The Morning Upgrade Podcast Featuring Amanda Harvey

Welcome to episode #16 of The Morning Upgrade Podcast. With me today is Amanda Harvey, who is a personal and professional development coach. She loves exploring nature and traveling to beautiful places with her family.

Top Talking Points

• Being constantly aware of what your mindset is towards particular situations.
• Utilizing techniques that help you get through difficult times.
• Having special, personal times with the people who are close to you.

Resources & Links

Share Link for this episode

Connect With Amanda at Mindsettable.com

Subscribe to The Morning Upgrade Podcast Today

Thanks for listening in on this episode with Amanda. Click the image below to subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss out when I release the next episode. Also, if you found value in what you heard today, please leave a review.

Episode Transcript

Announcer:

Welcome to the morning upgrade podcast with Ryan Cote. Where we feature casual conversations with entrepreneurs about personal development and growth.

Ryan Cote:

Hey everyone. This is Ryan Cote with the morning upgrade podcast. Today, I’m excited to be speaking with Amanda Harvey. Hey Amanda, how are you?

Amanda Harvey:

Hello Ryan. I’m really well. Thanks. And how about yourself?

Ryan Cote:

Doing great. I want to start out by saying, I think it’s so cool that you’re in Taiwan. I’m in New Jersey, United States and it’s it’s really cool that we get to talk about personal development so far apart

Amanda Harvey:

Makes the world a much smaller place.

Ryan Cote:

It really does. So why don’t you tell us what you do and then what your interests are, what you enjoy doing?

Amanda Harvey:

I would love to do that. What I do is a lot of different types of personal development and also professional development training and coaching. I’ve done that for over 20 years and I do it both in-person and have done so in various parts of the world and also working online. And my particular focus, especially this year is something that I’ve been really passionate about my whole life, which is the mindset. And basically looking at the way that what we think, what we focus on, what we believe is such a big part of the way that our lives actually develop. That’s my professional side of things. And I love that very much. And talking to people like what we’re doing today about these kinds of areas is something that I really enjoy.

Aside from that, I really love spending time with my family. I’ve got three children, my daughter is 16 and I’ve got two boys, aged 14 and 12. So I love doing things with them. We like to spend a lot of time outdoors. So I love going to the mountains and the beach, which I’m really fortunate about basically within walking distance of where I live here in Taiwan, riding my bike, taking our dog out, we’ve got a huge collection of pets, including Guinea pigs, rabbits, and music, and just basically getting to know interesting people and about different people’s culture and things like that.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah. It sounds like you live a very active and interesting lifestyle. All the walks, the hiking you do. And just the fact that I knew, we were recording, or we were speaking before we started recording about how you moved from Australia to Taiwan, and just sounds like your life has been full of a lot of adventures. That’s really cool.

Amanda Harvey:

Yeah. Yeah. I really like to experience a lot of different aspects of less and I really love the way that the adventure has unfolded. Plus I look forward to the way it will continue to develop.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah, absolutely. So this podcast, as you know, it’s about personal development and I know your focus is a lot on mindset. That’s why I wanted to have you on it. I’m really curious as to, I have some questions for you, but I really first like to know about in terms of mindset, what habits do you have around that, that is worth sharing?

Amanda Harvey:

Well, as far as mindset is concerned, it’s actually something that is pretty much almost always on my mind in terms of, whatever’s happening in my life personally and with my family or friends or with people that I’m working with. I’m always really, really aware of not only what’s going on in terms of the physical kind of circumstances, but in terms of, what my reaction is and how I’m thinking about it. Whether it’s something that is going away, that I want it to go. And then of course it’s a lot easier to keep a positive outlook, but when things get challenging, just in terms of really being aware of the Fact that that does affect how we think, how we feel and being conscious of that and making the decisions to redirect my thoughts as much as I possibly can. As well as just recognizing the fact that your thoughts are valid, the feelings are valid, it’s not a case of, you know, if something goes wrong immediately putting on a big happy face and saying, it’s great, it’s great when it isn’t, but acknowledging the fact that, okay, things look pretty rough right now. And then just thinking about what I can do to get through that time and to honor and validate the natural and the feelings that I’m having and how to be able to then move forward from that point.

