Ep #60: 3 Questions to Make 2020 an Unimaginable Success

Happy New Year. I have a special episode of The Art School Podcast for you today. To kick off the new year, and this brand-new decade, I have three questions that will help set you up not only for an amazing year and decade, but something that is far beyond what you can even currently imagine.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Happy New Year, my Art School Podcast listeners. I’m so happy and grateful to be joining you in this new year. I know this season always has an energy that I love to harness and I love to make the most of. And I imagine, for most of you, it’s probably the same, taking time to have this ritual of reflection, and that maybe also like me, your way of doing it has evolved over the years.

And what I want to share with you today is what is a process that has come from my evolution of the way I use this part of the year in a ritual way, and my evolution from my past, where I, not knowing it at the time, tended to use goals as something I used against myself rather than for myself, to the creative process that I use today and that I coach my clients with and that I love and has yielded fantastic results. Also, however, even more and more deeply than the results, I’m going to talk to you about what I feel is maybe the most important part of this process, and we’ll get to that in just a minute.

First, I again just wanted to say that I am grateful to be able to talk to all of you this way, and so grateful as I see some of the data come in. we have listeners in the Netherlands and The Art School Podcast hit number one in the Netherlands, listeners in Japan, all over the world. And so I also wanted to wish you a happy holidays. Our family celebrates Christmas and I know there are about 14, at least, religious holidays that happen at this part of the year. So I thought, well what can I wish to all of my listeners that is sensitive and inclusive, and also meaningful?

And so I think what I want to share from my life, my family, my home to yours is just that your home and heart and life are full of love and light and possibilities for what’s to come in the next year. I am creating this for you – actually, I’m in the attic of my parents’ old farmhouse in Northern Iowa, the attic that was converted into my brothers’ bedrooms when we were growing up, so it’s not one of our guest quarters.

And it had been my plan to record this podcast before Christmas, but things happened. And keeping with my simplicity principle, the Pareto principle, I just decided that I would relax and chill out and sneak away for a little bit. Everyone is downstairs playing card games and actually it’s not so bad to have this bit of quiet time up here by myself and to be able to spend it with all of you. And it’s kind of mind-blowing too, when I think about this being my childhood home and everything that has happened in my life since I left home at the age of 18, and thinking too about the dreams I had as a girl growing up here and how life has unfolded, and how so many of those dreams have come true and others did not and how that too has also been part of the process and I can see even now how that was a necessary part of the process.

But also very much in line with what I wanted to talk about with you today are the things that have that have been far beyond what I could ever have imagined. Who would have thought, when I was a girl of seven, or a teenager of 17, in my wildest dreams, I never could have conceived that in a relatively short period of time from when I was 17, I would be in the attic doing my own broadcast to listeners all over the world, that I would be making a living as an artist and as a coach – I didn’t know what a coach was outside of sports. I didn’t know such a thing existed – that I would have my own company, that I would have started my own Art School.

That just blows my mind. That fills me with such wonder and amazement. And this time of year, too is also time for reflection always, but especially considering that it’s the benchmark of a decade, and I look back on the past decade and the decade before that and I certainly have had a lot to learn from. And I’m looking at the next decade ahead, which feels like there’s such big energy that’s just waiting and coming down the pipe.

Well, I am very proud and appreciate the full range of experiences I’ve had the last 20 years. I also don’t want any of those experiences, especially the difficult ones, especially the heartbreaks, especially the disappointments, especially the things that I thought I would have created or done and haven’t yet. I don’t want any of that to be wasted on me and I feel like all of those things, everything I’ve learned in the past two decades, with the awareness I have now and the skills that I have now and also just this inner strength that I have cultivated, those are going to be such tremendous assets and advantages to me in the coming decade.

And no matter where you are in your life, I know you can use the same process, that you can look back and use the places that were frustrating or where you struggled, or maybe where your heart was set on something, and maybe you toiled a long time in that direction and it didn’t seem to yield results. But then now, finally, you can see what that was for.

So, live it in the moment, and then also use it going forward. Make this next decade, again, something beyond just even the best possible dreams you can currently have for yourself. Use it as something where you allow something greater to unfold that is currently beyond the limits of your imagination.

