Hello there. This is Bethanie Hansen, I'm here with you on the Mindset for Life podcast. And we're going to talk today about proven systems.

Proven systems are things that we know work. There are certain kinds of proven systems that we have out there in the world. And one of those things just might be about the way we manage our thinking or the way we manage our brain. Now, that's something we don't talk very much about in daily life. But here on the Mindset for Life podcast, we talk about it all the time.

And I want to liken a weight loss system to the way that we can develop a system for managing our thinking and have a healthy relationship with ourselves and with other people.

Now, this podcast is for you, if you love, serve, and teach others, you want things to keep getting better. You want encouragement, and just one little idea today to get stronger in your life, your relationships, and your work. And I just want you to know that I do coaching, I help people take control of their situation, and have power to do what they need to do. One group I coach often is tech leaders and executives in that industry. And for these folks, I'm often a confidence coach. And for educators, especially online educators, I am a wellbeing coach, and I share tips and strategies to manage that kind of work.

Now if you want a little encouragement, today, we're going to talk about proven systems. And I hope you'll find this reassuring and encouraging. Now, the metaphor for proven systems is my diet plan. And I am almost 50 years old. But in the last seven years, I've finally cracked the code of how to lose weight for myself. Now, my system will not work for everybody. But it definitely works for me. And the one thing I can promise you is that when you create a system and follow it regularly and rigidly, you can believe it will work and it likely will work for you.

So, I'm going to tell you about my system just a little bit. And it's kind of this metaphor for how we can use a system to manage our thinking. And by the way, in coaching other people, a lot of times it comes down to thinking.

It's something like an automatic assumption or a perception that we have, that other people don't have, that comes up in our mind that creates all this frustration. We think people are doing something mean to us, or maybe they're trying to hurt us or out to get us or they just don't like us. And a lot of times that just hinges on some little assumption that somebody has that was unspoken. And later, we may or may not figure out.

So, in my experience, my weight loss plan has been a proven system for me. Now it started out seven years ago, almost like this urgent feeling. I was an overweight adult for most of my over, over-20-year-old life. I got married when I was 24. And I was probably 185 pounds at that time. And for my body type and my frame, that was already overweight.

But eventually, over many years, I ended up weighing about 249 pounds. I just gained weight over time. I had a couple of children. And I looked around me at my genetic group, my family members, and thought, well, I have no choice. I thought, you know, my assumption was I have a destiny to be overweight because all my relatives are, and there's just nothing we can do.

And I didn't understand very much at the time, how much that line of thinking actually created more problems for me. True, there are genetic predispositions to, like, crave certain foods or eat in certain ways or benefit or not benefit from exercise and things like that.

And we can't neglect the significance of how much surrounding ourselves with people who think all the same ways influences us. So, if I'm going to hang out with all my relatives, and we're all going to be eating goodies or bread or things like that, that tends to really add to my weight problem. Then I'm going to keep having it. I'm probably going to want to feel part of that group as I always did, and I'm going to participate.