Becoming Bigger, Better, And Braver: Motivation And Inspiration With Nancy Pickard

 

You can’t succeed if you give up. To keep ourselves going, we need motivation and inspiration. In this episode, Rodney Flowers touches base with Certified Master Integrative Life Coach and speaker Nancy Pickard. Nancy talks about redefining priorities, seeing yourself as worthy, and creating a joyful, inspiring, and extraordinary life. Listen in and be motivated and inspired by Nancy’s story to start becoming better, bigger, and braver.

—

Listen to the podcast here:

Becoming Bigger, Better, And Braver: Motivation And Inspiration With Nancy Pickard

What does it take to have the passion, confidence and guts to climb Mount Kilimanjaro at the age of 61? Nancy Pickard knows and she’s here with us. She is the author of Bigger Better Braver: Conquer Your Fears, Embrace Your Courage, and Transform Your Life. She draws on her personal journey and her professional experience, coaching and empowering others to guide anyone seeking to discover and design a big juicy, full and deeply rewarding life on their own. She’s going to drop some bombs and nuggets on us on how we can live that big juicy life. Without further ado, let’s welcome Nancy Pickard to the show. Welcome to the show, Nancy.

Thank you. I’m excited to be here.

I’m glad that you are here. Bigger Better Braver, what caused you to write that book?

I was climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and I’m a trainer. I originally thought I was going to write a book for women in their 60s and how to do such a feat because I didn’t find a lot of books about women climbing Kilimanjaro. As I got going, it was such a transformational change for me and it was like my life and my coaching, and how to go from where you are to where you want to go, and how to do it. I decided to use it as a metaphor for my coaching and write whatever your Kilimanjaro is. You don’t have to be climbing that mountain or that mountain. We all have mountains to climb and I’m going to help you do it. That’s what my book is all about.

Why Bigger Better Braver? Why that title? What’s the story behind that?

The story behind it is that I couldn’t figure out a title for my book. First, it was going to be What’s Your Kilimanjaro? I realized that unless you’re climbing Kilimanjaro, you’re not even going to read my book. I came up with 1,000 different titles and nobody who’s in my circle agreed on one. They said, “Stop thinking about it. One day it’ll happen.” A month later, I woke up in the middle of the night. I sat up and said to my partner, “Bigger Better Braver.” That was it. Everyone loved it. It was a download from the universe. I knew it was right and I love it. It’s how do you be bigger? How do you make your life bigger? How do you make your life better? You have to be braver. You have to step out of your comfort zone. You have to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, Bigger Better Braver.

I agree with you. Everyone has a Kilimanjaro in their life. A lot of times that Kilimanjaro, that mountain, that challenge, that obstacle or whatever it is seems so daunting. The mere presence of the Kilimanjaro in your life, in my life or in the lives of others can be intimidating and cause you to believe that you can’t climb it and you can’t get over it. That is insurmountable. How at 61 did you conjure up the bravery and the courage to climb Mount Kilimanjaro?

I have been a personal trainer. I owned a gym and I was a trainer for sixteen years. Exercise and proving my self-worth through pushing my body comes naturally for me. It is my go-to. I love to do that. When I was turning 60, which was this formidable number like, “I can’t believe I’m turning 60,” I knew I had to do something big.” I had to prove to myself like, “You still got it going on. You can do big things. It’s just a number.”

By that time, I tried to get somebody who wanted to do it with me. It’s not like asking somebody to go to dinner. Not a lot of people are saying, “Sure. I’ll go to Africa. I’ll climb the mountain and I’ll train with you.” For a while, I couldn’t find anybody. Team In Training for leukemia were doing a group. I have done marathons, triathlons and all kinds of things with Team In Training. This was their first time doing it and I was like, “This is perfect for me.” I signed up with them and even though I didn’t train with them because I was all over the place where I was in my life at that point living, I’m a trainer. I knew how to train. I live in Colorado so I live in altitude. I had that going for me. I pushed myself and I trained. I had a schedule and I did it all. I was so over-trained by the time I got there. The climb was nothing for me. It was easy for me.

