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Mandy is a wonderful and daring soul who can be found at any moment chasing, and often catching, her dreams. She is helping others do the same through her health and lifestyle coaching program. She is thrilled to be living out her dream life with her family and helping others do the same.

This Week’s PRO TIP is: Take a break from watching the NEWS and reflect on what sets your soul on fire!

BONUS PRO TIP: Make a vision board and share a picture with us!

Come join the conversation and play with us!

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Remember that Life is a team sport, so let's play together!

LINKS From Show

• Call or Text Mandy! (801) 899-5591
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TRANSCRIPT

Neal: [00:00:00]   [00:00:00] We have a very special show and guest today. Joining me is Mandy Mahon, and she is a master dreamer and has a lot of very exciting things to share with us. Mandy is a wonderful and daring soul who can be found at any moment chasing and often catching her dreams. 

[00:00:56]helping others do the same through her health in transformation [00:01:00] coaching program.  She is thrilled to be living out her dream life with her family and helping others do the same. 

[00:01:08] I can't wait to dive deep into all the things with you, Mandy. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:14]Mandy: [00:01:14] Hey, Neal. I'm so excited to be here. What an honor to get to chat for a few minutes and have a dream session.

[00:01:22]Neal: [00:01:22] This is where it's fun because it's a topic or several topics that we were both passionate about. So I am very excited, but before we dive in, I want to just make sure we start things off, right? With this train of happiness, can you give us just a little train horn sound for us?

[00:01:42]Mandy: [00:01:42] I will Neal. All

[00:01:50] Neal: [00:01:50] You are awesome. She did that in our conversation before we got going. And I was like, man, we got to share that gift with our listeners. So thank you for that. [00:02:00] Mandy, I know how awesome you are, but I want you to share your story with our listeners so they can get to know the awesomeness themselves.

[00:02:07] So you're a master dreamer. But maybe you weren't always that way. Take us back on your journey. What's your story?

[00:02:15]Mandy: [00:02:15] this is my favorite thing to talk about Neal. So I'm going to try really hard, not to get too excited and talked too fast. Cause I get really excited. So six years ago, I started my first vision board and I was nervous about it because I really was in a job that I was in for many years.

[00:02:39]And I liked my job, but I always felt like there was something that I was meant to do, but I didn't know what it was. And so I started reading the book. The success principles by Jack Canfield and Jack Canfield heavily goes into vision boards. I don't know Neal, if you've read that [00:03:00] book before, but if you haven't, you should.

[00:03:02] Neal: [00:03:02] I just added it to my audible list so I will get there, but I know who Jack Canfield is. He's amazing.

[00:03:10] Mandy: [00:03:10] Yeah. He wrote the chicken soup for the soul. And so he wrote a book called the success principles and. I will say, if you need, if you want something that will lay it out, what exactly to do, he like maps it out for you. It's awesome. And so highly recommend that book. So I was reading the success principles actually with the people that I work with in my office, where I worked and we all decided to make a vision board.

[00:03:35] And so we all,  we started like dreaming what we wanted to create in our life. And I want to like pause for a moment and talk about during the, so I feel like most of us, we lose that ability to dream as we become an adult, when we're kids. If you would ask a [00:04:00] child what they want, they could tell you in less than two seconds, like they know exactly what the work looks like.

[00:04:07]They could go into detail of exactly what they wanted for Santa Claus, probably what they want even next year. But if you ask an adult, they might pause for a moment and be like, not sure what to say. Because we, as an adults, we I've, especially as a parent, I feel like often we give that to everyone else in our family.

[00:04:27] And we put ourselves on the back burner. Luckily though, I am a child at heart, so dreaming very naturally. I was able to awaken my inner child really easily. And. So we made our vision board and I remember one of the things I wanted to put on there was I really wanted to become a mom.

[00:04:53] At the time I was about 38 and 37 38, and I wasn't a mom yet, [00:05:00] and I really wanted to be a mom, but I was scared to put babies on my vision board because I was. Scared of being disappointed, but I, one of my coworkers was like, why are you resisting? And so I put it on my vision board. I put a boy and a girl on my vision board and I put on there.

