Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #298| The Overlooked Productivity Mistake That Leaves You Feeling Like You Haven't Done Enough, Even After You Check Off Everything on Your List
Transcript
- 0:00Michelle Gauthier: When you listen today, you're going to learn about the productivity mistake that makes you feel like you haven't done enough even after you check everything off your list.
- 0:12Michelle Gauthier: You're listening to Overwhelmed Working Woman, the podcast that helps you be more calm and more productive by doing less.
- 0:20Michelle Gauthier: I'm your host, Michelle Gauthier, a former Overwhelmed Working Woman and current life coach.
- 0:25Michelle Gauthier: On this show, we unpack the stress and pressure that today's working woman experiences.
- 0:30Michelle Gauthier: And in each episode, you'll get a strategy to bring more calm, ease, and relaxation to your life.
- 0:39Michelle Gauthier: Hi, friend.
- 0:40Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for listening.
- 0:41Michelle Gauthier: If you are listening on the day this comes out, it's my birthday.
- 0:45Michelle Gauthier: And I have to tell you, I love my birthday.
- 0:47Michelle Gauthier: I know a lot of women, I know a lot of women dread or don't enjoy their birthdays because we're another year older, and all you can think about are the negative parts of being older, all the things you still haven't done that you thought you were going to accomplish by now.
- 1:00Michelle Gauthier: On Monday, we talked about picking two or three priorities so that you can be most productive during the time that you have.
- 1:07Michelle Gauthier: But what happens next for a lot of us is that you pick your priorities, you get them done, and you still go to bed thinking, I didn't get enough done today.
- 1:15Michelle Gauthier: And no matter how much you get done, you always feel like you haven't done enough or you focus on the things that don't get done instead of the things that did get done.
- 1:24Michelle Gauthier: If that's you and you're ready to stop feeling behind no matter how much you accomplish, that's exactly what I help my one-on-one clients with.
- 1:31Michelle Gauthier: So book a free consultation with me in the link in the show notes if this is you.
- 1:35Michelle Gauthier: When you listen to today's episode, you're gonna learn two ways to look back on your year.
- 1:40Michelle Gauthier: Now I'm assuming it's not also your birthday, but you can look back on your year on your birthday or at the new year or any old time you want.
- 1:48Michelle Gauthier: I'm gonna talk about why gain thinking actually makes you more productive, not just happier, and how to measure backwards on your birthday or at new year or really just even for the day or the week that you've just had.
- 2:01Michelle Gauthier: When we think about evaluating our progress, if I'm thinking, okay, what has my progress been in life between October 15th of this year and October 15th of last year?
- 2:11Michelle Gauthier: There are two ways to look back at it.
- 2:13Michelle Gauthier: And this is true of anything, just to look back at your day or your week or your whole year.
- 2:18Michelle Gauthier: And the first way to look at it is the gap.
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: That's everything that you didn't do measured against where you think you should be right now.
- 2:25Michelle Gauthier: Let's say you start this year and you decided you wanted to get promoted or you wanted to run a half marathon or clean out your basement.
- 2:33Michelle Gauthier: That's always my example because I always want to clean out my basement.
- 2:36Michelle Gauthier: And now it's your birthday or the new year or some other milestone, and you look back and you didn't get the promotion and you ran a 5k instead of running the half, and the basement still has all the crap in it that was in it last year, and you think, oh, another year, and I still didn't do any of it.
- 2:52Michelle Gauthier: I should be so much further along by now.
- 2:54Michelle Gauthier: And that's the mistake most of us make without even noticing.
- 2:58Michelle Gauthier: We measure ourselves against where we think we should be.
- 3:01Michelle Gauthier: So no matter how much we check off, we come up short.
- 3:04Michelle Gauthier: That's one way to look at it.
- 3:05Michelle Gauthier: A second way to look at it is the gain, and that's everything you did do measured against where you started.
- 3:12Michelle Gauthier: So if we look back at the same year in a different way, you got great reviews and took on a new project at work.
