Episode 39: 5 Powerful Questions to Ask Yourself to Refocus Your Intentions
No matter where you are in your life right now, a new chapter is about to unfold. The rhythm of our lives presents itself in cycles, cycles of bliss, hardship, struggle, and success. Our planning and logistical minds push us to strategize but in doing so we can often overlook the power of our emotional selves, what we truly need, and most importantly, how we must FEEL in order to reach our goals and enjoy the journey along the way. In today's episode, I share 5 powerful questions you can ask yourself to reassess not only where you want to go, but where you have arrived so far. This interactive episode will help you uncover your deeper desires and help you shift your perspective in many ways.
Five Powerful Questions to Refocus Your Intentions
Welcome back to the Mindful Productivity Podcast! Sarah Steckler here, and I'm honestly amazed we've reached episode 39! It's a collective effort, and I'm so grateful for your support, feedback, and comments. While some friends suggest seasons, I'm really enjoying the consistency of a weekly podcast – it's building my own self-efficacy.
Today, I want to talk about something a little different. We often get caught up in the logical, micro-steps of planning and productivity , but sometimes we use strategy to avoid the emotional side of things. It's easy to get busy, but not get clear on the emotional energy tied to why we are (or aren't) taking action.
So, let's dive deep into five powerful questions that will help you refocus your intentions, take a hard look at what needs to change, and get real with yourself and your goals. These aren't always comfortable questions, but they are incredibly helpful.
The Enigma of "What's Next?"
We constantly ask ourselves, "What's next?" This question can propel us forward, but it can also keep us stalled. It's human nature to think about the future , but sometimes focusing solely on "what's next" hinders us from focusing on the best path forward, especially if there's no real intention or powerful "why" behind our actions.
Another problem is that we often don't take time to reflect on what we've already done and accomplished. While it's important not to dwell on the past too much, it's equally important to acknowledge our achievements and the steps we took to get to where we are.
So, as you listen, I encourage you to pause after each question and give yourself space to reflect. Journaling can be helpful, or simply opening your mind to whatever comes up.
The Five Powerful Questions:
1. What do I have or what am I experiencing in my life right now that my past self would have done anything for?
This question comes from a powerful quote: "Remember when what you have right now was what you wanted more than anything else in the world". There was a time in your life when some aspect of your current reality was your deepest desire.
Think about it. For me, it was wanting to be back in the States after being overseas in Italy, having my book published, serving clients one-on-one, and reconnecting with the Pacific Northwest. I also remember laughing with a childhood friend about how our 12-year-old selves would be amazed by the freedom we have now – driving around, no curfew, buying cupcakes whenever we want.
We often forget to honor these milestones and the desires of our past selves. It's easy to push aside what we have once we have it, becoming accustomed to it and forgetting the joy it brings. This question is a great way to practice gratitude and shift your perspective, especially when feeling negative.
2. What have I done in the past when I had to make something happen that felt out of reach or impossible?
We often avoid taking action because we doubt our ability to make something happen or believe we don't deserve it. But chances are, you've been in a situation where urgency or circumstances pushed you to achieve something seemingly impossible.
Think about who you had to become, the actions you took, the mindset you adopted, and what you told yourself. For me, it's been making sleep a priority during demanding times in college , or immersing myself in empowering audiobooks like "Thank and Grow Rich" by Pam Grau when facing big life changes. It was also about becoming incredibly strong and blunt when leaving an emotionally abusive relationship in my early 20s.
You've shown up for yourself in powerful ways, even if you look back now and wonder how you did it. You can channel that energy and become that person whenever you need to.
3. What do I need to let go of in order to jump forward?
We often carry the weight of our past, which can prevent us from moving forward. Think of it like a backpack we fill when we're young, picking up every experience. As adults, we often keep all that "crap" in our backpack – expectations from others, old goals that no longer serve us, relationships that aren't healthy, or time spent on things we "should" do but don't need to.
What can you release to feel a sense of freedom and lightness? Make a list, share it, talk about it. This is incredibly important for your momentum.
4. How do I want to truly feel and what has to shift to make that happen?
How do you really want to feel on a daily basis? Do you want to feel energized in the morning, excited to get out of bed, or enthusiastic to come home and work on a creative project or binge a new show? Let go of the "shoulds" and "I can't possibly do thats".