So, I have three questions that I know can help you with this process and help to set you up for an amazing year and decade that is not just based on, “Well, I know what I’ve done before so I can kind of benchmark off that and incrementally build.” What I want to offer you is that what if there is something beyond what you’ve even thought is possible? And if you could just open yourself up to it and let some of that unimaginable in, where could you be 10 years from now? What could you have experienced? Who could you have become if you take off the limits of that incremental benchmarking and basing things off of the past?

So, here are the three questions. I’ll tell them to you all at once and then I’ll go into each in a little bit more detail. First, how good are you willing to let it get? I know I’ve talked about this question in a previous podcast, but it’s such a perfect one for a New Year’s podcast that I want you to sit with it, to chew on it, to take it for walks, to contemplate it and see what it brings up for you. How good are you willing to let life get?

Second, what will that feel like? Because what I know, it’s not so much what we do as it is how we feel about what we do and what we’ve done and what we’re going to do. So, get really clear once you think about how good are you willing to let it get and what does that look like, dive into, spend time, invest energy into discovering what will that feel like?

Third, how can you know that you can handle all of it? Because those first two questions can be amazing and mind-blowing and blow your life wide open, and they can also be terrifying and really triggering and bring up some difficult things. So, something I know that has worked powerfully in my own life and for my clients is to know that asking questions, like how good are you willing to let life get, can bring up some anticipation of catastrophizing. It can bring up upper limit problems, for sure.

But a way to address that, a powerful way to address that is to then make conscious what your concerns are about what might go wrong if your life gets amazing, like off the charts, off the hook, incredible and extraordinary. Bring up all of your concerns, all of your fears, and then answer this question; how can you know you are sufficient to all of these challenges? How can you know that you will rise to meet and navigate every one of those difficulties? How can you know you can handle it all; the good, the bad, the adversity, the triumph?

So, let’s go back to that first question; how good are you willing to let it get? Another variation of this question that I love, because it’s also very triggering and brings up any subconscious obstacles or blocks you might have, is this statement; you get to have the perfect life. You get to have exactly the life you choose to create.

Again, I love to go for long, long walks and just feel my way into what those answers are. And again, my process, as I’ve talked in previous episodes, is less thinking in a language sense, and more feeling. It’s like I get a fragrance or a whiff of what’s possible in an energetic sense, and new possibility feels a certain way. And then I try to call that back and hold it longer and longer and stay with it. And from that feeling of that different kind of energy of possibility, then I’ll start thinking different thoughts or I’ll consider where I might feel limited now and what thoughts might be creating that and I’ll go in the opposite direction.

For instance, I was recently more and more considering the possibilities for licensing my art. I just had the opportunity to do some very special and extraordinary commissions for Christmas gifts, and I love doing that. That is such an honor to either make something for an individual who wants to celebrate or commemorate a milestone in their life or their business, and I also love making gifts that are intended for other loved ones, gifts from love, gifts to celebrate something. It moves me to even think about doing it and think about the intention and what a privilege it is to be involved in people’s lives in that way.

And I’m also very proud that I have stood in my value, and increasingly so over the years, in terms of the fee that I command for commissions and for original paintings. And I’m very proud of that and I feel very strong and solid in that. And I also know there is still only so many hours in a day, and so therefore there is still only so many original paintings I can make.

And so when I think about the upper limits for art for me, that feels like there’s a tension, because when I think about the how of how could I possibly create more paintings – but then when I go to a place where I ask myself, well how good am I willing to let it get? That takes me down the road of something that I’ve spoken to you about before, which is I’m going to be doing all the same things but with much greater ease.

And so I’m aware of these past tendencies that my brain has to want to complicate things and make it a struggle and hard. So I notice that. I notice what it feels like in my body and my mind. And then I bring in the sense of ease and hold that. And then my imagination starts to work on scenarios where growth and my art career and my art business unfolds in ways that I am showing up and I am getting better and better and I am strong, and also my art has a greater reach and a greater impact and my art business grows by leaps and bounds steadily and healthily and also moves me in that direction more and more of being an example of what is possible as a creative and as an artist.

