Design Your Life Instead of Living by Default | Ep 280

[00:00:04] I am pleased to share with you a new training called Karma Code Timeline Therapy Practitioner Certification. This training is a powerful 3-day live on Zoom session teaching you how to help others in clearing all of their stuffed down emotion of anger, sadness, fear, hurt, guilt, rage

[00:00:31] and shame, without them having to talk about any of the situations that ever caused the root of that anger and release it from the cells in their body and have them feeling light. And also to release all of the BS stories running around in our head of being unlovable, unworthy, not good enough, powerless, etc, etc. and get rid of all of that chatter and allow them to have peace and quiet in their head.

[00:00:58] This training is transformational for your clients and for you because during the training you get to experience it both as a practitioner and a client and release all of that garbage for yourself and clear out your emotional body, your mental body and keep them clear so that all of that stuffed down emotion isn't causing dis-ease later in your life. Check out the show notes for the link.

[00:01:26] Our first training is happening in 2026. Imagine getting up every day full of energy as if you were in your 20s again. What would that be like? What would that be worth to you? What is your health worth to you? Think about it.

[00:01:52] Your health isn't everything, but without it, everything else is nothing. And yet too many of us are taking it for granted until something goes wrong. No one wakes up hoping to be diagnosed with a disease or chronic illness, and yet we've never been taught how to be proactive in our health through our school system or public health. As a registered health coach and integrative health practitioner, I believe it is time this information is made available to everyone.

[00:02:22] Combining new knowledge around your health and the ability to do my functional medicine lab tests in the comfort of your own home will allow you to optimize your health for today and all your tomorrows. Don't wait for your wake-up call. Welcome back to another episode of the Don't Wait For Your Wake Up Call!. My name is Melissa Deally. I am your host, and this is a special Pota Palooza episode.

[00:02:50] And today I have here with me Therese Vita. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Melissa. I'm excited for this episode and conversation. And the first thing that I want to do is introduce you to the audience. Therese Vita is a transformational executive leadership and life success coach with over 30 years of experience empowering high achievers to elevate their lives, their businesses, and their impact.

[00:03:19] A former attorney, sales professional, and private wealth advisor, she guides her clients to thrive through change, streamline their lives, make better decisions, and create more time and balance so they can live with more ease, joy, and fulfillment. And let's face it, that's what everybody wants in their life. And a big piece of that is also focusing on our health. Because when we focus on our health, then we have the energy to be able to do everything else

[00:03:49] in our life and live our mission, etc. And you have quite a history with, you know, attorney, sales professional. What led you into this line of work and helping people the way that you are helping people today? Well, you know, my sort of jungle gym career, really, I found myself in professions that didn't necessarily, you know, I got burned out in those professions.

[00:04:19] I discovered I had ADHD late in life, and maybe this explains some of it. But, you know, the tediousness of the legal work and research and writing and all of that, that's like death for an ADHD brain, though I didn't know what it is. But I burned myself out trying to find my home in the law, and I just couldn't find it.

[00:04:44] And then when I got into sales, that was really fun for me, because I was able to just be myself, and I was in this flow state. And I just didn't know I had this skill set. And it was a beautiful thing. It was a very joyful time of my life. I was successful. I was having fun. And then I got into the corporate, again, with wealth management. And I did enjoy that for a while.

[00:05:10] But then when I got further along with getting farther from my clients, I just became burned out again. And again, like this is all really bad health stuff. I was in a very bad place physically, mentally, you know, just the whole thing. Um, so when I during COVID was when I when I really had my reckoning with myself as so many people did. And I just said, you know, this is not living.

[00:05:39] I am not living. Right. You're certainly not driving. Right. And I'm not going to take anti-anxiety pills so that I can do my job. You know, I'm just done with that. And so I really went on this quest to find because I wasn't done. You know, I was in my 50s and I, I, I just wanted to find I said, I, I need to do something completely different.

[00:06:07] And I, I read this book called meeting at the crossroads or standing at the crossroads for high achieving women. And it took me through a variety of exercises. You know, what your personal values are, what are, what are the things in this huge list? What's most important to you? What were you loving most that you were doing in your life? When were you having the most fun doing your work or whatever you love?

