Beyond Neutral

Give yourself the gift of reflection and planning

As the holiday season approaches, Paula Reid challenges listeners to step back from the hustle and bustle of holiday preparations to focus on themselves. In this special episode of Beyond Neutral, Paula introduces a simple yet impactful three-step process for ending the year with gratitude and setting the stage for personal success in the new year. Key Takeaways 1. Celebrate Your Wins (2:45) Reflect on your accomplishments from the past year. What personal strengths or capacities helped you achieve these wins? Paula encourages listeners to take a moment to celebrate and express gratitude for their successes. 2. Learn and Let Go (6:10) Review the moments that didn't go as planned. Identify what might have gone wrong, what lessons you can take away, and then grant yourself the grace to let those setbacks go. 3. Plan for the Future (9:20) What do you want to accomplish in the upcoming year? Paula emphasizes the importance of choosing one thing to start, stop, or do differently to move closer to your goals. Call to Action This holiday season, give yourself the gift of reflection and planning. Take just five minutes—or as long as 50 minutes—to pause, assess your year, and set intentions for the future. And as you look ahead to 2025, ask yourself: What do you want it to look like? Be sure to tune in next season as Paula dives into creating personal development plans with actionable insights from real coaching sessions. Until then, have a wonderful holiday season, take a deep breath, and remember: in January, you get to start fresh. Keep driving forward—and we'll see you in 2025! More from Paula: reidnco.com

A Big Question To Ask Yourself & Season Two Finale!

In this Season 2 wrap-up, Paula takes a moment to reflect on some of her favorite and most popular episodes, such as "Ep. 16: Unpacking Agency," "Ep. 19: Three Step Process to Stop Ruminating" and "Ep. 26: Do An Expectations Audit." As Paula prepares for her summer activities, a time she usually spends reflecting, reading, and planning for the future, she had a thought-provoking conversation with a friend that led to a deeper question. The question she poses to herself and her listeners is: What do you want your contribution to be? Consider this question in any given moment—how do you want to contribute to your relationships? Do you aim to offer grace, understanding, or judgment? What about in your work or within your family dynamics? Is your current contribution aligned with your intentions? As she concludes Season 2, Paula leaves us pondering this question: What do you want your contribution to be, both in the short term and long term? Sometimes our contribution involves giving space—space for others to grow. And sometimes, the most meaningful contribution is choosing not to intervene. 🎧 Show Notes: reidnco.com/podcast 🔗Website: reidnco.com Time Stamps: [00:01:52] "And so just becoming incredibly aware of the emotions that we're experiencing and the power that they have. Both the wonderful positive power that they have, as well as how they can, you know, create situations where we get stuck in fear or we ruminate and how to get ourselves out of that." [00:03:45] "moment that we might be involved in in our lives. It can be around our jobs. It can be about a greater cause. It could be a question that you ask yourself in relationship. What do you want to contribute? What do you want to contribute in the moment? What do you want to contribute in the bigger picture?" [00:06:28] "So that has been my contribution through this podcast, or that's what I've wanted my contribution to be through this podcast. But now I want to ask that question in a very different way in very different, very specific situations that I'm in and have that on the forefront of my mind when I'm in a situation."

Understanding Stress Signals and Self-Soothing Strategies

Throughout season two, Paula explored various techniques for recognizing and managing emotions, from navigating feedback to weathering emotional storms. Today, she zeros in on a crucial element of mastering emotional regulation: understanding your personal stress responses and self-soothing methods. In this episode, Paula dives into how recognizing these personal tendencies is a pivotal first step towards improving your emotional reactions. She reveals her own inclination to spring into action and explains how gaining this self-awareness has empowered her to pause and maintain composure under pressure. This is an episode you don't want to miss, Paula gives us tips on spotting those stress signals and finding your chill amidst the chaos. It's all about really knowing yourself and learning to listen to your mind and body when things get rocky. 🎧 Show Notes: reidnco.com/podcast 🔗Website: reidnco.com Time Stamps: [00:00:00] - Paula introduces the episode and sets the stage for the discussion on how we handle emotions, feedback, and stress in relationships, providing an overview of the season's topics. [00:02:00] - This timestamp marks an explanation about different methods people use to soothe themselves under stress: thinking through the situation, taking action, or connecting with their emotions. It's a pivotal point where the strategies are introduced. [00:07:00] - At this moment, Paula delves deeper into the potential pitfalls of leaning too heavily on one self-soothing strategy over the others, highlighting the importance of balancing these approaches in stressful situations. This part provides insights into the consequences of each bias.

