In this week's episode, Elizabeth and I talk about having a positive mindset and living according to your priorities.

Setting intentional priorities to make your life that matters

Elizabeth Benton is the owner of Primal Potential. Through her platform of podcasts, coaching, and live events, she has fueled her deepest struggles into a burning passion to help people create transformations and live more fulfilled lives. Elizabeth and her husband live in the northeastern United States with their dog and chickens. When she is not working, she enjoys reading and supporting her favorite football team.

A life-changing decision

Elizabeth has been in business for about six years. The decision to start a business came after years of pain and struggle. Elizabeth was depressed, deeply in debt, and obese. As a nutrition expert and educator who binged on junk food every time she put gas in her car, she felt like a fraud and a failure. Desperate to start her life, she decided to believe in her potential rather than her past.

Elizabeth did this by making a mental shift and changing her perspective. She lost 150 pounds, paid off $130,000 in debt, and remains debt-free as a successful entrepreneur. From that point on, Elizabeth knew she wanted to help others who had been where she had been, stuck in the trying and wanting, but not seeing things through, and getting in their own way with excuses. Since starting Primal Potential, she has put out 800 podcast episodes and written her first book. Elizabeth's biggest passion is relationships with others and structuring her life around what matters most.

Your mindset affects your life

Elizabeth says that when it comes to making changes to our lives, most of us already know what to do. For example, we know that to lose weight, we need to exercise and eat right. The challenge we run in to, though, is that excuses, fears, and stories get in the way, causing us to change gears after a month and switch to a new plan or approach. We get stuck in a cycle of jumping from plan to plan but the same doubts, fears, stories, and excuses continue to follow us.

Our mindset is what is preventing us from accomplishing our goals and making changes, and that is what we need to work on. We need to upgrade our mindset. Once we do this, everything gets easier.

“We have to stop pretending that change is all about skill set. It’s not. It’s about mindset.” 

A typical day

Elizabeth says that on a typical day, she will wake up, put her shoes on, and drive down to the Cape Cod Canal for a 4-mile walk. She likes to get this done within 15-20 minutes of waking up.

She will then come home, shower and dress, and get ready for her day. She will make herself a shake, walk to her home office (in a separate building on her property), and dive into her Primal Potential work.

Elizabeth typically has 2 to 3 big projects she works on each day, which she prioritizes first, and then fits the smaller tasks in between those.

In the mid-morning or early afternoon, she will head to the gym for a quick work out. After returning from the gym, Elizabeth will complete any leftover work tasks she may have. Before leaving work for the day, she makes sure she has a clear idea of her priorities and objectives for the following workday.

Resources and tools Elizabeth recommends

Due to all the roles Elizabeth fills as an entrepreneur, she uses a variety of simple but helpful tools to get her through her day. Her most used tool is Google calendar. Elizabeth uses this to schedule her whole day, including meetings and interviews, as well as exercise and personal time with her husband. Elizabeth's calendar is available to her whole team so they know when th...