What you said is gold. We could stop the show right now because you are so prepared for your challenge that when you went up against the challenge, it was nothing for you. I believe that some of the things that we face in life are not that hard and difficult. It’s not even insurmountable. It’s just that we’re not prepared for it. We don’t take the time to train for it. There are various ways of doing that being a person of resilience. Pushing ourselves to the max and expanding to discover what our bodies can do is something you and I have in common. Why is that important for you?

I’m not sure how it started but I had owned a gym since I was in my 40s. I became a personal trainer and then I started to excel. I’m doing marathons and triathlons. Owning a gym and having everybody in my community coming to me, the men and women, the kids after school and the football players on the team became part of who I was. My house was known as the jock house. It was how I have shown. Also, my parents were very athletic. I came to it. It was one of the ways that we found value in ourselves and then it grew.

The fact that it’s a value for you is important. I feel that challenging and pushing myself frequently builds resilience and the muscle of tenacity to not just settle for when I get tired or when it gets difficult but to actually push. I’m curious about how far I can go. How can I perform against this? I asked questions like, “What if I get over it? What if I assert myself in a way beyond what I was getting for? I found that even if I don’t win per se, I discovered something new about myself. That is a rewarding feeling and I want to do it again. It’s something that I want to repeat because I’m always challenging and pushing myself. I’m always competing with myself.

When I’m able to expand and discover more, that’s growth. I feel like I’m becoming a better person. I’m grateful for the challenges and obstacles that show up. It’s the way you would feel once you got to the top of Kilimanjaro because you conquered it. It’s like this big mountain, as big and intimidating as it is, you were able to conquer that. That’s a great feeling and it does something to your psyche when it comes to the next challenge, the next big thing or the next intimidating thing. You look at it differently. How can I or what if? What’s the strategy? How do I need to train? All of that process, to me, that’s the juice of life.

I say that juice is in the journey. It’s not in the end game. It’s in the journey. I write this book Bigger Better Braver and then the universe throws me every opportunity in my face like, “Do you think you’re bigger, better, braver? Try this and try that.” I have a mindset, “If I can’t, I must.” I know that even if the imposter syndrome steps in and gets in my brain, the moment I step in, I will be exactly what I think I’m not. Just in the doing, you become it, so step in. That’s my advice to everybody. Do not sit on the couch. The last person in a race still beats the person on the couch. Step in and get comfortable with being uncomfortable because you are going to the juices in the journey. You are going to become everything that you’re afraid you’re not in getting that.

It's not in the end game; it's in the journey. Click To Tweet

You mentioned a little bit about the mind and what that does for your mind. Give us your explanation of how facing challenges, stepping up to the plate, conquering your fears, and being uncomfortable. What does that do for your mind?

Every time you do something that you’re afraid to do, you’re building that muscle. Competence creates confidence. Every time you do it, it gets easier. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to be afraid. People think they have to be in a fearless state to do something. Note to self, that is never going to happen. Every time I step on a stage, do something new or build a course, there’s fear involved. I ski down double black diamond mountains and I’m 65 years old thinking, “Please, let me be able to do this and don’t fall because I won’t heal the same way.” It’s all part of the journey but when you do something you’re afraid to do, you feel so good about yourself. It’s way better than if you go and do something that you had no fear around.

I feel bad for people who are letting fear keep them back, thinking that other people are stronger, more successful or less fearful than them. They’re not. A conversation that comes in handy is the Olympics. You might think that all of these athletes are so incredible and they are born these great athletes. That’s not true. They’re willing to be in more pain than we are. That’s what it comes down to. I’m a triathlete. I’m willing to be in more pain than somebody else but only so much. These people are willing to give up, practice, and break down their bodies way more. It’s all of those things to get to the end game. People who quit don’t even know sometimes how close they are to the end. They can’t see the end. The only people that aren’t successful are those that quit.

