Personal development: you are WORTH it!!

I get a lot of really sweet compliments about my positive outlook on life, which I definitely appreciate, but in trying to always be open and transparent, I'd like to remind you all that it is a constant practice. I spend an average of 2-3 hours a day on personal development (I did this even when working full time). I listen to podcasts, motivational youtube videos, and audiobooks while driving, working out, getting ready, and during my walks each day. I read everyday. It has been a process. I don't seek perfection; I seek growth, expansion, increased awareness, progress, new knowledge, and higher energy and vibration. I am grateful to have this much time to put into this (I am borderline obsessive about it and make it a huge priority), but I also firmly believe that even 10-20 min/day can make a WORLD of difference in your life. It is all about seeing what you connect with, seeing what you can put into practice in your life, trying it out, evaluating, incorporating, and then seeking more.

I also don't think it matters where you start. For me it was Tony Robbins and Wayne Dyer because their work was what I was resonating with at that point in my life and journey. That then led to me finding other high-performance coaches, discovering other Hay House authors, going to conferences that exposed me to more concepts that I wanted to learn more about, and took me all the way to some of my current favorite people to follow like Teal Swan who has a seemingly endless wealth of incredible online content. But no matter where you start, you will naturally discover more people and concepts that you resonate with. It's more important that you just start somewhere with a little time each day. YOU and your LIFE are WORTH IT!!!!

COACHING, FINANCIALS, VIABILITY, QUESTIONS, FEARS AND MORE all addressed here!

I get a TON of questions about the viability of Beachbody coaching so for those of you who have ever wondered any of the following, such as,

1.  “Aren’t there already a lot of coaches? What would make people want to coach under me?”

2.  “What happens when the Beachbody trend is over? Is the company really viable?”

3.  “Isn’t it too late to join as a coach? What if it doesn’t work out for me?”

I’m going to address them right here for you!

1. First off, ANYBODY can coach! People relate to YOU uniquely! So no matter how many coaches are already out there, people are going to want you as a coach because they relate to YOU.

My customers and coaches relate to me because I try to keep things light-hearted and fun. I focus on working on people’s fears and blocks first, then we deal with BELIEF, THEN we work on addressing health-related habits. I’m goofy and weird and I like to be VERY real and open with my struggles.

People might relate to you because you are a master at healthy cooking, or you are able to inspire people into doing really tough workouts, or you’re a mom and share similar struggles with other moms trying to be healthy, or because they like your sassy attitude about workouts, or because you have a drill-sergeant style for people who want that tough love, or because they have the same interests or values as you, or a whole number of other things!!

2. *Viability* I think it’s kind of funny when people ask me about the viability of Beachbody. I never got asked this question as an engineer and THAT was the job I lost haha!

Our execs and trainers at Beachbody make quality their TOP PRIORITY. It truly is a mission to end the trend of obesity. That means they are constantly staying on top of health trends, creating innovative new products, constantly tweaking based on coach and customer feedback, and looking for new ways to best serve the health and fulfillment of our customers!!

Some of the incredible Beachbody trainers

This company is still a baby. If you could see some of the things that are in the works for the future behind the scenes, you would know what an amazing growth opportunity this still is.

Beachbody CEO, Carl Daikeler

*Financials* When I lost my full-time job as an engineer over a year ago, I made the decision not to look for another job but instead to coach full-time. A lot of people questioned me on that. I don’t talk about money a lot but I can promise you that this was a well-thought-out, over-analyzed, deeply researched decision (not to mention there was a lot of soul searching that went into it). By the time that I became a coach full-time, I was making roughly the same amount of money as I had been as an engineer. I had saved up a lot of money during the time I knew I might be losing my job so I knew I’d have a cushion but I also didn’t want to have to tap into that. And to take it one step farther, I wanted to be able to maintain the same level of investing that I had been doing while working at my old job once I was a coach full-time. So I assure you that my standards are pretty high in terms of what I wanted to still be able to do financially as a coach and I have been able to meet all of those goals.

*Value* One last thing about viability and the financials of it. Money aside, there is also a ton of VALUE in the time and freedom I currently have. I can spend all day doing personal development and learning any skill that I want. This also makes me a better coach in the process because I can pass on what I’m learning to my customers and coaches. But additionally, for anyone who worries about money, career, or the future, just remember that you can lose EVERYTHING but the one thing that nobody can take away from you is what you’ve learned along the way. Our own personal growth and expansion is the most valuable thing we will ever have (not to mention having the time and freedom to make great memories with the people we love and doing what’s most important to us)!!

If anything ever changes, I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. It’s not worth any of my energy to worry about it in the meantime. SO MUCH of what we worry about never ends up happening. And at the end of the day, it’s something I love doing so I plan on doing it as long as possible. I love this quote from Jim Carrey from a commencement speech last year. It pretty much sums up my feelings on this topic:

“So many of us choose our path out of fear disguised as practicality…. you can fail at what you don’t want, so you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.”

3. This kind of expands on what I said above about value. None of these questions/fears/concerns really matter because the biggest thing I’ve taken away from this is my own personal growth. This is a challenging business and the biggest challenge is talking yourself through all these doubts and fears that come up (“maybe I’m not cut out for this”, “nobody is interested in working with me”, “I hit a plateau,  I knew this wouldn’t work out,” “It’s been a slow month, this is probably the beginning of the end”). It’s ok to feel those fears but the challenge comes in continuing on despite them! Only then do you begin to see that none of those fears were real. There IS another side to each challenge. In doing this, your OWN PERSONAL BELIEF about what’s possible for your LIFE changes!!! THAT is where the true personal growth takes place!! It’s a lesson in persistence and of surpassing our own limits we place on ourselves and getting out of our own way!!! And once you start to do this, you’ll see that it begins to affect all other areas of your life!! You learn that the only real way to not succeed is to stop trying altogether. That first comes in seeing changes in your workouts or your eating, then your business, then, eventually, ANYTHING IN YOUR LIFE that you put your mind to!!

