Resonance – Episode 39
Verbatim Transcript
Speaker: Viktoria Levenberg
Let’s be real. If you are listening to this episode, you likely have big goals, big dreams. How many
times have you set yourself something really ambitious and then you didn’t quite feel like you
could get there? Between your personal life, work and business, one constant and that is you.
Sometimes, what’s happening in our mind we don’t even know, sabotaging your behavior. How
do you think you’re gonna achieve these goals? Like do you really think that you’re gonna do
what’s necessary to achieve your biggest wildest dreams if 90% of you believes that it’s
impossible? How is that working for you?
How much more could you achieve if you knew exactly what was holding you back from your
biggest, wildest dreams? In today’s episode, you are gonna learn about the 7 things that are
standing in between you and the life of your wildest dreams. Let’s dive in.
Welcome to Resonance, the podcast for high performers and entrepreneurs who want to do life,
work and success differently. I am your host, Viktoria Levenberg, and I’m obsessed with efficiency,
productivity and planning in a way that harnesses your energy and your natural rhythms while
keeping you in alignment and integrity. Because I have figured out that lasting success is not
about the hustle. It is about being in resonance. Let’s begin.
Welcome, welcome, friends. At the time of the recording of this episode, we are just coming out
of a new moon. I don’t know about you, I mean surely my friends in the Northern Hemisphere,
you know it’s still kind of a bit chilly. But for us here in Auckland, the temperatures just dropped
and personally I am on day 3 of my cycle. So everything is just gone slow and inwards and that’s
really required some different choices in my work, life and business, um but more on that in
another episode. I just kind of wanted to give you a little glimpse into what’s happening for me
behind the scenes. If so you’re listening to this episode and you’re like oh her energy is a bit
different um and you’ll learn a lot more about this over the coming weeks but that is why it is.
Because we are not linear, day in day out exactly the same beings. We are cyclical beings and so
with that come ebbs and flows and anyways I’m getting ahead of myself. What we’re actually
here to talk about today is you and your goals and your dreams.
Let’s be real. If you are listening to this episode, you likely have big goals, big dreams. You know
like how many times have you set yourself something really ambitious? Hey my high performers, I
see you. And then you didn’t quite feel like you could get there. Whether it is in your personal life
like running that Marathon or getting ripped for that competition or whether it’s in your work like
scoring that promotion or nailing that big client or your own business like maybe starting a
business or creating this, the irresistible offer, right there is between your personal life, work and
business one constant and that is you. And so by the end of this episode, you will know the exact
seven things that are getting in the way of your goals so that you can finally cast them aside and
do what you came here to do. Because that is my purpose. That is why I am here. I am here to
really help you move all the things standing in your way out of your way so that you can make big
change in this world, elevating our collective planet, elevating and creating this brand new earth
for us all. That is my why. So let’s dive in.
First things first, I mean we need to lay some foundations, okay? Let’s let’s kind of lay the
groundwork before we start building on and can we all agree that it isn’t just our actions that
matter when it comes to achieving our desired results? Am I right? Like hopefully you understand
now that you’re not just not getting the goals because you’re doing all the wrong things. I mean
sure that’s part of it haha, not all the wrong things but we’ll get into that in just a moment. But
you know surely you can agree with me that you could have two completely different people who
are given the exact same set of instructions and achieve astoundingly different results. Like I’m
sure you’ve seen that in your life right? Like maybe even let’s take it all the way back to school.
When you were in school and the teacher said hey this is your assignment and she would give
the same assignment to every student and look at how many different results you end up with
right? And the same thing applies like at work. You know you’ve you’ve got a a project and here
you go you’ve you’ve got this project and you get completely different results between two
different people. And I’m seeing this all the time especially in my entrepreneurial community um
which is called Business by Design. Like we have the same step-by-step systems and tools and
processes and I am just seeing a lot of people get stuck, myself included. Obviously I’ve
experienced this for myself um but the big difference is I know why and I know what to do about
it and that is what we’re gonna do for you today. So as we outline these seven things that are
standing between you and your biggest goals, we will start with some of the tangible stuff. So yes
we will start with some of the do action things that most of us uh tend to relate more to and also
um feel like it’s most accessible. It’s sort of like OK let me let me tell me what to do um and then I
will just warn you that we will move into some more of the intangible woo stuff, okay? We’re
gonna go from the do to the woo. I thought that was pretty smart. I mean haha from the do to
the who. Maybe this is gonna be the name of this episode, we’ll see. I don’t think that would go
very well but maybe I’m wrong. So bear with me because it all matters and you’ll see by the end
of this episode how it all comes together. And I’m gonna warn you, be prepared, because the last
one may blow your mind. It might be quite confronting and so I just ask you to approach this with
a beginner’s mindset, with an open mind. And to help kind of keep things quite tangible and
familiar um throughout all the seven steps we’ll use the example of training for a Marathon to
just help give it a little bit of context so it doesn’t all just feel kind of like up in the air. So let’s get
into it.