[00:05:21]I wanted a house, just the generic things like I wanted babies. I wanted a house. I wanted a way under 200 pounds. I think those were like the first big things I put on my vision board, which is probably a common thing. People want, they want a house. They want to lose weight.

[00:05:38] They want to have kids. 

[00:05:39] Neal: [00:05:39] The car maybe

[00:05:41] Mandy: [00:05:41] Yeah, the color, just the basic things on there but it was things I really wanted. And so I put it on my vision board and then my vision board just sat on the ground for a couple of weeks. I never hung it up. Number one is hanging up your [00:06:00] vision board because you gotta you have to be able to look at it.

[00:06:04] So I didn't do that for awhile, but it probably took me like six months to hang it up to be completely honest. But within a couple months I became pregnant and within a couple of weeks after that or months, however long it takes to find out. I found out I was having twins. And then I found out I was having a boy and a girl, which was exactly what was on my vision board.

[00:06:30] And when that happened, all of a sudden I was like, Ooh, I better hang up my vision board

[00:06:36] Neal: [00:06:36] I better get that at eye level. Oh, wow.

[00:06:41] Mandy: [00:06:41] on my vision board. And then I was like, wow. Wow, this is amazing. And it humbled me a little bit to be like, okay, When you put it out there into the universe and when you really start visualizing what you want while a lot can happen. And so I was really excited about [00:07:00] that. So that's how it started for me.

[00:07:03]Neal: [00:07:03] So exploding with questions. I'll try not to ask too many. I am curious there's a lot of approaches to doing vision boards and I don't want to get overly tactical right here at this portion of the conversation. having done lots of vision boards, myself, like how do you go about a vision board?

[00:07:24] Are there any best practices or like things you feel strongly about and how to do one ha how to do one in the, in in the most effective way. 

[00:07:33] Mandy: [00:07:33] I really liked that question, Neil, because I feel like that's what holds a lot of people back is they feel like it has to be perfect. They feel like it has to be this grandiose thing. And my biggest advice is you need to do what resonates with you. Some people have a whole wall that's efficient board, tons of things, other people.

[00:07:53] I know this one of another mentor that I really appreciate. Kirk Duncan who has three key elements. [00:08:00] He literally,

[00:08:00] Neal: [00:08:00] courage.

[00:08:01] Mandy: [00:08:01] yeah. He just puts masking tape on the wall. And then he just puts what he wants in that. That's an example, like there's no right or wrong way to do this. And I feel like I really do feel like most people, they hear the word vision board and it scares them because they think it's going to take all this work and they think it's going to be overwhelming.

[00:08:21] And a lot of people, when you say even if you say to somebody, Oh, you're going to have your annual conversation with your boss. It's like dun dun dun! You like are dreading the minutes until you have to meet with your boss and talk about your performance appraisal.

[00:08:36] And I think a lot of people may be put vision boards in that category of a daunting task. But what my biggest thing would say to, to whoever's listening right now is make it, you make it fun. And some people resonate with pictures. Other people resonate with words. There's no, I [00:09:00] promise you there's no right or wrong way to do this and it will evolve.

[00:09:04] And what I use is I just use a magnet board. So I can just constantly be putting things on it with magnets. And I have a lot of things on my vision board, but one thing I do is most of mine have a really big theme of what I want. And what I do is within that, I break it down into miniature goals.

[00:09:27] So I can constantly be taking things off my vision board. 

[00:09:31]Neal: [00:09:31] Really like that.

[00:09:32] Mandy: [00:09:32] yeah, I chunk it down. If I have a huge business goal, I have a bunch of little things on there too. I have the big thing on there, that's what works with my brain is to have a big goal and then have little goals to help me reach that goal.

[00:09:46]Neal: [00:09:46] And the power behind that it's so important to do that because what you have when you go about it that way, by starting big with the ultimate outcome, or I like to use the [00:10:00] metaphor of scaling a mountain, right? You got to define your mountain. And from there, when you break it down into milestones and where you want to go but based on that long-term vision, then you have alignment and that is where you get momentum, because you're excited about the direction.