How is it that you are able to stay in the game mentally and not quit, or have that belief in yourself and get over the limitations that may come up in your mind or in your self-talk about the task in front of you? How is it that you’re able to consistently do that even at 65 or however young you are?

I have a belief that I need to stay in alignment with what I tell myself I’m going to do. As a master life coach, I can’t ask other people to hold themselves in alignment if I’m not willing to do the same thing. It doesn’t feel honest for me. I have the perfect business to keep me set in alignment because I ask other people every day.

It would be like when I used to own a gym. I would be with men and they’d be like, “I can’t lift that.” I picked up this 25-pound weight and I do ten biceps. I’m like, “If I can do it, you can do it.” I walk my walk and I talk my talk. That keeps me doing the things I say I’m going to do because I know I need to hold other people accountable, so it starts with me.

It’s the muscle that I have learned to exercise because it keeps me feeling good about myself. I help people uncover the very disempowering beliefs from their childhood that are in their subconscious that they’re not even aware of. What happens is that those beliefs are put into our minds to keep us safe as children. They do keep us safe but they stop keeping us safe as adults. They just keep us small.

I’ve uncovered a lot of my own shadow beliefs that make it easier for me. When I work with my clients and what comes up for them. There are things like, “I’m not worthy and broken. I need to control everything to stay safe. My opinions don’t matter. My voice doesn’t matter.” All of these different beliefs that kept us safe as little children just keeps us small. When you uncover them as an adult, you can come up with a new empowering belief that’s in alignment with the goals that you’re trying to set for yourself, then you’ll become much more successful.

For someone who’s saying, “I want to be bigger, better and braver. Where do I start? I have those beliefs. Being bigger, better and braver sounds nice, but I’ve been down that road before and I’ve hurt myself or it didn’t work out,” whatever the case may be. What is your response to them?

You have to have a lot of faith that the universe is there to protect you and give you what you need. A lot of times, things happen. We think they happen to us but they happen for us. I got divorced after 26 years. It knocked me to my feet and I was broken. I never thought I would recover. Part of my resiliency is that I didn’t see it then. I couldn’t see the big picture.

I thought the whole picture of how I thought my life would be was over. As I rebuilt myself and learn to trust, honor and respect myself, I learned to love myself. I learned to self-reference instead of other reference or looking for other people to tell me how I should see myself. “If you don’t love me, then I don’t love me,” that was my attitude with my ex-husband. That took me a long time.

You can’t see the big picture but you have to know that the big picture is out there. Maybe you fell or you got hurt. I’ve gotten hurt a lot but you’ve got to get back up. You have to know that there’s an evolution of your soul that’s happening on this Earth right now this time around and everything is happening for you. If you don’t follow through, you’re not using the gifts that the universe wants you to use. You’re not utilizing everything you can be.

Everything that happened to you, Rodney, happened so that you could be giving these gifts to the world right now. Who knows where you’d be if none of that happened? You have to see that everything is the way it’s supposed to be. As long as you keep going and you look at the lessons or I call them blessings from the lessons, you have to be able to look for them and recognize that there are blessings even in the things that seem like tragedies at the time.

Every time you do something that you're afraid to do, you're building that muscle. Competence creates confidence. Click To Tweet

I totally agree. I believe that the challenges that show up are guides for us if you’re looking at them through the right lens and they are checkpoints. I know this sounds a little childish, but when you’re playing a video game, there are different levels to the game. A lot of times, getting from one level to the next can be challenging. Sometimes you seem like you’re whipped through several levels and then you get to one. It’s like, “I can’t pass this level.” You keep trying and it seems like you can’t get it, but all the while that you are trying, you’re getting better. You’re learning something new. You’re learning something about the opposition and about the game and challenge.

You’re also learning something about yourself more importantly. Learning is taking place. That is what we want to recognize when we are in those situations. As you said, “What’s the lesson to be learned?” I always look at it as what can I harvest out of this situation? When I start looking at what I can harvest, then it doesn’t appear as a challenge or only a challenge anymore. It’s more so of an opportunity to gain whatever there is to gain, which would otherwise not be there if this challenge didn’t exist.

