Get Over Yourself!

Get Over Yourself!  In 3 steps..

There’s a truth that is hard for most of us to accept….we can have whatever we want in our Massage Therapy career…IF we don’t give up on pursuing it, and we refuse to get derailed from obstacles, challenges, or other peoples opinions on our dreams, goals or vision.  Kristi Waltrip gets in the way of Kristi Waltrip’s success.  My friend - you get in the way of your own success.  Let’s get over ourselves together!  https://www.kristiwaltrip.com/
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Transcript

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There's a truth that's hard for most of us to accept. We can have whatever we want in our massage therapy career if we don't give up on pursuing it and we refuse to get derailed from obstacles, challenges, or other people's opinions on our dreams, goals, or vision. Christy Waltrip gets in the way of Christy Waltrip's success. My friend, you get in the way of your own success. Let's get over ourselves together. Hey, my friend, thanks for tuning in to The Massage Project. I'm Christy Waltrip, and today I want to talk about how we get in our own way. When it comes to our massage therapy career and why it can feel so complicated for us to get out of our own way. But before I talk about that, I want to share a couple of things that I am working on. This one y'all is a milestone. This is huge. I have been dreaming of this for years. I'm holding my first beach retreat for massage therapists. It's called fearless. It's going to be October 17th through the 20th, this year, 2024. On the beach in Fort Morgan, Alabama, 12 continuing education credits. I'm going to be teaching my first workshop on fearless, unshakable confidence to elevate your massage therapy business. I have been working on this project and dream and dreaming about this for years. And I finally booked a date. It's on the books, it's open for registration, and you can find the details at christywaltrip. com or you can email me directly. So the second thing that I'm working on, I am super excited about this to participate in this, the, have y'all ever heard of the massage and spa success summit by Gail Wood? She is the coordinator for this awesome event. So I have been invited to participate in the virtual presentation. I'm going to be presenting two things. One is I'm the fearless massage therapist and I'm also going to be doing a presentation on Thai massage. More to come on this. Details will be coming. This is in September of 2024 this year. There are all kinds of perks. If you join, um, if you get the VIP, I'm not really sure what it's called, so forgive me, but there's a lot of options. It's all virtual. It's going to be held for several days in September. I'm really excited to participate in this more details will follow soon But back to today's topic which I could literally talk about all day every day And that's finally why I created a continuing education class about it called fearless unshakable confidence to elevate your massage therapy business It's really about how I see how I've seen myself and how I see massage therapists get in the way of our own success or let our own fears or self doubt or levels of self worth get in the way of our success. So I have three things for you to keep in mind to get you through that hurdle, to get you to start working toward your success without letting yourself get in your way. So the first thing, the first thing I want you to accept is that the initial excitement of your idea will fade. Whatever it is. It could be a new modality that you want to do. It could be having your own business. It could be going to work for someone else. It could be sharing a room with another massage therapist and you guys are going to take on the world because together the both of you will be more powerful. It could be literally thousands of ideas. Okay, but know that when you're in the moment of getting excited about it And you haven't actually started doing the work with it That is when your excitement will probably be at an all time high for that point. This is the muddy area This is the hard area to get from super duper exciting idea to get to okay What are the actual initial steps? for me to start this project up and running. That's where people fall off. That is where I have fallen off. Let me give you an example. Beach retreat. Thinking about it for years. I've been a continuing education provider for seven years. I could have done this a million times over. What got in my way? Well, Let me tell you, it's a lot of work. It's a lot of work to put these things in motion, to do the planning, to start talking about it. Y'all know every time you have something new and you expect to make some kind of revenue from it, or you want to, um, make an impact on people's lives, whether it's your clients or whether it's other therapists, you have to talk about it or no one is going to know about it. Right? So all of that together can be overwhelming. So the great idea, my idea about a beach retreat. but then actually making it happen. That is where the muddy area is. And I know that you can probably relate that to whatever plan you have in your heart right now. And you're like, it's a really great idea. I see myself doing it. I get really excited about it, but how am I going to make that happen? And then that's kind of when it goes, wah, wah, because you, you don't even know. Sometimes you don't even know the steps that you had to take. I could see myself at this beach. I had a vision of myself at the beach. Yeah. And I'm talking to therapists and I'm holding the space for them to be super duper empowered so they can go back and implement everything that they've learned about themselves, about