And then, what needs to shift to make that happen? I use "shift" instead of "sacrifice" because it's about choosing to take back the power of how you show up and live each day. Instead of focusing on what you don't want to feel, focus on what you do want. When you tie positive feelings to your actions, they become strong motivators, and you'll do them more often.
For me right now, I want to feel physically fit, to run like I used to, feeling free and liberated. It's about how I feel in my body.
5. What would I do differently if I was in the last 10 years of my life right now?
This is a big one. It's not about a terminal illness or an impending accident, but imagining you're in the older stages of your life, in good health, but with only 10 years left.
If I only had 10 years left, I would stop holding back on bigger dreams. I'd stop waiting to foster dogs, open an animal sanctuary, pursue other educational avenues, or write the other book I want to write. It would be "go time" , and I'd have a clearer sense of my priorities.
Sometimes we get caught up in career goals or continuous forward momentum, only to realize that what we really want is different. This happened to me when I stopped two different master's programs after realizing they weren't aligned with my long-term desires. There's power in quitting things that no longer serve you, especially when you consider your long-term vision.
The Power of Mindful Productivity
As you reflect on these questions, remember that mindful productivity is about combining mindfulness – the emotional side of things – with productivity – the "go, go, go, get things done" energy. When we step into this awareness and hold space for both, everything changes. Our left brain (the logistical side) can often overrule our right brain (the emotional side), so it's a practice.
Your feelings and how you want to feel on a daily basis are the most important things to realize and build self-awareness around. If you get clear on how you want to feel, you'll figure out what you want to do. We can't control every aspect of our lives, but we can control a lot, and building self-awareness is key.
I hope this episode was helpful. Take time to consider what you want and realize the importance of your individual needs. I offer one-on-one life coaching, mentoring, and organizational work if you're looking for support in organizing your life and creating workflows.
Take this episode to the next level by downloading the accompanying workbook below inside the Resource Library!
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Wow. This is episode 39 of the Mindful Productivity podcast. I'm amazed that we have done this many episodes and I say we because there are so many people that have been such a huge, huge support. There have been so many guests that have appeared on the show and it's really a collective effort, more than you know, especially you, the listeners, the ones providing feedback, the ones commenting in the Facebook group and on Instagram, letting me know that you're listening, letting me know that you're getting so much out of this podcast. It's amazing.
And while I've had a lot of other business friends tell me maybe you should do seasons, how are you going to keep this going every single Monday? I'm not quite sure yet. I am working on finding better ways and more processes to kind of automate and implement a system for getting these podcasts recorded early. But for now I'm really enjoying them and I like the challenge that it's providing and it's creating a consistency in my life that's really building my own self efficacy. So thank you so much for being here this episode.
I feel like I say this about every episode, but this episode's a little bit different because I feel, I kind of feel this need, I feel called to talk about the other side of goal setting and planning. And I think a lot of times we get caught up in the minutia of, you know, the left brain thinking, the logical stuff, the productivity side of planning, the micro steps, all those things. And while those are so important, I think that we often sometimes use the strategy of things as a way to avoid the emotional side of things. So, and sometimes I see this, you know, with clients, I see this with myself. It's, it's really easy to kind of get into the busy mode, to get into the planning mode and like the, you know, the to do list mode of things and not get clear on the emotional energy.
A tie tied to why we are or are not taking action. So. So today I want to talk about five powerful questions that you can ask yourself to refocus your intentions to really take a hard look at what's going on in your life. What needs to change, what needs to shift. And some of these questions are going to bring up some stuff, right?
They're not always going to be comfortable to address, but we're going to be talking about these five powerful questions and I'm going to be sharing some insights about, you know, personal stuff and how this applies to me in my life that may be helpful to you. We're going to dive real deep in, into how these questions can really help you. And I'm going to provide some more guidance on how to use them effectively and some more things to consider. So if you're ready to get real with yourself, where you are, with your goals right now, and where you want to be, these five powerful questions are going to be super, super helpful in helping you do just that. So let's go ahead and get started.
It's go time. Welcome to the Mindful Productivity Podcast. I'm your host, Sarah Steckler, and this is the place to be to live a more mindful and productive life. If you're ready to turn daily chaos into calm and start your days with intention, then get ready to join me. As we dive deep into mindful living and personal productivity.
It's time to connect with your true self so you can live the life you want to live. And it all starts now.
