22 - Productivity Mini Masterclass

Be the Anchor – Strategies and Support for Small Business Owners

We entrepreneurs tend to have big dreams, big ideas, and visionary goals. Sometimes we find ourselves at the right time to set those goals into something solid. Like in January, we might decide to finally write that book or launch that course. Or when we hit a certain financial goal. What often happens, though, is that we allow other people’s criticism or skepticism to hold us back from realizing those ideas. Or we don’t plan for the goals to be achieved and they eventually fade. So today I want to talk about the productivity needed to see our dreams come to life.

Author Steven Pressfield believes that the greater a task is to our soul’s evolution, the more resistance we will face in coming to achieve it. That actually gives me a sense of relief, instead of seeming daunting, because it assures me that when I encounter resistance in realizing my goal, I’m on the right path. When we encounter that resistance, it’s time to dig in and really be of service to what we dream of doing. But how? What steps can we actually take to make that happen?

I’m sharing five points in a service model designed to get big dreams and big ideas out of our heads and into reality. The five steps I’ll dive deep into are clarity, self-discipline, self-regulation, narrow focus, and cluster energy tasks. These steps help define what the dream looks like in terms of moving forward and then creating habits and tasks that keep us self-motivated on the journey. We become our own best sources of discipline. We have all the steps laid out for ourselves so that we know what to accomplish daily which will bring us closer to the dream. Join me in this mini masterclass on the productivity needed to make goals a reality instead of just great ideas that we remember later and wish we’d acted on.

Key Moments

07:47 Achieving clarity on our big dream

12:28: Self-discipline and self-regulation work hand-in-hand

24:33 Narrowing focus to get rid of distractions

• When we recognize we’re going to have to achieve our own dreams, we need to set ourselves up for success
• Forming habits, task breakdowns, and clear goals are some keys to daily productivity
• When I say “cluster energy tasks”, what does that mean and how can we structure that?

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

• WINTER PROGRAM ANCHORED LEADERSHIP ACADEMY
• “The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield
• “Do the Work” by Steven Pressfield
• Asana

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Contact Kari Lotzien | Be the Anchor:

• Website: BeTheAnchor.ca
• Facebook: BeTheAnchorLtd
• Instagram: BeTheAnchor.ca
• Linkedin: Be-The-Anchor-Ltd

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Transcript:

Kari Lotzien: [00:00:01] Welcome to Be the Anchor the Podcast. I'm your host, business and leadership coach Kari Lotzien. When the seas of life get stormy, and they always will, it is not up to us to captain anyone else's ship or to try to calm the waters of the ocean. It's up to us to set our own destination for what we really want, and to learn how to navigate those waves of life together while finding that place of security and stability with others. I call this being an anchor. If you are a dreamer, a visionary, an entrepreneur, whether you have an idea, big or small, that you think might just make the world a little bit better, kinder, gentler place, you are in the right spot my friend. We are going to talk about everything from big ideas to mindset and strategy, and sometimes just how to get through the day. I don't want you to miss an episode, so be sure to follow and subscribe to the podcast so that we can stay connected and keep doing this journey of life together. Thanks so much!

Kari Lotzien: [00:01:12] Hello my friends, I'm so glad you're here. Today I want to do a mini masterclass on productivity and moving forward to create the life that you crave. Now this is my tagline and I think that there are so many of us out there. I know that my listeners are high performers. We dream big, we have big visions and big ideas, but just like everyone else, we come up against resistance. We come into times where we set those big goals, maybe you did it early in January where you thought about maybe this is the year that I'm going to cross that 6, 7 or 8 figure mark in my business. Maybe this is the year that you decided I really want to write my book. I want to speak on stages. I want to launch that course. Or maybe this is the year you decided I want to do that marathon, or this is the year that I get into the best health of my life. I have had more crazy ideas and big dreams and big goals then probably anyone that I have known. And in the beginning I would hold back. I wouldn't tell people my big dreams because they would be met with criticism, with sometimes laughter, or a lot of questions, How are you going to do that? But I think that no matter who you are, no matter what age you are, no matter where you live, I believe that dreams and visions and ideas are gifted to us, and they come through our minds and our souls with an invitation, and it is only when we are willing to do the work and accept the invitation that we get the bonus of really creating an amazing and incredible life. I don't think that anyone gets ideas or visions, or those nagging little thoughts that keep you up at night just to be an irritation. I think they come to us for a reason, and I think it is our job to follow them, especially when they won't leave you alone. I also believe that ideas and dreams don't last forever, and if we don't latch on to them, sometimes they just keep moving on and they'll find the next person to bring them to life. I take my ideas and dreams pretty seriously.