[00:06:36] What, what about it made you happy? And I was like, wow, well, that really was, it was the sales and the training and the mentoring and the, you know, talking to business owners. I mean, I just loved all that. And, and so I really sat down and I'm just, I'm a service person. I just, I get great joy and fulfillment from volunteering and serving others and helping others live better lives. And, and it just coaching just was the perfect, it's my calling vocation for me to, you know,

[00:07:06] how I can serve with my gifts and talents and love what I'm doing and, and have my, my own freedom and love my life and be able to design, you know, as my own business, being able to design my life and my time, the way that I would love to do it so that I can live the life that I'd love to live. So that's what I really love helping people with. And as you said, you know, without your health, you can't, you can't enjoy anything in life, right?

[00:07:34] Health is number one and your, your body will be as good to you as you are to it, right? So it'll give you, it'll, you, you take care of your body and it will take care of you. So. Absolutely. Well, I love that you have found your calling and, you know, the steps that you took to find your way here and literally design your own life. And I read a book years ago that my sister gave me and it's literally, it's called designing your life. It's on my bookshelf here.

[00:08:02] And it was written by professors at a college in the U S who were engineer professors. And they were watching these brilliant students go through their university degrees and, you know, looked like they were on that trajectory to have trajectory, to have a brilliant life, except that they weren't. And so they built this new course in for these students so that they could design their life the way they wanted it. So they could leave and be both successful and happy.

[00:08:32] And, you know, that's what you've landed on yourself is helping people design their life because we can do that. And there's still a lot of people that think we can't, you know, we're programmed to the, you know, go to school, get your university degree and then go work for somebody else. You know, you're 40 hours a week for 40 years of your life. And there's all that old programming. And the reality is, is we don't have to follow that programming. We can design our life the way we want it to be for who we are.

[00:09:01] And yes, love, love, love that you help people do that and that you recognize that health is so important. So walk us through, you know, perhaps a client that, you know, you've worked with that through your guidance, they're just, their life shifted profoundly for the better. And just share that no naming names or anything.

[00:09:26] However, share that experience of guiding that client to their better version of their own life. Yeah, absolutely. So, well, there was, there's a woman, you know, it wasn't a health issue, but I know that she has health issues and she's going to be getting to those.

[00:09:45] But here's someone who is extremely bright, very, very, very bright, working in, you know, like a doggy daycare scenario. And I thought this woman, she just seemed a little misunderstood, you know, and, and I got talking with her and I'm like, oh my God, she's so, she's so smart.

[00:10:09] Like, you know, you see somebody at doggy daycare and turns out that she had had a divorce and she was really looking to put her life together again. Right. With her career and getting through the divorce. And she, she was just in a place where she, she did not have good self-esteem and everything in life was looked like a struggle to her.

[00:10:39] There were obstacles. Everything was just so enormous that she couldn't get beyond talking about all the difficulty in her life. And, you know, I have this program that is a system, but it's a 12 week curriculum and, and it walks you through the steps of, of designing your life and, and all the different pieces of it, you know, like we don't usually ask ourselves. Well, so let me finish the story.

[00:11:08] So she ends up in week eight. So she had some trauma, you know, that she was navigating in week eight. She texted me a beautiful text and it just warmed my heart. And she said at eight weeks, weeks. And she said, I am so much farther in healing and believing than I ever thought possible. And it just took the right program and the right person to challenge me mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

[00:11:39] And that pretty much says it all because the program really, you know, you're looking at your whole life, right? And there are certain areas of our lives that are calling out to us for, you know, you need to do something differently. And, and to be able to recognize that and really design something that, that is life giving, that you don't look at your circumstances. And this is the world we live in.

[00:12:07] This is how human beings are, right? Particularly if there's health issues, right? Very, very difficult to imagine. Imagine, you know, sometimes navigating anything beyond that. But, but to say, well, I, if I were really, really healthy, you know, I would love this in my life. I would love this, my relationships to be this way. I'd love to live here. I'd love to take vacations or whatever it is that you would love most.

[00:12:36] Most people don't start with what they will love because sometimes they think they can't have it, right? Right. You know, I can't have it or I don't have the money or I'm not healthy enough or whatever it is. And so sometimes they don't even know what they want because they've been so focused on what they don't want. That, and you know what? That is exactly the case. And the interesting thing.

[00:13:02] So one, there's this results formula and basically our, the origin of our results in our lives. And there are certain things that, you know, the body, the body manifests a lot of what's going on in our minds. There's that huge mind body connection. But a lot of what is showing up in our lives comes from our thinking. Yes.

[00:13:27] And the thoughts that we think produce our feelings, right? Our feelings aren't from you did something to me or this happened to me, but what you think about how you're experiencing it, right? What thoughts are you having? And then how you feel impacts what actions you take or what actions you don't take, right? If you're feeling confident or you're, or you're feeling depressed or down or insecure, whatever, we're going to take different actions based on our feelings.