Number one, structure and systems. Oh my gosh I could talk about this for days. There are
probably so many of you that have set yourself some big lofty goals with no structure at all, just
throwing ish at the wall hoping something sticks, no idea how you’re gonna get there um. On the
other side of the spectrum though, cause this is a kaleidoscope, there is no right or wrong, like
there is really that sacred balance we need to find. The problem is that on the other side of this
some of you are so freaking rigid in your structures and systems that you they’re literally getting
in the way of your own results because you can’t see past the specific four walls that you put
yourself into. So let’s use the example of training for a Marathon right? Like there are so much
that goes into being able to run this 42+ kilometre journey which by the way the physical body is
literally not equipped to handle. That’s why it’s so hard. That’s why it’s such an accomplishment.
And so you know you’ve got to have all the structures and systems in place from the right gear to
the right nutrition to the training schedule, all these factors to take into consideration. You can’t
just you know like train as you please and show up on race day expecting to finish with a personal
best. But also similarly you can’t be there like counting your macros to the gram because you’re
just gonna lose your mind. So there is a delicate sacred balance of the right structures and
systems that you need to have in place in order to make achieving your goals inevitable and easy.
That’s No. 1, structure and systems.
Number two, planning. Planning planning planning is my jam. I could talk about this for days but
let’s keep things simple. Some of you probably have no plan at all. I’m looking at you. Don’t you
hide in the corner. Don’t you press away. I told you this is gonna get confronting. You know so
many of you are probably just responding reactively to whatever today’s got in store for you. It’s
like I don’t know, whatever is urgent and in my face and whatever fire I’ve got to put out right
here right now right? Yeah. How’s that working for you hahaha. And look some of you on the
other side of the spectrum which is one that’s really easy for me to fall into so I will be the first to
put my hand up that hey I’m not perfect either and I need to keep myself in check just as much as
you do is being so over planned and over scheduled that like any last minute change throws you
into a complete spiral and then you throw the whole thing out the window right? So again, it’s a
kaleidoscope, it’s a spectrum. You need a plan but you also need to be able to flex and be
prepared for the unexpected and also leave a little bit of room for magic because we never know
what the universe has got in store for us, am I right? And so if we were to take it back to our
example of running a Marathon, I mean I don’t know about you but I haven’t heard of anyone
who has successfully completed a Marathon without a training plan right? Like duh um. And you
know even and so by the way for those of you who don’t know I ran two marathons myself. There
was a third one I was training for. We’ll get to that in just a moment. But basically as you’re
preparing for the Marathon you’ve got your distance days, your interval days, your strength days
and then particularly in the lead up to the race like in the week of the race you’ve got to taper
down your training. And the same goes for planning things like your nutrition both in the lead up
but also on the day.
Um your sleep. Like the first time I ran for a Marathon, that whole week I would literally train
myself to wake up at 3:00 am because the Auckland Marathon here starts at 6:00 am. By the
time you gotta get to the freaking ferry to take you to the start line and all that stuff, like it was a
3:00 am wake-up and I wanted my body to be prepared for the 3:00 am wake-up rather than it
being a shock on race day. So that was part of my plan.
Uh water requirements. You know you’ve got little nutrition stations so you can have your water
bottle delivered to that specific station if you want to have like special electrolytes in it or
something. You need to plan this out in advance. You can’t just show up on race day and like
Whoo hoo fingers crossed hope for the best. That doesn’t work right.
Um so that is No. 2, planning. Super super essential, my absolute jam and passion point.
No. 3. This one’s gonna hit some of you hard. Uh some of you will be ready to hear it, some of
you will not uh either way one day you’ll come around, that I can guarantee you and that is
hustle. Grinding, burning the midnight oil and running on empty while you’re chasing whatever
goal, whatever dream you set out for yourself. Ignoring your mental, physical, emotional needs
and just prioritising getting things done above everything else.
Doing me wrong, of course it’s important to get the things done. That’s why I’ve just spoken
about 1 and 2 which is structures and systems and planning. However you won’t get there
through hustle. Like think of any Olympic athlete or Grammy Award winner or Nobel Prize
recipient. No one shows up on stage and goes I just hustled and grinded and sacrificed above all
else. Of course there’s sacrifice but like you know not to that extreme because when you’re
depleted there is no freaking way that you have access to the innate creativity, flow and energy
within you that is required to get you those exact goals and results that you are so desperately
craving.