how they can overcome fearless fear, overcome fear and then get back out into their community and see an impact with their business and their clients. I have this vision, but the vision and getting there That's where you have the mountain. That's where the challenges come in. That's where the obstacles come in. And that's where a lot of people give up. So number one, accept that the initial excitement of an idea will fade. And when it does, when that excitement fades, because you start to see, Oh, this is going to be some work in this. When you start to see that, if you already have it in your brain, I know that my excitement will fade when it comes down to doing the work. It won't be so bewildering. It won't freak you out so much. It won't make you want to quit. You'll know. You'll be like, okay, there you are. There you are resistance. There you are fear. I see you get out of my way and let me get to work. Um, The excitement is now, but when you start to work on your idea, that's when it can get a little hard. But here's the thing, time will tell. So how do you know that your initial idea maybe just wasn't for you? And when you start thinking about all the work that you want to put into it, it doesn't give you the same excitement. Well, here's the thing is time will tell. So whatever that idea is that you have, start working on it. Start investing in it. Start investing your time. If there's any money that you have to invest in it, start investing your money. I'm not telling you to take all your money and put it into this one idea, but start working on it. Start making a plan for it. How does it feel when you start to do that? Let me give you an example. Again, I'm going to just speak from my own experiences, and maybe you guys can relate to this. But when it comes to the beach retreat, I had this vision in my head and I've had it for years and then I was in a situation recently where I actually went to the beach spending time by myself. Y'all know what happens when you spend time by yourself. Feelings come up, things bubble up to the surface because you don't have any distractions. Okay. So I, this vision of a beach retreat from a massage therapist became very clear to me. So I started talking about it and I started thinking I could have a retreat right here. Where I'm spending my time right now. So I started asking questions. I started saying how much would it cost to rent this space? What would I need? What are the dates? What's the best time of year for? Therapists to come and for me to come back for me to take time off of my full time job to come back. So I started Investing my time. I started taking it to the next level and then I would see how it would feel Would I still be excited about it or what I start to feel dread or what I start to feel? You know what? I thought I wanted this, but this isn't for me. Pay attention to your feelings. Don't pay attention to what other people are saying. It's great to have other people's opinions, but they should never take over what you're feeling in your heart, in your gut, your own intuition about this and time, taking the time to do it right. That can be everything. Okay. So number one, accept that the initial excitement of an ideal will fade. Okay. So you got that. Okay. We're moving on. So number two is have a plan to boost momentum and keep moving forward. Y'all, this is my thickest wall, my highest mountain, my Achilles heel, because deep within me, I have this little Christie. That's a major procrastinator. She really, really is. She works well on a deadline. She likes being held accountable by other people. So number two, having a plan to keep momentum and to keep moving forward. That is by far the hardest thing ever. Let me give you an example. This podcast. Okay. This podcast is one of the things I'm so proud of that I've done in my massage therapy career for what? 18 years now. Here's the thing. This is the plan I had when I created my podcast late last year. 2023. I said, okay, I'm going to do two episodes a week. I'm going to do a long one. When I say long, probably about 30 minutes. And I'm going to do a little mini episode, which would be less than 10 minutes. You guys, I'm, this is my seventh episode. I should have at least 20 episodes by now, but I don't, you know why? Because it's hard. It's hard. And my biggest challenge is keeping momentum, is making a plan every single day. to work on my business, even if it's just a few minutes a day. That is my Achilles heel. I know that that's one of my weaknesses. One of my strengths is when I'm start working on something, I let the momentum take over. Think of it as a snowball roll, starting as a snowball and rolling down this giant hill until it's, it's this huge snowball that can just roll over and crush you like the big boulder rolling down into Indiana Jones movie from the eighties, right? That's what I think of. And sometimes that momentum, you, here's the thing. You have to start the momentum. If it's your dream for your business, there's nobody telling you, Christy, you better go work on your business. Hey, friend, you need to go work on your business. Nobody cares. Even the people that love you the most are not going to care enough to say you need to go work on your business. When's the last time you worked on your idea? How about that dream? How about that vision? No one is doing that. So guess what? It's all on you. And for me, That makes it the hardest because I know that I'm the one that has to hold myself accountable. So I know, since I know that this is my weakness, I really try to keep it in front of me this year in 2024. I've really tried to keep this real truth in front of me that this is my weakness, actually working on my business every single day