Kari Lotzien: [00:03:45] Today I want to talk about, as you may have had that big dream or that big vision, how do you next take the step to bring it to life? When reality sinks in, when you've got kids to get to school and bills to pay, and all of the distractions, when you just get tired or you get sick, how do you stay on course even when things get hard? I'm a big fan of Steven Pressfield's work. He's written many books. Two of my favorites are The War of Art and Do the Work, and Steven Pressfield talks about the concept of a resistance, and that he believes that the greater a task or goal is to our soul's evolution, the more resistance we will face in coming to achieve it. This, although it sounds somewhat daunting, it gave me a feeling of ease and flow because I thought maybe if resistance is supposed to show up, if it's supposed to be a little bit scary, or maybe terrifying, maybe that's just part of it. And when I accepted that fear and anxiety and that sense of dread or terror sometimes is just part of the journey, I knew to expect it, and I didn't let it stop me in pursuit of my big goals. Now, I'll tell you in 2023 I set some really big goals. I launched the Anchored Leadership Academy, which was a thought that had been a seed in my mind for years. It was something I really wanted to do, but I needed to learn so much about online courses and how to set them up, and how to market and then create all the content. But the idea wouldn't leave me alone. And this past year, I decided I'm doing it, even though I don't know everything that I need to know, even though I don't have all of the places set out, even though I didn't have someone really close to me that I could call on to help be a mentor or a guide for that, I was willing to follow and find the courses that I need to bring that to action. I was able to follow it through because that sense of a calling or this idea needed to come to life. It felt bigger than me. And when I felt that I just needed to be of service to that idea, and I stayed in service to other people, to the participants that would be in that program that wanted to grow and establish their businesses and move towards greater senses of leadership themselves, when that calling became bigger than me, it felt so much easier to serve.

Kari Lotzien: [00:06:34] And then when the resistance came in that said, you don't know what you're doing and you don't know how to launch an online course, you don't know how to do all of these tech things. When the vision became bigger than me, I felt that I had a duty to figure it out no matter what. Even if it wasn't perfect, I had to push through, and it was something that I was the most proud of over this past year, including the podcast. That was another big learning thing for me. The reason I tell you this is not because I want you to think about your dreams need to look like mine. I know you have your own. I know that there are ideas that have been nagging at you, maybe for years, that aren't leaving you alone, that feel bigger than you. And I want you to just start to think about moving on them this year, because I know the power that this can hold when you start to achieve those things in your life, and you start to follow that service model where you're just using your time to create the life that you want, but it also serves other people. I think this changes our communities and I want you to be a part of it.

Kari Lotzien: [00:07:47] Okay. Number one. When I talk about moving forward, when I'm talking about productivity, I'm not talking about productivity for the sake of how many tasks can you get done in a day that maybe don't land. They don't feel like they're really contributing to your life. You don't feel like your life got any better, you just got more done. That's not the productivity I'm talking about. I'm talking about productivity in the direction of your dreams. I'm talking about bringing that thing to life. Here's the pieces that I think are required to do that. And I'm going to share these things with hopefully some inspiration, that feeling of, I'm going to go with you, I'm going to do it with you, I want to be excited with you. But I'm also going to share some tough love, because if you want to create the life you crave, you have to put some skin in the game. It's not going to come easily. Opportunities do not knock at your door. That you don't just get to put in time doing something and being available and showing up and that those things come up. You, I believe you have to meet it halfway. You have to be ready. You have to have your head up and be prepared and do the work so that when opportunity comes your way, you're ready for it. You have the energy, you have the systems, you have the knowledge in place that you need to take it to that next spot.

