Ep 59. You Are Amazing, and So Is Your Life

I am Kym Showers, and this is Reinvented After 40, episode number 59: You Are Amazing and So Is Your Life.

Hey, friends. Welcome to Reinvented After 40, a podcast for all you women in the second half of life who are ready to take responsibility for your own wellbeing and create a life you love living.

I’m your host, Kym Showers, and after spending the first 40 years of my life people-pleasing and following all the rules, I was exhausted and ready for a change. I reinvented myself. I stopped outsourcing my happiness. And I’ve been brave enough to live a different kind of life.

I’ll be here each week to help you do the same thing. It’s gonna be fun. Let’s go.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the show. You’re amazing and so is your life. This is so true. What if you just practiced thinking that every single day? I am amazing and so is my life. I love that thought and I think that thought all the time. And it is very useful for me because then my brain goes to work finding evidence to prove that thought true and it is so true. Our lives are amazing, and we are too. It’s all amazing, our life is in front of us every single day and we have the power to create anything we want to every single day with the time that we are given.

So, first of all hi, everyone, happy Thursday. You’re probably listening to this on a Thursday, possibly, most of you. Thursdays are so much fun for me especially now that I have this podcast but even before I started this podcast a year ago or a little over a year ago now, I always looked forward to Thursdays. And Thursdays have really for as long as I can remember been kind of my favorite day of the week, it’s like pre Friday. So usually everyone says, “Fridays are my favorite, weekends are my favorite.”

But Thursdays held something special for me and I remember specifically thinking this and saying it out loud when I first started teaching school back in my 20s. I was a schoolteacher, I taught elementary school in my 20s. Really every decade I’ve kind and had a new career which been really exciting for me. I’ve created a very exciting life in my 61 years. But I had my teaching credential and I taught elementary school. I taught fifth grade, and I taught first grade, and it was absolutely wonderful. It was the perfect job for me to prepare being a parent. I did that before I was a parent.

But anyways I digress. I remember loving Thursdays when I was teaching. It was just always the best day. I remember telling my kids that at school that, “Thursdays are the best, let’s make the most of Thursdays.” And so, then I’ve kind of just held on to that thought and that belief until now, most of my life. So, Thursdays have been kind of this special magical sparkly day for me. And I do love Thursdays and I love it all day long. And so, before I started the podcast my favorite podcast came out on Thursday mornings.

And so that was my reason now for loving Thursdays where it was just like, “I can’t wait for Thursdays.” So, when I started this podcast I knew for sure that Thursday mornings were going to be Reinvented After 40’s podcast day, when every episode came out was going to be magical sparkly Thursdays, Thursday mornings. It comes out early Thursday mornings. So hopefully Thursdays have become your favorite day too, looking forward to your favorite day and your favorite podcast, Reinvented After 40.

So, I so appreciate you guys listening and for sharing it with your friends. And I am having a contest right now and you probably know about it. But I’m going to remind you again over, and over, and over to follow, rate and review this show. And by doing that you will enter my contest which the prize is a brand new pair of AirPods, second generation. So, if you follow, rate, and review the show your name will go into a hat. And I will pull out a name from my hat or it will be a bowl probably. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll put them all in a hat. I have a lot of cute hats.

And you might be a grand winner, but this is what I decided, every episode until then I’m going to read one of my reviews, one of my latest reviews. I’ve been getting so many good ones and thank you, thank you, thank you. They’re so inspiring for me and so motivating for me. And they just make me so happy. So, this one that just came in is from Martram 16. And so, these names, some of you I know but I know that these are just kind of email names, or internet names that the internet kind of gives you. So, I know this isn’t real name, but this is from Martram 16.

“Love your podcast. You are amazing, Kimmy.” So, when I first read that, you know what I thought? I thought it was from one of my cousins or one of my very closest friends because those are the only people that call me Kimmy. But listen, I want to finish reading this and I’ll explain. It says, “You are amazing, Kimmy. I look forward to every Thursday for a new upload. I tell everyone about you. When I first found you.”