It’s something to be grateful for because opportunities are rare. Opportunities to grow, see ourselves, develop and learn are the opportunities that we don’t want to take for granted. We don’t always get to choose how they show up. Sometimes we create our own opportunities, but when they show up in the challenge, it’s an opportunity for you to be grateful for that and take full advantage of it.

I agree, and they are stepping stones. I still fall on my face. Things still happen. I can get up upset and then I have to become the observer instead of the reactor and say, “What can I learn from this? What can I do differently? How else can I see this? What am I making mean about me?” These are all great questions that the observer can look at a situation and not be the reactor and not get stressed out. What can I learn here? You get upset. You recognize that it didn’t work out the way you wanted it to, and you go back to the drawing board. Everything is there to support you.

Sometimes I feel that we make it about ourselves. In all reality, it’s not about us in the first place. It’s really about that big picture. In my show, I talk about self-regulating. We have this reaction to things, a reptilian or animalistic way of reacting. When the cortisol gets going, we get reacting. We’re not thinking and it requires you to self-regulate. I call it the stop, drop and roll method. You stop for a second. Stop the racing of the mind and fear. Drop your heart rate, breathe and discover something different, and then roll with that instead of the reaction. We are self-regulating. When you can self-regulate, you come into a sense of consciousness.

Like your example, the first idea of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is maybe like, “We’re not doing that.” You think about all the things that can go wrong, how much you’re out of shape, and how hard it’s going to be. You’re not even thinking about the possibility of it working out for you. You have to come into that consciousness and then see it and visualize it, then it becomes more of a possibility. That’s a skill that we all should learn. It’s that initial self-regulation and the moment of breath and consciousness where it’s like, “Hold up, what is this? What does this mean? What is the true narrative, not the fear-based narrative, but the true narrative around this?”

Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro is big, running a marathon is big, losing 20 pounds or changing careers is big. All of these things are big but if you chunk it down into small steps, each step is not big. You’ll lose 2 pounds. You look at different places to live. You chunk it all down. You start climbing up to 12,000 feet or 13,000 feet. You do all of these things in small, doable and actionable steps, and then it grows. When you train for a marathon, you do 2 miles. The next week you do 3 miles and you keep ongoing.

 

There’s a hill outside of my house. It’s a very big hill. Up this hill and back is over half a mile. It’s a little short of a mile but it’s definitely over half a mile. I walk this hill about three times a week. When I started walking this hill, I just want to walk this hill. It’s a big deal. I probably shouldn’t do it by myself. I got to have someone. I got someone and I started walking it once a week. I’ve fallen down this hill several times. I still get up and I walk the hill. One of the ways that I have psyched myself out to get up the hill and get back down is I have little markers in my head.

I don’t look at the hill as “I got to climb this hill. I got to get all the way up there and I got to get all the way back.” I’m timing myself but I don’t even look at the hill in that way. I made several points along the way like little milestones for me. My goal when I start out is to get to that milestone. Once I get to the first one, I say, “Your job now is to get to the second one.” I can’t even start thinking about the second one or the third one until I get to the second one and so on.

I have to go through this whole process of getting through all those milestones and when I’m done, I’ve tackled the entire hill. That’s how I psyche myself out to do it because it was a lot. Now, I’m doing it three days a week. Eventually, we’re going to get the five days. I’m working myself up. I remember when climbing the hill was a thought.

I’ll tell you the honest truth. I’ve had some able-bodied people that were hanging out with me. It was a summer day and there’s a pizza place right up at the top of the hill. It’s funny. I was going to go get some lunch several years ago. They said, “Do you want some pizza?” I said, “There’s a great pizza place right up on top of the hill. Let’s walk up there. It’s not that bad of a walk.” I’m the guy that’s walking with crutches and what society would call disable. I’m like, “Let’s walk up the hill.” Everyone else is like, “No, it’s too hot. I’m not climbing that hill. Do you see that big hill? I’m not doing that.” I’m like, “It’s not that bad.” They’re looking at the hill as if it’s too much. I’m looking at the hill like, “I’m going to conquer you.”

