Ep 136. Stop Wasting Your Life

I am Kym Showers and this is Reinvented After 40, episode number 136, Stop Wasting Your Life.

Welcome to the Reinvented After 40 podcast. I am your host, Kym Showers, and I’m a certified life coach for women in the second half of life. Each week I’ll bring you direct advice and inspiring, practical wisdom to help you live your very best life and create a future you’re absolutely obsessed with. It’s going to be fun, let’s get started.

Hey, my friends out in the podcast land. Happy Thursday, pod day, best day of the week, I love when my podcast episode comes out. And I love recording my podcast episode on Thursdays. Sometimes other days, but mostly I plan Thursday mornings to record my next episode. So today is Thursday morning. Listen, it’s foggy here today on the Central Coast and it’s so beautiful. And then the fog is going to burn off and then we’re going to have a warm day. That’s how it is here. We get both beautiful sides of the weather when you live on the coast. It’s so fun living here. It’s such a gift.

So I’m so motivated this morning. I stay inspired, I stay motivated and I am 63 years old. And I feel like I’m just getting started on my life because that’s how I want to feel. I keep myself at this level because this is the level I want to live at. Listen, because I am 63, I have lived 63 years on planet Earth as a woman. I have a lot of life experience. I know a lot of people. I am witness to myself and I’m also witness to a lot of women who in the second half of life do not love their life, do not love being them, and this is so key, you guys.

I just think if we do not take ownership of our life experience, if we do not wake up and get some awareness around what is possible for us, we literally waste this beautiful life that we’ve been given. And I want you to stop doing that. If you are doing that, if you are in a low mood on a regular basis, if you are unmotivated on a regular basis, I want you to know you are wasting your life. And I know that’s what that feels like to you, too. So I’m just in agreement with you. So I’m going to give you some hope today. I’m going to inspire you this morning.

I’m going to motivate you this morning with the idea that you have to have a goal. A goal is key because if you don’t have a vision, if you do not have a purpose, if you do not have a goal, then you will have zero inspiration and zero reason to work towards anything. You’re just going to rinse and repeat your days in low mood and low motivation. And that is just a dumb life in the second half. You can choose it if you want to, but I have this feeling that you listen to my podcast because you don’t want to choose it.

You want to figure out how to get out of a low mood, low motivation and get into a life that you’re obsessed with like I am. So even if I might have a low mood for a moment, I recognize it. And I can pop myself out of it because I’ve learned the valuable skill of creating the feelings that I need to feel to stay motivated every single day. So you know, I get up at 3:45 in the morning. I work out at 5:00am at Orangetheory every single day. There you go, right there alone will change your entire life.

Even if that was your one goal right now, I would say 100% make that your one goal that you go to bed early, you get up early and then you go to Orangetheory Fitness. Because I don’t know another workout that is more beneficial, that gives you the results that Orangetheory Fitness gives you. And I have always worked out. I have always trained my body, especially in the second half of life.

I have never gotten the results that I have now from a daily workout that I have from Orangetheory Fitness. And it’s because I’m weight training, I’m running on the treadmill and I’m rowing a stationary rowing boat every morning. I’m getting so good at rowing. I wasn’t good at first because I’d never rode before but now I’m obsessed with it. and I’m actually training, they call it a dry tri, a dry triathlon, which I’ve never done before. And that’s coming up actually this Saturday. You’ll be listening to this on the Thursday that my triathlon is on that Saturday, on the 23rd of April.

So I have been training for that. My body has been sore every day, which I love. I do not miss a workout. So if you have a sneaky little thought that working out every day is too much for your body, that you’re too old for that. That is just a freaking lie. I want you to get yourself up and go to Orangetheory Fitness. And if you don’t have an Orangetheory Fitness, I don’t care how far you have to drive, it doesn’t even matter. You have the time. I want you to stay focused on the results. You have to have a goal.

