Brain Dump

The host of the podcast talks about her recent experience at a Jazz Basketball game where she was recognized and celebrated. She also discusses how important it is to not waste one's life and to make the most of every moment. She shares a story about a motivational speaker who talked about the importance of stress and how it can be both helpful and damaging. She emphasizes the need to not live in a constant state of fear and worry. Finally, she encourages listeners to envision their best state and strive to achieve it in all areas of their lives. Hello, this is your host, Allie Hansen. Welcome or welcome back to the Overcome and Become podcast. Let's get motivated. Hello, hello, everyone. Welcome or welcome back to Overcome and Become. This is your host, Allie Hansen, and I am thrilled to be here for this episode. So oftentimes, people will ask me, how do you always come up with episodes? And that's honestly the hardest part, coming up with episodes every single week. So this week, we're kind of throwing together, not random thoughts, but a lot of like bursts of inspiration that I've really felt more recently and things that I have really discovered and ultimately just a lot of good stuff that's going to help you be able to have an eye-opening experience to really live essentially your dream life. So before we do that, we are going to start with our life recap, because that is always a good, good time. So I had the best time at the Jazz Basketball game. I cannot express to you guys this, I didn't know what to expect going into it. I really was kind of going in with low expectations, because you know when you get invited to certain things or you go on a trip and you kind of have all these expectations set for it. And then if things don't meet those expectations, you kind of get a little disappointed or a little discouraged. Well, I wanted to go into this completely just almost blind to what was happening, because I really didn't want to have any expectations set. And let me tell you, here's what I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like this cute little thing in the corner where they pull me out on the corner of the court, I ring a bell, people don't even really notice, and then we go back off. No. This happened. So during the second timeout of the first quarter, so right off the bat, like right after the game started, they took me out to the middle of the court, and there was this announcer guy. He was super cool, and he was announcing they were playing a whole slideshow and broadcasting essentially my story and who I am and what I went through and who I am now and what I've been doing. So that was really cool. But we go out there, and I felt so loved and so appreciated and so celebrated, because when I tell you, almost every single person in that stadium was standing on their feet just clapping and cheering as loud as they could and so proud of what I had done. And then when I rang the bell, which, by the way, I wish I could show you guys a video on here, but I rang the bell, and they were like, be super enthusiastic about it. People get really shy when they go out there. So I was like, okay, I can do that. I can be enthusiastic. So I flexed my muscles, because I was showing them off, whatever. And then I grabbed the rope on the bell with two hands, and I start ringing it. And that bell, I swear, was half a pound. I was not expecting it to be that light, so I drug the whole bell across the court, and the announcer and my mom were like, oh, shoot, so they grabbed onto it. And it was just incredible. And then going to my seat and walking around, so many people were congratulating me and telling me how incredible it was. And then this phenomenal guy in the gift shop was like, I just can't express to you how encouraging this was to see you here and see you thriving and being so happy. He said, my grandma just got diagnosed with leukemia, and it's been really hard. And he ended up buying me this jacket, which, if you know, like any sports stadium you go to, professional sports stadium you go to, stuff is super expensive there, whether that's food and drinks or especially if you get, I don't know, what do you call it, like souvenirs? Is that what you call it, at a sports arena? And he bought me this jacket, which I have already almost worn into the ground. I love it so much. And so it's just such a good reminder that there are such incredible people out there. And I had the best time at that game. I seriously went away like so satisfied and so grateful for everything that Brevin McPeak set up and then what the jazz community did, because that made me feel so appreciated for being able to be a cancer survivor, because beating cancer is hard. That's really a personal battle that you have to fight. And even with all the people around you, at the end of the day, you're the one being pumped full of chemotherapy. You're the one body that's really, really sick and that you're really trying to keep alive and get as healthy as you can. So it felt really good to do that and that was so fun. And then other than that, I've been going to school, that's been doing good. After all this travel, my grades kind of dropped a little bit, which if you know me, that stresses me out. But I got those all up so that felt really good. I've been working a lot at Dam Outlet and we've been really busy. So that's been fun. But overall, it's just been really, really good. Just living the dream. But now let's get into what this episode is actually about. All righty, everyone. Now we are into the good chunk of this podcast. As you saw by the title of this podcast, it is Don't Waste Your Life. Now I feel like there's a lot of different ways this could be taken and a lot of different things that you are probably thinking like, oh boy, what is she going to get into? But let me tell you, we have some good stuff. So to start us