Kari Lotzien: [00:09:06] I don't think it just comes to you. No matter how many affirmations you've done, no matter how many meditations, I think you have to put action to those systems. So the first thing I think is critically important is creating clarity. I think we need to get really clear. My question that I came back to throughout 2023 was, what if it all works out? What if everything that I am dreaming about, everything that I'm working towards, everything that I'm trying to put into the world, what if it all just worked out exactly as I wanted it to? What would that look like? What would it feel like? Who would be there? How would I use that money, that time, that platform to reach to other people? And I got really clear on how that would feel and not only what my goal was, but I attached it to why do I want it? I think a lot of people have goals related to revenue, for example. So you want to close seven figures in business this year. My next question for you is how would those seven figures create the life you crave? What would you do with it? Who would you help? How would you spend it? Would you travel the world? Would you buy a fancy vehicle? Would you buy a vacation property? And then I would ask you again if you bought the car, if you bought the vacation property, if you took the holiday, why? What would that be in your life? How would that contribute? So if I am really destined that I want to make seven figures so that I can take beautiful holidays, the reason I want to take beautiful holidays is because I want to have invested time with friends and family that includes exploring a new place. I just think that is the perfect combination of novelty, excitement and connection. When I get clear and I keep following Why do you want that? Why do you want that? Why do you want that? When I land on the truth of what the clarity is for why I want that, what that desire, that goal is going to be in creating the life that I want, that's when I know that I've drilled down and I'm clear on what I truly want. And I don't think when we set goals, we go far enough. So if you can keep asking yourself, why do I want that? What would that mean in my life? What would that give to me? If you have an answer for that, every time you state what you want, go a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper and a little bit deeper until you feel this sense of release. That's it. That is a level of clarity that I'm looking for when you want to achieve the big dreams.

Kari Lotzien: [00:12:17] Okay now, next. Once you get that clarity, once you know what you want, why you want it, and what your life will look like when you get there, then we need to have self-discipline. I think the higher that we get in our companies when we are leading families, many of us as high performers are the leaders in our families. Other people look to us to be the planner, to be the organizer, to take the dream, the goal, whatever it is, and to lead the way for others. But often no one is leading us. No one is holding you accountable to say, did you get there? Did you do that? Did you check those boxes off your task list? Are you progressing towards that really big dream or goal? And I think the more of a leader or a driver that you are in your life, the less people you have that hold you accountable. A) I think because they don't think you need it. And then I'm actually going to push a little bit farther, because I think that when you are the driver, the planner, the leader, the one who's pushing the boundaries in your friend group, in your life, in your family, when you are that person - I almost want to whisper this - but I think there are some times where your friends or family won't hold you accountable. They don't want to push you because it makes them uncomfortable. There are times where your friends, your family, the people that you really love and care about, they might say things to you like, I don't know why you're getting up so early in the morning. I don't know why this is so important. You just need to put your feet up and take a break. Don't worry about it. You just need to rest, have some fun. And I'm not saying that any of those things are wrong, but what you want to know is that if you're pursuing something big, if you've got a big dream, you have to be disciplined in the pursuit of that because you can't rely on others to do it for you. And the way that we do that is we get really clear on our goals, we get clear on that bigger picture, and then we create solid routines with our time that put us in the direction of our goals. So every single week, you should know exactly what tasks you need to do to get you a step closer to your goal. Now, I'm not saying that has to be a big step. It could be something really small. It could be reaching out to someone. It could be learning a very specific task or skill that you need to move forward. It could be that you're just going to do one little part of writing that email or putting together that sales post or making that call that you've maybe been putting off.

Kari Lotzien: [00:15:12] But often if you don't do it, no one is going to ask you about it. No one is going to push you forward. So you have to be able and willing to hold yourself accountable. So personally, the way that I do this is you need to get it out in front of you. I think that when we have visual tasks listed out with a checkbox, it's like we make ourselves a to-do list, but our to-do list is designed to lead us toward our bigger goals. I actually also suggest writing it. I'm a big fan of old-school pencil and paper calendars and agendas. I automate a lot of things in my life, and I use technology for many, many things in my business, but when it comes to planning my time and doing this kind of work, I believe that pen and paper is the way to do it. Because I think when you write a goal in your handwriting and your voice, it slows you down and it just allows you to be that much more accountable. It's not as easy as saying, oh, I didn't get that done, so I'm just going to highlight it and delete it as if it was never there. When you've written it in pen in your agenda, it holds you to a greater standard that you'll stick to it. So that's how I like to do it. So self-discipline is number two. Clarity is number one, self-discipline is number two. And recognizing you're going to have to do it yourself and setting yourself up with systems that hold you to it.