And I’m telling you what happens when you get your body in shape is that you change your entire life. You feel so much more energetic. You feel so much more optimistic. You look better. When we’re in the second half of life us women, and we look better, we’re going to feel better. And we’re going to have a lot better energy in our body to take with us all day long. It opens up every single possibility for our life when our body is in shape, we’re working out every single day.

And then step two is eating good food. Make sure that you’re hydrated. Make sure that you eat lots of protein when you’re lifting weights in the second half of life. We want to build as much muscle in our body that we can. It will affect everything about your life for the better. And why wouldn’t we do that? You guys, come on, stop wasting your life with low energy and no motivation. You’ve got to turn it around. And I’m telling you with this one thing, just start working out every single day, that will start the wheels turning and the energy moving, the motivation popping.

So I’m 63 years old and the way that I look at my life, let’s just say 50 is the second half of life, we can say 50. And because I coach women over 40 and because this podcast name is Reinvented After 40, I’m going to call midlife for us, 40. Let’s just say we start all over at 40, I reinvented myself at 40. You know what that makes me right now, you guys? That makes me 23 years old.

And when I think about my 23 year old self, I was burning with motivation and inspiration. I just had this fire in my belly for everything that I wanted to create for my life and I did. I created everything at 23.

I got married at 23. I married Jeff Showers at 23. He was the best person for me to marry. We were just babies. We had no idea what we were doing. We were penniless. He hadn’t even graduated college yet. I hadn’t graduated college yet. When we got engaged, we lived behind my grandma and grandpa’s house and paid $50 a month in rent. We had zero money.

But I had a fire in my belly and Jeff did too. And I was so motivated at 23. And I can remember that feeling. And I tap into that feeling at 63, every single day because that I know is possible for me. So I have lots of big goals for my life. I see my 70 year old self and I am so inspired by her, everything she has accomplished. And so I just wake up every morning determined to stay inspired and motivated with good energy every single day because I know I can, because I know the power is all within me and I want to pass this on to you today.

I want you to know that if you are believing thoughts like, I’m too old or what would even be the reason to be motivated because I don’t even have. It’s almost like, I’ve heard people say, “Why would I make my bed every morning? I’m just going to get into it at night.” Oh, my gosh, that is a mindset. So you either have a fixed mindset or you have a growth mindset. I want you to have a growth mindset. That’s something you can choose.

Something you can actually retrain your brain to, even if you have a fixed mindset where a fixed mindset just sounds like, “Well, this is just the way it is. This is the way I am. This is my situation. I can’t change it. I’m too old. I don’t have enough energy.” It’s so hard for me to even think like that. So it’s so hard for me to even think thoughts to give you as an example of what your brain is feeding you. But I know it sounds like that.

And those kinds of thoughts will keep you unmotivated and keep you in a life that you do not like at all and that you feel so stuck in. And you’re going to look at women like me and you’re going to go, “I don’t even know how she does that. She must have been born that way.” Maybe I was born with a tendency this way. But because nothing was ever given to me as a kid, I literally had to work for everything. That was to my benefit because I just know the harder I work, the luckier I get. I love thinking like that.

And you know how I tell you I love Instagram because I only follow people who motivate me and inspire me. And I do follow a few men who really keep me inspired. I just love to pick up on their thoughts and my friend, her name is Zibby Owens, I’ve talked to you about her before. I’ve gone to a couple of her writing retreats, her book retreat. She’s a big deal now in the literary world, but she posted this morning on Instagram. She’s in the middle of promoting her latest book, which is called Blank.

And she also has a podcast called Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books. And she puts out an episode every single day. She’s put out so many episodes. She has four children. I think she’s the most productive woman I think I’ve ever known. I feel so privileged to know her just because I’ve been with her in person. She actually follows me on Instagram, which was such a win for me, such a flex for me, that Zibby Owens follows me.

But this morning she posted, she said it’s 4:26am. She lives in New York. She also has a bookstore in Santa Monica, and she also has a home in LA. But she goes, “On my way to Minneapolis, it’s 4:26am, and I’m almost at the airport. I need more sleep than this.” And she puts a funny emoji.