[00:10:19] And now you can tie back this action, right? This day-to-day grind. When you have clarity about where those actions are taking you, and you're excited about it. That is when the light bulb really turns on for people. And that was something I experienced as well. In corporate America .

[00:10:39] I was in a fortune 100 company and it was a great company, but my day-to-day grind, I couldn't connect where that grind was getting me and I wasn't excited about the direction it was taking me. And so I had all kinds of mental health. Problems and physical health problems creep in because of that misalignment and [00:11:00] the depression and anxiety that comes along with that is it can be very damaging.

[00:11:03] And so I love what you're saying here, because, and again, tying this into play theory and the principles that we teach on this podcast, you have to be present, but you also have to let go of the directions and the goals that are imposed on you, that, that aren't exciting to you because if you don't and you're giving into the social compliance of what others feel you should be doing, then you're not going to have that alignment.

[00:11:32] You're not going to be excited. And that day-to-day grind is going to cause lots of problems.

[00:11:39] Mandy: [00:11:39] Yeah. I feel like the universe dropped me a bone in the beginning. They gave me like a big goal. Like they dropped a boy and a girl on my lap and I was like, Whoa, okay. I'm a believer. And there's a couple of lessons to be learned and I'm those of you listening.

[00:11:52] I'm a very open person. So I'm going to share some things that are really personal and. I, my [00:12:00] intent and sharing it is hopefully just to inspire people to never give up. And so vision boards are great. And sometime things happen really fast. Like my pregnancy happened and it was amazing.

[00:12:12] So the next big things I had on there was the house and I wanted a way. Under 200 pounds. And so I wanted to share just a little bit about my babies. So I became pregnant. Like I talked about with the boy and a girl. And I was so excited and at asked right before a week before they were born, I found out that my little boy had down syndrome and I was so excited.

[00:12:38] It sounds weird, but I was so excited because I know how special those souls are. And I was so excited to get to Have that experience to share a life with my little charming boys and after they were born and they were born two months early and it was a really scary pregnancy. My little boy, Charlie ended up having hydrops and they had to [00:13:00] do an emergency C-section and he did end up passing away after eight days.

[00:13:05]And that was really hard for me because here I am a new mom. My little girl, I lost my little boy and my little girl Rosie was in the NICU for two months and I just lost it a little bit emotionally with food. And I started really turning to food a lot and emotionally eating because that's always been my go-to when I'm stressed, I eat.

[00:13:30] And I actually had an appetite to eat cause my whole pregnancy I didn't. And so after I got to bring Rosie home I remember looking into her big, beautiful eyes. And at that moment I was like, Oh my goodness, you deserve a healthy mommy. And at the time I weighed about 320 pounds and I had swollen ankles.

[00:13:54] The doctor was giving me water pills. He was talking about me needing to wear compression [00:14:00] socks. And here I am a new mom, almost I was almost 39. And I was like, I'm not going to wear compression socks. This is ridiculous. So I decided I always had it, my vision board that I wanted to weigh under 200 pounds.

[00:14:15] And if you remember, I talked about, I started vision boards six years ago. So years went by and I would look at that on my vision board. And it would just almost seem impossible. Most of the things I had on my vision board were pretty grandiose, big things. And I didn't do what I talked about in the beginning that I would break them down.

[00:14:33] This is what I do now. But back then, I just had those on my vision board and I would just look at them and I would just stare at them and I would be like, okay, I had my baby, so I know this can happen. So I would just look at him and dream about it and wait patiently. And yeah , I knew I needed to make a change to my health.

[00:14:52] And I was like, okay, I think I'm ready to focus on this goal. Like really focus on it. And so I started this Epic journey of health now [00:15:00] with a new motivation and my little girl Rosie was my motivation, but also my little boy, Charlie, that passed away, he's actually been my biggest cheerleader up in heaven because he's always wanted me to be healthy for Rosie.