- 3:18Michelle Gauthier: A year ago you weren't running at all, and now you ran a 5k.
- 3:21Michelle Gauthier: And maybe the basement didn't get done because you spent so many Saturdays at your kids' games instead.
- 3:27Michelle Gauthier: Nothing about that year changed.
- 3:29Michelle Gauthier: The only thing that changes is the way that you look back on it.
- 3:33Michelle Gauthier: And this comes from a book that I've recommended so many times.
- 3:36Michelle Gauthier: In fact, I did a whole episode on this book because I think it's so good.
- 3:39Michelle Gauthier: It's called The Gap in the Gain by Dan Sullivan and Dr.
- 3:42Michelle Gauthier: Benjamin Hardy.
- 3:43Michelle Gauthier: And in honor of it being my birthday, here's my year both ways.
- 3:48Michelle Gauthier: Let's talk about getting older.
- 3:49Michelle Gauthier: A gap thought I hear from so many women is it's too late to start something new, or I can't change at this point.
- 3:56Michelle Gauthier: Guys, that is never true.
- 3:59Michelle Gauthier: So let's focus on the gain.
- 4:01Michelle Gauthier: I started my business in my mid-40s and I launched this podcast at 50.
- 4:07Michelle Gauthier: It's never too late to start something new, no matter what that thing is.
- 4:11Michelle Gauthier: Let's think about aging in terms of looks.
- 4:14Michelle Gauthier: One thing that I could focus on is man, I sure have to get my hair done a lot these days because it's so gray.
- 4:20Michelle Gauthier: And wow, everyone is doing Botox.
- 4:23Michelle Gauthier: I should probably be doing Botox.
- 4:25Michelle Gauthier: Does my skin look terrible?
- 4:26Michelle Gauthier: By the way, no shade if you do Botox.
- 4:28Michelle Gauthier: I just haven't done it yet.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: You know, is there more that I should be doing to try to look younger?
- 4:32Michelle Gauthier: I'm not keeping up with all the things that I need to do.
- 4:35Michelle Gauthier: But if I look at it in the game, I literally picture this picture of myself and my son at his graduation, and I just look so genuinely happy.
- 4:45Michelle Gauthier: And I feel like I look very happy for the age that I am, which I'm 53, by the way.
- 4:50Michelle Gauthier: And that's the photo and that's the thing that I'm choosing to focus on.
- 4:55Michelle Gauthier: From a fitness perspective and a body perspective, a gap thought is like I used to be able to eat whatever I wanted.
- 5:02Michelle Gauthier: I think back to when I was in college, and I would get like the full meal deal or whatever that was called, and get it with a chocolate shake and an apple pie.
- 5:10Michelle Gauthier: First of all, that doesn't even sound good anymore.
- 5:12Michelle Gauthier: But the gain is it's true, I can't just eat whatever I want anymore, but I know what makes me feel good now, and I feel so much better, and I eat that way most of the time.
- 5:21Michelle Gauthier: And that's really freaking impressive.
- 5:23Michelle Gauthier: And yes, maybe there were times in my life where I was a smaller size.
- 5:28Michelle Gauthier: So a gap thought about my body would be like, it takes so much longer to recover.
- 5:32Michelle Gauthier: I weigh more than I used to weigh, I wear a bigger size than I used to wear.
- 5:37Michelle Gauthier: But the gain thought is I can lift way more now than I could in my 20s or 30s or 40s.
- 5:42Michelle Gauthier: This is the strongest that I have ever been, and I freaking love that.
- 5:46Michelle Gauthier: If I think about my business, I can have a whole variety of not enough thoughts.
- 5:50Michelle Gauthier: I'm not doing enough, I'm doing it fast enough.
- 5:52Michelle Gauthier: I can have those kind of thoughts about everything, including this podcast.
- 5:56Michelle Gauthier: Maybe I need to do more episodes, maybe we need to get more listeners.
