Shift The Stuckness

Show Notes

Woo hoo! We are almost at 300. We are really getting up there. So if you haven’t listened to the back catalog, please do. There’s lots of great things. Some guests, lots of solo episodes, amazing content. So go back and listen to some of them, especially when you are getting stuck. And that’s today’s topic.

Getting over the stuckness, shifting the stuckness. Getting overwhelm is very normal especially for coaches. You have probably even coached on it yourself. But we all get caught in that. Don’t wait. So one of the best things to do is just take a breath. Slow down and get it all out of your head.

Do a Brain Dump

I’m sure you have sat down at your computer and thought, I’ve got to do… and you sit there and suddenly your mind’s blank and you cannot think of a single thing that you have to do. So that takes up time and precious time you probably don’t have. So the first thing to do is brain dump. Write down absolutely everything.

Yes, it’s great to get it into an electronic diary, but it’s also good to actually write it because it helps your brain and then you can sort it out. So whether you do actually type it in or write it on a pen and paper, just do it.

Learn To Prioritise

Writing it down can help you sort things out from what is important and what is not or what’s the one thing you need to get done today. There’s a great book by Gary Keller called The One Thing and it talks about prioritising. It talks about getting everything out of your head and working out, which are the most important things that you need to do today. So once you have got that list, then you can start thinking about what is it that I actually need to do, and then how do I break those things down?

You can try doing Pomodoro Technique. It’s a time management method that requires you to choose a task, set a timer, work on the task without interruption until the timer rings and then you take a short break.

Stop Procrastination

A-plus work sitting on your desk is not going to help a lot of people. Make sure that you are actually getting your tasks done. Don’t spend all day researching it and then put it aside and then have to come back and pick it up again. So if you’ve got things like you are building a website, the first thing you need to do is really work out.

Is that the best use of your time? Do you really need to build that website? Can you outsource it or is a really good LinkedIn profile going to be enough for now? Are your socials going to be enough for now? Depending on the size of your business, you probably don’t need a website right now.

If you do, have you got it all clearly mapped out? Do you know exactly what those pages are? Do you know where your content is? Have you got your photos? Are you starting that project and you haven’t got all the information that you need? So that could be part of your to do list is breaking it down and going right.

So procrastination as we were talking about, can be a big thing. You can check out Episode 289: How to Stop Procrastinating With Nan Saysana and learn more about procrastination.

Use the Right Tools

If you are thinking about using AI for images, make sure you know the latest information about it. LinkedIn has just announced that they will be flagging them as AI images. I was on a webinar recently and they put a poll. There were about 200 people on it. About half of them said that if they saw an image flagged as AI, they would then say, less credibility. Now, obviously it depends what the image is and what you are using it for, but making sure that you are aware of these technological changes and that LinkedIn and no doubt the others will all follow through and they will all be flagging it.

Now, if that’s an image of a flower, or a bridge and a misty river? Maybe it doesn’t matter. But if it’s an image of you that has been changed to be AI, that is probably going to be an issue. So just making sure that you are aware of that and always use your own images as much as possible, because then you can’t get caught up in copyright and they are yours.

Have an Actionable Goals

Now thinking about your goals, what is it that you actually want to achieve and do the things that you’re doing fit into that? Check out an episode about goal sticking, SBT Episode 277: Goal Sticking. So setting those goals and part of the overwhelm might be you are not quite sure where you are going. So making sure that you have spent a little bit of time. And yes, it sounds counter-intuitive when you’ve got so many things on your plate. But sometimes that can actually help reduce things, because you can say that some of the things that you have on your plate, maybe you don’t need to eat.

That might be a project that it sounded good at the time, but really doesn’t need to be on your plate or could be on your plate next month. Next year. Are there some things that you need to just move off for now? And then that can be great to have a master to-do list as well. And then break it down for what you need to do this week and what you need to do today.

Start Saying No

Are you a people pleaser? Are you saying yes because you think that you should? Are these things that actually somebody else could do? And quite often we worry when we’ve been doing something for a long time, we think nobody else would be able to do it.

Sometimes it’s a little bit of a slap in the face how quickly you can be replaced. So if it’s not something that serves you now, it’s probably time to let it go. So making sure that you are staying true to your goals and what you need to do rather than do somebody else’s agenda.

Check out SBT Episode 279: The Power of Saying No

Set Clear Boundaries

It may be that you need to get help at home. It may be that you need to get the children to help you or your partner to help you. It may be a case of just working out the way that they do things. Some people like lists, some people don’t. Some people just like, okay, can I have these three things that I need to do? And don’t think that because you know what needs to be done, they know it needs to be done. And sometimes it’s a case of not sweating the small stuff, isn’t it?

So is it easier sometimes to just to do it yourself? Yeah, one off, absolutely. But if you’ are continuing to do that and that’s causing you stress, you really do need to stop and have that conversation. And yes, it’s probably not going to be a great conversation, but it’s amazing how many times people don’t actually realise that not putting the bin out, not putting the rubbish out, really is upsetting you.

Check out SBT Episode 268: Self Care and Boundaries For Thriving Coaches

Take A Break

Put in your holidays first, your vacation time so you’ve got things to look forward to. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Is it a case of just getting some Thai cats and takeaway and going and sitting down the beach, or by the river or in a park? Is it a case of just maybe doing a bit of a house swap with some friends? You go and stay at their house. They stay at your house. Things like that. There’s lots of really cheap ways to do it.

Or maybe it is time for that luxury. Go and stay at the casino or that luxury hotel in town, whatever it is. But making sure that you’ve got a few of those sort of things mapped out. So you do have that wow moment and that excitement coming up. And then making sure that you are mapping out your day. So that you don’t spend all day thinking, “Well, what am I going to do?” while sitting down in front of the computer.

Links

The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results by Gary Keller
Coaches Marketing Roadmap
Cathy Smith Coaching

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