Ryan Cote:

You mentioned, when things aren’t going well, keeping a positive mindset and just having the mindset

Amanda Harvey:

As much as possible. Acknowledging the fact that, it’s okay. It’s okay not to feel bouncing off the walls, happy all the time. It’s just a case, I think, of finding a balance and not dwelling in the negative emotions. So just feeling sad or angry or frustrated for as long as is needed but then not getting stuck there and beginning to refocus and to get back to looking at, okay, so what can I do to make things better? Or what can I focus on to at least feel better about the situation

Ryan Cote:

Do you have any specific mindset techniques that you use when you’re going through a hard time, whether it’s journaling or breathing, et cetera..

Amanda Harvey:

I have so many different techniques I’ve been actually really kind of obsessed with personal development and things like that. Basically, since I was a teenager. And I went to tell you how many years ago that is, and I have just read and listened to so much amazing material and adopted a lot of different techniques through different people. Definitely breathing is really important. And breathing with affirmations, I feel, is something that I really love to do. In fact, maybe I’m jumping to another question that you might be asking me later about morning routines, but not necessarily only in the morning, but something that I really liked to do is to take long walks. And especially the fact that I have a big dog who likes to have a lot of exercises so it will encourage me to actually go and do that. And what I do is I take a long walk, especially in the mountains or by the ocean, which are places that I really enjoy. 

And as I walk, I actually use affirmations and I count them with my breaths. So I’ll take, you know, for the first four steps. So for example, maybe things are a little bit confusing in some particular area. And just for one example, an affirmation that I would sometimes use is just to tell myself that the next step on my path is now becoming clear. And so I’ll actually do part of that affirmation on the full breath in as I take four steps and then four breaths out, the second half of the affirmation. And I feel that the movements plus the breathing plus the estimation is just such a good combination and being out in nature at the same time as well, that’s definitely a favorite technique. That journaling definitely, you know, listening to inspirational things on YouTube, I think to get time. And there’s so many different techniques and things that people can read and listen to and use

Ryan Cote:

The first step is just being aware that your mindset is important and that you need to work on it. It’s like going to the gym or trying to make yourself stronger or more fit. You need to work at it.

Amanda Harvey:

Right. If you’re used to being a couch potato and you’re not doing any physical activity, then obviously your physical fitness is not going to be that good. But like you say, being aware of the fact that you would like to be more physically fit is definitely a great start towards actually getting out and doing a little bit of exercise and maybe building up on that. And the same thing with mindset, being aware that it is important to be conscious of what we’re thinking and feeling is great stuff. And then we can start to actually implement techniques and be aware and do things that can help to improve that.

Ryan Cote:

You mentioned morning routine, you’d go for a walk with affirmations and breathing. Is there anything else that’s part of your morning routine?

Amanda Harvey:

I do like to do a very, very little bit of yoga. It’s about a 10-minute routine and I learned it a long time ago, just basically consider it as the yoga warm-up, but it’s just a little routine that stretches and metals to incorporate the breathing as well. And it gives me that sort of 10, 15 minutes of quiet time before I actually get out and face the kids and face the animals and all of that. Yeah. That actually is a great start. And then I try to start off my morning walk with after that

Ryan Cote:

You seemed to live an interesting life. So I’m just curious about this question for you. I like to sometimes ask my guests what the perfect day looks like for them, a realistic perfect day, not like the most grandest day you can ever have, but like a realistic day. What does that look like for you?

Amanda Harvey:

Well, definitely that includes time with my kids. Actually, It was interesting thinking about this kind of question. And I had last weekend, we were lucky, we had a four-day long holiday weekend, which was celebrating the moon festival, which is a really nice festival here in Taiwan that involves families getting together and having a barbecue, enjoying the full moon together and eating little cake, which is really delicious. And one day that I particularly enjoyed it really wasn’t that planned, but I actually ended up doing something really nice just for a short period of time with each of my family members, which is my daughter, my two sons.

I had breakfast with one of my sons. We went out and had a massage, woke up for breakfast, and just had a nice conversation together. And then later in the day, I took a nice long walk with my daughter and that’s always a good plan that I can spend some time chatting with her. Then I had a drink with my husband in the early evening. And then my youngest son asked me to play a board game with him, which is something that I really enjoy doing as well. So that actually was quite a perfect day. And then I had, obviously the normal sort of like a few little chores far an in-between and that’s all good too. But definitely family time being outdoors and actually, to me, something that will also help to make a day perfect to me is to have some time to sit and play my guitar and sing, which is what I really, really enjoyed doing

Ryan Cote:

Your answer made me think of… It really comes down to relationships and spending time with people that you enjoy or love or what have you. It’s a good reminder, I think, for everyone listening, including myself, because I know me personally, sometimes I’m still involved with the computer and work and this and that, and I forget to really focus on what really matters in the end.