off, I would like to say that to me, every moment of life is so important, as I feel like it should be to most people, because our life here on this earth is so, so short. And I will not stop talking about that because it is. And oftentimes it feels like people waste their life. They throw it away. They have so many valuable and precious moments that they could have really been there for and they could have really soaked up and just absolutely enjoyed it. But they kind of just brushed it off. And I got to go see this public speaker a couple years ago for my dad's company called Canyonlands Healthcare. He's the CEO of that company. So he has a ton of different employees because they have, I think, maybe one or two clinics in Nevada and then quite a few all over Arizona. But a couple years ago, he had this motivational speaker come because if you know with a company, you always want to figure out ways how you can improve, how you can move on and become better because there's always ways to be able to do that. And with that being said, if you have employees, you want to keep them inspired. You want to keep them engaged and you want to keep them trained to the best of their ability. And a lot of times when you do the same thing for a long period of time, you get burnt out, right? We kind of lack motivation or we put half as much effort into something that we used to put 100% of effort in. So he had this motivational speaker come for this whole conference that he did. And me being me, I was like, dad, can I please come listen to him? Because I wanted to really be there and see what it was like to like see an actual motivational speaker in real life. And so I got to go and I learned so much from him. But for some reason, something that stuck with me and this is pretty impressive that it stuck with me because this was years ago. He was talking about stress and how important that can be and also how damaging that can be. And he was talking about how people overuse stress so much. It's pushed way past its limits, so it's viewed as this negative thing. And when it is pushed past those limits, it is a negative thing. But some sort of stress is important because if we were just completely nonchalant about everything and just oblivious to everything, thinking you're just going to cruise straight through life, that is not the mentality to have it all right. But I was thinking about this the other day with all of the health problems that I have personally gone through and thinking about how many other trials people go through in their own individual life. We can't rely on stress to keep us going. We can't be in a constant state of fear and worry to keep us going because is that really even living? If we're constantly worried about something, is that really living? I want you guys to think about that question for a second because this was something that I really thought about to myself because it is important, right? For someone like me who has had leukemia, which is cancer, and then all these other health problems after that, there are certain signs that might be normal for one person and they just kind of brush it off and move past it, but could be really scary for me. But the mentality that I have tried to get myself in is, yes, I should be aware and I should look out for those things, but I can't live in this constant state of fear. I cannot rely on that because I will never actually be able to live my life. That will be a physical barrier that's going to hold me back and restrict me from living and becoming the person that I want to be. Now that moves me into my next inspirational idea and that's I want you guys to really picture how it feels to be at your best state. I know that's hard because maybe you feel like you have reached your best state before, so that might be really easy. You can go straight to that moment and picture it and live it and be in that moment, but for some people, they still constantly work for it. When I talk about this, I'm not saying, oh, think about the time you were most perfect. That's not what I'm saying at all. I want you guys to get that out of your head if you're listening to this podcast because we're never talking about perfection because there's no way that you can ever be perfect. But I want you to think about that internally, externally, mentally, in every single area of your life. If you were feeling your best, what does that feel like to you? Think about that for just a second. Put yourself in that area, in that state, and go for it. Drive for it because we are restricted as human beings. We restrict ourselves and other people restrict us and our, what's that part of your brain that's on like the front of it? Oh, shoot. I know I'm going to get this wrong. You're like, okay, you guys are going to laugh at me for this. Frontal cortex. I know I'm so close. I know that's not right. But anyways, that part of your brain is most easily distracted. It's most easily pulled in different areas. And so when someone tells us something, when we tell ourselves something, that part of our brain is going to immediately be pulled to what those words said. So we have to be able to envision ourselves in this different state. We have to be able to tell ourselves these things so that we can convince that part of our brain that we belong there and we're no longer being restricted. Because it's interesting that it is an actual thing that when people tell us things, we put up this barrier without even realizing it. We put up kind of this wall. So if you can build your own, not walls, but shields to those things, it's going to help you be able to get to where you want to be. And then I want you to ask yourself how you're going to get there because that has to be a constant choice that you own up to. People will write letters to their future selves. People will make dream vision boards. People make Pinterest boards. People