Welcome to May 2020 My Charmed Ones!
I sincerely hope you and yours are doing well, staying safe, healthy and productive at home. All is well with me and in my neck of the woods, and I’ve been focused a lot lately on keeping motivated with my new consistent work schedule.
As you know, earlier this year I got back on my three weekly blog post, one weekly video schedule, and since quarantine hit, I have been making those videos live classes. All of this new work has been a welcome distraction during this time for me, but, it’s still a habit I’m working to develop consistency around. So, I thought today I should share some of my insight with you on how I’ve been keeping consistent and disciplined over the past few weeks and months because I’d bet that with the drama on the world stage right now, many of you might feel like you have every reason not to do the tasks on your to do list. Am I right? So, if you have been feeling overwhelmed managing your time and expectations, hopefully I can share some tips for finding consistent motivation.
The first thing I wanted to talk to you about on this topic is actually a podcast episode I listened to recently that really resonated with something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. The Podcast is You’re Welcome by Hilary Rushford if you want to check it out, and the episode I am going to be talking about today Ep. 58 Productivity Guilt During Quarantine + the Idealization of Time. It’s that last part that I want to talk to you all about, the idealization of time, because this is something I’ve been thinking a lot about.
So, I’ve mentioned before that I think right now, we’ve been given a tremendous opportunity with this pandemic to really go inward and work on ourselves and our goals. I’m not saying that the pandemic is a good thing, clearly it’s not, but I am saying that in every challenge comes an opportunity and suddenly, many of us who were once on the hamster wheel of time management have been given an influx of time. That’s not everyone, many people right now are more busy at home. especially parents who are now remote workers, plus teachers to their children, in addition to their myriad of other responsibilities. But, many of us do have more time in one way or another right now, and I see this as an opportunity for people to buckle down and execute on the goals they have firmly placed into the Someday category. You know what I am talking about- those goals you said you wanted to go after someday when you had more time. Well, we have more time right now, so are you doing all the things you said you were going to do once more time arrived?
My assumption is, and what Hilary discussed in her podcast episode was, that no, lots of us are not using the extra time we now have to go after our goals. There is a good reason for this- time was never the reason why you were not going after those goals to begin with. I say this all the time, but it’s truly evident right now in our current situation that time is a construct. You have, and always have had, the same 24 hours in a day that each and every other successful, goal oriented person has, but you aren’t executing on those objectives, not for a lack of time, but for a lack of motivation. Actually, it’s like a mix of motivation, discipline, clarity keeping you from executing, but all of it is a mental block and you are blaming it on time.
I want to be very clear, I am not saying this to judge or attack you if you happen to be getting triggered by this conversation. I am saying this as a friend and hopefully a trusted source of productivity advice who truly wants to see you succeed. But you can’t succeed if you don’t acknowledge the true issue here. Time was never the issue. What the exact issue is for each of you in this situation will be different, but it stems from a limiting belief you have held in your mind that is confining you to a pattern of behaviors in which you consistently prioritize other things (or nothing at all) over the completion of your goals.
You have the same amount of hours in a day as Beyonce (I love to use that quote) and, yes, right now Beyonce might have much better resources at her disposal than you, but she didn’t always. It was consistent planning and action that made Beyonce the woman she is today. And if you don’t resonate with Beyonce, substitute her for any number of successful individuals. The point is, all of us get the same amount of time and the same amount of opportunities in a day to go after our objectives, and so we have to stop using time as an excuse and start addresses the real issue holding us back from action.
I am not immune from this conversation myself, either! In fact, I want to use the example of myself to explain how I have been overcoming my own obstacles and taking more strategic action. Let’s go back to those three factors that I think really do impact our ability to take action and those are clarity, motivation and discipline. Without those three elements in alignment, it’s difficult to take strategic action that yields results.
# 1. Clarity: I define clarity as understanding where I am trying to go, what I am trying to achieve and having a set of parameters for how I want to achieve my goal. In her podcast episode Hilary talks about the fact that each of us has a list of things we believe we should do if we had the time, and yet many of us never do the things on that list. To me, this issue comes down to a lack of clarity and the importance of switching up the language we use to describe this very common issue. So, yes, we have all been faced with ideas of things we should do, but I think we need to start thinking of this list of shoulds as a list of coulds. If you are into Law of Attract you have probably heard Ester Hicks and Abraham talk about life being a series of experiences intended to highlight the contrasts of desires. Meaning, there are lots of different experiences we have in life and can have, and it’s up to us to filter through all of them and determine which we desire and which we do not. In the podcast, Hilary uses the example of her father, who is an author and speaker to illustrate the point that as humans we have more ideas than time to execute. She explains that her father knows he should turn his book into an audiobook but he hasn’t had the time to do it yet. But, time isn’t the issue, right, it’s desire. Whether or not he should turn the book into an audiobook isn’t the question, really the task is simply a could until he gets clear on whether or not that is a true priority for him. Plenty of people never turn their books into audiobooks and for good reason, maybe it’s not worth the time or effort, maybe there is a specific strategy they are following or perhaps they just don’t like audiobooks and prefer their book to be in physical form. This is what I mean when I say it’s important to have a set of parameters for how you want to achieve a goal because truthfully the options are endless for things we could do, but clarity around our values will help us define the path of execution for anything we do desire to accomplish. Let’s use an example from my own life and business. I am told all the time that I should sell my inserts as a physical product, not just a digital. Or I am told I should write a book, or I should start a podcast. But when I ask myself should I and I evaluate these ideas based on my values, I keep coming to the conclusion that those options are not in alignment with my objectives. So, it is very important that we treat these shoulds as coulds until they pass the litmus test of clarity and are formally identified as objectives we wish to pursue. If we don’t we run the risk of shoulding ourselves to death, meaning, we allow all the options that we have to overwhelm us and paralyze us into inaction.