And then in parentheses it says, “Thank you Kristy.” And Kristy is my cousin. And her name is Kristy Wicks and she’s kind of a big deal on the internet. You might want to follow her, or you for sure want to following her. She is amazing. But she’s also one of my clients too. Kristy has – I call it the Kristy Wicks bump whenever she puts me on her story because I get so many new followers from her and so much love from her. So anyways this reviewer found me through my cousin, Kristy. And that is why she’s calling me Kimmy because Kristy calls me Kimmy. And Kristy is my cousin.

All my cousins call me Kimmy. Anyways here we go. She says, “I binge listened to your entire collection in a matter of days and was sad that I finished it. Now I get to look forward to every Thursday. You are so encouraging, uplifting and generous, much love to you, purple heart. Thank you for bringing us all so much sunshine.” Sunshine, a picture of that little yellow cute sunshine emoji and then XOM.

So, thank you M, thank you Martram for this beautiful, delightful, encouraging review. And so, your name is in my cute hat for my drawing at the end of this contest. So, if you haven’t done this yet, give me a sweet kind review, five stars and maybe I’ll read your review on my next podcast episode.

So today I want to tell you, and remind you, and keep telling you, and reminding you that you are mazing and so is your life. This belief alone will create the most expansive, abundant, amazing life that you could ever imagine. You don’t even have to change your circumstances, you get to think it and believe it right now. And then your brain will confirm it with evidence to prove it to be true.

When we know we’re amazing, when we believe we’re amazing, when we own our amazingness, and when we believe our life is amazing and we think this on purpose we create the most amazing life for ourselves. That’s how it works. So that’s what I’m wanting to remind you of today. This is the thought that I think, and this is why I have an amazing life every single day. I am so motivated, and inspired, and energized by my own thoughts and beliefs about myself and about my life. And that’s for sure how we do it.

So, I have a couple of things that I wanted to share with you today. First of all, my life keeps getting better with age, I believe that the second half of life is our best half. Things have gotten so much better with age. I am completely inspired by women in the second half of life who have created amazing value for the world.

I want to introduce you to a woman who is 95. I have listened to her on a couple podcasts. I just ordered her two books. But she wrote her first book when she was 90 years old, you guys, she is my hero. And she has done incredible things in the world. But I keep looking for women like her. Her name is Edith Eger, Dr. Edith Eger. She is, I believe she’s a psychologist and she wrote her first a book called The Choice when she was 90. And then she wrote her second book called The gift when she was 92, or 93 I think. She wrote it in 2020.

But she is incredible, and she has the most incredible story. And so, I’m telling you about her because she’s evidence for us to know for sure that we’re never too old to make our dreams come true. I 100% know that. I started this podcast when I was 60 years old. And it’s been such an incredible experience not only for me but for you. And I just keep growing, and changing, and evolving because of it, and you do too. We’re all so connected. I always want to be an example of what’s possible for you in the second half of life.

I know that most of my listeners are not older than me. I know that you’re younger than me. And I think this is really, really important because I want to show you that when your brain tells you you’re too old, or it’s too late, or you’re too tired, or you’re not relevant, it is lying to you. This is not true. You’re never too old and actually age is our super power. The older you get the more amazing you get and the more amazing your life gets. You just have to know that and show up that way.

So, Seth Godin sends out a really powerful email. I would say I have my two favorite emails that come weekly, and Seth Godin’s is one of them, and he sends out a lot of emails per week, I don’t know, I don’t know if it’s every day or not, but it feels like it could be, a few times a week for sure. So, if you’re not – he’s a marketing genius, but oh my gosh, his emails are very thought provoking and very helpful and useful for me. So, I’m going to read you one of his emails from this week.