[00:15:14] And so every single day, At 11, 11, 10, and one, one, one he chairs for me to keep going. Whether you believe that or not, it fills my heart with joy every day. I see those numbers and I know that's Charlie being like, mommy, you could do this. So I started my journey of health 320 pounds. And. I was terrified because this time I knew I knew I couldn't fail cause I needed to be healthy for my little girl.

[00:15:44] I needed to be able to be the kind of mom she deserved. My heart changed when I became a mom. And so I started this journey of health and quickly I realized the biggest transformation I had to make, where the six inches between my ears, it was mine [00:16:00] because I'm such an emotional eater. And so I had 170 plus pounds to lose and that was daunting. And so I started this journey and I actually became a health coach.

[00:16:15]For this incredible program that I've been doing, and I was a 300 pound health coach. And I remember thinking who would ever want me to be their coach? Because here I am over 300 pounds, I've struggled with my weight, my whole life. But I was like, I knew I had a passion for helping people. I knew I loved helping people and I knew that it would help me.

[00:16:37] So I started coaching. And helping other people and hundreds of people linked arms with me and together over the last few years, I've been able to lose. So far I've lost 135 pounds. I dropped under the 200 Mark, which is, I was able to take that off my vision board,

[00:16:55] Neal: [00:16:55] That is awesome, Mandy.

[00:16:57] Mandy: [00:16:57] which was to take that off my [00:17:00] vision board because I worked on that for my whole life. Pretty much.

[00:17:04] Neal: [00:17:04] Wow. Okay. So this is so cool because I think it gets to a point. With some of us with all of us where we might have, whether they're on a vision board or in the back of our minds or deep in our hearts somewhere, we have these long-term hopes, these dreams. And as time goes by, I think every year that goes by That we don't see substantial progress toward those dreams.

[00:17:36]We log it as like a data point against our ability to do anything about it. And those negative voices start to creep in. And so I'm just dying to know obviously. There's a lot of factors that played into how you were able to break through that. And I'm just curious what other thoughts you have for our listeners and the role of letting go of [00:18:00] those negative voices and how to do that in order to get the new results and to chase those dreams.

[00:18:05] Mandy: [00:18:05] Yeah, I love that question, Neal. And. It would probably take me a long time to answer that because there's so many different strategies that I've learned. But I will say because I've been working on my health, I want to be completely transparent. Neal. I want to be very upfront that this did not happen to me overnight.

[00:18:26] I'm a food addict. I'm an emotional eater. I'm a binge eater. I turned to food for comfort and. Over the last few years I've as anyone life has happened, there's been some struggles that we've gone through as a little family. And what I'm the most proud of is that I haven't given up.

[00:18:46] And the biggest thing I've done is I've turned off the word diet from my mind. I no longer say I'm on a diet. I say I'm making changes. I'm [00:19:00] creating. I'm creating a new life for myself. I'm creating these new healthy habits for the rest of my life. So number one, Neal, I would say that has been the biggest help for me is recognizing that this is going to be a lifestyle change and that it's not going to happen fast.

[00:19:19] The second thing that's helped me a ton is that I've messed up. It's been good. That I've messed up. Because every time I've messed up, I get back up and I get back on again. And if I did it perfectly and I never messed up, I don't think I would be able to have sustained it, but I've proven to myself over and over again that I can do it.

[00:19:44] And it's taken a lot of pitfalls and learning and being open. And I follow an amazing program that has an educational piece that really helps you rewrite your story. And I have a [00:20:00] coach, that's my accountability partner, which really helps. There's like a lot of tools that I've used.

[00:20:05]Neal: [00:20:05] How neat is that? Because I think the airwaves are flooded with people that it's all in the past tense. And I love your humility. I love your transparency. And I think that is so refreshing to hear that right? Because, and this also ties into what needs to be let go of, we talk about let, go and play.

[00:20:29]And it is so important that we let go, not only of those negative voices. And we talked about that a little bit, but of the perfectionism. That thoughts are progress. And like you said you have fallen down and, but you've gotten back up and that's the important thing.