Kari Lotzien: [00:16:48] The third is self-regulation. Now, I believe self-regulation is really the lifelong challenge as a human being. We know that there are going to be times where we come up against tough obstacles or that people will set us off or trigger us. We'll see a post that breaks our heart. Self-regulation is the ability to consciously adjust your reaction to whatever comes your way. And I'd love to tell you, when you look at people like the Dalai Lama or people who have spent multitudes of time in leadership, they almost seem unshakable, that it doesn't matter kind of what gets tossed their way, markets are crumbling, people are upset, customers are losing it, and they have this sense of a foundation. I call this being anchored. This is the central piece of everything that I do. It is this sense of not that we don't react, it's not a matter of not caring or non-reaction. This anchoring is a sense of deep caring. It's a sense of knowing that I have the power to change the way other people feel. I am aware of how my words and my actions can create a ripple effect on others, and I use that with intention. I know what I want to bring into the world. I know what I want to create and I know how I want to do that. I know that part of my gift is helping people to see the patterns in their life, to reveal or go through a process of reflection, and then giving them the steps where they start to feel like they can create the change in their life that they really want, that moves them in the direction of their dreams. And I do that by helping people feel like I believe in them, but also sharing some hard truths. I don't want to be this overly dramatic, everything is great, rose-colored glasses, unicorns, rainbows, all of that. That's not who I am. But I do want to be that place of safety. I want to anchor in that ability for people to come to me with whatever they are facing. And the number of times that people will say to me, I know this sounds terrible, what I'm really thinking is [blank]. When you can create that place of safety and stability for others, I think it's something we can be really proud of. Now, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie to you and tell you that I never get upset or that I don't lose my cool sometimes over the simplest things.

Kari Lotzien: [00:19:44] I argue with my spouse. I get mad at the dog. I do things, I am impatient in traffic. Sometimes those things happen. But I am on a path where I really want to be more in control of intentionally using that energy in the path that I want. Now, the way I want to do this for my goals is that you need to be expected that when you have big goals and big dreams, there are going to be naysayers. There are going to be people that knock you off course, that tell you it's impossible or that you can't do it. There may be people who really deliberately try to block your success, or we get in our own mind where we think this is impossible. This is a crazy idea. It's too much work. I don't know what I'm doing, and we block ourselves. Self-regulation says expect the resistance, know that it's coming. And when you have big dreams and big goals, it's going to come with even more strength and power. Face it. You don't have to let your emotions and your behavior follow that temporary thought that came into your life. You can face it with this, Okay, I see that I'm feeling really anxious and overwhelmed right now, my thoughts are in a really negative place, so I'm just going to hit the pause button and I'll come back to it, maybe later on. The routines through your self-discipline are what allow you to overcome when the resistance gets to be too big. Many people who don't reach this level of tenacity in their lives will allow their emotion or the way that they feel to guide their behavior. So if they don't feel like it, if they're not feeling confident, if they don't feel like they've got the courage to do the thing that they need to get done, they just don't do it. They wait for the confidence to come. People who are self-disciplined say it doesn't matter actually how I feel. I'm going to get it done. And we know that there's maybe a multitude of things that we can do. So maybe if you're feeling really a lack of confidence, that's not the best day to write a marketing email or that's not the best day to make that sales call, but you have steps in place that you know are going to get you closer to your goal, and you are disciplined to say, even if I'm not aligned, my energy is not aligned with doing that task today, I know that there are three other things that I can do that will still move me forward on that trajectory to where I'm wanting to go. And the self-discipline in those routines get you in the habit. And here's a fun fact, when you start to do those things and you check those off your list, so you've done some of these other tasks that maybe didn't require you to feel as confident.