And then I’ve also already told you about James Clear several times, so he’s the author of that amazing book on habits. And then also my favorite email comes on Thursdays and it’s from James Clear. He just gives us so much juice in this once a week email. So, if you’re not on that email list, I highly recommend that you get on that email list for James Clear.

So, this week from Seth Godin, he wrote something really amazing that goes along with this thought that I have for this week about how amazing our life is as we get older. So, he says, “Even the longest biography is only 66 hours on audio.” So, listen to this, one entire very interesting life is edited down to 66 hours, this means the author had to leave out almost everything. We write our own autobiography every single day by deciding what to focus on, what to rehash and what to worry about.

The same life story can be told in many different ways. And the way we tell it, changes who we are and who we become. So, the reason this is so powerful from Seth Godin and the reason this keeps hitting me in such a positive, amazing, empowering way is because when I think about the story that I tell about my life, I get to edit it down and tell it in such a way that is motivating, and inspiring, and amazing. You get to edit down your story in your mind and tell it in such a way that is motivating, and inspiring, and amazing.

That is what’s so helpful and useful to not only the people in your life but to you. The way that we tell the story of our life can be told in an infinite number of ways. Our life is sitting before us. Our life is happening right now by the story we’re telling ourselves in our mind. So, we get to choose what we focus on and that changes the direction of our life moving forward, especially in the second half of life. If we want to be an author of a book at 90, it’s going to happen because of what we’re telling ourselves about ourselves and about our life in our mind every single day. It’s so powerful.

When I was coaching may clients yesterday I pulled out my old – it looks like a four year old drew it, but I don’t care, I love it so much, it’s so powerful for me. And I keep coming back to it, it’s on one of my old big flip over charts. But remember, if you remember, if you follow along on Instagram, I told you, I drew two little circles that look like pizzas, one of them is full of scribbly lines, and lots of dots, and lots of mess. And the other circle just has three strong dots in it.

And the messy circle is a picture and a diagram of an unmanaged mind, a mind full of regret, and worry, and thoughts that aren’t useful. And the other circle, the three dots is a managed mind. And that is an edited mind, that is a story well told, an intentional story of a life well lived, of thoughts that are useful, of intentions that are going to produce an amazing, motivated, inspiring life. So, I will show that picture again for you on my Instagram page, if you need another picture of it but you probably remember that.

And that is such a great reminder for us, that the story that we tell of our life is up to us all the time. I tell a great story about my life and my life keeps getting better. And it isn’t toxic positivity at all. It’s true because I mean we can say that it’s a little delusional. But you guys, most of the stories we tell of our life, they’re all delusional to a point. Because we’re just kind of making it up as we go. We don’t see our circumstances, the facts of our life as they are. We see the world as we are, it’s filtered through our brain, filtered through our story, my individual story.

So, I don’t see my circumstances and the facts of my particular life as they are. I see them as I am, the filter of my mind and my perspective that I get to choose every single day. So, if another 61 year old random woman was to be dropped into my life she would tell a totally different story and it may sound completely negative. Who knows? Because it’s not the circumstances of our life. It’s the story we tell about our life. I choose the thought every day that I’m amazing. I really do believe I am.

And that my life is amazing, I really do believe it is. And that’s why it keeps getting better. And I want you to know how amazing you are and to choose that thought on purpose, that belief on purpose. And choose to believe that your life is amazing, choose it on purpose and tell a story about it that sounds a little better than maybe the story you’re telling now. If you don’t believe your life is amazing you can change your story, it’s completely up to you. And that’s so exciting to know that. I just want to give you that gift today.

Now, I’m going to move on from Seth Godin’s email to this email that James Clear sent, I think it was last week or even the week before. But I always just save his emails because they’re all so helpful for me. So, this one, he says, “Whatever age you are today your future self would love to be it. Most people don’t consider 65 to be a young age but when you’re 75 you’d love to rewind and get back those 10 years. Few people would describe 35 as your youth but in your mid-50s, your mid-30s will seem like the young you.

