71. How do you organize what you're going to do next?

Episode 71

Hi, and welcome to episode 71. We're going to talk about organizing your thoughts. So let's get into it.

Introduction

Hi, I'm Kathryn Mahoney, and I'm passionate about intuition business and living your best life and helping you navigate the ups and downs of the wild ride. We call life. I'm an entrepreneur intuitive advisor, dedicated to guiding others to success, winning national awards in business and leadership and featured in MSNBC USA today in the business journal.

Just to name a few speaking to audiences, just like you. I teach successful business leaders in honing their intuition, creating certainty, and taking aligned action. I'll give you a straight talk with humor. Business, intuition and mindset are just a few of the topics we discuss here. Be ready for fun.

Insightful journey with me, reveal hidden secrets, be challenged and inspired. This is the Clearly Kathryn podcast.

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You know, I don't know about you, but I go through a million thoughts. And I have all these great ideas. And then write them down. Because. I'm kind of a pen and paper kind of gal. And then I look at the list and I think. How did this happen? I have 150 things on this list of things I want to organize and things I want to do.

The trick of it is, is that they all interconnect. But I can't do them all at once. So identifying what crosses over. Is the key element to base kind of makes me think of that kid's game. You know, where you have a list of words on one side list of words on the other. And then you have to draw the lines to which ones match.

That's kind of the way it works. If you think about it. I mean, at some point all of our projects require some type of bio. They all need some sort of image. They all need a photo of you. You know, the list goes on and on and on. So at what point do you start to figure out what exactly you're going to do?

How do we organize what we're going to do next? Hmm. Well, the list. Writing it down is a great idea. It's a good way to start, but there's a point when it just doesn't become useful anymore. I love sticky notes too. I use a lot of sticky notes. I wish he could see my office, but I'm not going to show you because it's going to look like a sticky note map.

What we do is we do sticky notes. We write things, we put them in some sort of amazing software. And then we don't know where to go from there. So what if we created and the amazing. Simplified plan. We can do that. Totally. We can do this.

That's the big point of it is sitting down and having. The energetic thought process of I'm going to do this. I'm going to get this done. This is going to work for me. I'm not going to overwhelm myself. I'm just going to get something done here. What is this something I need to do? Who is first. And there's that baseball thing who's on first. Seriously, who's on first.

That is the big question. Isn't it. Who is on first? Where do you start? What's the most important. I'll only start with priorities. Well, if they all seem like a priority, it's basically banging your head against the wall with nails in it. Right. A little painful to say the least.

So, what do we do? The best thing to do is figure out what you want to do. What do you like to do? What do you enjoy doing? What gets you excited? What energizes you? What inspires you?

Oh, you may not know that answer, huh? Hmm, you're thinking. I don't know. I don't know what I like. I don't know what inspires me. Well, it's too bad. You're still going to have to figure it out. So let's do a little figuring together.

Here we are figuring out what are the things you need to get done? And this isn't just solopreneur. This isn't startup. Prenuer this is anyone doing any type of shift in any part of their lives or their businesses? The truth of the matter is we are constantly in change and we are constantly in flux. That's right. Life keeps on moving no matter what we do, it just keeps going.

So we either have to keep up with the paddling with it. Or. We're just going to ground. Let's just admit it.. Nobody wants to drown. We don't want to drown. So let's get in at least a little doggy paddle mode. And get ourselves going here.

All right. What do you like doing. Maybe you should start off with. What comments do you get from people? That. Make you realize I'm good at that. That makes an impact in the world. The people seem to really like it when I do this. Now for me, it seems talking people like it. When I talk, that's not bad for me because I don't mind talkin! Talking works for me. Apparently people like how animated I am on video. that may be my next adventure!

So this is something I know helps people inspires people. I often get stopped and say, when I talk to you, I feel better. So I know this is something I can do. What. Is that for you? What is your special gift? Are you a good writer? Are you good at leading a team? Are you good at teaching?