#2. Motivation: To me, the next part of this equation is motivation, meaning that initial spark that triggers action to begin. Some people believe that motivation is required consistently in order to start and complete an objective, but that isn’t how I see it. I believe motivation just needs to inspire the start of an action. So, we need to feel like, yes, we can achieve the goal, it is possible and feasible. If you are someone who has an idea that you would like to take action on, perhaps you have had that moment of clarity and know what you want to achieve and have made a plan to get it done but haven’t been able to take action yet, what you need in this situation is that spark of motivation. For me, motivation comes from knowing that I am not the first person who has done anything in this world. So, if someone else can do it, so can I. A lot of inaction or the inability to start on a project for myself often comes because I am afraid of failure, but reminding myself that others have done something takes the edge off. Even if I can’t find an example of someone who has done the precise thing I am doing, I can usually find an example of someone who is doing something close to what I am doing. For example, recently, I have been hosting live classes on Saturday afternoon on my Youtube channel in a way I never have before. These classes are like nothing I have really seen on YouTube before within the planning and productivity community, and because of that fact and all the equipment and technology required on the back end, I get a little nervous doing the classes. But I know I am not reinventing the wheel here. I know there have been other creators in other genres who have gone live like this. Gaming streamers are the best equivalent I can think of who also have a complex tech setup and are managing an event on their own with a large live audience. So, I know I can do it. Just because other planner people don’t host these events doesn’t mean I can’t or shouldn’t. Most of the time, it is this sort of motivation that helps me put myself out there in new ways when I am afraid of trying something new for my audience.
#3. Discipline: As I mentioned earlier, I believe motivation is the initial spark required to overcome mental obstacles and take action, but it isn’t necessary after an objective has begun. What you need after you get started on a goal is discipline! Self- discipline is the mental muscle that keeps us coming back and working on an objective after the motivation has ended. For many people, including myself, this is where the struggle begins. It’s not in finding clarity and it’s not the motivation to get started, it’s the discipline required to show up over and over again until the work is complete. I know many of you reading this believe I am naturally very self-disciplined, but I would not agree. I have struggle often with discipline and have to find creative ways to get myself to execute and complete work all the time. The first element that helps me with this is having a plan and making sure I have clear visibility to everything I need to do. So writing out my top three tasks in a day and making sure I have that complete list of work with my next-action on it is crucial for me. But the list itself isn’t enough for me. I can stare at a to do list all day and never take action on a task, so I have developed a formula for myself to get to work. First, I need to slow down to understand what is holding me back that day. It can vary of course. Perhaps I see that the tasks aren’t what I desire to do, or I have another priority that has taken precedence. Often though, I am just feeling tired or overwhelmed with my work. So, I give myself permission to take a short break to get my head straight. Usually, if I spend this break relaxing in meditation I can calm the mental blocks enough that they dissolve and then I am no longer afraid to tackle the to do list. Or, sometimes I take a bath to relax my muscles physically. Or, other times, I will watch some funny videos on YouTube or TikTok to lift my energy and vibration. Once my energy is lifted, when I come back to my to do list, I can sense my increased capacity for the day and I’m ready to get down to work.
That is my formula and process for consistently motivation myself to start and complete my work. I’ve been using this process a lot lately because in these challenging times, it’s so easy to get down about what is happening in the world and it can drain your energy and capacity to get things done. It’s so important that we have grace with ourselves and acknowledge where we are struggling because when we dig deeper at that struggle we will find the obstacles that are holding us back from executing on those objectives we desire to achieve. It doesn’t matter why you want something, your desire is valid and you are worthy of it. Sometimes, it just takes some good self-awareness and analysis to understand what blocks are truly standing in our way.
So, this is the process I am going to continue to work on through the month of May as I develop that consistency and self-disciple to execute on my new content calendar and the other projects I have on my business plan to execute. I know I have big dreams for my life and where I am heading and its so important to me that I complete the work I plan for myself so that all the dominos fall properly throughout my year.
Okay, well with that here’s to another great month ahead! I hope this post has been insightful for you and I’d love to hear more about what you are working on this month in the comments below!
xoxo,
