Welcome to Visionary Pursuit, a podcast where we explore what it takes to turn your big, bold ideas into reality. I'm Carolina Zuleta. I'm a life and business coach and your host for this podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here.
Hello, hello, and welcome to episode two of the Visionary Pursuit podcast.
Today, I want us to talk about our thoughts. Those little sentences that our brain presents to us that affect so much. They affect how we feel, what we do, and ultimately affect the results we have in our life. Let me share a little bit about this research. In 2005, the National Science Foundation published an article summarizing research on human thoughts per day.
It was found that the average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day. Of those thousands of thoughts, 80 percent were negative and 90 percent were exactly the same repetitive thoughts as a day before. So imagine that. Basically, we're spending our days repeating negative thoughts over and over and over.
Thoughts that make us feel bad, that makes us lose our confidence, that makes us live with anger, and that hold us back from achieving our goals. How awful. Our brain likes to think negative thoughts because that's the way we survived. Here's the story. Imagine a cavewoman who was gathering berries for all of her family.
Everyone was fine eating berries every day. Everyone was happy. But one day she picks the wrong kind of berries and everyone gets sick. She must remember the bad berries. She needs to know how they look, how they smell, where does she find them. She has to think about them over and over and over again because they're a threat to her family.
The good berries are just good berries. She doesn't have to think that much about them. This is called negativity bias, and it's an inherent quality to all of us humans. So if you have negative thoughts like, I don't know how, or I'm not good enough, I can't get it right. Others already did it and they did it way better.
I'm behind, I'm lost. No worries. The only thing that those thoughts mean is that your brain is working exactly how it was designed. Your brain is showing you all the potential risks and trying to keep you safe. Thinking negatively is part of being a human being. But thank goodness that's not the end of the story.
It's true that if we have thousands of thoughts a day, we can't control them all. And then we're going to have negative thoughts for the rest of our lives. But what it is true is that we can notice what we're thinking and redirect our attention. And that's where all of our power lies. What I've learned working with people and reading psychology and coaching and neuroscience It's that the only two things that truly stop us from achieving our goals are our thoughts and our emotions.
So learning to manage this negativity bias, learning to notice and be aware of our thoughts and refocus our attention is fundamental to be able to be a visionary. Now I get it. Most people come to me, it's like, help me think positively. How do I get rid of my lack of confidence or my insecurity or my doubt?
And they want me to give them a perfect formula to start feeling confident all the time and convinced of what they're doing and strong. But the truth is that 80 percent of the work we have to do is to become aware of what's happening in our brain at every moment. And understanding that the thoughts our brain is presenting to us are not facts.
They're not a reality. They're just thoughts. I'm gonna say it one more time because it's a very simple thing to say, but it's very profound. Thoughts are not facts. Thoughts are simple sentences in our brain. Facts can be proven in a court of law. We have evidence to show them. It's raining right now. You see the raindrops.
I didn't get the contract. Yeah. There's no contract. A client wrote these words in an email. You can show them the email. Our thoughts are the way we think about those facts. It's our perspective. It's the meaning we give them. For example, it's raining right now. Fact. Oh, I love it because the plants needed some water.
Thought. Or, it's raining right now. Ugh, that's terrible. I hate the rain. Thought. Fact. I didn't get that contract. Thought. I'll never be successful. This will never work. Fact. Client wrote these words in an email. This client hates me. Or you can even think, oh, this client is upset, I'm gonna try to figure out why.
All the power we have as human beings is to transform the stories we tell ourselves. A lot of the times, I have arguments with my clients. Because they say this story I'm telling myself is true. Let's think of an example. One of my clients, because she's a visionary, she's starting her own business, and she had to use her savings and some money somebody else lent her to grow the business.
And still the clients are not coming as fast as she wanted. And she comes to the coaching call and says, I'm broke. And she tells me I'm broke, like if being broke was a fact. So what we do in coaching is start to notice that being broke is just a thought. Even when the bank shows that you owe money. Even when the revenue is not where you want it to be.
The concept of being broke is just a thought, and on top of that is a thought that does not serve you. It does not allow you to move forward, to actually get out of debt. So, to think as a visionary is to have the ability to discern between facts and thoughts, and to then deliberately choose were to focus your attention and which thoughts to believe.
And you know what the beautiful thing is? That we can train ourselves to think this way. We will never get rid of our negative thoughts, but we can build the ability and make it stronger and stronger every day of noticing our thoughts and choosing what we want to focus on. Here are other thoughts that my clients offer to me, thinking they're facts.
Oh, it's impossible to make money right now because the economy is not as strong. What I'm doing is so hard. It's so unfair. I've worked so hard and the clients are not coming. You don't understand. This industry is way harder than any others. I just don't know. Maybe I'm not ready. Maybe I'm not good enough.
I can't control my clients minds, my investors minds, my spouse's mind. Think if you ever have told yourself any of these stories, and if you have, start noticing that they are not facts. They are thoughts, and you have the power to change them. When we're in the process of learning this, that we can actually choose our thoughts, it's common to start resisting the negative thoughts.
I don't want to think about that. Don't think about that. Or beating ourselves up for thinking something negative. But, what we resist persists. I recommend that you don't waste your time trying to have 100 percent positive thoughts or pushing away the negative ones. Just allow the thoughts to come in, notice them, and redirect your attention to the thoughts that are going to help you achieve what you want.
I also recommend that you don't focus on, is this a good thought? Is this a bad thought? It's better to ask yourself, is this thought helpful? Is it serving me? Or is it not? Does it make me feel how I want to feel? Does it direct me towards my goals? And then, when you start looking for a more useful thought, choose one that is easier for you to believe.
Instead of going from I'm broke to I'm rich, say I owe this money and I'm going to find a way to pay it. I owe this money and there's so many resources available that are going to help me move forward. It's not about having always the best thoughts or the most positive thoughts. To think as a visionary is to become aware of your thoughts, not believe they are facts, evaluate if they're useful, and find a slightly better thought that can help you move towards your dreams.
I If you learn to do this, you will be unstoppable. Managing your thoughts is fundamental in turning your boldest ideas into reality. Most of my clients start working with me, asking me about the business strategy that I also do in my coaching, but truly what helps them achieve their biggest results is this, learning to manage their thoughts over and over.
So one of my clients says, so Caro, you're saying everything is made up? Yeah, I'm saying everything is made up. So I can think anything I want to think? Yeah. You can think whatever you want. What? Yes. You, my dear listener, you can think whatever you want. So what is the story you're going to tell yourself?
And how will that story allow you to turn your boldest ideas into reality? Thank you so much for listening and much love to all of you.
If you're currently pursuing a big, bold idea, we need to talk! In my coaching program, I'll teach you how to manage yourself, your own thoughts and emotions, as well as your team and your money, so you can turn your beautiful idea into a reality.
Go now to carozuleta. com slash consult, that is C A R O Z U L E T A dot com slash consult and complete the form to book a complimentary call with me. See you there!