[00:20:50] Perfectionism is like the Achilles heel of progress because. The second you mess up, or the second year not [00:21:00] you meeting this impossible standard, then your perceived capability, plummets, your self-esteem goes down and you're tempted to give up. And so I love that you brought that up and that we need to just let go of all of that and play and fall forward and stumbled toward the light.

[00:21:19] I love everything that you're sharing and it's just so good.

[00:21:23]Mandy: [00:21:23] And Neal, like I coach, I've coached almost a thousand people the last few years. And the biggest thing I tell them, and I tell myself, as I'm telling them is this is about imperfect progress. It doesn't matter. Even when you mess up, you're progressing because you're not giving up.  And I have clients that want to lose five pounds.

[00:21:46] I have clients that want to lose 200 pounds and it's been fascinating to see everyone's the same. They all are struggling with emotional eating and they all are. They don't feel good about [00:22:00] themselves and not to go too much in a tangent about this. But I do feel passionately that. When we allow food to control our life, we literally are imprisoning ourselves.

[00:22:13] And when we realize that we are imprisoning ourselves with our habits and we break free that's when we feel freedom. And so if you're ever feeling trapped, when you think of the word diet that's why you feel trapped because diet is like food jail, but when you. Awaken your mind and be like, no, this is I'm freeing myself.

[00:22:36] Cause I'm actually empowering to make a choice. I'm not letting my emotions rule. I am choosing what I do and that does not just happen overnight, but it's what I love and it's what I fall in love with. And so it's something I do a lot and so I'm working on, I'm working on my last. I don't know how much weight I need to lose.

[00:22:57] Cause I've never been thin before. I'm like in the one [00:23:00] eighties right now, I'm thinking I want to be in the one fifties. And now on my vision board, I took off the 200 and then I put on there. Okay, you can do it. And it says one 50 by June 1st. I do want to talk for a minute about dates. I don't like to date some things because I don't like to disappoint myself, but. I think it's good to do every once in a while, use your discretion. But for me, when I say June 1st, it puts that out there that I'm serious about it. Like I'm putting a date on it and I put dates on things before and I didn't reach it and I'm fine because I just update it when I don't reach it.

[00:23:42] I'm always closer than I would have been. And so don't shy away from putting dates on things, but just know that. It will happen when it's meant to happen, but it will get you closer to your goal. And so now I have on there, I want to get to my goal weight. I have [00:24:00] seven little things on my vision board to help me get there.

[00:24:03] And so as those things happen, I can take them off. And then I have a little book that I would like, she protectors that I put the things in my book that I achieve. And the other thing I want to say about vision boards is sometimes you have to put things back up. Like I did gain weight and I got back over 200 pounds and I hated putting it back on the vision board, but I've now taken it back off again.

[00:24:31] And now I'm like committed to not doing that again. But I think it's important to have humility, to recognize that it evolves and it changes and it's okay if it has to do that.

[00:24:44] Neal: [00:24:44] And I love this concept too, because I think especially right now, we're still January, we're just barely what, two weeks in, not even two weeks in.   We have the resolutions on the mind and goals, and [00:25:00] it's so important that.

[00:25:02] We accept and build on our progress, whatever that progress is. And so yeah, you set a date. We're afraid to do that because we don't want to fail right there's the let go and play principle that needs to come in there. But once we get rid of that perfectionism and we are moving forward, we're setting goals, we're taking actions.

[00:25:25] I think like you mentioned, it is so important to just adjust it.  You set a target, you strived for it, even if you didn't get there. That's okay. Except that don't reject it. Don't put up the wall. You just have to build on that and keep moving forward. And so in goal setting, I want to just.

[00:25:44] Take one more pause here. And if you were already going to share more about goal setting and forgive me, but what can you tell our listeners about goal setting? And and I know you've already shared a lot, but I know we have the vision board and then you say you break it [00:26:00] down. Into smaller pieces.

[00:26:02] Are you treating your vision board as your goal setting dashboard as well? Or is it a formal process? Talk to me a little bit more about the goal setting part in particular.