- 6:00Michelle Gauthier: But the gain that I think about is you, literally, you listening right now.
- 6:04Michelle Gauthier: Like how crazy is it and how cool is it that you're here and that this is being listened to all over the world.
- 6:12Michelle Gauthier: I'm so grateful for that.
- 6:13Michelle Gauthier: I'm so grateful that we have this connection and that I have the opportunity to give you some helpful information that hopefully makes your day better.
- 6:21Michelle Gauthier: From the perspective of being a mom, a gap thought about this past year could be my daughter doesn't really want to hang out with me anymore.
- 6:27Michelle Gauthier: She's 15.
- 6:28Michelle Gauthier: Teenagers do not think their parents are cool or really want to hang out with them.
- 6:31Michelle Gauthier: But if I think about it from a game perspective, she's doing exactly what she's supposed to be doing.
- 6:36Michelle Gauthier: She's becoming independent, which is the whole point.
- 6:38Michelle Gauthier: And I treasure the moments that we do get, like teaching her how to drive, or sometimes we'll watch a show together, and she still comes to me when she needs something.
- 6:48Michelle Gauthier: So instead of telling the story as, oh, our connection isn't what it used to be, I can say it has evolved into a teenage connection, and she still trusts me and wants to talk to me.
- 6:59Michelle Gauthier: And maybe that's different than what it used to look like, but it's great in its own way.
- 7:03Michelle Gauthier: Those are just some examples from my year, but here's the part I want you to hear for yourself.
- 7:08Michelle Gauthier: Gain thinking, yes, it makes me feel better.
- 7:10Michelle Gauthier: I feel energized just even repeating all that stuff to you, but it actually makes you more productive in life too.
- 7:16Michelle Gauthier: Because when you look at the gap, you feel behind.
- 7:19Michelle Gauthier: And we know that our thoughts are always creating our feelings.
- 7:23Michelle Gauthier: So when you think I haven't done enough, you feel behind.
- 7:27Michelle Gauthier: And when you're in the feeling of I feel behind and I'm discouraged, then it drains your motivation and then it makes you less productive.
- 7:35Michelle Gauthier: It makes you not want to even start new things.
- 7:37Michelle Gauthier: When you look at the gain, you see proof that you can do hard things.
- 7:40Michelle Gauthier: You see momentum, and momentum makes you want to keep going.
- 7:44Michelle Gauthier: The woman who ends her day thinking, I didn't get enough done, walks into tomorrow already feeling defeated and overwhelmed.
- 7:51Michelle Gauthier: And the woman who ends her day thinking, look what I did, that's pretty darn impressive, walks into tomorrow ready to go.
- 7:57Michelle Gauthier: Here's how you can implement this and start measuring backwards and measuring the game.
- 8:01Michelle Gauthier: You don't have to wait for your birthday to do this.
- 8:03Michelle Gauthier: Here's how to measure backwards anytime, your birthday or New Year's or at the end of a regular Friday.
- 8:07Michelle Gauthier: Write down what you did, not what you planned, but what you actually did.
- 8:12Michelle Gauthier: Scroll back through your calendar and your photos if you need help remembering.
- 8:15Michelle Gauthier: Compare it to where you started, not where you think you should be, but where were you a year ago or a week ago?
- 8:22Michelle Gauthier: Then read through that list and celebrate yourself.
- 8:25Michelle Gauthier: Sometimes we're so busy moving on to the next thing that we don't celebrate ourselves.
- 8:30Michelle Gauthier: So celebrate what you have done, and then you're ready to move on and do the next things.
- 8:35Michelle Gauthier: In summary, remember that no matter how much you get done, the gap will always tell you it wasn't enough.
- 8:40Michelle Gauthier: So stop measuring yourself against the gap.
- 8:43Michelle Gauthier: Look back at how far you've come and let that carry you into what's next.
- 8:48Michelle Gauthier: Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me, and thanks for being a listener.
- 8:56Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 8:59Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.com.
- 9:05Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.