Episode #31:

How to Believe New Things with Janet Cagle

Hello, my virtuosas, what an amazing episode I have for you today! We have a lot of wisdom and actionable items for you today, and this episode will be so useful and encouraging to you in your journey of personal growth! We’ll be talking about changing your thoughts and believing new things, and who better to show us how to do that than certified Life Coach and Business Strategist Janet Cagle.

Founder of The 10-Minute Mind Shift Podcast, Janet Cagle is one of the most positive and uplifting people I know. After going through several transformational experiences in her life, she took the leap into life coaching and now helps others up-level their lives and become their virtuosa selves. She joins us today to tell us how to change our beliefs and use new ones to move forward in our lives.

Join us on the podcast this week where we’ll be discussing why it is when you believe in the possibility of creating a result that you’ll see the result. We’ll learn how to challenge our thoughts and replace them with new ones, and share four practical steps you can take to get from where you are now to where you want to go. As Brooke Castillo says, your willingness to be uncomfortable is your currency for success. It’s time to change the way you think!

WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER

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How to change your thoughts and transform your beliefs.

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Why your beliefs aren’t always true and how they might be making you show up in a certain way.

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Why a belief is just a thought you have thought over and over again.

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Why you are in charge of which thoughts to prove true.

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How to use your thoughts to change your life.

FEATURED ON THE SHOW

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Check out more episodes of the podcast here!

TRANSCRIPT

Susan Crockett: Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, the podcast, with Dr. Susan Crockett. You are listening to episode number 31: How to Believe New Things. This is an interview with fellow Certified Life Coach, Janet Cagle. And this episode is dedicated to Janet’s husband, Steve, who has seen her through all the crazy.

Female Announcer: Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, where women learn to love their lives. Do you find yourself frustrated by society’s expectations? Looking for practical advice on how to discover your talents and level up your life? You’ve found the right place. Here’s your host, US News top doctor, robotic surgeon and Certified Life Coach, Dr. Susan Crockett.

Susan Crockett: Hello, my virtuosas. I am your host, Dr. Susan Crockett, and you can call me Sue because today I am not doctoring. We are just having girl chat and hopefully going to bring you something useful and encouraging to you in your own journey towards personal growth and enjoying your life. I’m so excited to be able to talk with you like this.

And I hope you’re having a great day. It is a beautiful sunny day in Texas and it has been over 100 degrees here for the past month. And in the last two days we got some rain and then it has just been absolutely beautiful, like in the 80s, 90s, just lovely. So I am just soaking up the sun and loving it.

I’ve got my little dog Ollie behind me on the chairs, I’m podcasting as always, Ollie’s always sitting here and he’s loving the cooler weather too. He’s really shaggy and cute right now. For those of you all who haven’t met Ollie, Ollie is a Bichon. He’s the happiest little sweetest go lucky dog you’ve ever met. And he is my faithful co-podcaster, my faithful co-host.

Alright, so today’s show, I’d like for you to welcome Janet Cagle. Janet is one of our coaches at Virtuosas Coaching. She’s one of the most uplifting positive people that I know. And she’s got over 35 years in the corporate world of financial services. And although she’s not talking about that specifically today, what she brings to the conversation about believing new things, it’s all of that experience.

Plus she’s been through marriage, divorce, life changing diagnoses and major surgery. She’s managed people. She’s launched and scaled businesses. She’s overcome yoyo dieting and maintained her weight for more than 26 years. And my favorite thing is her podcast.

For those of you that haven’t found it yet you need to go check this out. It’s called the 10 Minute Mind Shift Podcast. And I love how she delivers just bite sized knowledge nuggets, little practical tools that are easy to digest and it’s just in 10 minutes, very, very practical. Who doesn’t have 10 minutes to work on feeling better and working on their brains? And she’s just really right down to the practical.

Susan Crockett: Hey Janet, how are you doing?

Janet Cagle: I’m good. I’m excited to be here.