Amanda Harvey:

Yeah. But you know, having those perfect days every now and then at least, or trying to fit in a little bit of the time on a regular day as well, I think is really important for all of us.

Ryan Cote:

So, Mindy, you’ve had a coaching business, I know you’re running a new business. So answer this question however you want the old business or the new business, but what’s the hardest thing about your business and how are you tackling it?

Amanda Harvey:

Okay. Right. Well I have to say this probably won’t even be a surprise to you, but with , I actually have a couple of businesses now, I have my online business and I have a physical business as well in Taiwan which is doing kind of corporate training with companies here. But always the most difficult thing for me is when it comes to technology. If you put me in front of a room of people and ask me to talk to people, that’s fine. I have no problem with that. But if you ask me to upload or download or do something that’s a little bit different in terms of using computers, which is like us trying to connect on this call. That’s definitely my most challenging thing. And what I do about it is basically just keep trying to model my way along and learn as I go. And I also have a couple of sons that are quite computer savvy as well. So that can be really helpful to get their help at times because I really don’t quite know how to figure something out.

Ryan Cote:

It’s funny, we’re going to record this, I use Uber conference and we were having trouble connecting, I guess. Cause where we’re located and you were like, why don’t you use zoom? And I was like, I don’t know, actually, I guess I’m just trying to make things difficult here.

Amanda Harvey:

And that’s the great thing too. I think that especially these two years just come more and more into focus for everybody because of the pandemic is finding ways that can help people to come together in the way that’s possible, which is not always physically these days, but you know, using technology. So there are so many different ways and then we can’t use them all at once, but it’s just finding the ones I think that work for us. And it’s nice that you are able to get into a little conference to work for us and it seems to be a very good way. I’m not like necessarily totally devoted to zoom. Zoom is something that works for me in my daily life and business. But now I think, well, this is also another good option.

Ryan Cote:

Yeah. We’re all living in a virtual world where these video conferences are becoming more and more common. So I’ve got one more question for you, Amanda and then I’d like you to share how people can learn more about you. So my question is what is your number one personal development tip? And you can answer that personal development in general or since your focus is on mindset, it could be mindset. So I’ll leave that up to you.

Amanda Harvey:

Basically, my most important number one tip, I think in terms of personal development and all mindset and or just living life in the best possible way, is really not to compare ourselves with anyone else. So the only comparison that I think is valid in terms of personal growth is how I’m doing in terms of how I was doing yesterday and in terms of how I would like to be doing not to the person next to me or somebody else in my life. So just really to stay focused on my own development and really specifically.

Ryan Cote:

I love that answer. That is so important. I don’t want to compare myself to others. And sometimes it is easy to do that when you see someone that has more than you or does more than you, but like you said, the only true comparison is the person that you want to become. Like, how are you compared to that person? You have the best version of yourself. So I really resonated with that. Well, thanks for being on the show. I really enjoyed this. If people want to learn more about you or connect with you, what’s the best website to send them to?

Amanda Harvey:

Please come and visit me at minespecials.com. That’s M I N D S E T T A B L E. And I chose the name of the website because I believe that our minds are absolutely special. We don’t have to keep a mindset that we may have developed early in our life with the result of things going on around us. And a lot of people do have aspects of that in their mindset that, you know, they do think the way they’ve always been done, but we don’t have to, we can make our own choices and something that I heard from somebody else yesterday was, you can always begin today. So there’s no time like the present. Mindsettable.com. You can find out about the different programs that I offer. And there’s a lot of articles, a lot of information. And I really look forward to connecting with your viewers, Ryan, or your listeners. Sorry, we’re not doing viewing this time.

Ryan Cote:

Thanks, Amanda. We’ll link that website up on your show notes. Again, thank you. And thank you everyone for listening.

Amanda Harvey:

Have a wonderful day.

Ryan Cote:

You too.

Announcer:

Thanks for listening to the morning upgrade podcast, please subscribe and review, and don’t forget to visit us at morningupgrade.com for more content.