What is that special gift? Because you all have at least one, I'm going to say at least one, because we all have many really. That's why we have so many interests as why we struggle with, what do I want, what am I going to do first? Because you're like, oh my God, there's so many things I want to do.

Are you down? And relax a little bit. Cause what we're gonna do is we're kinda just start focusing on, on a few things. Maybe not just one. I might be a couple because. As you know, it begins to just spider web. Out doesn't it just. Spider webs and to all these different things that you feel like have to be done. And we get lost in that. And we, we lose our way.

From what our purpose is. What our gift is to the world. And when that happens. We then no longer can be steady. Steady and grounded and our thoughts and our ways and our decision-making because what we all want is certainty. Certainty is this powerful. Presence within ourselves. And that allows us to make quick, easy, precise decisions.

Accurate decisions. Well, we'll get into that a little bit later. Cause that's a little tricky thing too. So now we are here. We know what we want to do. We know what we like. Great. That's a good place to start. Isn't it. But then what do we do?

We start getting wrapped in wondering... . Well, how do other people do it? What are they doing? Should I be just like them? And it's like this robotic kind of thing. We get into like zombies, I'm going to follow them to have exactly how they do it. And I'm not going to be original anymore. We've all done it.

But it takes away from your magic. I mean, you have your own way. You have your way of being, you have your own way. Presenting. I have my own quirkiness. You know, we, we all have our own thing. It's great to see what other people are doing. But. Hmm, when it comes down to it. We really need to figure out our own thing.

You can use that as an outline. You can use that as a template. That's great. Don't worry about it. Totally do it that way. But remember that the magic is because of you, you specifically. And without that magic of you. It just doesn't have the magic at all. Anybody could do it.

What I want you to think about is. What is that thing? Find the template. Maybe you'll have two or three templates, you know, when it comes to some things I want to do, I usually find two or three and then I kind of. Merge them together.

Make it into what I want. Why. Cause I do. You can do that too. But then be careful because when you lock them together. Now you've got two templates going on. You got all the steps for this one. Get all the steps for this one. You got, all, the steps for both templates, but now you've merged together. It's twice as many steps or it can appear to be. So you want to be really careful about this.

You want to make sure. That, what you do is you identify. What are the ones that excite you? What are the ones that make you want to move forward? Versus. I got, I got 22 steps here. How does that happen? And you go. Paralyzed in fear, you know, you're like the fainting goat. When the Wolf comes. Yes. I know exactly what you want to do.

Here's what we need to do. We need to knock out the things that you go. I don't know, maybe someone else could do that. take the biggest pen you can find and . Black it out just like the government does when they don't want us to know things. Block out the information. Cut it out. Put it somewhere else. Move it down to a different sheet. The future for someone else to do whatever that is.

So you're gonna start cutting this down, go to the, just the basic points that you're like. Oh, okay. These I'm feeling good, about. Then what you want to do is look at this and say, okay, which one? Like feels kind of fun and interesting. I'm going to start there. Let's start there.

It doesn't actually have to be the first thing to do it. You can start at 10, nine times out of 10. That was interesting how we moved into that, right. Nine times out of 10. What's gonna happen is you're going to need to get them all done. At once. They're all, they all belong together. They all need to go out at the same time, they all rely on one another to create the full project to be complete. So it doesn't really matter which little mini project you pick in the middle of that. It has to be done anyways.

You know, when I started this podcast. I did everything, but record a podcast. And I just kept doing everything except for starting the podcast. And I was like, well, everything's done. The only thing I have to do now is record. So I kind of painted myself in a corner. Had I figured out the topics. Yeah. I had a vague idea and you all helped me all the time on that.

You can do that too. You can paint yourself into a corner. You're like, all right, I'm going big now. I'm going big. And make your podcast your video, your. Course your software, your, I don't care what it is, what it is. It is make it. Put it out there.

There's a whole new set of projects Isn't there. There's the marketing pieces, the branding pieces. And now you get another whole section is stuff you start gluing together. You know, it does just keep going. And it can get so overwhelming. And it can get very. Monotonous , too technical. Just seem like everything has to be done at once all the time.

