Yo, yo, yo, welcome back to the Further Your Lifestyle Podcast Conversations on Lifestyle Passions and Hustles. My name's Chris. I am your host, and I'm super excited to be back here having the conversation with you. Hope you're doing well. Hope the year is going well for you. And I also know that this time of the year, by the time of this episode coming out, it's probably we're we're well into it, right? We should have a bit of a groove. We should have, you know, hopefully some progress that we want to be seeing. But I also understand at this time of the year things can start to get a little bit we feel stuck. We feel like we're not actually making the progress. Now, this has been the topic for the last couple of weeks, for the last few episodes, of helping you get this year ready to make sure that you can do your best year. Now, I want this for you all the time, but sometimes we are our own worst problems. And the problem isn't necessarily that we're stuck. The problem is actually that we keep circling without actually choosing a direction or making a decision. So today's episode, episode 246, we're talking about roundabouts, right? And it's really a metaphor you didn't know you needed to hear. If you've been enjoying these episodes, whether it's the first time joining or you've been listening since day one or just this year, do let me know down in the comments. But make sure you do hit like and subscribe. And if you find that after listening to this episode that someone else needs to hear this, send it to them and keep them honest and tell them to jump in and have a listen, and hopefully they won't regret it. But the whole theme today is and and I've experienced this myself, is like when life feels like a bit of a roundabout. You're going around in circles, things aren't changing, things aren't happening, you're waiting for that perfect opportunity or you know, a sign to turn off or whatever. But somehow you just keep going around. And maybe you feel like you're just spinning wheels at the moment. And maybe you know you've been doing some of the stuff we've spoken about earlier in the last couple of episodes, and you're telling yourself, I'm just waiting for the right time. But deep down, deep down, you're unsure of what you mean by that saying. And a lot of the time it's we're just not willing to take that next exit. So this episode is going to explore basically that whole roundabout mentality around decisions, around procrastination, the fear of moving forward. And this is in relation to work, into goals, relationships, creative outlets, all these different things. And you've got to be asking yourself, are you stuck or are you just not choosing to exit or you know, take direction? So that's what we're talking about today. If this sounds like something you need to hear, well, buckle up. We're gonna roll the intro and let's let's get into it. So the first thing is this illusion of momentum, right? And you're probably, you know, we're well into the year. You feel like you're moving, things are happening, things have happened, right? Whether it's of your own doing or just everyone around you, things are happening, but you don't feel like you're going anywhere. You know, you maybe you've thought, oh, I thought this year was going to be different. And it's very easy for busyness to start to mask this fear of commitment or this fear of unknown. It's easy to get stuck in business thinking that you're doing lots, but you haven't actually achieved anything to what you actually want because you're just stuck in this routine of something else. And this is, you know, we have to separate that balance of the things we have to do and the things that we want to do, right? Because sometimes, you know, we can't afford to go build our dream business because we have literally no money to our name. We need to have a little bit of part-time money coming in, we can start to hustle on the side and build these things. But there's also this mentality that maybe you feel like, well, at least I'm doing something. But that mindset, it keeps you stuck, right? If you just, you know, make the excuse, if you disagree, if you're happy to tolerate the things you're not happy with, that's what's gonna keep happening. So we're gonna, yeah, we wanna be moving, but what are you moving towards? If you know you're not moving to where you want to be, you know something has to change, right? Busyness can mask the fear of actually taking, you know, a change. But we we we blame busyness of that we're being productive. You know, I'm doing something, I'm doing all this, but I'm not getting the results. You're not doing the things that gets you to the results you want. So there is that illusion around it. You need you only you can call this out, but I think you know what it is because we all do it. The next thing is we start to have this fear of actually taking the wrong exit. Maybe, maybe you've gotten past this illusion and you're just like, no, no, no, I've just been scared to take the jump. And what if that that jump or that turn or that next exit, it's not going to be perfect. A lot of the time it isn't. This is no different for the first time when you got a job, right? You've never had a job before. You're scared, you're nervous, you're sweating, you go into the interview and you're like, oh, what if I don't get it? What if it doesn't work out? And you've probably been there for the last five years now. Maybe 15. My point is we we get this paralysis of over-research, right? And we never make a decision. We overthink it, we over-strategize. But if you execute and actually do that while you're doing it, you're building the momentum while growing, learning, understanding, and we're actually starting to make progress in the right direction of where we want to be. And you don't need to know everything to make a move, right? If you're driving on the road and someone says, Oh, we need to, we need to go to a servo, and you can see a servo down the road and you've never been down that road before, are you not going to drive down there to go to the servo? Or are you just going to go somewhere else that you know because it keeps you comfortable? The point is, sometimes we need to take that direction because if we don't, it's the last opportunity. You might run out of fuel. So go, go, go take that opportunity. Go take that direction, right? Sometimes we also get stuck with there's too many signs and there's not enough direction. You're overwhelmed by options. Maybe there's too many things getting thrown at you. Wow, what a nice life. Hey, you've got options getting thrown at you, but this happens and we lack clarity and we don't know what we truly want. That's why we've got to strip it back, go back to some of the basics of understanding. Well, what do we want? Where do you want to be if you make this decision? Is your future self going to be happy with it? What are the implications of it? What are the outcomes of it? What are the consequences of it? What are the pros and cons of it? You know, there's there's a lot of external opinions that get involved