She says, “But what I told my kids bears repeating. To succeed at anything you have to throw your whole heart and soul into it and not give up. Also reminded them that I hope they remember how hard their mom worked and that they should do the same.”

And then she says, “I’ll be home tonight, but still Minneapolis here I come.” But listen to this. I’m going to read it again. This is the most important part. To succeed at anything you have to throw your whole heart and soul into it and not give up. You guys, we give up so quick. I tried it for a year. I tried it for nine months. I did so much work and it’s not paying off. Seriously, that’s not laying your whole heart and soul out and never giving up. There’s an entire attitude that we need to adopt.

If you are a woman in the second half of life and you’re at that level that you really do want to change your life for the better moving forward. You want to think about your life like you did when you were 23, that everything is possible for you. And there’s nothing you can’t achieve if you pour your whole heart and soul into it and you never give up and you stop making excuses and you stop whining about what isn’t working and you just figure it out as you go. And you focus on what is working and you do more of that.

You guys, that’s exactly what I do and I want to be your coach. I want women in my coaching groups who want to live at this level with me. I’ll be able to pull you up with this energy that I have every single week so that you keep motivated and you keep inspired and you stop wasting your life. It is so possible, you guys, you’re just on the brink of it if you’re listening to this. I know you want it too. And I just want to encourage you this morning with the 100% inevitability of your dream life if you lay your heart and soul out every single day.

That you make a plan and you follow the plan. You plan tomorrow today like I do. And every day you wake up and you don’t let your brain talk you out of it and you just do the thing that you said yesterday that you were going to do. And the main thing is to get your body in shape, to get your mind in shape, to learn how to manage your mind, your soul, your body, and not let the world tell you how to do it, but you decide who you are moving forward.

And you stop dragging the naysayers with you. Let them go. They are dragging you down and they’re keeping you stuck. You might even be married to one of them. And I’m telling you, just let that go. I’m not saying get a divorce. I’m just saying put them on notice. I’m going to do things my way from here on out. I’m going to make my own schedule. I’m going to get my sleep, which is another key element in living a life that you’re obsessed with, is getting your sleep, getting your nutrition, working out, training your body every single day no matter what. This will change your life.

Sticking to your plan, putting fuel in the fire of your dreams, I’m telling you, it is everything. There is no possible way that you can waste your life. If you do these simple things every single day you will be on fire like I am. It isn’t easy, but it’s really simple, my friend, just tap into your 23 year old self. If you’re 40, you’re just literally a baby and you’re just reinventing yourself and getting started. And I would love for you to come coach with me.

Come and get in my next group, that doesn’t even start until July, but once it’s filled, it’s filled. Know that my next retreat is the first week of November. It’s a Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the first week of November. That will elevate you to a whole new level. Get on the list for that. And I’m telling you, commit to yourself because if you are not loving your life you are wasting your life. And there is just not a minute to waste. There are so many opportunities when you decide who you want to become.

You have a vision, you make a plan and then just start fueling the machine of this dream life every single day and you will make so much progress. And just remember, hard work is the joy of life. And remember the thought, the harder you work, the luckier you get. If you think I’m lucky, I totally am, but I have positioned myself for all the opportunities, all the ‘lucky opportunities’ because of the way that I work every single day. I’m so committed to my glorious most abundant, highest level life. And I want you to stop wasting your life.

Start living the absolute dreamiest life that you can’t even imagine right now. It’s a step at a time. It’s a day at a time. It’s a week at a time. And it is a commitment that you make to yourself and to your future self. So that’s what I have for you this morning. Stop wasting your life and start living the most incredible life filled with inspiration, motivation, encouragement, all created by you every single day. You’re the one in charge. You’re the most powerful person in your life. Show up as her every single day and you’ll be so glad you did. You can thank me later.

I love you so much. Have the best week. And I will talk to you next Thursday.

If you love this podcast, I invite you to come work with me. Go to kymshowerslifecoach.com, sign up for my next group and retreat, and let’s create your dream life together.