Adding to what you said, you seem to be a very skilled and educated mountain climber. That’s to your strength, but it raises the awareness and it’s something that I want the audience to understand regarding something that’s challenging or fearful to you. The best thing that you can do when you’re in that situation is to learn about what it is that’s in front of you.

If it’s the defense if you’re in a game, the more you learn about that opposing team, the more confidence you have about how you can execute defense. If it’s a mountain, the more you learn about that mountain, terrain, and the points where you can get more traction, those that are steeper and have the greatest turns, it’s more dangerous when it’s wet or the sand. When you understand those things, you can go in it with more confidence because you’ve learned about them.

A lot of times, we see something, it scares us, and that’s it. That’s where it stops. We don’t read about it. We don’t talk about it. We don’t ask anyone about it. We don’t consult with people who’ve already conquered it. We don’t do any of that. We let the fear shut us down completely and take us completely out of the game.

You can't ask other people to hold themselves in alignment if you aren't willing to do the same thing. Click To Tweet

I talk about that in my book too. You don’t just leap. It’s not about just leaping. I don’t believe in that. I believe in getting your ducks in a row, getting your facts, doing your work, and then taking an educated leap. You don’t just go without knowing if you’re not going to work for the next three months, how are you going to maintain yourself? What do you need to know? What are the pitfalls? Get as much information to support you because that will add to your confidence, and your confidence is knowing what you need to know.

Have you seen the movie Free Solo?

Yeah. I’ve been to Yosemite too. That guy was crazy but he knew every step of what he was going to do. It was less crazy when you first hear it. The only part that is crazy is that you don’t know what else can come to play because of its nature and environment. In terms of his own ability and that mountain, he knew every step of the way. He could see it with his eyes closed. He knew exactly what he was going to do. He was as prepared as he could possibly be, which gave him the competence and the confidence that he needed. That’s a great example.

It’s the perfect example. He had been on this mountain several times. He had an intimate relationship with this mountain and he had the utmost confidence in himself. Can you imagine the mental game, the self-taught and the consciousness that he had to have in order to climb the El Capitan with no ropes?

It’s crazy. Have you ever seen it?

Not in person.

It’s unbelievable.

When I saw the movie, I’m like, “This guy has got to be out of his mind.” That’s what you call game-on and being in the zone to pull something like that off. Do you remember seeing the movie, there’s this part where he’s got to make this transition from one side to the other. It’s very tight and he knew that could potentially be an issue for him. The mindset and consciousness that he had to have gone up the El Capitan are unbelievable. It’s more mental than anything because after you get up so far, you know that any little mistake and that’s it. You don’t have any ropes. You’re done.

That’s why it’s unreal.

He defied the odds and he’s an example of mental toughness, discipline and physical fitness. He’s an example of what’s humanly possible when we put our minds to something. We can overcome the fear. That’s what you call a bigger, better and braver. The self-talk that he had to have about that had to be incredible. A lot of times, we talk ourselves out of it.

Our inner critic is there to keep us small, honestly. It’s built in to keep us safe but it ends up keeping us small.

For me personally, I recommend that we challenge ourselves and look for a certain challenge. I don’t mean you make yourself suffer. That’s not what I’m saying. For example, I’ll wake up in the morning. The first thing I want to do I got to hunt something down and I’m going to kill it. That’s my workout.

Do you hunt something down?

I’m a Leo and the Leo sign is like a lion. I have a lion inside of me. My goals and my dreams are my food. If I want to eat, I got a hunt. Every day, my workout is one of the first things like having a fit body. Even with a disability, it’s an intention of mine. It’s a goal, objective and value. Because of that, every day when I wake up, it’s like, “Game on. I got to go hunt. I got to go annihilate this workout. I got to go do it. It’s going to be hard, difficult and challenging, but it’s got to get done.” That’s my challenge of the day. If I don’t get that, there’s something that doesn’t happen in my mind. I need that.