[00:13:56] And then whatever we do, do do, whatever action we do take is going to dictate the results that we get. That's just cause and effect. So if we can learn how to, you know, identify what, you know, what we'd like or love or, you know, start thinking in that way and change our thinking, we can actually change our results. And there's, there's a whole process for doing this.

[00:14:24] But, um, so this woman in this process that this client, um, she has just created this fabulous, um, she's reconnected with her writing and poetry and, and, um, she's horses and teaching and mentoring. And she wants to go, she's going to go live abroad. She's going to go live in Prague. And, you know, I mean, this is just incredible. This is a woman who, you know, eight weeks prior.

[00:14:53] So the more we, the more we focus on something, um, our subconscious mind doesn't know the difference between our, our attention and our intention. So if we keep talking about, if we're placing our attention on something we don't want, or that's negative, or we're dwelling in it, thinking about it, talking about it, we're just going to generate more of the same. And, um, people, a lot, a lot of times people, we create with our words, right?

[00:15:23] And we create with our words and our thoughts. So we can, we can turn our bodies around. We can turn our lives around. We can create new things, um, in our lives. And, and health is number one. I mean, I'm a huge, you know, your body's a temple, right? Your body is a temple. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. And you feed it with good nutrients and good thoughts and, um, all the things that we need. Exactly.

[00:15:52] And I love all that you're sharing because it aligns with, you know, so much of what we teach at Amplify Impact Academy as well. And everything starts with a thought, right? Absolutely. So if you don't like what's going on in your life, you know, or you don't like, you know, how you're feeling or what you're doing in the moment, just go back and rewind the thoughts. What were you thinking about that led, you know, to that behavior, et cetera, et cetera, or to those results if it's been going on for even longer.

[00:16:17] And I love having people come on the show and, and share what I share because, you know, the audience needs to hear it from more than just me. Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, thoughts come up for us. A lot of times we're subconsciously, we, our subconscious mind runs our, our lives. I mean, 95. Yeah. It's running our life. So, um, you, you are probably, we're not aware of most of what is driving what we do. Right.

[00:16:47] And, and there's a lot, lots of, lots of origins of that. But, um, yeah, if you're not aware of, of a pattern in your life, you can't do anything about it. Right. So that self-awareness of your thoughts and then how to neutralize, because anytime we're doing something new, right. Anytime we're exploring new territory, stepping outside the box, venturing out to, you know,

[00:17:15] growing as a person doing, having new experiences, our, our nervous system is going to say, Hey, wait a minute. This, this is not safe or this is, you know, it's, I don't know where you're going with this. Right. And it's, and it's all part of our, our design, right. Our survival mechanism, but understanding that that isn't a sign to stop. Right. It's a sign that you're growing and having a trade match. Yes.

[00:17:44] It's, it's the good news. It's the good news. Yeah. But being, be having a tool and knowing how you deal with that pattern and how you repattern it and how you put it in the back seat, you turn down the volume and you're, you're, you're, you're thinking new thoughts and you're creating life by design. Um, not from circumstance is really what I just get a charge out of and what I love watching people do.

[00:18:14] Well, I love that. And congratulations and how you helped that woman. And you know, that such a profound change in such a short amount of time. Right. And so that was just remarkable. So often people think, oh, it's going to take such a long time to change, or I'm too old to change now, you know, an old dog can't learn new tricks and all of those sayings that we have, which it's all bogus. We can do it anytime. Exactly. That's the story we're talking about in order to give us the strength in the out. Right. We can change it anytime.

[00:18:45] Yes. I mean, yeah, absolutely. We have so many neurons in our entire body, more than there are, uh, sands or grains of sand on all the beaches in all the world. Right. All we have to do is change one to create a ripple effect of change in our life. Absolutely. And so someone who can't change is very stubborn. Well, you know, and I think sometimes like the thought of it is overwhelming. Yes.

[00:19:12] You know, and, and, and the thing is the thing that, you know, all, all we, all we are, our process is really, you know, you take a step, you take a step that you can take from where you are with what you have. Right. And you don't have to know how you're going to do it. Exactly. I think a lot of people get stuck in, well, I have to know, I have to know how I'm going to do it so that I will start doing it. No, that's not how it works. It isn't.

[00:19:40] You know, it is, we get stuck in the how, the excuses, the doubt, the delay, the, you know, well, I'm, I'm really okay. My life's pretty good, but your life can be great. And maybe your life isn't so great. Maybe there are things that you have just shoved down that you love, that you just haven't allowed to flourish because of your family commitments or whatever. Maybe there's something that you really would love to do.