Susan Crockett: I am so glad to have you here on our podcast. And you have a great topic to talk with us about today. I’m so excited, it’s about how to believe new things, which I think our listeners are really going to sink their teeth into this. I think you have a lot of really good wisdom, some very actionable items for them, and I can’t wait to get started. So, thank you so much for being on the show, and let’s get to it.

Janet Cagle: Alright, my pleasure.

Susan Crockett: Alright, so let’s start with tell me about how you came to life coaching and why you became a belief coach? Why is that your niche? It’s kind of an interesting unusual niche, so tell me about that.

Janet Cagle: Well, actually I found Brooke Castillo through her podcast in about 2016; I had gone through a radical hysterectomy a few years before. And so I was in menopause and going through cravings and urges like crazy, and things that I was trying, just wasn’t working. So I stumbled onto her podcast and her approach was different, it was a mindset approach. And so that’s what got me started listening to her. And then I went back, when I heard her say that you could literally rewire the neural plasticity in your brain.

So I went back and binge listened to her podcast and then in 2017 she started her Self Coaching Scholars, I continued to listen. I started experiencing so many transformations in my own life that eventually I joined Self Coaching Scholars in 2018. And then a few months later I went ahead and joined the certification program, which was the first online certification program that she offered. And so I was an early adopter for that, it suited my learning style, so I jumped right in. That’s how I got started.

Susan Crockett: And that’s how we became Certified Life Coach sisters.

Janet Cagle: Right, exactly. So the very first exercise in Self Coaching Scholars was her concept of believing new things. So that was the very first exercise that I did in Self Coaching Scholars.

Susan Crockett: When you joined. So she has a curriculum that’s monthly and it changes over the years. But it happened to be the month that you joined it was about believing new things. And you were like, yeah, this is awesome.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. And originally what’s interesting is I thought when I first saw the title, I thought well, I’ve been following her for a couple of years now and I’ve really done a lot of mindset work, I’ve had several transformations. So this one doesn’t really sound like it’s going to be an area of opportunity for me.

Susan Crockett: Yeah, I got this one, I can hear it.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, exactly.

Susan Crockett: How many times have I done that with this brain work? Oh my gosh.

Janet Cagle: It gets worse. I was like I might actually be the first student that this doesn’t do anything for. So I’m just going to sit this one out and yeah, I’ve got this one, so I’m going to sit back and just watch the other students. And I just felt so evolved, like I didn’t need this one. And so March 12th, I was sitting in my cubicle working for a financial institution and an email hit my inbox. And the thought entered my mind that said this is going to be complicated, I’m not going to understand what this email says. Just the subject line looked complicated.

Susan Crockett: You’re like oh no, oh my gosh.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. So it took my breath away. It kind of was like a sucker punch a little bit because then it dawned on me, I still have a belief that I need to work on. But it felt more than a belief, it felt like a circumstance. It felt like part of my DNA. It felt like this wasn’t a thought to change.

Susan Crockett: This is just who I am.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, this is who I am. I am five foot six, I have blonde hair, blue eyes and I have a reading comprehension problem. So this might actually be provable in a court of law, so this would be a great one to work on for this month. And I might actually prove that not all of Brooke’s tools work for everybody. Isn’t that sad?

Susan Crockett: You set out to prove her wrong, yeah.

Janet Cagle: So yeah, so that is where I jumped in, in Self Coaching Scholars. And I’ll tell you this goes back to the second grade. I remember sitting at my mom’s kitchen table and reading a couple of paragraphs of a book and her asking a few questions, and I didn’t know the answers to the questions. She would get frustrated. I would get frustrated. She was wanting me to read and comprehend so bad. And I was wanting to, but wanting to didn’t make it happen.

And so it became kind of this thread sewn into my DNA of who I was, teachers knew it, they said it to me all the time. Math was hard. Things were more difficult for me in school, I remember. So this was more than just a belief, this was like I really do not read and comprehend well. And so I thought this would be a great one, if I…

Susan Crockett: To challenge.

Janet Cagle: If I can up level this belief, because here’s the thing, I was also very successful.