4 Ways to Cultivate Abundance

Paula wants us to know that the abundance mindset is not about pie-eyed optimism. It is about how we approach a problem, and if we immediately go to a scarcity mindset, this can condition our thinking. We all have a tendency to jump into certain patterns of thinking, even if we consider ourselves very positive people. In this episode, Paula shares a personal story about packing her daughter's car for a move and how her daughter's reminder to adopt an abundance mindset was the catalyst to start focusing on her own patterns of thinking. Despite her optimistic nature, Paula caught herself slipping into scarcity thinking, which shifted her focus to actively choosing the abundance mindset. Listen in to learn four ways we can cultivate an abundance mindset in our lives, (and why it matters)! 🎧 Show Notes: reidnco.com/podcast 🔗Website: reidnco.com Time Stamps: [00:03:30] Abundance mindset. And I'm like, Oh, geez, you're right. You know, and by the way, it all fit and it fit fine, but it was an example of seeing a situation, right? And rather than looking at it and saying, okay, wow, we're going to have to get creative about how we think about this, or let's figure out, what the most efficient way to plan this out is rather than going to that and going to approaching a problem from a perspective of possibility. I [00:04:00] immediately approached a problem from the perspective of scarcity, and I am an optimistic person. So I really started observing this, not only in myself, but in other people [00:06:13] There's 12 of us. We just cut them small and we'll each get a taste of this fantastic pie abundance, right? It's focusing on what you actually have. Not on what you're missing extremely important nuance, and one that can be very valuable. So how does that show up sometimes? And what's the impact of that? It shows up in a couple of ways. And I've been watching it show up recently. I mentioned my own situation, but where I've also been watching that show up a little bit more. Is, in a couple of coaching situations that I have in a couple of search situations, job search. I see it a lot. [00:14:46] Okay. So start training yourself to be more expansive about possibilities. And start thinking from a, it's possible. I think that what happens to us as we go through life is, life kind of takes over and you start, and I do think aging does this also. You start thinking from a risk perspective, start thinking from a possibility perspective.

Challenging Your Inner Narratives for True Transformation

Have you been telling yourself a certain story about who you are and what you're capable of? We all have an inner narrative that can hinder our ability to transform. This inner voice is not necessarily ever going to go away, but breaking free from its assumptions is possible. In a recent discussion, Paula and Mike Rataczak reflected on their latest episode, "#33: Trusting Your Instincts Through Transformations," and shared a powerful message. Mike urges listeners not to avoid confronting their inner voice, which can be both loud and limiting. Paula offers her insights on tackling these internal narratives. So, if you're seeking inspiration to make significant changes in your life or simply to explore new skills or hobbies, tune in to gain the motivation to challenge yourself, regardless of what your inner voice may say about you. 🎧 Show Notes: reidnco.com/podcast 🔗Website: reidnco.com Time Stamps: [00:01:46]: Introduction to the challenge of changing the internal voice - This moment marks the beginning of a deep dive into the primary challenge Mike Rataczak faced: altering the internal voice that hinders personal and career transformations. It's where the narrator reflects on the aftermath of a previous episode's discussion with Mike, setting up the context for a profound exploration of overcoming ingrained belief systems and the fear of change, which is pivotal for anyone considering a significant life or career shift. [00:05:17]: The hardest part of transformation is wrestling with the internal voice - In this part, Mike delves into the core of his struggle, describing the process of contending with the internal voice as the most challenging aspect of his transformation. He emphasizes the difficulty of recognizing this voice does not necessarily represent one's true self, offering encouragement to those contemplating significant life changes. [00:11:36]: The importance of reexamining beliefs and values for transformation - This closing reflection reinforces the theme of the internal voice being a significant barrier to transformation. It discusses the necessity of reevaluating one's beliefs, values, and the assumptions that underpin one's identity and actions. This segment underlines the process of transitioning from externally influenced perceptions to embracing one's internal drivers and reshaping self-concept.