You have to have a lot of faith that the universe is there to protect you and give you what you need. Click To Tweet

It gets your endorphin is high. It gets you high. It gives you what you need. It gets you pumped. You feel good about yourself. You feel ready to take on other challenges and you can save yourself. I’ve already done this before other people haven’t even gotten out of bed yet. I’m on my game.

It starts you out on this perpetual cycle of overcoming. When you narrow in on something like that hunt, you’re in that zone of hunting. It lasts. When I get out of the gym, I’m still focused. What’s the next task? What’s the next thing I want to do?

I used to say to myself the whole time I was training, “If you don’t do this, you’re never going to be able to climb Kilimanjaro.” That was my thing. Bigger, better and braver was to step in. What are you going to do today that’s hard so you know that you can do hard things? That was always part of my challenge. There are so many physical things that I did. I walked on fire, the Tony Robbins thing. I had to learn how to be able to fall down a mountain and protect myself, and all these things that I would be afraid to do. I would say in my head, “If you can’t do this, you’re not going to make it to Kilimanjaro,” and I still do that now.

I say yes to everything that comes my way because I know if I’m afraid to do it, it’s something I’m supposed to be doing. It is part of the evolution of me becoming the next version of me. It’s not about how well I do it because if I don’t do it as well, in my little mind I think I might be able to do it, then the next time, you will. You have to grow and learn. Step in and get it done. How you feel about yourself from doing it is so much greater than how you feel doing something you weren’t afraid of that you did well. Everybody can do well on things that they’re not afraid to do because they already know that they do them well. If we only do the things that we know we can do well, we’re going to be very successful in a couple of things, but our life is going to be so small. That’s the fixed mindset versus the growth mindset.

What is your perception of failure?

Failure is something that happens to everybody. You have to accept it and you have to use it as a tool. It’s a tool. It’s not the end game. It’s a stepping stone. If you fail at something, I believe it’s not your time. If you didn’t get the girl, the guy or the job, then it wasn’t your time. You can’t see why that happened but you have to trust that it happened for a reason. If you’re on autopilot and you’re not looking at what happened, and you’re moving on from thing to thing, you’re going to get another lesson. The universe brings you lessons. I always say, “My eyes are open. Bring me small lessons because I’m watching.” If you don’t learn from the small lessons, you get bigger ones. I no longer need a big one. I’m happy to get the small ones.

What is your mindset towards feedback?

Feedback like failure is important. I talk about that in my book too. Ask for feedback. Don’t be afraid. You don’t have to do everything on your own. It’s not always the how do I do something as much as who can help me do that. Who can I bring in that knows more than I do? I don’t know everything about everything, so who can help me? That’s one thing. Second of all, you have to know where the feedback is coming from. If you trust that the feedback is for you and there’s no hidden agenda, listen to the feedback. Try to be like a child and open yourself to listening with an innocent mind and take it in, and then choose what you can. If you get the same feedback from a number of people, you need to listen.

I think feedback is important. I’m a mentor. I teach coaches how to be coaches. When I’m teaching them, listening to their calls and then giving them feedback, I always tell them, “This is the gold. If I’m telling you what you do well, it teaches you nothing. If I’m telling you what you can do better or differently, that’s the gold.” You need to say to me, “Bring it on. I am open and listening. I want to learn as much as I can learn from you. You are here to help me grow and be better, bring it on.” I brand them with that information right from the beginning. When they finally get to that point, they are like, “Give me. I want that.” It would be great if that’s how we all were.

That’s gold there because when we are looking at our vision and we’re looking at accomplishing things like getting over the mountain, we don’t necessarily see all the things that happen in the journey. When we’re watching great athletes, we’re looking at the end game. We didn’t see all the hours in practice and sacrifices. We didn’t see all of that. You got this pretty picture and it’s like, “That’s what I want.”