and keeping momentum. That's my weakness. So that's why I try to keep it in front of me. So, but here's the other thing too. Now we're going into number three. So number two being have a mom, have a plan to keep momentum and to keep moving forward. Number three is give yourself permission to make mistakes or give yourself some grace. Look, mistakes are going to happen. You're going to start things that you get into and then you think, you know what, this doesn't feel right. I don't think this is aligned with who I am authentically. And you know what? That's okay. Don't see it as a failure. Sometimes you need to, you need to make mistakes so that you know what not to pursue. And I know that that can sound counterproductive. It's actually not counterproductive. Everything, every mistake that you make, if you can accept that those mistakes need to happen and accept everything as a teachable moment. If you start to, look, there's been a million ideas that I, okay, maybe not a million, but there's been ideas that I have felt really passionate about in the beginning, and then I've started to work on those ideas, and then I thought, you know what? I'm not enjoying this anymore. And if you're not enjoying this, get out. Don't worry about what other people think. You have to do what feels right. It's authentic to you. You have to do what you have peace with. If you are not enjoying a project, it's time for you to get out of it. Give yourself permission to get out of things that don't feel aligned to what you, with what you're doing. Okay. Say you're doing it with a friend or saying you're doing it with a group of people and that the other people are what's keeping you in. You're afraid of, well, what if they get mad at me or what if they don't like me anymore? You cannot go into a project with that mindset. You need to be honest, authentic, and speak your truth. If something isn't aligned with what you want to do, you need to speak about it. And I say this from experience. There's been a lot of wonderful mentors I've had in my massage therapy career and friends that I've had. And sometimes I let that excitement of how I look up to people or who I'm friends with. I let that get me wrapped up into something that I really shouldn't be doing. Doesn't mean it's a bad idea. It's just not something that it's not on my path. And I believe I'm led by God. And I believe that God leads me to has this plan for me. And I am so passionate about finding that plan in my business and my personal and professional life. So when I get off the path and I see something bright and shiny, I'm like, Ooh, I want to do that. Sometimes on the way there on that path, I'm like, you know, I'm just not feeling real jazzed up about this anymore. I'm not as excited now as I was when I first thought of the idea. Take some time to think about it. You don't have to do something just because you said you were going to do it. Your plans will change. So one of my biggest mistakes. And I'm going to share this with y'all and be a little bit vulnerable here. But one of my business, biggest mistakes is derailing my progress by asking everybody and their mama what they think I should do. I am the queen of this. If there was a prize given out for, for just asking everyone, what should I do? What should I do? What do you think of this? What do you think of that? I'm the queen, put the crown on my head, because this is something that I have really, really struggled with. And it, I struggle with it. because of times of self doubt and low self worth. So I'm learning lessons along the way, and I'm trying to accept everything as a teachable moment. And you guys might be thinking, this girl's got a podcast. She's a continuing education provider. She went to Thailand by myself this year. She's doing all of these things. How can she have these conflicting feelings? Well, I do because I'm human. And even with all of the things that I've done, all the accomplishments I've had in the massage therapy world, I still struggle with self doubt. I still struggle with the feeling of I don't belong here. I haven't done enough. Um, so I want you to know that I know what that feels like. Um, I've learned a lot and I feel a lot stronger than I used to, but it's taken me to look in the mirror. Are, are other people saying this about me or is this just, are these things that I'm just saying to myself? Okay. So I want to review these three steps again, how we can just get out of our own way and get over ourself. So number one, accept that the initial excitement of an idea will fade, meaning that you're going to be excited when you first think of the idea and first start to talk about it. But then when you start to work on it, how, how does it feel? Time is going to tell start investing your time in it into it. And how does it feel? Number two, have a plan to keep momentum going, have a plan for that snowball to get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. Let me tell you what not to do. So if you have this idea that you're really excited about it, don't just put it on the back burner and say, I'm going to work on it in six months. Start to take baby steps toward it. This is another, uh, way, this is another place where I really struggle is I feel I have to be all or nothing. I feel that I have to completely devote my life to this idea that I've had and then I will get a return on it. But actually that all or nothing that I have, again, that's one of my weaknesses. I have a real problem with taking baby steps. I want to go all the way in just like with this podcast. I said, I'm going to do two episodes a week. Well, what happens? I go three months without doing an entire episode. The last episode I did was in March and now we're going into