So this leads me into my second question; what will it feel like? It’s a little bit redundant. It’s kind of built into the first question, but I wanted to pull it out just to underscore it and make it clear that I think this is a very valuable thing for you to spend time contemplating in your own life. Not just what you will do. You can use the what you will do as kind of the entry point or the doorway into then knowing, being able to ask yourself, okay, once I have done that, written a book, won a Grammy, been on the bestseller’s list, hit seven figures, hit eight figures, gotten married, had children, had an exhibit in MoMA.

Whatever it is for you, that thing that is so ever present with you that wants to be done, wants to happen through you, use that as a doorway to then ask yourself, how will that feel? Because that is where that powerful creative energy is. And before you name it with an emotion, I want you just to stay in the general energetic feeling of it, the physical feeling of it. what does it feel like in your mind, your body?

Again, to me, oftentimes, it’s not a smell, but that’s kind of the way it feels to me, that there’s this shift in energy, like I just caught a whiff of a new possibility that I’ve never experienced before in my life, and it feels so real, it feels like a memory. So at this point too, I want to remind you of how many resources I’ve shared in previous episodes, and a few that I know would eb a particular help and would be a strong complement to this particular episode, the episodes I’ve done on gratitude, on dream modeling, on the magic ratio. Using all of those as you contemplate and create the next decade from your imagination.

Something else I wanted to say along these lines of what will that feel like is to let yourself be surprised, that Mary Oliver quote that is so amazing, “Leave some room in your heart for the unimaginable.” Because again, it’s that particular flavor of surprise. It’s one that happens and you hadn’t realized you’d had a conscious intention to create that, but once it happens, you know that that has been what your heart and soul has been searching for all along.

So for me, for instance, there were so many times in The Art School when things would happen and I realized that I had every desire, hope, intention, dream of that happening. But then once it really happened, it was so far beyond what I had hoped for or imagined, things like people having relationships developing, relationships and friendships outside of Art School, going on retreats together, messages I received about how this was impacting their lives, changing their lives, people asking for more money and getting it and doing things that they hadn’t done in years or decades or ever before in their life, and also the spillover into their loved ones life and beyond.

If you have been listening, you’ve heard me say before, one of my greatest intentions and dreams for this work is that there are so many Art School babies made, so many of you that take up your dreams and implement this advice, these words, these tools in your life, and create things that astound you and make those dreams that are currently inside of you, make them the landscape, your outer reality. Absolutely, that is first and foremost one of my greatest dreams for this work, and yet still, anytime I hear from any one of you that you are doing that, it so powerfully moves me. It’s better than I could ever have imagined.

And so that’s another piece of advice I wanted to offer to you along these lines of how to use this tool of what will it feel like. Think of what your values are. And now imagine your values so incredibly amplified.

So, for instance, if you have a money goal, and let’s say your money goal is currently six figures or half a million or 10 million. And let’s say one of your values is generosity. Let yourself spend some time imagining what it will feel like to have that value of generosity, amplified by the accomplishment of your dream. Maybe one of your values is creating beauty. One of mine is for sure beauty and filling life with beauty. So imagine once you reach your goal, what it will be like to amplify that value and to be more powerful in the world, creating beauty, contributing beauty, filling life with beauty.

That will also help open up the doorway to what is possible and hopefully help usher in a true felt visceral sense, an energetic sense of what that’s going to feel like when you let life get as good as it can really get, once you can allow yourself to have the life that’s perfect for you. And again, I love this exercise because I want to encourage you, there is nothing wrong with the incremental.

Again, open up your mind and heart to embrace paradox here because what I have shared about the power of knowing the next step and taking the next step closest in may seem like it contradicts what I’m telling you now about letting your imagination move beyond the incremental. But it doesn’t. They actually work quite powerfully together, which I could talk about for hours and it’s probably the subject of another episode.

But for now, know that those two make a wonderful marriage and make you unstoppable, to let yourself dream in amplified ways and let yourself imagine your values, your core heart’s desires, your soul’s desires and values be amplified and let yourself imagine possibilities for you that are beyond incremental. So by beyond incremental, I mean that just because last year and the year before and the year before, maybe you never made above $35,000. That does not mean that within the next five years you couldn’t become a self-made millionaire or multimillionaire.