Kari Lotzien: [00:22:40] So if you are thinking, oh, I really need to do the speaking engagement, one of your steps is you need to find out when it is and what the deadline is for speaking applications. And if there is a theme to the conference. And you look that up and you separate that from actually writing it, or maybe you say, okay, I'm going to write out 80% of it, I'm going to fill in all the background, I'm going to give all my links, I'm going to do all of that. Inevitably, once you start to get traction on some of those just tasks, what happens is your body goes, oh, she's really serious about this. She actually does want to pursue. And your thoughts and your emotions change. And the next thing you know, you can take on that sales call. You can write that application to do the speaking engagement. You can take that next step because you've got action in place that drives the way you feel. So self-discipline and self-regulation are so closely connected, they do a dance with each other, but one does not exist without the other.

[00:23:50] One of the best things I did last year was launch the Anchored Leadership Academy group coaching program. We had our first group go through in the fall of this year, and let me tell you, it was incredible. We gathered a group of established entrepreneurs who really want to move forward in their leadership. So developing their teams, being able to give great feedback, delegating well to move to that next stage of business. The next cohort is going to start in February and doors are open now for applications. All you need to do is click on the link in the show notes, have a read, see if it feels like a good fit for you, and then book an inquiry call. That's it. Hope to see you there. All right, back to the show.

Kari Lotzien: [00:24:33] The next is, narrow your focus. When you have a big goal in place you want to imagine that you're limiting the distractions. It's like when a horse is racing and they put those little guides on their eyes. It's so that they can see where they're headed. I want you to think of it in the same way. I know that all of us have so many distractions. There are numerous things that are going to come into your life that are going to take your attention. Things not only that you will feel pulled to - my kid is sick, my parent needs, you know, me to drive them to a medical appointment, or maybe a friend calls you up and says, oh, I've got this really exciting thing planned, you should come. When you have clear goals, you need to know what is a clear no, what is just that is not aligning with where I want to be anymore.

Kari Lotzien: [00:25:31] Get solid on that. I want you to imagine it like a policy. This is a policy in my life. I don't do that anymore. So that might be related to a health goal. I don't drink alcohol anymore. Period. I don't stay out until 3:00 in the morning dancing in pubs anymore. So I developed things myself this year where I was able to say, I don't do that anymore. I don't do pick-your-brain meetings with people who I gut-know are wanting free advice. I no longer take meetings in person for coaching clients. The reason that I've done that is because I need to be so protective of my time, and investing it in moving some of these big things forward that I'm wanting to develop, that I really needed to be conscious of how much time I was spending traveling.

Kari Lotzien: [00:27:03] Now, you might do this for a short time. You might say, I'm not doing these types of appointments for this amount of time. I'm not taking meetings before a certain time of day, because I've got some really big projects that I need to move forward. And you create that boundary or that block on your time. We need to get really, really clear on that, because the hard truth is, I think when we think of boundaries and we think of saying no, we have this little voice in our head that thinks, oh, well, we're just saying no to the things that we don't really want to do anyway. Sometimes you are saying no or not right now to things that you do like, that you do feel are aligned or that you can actually do, but you're saying, not right now. So you have to be able to sit with that discomfort of a) letting other people down, but recognize you might let yourself down as well. You might really think, oh, that sounds fun, I'd really like to spend Thursday afternoon having lunch with a friend, but you know you've got this really big deadline coming up. And when you looked back at your self-discipline in the routine you created, you know that you've got some things that you need to get done so maybe you need to put that meeting off or ask if you can meet on a weekend or in an evening. I'm not saying that we go all in on one focus and all we do is work. That's not it at all. What I'm saying is you need to get really disciplined on how you're using your time and what you're saying yes to, and expect that some of those things are not going to be easy to put off or to delay.