June. What happened? Well, you might think, well, maybe she didn't have anything to talk about. I have a ton of things to talk about. I went on this trip to Thailand by myself, all the way across the globe. I wasn't there by myself, but I traveled that all the way by myself. And I had this amazing experience. I have so many things to share with you. But if I feel like if I can't go all or nothing, then I don't do anything. That is something that I am working through. And I really encourage you to work through your challenges, work through the things that give you self doubt, work on the things that make you afraid. Okay? So that was number two, have a plan for momentum and to keep moving forward. And the third is to give yourself permission and grace to make mistakes. Understand. That every idea that you have might not be the idea for you, but you need to work through it. You need to, those mistakes need to happen. You need to go through those steps. You need to see what is for me and what isn't for me. And then once you go through some of these changes, once you get, once you start pursuing some of these ideas about your massage therapy career, and then you come to a place where it's like, you know what, this isn't for me, then you can turn away from it. You can pivot and you can go towards what really is calling your name, what you're really meant to do. Let me give you another example of this. So I have a full time job. It's very, um, robust. It has, um, I'm very devoted to it. I work for a post secondary institution. It's a career college and I was just promoted to the vice president of education. That is a huge deal. It's a huge honor. And if it wasn't for massage therapy, I would never have this role. So I always, Let me tell you the biggest thing I miss as someone who's a massage therapy educator, but, and yet I don't do a lot of hands on massage. I really miss having my own massage space, having my own massage room where I'm working on clients every week. I really miss that. So sometimes I get pulled to that idea. And I'm like, I really should have this in my life. It doesn't mean I never work on clients. It's just maybe a couple of times a month, a month. I will, instead of every single week working on clients, but I'm in a different season. Now I'm in a season where I'm working on this podcast, where I want to hold a retreat where I want to teach continuing education classes. I'm also in a season where I'm able to touch instructors and students. On a bigger level with this full time job that I have now and it really is a passion So I'm learning about leadership I'm learning about education and even though I miss massage therapy and I think of myself when I was a new massage Therapist in my little massage room working on people and how happy it made me. Yes. I do miss that sometimes Will I get back to that one day? maybe I hope so, but it's just a season. So be okay with whatever season that you're in right now. And it doesn't mean it's going to be, it could be temporary. It doesn't mean it's forever. So give yourself permission to make those mistakes. Those mistakes need to happen, except everything as a teachable moment. So as we're starting to wrap this up, um, remember the one thing you can never ever do Give up on yourself. Here's the thing. Say you have this idea. Okay, like me and my beach retreat, right? So, Along the way, remember that muddy point between great idea and excitement and dopamine makes you happy. You're like, yeah, you're all jazzed up about it. And then on the journey to this idea, that's the muddy part. That's the sticky part. That's where you get lost in the forest, right? Because that's when the real work comes in and that's when the self doubt starts to creep in. Okay. So remember my advice to you about one of my biggest mistakes and something I struggle with to this day. is derailing my progress by asking everybody and their mama what they think I should do, what they think my strengths are, and everything else. You, at some point during this dream, you're gonna have to pick yourself up and say, look, the only opinion that matters right now is your own. Because no one knows what your heart is speaking to you. No one knows what destiny's plan has in store for you. So stop asking other people. And I, again, I am sharing. My experience with you and hoping I know that there's people out there that this relates to because there's no way that this Passion has been put on me and no one wants to hear about it I absolutely refuse to believe that so I know deep within my heart that my voice is helping others and I know to the massage therapist that I speak to that you are helping other people. So we're connected in that way. But the one thing I want you to remember is do not give up on yourself or lose trust in yourself and what you want. And don't hit your start of somebody else's wagon. Don't think your idea is not good enough because you haven't been in business long enough. Maybe you don't have a traditional education. Maybe you don't work on a lot of clients. Maybe you live in a small town. Let all of that go. If you're listening to me right now, there's a reason why you're listening to me. I believe that, and there's a reason that you need to work through those, these things. It is not easy, and it won't happen overnight, but it can happen. One more time. I'm going through the steps one more time. Accept that the initial excitement of an idea will fade. Have a plan to keep momentum going, just like the snowball down the hill, and give yourself permission and grace to make mistakes. Start putting these practices into place and that big vision or that big dream that you have for yourself, you're going to see that it's achievable until next time.