Today is a great opportunity no matter your age. Looking back in a few years today will seem like the time when you were young and full of potential, or the moment when you could have started early, or the turning point when you made a choice that could benefit your future self. The moment in front of you right now is a good one, so make the most of it.” So yay, James Clear because that’s exactly how I think. That’s exactly how I think about the moment in front of me.

I love this so much. I think about my future self, my 71 year old self, and I know she is going to be so proud of me now. She’s going to be thanking her past self, the me now for taking advantage of all the potential that lies ahead of me, and I want you to do the same thing. I want you to stop talking about your dreams and I want you to start taking action on them one step at a time. It matters so much, you’ve got to just start.

Okay, so I want you to know for sure that you’re amazing and your life is amazing. And I also want you to know that everything that happens today and everything that happens tomorrow, and the weeks to come, and the months to come, and the years to come, matter. It all matters. It matters. It matters what you do. It matters how you think. It matters how you feel. It matters how you show up to your life every single day. It matters not only for you, for your marriage, for your kids, for your friends, for your parents, it matters for the world.

We’re all very, very connected and everything that I have that you admire you absolutely have too, you just don’t know it. And I want you to start owning it, and I want you to start taking advantage of it. I want you to start taking action on it. I want you to start thinking different thoughts, thinking thoughts like I am amazing and looking for evidence to prove that true. I want you to think thoughts that my life is amazing and finding evidence to prove that true and taking action on that.

You will be so much more inspired and motivated like I do every day to take small actions to get you where you want to go. Stop thinking about your dreams and start taking action. Stop talking about your dreams and start taking action like I do. I am for sure going to be a 90 year old woman who is writing a book or making a movie. I don’t even know what I’m going to be doing at 90, but it’s going to be something amazing I promise you. And everything that I want for my life I am taking action on right now and I want you to do the same thing.

You know who else is so inspiring for me? Taylor Swift, you guys, I love her. I’ve always loved her, and I will keep loving her. I have no doubt that Taylor Swift is going to be producing so much goodness, and magic, and value for the world when she’s 90. There’s no doubt in my mind. Look at this girl, I think she’s maybe 32 now or 33, I’m not even sure. But I have been inspired by her since she was 13, when she just started making her music and putting it out in the world. And she was terrified of course, and she keeps doing it.

Her new album comes out tomorrow. I actually have it on my calendar because I can’t wait. I’ve already decided ahead of time that I’m going to be obsessed with it because I’m always obsessed with it. These are the people and the creative people who keep producing their magic for the world that is so inspiring for me. And that’s what keeps me motivated.

Taylor Swift doesn’t have to put out another thing for the rest of her life, but you know why she does it? Because she has to do it, it’s her love for it. It’s what grows her, and evolves her. And everything she puts out is better than the thing before. And it makes the world so happy, it makes me so happy, and I am completely inspired by her.

So, these are the people I think about. These are the people that I pay attention to, the people that know their amazingness, know that their lives are amazing, know that they’re put here on Earth to add value to all of us, to be examples of what’s possible for all of us. We are all creative, and we all have a certain gift that we can put out and give to the world and be an example of what’s possible.

So, listen my friend, you are amazing. Your life is amazing. Today is your potential and your opportunity to be that, and to give yourself not only the gift but to give everybody else the gift of your amazingness as well. Be brave, do it with sweaty armpits and do the thing that you know you’re here to do. I’m going to go first, and you guys just keep following along and let’s have a great conversation about it.

And I can’t wait to hear from you, and I mean hit me up on my Instagram and tell me what you’re doing, what amazing things you’re doing and putting out in the world. I want to hear all about it. Don’t be shy. Alright, I love you, guys, have the best Thursday and I will see you next week.

Thanks for listening to Reinvented After 40. If you want more information or resources from the podcast, please visit KymShowersLifeCoach.com.