And that is because we live in a society that glorifies linear constant productivity over cyclical
alignment. And linear productivity does not work for cyclical beings. And we are cyclical beings
people, please.
There’s only one thing you take away from today’s episode, let it be this is that we are nature as
human beings. We are just as much nature as any animal, any plant, anything else on this planet.
So if everything else works on a cyclical rhythm, so do we. Much more on that in an episode in a
couple of weeks time. But for now just remember hustle’s not gonna get there.
It’s not gonna get you there. And taking it back to our example of running for the Marathon, like
basically hustling in work and in your goals is the equivalent of running your distance days, which
for those of you who aren’t familiar with like Marathon training plans, your distance days are
where you effectively build up to I think the longest run I did before the Marathon was 35km and
then you leave a decent gap just for that final push um. So like basically that would be running
distance days every day. There’s no freaking way you can do it. You physically, it is impossible.
It’s so important to even taper down before you do that big stretch of race day. Like how how is it
that we seem to accept it in certain areas of our life and then when it comes to our work life it
just all goes out the window? Like it blows my mind. Speaking of mind, after No. 3 which is
hustle, we’re now gonna get into some of the more intangible, more woo stuff so stay with me.
No. 4 is mindset and beliefs. And my gosh like most of us unfortunately are just run by this
monkey mind that we don’t even stop to question what it’s saying. We just believe everything it
says. What are you thinking like when you think of your goals? Is it like super supportive and you
know you’ve already achieved them in your mind or is it like I don’t know if I can do this, I don’t
deserve this, I’m not good enough, they’re gonna judge me, who am I to do this, I’m not an
expert, me me me me me me like.
Look that’s not gonna get you there, is it. And for many of you listening that might be happening
on an unconscious level so I do also wanna talk to that is that sometimes what’s happening in our
mind we don’t even know because it’s only like 10% of our mind is in our conscious awareness, if
even that um. And so if you’ve got all these limiting beliefs in your unconscious sabotaging your
behavior, how do you think you’re gonna achieve these goals? Like do you really think that you’re
gonna do what’s necessary to achieve your biggest wildest dreams if 90% of you believes that it’s
impossible?
I don’t know about you but I think that is highly highly unlikely. And there’s a book that I can
recommend you which is called Existential Kink by Caroline Grace Elliot. She dives deep into the
unconscious mind. It’s got some really great exercises in there. I I love it, I’m I’m a big fan. I’ve
mentioned it on the podcast before um and my business coach and mentor James Wedmore
always says that you know people who say that mindset isn’t important are just not playing a big
enough game because mindset is so so freaking important.
And again taking it back to our example of the Marathon, you gotta freaking believe that you’re
gonna cross that finish line. You know you you hear it all the time like Olympic athletes visualising
themselves holding that gold medal, crossing the finish line because again having run these
marathons myself I can tell you from firsthand experience especially once you hit that 30+ K
mark, it’s just a mind game. It is no longer a physical game. Yes the physical part is hard but it is
all in your head. That is one thing I learned through 3+ years of training for marathons. It is the
mindset piece is so important especially on the Auckland’s track which my Auckland locals will
know.
Basically the half and the full Marathon are on the same path and then the way the track is
designed, full Marathon runners literally bypass the finish line and the half Marathon runners are
done and you gotta freaking run all the way to Saint Helier’s and then turn back around the same
way you came from before you get to go to that finish line. So it is such a mind game, especially
that turnaround point um. Enough on that. No. 4, mindset and beliefs.
Let’s move into number five. Huh. Your emotions. Hmm you’re like what. Ew feelings hahaha oh.
Your emotions are running the show my friends, especially if your reaction was Ew what feelings.
Um suppressed, repressed, ignored, avoided emotions. Man we gotta close those stress loops.
Like we’ve gotta deal with this stuff because the frequency at which you are showing up doing
the doing, the being that you are while you are in action is having a proportional effect on the
results that you are achieving or not achieving in in this case right.
So this is getting down into some of the real like esoteric and woo stuff and I mean like at the
time of the recording of this episode I literally just came off a two-and-a-half-hour call explaining
all this so just know that you’re just getting like the super duper cliffs notes of the fact that
everything is vibration. Everything is energy. Everything is frequency and the frequency with
which you do something carries through into your work and into your results.
