I listened to a lecture the other day that made me start looking at the world in a different way. And I have been paying attention to this little detail in my coaching sessions and seeing if my clients also fall under this ‘group’ for lack of a better word.

The lecture was about the difference between information and transformation. 

I have spend the first 35 years of my life gathering information to fulfill a path I knew I needed to discover. When I started college I wanted to be a psychologist because I wanted to help people, well I didn’t think I had it in me so I opted to start studying tourism, I wanted to work in a tourist agency and help people plan their dream vacations, that sounded more fun… then the internet happened and my dreams where again modified.

So I did what a lot of people do in their 20’s when they do not have any idea what they are doing in life, got a random job that paid the bills, eventually traveled out of my country to find another random job that paid the bills, and have been doing that for the last 10 years… 

Why is this relevant to that lecture? Well first of all because I should have listened to the information I had back in the day and try to find a path that leads me to ‘helping people’ since clearly that is what I love to do (do not worry about it, I am on it now ☺️) and then I should have taken all that information I have gathered and put it to work. 

In other words, do you know a person that smokes tobacco? Does that person know all the bad things that come from smoking? Do they have that information in their brains? Does that information makes them quit smoking ?? Noooooo it doesn’t! Because you can have all the information in the world, you can be THE encyclopedia of information but until you decide to ACT on it it would not matter. Is the acting that is important not the knowledge. 

Do not get me wrong, knowledge is important too; but it takes more than reading books, and going to school, lectures, seminars, YouTube videos, etc to switch from knowledgeable to transforming your life. 

I was hanging out with a friend the other day and we were laughing at my avoidance tendencies when it comes to self growth. And yes I do still have those and I am currently working on not giving into them, but as you may know or not know but imagine, growing emotionally and working on your traumas is HARD. I told her I have my life coach, my therapist, my health coach so I was going to be just fine, and she said ‘yes but is the work you do in between those appointments that matter’ to what I replied ‘I know, that is why I am reading this fantasy book about witches’ hehehe I know, I know … I have all the information I needed, but if I do not decide to act on it, I could be doing therapy for years without advancing. 

And this is what I’m currently working on with my clients; deep inside or not so deep you know what you need to do to change a situation, loose the weight, work on your relationships (romantic of platonic), get out of debt, you KNOW it! But you do not act on it because you hit a wall in your brain that tells you danger danger, that is not the way to go, stay here, here is safe.

And I know that I’m making it sound that your brain is your enemy, is not. Your brain is your biggest supporter and your biggest protector; what your brain doesn’t know is that we are not living in the wilderness, searching for our food and waiting for that predator to come and try to kill us, the brain thinks ‘we have been doing this for X amount of time, and you have been safe, therefore we must continue in this path, because is safe and there are no monsters to come and get you’, your brain doesn’t understand that stressing about some extra pounds and stressing because you see a cheetah are not the same thing. All your brain wants to do is keep you safe for another day. Is up to you to tell your brain ‘I see you brain, I know you are trying to keep me safe, I love you for that AND I am choosing to go through this new path because I know there are no monsters there either’ and what could happen is after you do the new thing for a few days, or weeks, or whatever amount of time it takes, your brain eventually will see you were right and this is also a path that will keep you safe and won’t try to pull you back into that past habit.

The problem lies on being aware that working on changing will feel weird at first, and choosing to act on it other than just know it would be good but I don’t know why I do not do it is what matters. 

Seeing someone break through that barrier and step into what they wanted to become in front of your eyes is why I love being a coach! It brings tears to my eyes every time, and makes me so proud of my clients! 

And if you have the knowledge that you need to work on something, but you do not know where to start your transformation, reach out and I would be more than happy to help you become the person you want to be. Is going to be hard, but I promise it would be worth it at the end.