Maybe you have so far struggled to finish any sort of creative project, let’s say writing. That does not mean that within the next decade, you cannot become a serial novelist and one that’s paid handsomely for their work. So let yourself be open to surprise. Let a power that takes such joy and delight and surprise move through your life and don’t try to shut everything down too early by asking yourself how am I going to do this and trying to imagine the how of it all.

And you’ll know if you’re getting into the how too early if your mind starts to feel constricted and bound up. So go back to that amplified imagination, those questions of how good am I willing to let it get and what will it feel like. Let yourself dwell in possibility and in the miraculous a little bit longer, and also keep taking the next step closest in.

And finally, the third question that I ant to share with you is to ask yourself, how can you know you will handle it all? And for this question, I want you to look back on your life and to see that, at this point, to some degree, you’ve handled everything, to some degree. Maybe you wish you would have done better or done things differently, but to this point, you’re still here and with copious amounts of forgiveness and abstaining, not indulging in self-doubt and self-pity because those are such tremendous sources of self-imposed suffering and self-violence.

Know again that you can move beyond the incremental and you can decide today to call upon that victory energy inside yourself. You can decide today to call on dignity and nobility and strength and continue to moment by moment make those choices and that you are equal and sufficient to the adversity that comes up in your life.

One other podcast that I wanted to recommend that you reference in contemplating your decade beyond your wildest dreams is my Moonshot podcast from a year ago. Here’s something that I know, after this year of living in moonshot energy is that one of the greatest things I have learned is that – because there were a lot of low points and  a lot of tremendous adversity this year, and what I know now, having come through it, is that now I can dream even bigger because I have been to places and handled things that before, I didn’t know if I could handle. And I did it well.

And I did it while being kind to myself and it was so hard. And when I say I did it well, I don’t mean to take the edge off how difficult it was or that I had many sleepless nights. But it was so different than the way I encountered difficulty in years past.

And the number one difference-maker is the kindness and the love and the way I stayed with myself, even when I made mistakes and even when such deep shame came up, shame that I just don’t even think was mine, but I know what shame feels like, so that’s why I have so much compassion for myself and also for clients. It can be so debilitating and such a soul-suck.

So know that you can handle it all, but even more than that, ask yourself, how can you know you can handle it all? So if you go back to the exercise I gave you last week, which was to write out at least 50 things that you accomplished or contributed in the last year, and ask yourself again, how did that feel? Because that’s where the real power is. Not in just what you did, but knowing what it felt like to do that, and let yourself be immersed in that energy, whether it was pride or whether you felt strong or whether you felt clear.

And then imagine things from the last year, the last decade or two, maybe depending on how old you are. You can do this exercise that I have also done. Think about the places that were very difficult, maybe the rock bottom places. Think about the adversity and think about how you navigated that and whether you did it with flying colors or whether you just got by, by the skin of your teeth. Let yourself see where you are strong and let yourself, again, have copious amounts of forgiveness and grace for yourself, and know, going forward, answer that question for yourself; how can you know that you will handle anything that comes at you down the road?

Because one of the greatest gifts of this work is this ability to feel the full range of human experience, so that when you ask yourself the question, how good are you willing to let it get, and you tell yourself, I do get to have, I do get to choose to create the life I want, then when those demons in the basement, like, rear their ugly heads, you can bring them up above ground and say, yes, you too, I can meet you head on and face to face. Whatever comes, I am equal to it. But not just in theory.

Go back to your past, look at places where you have handled things, and make a plan going forward for how you are going to encounter the adversity that comes up so that you know you are not shutting life down at any turn, that you’re not pinching off that pipeline of life force that’s available to us all in any way.

One of the reasons I feel so deeply assured and peaceful and strong about how powerful I am going to be and what I am going to create in the next decade is because of the adversity and the challenge and the difficulty that I have had not only in the last year, but in the last 20 years. And I have really done a lot of work to go back and harvest everything that was there for me to harvest about that, to know how strong I really am and to know that whatever comes, I am more than its equal.

And something else that really helps me in both not succumbing to upper limit problems and also not subconsciously self-sabotaging is this phrase, “I am built for this,” a quote attributed to Joan of Arc, “I am not afraid. I am built for this.”

