and stop worrying about your paths because.

When you're worried about your past and spreading about your future. You're missing out on a moment right now, the present and the present moment is really all we have. It's the right now moment that we have to, to, to enjoy, to enjoy the things that make us feel good. That make us feel happy that , just, just brings us that great joy.

And once you get rid of the other two, you realize that, wow, it's not so bad. You know what I mean? When you think about when you get up in the morning, a lot of times you're so consumed by your phone or by this or that, or, and you'll take that moment to just really just clone yourself.

And one of the things I told them to do is , turn your phone off when you get up in the morning. Just stretch, get up and just stretch and just feel and race your day without feeling, the first thing you do is pick up your phone. That's how you starting your day off. That means you're ready.

Your mind is already racing ahead of that. It starts out the way you come out of bed. Right lately I've been trying to do five to 10 minutes of meditation before I even get out of bed. I shut the alarms off. I had to turn on another little timer on my phone just to make sure, cause I sleep till like the last possible second and have my morning routine, like scheduled to the minute, you know?

Cause I love my pillow and we have a lovely love affair going on. And so I sit in my bed and I sit comfortably and I'm all still nice and warm, but I sit up and I close my eyes and I focus on my breath and I try to clear my mind of everything and it really makes the beginning of my day, much more calm and intentional.

And I don't find that even if I'm rushing, I don't find myself as upset about it. Right. It just, just let it go. Let your tape flow, you know? It's amazing. The power of meditation. And I fought it for years. Oh my gosh. Fought it tooth and nail. But it changed my life. It changed my life.

Meditation changed my life and a lot of times people say, well, how do I do it? Is there a right or wrong way? ? No, just try it. Just like you said, for five minutes, early in the morning between six and nine or right before you go to bed. Why? Because at that point, your mind is able to flow more freely. It is very important when you meditate and just taking out that time and just try it, I never thought I would be able to meditate at first. Yeah. It was hard, but. I started to use AIDS, like maybe having some soundscapes and music or some jazz or classical or whatever you like or pitching yourself on a beach.

I mean, whatever it does, wherever guided meditation apps on your phone, it was one of those, right. Well, whatever you need to bring to that place of peace, but meditation will really help you with so many things. It gives you clarity. It gives you focus. It keeps you calm.  It helps you to manifest creativity.

I find, Oh my gosh, creativity. It does so many wonderful things. I mean, I don't know why a lot more people don't meditate, but the people that have tapped into it, it's making a huge change in their lives. A huge difference. And then people look at you say what's different about you. Doing something different almost every single time, which is almost every single day that I meditate.

I come out spontaneously with some creative solution to something that had been bothering me and that I wasn't actively thinking about. Cause I'm purposely trying to empty my mind. And I guess the solution was there all along, but like buried under all the minutia of the day and then just clearing all of that out, allows it to bubble up and it's , Oh yeah, this isn't that obvious.

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's so funny people ask me Georgia, do you think you've cracked the code for living a healthier and happier lifestyle? And I always say, you know what? I think you have, I've cracked the code and I'll tell you why. Because I don't think that there's anything missing.

I have come to the realization of true self, and I understand that life is a journey that you will always have access to things that you want. As long as you understand it has to do with your beliefs, your thoughts and your actions, you know? And when you take the time out, like you said, to declutter your mind, it allows you to tap into your gifts and your talents and your natural abilities and your skills.

And you understand that everything that I need to be happy, I have it. Right. It's all here. It's already here. Yeah, I think the pandemic one, that's one of the silver linings of the, of the pandemic, I think because we were all forced to pare down our lives and get rid of, or just stop doing things that may have overcrowded, our schedules and our brains, and locked inside our houses with our families.

You really come to realize that that's really, what's important, our health and our relationships and the love we share with other people. Yes, that's , it was a consciousness level shift. Absolutely. It's a huge shift then you're forced to, to think different because of how things are and you know, like you were saying, it's like when you, when you're living in a microwave society and you're used to the rat race and used to doing things a certain way and it's like, wait a minute, stop, stop what you're doing.

Everybody is on one way, when there is no person here or there doesn't matter what, how much money you have, it doesn't matter what race you are or what, you know, nothing, none of those things matter right now, why everybody's on the same playing field. They're all trying to figure out where do I go from here?

You know? And so it's definitely a conscious consciousness level shift where everybody is forced to, to embrace it. Absolutely, absolutely. Because there's nothing else to do. You can't fight it. This is just the new normal for now. This is where we are right now. And no amount of wishing or stamping your feet is going to change anything.

You have to bend and change. Let's sit down and relax, but you know what some people are saying, you know, some people are realizing that they didn't like the old normal. No, I mean, I liked going out to restaurants and I miss going to the movies. I can't say that there's much. And I liked teaching without masks and plastic shields between myself and my students, but, but otherwise I, I like spending this much time with my family.

I like having my husband and my daughter around more. And, I, I like the togetherness that we have grown and this little cocoon here, I think we're all a little bit more aware of the fragility of our lives, which isn't necessarily a bad thing because I think it, it allows us the room to prioritize,  we have our health and our love and our relationships and what brings us joy and meaning in our lives.

And. We have had a lot of time to think about those things. Absolutely. I totally agree with you on that. The amazing silver linings. Excellent. So Georgia, how do our listeners find your books? So they can go to my website, www Georgia woodbine.com. When they go to my website, they can. Put their email, their name in, I will be giving your audience free guy.

Wow. How to turn your passion into profits to create the life that you love. So they will get that free guide. Once they go to the website, Georgia woodbine.com, put your name, put your email, and I will get you that guide. Okay. Awesome. Thank you very much. So I am going to list your website and I'll list this free guide thing that they can get if they sign up and your socials, where people can find you to the show notes, on the podcast.

So if you're listening to this and you scroll whatever platform you're on, you scroll down to the bottom of the page. You can see all the shownotes there with all the active links and so on. We'll all be there. Awesome. This was really a great conversation. I'm jazzed.

We have this journal, I'm a journaling crazy person. Anyway. So to be able to have everything in one place, I've got a calendar over here for the podcast and all sorts of stuff all over the place. So, yeah. Yeah. I'll send you the link, email you the link and then, while I was on the website yesterday, exactly.

The website. Okay. I've been there already.

I like the way it's all laid out. It's very cool. This was a lovely conversation. Thank you so very much for being here. Thanks for having me. Thanks for having me. And I'm so excited about your new project with your new book. I'm so happy. I'm so glad you were able to do that. And I wish you much success with that so much.

I appreciate that. It's been a, an absolute cathartic labor of love for myself. You know, I, I had this very, I had this desire to write this book since my mother died seven years ago. And I just couldn't figure out exactly how, what to say or, you know, my kids were still too little and I didn't want to put things out there that could hurt them.

And I don't think I was settled enough to feel comfortable, but I found love again, and my kids are older and it just seemed like the right time. So I, it just, it just poured out of me last fall, 126,000 words in six weeks. Just, wow. Yeah, it was crazy. Anyway, that's a whole other story we could talk forever.

Thank you very much. This was so lovely. You thanks for having me. It was such a pleasure alrighty. You take care. You as well.