Yo yo yo. Welcome back to the Further your Lifestyle podcast conversations on lifestyle passions and hustles. My name's Chris, I'm your host and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Episode 226 today and we're talking about I think it's a topic we've probably touched on twice now, maybe three times. We've probably even touched on it maybe once every year, but it's one that is. It continuously comes back and gives me a nice little slap in the face and reminds me of the things that I need to be doing. So I think it's a super relevant conversation because I feel like if I'm feeling it, there's a high chance that other people are feeling it too. And it's the whole topic of the work you're avoiding is the work that will actually change everything. And you know look, I'll be frank A lot of the time we repeat a lot of the same. You know topics and conversations and themes and things here on the podcast, simply because you know whether it's new people joining or it's stuff that just needs to be reiterated, reminded to us, because sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. And you know, that's why I'm here, that's why I've got the podcast here, to help you further your lifestyle. Now, if you're enjoying these episodes and you want to continue to receive updates of these episodes, make sure you are subscribed. And if you want to leave a comment or hit the like button, that would be greatly appreciated. But most of all, if you think someone else can benefit from these episodes, then please share it with them.

We're going to start off with a couple of little points here before we get into the meat of it all. And the first thing is what's that one thing that you keep putting off? Think about it right now. What's that one thing that you keep putting off? And it's not because you're lazy, it's probably because it matters so much but there's this level of fear or scare behind it that once you do it, what is it going to open up? Is it a commitment thing? Is it an unknown thing? Is it more hard work, or is it confrontation? Is it discomfort? What is it? You know that one thing, you know what it is, you know what it is. You're thinking about it right now, but when you realize that once you do that, that's going to unlock everything for you. But when you realize that once you do that, that's going to unlock everything for you. And that's really what I want to talk about today. So get cozy, get comfortable, grab a cup of tea, coffee, whatever it may be. If you're driving, make sure you're just listening and we're going to roll.

The is. Procrastination, is emotional and it's not logical. You know, we've spoken about emotion versus logic here for the last couple of weeks. Really, I think what happens here is when we see that big, big audacious thing that we need to tackle and we're too scared to do it. It's not because we're lazy, it's simply because we think we're protecting ourselves. We think that we're, you know, playing it safe, and we are. We're playing it safe. We don't want the discomfort, we don't want to open up the can of worms it's going to create and, you know, avoidance in this sense is just fear in disguise of fear of failure, fear of maybe success or fear of judgment or what will others think. But the longer you beat around the bush, the longer you're just, you know, delaying the it's going to happen anyway, kind of thing, so you may just get on it. Now I tend to think and it's a really good tell, I guess, is that resistance, you feel, is usually an invitation of like this is what you've got to be doing. When you feel that resistance, it's like no, no, no, no, no, I don't want to do this. It's like you see it and you keep thinking about it. But you find plenty of other things to do other than that one thing, and that's usually because that it is the most important thing. It keeps you pulling back to it, you're drawn back to it and you know discomfort is a compass right. The bigger the resistance, the more meaningful the task. Usually it is right. So if you're feeling this friction, if you're feeling, yeah, the discomfort or the you're being uncomfortable around it, it's probably that thing that matters the most. It's probably the thing that is, if you do this, you're going to be able to level up again.

Now, this has come up heaps of times for me when building my business and even doing this podcast. Even starting this podcast. I didn't start this podcast. I kept delaying it because I was too scared of what people think. I remember chatting to Rob Atkus and he said you're not giving the people in the future that want to listen to this, you're not serving them correctly, but by me delaying, not giving them the information that I have that I think I can give them, and it's not about to say that I've got all it all figured out. But on average I'll look at this up right now, real time We've done, just on the audio version, we've done just shy of 12,000 downloads and on YouTube we've done way more than that in terms of the podcast, and I'm going to bring it up, I'm going to talk through it, I'm going to look at it myself right now I'm just bringing it up here on another screen.