And so that is another thing I wanted to offer you, that as you dwell in this vast expanse of possibility, as you allow yourself to open up and call in surprise and amazement and wonder and a willingness to experience a life that is far beyond what you can even incrementally imagine for yourself in the next 10 years, to know too that whatever increased responsibility comes with that, you were built for this. And it’s so much harder, I think, once you know and you’re honest with yourself about what you really want and that you really want to fully express the depth of your potential to the greatest you are able in this lifetime, it’s harder to hold back. And one thing that I know will help is to remind yourself that you were built for this.

So this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to take this information and make it transformational. Take this information, integrate it, and implement it in your life to really make deep shifts and lasting change. Lean in, really work with me, and coach with me.

So, for today’s coach with me, it is answering those three questions I’ve given you. First, how good are you willing to let it get? What would delight you in the next year and the next decade? What would be so amazing that maybe you’ve been denying yourself in the past and you are just not going to do that anymore? What problems could you become one of the best in the world at solving? What solutions could you become one of the best in the world at creating?

I know those are questions that I have been diving deeply into in the last year. And I’m so grateful to all my clients and my Art Schoolers because they really help me to clarify and focus what the great opportunities are, where people’s challenges are, and I get so immersed in that, I can’t stop thinking about it anyway. And so I’ve just committed that I’m going to be the one that comes up with the greatest solutions for my clients’ greatest challenges and problems, and also, someone who comes up with the greatest pathway and way of being, training program, that helps them make those results they desire inevitable.

So, for instance, if someone is a musician and they want to ensure that they’re making the greatest work of their life, how can I help them do that? How can I help more and more artists? How can I be someone that helps the most artists of anyone in the world hit six figures and make that a sustainable lifestyle? How can I help someone who has already made millions and millions of dollars now find out what they’re really here to do with that personal power that they’ve proven?

Now, what if they actually find out that they’ve been holding back and that is just the tip of the iceberg for what’s possible for them? How can I help them live their purpose and fully express that and make the contribution they came to make?

So the list can go on and on, but my point is, what gets you excited thinking about who you can become and how great, how amazing it can be and your work can be and your life in general can be in the next decade. So think too, with this, I get to have the perfect life, I get to have the life I choose, think about turning the dial up on all of those values. Think about that second question.

What would it feel like to have your values amplified and then what does it feel like and what does it look like? So for me, even in just the next few months, I want to be spending more time in person with my clients and at the most beautiful places in the world and have the have life-changing experiences that feel like once in a lifetime experiences, and yet it just elevates them and up-levels their life so that that kind of beauty and that kind of meaning and that kind of transformation become a regular part of their diet going forward.

So, I have the Miraval retreat. In the last few months, I’ve had so many amazing times with dear friends and family. I’m, for sure, ramping up the time I spend outside, not only doubling that, but quadrupling that. Another reason that we’re having the retreat of the decade in Miraval, music. I love live music and being as close as possible to other artists whose work I love. So front row tickets and VIP tickets to Brandi Carlile next month for my husband and I in Nashville. Ample time for myself to create in my studio as I’m laying out the plans for my dream studio that will go behind the house that we’re building, and conversations that are so mind-blowing with people that I love, adore, and respect.

So whether that be my clients, whether that be co-collaborators, whether that be family and friends, and my own children as well. They’re getting to that age where I take such great delight in how their minds work and how their imaginations are unfolding. I was part of a mastermind this last year, and I have been before, but I will forever always have this be a part of my life, because to have colleagues who are kindred spirits, who I get to have amazing conversations with about changing people’s lives and speaking with other people who are actively in their own life working to remove any limitations and any excuses from their own minds and working to create lives that are filled with beauty and meaning and purpose and contribution, that, to me, is just another expression of how good I am willing to let it get.

So, answer that question. Answer how it feels. Spend time taking these for walks. Journal on them. Meditate on them. Become very familiar with them. And I’ll have upcoming podcasts that have very specific suggestions, advice, tools for how to do this. And then third, ask yourself and then write it out and talk with a coach, talk with a trusted ally friend about how you know that you can handle it all. How can you know that you can let it be so amazing and you won’t self-sabotage and set yourself back? How can you know that you can let your life get so big that yes, the difficulties increase too, but then you also realize that you have more strength and resources available to you than you ever before knew and that you are just never again going to underestimate your power, your ability to meet them head on.