It's true. It can feel that way. But life is kind of that way. Isn't it? I mean, there are days I'm like, oh man. All these things I have to be done today. And then I have to go to work. That doesn't sound very fun. But we, we do it that way. We get it done. We get the oil change in the car, or we get the animals to the vet. We get ourselves our new glasses. We get gas in the car. We get the groceries. Done. We get all the kids to school, we get all this stuff done and sometimes it becomes autopilot. So what kind of systems and processes can you put in place to make it feel as though it's autopilot ? Or do you have someone that can help you? Co-pilot your autopilot.

You know, sometimes it's just about having a little fun with it. We have a little fun with it. It makes it so much easier. Especially if we have someone great that we can work with. That's a huge part of it. Somebody that we can trust and rely on and know that are there in this with us. We are doing this. Rowing the canoe together.

Because when we do that, It feels like we're actually going somewhere. No, you don't have to go fast. We don't we're I didn't mention, we got a speed boat back here. We don't have a big engine ramp going down the river in full speed. You don't have to be. Some people can do that. Maybe that's how they work. Some people are in a little floaty nothing to row. They're going strictly with the river.

There's nothing wrong with any of those ways of doing things. What is wrong, is trying to do it someone else's way. And that's where you get into a lot of trouble. That's where you really overwhelm yourself. That's when we hit a point where we feel like it's just too much. Because we look at what other people are doing. And we compare ourselves. We look at what other people are doing. And we say, How come they're getting so much more done than I am. How come. I can't get this done. I started this before they did. Why don't I have this done yet?

You can spend. As long as you want and how come I haven't done that? Why are they doing that? Oh, woe is me forever. Does that help you move forward? Legit question right. You comparing yourself to other people. Asking, why are they ahead of me? How come I can't do that? Does that actually help you?

I mean. Does it give you the energy to keep going? Now some people like, you know, when I compare myself to other people and motivates me and gets me going.

That's great. If you're actually. Motivated on a daily basis and really going somewhere. Then you're in a race against them. And that's fine if you work that way. That's great. Do it. Whatever works for you. I say, go for it.

But don't waste time. Don't waste energy. Focusing on what everybody else is doing. How are they're doing it ahead of you? Wow. They're doing it slightly different. Oh, I did it the wrong way. Oh my God. Somebody else did this way. They weren't very successful. Maybe your new ways better. Maybe you can make this way work.

There are no limitations to this. There are no limitations to how you do things. You don't have to do it exactly. Like someone else. You don't have to do it completely different than someone else. You have to find your niche. Your way, your system.

And that alone. I find can. Overwhelmed people. Because they were like, well, I don't know my way as well. Yes, you do. Because as we've talked about before, By figuring out what you don't want by figuring out what doesn't work for you, you find out what works for you.

For instance, I am not getting up at 6:00 AM. It's just not going to happen. I mean, I can wake up at 6:00 AM. But I don't want to talk to you. And I'm definitely not recording the video podcast. It's just not going to happen. I am not a 6:00 AM gal. You know, just not me. There are people who are like I'm at 4:00 AM every morning. And I think, wow, that's great. I'm sleeping. Thanks.

There are things you do know about yourself. And if you start. Understanding that. It'll make things a lot easier. Because our. Opportunity. Being here in this moment. On the planet as human beings in this journey. Is to learn about. Ourselves. And if we spend so much time looking outside, Looking outside all the time and everything else and what everybody else is doing all the time.

And we never know about ourselves. Then we are going to constantly be stuck. We are constantly going to be overwhelmed. And that's not any fun. And life was meant to be. I mean. It is. We are meant to have fun. We're meant to have joy. We are meant to inspire each other. We're meant to be happy. That is our actual normal state of being.

Yet we get caught up in. The stories we tell ourselves and the stories people tell us. We focus on what people say on social media. And then compare it to ourselves. So what you have to do is you got to really understand yourself. When you take these lists of things, you want to get done, this new project you want to launch, whatever it is.