[00:26:14] Mandy: [00:26:14] That's a good question. I guess I just haven't really analyzed what I do that much now, but I think I just, my brain is naturally. I guess you're right. I guess my vision board is just like a work in progress and I constantly update things. I take things off. I put things on, I chunk it down another thing, I think that's really powerful about goal setting is to have an open mind and sometimes you just have to pause and you have to ask yourself because we know ourselves the most, what we need to do. And. I think it's important to check in with ourselves and check in what we need to do.

[00:26:54] And we have to be aware. The other thing is if we're not [00:27:00] constantly updating what we want in our life, like Jack Canfield talks a lot about the haves do's and B's things you want to have things you want to do, things you want to be. And if I think it's important to constantly be updating that.

[00:27:15] And so as we're goal setting, we can make sure they're aligned with what we want. But I will always say simplify it don't make it. Don't make it hard. Make it fun. I think it's fun now. I really don't think it's daunting anymore. Goal setting is fun and. It just comes, the more you do it. It's like priming the pump for the water.

[00:27:39] The more you do it, all of a sudden it's just, it starts coming and you start having more clarity of what you want to create, but it didn't happen overnight. It's taken me years. It's really cool. One thing I do want to mention Neil, about that, I really like about how vision boards work is often things come [00:28:00] in flashes. So I reached under 200 pounds. Then within a month, we were able to buy our dream house. That was on my vision board. I was a huge one. And those things happened within a few weeks of each other. And then another big goal I had was I wanted to be able to stop doing my corporate America job.

[00:28:21] And I wanted to be home working from home with my daughter. And that was on my vision board for a few years. And then that happened within a few months after that. So it was like, I spent years. Dreaming of these things, dreaming of my dream house, dreaming of weighing under 200 pounds, dreaming of being home with my daughter, all of these things.

[00:28:41] And all of a sudden they just all happened. And so I just want to infuse hope in people that it's so possible and you just have to believe, and you don't, you won't always know how it's going to happen. You [00:29:00] won't. So don't overthink it. Just be with it and just allow the universe to help it happen.

[00:29:09]Neal: [00:29:09] I appreciate you sharing that to not overthink it to not overcomplicate it. I'm a very process driven and detail oriented person. And so I think Actually, I also, I have a program called the purpose driven professional, and we talk about life mapping, vision boards, it's all a part of there.

[00:29:30] And sometimes I think the approach can be overly complicated and daunting which is not good, especially at the beginning for someone who's really transitioning into this as a habit and an approach to life. And I love that don't overthink it. Just, get familiar and bought into the concept and believe in it, but don't let the mechanics get to scare you away.

[00:29:56]So I really love that tip. Thank you so much for sharing.

[00:29:59] [00:30:00] We talked a little bit about. Mindset and, I think it's so important to, to factor in mindset and to change those things that are preventing us from moving forward.  Do you have any tips for first time, vision boarders, who,  they're getting warmed up to the idea that there's hearing these stories about results.

[00:30:24]But they still have a lot of that doubt or the mindset's not quite there, or maybe as a coach and you don't have to give away any of your secrets, but I'm just curious, how do you help those people that are getting into this world for the first time?

[00:30:42]Mandy: [00:30:42] I think it's just baby steps. And that's how I was when I started. We have to remember I didn't hang it up for months. Remember that I was a little skeptical of it and it was daunting to me and it wasn't fun now it's fun, but it's taken time for it to be fun. [00:31:00] So you don't get to walk into it, feeling confident.

[00:31:03] You know what I mean? That's just not how life works, anything. That's going to be amazing in your life. It takes work to get there. And I'm not saying that to deflate anybody I'm saying it to hopefully make you realize that. Yes, I'm talking to, I'm talking about it from a stance of doing it for years and it's completely, my life is completely unrecognizable than it was six years ago.

[00:31:27] And in every way, I could keep going. There's more things, but we don't have enough time. But it's just  it's like living, it's like living a fairy tale.  I love Cinderella. She's my favorite Disney princess, because she's not girl because she always talks about, a dream is a wish our heart makes when we're fast asleep.