Spend time thinking about your most cherished values amplified through you. Spend time in this place of imagination and possibility where you let yourself hang a little bit in the unknown and let there be room for something that is far beyond what you are currently able to imagine.

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you have enjoyed these episodes, if this podcast has helped you and it’s helped you move the needle in your life, the best thing you can to pay it forward is to subscribe and also to go to iTunes and leave a review. That helps me get this work to more people, and I greatly appreciate it.

Here is a review that was left recently, five-star review, “Love it and you will too. Feeling a little blah? Need a boost to remind you of your worth and potential and help you to start dreaming big? Listen to this podcast. Give yourself the best year ever with help from Leah and The Art School. I’ve had the pleasure of learning from Leah through coaching and in these episodes. I highly recommend scheduling a discovery consult and give yourself the gift of growing into your truest self. Do it.” From MeeMaw2000 via Apple Podcasts.

So, thank you, MeeMaw. Thank you everyone who has taken the time to leave a review and thank you to all of you all over the world for tuning in and listening. If you love this podcast and want to take the work deeper, the best way to do that is to go to my website, www.leahcb.com and sign up to be on my mailing list.

On my mailing list, you’ll be the first to know about private coaching offers, group programs like The Art School, retreats, and you’ll also be the first to know about early bird discounts. The next full Art School, get ready, is going to be fall of 2020. I am taking all of the material from the past Art Schools this winter and I am going to dive in and dial it up.

Truly, one of my original intentions for The Art School would be that it would be like an Olympic training facility. Because what I know is available to all humans is that we can ask more of ourselves and live extraordinary lives, that extraordinary doesn’t have to be this elitist superlative, but it is what is meant for humans just by nature of our innate dignity.

And I also know that it’s not just something we are entitled to and just comes by default. You have to focus and you have to train for it, very much with the rigor and the discipline, and I say love, that an elite athlete would take in training to become the greatest version of themselves. And that’s what I want to do with The Art School, whether you are an artist, whether you are a doctor, whether you are an aspiring novelist, someone who has published and been on the bestseller list, whether you’re a beginning painter or you sell your paintings for thousands of dollars, whether you are beginning as a musician or you’ve been on that Grammy stage, I know that either through private coaching or through The Art School.

I can help you become that world class performer. I can help you be someone who transcends even ranks and hierarchies and help you take your work to a level that puts you in a league of your own.

I do have very limited openings for private coaching in 2020. The best way to find out about private coaching is, again, to be in my mailing list. And if you want to see if we’d be a good fit, email me at leah@leahcb.com with discovery consult in the subject line.

Also, as of today, I may have two spots left for the Miraval retreat and the eight-week coaching intensive that goes hand in hand with that retreat. So, if you’ve never before experienced my private coaching or worked with me in person, this is an event not to miss.

Someone asked me recently why they would choose me over another coach, which is always, like, an interesting question because I have so many amazing colleagues and have worked with so many amazing coaches and have the deepest respect and also love for many of them.

And I also know that there is something that I do, a certain X-factor that my clients say, over and over again, is unlike anything they’ve experienced before with any other program, with any therapist, psychologist, or coach. And I think that is part of why I’m so fascinated about getting into the core of what makes an individual tick, what is their X-factor. That’s part of mine.

I always say that, for coaching, my genius is helping you unleash yours. And I know I do it in a way that is unlike anyone else. And so this in person experience is really going to be the experience of the decade. So if deep dive intense transformational coaching at one of the top wellness resorts, spas, destinations in the world sounds like an amazing way to start off your 2020 and decade, email me, leah@leahcb.com with Miraval retreat in the subject line, and I can let you know if there are still spots available and what the details are.

So, to close for today, again, I want to just leave you with that central question; I cannot overemphasize how important it is that you just let yourself marinate in questions for a while until you feel the shift in energy. So take this one question, how good are you willing to let it get, and really go there. My deepest wish for you, my greatest intention and prayer is that this year and this decade, you really allow yourself to see what that answer, that question feels like and looks like in your life.

How good are you willing to let it get? Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys and I look forward to talking to you next week.