When you merge information together, you need to very quickly identify. What. Works for you. What doesn't work for you. What inspiring to you? What's not. What can you do first? What are you good at? What do you need help with? What can you learn? Do you like to learn? Do you like technology? Do you not like the holiday? Do you like writing? I could go on and on.

The thing about it is. That if. We spent all of our time taking classes, learning about things. Watching what people are doing. And that's all we do and we never really get started. We never really put our own energy into it. We don't put our own stamp on it.

Then what happens? Nothing. Nothing ever happens. And that's not, that's not the way to be. That's not the purpose. Get out there. Do what you are meant to be live the purpose. That you were given. And how do you find that guidance? Hmm. Tricky little question there. Isn't it.

Intuition. That's right. We're going to go back to intuition again because this podcast is, always going to connect back to your intuition. And as we connect back to our intuition, By being. Centered. Quiet. Focused. Listening. Being calm and peaceful with ourselves being kind to yourself. I know I say that at the end of this podcast, but I really mean it. Be kind to yourself. We're often the cruelest to ourselves. We are the most judgmental to ourselves.

That's just not right. You know, it's not right. We all know it's not right. So, what do we do? We stop for a moment and be kind celebrate the little things. Acknowledge that you got this list and you know what to do, and you know what to start with. You know, what excites you? You know, what inspires you?

That's a good thing. If there's some things on there, like, I don't know what to do with this stuff. Put it on a different list that says, I don't know what to do with this stuff. On another list that says, this is where I need help. I need people to help me. I'm going to have to learn. Break them out. If you need to.

That's okay. In fact, that's great. Because if you could break them out, then, you know, you know, You know what you can do. You know who you are and you are listening. . When you quiet your mind and silent the chatter And relax a little bit. Be quiet for a moment.

Feel, what is that feeling that tells you your yes or no? What is that feeling that tells you. What is the next step forward? And that's the thing. When you begin to put this into practice. And you begin to feel. What the next best thing is. And what the next. Not best thing is what step not to take forward.

You get into a natural flow. And we get into a natural flow. That's where the magic happens. That is where the magic happens. And that's when these to do lists, don't feel so painful anymore. Because knowing what you want to do, why you want to do it, and what inspires you.

That's extremely powerful and I don't just mean. In an intuitive, energetic way, but dang, that helps you get stuff done. Doesn't it. Because, you know what you want to do, you know why you want to do it? And you know how it's going to move you forward.

So let's go back around. What do you want to do? Why do you want to do it? What inspires others? What inspires you? Now, take that and identify what it is, your new pivot, your project, what is you need to get done? How you're going to do that.

Make a list. Get some ideas, take some ideas from a couple of different people merging together. Create this big list. Take out the things that you're like, eh, take your big black pen here. Not going to work. That goes to somebody else. That's a learning thing. Move switch them around. Yeah. See if you block them off, cut and paste. Then, what you want to do is focus on the ones that get you excited. Start marking that stuff off.

Find somebody to help you with some of the other ones. Start knocking those off. Because most times any project or pivot. A lot of that stuff needs to all get done to make it work or big sections of it. Does. So it doesn't really matter which one you start with. Really. I mean, there are some things you need to know.

What are you building and why are you doing it? Know, what you want. To get done. Why it inspires you? How inspires you? And get those done.

And then it'll just get into a flow for you. Get someone to help you get some support. And just keep, uh, going don't compare how fast someone else did it. I didn't really care. You shouldn't care. And just go. Because when you go big. You get it done. And when you get it done. You pretty good by yourself.

Then what do you do? Congratulate yourself. Do a little celebration. Have some fun celebrate. Because you deserve it. You got something done, maybe you got it all done.

So as always. I want you. To keep it simple. But he at ease with yourself. And allow intuition to light the path.

Thanks for listening to the Clearly Kathryn podcast. If you love the show, share it with a friend, the more the merrier, and we'll see you next time