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196. Break Your Bottleneck: 3 Simple Strategies to Get Moving · Impact Ready

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Welcome to Impact Ready, a show dedicated to helping you elevate
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your impact in the world. I'm Steph Safra, your host.
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Let's explore the power of showing up with intention and
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energy each day. This is for those who seek to
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make life truly meaningful. Get ready for impact.
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Hello, Hello team. Welcome to the Impact Ready
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podcast and welcome to quarter 2 of 2026.
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Or if you don't think about things in quarters like the
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majority of people in the world, you just think about it in
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months. Welcome to April, and I hope
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that spring is springing around you because it feels good to see
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some new life and some good spring energy.
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In Chinese medicine, we always loved the spring because it is
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the energy of the liver and it is very much like new life, new
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energy, lots of growth, lots of flexibility.
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It's, it's an exciting time. So I hope that you are feeling
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that. I very much am.
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I love this time of year. I love taking walks around my
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neighborhood and just looking around at all of the flowers and
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the the leaves that are coming out and budding.
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It's, I don't know, it just reminds me of the cycles of life
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and that things continue on. It feels hopeful so if you
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haven't gotten outside and gone for some walks lately, do it in
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the next week because it's freaking beautiful out there.
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OK, this episode today is about breaking through the bottleneck
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or in other words, getting out of your own way so you can do
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the things that you need to do to create the reality that you
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want. You know, we all have these come
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to Jesus moments in our life where we realized that we are
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the person who's been in our way the whole time.
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And I've had many of these moments.
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I actually welcome them because it feels a little bit freeing to
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realize that it's me who's in the way and not other
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circumstances or other people. Because I don't have control
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over those people, but I do have control over myself.
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And to realize if it's me that's in the way, I can do something
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about it. You never really know when these
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moments are going to come, but if you're here listening to this
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podcast, you're probably somebody who looks for them.
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And I hope that this can be some encouragement for you to start
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doing and start taking action on the things that really matter to
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you. Every couple of weeks, every two
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weeks, I join my mastermind in a morning meeting.
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And one of the common themes of every meeting is to just do it,
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to just do the work to make it happen, to execute, to get in to
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your schedule and plan it and do it.
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I work with a coach, Anthony Trucks.
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He's been my coach for 2 1/2 years.
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He helps with my speaking business.
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And one of the pillars of work ethic for him is to simply get
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out of your own way and do the thing that needs to be done.
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He's huge on execution, and this has been awesome for me to learn
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from him, to witness him and his life builds things.
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I mean, the guy can create and create and build and build.
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He's like a machine, but it's not that he's a machine, it's
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that he's disciplined and he is very intentional about where he
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spends his time. And it's funny because every
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mastermind meeting we're having similar conversations in this
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way, talking about execution. And here's the thing, team I
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work with a lot of high performers.
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The people in my mastermind are doing incredible things in the
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world. They are all leaders in their
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own right. But still, every meeting we have
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to encourage each other to break the bottleneck, get out of our
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own way and just do the damn thing.
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It's a human nature kind of situation.
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I think we all fall into this trap of procrastinating or
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delaying or dragging our feet. And so it's no different in my
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mastermind meetings. And I think about this a lot, I
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wonder why it's so hard for us to take the action that we know
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we need to take. You know, we have projects that
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we want to complete. We have conversations that we
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want to have so that we can build better relationships.
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We have things that we want to start or build because we have
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that burning desire within us. We have the book we want to
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write or the podcast we want to start or the marketing plan we
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want to execute on. But so often, so many of us drag
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our feet and delay the beginning.
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We say for weeks and weeks, oh, I'll get to that.
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I'll start it when I'm ready. Oh, it's just not the right
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time, or I'm not sure if this is the right move.
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But none of that really matters. None of it really matters
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because everything that we start doing eventually evolves into
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something else. There's always a natural
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evolution and transformation of the endeavors that we take on.
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No business looks the same, the exact same as it did as when it
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started. None.
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No relationship looks the same as when it first began.
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The first draft of a book is never the same as the final
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published book. The song you start to write
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evolves and changes to something totally different in the end.
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And The thing is, we all know that.
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We all know that this is part of the process, whether we are
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conscious of it or not. We have all experienced this
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process of evolution of something multiple times in our
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life. So the statements, these things
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that we say to ourselves, it's not the right time or I'm not
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sure this is the right thing. In the end, it doesn't matter.
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You know, we're probably right. We probably aren't sure this is
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the right thing or if it's the right time, but we're also under
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a massive illusion. And that illusion is that there
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is a right time or there is a perfect solution to things or we
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will always know the outcome to the start or the beginning.