Kari Lotzien: [00:28:43] Okay. The last little area in our little masterclass today is, this is my favorite tool when it comes to being productive: I cluster my energy tasks. Now what the heck does that mean? So I think of every task that I need to do in terms of three categories. Do I need physical energy, do I need mental energy or do I need social energy? And then I put all of the tasks that require that type of energy together in my daily routine. So what that looks like. So physical energy, these are things like I need physical energy to go and get things done, run errands, get groceries, be out in the community, do my exercising. Physical energy often has a lot of movement associated with it and can have a lot of distraction simply because as we're moving, we're encountering other people. Distractions are going to come up, but it doesn't tend to require the same level, sometimes, of mental focus. So I get really conscious that when I'm in a big crunch, when I'm moving forward on a big goal, I am solid on my errands. I do not go into town to run errands more than once a week, and there's times where I will even say, nope, I'll order online or I'm not even going to leave my house because I need to absorb that energy. Because once I get out there, it may take 3 or 4 hours to get the things done that I need to do, and I really need to preserve and protect that time. So I'll just cluster it so that I'm not trying to do a meeting and then run one errand, and then I try to return a phone call or do a sales call and then go, oh, now I can zip into the bank, or I can return that quick email. When you bounce back and forth between these types of energy, what happens is your system needs to reset. It needs to recalibrate for what you are asking it to do next. And every time there's a transition between these different types of energy, it's taxing your system and it's taking time to transition. So when you cluster, a) you're going to be faster. And when you take time to plan this, you will be able to look at not only your errands, but to say, okay, I actually, I have a system or a list. I like to use Asana or a project management tool to organize all parts of my life. So I will have a Costco list in my Asana. So any time during the two weeks, I will just add in what I need to remember to pick up so I'm more aware as I move throughout my day, Oh, this is getting low. But I try to prevent myself from those last minute, Oh, now I all of a sudden we've run out of toilet paper and I need to go and do that. So I try to get ahead of it, but then I think, oh, right now I need to also go to this other place. When I'm planning my time, when I'm doing errands, I'm also looking at a map and how things are laid out and how I could be most effective in using that time. So I cluster it together.

Kari Lotzien: [00:32:00] Mental energy. These are tasks that require you to focus in. So these are your big projects. This is when you need to get into flow state to be creative, to do analysis, to come up with a plan, to write that book, to plan that speech, to create that content for your new course. Mental energy requires often less physical energy. I'm going to say that again because if you're fitting your mental tasks, so if you are doing errands and you're running to meetings and you're very physically active, and then you take a half hour and you say, oh, I'm going to plan my content creation in this half hour, what you'll find is your mind and body are going too fast to be able to really focus in and slow your attention, to be able to get into that flow state, to be really creative. So you want to separate them. I realized this year that for me to get into flow state, if I left it too late in my week, so even if I planned my flow state time where maybe I did block out 2 or 3 hours, which I now know that is the time that it takes for my brain and body to slow down enough that I can start to be creative in my process. But when I put that too late in the week, what would happen is the tasks, all of the busyness, all of the distractions and things other people were asking me to do in those last minute meetings would creep into this time, and I would find it really hard to slow down. And I would find it hard to carve out that time and to protect it, because I would have more requests that have built up by that point in my week. So now I've shifted it and I start every week. My Mondays are my creative time. The great thing is, I've often had a bit of a slower pace on the weekend, I've had some time to connect socially with people, and my nervous system is in a state where I'm more easily reaching that flow state. When I know that I don't have a lot of appointments and things scheduled on Mondays, I don't get that Sunday anxiety that I used to before. When I have space and I come into my Monday knowing that I have space and time set aside for my creative content creation, podcast content, all of these types of things, it allows me to kind of set my intention for the rest of the week. So I use my content creation, and I use this creativity to think of how am I going to show up for my clients, how am I going to show up in meetings for the remainder of the week? And it almost sets my week ahead. So just think about for you how that works out. Where are your best pockets where you can focus in on your mental energy? Where maybe you don't have as many distractions? It's an easier time for you to kind of slow down and get into that state where your body can go into that creative mode or planning.

Kari Lotzien: [00:35:04] The other thing I use my mental time for is planning my activities. So I plan ahead. I get really conscious in thinking how am I going to set my schedule so that I'm meeting the demands of what I want to do to move that big goal or that big dream forward? I think when we are reactive and we just try to fit our big goals into our existing appointments, our existing demands that are often created by someone else, this is when we set ourselves up to fail, because then our dreams don't get space. They don't get literal space in our calendar. So take your mental time to plan out your schedule. And I tend to do this both a month ahead, so I can see the flow. Again, I come back to my paper calendar because I want to be able to see space. I use arrows, so if something is a half day, I can see visually that it's occupying a half day. We don't get this often in our other calendars, so I do tend to run two calendars, which I know maybe doesn't sound as efficient, but for me it allows me to see exactly what the flow and what things feel like when I write them into my calendar and I see how much space they take, and then I review it on a weekly basis. So I review it Monday morning. Are there things that I've committed to that I can't do or do I have additional space where I could maybe slot in some additional tasks? And then I look at it again on Friday and I move tasks that, if there's things that need to be moved to the next week or that I really reflect on what took my time this week, where did I maybe get off track, so that I learn and consciously write my lesson for the week ahead. So that I don't keep doing that same pattern over and over again and next thing you know, that big goal, or the big dream or the big project that I had, next thing you know, we're six months down the road and I haven't made any progress. So I take control of my calendar.