And basically as soon as you begin to understand that anything that doesn’t feel good is a
representation of falsehood and more on this in another episode because yeah I could go down a
total total side tangent but it goes back to if if you’re feeling like crap and you’re thinking bad
thoughts and you are hustling through and every it just feels hard and the emotional underlying
emotional state is negative, there’s no way you’re gonna achieve that wild goal. That that’s just
it’s not gonna happen. Show me one person who has and didn’t end up burning out or sacrificing
their health or you know pretty much killing themselves in the meantime and then we’ll talk.
And again to take that back to our example of the Marathon runner, look like for example if you
want to finish a race with a personal best but then inside you still got unprocessed grief over the
last race where maybe like you injured yourself or the weather was crap so you were running
slower or something like be careful because that unprocessed experience might still be rippling
out into your results. And like as we speak just to give you another like real time example, right
now I am on the precipice of like announcing my big pivot to the public again at the time of the
episode recording cause you know these are a little bit delayed so by the time you listen to this
I’m already delivering Efficiency Made Easy to my beta members but right now I’ve got to like go
and make it public and announce it and like do my big song and dance on my socials and I’m
feeling a bit of resistance. And so I’ve been sitting with the emotions that are um kind of behind
that resistance and and doing my own practices and and all that sort of stuff to move through it.
So I don’t carry that negative energy into this really exciting new chapter of my life. And some of
the unprocessed memories that are coming up, I would have never put two and two together.
Like, so far I’ve done three practices, um, and I’ve already got another memory that’s like coming
up once again. And it is just so like your subconscious mind is wild. You wouldn’t even know it if
someone asked you.
So just know that there is a lot beneath the surface that you don’t see, which brings me to No. 6,
which is your nervous system.
And if you’ve been here from the OG days, you will very well be familiar with the fact that the
nervous system runs the show, right? Like where your nervous system set point is, is going to be
directly proportional to the results that you receive. So if you are in constant hypo or hyper
arousal, which basically means like this constant sympathetic nervous system response, this fight,
flight, freeze, fawn, or flop, you’re not gonna be able to expand into the best version of yourself
that has achieved those dreams. Because your nervous system literally sits at the root of
everything that we have spoken about so far.
Um, you know, your nervous system state then determines your emotional state, which
determine your thoughts and beliefs, which then determine your actions. And so if you are in a
state of chronic stress and you’ve got all these open stress loops that are unprocessed and your
stress bucket is so full that it’s overflowing, you will quietly be sabotaging your success without
even knowing it.
I know, scary. And a really great example of this is, let’s say you’re training for that Marathon, but
at the same time you’ve got a whole lot of stress at work and you’ve got all these deadlines that
you’re not meeting and your marriage is falling apart and you’re about to move house and you
are just completely overloaded with stress. What’s gonna happen? What do you think’s gonna
happen? That training load’s gonna overwhelm you. You’re probably gonna get sick. Or if you do
manage to get to race day, I mean during race time, this is so gonna impact your performance.
Your head won’t be in the game. Everything is gonna be influenced by this. So it really does start
at the nervous system level. No matter what you wanna do in life, it starts here.
And that brings me to No. 7, which is purpose. Don’t roll your eyes at me on this one, please,
because you know it shocks me that most people don’t even ask themselves, why am I doing
this?
It baffles me. Like so many people I’ll speak to and they’ll go around and all the things that
they’re doing and they’re trying to achieve, and this is where my mind always goes because this
is what I do in my work. I coach people through this process and I go, okay, well let’s take a step
back. Why are you doing this? Why is this important to you? Like, oh, I’ve never even stopped to
ask myself that question. Guys, we need to start here. Please be honest with yourself.
Are your goals actually your goals, or are they someone else’s? Is it to get approval from mum
and dad? Is it to get approval from society? Is it because it’s what people expect of you? Is it
because it’s what good girls do? Is it because it’s what looking good on the resume? You tell me.
And again, first-hand experience here, friends, of running two marathons and training for a third
one.
For me, Marathon training was a coping mechanism. I was at the time running away from
feelings, emotions, and open stress loops. I wasn’t at the time yet ready to feel and witness and
experience. And I only know this now looking back on it through doing a lot of the inner work
that I have been doing. But in some way I was seeking approval from my family.
And I vividly remember, so I had run two marathons at the time, I was training for my third one,
and I remember having this conversation with my dad, who we’ve got a really complex dynamic,
and he was talking about like how I’m running marathons and my stepbrother is doing Ironmans
and like how crazy we are and how stupid it is and like he was clearly not impressed, right? Um,
my inner child was like quietly dying inside. And this was at that point in time, I was training for
my third Marathon. And I remember after that conversation, I just stopped training, not because
that was like another way of my inner child trying to seek approval. No, it was because I realised, I
was like, oh, it just doesn’t even matter.