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Most times, and I'll say most times, because there might be
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that offhand solution where there is perfect timing or there
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is a perfect solution. There might be, but most times
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we just have to start. We have to begin and we have to
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let it be a little messy and uncomfortable.
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We have to get out of our own way and do the work that maybe
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we don't really enjoy that much because it's uncomfortable or
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it's new or it's not our favorite thing to be focusing
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on. Let me pause here for a second.
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If you're listening and thinking I'm capable of more or this is
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the level I want to operate at, this is for you.
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I work privately with a small number of high performing
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leaders who are ready to elevate how they show up in their
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business and in their lives. This isn't motivational
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coaching, it's precision work. We refine your energy,
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strengthen your ownership, and eliminate inconsistency so your
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impact becomes undeniable. If you're ready for that level
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of growth, book a private call through the link in the show
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notes. We'll see if it's a fit.
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All right, back to the episode. If you are an entrepreneur, you
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know this song and dance all too well.
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I've never met an entrepreneur who loves every aspect of their
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business. There's always something they
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don't like to do. For me, it's social media, guys.
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I don't like creating content for social media.
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I don't care about the strategy or the algorithm or keywords or
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hashtags or best times to post. I don't care about any of that.
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It seems kind of silly to me. I don't know if it's my own
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limiting beliefs or if I just grew up in the 90s and we didn't
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grow up with instant access to social media all the time.
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I understand it's part of the world we live in, but I don't
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like it. And everybody has something like
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that. Everybody has their social
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media, so to speak. We have this thing in our house
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with folding laundry. I generally try to fold most of
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the laundry. My wife is typically the one who
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puts it through the washer and the dryer.
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But I like to be the one who folds it because I don't mind
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doing it and I want to split the labor with her.
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So I tend to be the one folding the laundry.
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But if she does start to fold the laundry, she absolutely
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hates and refuses to fold the socks.
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Any time we do a a a round of whites, there was always a
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laundry basket full of white socks that will be left
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untouched if I don't fold it. Because she hates doing it.
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Folding socks is the bane of her existence.
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She refuses to do it, she hates it, it overwhelms her and she
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just can't get herself to do it. self-proclaimed me.
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I don't mind folding socks. In fact, I kind of like it
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because it's like a game to me. You just match them.
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You get to find all the right pairs.
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And I kind of like the methodical mindlessness of it.
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And yes, this is kind of a silly example.
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I could have used an example having to do with her, her
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business and her work that she started and that she runs
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herself. She's an entrepreneur.
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But it's a perfect example of what we all face.
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Everybody has something like folding the socks, whether it's
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in our relationships or our business or our home or
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parenting, whatever it is, we all have a thing like folding
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the socks. Her folding the socks to my
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social media to whatever you might say yours is.
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We all have something that we drag our feet on doing because
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we just don't enjoy it and we dread facing it.
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However, and there's always the flip side of the coin, when we
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can get ourselves to work through the discomfort and break
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the bottleneck, it gets done and it gets out of our face.
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For me, when I get systematized and organized around my social
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media, it goes a lot better. It feels a lot smoother.
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It's a lot less painful than when I just sit in it and Mull
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it over. When my wife folds the socks, it
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gets the laundry out of the basket and out of the living
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room and out of her face, even though she hates doing it.
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So the So it's not really a question of why to do it.
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We understand why we want to break the bottleneck.
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We understand what the benefits are, but the question becomes
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how, how do we actually break the bottleneck and get into
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motion around things? You know, my clients are always
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asking me this specific question because I think it seems like
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there's some magical solution or system that makes it easier for
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people. I think it's very common to look
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out in the world and think, why is it so easy for that person to
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do that thing that I hate? And then we start justifying it.
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Oh, it must be because they have a team.
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Lucky them. Oh, it's because they have a
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house cleaner or oh, it's because that person has a
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personal assistant. Must be nice.
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We start to create a story of why that person can be
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successful with something and we can't.
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When the reality is it might not be any of those things for those
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people, especially in the beginning, but it's actually
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just that they do the things without delay.
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They just do the things without delay.
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And so an answer to the question of how, there are a few things
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that come to mind. One, do the hard things first in
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your day when you have the most energy and the most mental
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bandwidth to think and deal with that kind of stuff.
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So often I see people doing the menial, easy tasks in the
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beginning of their day and they're wasting their greatest
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brain power time. Then the afternoon comes along
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when they're a little fatigued. Maybe they're a little
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frustrated by some of the day's events.
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They're tired of working with people.
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They're not feeling like they want to deal with technology or
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learning something new. And they get to that point.
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They think, Nah, I don't want to deal with this.
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I don't have the time or the energy for this right now.