will write little notes in the notes app of their phone. People will journal. I want you to say out loud how you're going to get there. How you're going to stop living in fear and live this incredible life. I was texting someone the other day, and we were just kind of talking about a lot of different things. But one of the questions that came up is, what is your biggest goal in life? And so I really thought about this. And I thought to myself, well, I have a lot of career goals, I have a lot of financial goals, I have a lot of spiritual goals, I have a lot of physical goals, I have a lot of mental goals, I have a lot of goals that I want to be able to reach with my family, with my future spouse, and all of these goals. But if I had to narrow it down to one thing, what would be my biggest goal on earth? And after I thought about that for a minute, the answer or the reply that I came up with was, I want to live a life that I can feel so satisfied and look back on and not regret anything. If I was taken away from this earth tomorrow, or if I was taken away from this earth in 50 years, after I die, I want to look back on my life and I want to be like, I feel satisfied with what I did. I really lived the life that I wanted to live. I was the happiest version of myself that I could be. I was physically in the best shape that made me feel the best. I felt the Spirit constantly. I felt so close to Jesus Christ and to God. I was very close with my family that I was raised with, and then hopefully the family that I would be able to create. I was so freaking proud of the career and financial levels that I got to reach. That's what you guys should look back on, and it is never going to be too late. In this episode, we're kind of revisiting a lot of things that we've talked about, and going back to that, is it's never too late. I never want you to think, oh, I'm 50 years old, so I guess I'm just done. I guess I'm just stuck here forever, and then the years are going to go on, the days are going to pass, and then it's going to be over, because that's not the case at all. You still have so much time to live this life. The thing that people don't realize, though, is to be able to be in their happiest state and to be the best that they personally can be, it's going to be hard. You're going to have trials that you go through. You're going to have walls that you are trying to defeat, but you have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations. You have to be able to look at something and like it, because it pushes you harder than you think you can go. You have to be able to do something that you know is going to challenge you physically, mentally, intellectually, and just nail it in the head. That was another thing that I was talking about with this person, was that I love soccer. I do love the game of soccer. I love scoring goals. I love being competitive and aggressive, but why I said that I love soccer was because it pushed me. Dance has always been in my blood, so I feel like I can look at choreography, I can learn it, and I can put something together pretty well. With soccer, I have played soccer essentially my whole life, but soccer has always been a lot harder for me. I don't know if that's just the running aspect of it, because if you've ever run even a couple feet in your life, you know that it can be really challenging, but soccer pushes me. I know that in that state, I am growing so much stronger, not just physically, not just cardiovascularly, but mentally. I know that I'm putting myself in that state so that I can become better, and that's what you have to do to be able to reach what you want to reach. You have to know, and you have to be able to own up to the fact and tell yourself that it is going to be hard, and it is going to be challenging, but you will be able to get there. Instead of trying to play a battle in life with a bunch of different people, and try and beat someone at this sport, or beat someone on this test, or do better at this because this person did worse, play a game with yourself. Look at yourself and reflect at the end of the day, figure out how you can beat you. How can you beat you? How are you going to do better than you did yesterday? Because even if you had a really good day yesterday, I can promise you can have an even better day today. That's not saying that you're not going to have setback days, because you most definitely will, but stop playing this game with other people. Start playing the game with yourself, because that's when you're going to see results. That's when you're going to see progress. That's when you're going to see true happiness. Then, while everyone's playing their own game with themselves, when they come together, they can have a good time. The problem with trying to play a game with other people, too, is they don't have the exact same goals, and the exact same dreams, and the exact same visions that you do. Really, you're trying to beat someone at something that is not even on focus of what your end goal is. You have to get that through your head, that when you play games with other people, that's not your goals, that's not your dreams, that's not your aspirations, because you're solely focused on beating them. Beat yourself. Beat yourself. Move past yesterday, reach, and stride, and run for those goals and those dreams that you have in front of you. To finish us off, I have one more thought, and that is, at the end of the day, if you are not absolutely obsessed with the life that you live, then you need to change it. You absolutely need to change it, because you need to become obsessed with this life that you get to live. All right. That felt, I don't know, it felt kind of deep, I guess, a deep podcast, but I think it was good. I hope you all loved and enjoyed this episode. I cannot wait to talk to you guys next week for another very exciting episode. Bye!