In the process, you also happen to be surrounded by some of the most open, supportive, caring, generous, motivated, positive, inspiring people in the world to encourage you! Your health will be better than ever because you’re on a TEAM! Honestly, I rely on other customers just as much for motivation as they do on me!!

Our incredible team!

This business lights a fire in me. It’s honestly one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things I’ve ever done and I love being able to help people in some small way every.single.day. :) :) :)

We can NEVER have enough coaches to fight for health and to teach people how to BELIEVE in themselves!!! If there is ever a time where that need no longer exists, what a WONDERFUL WORLD this will be!!!

You are worth taking the chance on your own GREATNESS (whatever that may be for you)!!! So if you have been thinking about taking a chance on this crazy, awesome business, please ask yourself, what's the worst that could happen?? You grow as a person, increase your own health and well-being, and help and inspire a few people along the way :)  The BEST thing that can happen is that you CHANGE YOUR LIFE AND CHANGE THE WORLD!!!!!!

**Please don’t hesitate to ask me more!!  I absolutely love talking to people about this business but I NEVER pressure anyone into anything they may not be ready for, so please don’t be scared to talk to me if you’re curious!! This could be your calling :) :) :)

Disclaimer Copy: Katelyn Lesk is an Independent Beachbody Coach.

Stress, worry, dreams, and sleep

I get a lot of incredibly sweet comments and messages about how positive I am and my outlook on life, and while I absolutely appreciate those messages and do my best to see the brighter side of life and the best in other people, I also intend to be fully real with you guys when life gets tough in the hopes that if you can relate to this, that you don't feel alone and that you perhaps you may also be able to find comfort in what helps me.

Let me start by saying that I can be very laid back and light about most things, but I can also be very high-strung/high anxiety about other things. I can immediately tell when I'm stressed/anxious/down about anything that that starts coming out in 2 ways: 1. I worry more about things that don't normally bother me (finances, for example) and have a more lack-focused mentality than I normally do; and 2. my sleep is either very restless or I start having crazy, stressful nightmares or incredibly emotionally-draining dreams. The past week or so, my dreams have been absolutely insane to the point that I wonder how my brain even conjured up such horrible dreams/thoughts. Or like last night, I spent the whole night dreaming about horrible emotional situations to the point where I've had to spend a good chunk of my morning so far processing and dealing with the residual stress of it.

So for the first issue (lack mentality, other surface fears), my strategy is to go into what's bothering me (it also helps to remember that these fears and worries aren't REAL, it's just stress making itself heard in whatever way it can). If I just push it away, it keeps nagging me with either lack-based thoughts or just a chronic low-level anxiety and icky feeling. I need to sit down and journal to get to the root of what's bothering me. I KNOW we are busy people, but TRUST ME, it is worth the 5 minute time investment to deal with the problem so that you can move on with your day in a much more effective way (not to mention that YOU and your emotional health are WORTH IT)!! I created this method I call a "fear-crusher list" a long time ago for my beachbody customers and coaches. It's a technique that I use for everything and helps me a TON:

As for dreams and emotional stress, this excerpt from Teal Swan's, "The Sculptor in the Sky" ALWAYS makes me feel better. I've re-read it a couple times this morning already :)

So no matter what you are going through, whether that be big emotional tough stuff or just the day-to-day stress of life, remember that YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Sending you all HUGE HUGS today!!

Love, Katelyn

Focus on the things that work out better than anticipated!!

On any given day, there are at least a million things I could worry about. I am by no means perfect at not living in fear, but I have gotten a lot better. I did a pretty good job of not worrying about my career future when I knew my job at my old company was in jeopardy. Instead, I threw myself full-force into coaching on the side and I honestly couldn’t have imagined a better outcome in the end. I was sad to see my engineering job go but I find my coaching job absolutely so fulfilling and rewarding and love that I get to help people every single day. That really was an experience that taught me to trust the process, especially since there was no way I could have planned for or foreseen how beautifully things would have worked out (3 years ago I never even knew about this coaching opportunity)!!

I had a similar experience today with something on so much of a smaller scale that it was laughable but it really is a lesson we can apply to all things. I had to make a phone call about an order I recently placed. I was dreading this call because I thought they mischarged me for something and I was anticipating having to argue and negotiate to get my way. I was frustrated that THEY had made a mistake and *I* would have to waste my precious time correcting it. But I said a little prayer asking the universe for assistance with working this out and made the call determined to be super kind to the person on the other end knowing that we both could work together on this. Well as it turns out, not only was *I* in the wrong about it (they had absolutely charged me correctly), but they ended up waiving a shipping fee just to be extra courteous and I was super grateful! So not only was it faster and easier than I thought, it also had a way better outcome than I could have even anticipated!

I’ve learned over my past 30 years that most of the things we worry about never end up coming to fruition. Often things turn out even better or easier than expected. And occasionally, not-so-good things, some that we never saw coming end up happening, and we deal with those when the time comes. Fear can consume us if we let it. It helps me to remember that the universe has my back and is supporting me step by step. It helps to remember we always have help and support from those who care about us (especially if we’re not afraid to ask)! It helps remembering that some of these perceived “bad things” are some of our greatest learning tools of all. It helps to trust the process and do my best to live fearlessly knowing that things are always working for our greatest good. And of course it helps a TON remembering things like this that worked out better than I could have even foreseen! *FOCUS ON THE THINGS THAT WORK OUT BETTER THAN ANTICIPATED!!!* and **JUST TRUST** Easier said than done, I know, but we can all work on it :)