It occurred to me that if I want to continue to share my knowledge and learnings with you all, that I maybe need to go back to one of the most fundamental principles to ALL self-improvement, self-discovery, self-reflection, awareness and change. Part of the reason I did not release my episode on fear on Friday was because I had this stark realization that this may make so much more sense if we go to self 101, psychology 101. Once we understand this concept, it makes it so much easier to understand why we do what we do, the reasons behind out decision making, our relationships, how we operate in the world. I rerecorded my episode on fear because of this, which will drop on Wednesday.

The concept is:

EGO.

Everyone has an ego, and most people aren’t even aware of how it effects their daily life. Ego plays a role in your rationale faculties and makes compelling arguments, but ultimately, YOU have control of how much power you let ego have. If you want to think of it this way -the ego is your subconscious personified. It is your limiting beliefs, personified. Let go of it! Leggo your ego. 

Listen in for how it effects our lives, how we operate from a place of ego, and how we can start to become aware of ego and take our power back. 

Find Morgan on instagram at Morgan_Van_D 

Check out the sister show, The Drop Outs, which releases a new episode every Sunday 

When I was ten years old, our teacher handed out assignments to document a trail blazer for Black History month. I was given Oprah. At the time, I only thought she was a TV host, that there was nothing profound about her or her story. All I could think of was makeovers and couch talk. I asked for someone else. With hesitancy and resistance, my teacher allowed me to choose someone else. I chose Nelson Mandela.

If I would have only known at ten years old just how profound she is. If only. Perhaps I could have embrace her lessons, grace, and wisdom at a much earlier age.

Today, I credit Oprah for opening my eyes to the vastness of the world, the spectrum of the human experience, the internal knowing that there is a great magic that stirs in each of us. That every single person, just be being here, is worthy.

All audio is courtesy of Oprah's Masterclass Podcast. I strongly encourage and urge you to listen to the two part series of her interview - it is profound. This 16 minute episode does not do justice to her story in its entirety. The lessons she offers are abundant

SPOTIFY LINKS:

Oprah's Masterclass: Oprah Episode 1 

Oprah's Masterclass: Oprah Episode 2

APPLE LINKS

Oprah's Masterclass: Oprah Episode 1

Oprah's Masterclass: Oprah Episode 2

This is part 2 of the Limiting Belief episode

So what happens when you become aware of the beliefs that are not serving you and begin to replace them with new beliefs that will open space for your ideal life to greet you?

Cognitive Dissonance...... Cognitive what?

This is when you are holding onto two opposing beliefs. And it is incredibly uncomfortable. When you are growing as a person – cognitive dissonance is something that you will go through. It is the tax you pay to for self-development and improvement. 

Habits are hard to break. Limiting beliefs can be difficult to surrender. Quitting old beliefs is like quitting smoking. You may go through the gum and the patch and you are ready to quit and you KNOW that smoking is bad for you, but you have the craving of comfort – of routine, of habit. They often say that when you are a smoker – the hardest part isn’t breaking the nicotine addiction – it is breaking the habit addiction.

Listen in for a more in depth spin on cognitive dissonance. 

Today is part 1 of a 2 part episode. It is ground zero for creating any version of our life we want to experience.

It is the subject of our belief system, and specifically what we identify as limiting beliefs. The way we perceive the world that holds us back from embracing possibility.

What is a belief? It is simply a thought you keep on thinking. You think them so much that they become engrained as “truths.” The beliefs you hold about yourself, others and the world are the lenses you look through – it determines how you interpret and experience the world. Change the lens – change the experience.

If we want to grow our lives, we must start with awareness of ourselves, our current beliefs and do the mindfulness work of changing the lens so that we can see the world for all the possibility it offers. 

What if we shifted the narrative around work-life balance. What if we replaced the term with work-life harmony?

In this episode, Morgan dives into how we have set ourselves up for failure and overwhelm with the terminology and concept of work-life balance and instead offers an alternative way to think about how we can have flow and ease in life with harmony.

Morgan offers several exercises to identify where the discrepancies are in where you are today and where you desire to be in what you identify as a harmonious life. 

Find Morgan on instagram at Morgan_Van_D 

It is easy to turn bad moments into a bad day. To have a bad experience and then feel bombarded with a series of subsequent unfortunate events the rest of the day. And its also easy to snowball that bad day into a bad week and eventually a bad month and then you may have the belief that you have a bad life.

But what if the hard day was actually a good day? What if the hard day with the series of hard moments were actually a series of opportunities?

Have you heard the saying, “it can always be worse?” What if we reframed that into “in what ways is this better?” What if that experience you have labeled as “bad” can be shifted into a gift of sorts?

What if "bad days" are actually gifts? 

We can find such great inspiration in others' success stories. We don't always hear about how they got there though, the trials and tribulations they went through to generate their success. 

They are people too. They are like you. They are like me. We are all human beings navigating the world of opportunity, challenges, failures, fear and expansion. 

The first highlight I wanted to do is about the man behind Starbucks - Howard Schultz. From growing up in Brooklyn in public housing with financial hardship to building a billion dollar brand and a social legacy - Howard's story is truly incredible. 

The goal of these episodes is so that you, too, can see how there is so much possibility int he world. That you, too, can achieve anything you want. 

Find Morgan on Instagram at Morgan_Van_D

In episode 8, Morgan discusses the difference between setting expectations upon people and coauthoring agreements with people. Expectations typically lead to disappointment, angst, turmoil, and resentment. Shifting from an expectation mindset to one of agreements will improve EVERY interpersonal relationship you ever have, or will have. Whether it is your parents, your children, you partner, your boss, your employees, your coworkers - implementing this practice will make a difference for the better 

Make the shift to agreements and you will find so much more ease in all your interactions. 

Shout out to Steve Chandler for the lesson and for my coach, John, for sharing it with me. 

Check out Morgan on Instagram at Morgan_Van_D 

Check out the sister podcast that Morgan cohosts, called The Drop Outs, which releases a new episode every Sunday at 9 AM