Susan Crockett: Right. You were in this financial institution having a business, sitting there going this isn’t really jiving.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. It doesn’t match, I’m in compliance, I’m in risk management, that’s my job is to read and comprehend regulations. And so here I am sitting there with this belief that I don’t do it well, that I don’t do it well, that that’s just who I am.

So what’s interesting then is when I think about how it made me show up, having that belief and why it’s so important for your audience to understand and really identify the beliefs that they’re carrying through their lives. Because you know, as they know, the thoughts create the emotions, and that becomes the fuel for how you take action or don’t take action, and that’s how you create results. So a belief is just a thought that you’ve thought over, and over, and over again until you believe that it’s true. A belief is just a thought.

And so when you’re having the belief, in this case that I don’t read and comprehend complex material. That creates an emotion of not being very smart, not being very capable, not being the subject matter expert. All of this lack and insufficiency kind of emotions and that becomes the fuel for my action line. So my action line was full of not raising my hand for projects that I could have and should have, and would have been perfect for, because I had this underlying belief that this was probably going to be too much of a project for me to read and comprehend the material.

Susan Crockett: And so what happened when you went through this month with the belief changing thing with Brooke?

Janet Cagle: Yeah, so it was actually a 30 day exercise. And by day four I went from not believing that this was even going to be a possibility that I could change this thought to believing my new thought. So I’ll share with you my old thought was, I can’t read and comprehend complex material, I’d decided. And so her exercise is to identify an old thought and then create a new thought that you want to believe on purpose, one that will serve you, one that will offer you an up level in your life, an upgrade in your life.

And so I chose the thought I can read and comprehend complex material and I know how to apply it. So I actually even upped…

Susan Crockett: Upped the game.

Janet Cagle: Yes.

Susan Crockett: This is beautiful.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. So then the second part of that exercise is to create the new thought, write it down. And then she’ll have you write down how you feel. How do you feel about this thought right now the way it is? So my new thought, I thought there’s no way that’s true, it’s impossible, it’s in my DNA that I don’t read and comprehend, this is an imposter thought, this is a fraudster. And so imagine I’m a compliance risk management person with fraudulent thoughts.

Susan Crockett: It’s fraud.

Janet Cagle: So it was making me feel all kinds of queasy and lightheaded, I shouldn’t even be in this position, I mean honestly, how did I even get here? And so then the third step is to write down how you want to feel about this. Well, I wanted it to feel true. I want it to not only feel true, I want to be able to take action from the truth that this new thought was real and that I actually could take action from believing this new thought.

Susan Crockett: That’s a really big step, that’s a really kind of a scary stepping off the ledge kind of step, but it is so critical to this idea of thought transformation, right?

Janet Cagle: Yeah, exactly. Because it almost, when you are holding yourself in this prison of your old thought it almost becomes your comfortable cocoon too, because I don’t read and comprehend, then I don’t have to put myself out there. I actually have an excuse, especially if I think it’s provable in a court of law so true.

Susan Crockett: Just the way it is, yeah.

Janet Cagle: And so then finally the fourth step, and this is key, you ask yourself, what evidence do you have already that your new thought is actually true? And so this is what’s important because your brain wants to prove your thoughts true. Whether they are or not, whatever thought you have, your brain is going to prove them true.

Susan Crockett: It’s always trying to verify, fact check, validate, justify, yeah, it’s very powerful that way.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. So you get to be the one to decide which thought to prove true. So the first day it was like there’s no way, this isn’t possible, there’s no way this is true. I have zero evidence that this thought is true. I have so much evidence building a case for this thought, this old thought to be true and my new thought just fraudulent. So you do this for 30 days. So the second day I didn’t really have that much of a difference in what I was thinking and feeling about this thought. And I really didn’t come up with that much evidence.

But by the third day I could feel just a little bit of a softening in my body as far as the feeling and the vibration in my body. My body was opening myself up to the opportunity that this could possibly be true. And so then I started identifying evidence, and it hit me like a ton of bricks. I’ve had my insurance license, my Series 6 63 and Series 7 Securities license. I have a real estate license. I am CRCM certified, which at the time that I got my certification there were only 260 certifications in the United States at all. And there were over 1200 people who had sat for it.