If you want that then all of that stuff that has led up to them being, doing and having all of that, you got to want that too. You got to be the type of person that does that. If you want to go to the NFL, there’s work. If you want to go to the NBA, there’s work. You don’t get to the NBA and the work starts. You’re in the NBA because of the work that you’ve put in or fail or wherever you are. That’s all process. I know we’re reverting back to that because fundamentally, that is the underlying tool and strategy that we have to address when it comes to overcoming challenges.

You have to be willing to go through the process, work, strategize and navigate it. The end game is a result of being in the process. That’s what bigger, better and braver comes from. When I look back over my life and I look at the processes that I’ve gone through. I can’t look at where I am right now and not recognize the process. I have to give credit to the process for where I am right now. We all have to do that.

Jack Canfield does this great experiment where he’s in a big room and he has all these people. He puts a blindfold on and he picks somebody that’s all the way on the other side of this room. That person can only say on-track or off-track and nothing else. Jack takes a step and for every step, if he’s closer to that person, that person says, “On-track.” If he goes not in the straight line to get to him, he says, “Off-track.”

There's an evolution of your soul that's happening on this earth right now. This time around, everything is happening for you. Click To Tweet

He does this for as long as it takes until he gets to where the guy is. He then takes his blindfold off and he says, “Raise your hand if I had more on-tracks or off-tracks.” He had twice as many off-tracks as on-tracks. He said, “I got here. If I was going to quit because I had so many off-tracks, I would never have gotten there. It doesn’t matter how many off-tracks I got. Eventually, the on-tracks got me there.” It’s a great example.

I was listening to a commander or a captain talked. He said the same thing but it was a little bit different. He was talking to a room of people and he said, “I know you guys want to accomplish this.” He described their vision and he drew a graph with a vertical line and a horizontal line. He said, “You guys have been working hard and I know you may be feeling down because you haven’t accomplished the end game. You haven’t gotten there yet. You haven’t reached the vision.” He drew a line on the graph and he’s like, “This line represents the vision. You’re not there instead you’re here,” and it was a line below the line where the vision was.”

He said, “Here’s what I want you to do. I want you to think about this line. I want you to think about where you are because here’s where you started.” He drew another line and it was way below the line of where they are. He drew a line between the vision and where they are. He said, “I know you’re disappointed because of this gap. You haven’t experienced that yet. I know you’re upset about it but that’s not what I want you to focus on. I want you to focus on this line,” which is the line between where they started and where they are now.

He said, “This is what you need to celebrate because what you have done to get from where you were to where you are now is the indication that if you keep going, eventually you will get to that vision.” He said, “Don’t feel bad because what this graph represents is progress.” Whenever you have progress, that’s motivation and inspiration to keep going. Just because you haven’t gotten there doesn’t mean you should throw in the towel. You got to look back and see how far you’ve come and let that motivate you to keep going.

That’s good. I like that. I’m going to borrow that.

I thought it was good myself. Nancy, how can people connect with you if they want to learn more about you?

The best way is at my website, which is NancyPickardLifeCoach.com. On my website, you can sign up for a free discovery call. You can follow me on Instagram @NancyPickardLifeCoach. You can follow me on Facebook. You can sign up at any of those places. I have a new course that’s coming out called Bigger Better Braver. It’s a twelve-week Zoom course and that link is on my Instagram.

I also have an evergreen twelve-week Bigger Better Braver course that you get. You do it yourself. It doesn’t come with anything. You get the book, workbook and audiotapes. There’s a live Zoom one. I love that live Zoom. We now have in-person live and live Zoom, but the live Zoom also is twelve weeks with me and in the group, so you’re sharing and getting all the information. There are lots of ways. I’m at Clubhouse too. I’m everywhere.

I’m happy that you have taken the time out of your busy schedule to visit us, be with us, share your knowledge and experiences. My hat goes off to you for climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. That is amazing. You are a testament to what’s possible. My life mission is to be that example and you are exemplifying that in your message of bigger, better and braver. It certainly resonates with me. It is a responsibility for all of us to strive and be the bigger, better and braver versions of ourselves. When you look at yourself from year to year and you’re satisfied with the status quo. If you’re not getting better and you’re okay with that, then I challenge you to challenge that idea about yourself. I don’t believe that neutral is an option. You either move forward or you’re going backward.