[00:20:09] There was one guy, this business owner, he had a, he had a hobby. He loved drones and he, you know, he loved drones. And, and then through this, through this, you know, program, this system, he, he ended up turning that into his, his business. He turned it into a business. He got out of whatever he was doing and he had such passion about it.

[00:20:37] And he wasn't thinking that way at all. But when you start sort of thinking about what you would love, right? What, what kind of leader would you love to be? What, what would you love to create in your company or your life or whatever? You know, when you start thinking in those terms and again, like people don't give themselves permission or time to even do the things that we need to do, let alone to sit and, and dream. Right.

[00:21:07] So kind of self-assessments, you know, I always encourage people to kind of, you know, look, look at your life and, and, you know, on a scale of one to five, where are you and where would you love to be? Right. And what does it take to move that needle up one, you know, or whatever, or up two. And, and you just, you, you don't just get there overnight, but things can happen very,

[00:21:33] very quickly when you dial in on what you would love and get really clarity. Start by moving the needle by one. That's all. Just start by moving it by one and see what happens from there. So I love to ask every client that comes on this. Uh, podcast. What does don't wait for your wake up call mean to you?

[00:21:57] Oh, well, that what it means to me is, uh, live and lead boldly, which is kind of what, what I say is, yeah. I mean, you, we, we only get one life and you don't get your time back at the end of the day. Right. Our time doesn't accumulate and go in the bank and then we have it tomorrow. And I always say, if you knew that you had one year to live or three years to live or

[00:22:27] five years to live, how would that change the way you live today? You know, um, it's just when something happens, it totally changes your perspective, right? That wake up call. Yes. Um, but just think of all the unlived life. I, I just, I don't want people putting off their life, putting off living their life today becomes tomorrow becomes next year becomes five years from now.

[00:22:56] You know, I mean, all of a sudden I'm in my sixties and I'm going, oh my God, how did that happen? Right. And that's how it happens for people. And so, you know, if you're on a trajectory, it's not going to change unless there is some sort of a, uh, a force that's coming in. You, you must do something different to make new results in your life. And it doesn't have to be as hard as people think it is.

[00:23:26] They're making it hard. We make it hard on ourselves. Yeah, exactly. Cause we get in our own way and it does take some. Effort. However, you have the easy button to help them get there versus it being hard. So how can we get hold of you if they would like to reach out and work with you? Oh, well, thank you so much. So yes, one, one way, and I actually have a free gift, um, for the listeners.

[00:23:50] So if you go to, um, live and lead boldly.com, um, you can, uh, sign up to receive a free, it's a self-assessment, um, a mindset self-assessment. And again, this kind of takes us back to our thoughts. A lot of times we don't realize the thoughts we're thinking.

[00:24:13] Um, and you can just go through and check off the ones that, um, you can see yourself falling into, right? And, and are those empowering or disempowering beliefs? And then there are some exercises that you can do to, um, you know, ground in something more powerful, empowering. Um, that is, again, we create with our words. So not only do we think it, but we say it out loud.

[00:24:40] Um, and so how to reframe that it's, it's a great starting place for creating awareness, right? So, um, well, thank you. I'm just looking at the time here, Teresa. I'm going to wrap up the show. Thank you for coming on and sharing your wisdom and how you help people and giving such powerful examples of how you have helped people. Thank you too, for your free gift. And I highly encourage the audience. If you are interested in designing your own life, instead of just being in this place where

[00:25:05] life happens to you, get out there and create the life you want to read. Therese can help you with that. And please reach out to her at liveandleadboldly.com. Check out her free gift, her mindset self-assessment. And if this episode resonated with you, that's a sign. That's a sign from the universe that yes, this is the path that you should follow. This is the breadcrumb for you to pick up and follow or share this episode with someone else that you know that needs to hear it.

[00:25:35] Thank you for always tuning in to learn more about improving your life, your health, your mental health, physical health, spiritual health, and emotional health. Thank you for investing this time with me on the Don't Wait for Your Wake Up Call podcast. I'm so glad you joined in. If you can take two minutes to share this episode with someone you think can benefit and have a positive impact on their life, that would be wonderful.

[00:26:00] Please leave a review by going to your favorite podcast listening app and let me know what you enjoy or would like to hear more of. It will support me in my effort to bring the possibility of natural healing to a wider audience and help disrupt the sick care system we have today and make human health a global priority. Health is your true wealth.