Kari Lotzien: [00:37:01] And then the last type of energy is social. So I have physical energy, mental energy, social energy. Social energy is what fills me back up through connection. Now I feel really blessed this way because I get to have that social connection as well with clients. When I get to meet with someone and we plan ahead and we start talking strategy, and I give them some tools and strategies on how to have a hard conversation or how to implement a hiring process into their business. Or we talk about what they want to do with their time next, and we brainstorm around a project and then we break it down together so it starts to feel really doable. And they can see that progress. When I get to do that, it fills my energy up. It doesn't matter how I feel sometimes at the beginning of the day if I haven't slept well. When I have these types of engagements with my clients, I always leave with more energy than what I started with. So I feel like that's a bonus. And when I think about social, you want your social time to feel like it's building your energy. You want to make sure that you're connecting with people who are raising you up, who are challenging you, and who are in a state where they're also really creating their own lives. They're the types of people who show up for life. They love to plan things. They like adventure, or they like reaching goals and pushing themselves. When we merely put ourselves in the same space, you will find that your energy comes up. You know that there are people who maybe you love, but who deplete your energy a little bit. When you're moving forward, you just, I'm not saying cut them out of your life, but I'm saying you might want to limit your time and you might want to just get really solid on when do I have space and time? So when we talked about narrowing your focus and saying no to certain things you might be really conscious of when you spend time with people, or you limit the amount of time you spend with the people who kind of draw your energy down. So just getting solid and clear on that.

Kari Lotzien: [00:39:09] My hope is that this episode has given you some ideas on productivity with a twist that when you have that big dream or that vision that just keeps nagging at you, I want this to be the year that you get some traction on it, that you start to bring it to life. Because I think that when we sit back and we wait for those opportunities to come to us, we might just be so busy in the day-to-day existence, in getting our errands done and getting our tasks done, that we don't raise our heads long enough to see the opportunity. But what I know is that when we meet those opportunities halfway, when we do our part, when it comes to getting crystal clear on what you want and why you want it, what is it going to mean for your life, then you add the self-discipline and getting those routines in place. You know the structure on how to get there. You work through your self-regulation and your resistance. You know how to regulate your own nervous system so that when those challenges come up, when you don't feel confident, you still make progress. You narrow your focus. You know what you're giving your time to, and then you cluster your energy into those three areas of physical, mental, and social tasks. This sets you up. It creates the foundation so that then when those opportunities come up, your head is up, you're ready for them, and you know, you end up with this feeling of, I'm ready, I've got it. I'm ready to meet you where you are.

Kari Lotzien: [00:40:49] I love working with high performers and visionaries. If this episode resonated with you and you've got some big goals in your business this year, and maybe you've heard yourself saying things like, oh, I don't know. I don't know if I can just keep doing all of the things anymore. I've got so many things on my to-do list that this big goal of writing a book, launching a course, or taking that big opportunity just seem a little bit out of reach. And I know that I need to do something different in my business so that I have space to do this, check out the Anchored Leadership Academy. It might be a great fit for you. We go through week by week ten modules on how to set your business up so that you're ready for the next step. It really focuses in on being anchored leader so that we're building our teams. We're creating communities to help support moving this vision forward. And we do it through empowering others, through building together. If it sounds like something that's interesting to you, click on the link in the show notes and just let's hop on a call, we can chat about if it feels like it would be the right thing for you this year. Thanks so much for being here. Remember to like and subscribe. I'll see you next week.

Kari Lotzien: [00:42:05] Please know that this podcast is meant for entertainment purposes only. It is not a substitution for medical or professional mental health advice. If you require support, please do reach out. Thanks so much.