So it was a very limited number of people who had ever sat for the certification. It’s kind of likened to the bar exam for attorneys or the CPA exam for accountants, it’s the CRCM.

Susan Crockett: And you had done this?

Janet Cagle: I did it the first time around 88% no problem, I clearly know the information. So clearly I have all of this evidence in my brain that I…

Susan Crockett: But you had to go look for it.

Janet Cagle: That wasn’t top of mind until the fourth day when I asked myself that question, and it just flooded me. And I got very emotional. I’m kind of getting emotional thinking about it now because when you’ve lived your life, and I think so at the time I was probably 57, 58 years old. When you’ve lived all of those years thinking that you don’t read and comprehend, as blue as my eyes are I didn’t read and comprehend well.

Susan Crockett: Golly, that is wild.

Janet Cagle: It’s nuts though.

Susan Crockett: It is wild.

Janet Cagle: Nuts though.

Susan Crockett: It’s nuts though.

Janet Cagle: By the fourth day, fifth day I get an email in my inbox and I look at it and I’m like I am totally ready for this email. My new thought was this is a game changer. I can totally read and comprehend this material.

Susan Crockett: It’s so good.

Janet Cagle: And not only that, I know how to apply it.

Susan Crockett: That is just amazing, what a great story, that’s incredible. So let’s review the steps for our listeners because they probably each have their own thing that they believe about themselves. What are some examples that you see in other fields? I can think I’m just chunky, I’ll never be thin. That’s a really common one.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, I’ll always be fat.

Susan Crockett: What are some others? I’ll always be fat.

Janet Cagle: I’ll always be fat. Money slips through my fingers. I’ll never have the kind of money in my bank account that I want to have. I’ll never get the promotion. I’ll never meet the man of my dreams. I see people…

Susan Crockett: It’s a big one; it’s such a big one.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, seeing other relationships and looking at them in awe thinking that they won’t ever have that for them. And that breaks my heart because I know that the difference between where they are now and where they could be is the thoughts that they are thinking, not the actions that they are taking, not what they’re wearing, not their make-up, not even…

Susan Crockett: It’s their thoughts.

Janet Cagle: It’s their thoughts because that’s changing everything about how they feel and it changes how they show up. And that is what’s creating their results.

Susan Crockett: Exactly. So let’s start at the beginning, so the first thing in this whole sequence of how to believe a new thing is to start with identifying the old thought, the thought that you’re like wow, that’s not what I want to think. And it seems like a circumstance and I’m going to challenge my listeners. So if you’re going to become your virtuosa selves, seriously think about what thoughts you’re telling yourself in your brain that may be critical or just not true or that you just want to make different. So we’re going to start with that. And then, Janet, go over the steps for us.

We’re going to do a worksheet for them. We’re going to upload a worksheet for them to download on this?

Janet Cagle: Yeah, I’ll send you a workbook that you can put in your show notes and they can click on it and it’s free, it’s amazing.

Susan Crockett: Thank you so much. Okay, so step one then after you figure out which thought you want to work on is?

Janet Cagle: Then create the new thought, there is a variation of that thought, but create the new thought that you want to believe, and you want to prove true.

Susan Crockett: Okay, create the new thought is number one. And then number two is?

Janet Cagle: Write down how you feel about this new thought.

Susan Crockett: Okay. And number three is?

Janet Cagle: Write down how you want to feel about this new thought.

Susan Crockett: And then number four is?

Janet Cagle: Start looking for evidence that your new thought is true.

Susan Crockett: Cool, that’s so awesome.

Janet Cagle: Yeah.

Susan Crockett: Now, when you do your training you also put another layer on top of that, right?

Janet Cagle: Yeah. So I have the 10 Minute Mind Shift Podcast. In my second episode I jump right into possibility thinking, because whatever you think you are right.  And so possibility thoughts are kind of taking you from that current thought, that old thought and you’re looking for possibilities that your new thought could actually be true.

