Checking in Mid-June, 2021 with a post on the direction of the Upward Slopes Health Coaching Platform – because every once in a while it’s important to pause, to tune into what’s happening within and around you, and choose the next best course of action.
That’s the Upward Slopes Process, and here I apply it to re-evaluating the direction of the Upward Slopes health coaching platform.
When I created Upward Slopes, at its core I wrote a process for creating real change. It goes like this:
In life, whenever you come across a challenge, there’s a process that will get you through to a better and brighter other side. Here’s the short version:
Step 1: Pause. Get Quiet. Stop creating more noise.
This one is simple (in theory). Just literally stop what you were doing.
Step 2: Listen
- Outside – to the world around you
- what are other people (who might need help or have something to offer) really saying?
- what are the experts saying?
- Inside – into your own self – body and mind
- what is your body telling you about needs of your own?
- what is that little voice in your head telling you to do?
Step 3: Take Aligned Action
Once you’ve created space and listened deeply, it’s time to take action.
What, now, is the next best step?
Make a decision – the best one that you can at the moment – and move forward.
I do my best to live by this process. Whether I’m hard at work in the office (or coffee shop), out navigating on the trails, or climbing up a cliff wall, when I get all caught up in the messy noise (in my head, my body, or around me), I pause. I exhale.
I’m not always successful, though. Sometimes, I find myself continuing to charge forward, head down, fully intent on whatever plan I had from the get-go.
But time after time I learn that this method that has been deeply wired into me to push through anything – it doesn’t actually produce the results I actually want.
Life is dynamic. It changes day by day. We continuously face new challenges and we continuously find access to new information that will better help us achieve that better and brighter future.
The question is, do we open ourselves to new solutions? Or do we stay headstrong with ideas based on outdated information?
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Several weeks ago, I found myself creating noise. Sure, some of it was reaching people, but not in a way that I wanted it to.
For example, I’d been working to present a series of health-based blog posts and other content. It’s quality information, but it’s not reaching people in a way that is useful to them, and that’s what matters.
So, I paused. I stopped writing blog posts. I halted the Newsletter. I took a big step back.
Now, these past weeks, I have spent a lot of time listening:
- To others – to experts in fields that I’ve been trying to work in.
- To others – to those whom I am trying to help.
- To myself – asking what is my unique contribution that can benefit others. Listening closely for answers.
What happened?
First, it all led me back to my foundation: The Reprogrammed Systems Models. These models are the expression of my systems approach to understanding how our behavior impacts the health of our bodies.
This is how I work through the complex health sciences and integrate this information into useful frameworks for making healthier decisions.
That’s where I spent several weeks:
- going back through the science; ensuring that what I teach is scientifically valid
- tossing out some old ideas
- updating the models based on the best information I know today – particularly this one: a model of expanded energy balance for healthy weight management.
Meanwhile, I was also questioning how I bring this information forward. Once again, this seems to be the real challenge.
How do I get through to individuals in a way that helps create the health transformation that so many are needing?
- Do I need more data? Do I need more technical models?
- Do I need more blog posts? More videos?
- What can I do now?
Early on in life I understood how important it is that what I teach comes from scientifically valid foundation. So there’s no question that I will always work hard on the science.
But somewhere along the way, I learned that there is a HUGE difference between understanding information and taking action to create real change.
As a matter of fact, they are completely separate challenges.
So what do people need to create the health transformations that most individuals in this modern world desperately need?
Well, for starters, often times what’s more useful comes in forms that don’t look like technical models (I know, I was surprised when I realized that too!)
Instead, what is needed is a dynamic, artful process for getting oneself to take the next right course of action.
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Ready to come full circle?
I sure am 🙂
What we need is a dynamic, artful process for getting ourselves to take the next right course of action.
Something like:
- Pause.
2. Listen, both inside and out.
Pause and listen.
3. Then, take the next right course of action.
Repeat, forever and ever, as you move forward through your own health transformation.
That’s the process. I encourage you to apply it to whatever challenge you are facing in life.
And, continuing forward here at Upward Slopes, we are going to keep using it to move us forward on each of our own Journeys to Better Health.
What is #ChasingUpwardSlopes?
Upward Slopes was, and continues to be, my platform for expressing what a healthy lifestyle means to me:
- a lifestyle supported by consistent healthy decisions
- a lifestyle that involves pushing our own limits as we overcome challenges
- the art of balancing these two ideals
To simplify, Upward Slopes represents the journey through life, doing our best to live a healthy lifestyle as we face challenges.
- When we’re fortunate, we’re able to spend our time facing challenges that we’ve chosen.
- When we’re less fortunate, it’s still about taking on the challenges that are placed in front of us from external forces.
That’s what we’re doing here. Facing challenges head on with a process that may not seem so linear nor intuitive.
Yet, it’s one that has served me time and time again no matter what I’m facing:
- An injury from running or climbing
- A work project
- Building a health coaching platform
What it means for you
My blog here on Upward Slopes is, in part, my means for my own creative expression.
But what’s most important for you is two-fold:
- The Upward Slopes Process – a simple, dynamic process that can be applied to taking on any challenge
- Your Journey to Better Health – the transformative journey through which you move forward into a healthier lifestyle, better supported by a body with more energy, greater mental clarity, and an overall enhanced physical ability to take on each day.
To learn more about both of these, sign up for the Newsletter. When you do, yo’ll get the full guide to The Upward Slopes Process, along with loads of free content to help you along with your own Journey to Better Health.
Of course, you can always go check out the blog and other pages here on Upward Slopes.
Also, if you’re more of a technical-inclined individual, check out my sister site: Your Health, Reprogrammed for a more focused and more technical look at making healthy decisions.
