What is stopping you creating a new normal? It's probably you!

What do you tell yourself about your ability to create a new normal?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Hi, I'm Diana Liver . Thanks for joining me on my No Box Thinking podcast normal. It's a funny word, isn't it? Everybody's talking about it at the moment, how they want to get back to normal. The funny thing is, I think I've spent my whole life being anything but normal. And normal in itself is such an outdated, strange word. I mean, what on earth is normal? My perception and your perception of normal , my experiences, the people I know and listened to and am influenced by will all make my version of normal different to yours. And somehow this idea that on mass we are all desperate to return to this strange anomaly of normal, to me, I just think it's a load of old nonsense. I don't ever want to go backwards. The whole point of our lives is that every day is a new start, a new opportunity, a new chance to do something. So there's nothing normal about that. I wonder if you actually really, really challenged your thinking of what normal is. Could you really say that you fit into that normal? Didn't you have to make allowances? Didn't you have to adapt constantly? Didn't you have to put up with or make do with? Well, how about in a new version of normal, if we actually decided that every single day is going to be our chance to say, I don't want to do today what I did yesterday or last week or last month, and certainly not what I did 10 years ago. If we did that without listening to the voice of our imposter, I think we would find <laugh> that it was a much easier challenge. Because often it is that voice that stops us. It's the voice that says, oh no, don't change things. They're not normal for you. You are not good at change. And that is the main reason. So many people are clinging to the idea that it's okay

Speaker 2: 2:59

Once all this is over, we can go back to how it was back to normal. Well, I'm going to suggest that if that was normal, it's the last thing we need to go back to because look at where it's got us. There's nothing great about the situation the world is currently finding itself in and whatever the origins, whoever we attempt to blame for it, because aren't we good at that? Whatever those reasons are that led to this strange time that we're in, we have to acknowledge that actually telling all of us to behave in a way that got us in this mess in the first place really isn't a great idea. Going round and round in circles. You know that saying, if I keep repeating the same behavior over and over again, I shouldn't be surprised that I get the same results. So if we are going back to normal, isn't that just going to lead to a repeat? So what could a new version of your normal really look like? If you stop the conversation in your head that's talking you out of it, if you stop listening to the headlines and the hystericals, what could it really look like? You know, when we move to Wales, which will be seven years ago this December, lots of people said to me, it's a very different way of life. You may find it's not for you. And of course they have every right to believe that could be the case. But our new version of what life looks like is so far removed from what it was like for the first 47 years that actually I don't think I'd have believed I was capable of this. If I'd listened to the voices that said, oh , it's all gonna be too much. The change is gonna be terrible. Just stay here, live with your normal. I'm really not sure I'd still be here today. And that's not a melodramatic statement. I was really ill when we moved here. Life-threatening ill, and now I feel more well both mentally and physically than I have for many well decades of my life. Nothing normal about my life, nothing normal about the way we live, any of us. We just have to decide that we're happy to accept that and go with the flow a bit more of the opportunities that come our way. Stop listening to the voice. Start listening to your dreams and your hopes and just that, that voice that says, but wouldn't it be nice if So go on, get brave today. You don't have to share it with anybody else, but write out a version of what you would like to create as your new normal and then go for it. I'd love to know if you do that . Reach out and tell me and join me next time. Because remember, you don't need to try and think outside the box. There never was a box to begin with.