Susan Crockett: Okay, so I’ve got to tell you, this is like – this is my jam, I always joke about how I’m a terrible life coach, I don’t do the coaching, I do teaching. Because my desire is always to get to the fix, I’m totally in the how do you get from the broken thought to the good thought? And how do you fix it? I’m a surgeon, so how do you fix it as fast as you can?

So for those of you that have been listening to me for a while, the first seven or eight podcasts were on the transformation tool. What Janet is talking about here on possibility thoughts is what we call ladder or bridge thoughts in that series. And so it’s the thoughts that get you from where you are to where you want to be. But Janet’s got a different fresh way of talking about it. So go ahead, talk with us about the possibility thoughts and how you teach about that.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. So where all of us start, whenever we’re trying something new or we become aware of a thought that doesn’t serve us, we all start in the area of impossibility. So identify that impossibility thought and then flip the script and you change the plot forever. And so challenge that impossibility thought and then finally create possibility thoughts.

So here’s what it sounds like, when you are flipping the script you’re going to ask yourself, what are some ways that I can? What are some ways that I am? What are some ways that I do? And what are some other ways that I can? So what you’re doing is you’re sending your brain on the hunt for possibility, because impossibility rises to the surface of our brain.

Susan Crockett: Rises right away.

Janet Cagle: It’s very easy, yeah; it’s just like waiting underneath the subconscious, waiting to be able to pop its head up. So when you start challenging your brain that way that’s when you really flip the script.

So I have a great example. So a lot of times when people have never been a runner before and they’re maybe having thoughts that I’m never going to be a runner, for whatever reason. Here’s how you’re going to challenge that old thinking. What are some ways that I can become a runner? What are some ways that I am becoming a runner? What are some ways that I do what other runners do? What are some other ways that I can do what other runners do?

So it might sound something like this and all you do is you add it’s possible to the beginning of the statement. It’s possible that I can put my running shoes on every day. And if you do that…

Susan Crockett: Wow, that’s cool, I like that.

Janet Cagle: Very minimal, right?

Susan Crockett: Yeah.

Janet Cagle: It’s possible that I’m becoming a runner by educating myself on the benefits of running, by joining a running group, by getting a running partner. This list can go on and on forever.

Susan Crockett: But it’s possible that way?

Janet Cagle: It’s possible. It’s possible that I run at least two minutes every day. Who can’t run two minutes every day? It’s possible that I can do what other runners do by reading something every day about how to become a better runner, at whatever level of runner you are you can start reading about how to become a better runner. And that’s what other runners do.

Susan Crockett: It’s so powerful.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, very powerful, but it’s going to be uncomfortable because your body’s still saying, yeah. But your brain’s still going to say, “Yeah, but you’re not a runner.”

Susan Crockett: Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Yeah, but. Yeah, but.

Janet Cagle: So your willingness to be uncomfortable, we’ve heard Brooke say this a million times, is your currency for success.

Susan Crockett: Yeah, it is, as soon as you find that you know that you’re in the right direction. You know that’s where you push.

Janet Cagle: Yeah. And so when you start believing in the possibility of creating the result, that’s when you’re going to start to see the result.

Susan Crockett: Fantastic. Alright, so this has been a really awesome fun podcast. Let’s sum it up and give our listeners the take home.

Janet Cagle: Yeah, I can do that in two quotes.

Susan Crockett: Okay, give me a quote. I love quotes.

Janet Cagle: Wayne Dyer said, “When you believe it you will see it.” He actually has a book, so if your listeners are really interested in going deeper, it’s a book, When You Believe it You Will See it. And then Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right.”

Susan Crockett: You are right, that’s one of my favorite ones.

Janet Cagle: So simple and so true.

Susan Crockett: So you know what, I love those quotes. That’s a really great way to sum it up and take this home. Before I got into life coaching and understood this thought work, I always thought that when I listened to Wayne Dyer, and I didn’t really get deeply into him, so I totally misunderstood it. But I thought it was kind of that name it or claim it thing. If you dream it and say it then it’ll magically appear.

And it wasn’t until I got into this level of thought work where I understood really the depth of it, where it’s not name it and claim it, it’s change your thoughts, change your feelings, change your behaviors and change your results. It doesn’t mean that everything’s just going to come magically to you.