And so on an unconscious level, I was doing all this work and it was fueled by this desire to
impress my parents. And then as soon as I noticed, oh, it’s not impressing anyone, I was like I’m
not really enjoying it. Like, let’s be honest, I was doing it for all the wrong reasons from the
beginning. I was like, oh, okay, cool, we can just let that go. And I was totally cool. Like, don’t get
me wrong, I enjoy running, but like I’ve got Piper in my life. I’ve got a dog to walk. I would much
rather have a nice long leisurely walk than like spend four hours on a Sunday running 35 k.
So that gave me a lot of my time and my life back. Nothing against Marathon runners. I think it’s
great. Everyone’s got their own hobbies. But just purpose. Come back to the why. Why are you
doing this? In my example, I was doing it for the wrong reasons.
And notice how all of these things lead into one another, right?
So now at this point you might be thinking, you’re right, Vik, but how does that apply to my
goals? How does that apply to my life? How do I align my internal world with my external actions
so I can finally get the results that I want? Cause I get what you’re saying, but like how, how do I
do it?
Well, start with your purpose. Just ask yourself, what do I truly want? No one’s watching. No
stage, no podium, no gold star thumbs up for being a good girl. No, no, no. Just what do I truly
want? Why do I want this? And see what emerges. See what comes up for you.
And as for the rest, that is exactly what I teach inside my brand new program, Efficiency Made
Easy, as we speak. Like literally unpacking this with my incredible founding members.
So in the meantime, for you, start with purpose and then identify out of those seven things that
are standing between you and your goals, where perhaps you have got your biggest challenge
areas. Out of those seven things, where what rubbed you wrong the most? Like what rubbed you
the wrong way, if you know what I mean. And I’m sure there was one thing I said that you were
like, oh, whatever, Vik. So the one that made you roll your eyes, I would start there. Double down
in that area.
So here you go. Those are the seven things that are holding you back from your biggest goals in
priority order. Alignment to your purpose, nervous system resonance, emotional coherence,
aligned mindset, and supportive beliefs that align with those goals you wanna achieve. And then
followed by the actions, working with your body rather than the hustle, a plan that works for you
and brings you closer towards success, and lastly the structure and the systems that help hold it
all in place.
Those are your 7 steps. It is doable. It is possible. You can do this. Start with your why.
And in the meantime, if you are feeling a little bit of FOMO, fear no more because the priority
waitlist for my very next round of Efficiency Made Easy is already up and running. So stay tuned.
I’m gonna be sharing some more details with you in just a moment. Make sure you get your
name on that list. I would love to see you there so that we can also get you closer towards those
wild big dreams of yours and have fun while we’re achieving them.
Until next week, thank you for listening. So much love. Bye for now.
How valuable would it be for you to get more done in less time while having more energy?
Imagine the things that you could achieve if you finally stopped running on empty and instead
learned to cultivate peak performance in your work, life, and business. We did just close
enrollment for my very first round of Efficiency Made Easy, but I’ve got you. If you do also want to
join this incredible group coaching program where I am going to be teaching the exact systems,
tools, and processes I use to run my life, make sure you get yourself on the priority waitlist for
when we open doors again, which is just a few short months away.
In case you’re wondering if this is for you, well look, does any of this apply? You might have big
goals and a full schedule, but you’re trying to achieve them through forced productivity, or you’re
physically exhausted but your mind just won’t stop. Perhaps you feel a low grade of anxiety
throughout your day, like even when you’re trying to rest. And maybe you spend your day
reacting to pings, emails, you know firefighting all the demands. And then by the time you get to
the end of the week, you just move the same to do list items all the way back over to Monday.
If any of this applies to you and you would like to join this special program, make sure that you
join the priority waitlist today. The link is in the show notes below and at
viktorialevenberg.com/success. Can’t wait to see you there.
The views and opinions expressed by guest on Resonance are their own and do not necessarily
reflect the views of me, Viktoria Levenberg, LVNHealth, or anyone working within the LVNHealth
brand. This space welcomes a diversity of ideas, experiences, and stories, and part of Resonance
is learning to take what aligns and gently leaving the rest.
Also, while I am a National Board Certified Health and Wellness Coach and deeply passionate
about well-being, this podcast is intended for educational and inspirational purposes only.
Resonance does not substitute personalised medical, psychological, or therapeutic advice. Always
seek guidance from qualified professionals for any physical, emotional, or mental health
concerns.