[00:31:49] And that shows to me. No matter how your heart is grieving. If you keep on believing your dreams that you wish will come true. And I feel like when we [00:32:00] start, we are grieving. We're grieving, disappointment, and life, especially this year, man. This has been one of the best years of my life. There you go vision like here it's this has been one of the best years for me because I'm literally getting to live the life of my dreams and even everything in our climate has been going on.

[00:32:24] Hasn't even diminished my joy because I'm living the life of my dreams and I've created it. But to back up a little, cause I know I'm talking up in the clouds. I tend to live in a place called Mandy land.

[00:32:36] Y'all get to visit Mandy land for a few minutes. But I didn't start that way, Neil. I didn't start. I was just what you described and I just had to trust Jack Canfield, Kirk Duncan, other people, Rachel Hollis, Oprah Winfrey, other people that have gone the path. What's the actor's name? Oh gosh. He's always doing vision [00:33:00] boards and he's hilarious.

[00:33:01] Dumb and dumber. I'm caring. He's big and busy or it's too. So there's all these people that are really big vision boards. And I just had to go into a believing that if it works for other people, it can. So maybe you just have to believe my story and be like, okay. And it can just start with one thing.

[00:33:19] It can start with one thing and you don't have to, you can  follow somebody that's done it. And like Jack Canfield, he breaks it down for you. And I appreciate that as well. So I don't have to make up the process for that.

[00:33:34]Neal: [00:33:34] I love so much of what you shared. I don't want to leave Mandy land. This is fun.

[00:33:40] Mandy: [00:33:40] Okay.

[00:33:41]Neal: [00:33:41] One last thing that I want to make sure, I at least point out and you can add any comments you want to, but I love how in your story, we've all been through the school of hard knocks.

[00:33:52]You have been through a lot and have made some incredible changes in your life, but what I love and your story [00:34:00] was. A huge catalyst for a lot of the change. Was really your children and your daughter and your son were huge catalysts for you to really take on that.

[00:34:13]I'm assure daunting goal, especially the health and getting that where you wanted it to be. And so I hope, and again, look outward as a principal the crown Juul, if you will, of the principles that we teach here on the happiness playbook. And it's so important. And I think when we double down on that outward focus on that charity on, that service part of our souls, that can really be the bigger catalyst for the change we want in our lives.

[00:34:46] And I think I'll go out on a limb and say all of the truly impactful and longterm. Positive change that we can do in our lives will always result [00:35:00] from a place of love and charity and outward focus. And so I love that you brought that in as part of your story.

[00:35:08] Mandy: [00:35:08] and one thing with it really at some it really, if you want to summarize that, it's the WHY it's when, when you're asking them about goal setting and how do you do goal setting it's and this definitely means a lot. For health is I'll use health as an example, because that's what I focus on a lot, but you can use it for every goal that you're setting is when your, WHY is so strong.

[00:35:34] My babies are my why and one's on earth, one's in heaven, but they're my why. And they're when I made that so strong, when you have something that you're working towards, it propels you forward and. It makes all the difference. And so that definitely is near and dear to my heart.

[00:35:53] And that's when I finally could make a change. And so if you're feeling like you keep [00:36:00] trying using health as an example, but if you keep trying to lose weight, losing weight, you're just, yo-yoing really what I recommend you do is there's a thing you can find. If you Google it, it's called seven levels deep.  And you just, it asks you the same question over and over again, but it helps you identify why you want something. And the more you can be crystal clear on that , in those moments when. You really want to be lazy and you, your natural man comes into play and your natural, lazy self comes into play challenge and choose. And you can get more intentional about what you want and the more you do that, it becomes really easy and it becomes second nature. And that's really been what has helped me the most.

[00:36:48] And I love helping other people. I love helping people find their happy and find that freedom for themselves. It's truly been, [00:37:00] I can't believe now I get paid for it. And every dollar I earn means somebody's life is being impacted. And that blows my mind. It's again, it's like , I'm living in a fairy tale that I get to help other people do the same thing.