Janet Cagle: Right.

Susan Crockett: And it doesn’t mean that the laws of nature are going to be disrupted either, so I’m I’ll put that disclaimer in here too. I had a patient come to me one time and she said, “I should be able to think and eat whatever I want if I am a spiritual thinking being. I should be able to eat rubber tires for dinner and it will be fine.” And I’m like, “No, that’s just not going to work. It doesn’t work that way, we still operate in the laws of this world and nature. And you can think that you can digest a rubber tire all you want but it’s not going to change the fact that your body won’t.”

Alright, so here’s what we’ve shown you today. Four very practical steps on how to create a new belief and then Janet’s added this idea of layering on possibility thoughts or this list of thoughts that she has that I think is just amazing, that helps you actually get from where you are to where you want to go. Awesome.

So where can you find Janet? You can always find her virtuosa.com where we have private coaching, awesome coaches. And Janet is one of our amazing coaches there. But you can also look for her on the 10 Minute Mind Shift Podcast which is broadcast through Apple Podcasts. And then everywhere else that you want to find her is the same, it’s janetcaglecoaching.com. So she has a website that’s janetcaglecoaching.com, her Insta is at Janet Cagle Coaching. And her Facebook is Janet Cagle Coaching, so go check her out.

And in case you are wondering what we’re listening to and reading this week, I’ve got a lot of stuff this week, she had some and I had some. So what we’re listening to, she’s totally into Taylor Swift, I think I mentioned this album before, she has her new album, Folklore out.

And the thing that Janet was talking about as we were talking about why she’s listening is you may not always agree with Taylor Swift or you may not love her voice, or maybe you do. But she’s definitely talented and she’s so authentic in what she does that it’s inspiring. And her new album is just beautiful, so take a listen in there.

I am actually listening to an older album by Ray LaMontagne, Gossip in the Grain. I’ve been listening to the whole album. It’s kind of my favorite melancholic indulgent album. I have been having that kind of a week, just kind of melancholy. And I just love how soulful and raw his voice is, really beautiful music.

And then the other thing I’ve been listening to is The Köln Concert, which is a jazz album, probably the most famous, most downloaded jazz album of all time, it’s piano jazz. It’s an impromptu concert by Keith Jarrett, amazing recording.

And I found that through a podcast that I’m listening to, this new podcast that I found called Cautionary Tales. Have you all heard of it? It’s by Tim Harford and Pushkin Industries. And it just started over the last couple of months and the episode in which he talks about the story behind The Köln Concert and Keith Jarrett is called – I think it’s episode 7, it’s called Bowie, Jazz, and the Unplayable Piano. So if you’re a fan of music, or even if you’re just interested in hearing the stories behind the scene in some of these other venues then this is a great one, I recommend it.

What Janet’s reading, she’s reading a really interesting book called The Motivation Myth: How High Achievers Really Set Themselves Up to Win, and that’s by Jeff Haden. We’re putting all of these links in the show notes by the way, so you can just go to the show notes on virtuosacoaching.com/podcast or you can go on Apple Podcasts and find it, or anywhere you listen in to your podcasts.

And Janet’s watching on Netflix a movie called Defending Jacob, which is a heroic epic movie about defending. Just check it out you all, check it out.

Next week I’ll be talking with Lisa Becker and she’s going to talk about five steps to stop binging. So at first when I heard this I thought, well, I’m not a binger, or I don’t know if many of my listeners are bingers. And then I thought, well, maybe it’s not just about binging food, maybe this isn’t just about eating disorders. Maybe this has to do even with like Netflix maybe, binging, I don’t know, we’ll see. Be sure to tune in next week when I interview Lisa Becker, it’s going to be fun.

Okay my virtuosas, have a wonderful week. Love always, Sue. And I will see you next week in episode 32. Have a great week.

Female Announcer: Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming Virtuosa. If you want to find out more, come check out virtuosacoaching.com. That’s virtuosa - with an A - coaching.com. See you next week.

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