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And another day goes by being the bottleneck to your own
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success. And here I'm just going to say
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it. I'm not judging you because I
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have been that person. In fact, there are probably
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still things going on for myself right now where I am being the
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damn bottleneck. But the point is, do the hard
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thing first. Just get in the practice of
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sucking it up and taking the first small action to create a
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little bit of progress and momentum.
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Use the afternoon when your brain is tired to do the menial,
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easy tasks that don't require a lot of brain power.
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And that brings me to the next thing, which is to break up big
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overwhelming tasks or projects into smaller bite sized pieces.
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Break it down so much so that the first step feels easy to
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accomplish. If you're still looking at your
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tasks thinking this feels overwhelming, you haven't broken
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it down to a small enough action.
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For example, if you had to build a desk for your office and it
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feels overwhelming, break it down into smaller bite size
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actions. Even down to just starting with
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opening the box, opening the box feels pretty doable.
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Yes, that's the smallest action that you can start with.
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You complete it and you're already winning.
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But let's say opening the box still feels overwhelming.
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The first step might be finding the scissors so that you can
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open the box. You break it down so much so
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that the first step feels like a Gimme, and then the second step
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feels like a Gimme, and so on and so forth.
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And pretty soon that project is done.
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And then finally, the last thing to do, and this is straight out
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of my coach's mouth every single mastermind meeting, is to put it
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on the calendar. He always says every single
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Tuesday morning, put it on. Just put it on the calendar.
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Put it on the calendar, Steph. Put on the calendar.
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If you don't put things on your schedule, you are much less
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likely to do them. Much, much less likely to do
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them. And I've been playing around
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with this myself over the past few years because time blocking
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things always felt a little rigid to me.
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And I couldn't have been more wrong.
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Because time blocking actually allows me to get more things
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done and I have more freedom as a result of it.
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He is right. The calendar wins every time.
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And if you time block in your calendar the things that are
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most important for you to do in the day and you stick to your
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calendar, you will start making progress on the big, scary,
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overwhelming things that you've been putting off for months or
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years. And then all of a sudden you're
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done and the project is finished and you're moving on to the next
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thing. The time blocking and the
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calendaring makes things feel possible in actuality and
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achievable because you're not saying to yourself that I have
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to finish this project in one day.
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No, no, no. You block it out for as many
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hours as necessary, in as many days as necessary, and little by
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little you start to get something to completion.
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It's an amazing feeling. Now, I recognize that all three
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of these strategies seem very simplistic.
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I get it. But that's actually the irony of
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this whole damn thing. Nothing about this is
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complicated, it's just that we don't do it because it is
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emotionally uncomfortable to do things that we don't like to do.
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We have a very low tolerance to be emotionally uncomfortable,
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but one of the major keys to breaking the bottleneck for
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yourself is to move from a place of clear, defined vision that
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you are excited about. Not your day-to-day emotions.
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Your brain can understand the logical plan and remain excited
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about a vision, which allows you to get into action much more
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easily than just feeling your everyday feelings.
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Based on the circumstances you might be in, you get so much
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more done. End of story.
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You don't have to worry about having a day where you might be
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feeling sad, or you don't feel motivated or inspired, or you
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might have had a hard conversation with your spouse,
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or you're not in the mood. None of that matters because
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it's on the calendar and it's ready for you to go.
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Now, I can hold a little bit of tension here and recognize that
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some of this might sound a little bit harsh if you're
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looking at it through that lens. But in reality, for me, this
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experience has been life changing to lead with the vision
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for what I want for myself and my life and my marriage and my
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kids, whenever it might be. It's a much more powerful place
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to come from than the everyday whims based on the feelings of
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the day. So this may or may not be your
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come to Jesus moment, but I can tell you for myself, this was a
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powerful come to Jesus moment for me.
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And the reminders that I get every other week from my
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mastermind team and my other coaches have helped me so much.
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They help keep me on track and they've helped me create much
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more than I ever thought I could in the last two years.
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My mantra for this year 2026 is Finish Line because I'm very
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inspired to break myself out of being a bottleneck to my own
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progress and success, and I hope the same for you.
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I want you to win and I want you to get the life of your dreams
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and of your own design. So I hope this helps today.
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I hope this inspires you to try some new things.
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Whatever your laundry basket full of socks is, or your social
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media, I wish you good luck in tackling it.
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You are an amazing human with so much impact to give to the
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world. I thank you for being here and
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for listening. And as always, thank you for
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being ready to Impact. Thanks for listening to Impact
17:54
Ready. I hope today's episode inspired
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you to own your impact and recognize that you are powerful.
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By elevating our energy and awareness, we can create
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exponential change in this life. If you enjoyed today's insights,
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share them with a friend and subscribe to the show for more.
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I truly appreciate you. Thanks again for being here.