So I've done a total of what'd I say about 12,000 on audio, what'd I say about 12,000 on audio, and we've done about 21,000 on video. Right, so we're about 34,000, right, 34, 33,000. And of that, the average view, the episode average views is you know, it's really, look, it's probably we're only getting about 20 in the audio and we get a lot more on the video. But even if we're getting 20 to 70, even a hundred, even if we're getting a hundred views, a hundred people, that's like three buses, that's a lot of people. So when you start to break it down like that and you realize, hey, this is actually when I you know for the people that I thought I could make an impact, or you know, or who's going to listen, but that's a lot of people still listening, and you're one of those. So I do appreciate it and I digress there.

But, coming back to the point, is that friction that you feel, or the things that you're scared of, or the procrastination you create, or the excuses you make? Come on, we're better than this, right? We tend to find ourselves staying busy to avoid the real work. You know, you answer emails, you clean the desk, you clean the house, you tweak a plan, or you do this or you do that, or you take a call, or you're doing all the things that maybe you didn't even want to be doing. But you don't want to be doing the other thing so much, but you're willing to do other things that you wouldn't like to do just to avoid doing the one thing that you need to be doing.

And it's funny, all of those productive looking distractions that keep you from that scary thing all of a sudden seem like you know oh, this is good, I can do this, oh, I'm being productive, I'm getting the things done, but you're not actually moving the needle in the direction that you want to move it, and that's why, for me, like building my business, you know, I've had to do some things that no one else is doing right. No one else is doing it and I'm not doing it the same way as other people do it, and that scares me because it's unknown and but when I do it it's always worked out in the longer run. I mean, it's, it's scary stuff, but when you back yourself and you realize why you're scared of it, it's usually because, oh, my goodness, sorry, big yum You're usually scared of it because you're unsure of the thing that comes next. Is it going to require more of you, a bigger commitment? That discomfort and the truth about you know you thinking you're not ready yet for it is you're never going to be ready for it. The only time you're going to be ready for it is once you've done it. And once you've done it, you become ready for it again because you do not know what you do not know. So therefore, if you're waiting to feel ready, you'll be waiting forever. There's no perfect time. The only way out is through right. To get through a tunnel. You have to go through a tunnel or you just don't go through it right. There's no way of getting around that. So there tends to be this pattern of delaying breakthroughs right, and this is a challenge to you.

This is a question to you what have you been meaning to do for the last one week, two weeks, one month, three months, six months, 12 months? Right, it just, it just snowballs so quickly the things that you said you're going to do and you haven't done? Why? What would change if you started today, like, yeah, it might be bad, it might be messy, it might not even be perfect, but that's okay, you're going to be further ahead than not doing anything at all. I don't understand why it is we do this, right, and, look, I mean, I do understand we're talking about it, but it's crazy how much we go out of our way to make sure we don't have to do the things. Which is going to be the best result for us. It's going to be the thing that helps us grow. It's going to be the thing that helps us level up Just mind-blowing stuff.

So a couple of questions for you, number one being what task, decision or conversation are you actively avoiding? And this, you know, this doesn't have to be work-related. This could be just conversations that you're meant to be having with someone else, relationship, someone in your part you know that you're a partner with. It could be a business conversation. It could be. You know you need to provide feedback, or maybe it's a hard work, or you need to, you know, be willing to take a little step out and out of your comfort zone to level up a little bit. You know people talk about you know they want to grow, they want to be a better version of themselves, but you're doing the same stuff that you've always done. When are you going to get out there and create these new opportunities for yourself?

So the other challenge I'll ask you is then, if you did that thing tomorrow, what could shift? If you do this thing, if you start, what is the benefits that come out of it? Stop thinking about the oh, what are the cons, but what are the things? And if the cons aren't really a big issue, it's just because, oh, you know it's going to create more work, or I don't know how to do it, or I'm scared that it's going to make me fail, or all these things. They're all unknowns. But what you do know is like yeah, but if I do this, it means I can do that Right, and you already know what it's going to enable for you. You're just trying to make excuses of the things that it might not enable for you, when that might not even happen, but I guarantee you, once you start, you get motivated to be very, very focused on making sure the cons don't occur and that you're able to um, you know move forward and that you're able to make it work.

