Japan: The lies I told myself.

I've been thinking about how to honor the last big trip I've made. It was a trip that I was looking forward to and from which I expected a lot. I was seduced by the idea of getting to know such a mysterious country, surrounded by the sea and with such rich culture and technology coexisting in harmony.

I wanted to go to #Japan.

But my thoughts were always around the high costs of getting there as well as being there. A few years passed, and the desire did not go away. My mind stopped me every time I dared to think about that trip:

- It's too expensive.

- We are in a pandemic and you can't, don't even look at pictures of it.

- You're already divorced, and now more than ever you have to look out for your children's financial security.

- You can't go alone, what will happen to your children?

- You can't take your children, they're too young and they won't make it through the trip.

- You don't know the language.

- You just quit your stable job and now you have to survive.

Etc etc

Those who know me, know how tenacious I can be when I really want something. So for years I focused on small actions that would bring me closer to this dream:

• I studied the language on DuoLingo.

• I saved on everything I could.

• I removed "unnecessary" personal expenses.

• Build business and partnerships beyond my coaching business.

• Amongst many other things.

One day in the middle of a coaching session I asked my client:

What, of all the things your mind tells you as valid reasons NOT to try, is really true?

Somehow my inner self over heard that question, a simple inquire which had been formulated out of curiosity for the person in front of me. A very capable, hard-working person, with many dreams stopped, but with great potential waiting to be exploited even more.

I wrote down the question for further exploration. And when I left the session I asked myself: What is true and what is false with respect to my beliefs on this trip?

In that moment I realized that my brain was telling me a lot of assumptions as if they were absolute and irrefutable truths.

People that know me can certify how hard it is for me to ask for help, but it is harder for me to accept half truths or lies and I was on a mission to disprove my mind.

So I started asking questions and researching hard facts. A couple of months later, I was sitting in the waiting room for the LAX-JAL flight: I was starting my adventure in Japan with my children and my mother.

Have you ever thought about what are you telling yourself that is stopping you from achieving what you are looking for? What are assumptions vs. truths?

This trip of only 16 days taught me many things about myself, in addition to learning very interesting things about the Japanese culture. There were great coincidences and surprises. I'll be writing a bit about it in this space. If you like it, I ask you to let me know, you can leave me a comment or simply read, like, and share.

Iyashi No Sato Nenba village in the background Mount Fuji