I agree. I give away a Bigger Better Braver quiz for being a guest on your show. I also offer everybody a free chapter of my book. You get that first chapter on how to live bigger, better and braver.

Nancy, thank you for coming to the show. It’s been a great conversation. You are definitely a game-changer. You’re changing the game wherever you go. I appreciate you and the message that you have.

Thank you. It’s been my pleasure.

—

There you have it, everyone. Another successful episode of the show. Bigger Better Braver, you’re going to want to go check that out. For those of you who want to expand, go to the next level, conquer your fears, embrace your courage and transform your life, go check out Bigger Better Braver from Nancy Pickard. She dropped some good knowledge on us.

Facing those fears, I know it’s not easy at times but it’s absolutely necessary. The fear is what’s making us and keeping us small. If you want to be bigger, better and braver, a great place to start is conquering your fears. I was talking to my dad. I call my dad about every day. He got on the phone and he said, “I read something. I can’t wait to tell you about it.” I said, “What did you read, pops?” He said, “Old keys don’t open new doors. If you want something different, you got to do something different. You got to be something different.”

Being bigger, better and braver is all about being something different, bigger, better and braver than what you are now. Take a look at where you are and what you can become, then take the initiative to be that. Start where you are. What does being bigger, better and braver look like for you? What does it look like in your body, nutrition, relationships, workouts, job, studies and time? The way you budget your time and your finances. What does that look like?

Be authentic with yourself. Be real with yourself about that. You will find the answer. If you are real with yourself, you will see opportunities and possibilities. There are maybe fear associated with that but that’s your Mount Kilimanjaro. Study it, learn about it and understand what gear you need to conquer it because we need you to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro. Until next time. Peace and love.

 Important Links:

• NancyPickardLifeCoach.com
• Bigger Better Braver: Conquer Your Fears, Embrace Your Courage, and Transform Your Life
• Jack Canfield
• @NancyPickardLifeCoach – Instagram
• Facebook – Nancy Pickard Life Coach
• Bigger Better Braver – Twelve-week Zoom Course
• Clubhouse – Nancy Pickard
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/get-up-book/
• http://RodneyFlowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• https://RodneyFlowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734
• Is Life Knocking You Down? Read Rodney’s inspiring story – Get Up! I Can’t. I Will. I Did… Here’s How! https://rodneyflowers.com/get-up-book/
• Recognize Your Positive Potential – Essential Assertions by Rodney Flowers https://rodneyflowers.com/essential-assertions-book/
• Get Access to Rodney’s Daily Inspiration in your Inbox Today https://rodneyflowers.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=01f76a038256f77a6fbc93590&id=307d726734

About Nancy Pickard

What does it take to have the passion, confidence, and guts to climb Mount Kilimanjaro—at age 61? Nancy Pickard knows.

For most of her adult life, Nancy was a stay-at-home wife and mom and also the owner and operator of a private personal training gym. Her days revolved around taking care of her sons and her husband—who, after 26 years of marriage, wanted a divorce. After dating, getting engaged, and suffering another crushing breakup, she began to redefine her priorities, came to see herself as worthy, and set out to create a joyful, inspiring, and extraordinary life.

In her breakout book, BIGGER, BETTER, BRAVER: Conquer Your Fears, Embrace Your Courage, and Transform Your Life (Top Reads Publishing, July 2020), Nancy Pickard draws on her personal journey and her professional experience coaching and empowering others to guide anyone seeking to discover and design a big, juicy, full, and deeply rewarding life of their own. Nancy is a Certified Integrative Coach through The Ford Institute for Transformational Training, holding five certifications. She also holds two certifications with Levin Life Coach Academy. A dynamic speaker and outstanding testament to what she preaches and practices.

She is the mother of two sons, the grandmother of three girls, and one boy and the happy owner of an irrepressible Australian Labradoodle named Bliss. She lives in Aspen, Colorado.