So the other challenge prompt I have for you is what would your future self thank you for starting today, no matter how unready you feel. You know, I'm so grateful that I took a leap in doing this podcast five years ago. I'm so grateful that I took a chance on myself to build my business and all those different things. There's no regrets there. There's definitely been lessons. There's definitely been things which you know I could have done way better. But here we are and we're still winning at it, and I'm grateful that I took the time to really get out of my comfort zone to do that. Don't get me wrong, though. There's still plenty of moments now which I still keep putting off and avoiding, and I know that once I do it, I'm going to have that breakthrough, and that's why I wanted to bring it up, because it's something that happens all the time.

As you level up, as you grow, as you further your lifestyle, there'll be more things that you need to do, and then it's going to get you uncomfortable. Once you do them, then you level up again and then it's another iteration of that. So it's a constant, you know, constant change is here to stay. So a couple of things that are, you know, just reality checks that I'll also call out is one we said it before the resistance is that invitation. If you, if you know there's things calling you towards it and you're, you know, purposefully avoiding it. That's the thing, you know, you should be working on and, let's be frank, if you weren't scared of it, it's probably not really that important. It's the things that scare us that are the most important, because we're scared of losing something that's dear to us.

Look at it this way there's a metaphor around whether it's a leaky pipe or some mess being made, people tend to keep mopping up the floor, which is the symptom of the leaky pipe, but they're not willing to go fix the pipe. They're not willing to have to go to the root cause and dig deep and get in there, get their hands dirty or pay the extra money to get it done, when, if you do that, it's going to save you so much time in the long run and it's going to create a better process, a better flow, a better workflow, a better working environment and a better space for you to be able to do what it is that you're doing. So we've got and essentially you're looking in the mirror. Now, let's be frank, it's not a monster, right, you look in the mirror. It's not a monster. It's just showing you where you're stuck and it's offering you a way out.

So next time you see the thing, that beast of, whatever it is that you need to tackle, don't look at it as something that's going to be a bad thing for you. Look at it as like, okay, it's going to create an opportunity for me to be a better version of myself. It just means I'm going to have to get uncomfortable. I'm sure if someone said, hey, run through that mud pit and there's a million dollars sitting on the other side, you're going to be willing to get uncomfortable. And then you know, if people say it was only $10, you're probably thinking, nah, it's not worth it, right? So you got to really understand. Is like, the thing on the other side of that, it must be very worth it if you're so scared to go tackle it because you don't want to miss out on getting that.

But that's where the catch is. Most of the time is, once you start, you realize, well, you've already started, you're so much closer to it, let's make it happen. But when you're not starting, it's two years later and you still haven't done it right, and that time just continuously compounds so quickly. So that's my challenge to you Make sure you understand what it is. And it could be multiple things, but I think there's one thing on your mind, right? I can feel it. There's always things on mine as well. You got to break through it. You got to break the chains, smash through it and stop putting off that one thing, because here we are talking about always. If you can do one thing that gets you closer to where you want to be today, if we can do one thing, then it's a success, right? But if that one thing you keep putting off, you're never going to get closer to it. So have a think about that. Appreciate being here. If you want to continue the conversation, jump down below. More than happy to do so.

A bit of a quick and sharp episode today, just keeping us on the toes, you know, making sure that, um, you know there's something fresh for us to think about, but we'll be back here next week doing it again, and next week we're actually talking about limiting beliefs.

You know this whole conversation around you know growth thinking, people thinking that growth comes from external inputs, when really growth comes from internal inputs. And I think it's a really important conversation because we do limit our beliefs and how we go about growing simply on the basis of what other people say, what other people think or what we think. We know when, really, when you open that door up, there's a whole bunch of new opportunity, similar to like what we're talking about today. When you deal with the things that you need to deal with and you break through them, you're able to open up this huge new opportunity because you were able to break through that work that you know you've been putting off for so long. So that's what we're talking about next week. Appreciate you being here. You have a wonderful day, cheers.