[00:37:13] And it's amazing and love it so much.

[00:37:15] Neal: [00:37:15] that is so cool. You're amazing. Thank you so much for these Mandy. I wish we could just sit here and just stay in Mandy land, all th all good things must come to an end. I just made that saying actually 

[00:37:30] Mandy: [00:37:30] you could just come to my page. Mandy Florence Mon is my Facebook page. I'm mostly just posted by Mandy land. You can follow anyone that wants to follow me feel free. Mandy Florence, man. That's my Facebook and I pretty much just post about living in Mandy land all day. So

[00:37:48] Neal: [00:37:48] yes. And this is perfect. I'm just going to ask if our listeners want more Mandy land, how do they get in touch with you? So go to the Facebook page she just described and we'll put it [00:38:00] in the show notes as well. 

[00:38:01]Mandy: [00:38:01] You can just text me. And we can connect. My phone number is (801) 899-5591. So you can text me. We can be friends.

[00:38:16] Neal: [00:38:16] Yeah. Wow. Everyone's got her phone number now to, to tap into Mandy land at a moment's notice. That is so fun. Thank you so much for sharing. One last question and we've shared lots of very good tips. But we always like to end on maybe one more. We call them. Pro tips.

[00:38:37] One thing that our listeners can apply in their lives to really get traction and to develop the skill of happiness. So what pro tip would you share or reiterate with our listeners?

[00:38:49]Mandy: [00:38:49] So my pro tip for you is that I really feel strongly. That positivity is the key. There's a book called the happiness [00:39:00] advantage by Shawn Achor.

[00:39:01] I don't know if you've read it

[00:39:02] Neal: [00:39:02] Love that book.

[00:39:04] Mandy: [00:39:04] I, again, I love being happy. I love being a Mandy land. I love positivity. And Oh my goodness. When you can just look at life out of , what I can learn. Even when you go through trials, the more you can look at life as, how can I learn? How can I grow? What can I find good out of this?

[00:39:27] I promise you're going to be so much happier. And if you're watching the news and you're just getting depressed, I really don't watch the news. And I just really focus on growth. And I focus on love and I focus on positivity and how I can help other people.

[00:39:46] It just makes me happy. And so my tip for you would be , if you're spending a lot of time in the news, just take a break from it and just look inward and look at what sets your soul on fire. What makes you happy and spend [00:40:00] some time there and you will shine.

[00:40:04] Neal: [00:40:04] Yes, that is a great pro tip. Mandy, thank you so much for coming on and opening your arms, opening the Gates of Mandy land for. For a little bit here. This was amazing and we are so lucky and grateful to have you on our team because life is a team sport. So thank you so much.

[00:40:29] Mandy: [00:40:29] Of course. Thanks, Neal. This was so fun and. I really hope you make a vision board. And I really I'm saying this to anyone listening, and just do it and hang it up and don't overthink it.

[00:40:43] Neal: [00:40:43] And we want to see anyone who's willing to share. If you're listening to this right now, make a vision board, just something super basic. And again, we mentioned Kirk Duncan. He says, if you don't have anything fancy yet, just get paid painter's tape and make a square on your [00:41:00] wall with the painter's tape.

[00:41:01] And just start putting pictures up on the wall if it needs to be that basic, but make a vision board and share it with us, we would love to see it. I'm sure. Mandy would love to see it too. So

[00:41:12] Mandy: [00:41:12] I would totally love to see it. So you guys are awesome and I can't wait for you to live a life of your dreams because you're going to have so much fun.

[00:41:20] Neal: [00:41:20] thanks again, Mandy.

[00:41:23] Mandy: [00:41:23] Okay.

[00:41:23] 

[00:41:23]

[00:41:23]Neal: [00:41:24] wow. I hope you enjoyed being in Mandy land as much as I did. Accept and build on where you are right now. Let go of the pessimism. And those negative voices inside your head that are holding you back. Articulate your dreams make a vision board and chase those dreams at full speed. Practice happiness today and always, and never forget that happiness is a skill and life is a team sport. Catch you next week. [00:42:00]