with when us when it comes to making decisions. I'm not here to make the decision for you, but there are there should be signs that tell you this isn't for you versus there's signs that are for you. And just because other people say, Oh, I would do this, why would they do it? Is it because it's gonna lead them closer to where they want to be? But you're not living their life. You need to understand what you want within reason. You need to obviously do things that are sensible, you know, don't go disobey your parents and all that stuff. But what I'm saying is, is like sometimes just because someone else says no no no, I wouldn't do that, doesn't mean. When I started my business, I literally had people say to my face, you cannot be successful selling clothes on eBay, it's just not possible. I'm doing it. We started year six, right? We did$449,000 in revenue, and probably about 400 of that was clothing. My point is, is just because someone else says you can't do it doesn't mean you can't. It just means they can't, or they haven't, or they don't think it's possible, right? Now, of course, you might go try something, you may fail, you may not get the result you want, but you've now figured out what is working, what isn't working, and you can adapt, you can pivot and adjust. Right. Now, when it comes to making a decision, it does require intention. The idea is that things are gonna keep spinning. There's always gonna be lots of doors and opportunities. You have to choose when to leave it and step out, and then you're gonna have another round of it, another roundabout, right? And even if you lose even if you leave like this one loop where you're going round and round in circles, it's forward, right? You you've moved to the next one, you move to the next one, and it's gonna be this spiral, right? That that's expected. And sometimes you're gonna take the wrong exit, sometimes you're going to take the wrong opportunity, sometimes you're gonna make the wrong decision and go the wrong way. But by doing that, it's gonna define for you boundaries, it's gonna define for you what is good, what is bad, what should work, what shouldn't work, where you need to be heading. So in the moment it seems like a delay, but later it's gonna help you realize this was so important. And you need to look at it from those perspectives. And sometimes, sometimes, we do need to build our own roads as well. Not every roundabout is going to have the destination you want. You might you might have a, you know, you might be working at a job and someone's telling you, hey, look, you can either, you know, we can either fire you or you can do this job, or you either, you know, deliver better results, or we're gonna fire you, right? Now, there's two decisions there. When I say fire, they might say let you go or go do this role. But if they fire you, it's gonna sound wrong. You can come back and take things into your own hands and say, you know what? No, I'm gonna leave on my own terms and I'm going to go do this instead. It's all about reframing, it's exactly the same, but it's a decision on your own making, it's a decision where you get to control the narrative. And sometimes a real path does require you to make your own exit or make your own road or your own path forward. That's scary stuff. Now, I'm not here to say go quit your job and go follow your dreams and build your business. Yeah, I mean, sure, I want you to do that, but you do need to take the calculated understanding of the impacts, the outcomes, the implications, the consequences, all those different things. It's different for everyone. When I when I quit my job, I did have savings, I had, you know, a portfolio, I had been working very hard for 10 years to make that happen. I didn't have kids, I didn't have all those requirements. I did have, you know, I did have a home loan and stuff, so I had to be able to pay all those things, but you need to take all that into account. And of course, I'm talking about if you're quitting a job. There's so many other examples of this, but I'm really just making sure this is not advice, this is not say go do this and you'll get the results. But if you don't go do the things that you want to do eventually, you're not gonna get the results that you want. So you at some point something has to change. Right? So that's the question. I mean, that's that's the point there. But I do have a couple of questions for you. Number one is what's your current roundabout and what are you circling around? Sometimes we just don't want to make a decision about something. Make a decision, move on. Number two, are you afraid of choosing wrong or are you afraid of being seen choosing at all? Sometimes we don't like people watching us or seeing what we do because we're scared of their opinions and their you know interactions. Stuff everyone else, your life, your dreams, your ambitions, it's your problem, right? You should focus on you, make things right for you. If someone else doesn't like it because they're too scared about it or they're too jittery about it, that's their own problem. The other thing is I'll ask you is this if you exited now, or if you took a decision now, if you took a path, what might open up? What are the pros? A lot of the time we spend a lot of time thinking about the negatives, the cons. What are the pros? Make sure you do that as well. We'll finish with this. You don't get points for staying in motion if you're not moving forward. You can be running on a treadmill, but you're not going anywhere. Sure, you're gonna wrap up some, you know, break kilometers in a single spot, but you haven't moved forward. The roundabout feels the same, right? It's not about it it starts to feel like just safety, but safety isn't growth. Exiting doesn't require certainty, it just requires direction and confidence. So if you're lacking confidence, you've got to start this small. We spoke about small things last week, how to have the small things for big, you know, was it last week or the week before? It might have been two weeks ago. It was two weeks ago. Small things, big changes, right? Take those things into account. If you've just joined and this is the first time hearing, go back and have a listen to those episodes, 244, 245, and it will really equip you with the ability to look at these steps. The reason why we did this episode is I know that in this journey, this is where we get stuck at. You know, we've we've picked up some momentum this year, but now you're like, oh, now I'm gonna make another decision and you're scared and you're this is it, right? This is the episode for you. Appreciate you being here. If you did want to continue the conversation, more than happy to, you know, jump down into the comments below, leave a comment. If you enjoyed it, like, subscribe. But most of all, if someone else is maybe going around in circles in a roundabout, send this to them. Right? Get them to have a listen and hopefully you can help them make a decision decision as well. Appreciate you being here. We'll be back here again next week. You take it easy. Ciao, mm-hmm.