There's a question we continually ask ourselves that both propels us forward and can keep us stalled. It's this kind of enigma of a question and a mindset that we hold that can either help us, but can also hinder us. And that's the question that we ask ourselves. And it's what's next? And the reason why this is both a great question and something that can also stifle us is because we are just naturally bound to keep moving forward.
We project into the future. We make plans. I mean, not many things on the planet do this, right? It's human nature to think about what comes next. We're always on a journey forward, even if we don't feel like it and just want to sit on the couch and eat potato chips, right?
There's always a part of us that is searching for what's next. The problem is that sometimes focusing on what's next hinders us from really focusing on the best path forward, right? Because if you're heading forward in a direction and a trajectory that's just hurling yourself forward, but there's no real, like, intention behind it, or no real, like, powerful why behind what you're doing and the purpose of where you're going, then it doesn't really serve us, right? And I think another problem with why we always ask ourselves what comes next or what's next or what do I do now? Is that we don't take time to reflect on what we just did.
We don't take time to hold space for all the accomplishments we've already had. And while I am a big believer that, you know, it's important to not focus on the past too much. Right. It's that, like, tinge of nostalgia where it feels really lovely, but it also feels kind of painful to think back on what was. It's also important to consider what was and what we now have and the gap in between there, what we did to get to where we are, the things that we were responsible for, the things that we could control and did control.
There's always going to be outside circumstances and things that just happened, and then there's going to be the things that we did that we intrinsically decided to take action on. So when you're thinking right now in your life about what comes next as the year kind of wraps up, as we're approaching the holidays, no matter when you're listening to this, there's something that's about to shift, right? It's important to take a minute to think about where you are now. And so that leads me to the first powerful question that I want you to think about now as you're listening to this episode. You may be in the car.
I know a lot of people listen to this podcast while they're walking. So one thing I'll encourage you to do is after each question and after I've explained each one, this is a little bit more of an interactive podcast. If you feel called to take a moment to pause, pause the episode and think about the question and really give yourself space to think about what comes up for you. This may be helpful to journal out, too, but I really find, and I love to hear how many people listen to this while they're walking, especially out in nature. I really feel find that when I ask myself a question and then I just open up my mind to the universe, to nature, whatever, there's so much that comes in.
So really just taking time to consider these for yourself in whatever way that looks like. But the first question is, and this question comes from a quote that I recently saw on Instagram, and it was along the lines of, remember when what you had. Remember when what you have right now was what you wanted more than anything else in the world. And you might be thinking, well, I don't have what I want more than anything else in the world. But there was at one point a time in, during your past.
I always say past life, but I believe we live many lives in the life that we live here on Earth, just because of all the different experiences we have and the people we become and how we shift and change. There was at one point in your life, some aspect of what you have now. That you wanted so badly, so bad in the past. So that question is, what do I have or what am I experiencing in my life right now that my past self would have done anything for? Just think about that, Think about what immediately pops up and maybe it's hard, maybe it's a struggle.
I'll say it one more time, what do I have or what am I experiencing in my life now that my past self would have done anything for? You know, it takes me a moment too, right? But one of the things that I can think of is I remember about a year ago now when I was overseas with my husband in Italy and I wanted nothing more than to come back to the States. There are a lot of reasons why a lot of things that happened, but I remember I wanted nothing more than that. I also remember I wanted nothing more than my book to be published and out into the world.
I wanted nothing more than to be serving clients one on one. And I really wanted to be out in nature. I really wanted to be reconnected with the Pacific Northwest and the evergreens and the forest and lakes and being able to go outside every single day. Now, when you think about this question, there may be other things that come up too. I recently went out for some drinks with one of my best friends and someone I've been friends with since the beginning of my time.
I actually met her like days after I was born. There's a photo of us when I'm really young and she's looking at me and she's only, I think, two years older than me and we're just looking at each other and we've been friends ever since. Ever since that moment, we've been really close and we went out for drinks and dinner and afterwards we decided to kind of go walk around where we grew up. That's where we were hanging out. And I stopped at her and I said, oh my gosh, can you imagine what our like 12, 14 year old selves would have thought about what we're doing right now?
Like we're driving around in a vehicle, our parents aren't giving us a bedtime or curfew, and we could go buy cupcakes right now if we wanted to. And she laughed and we both laughed. And it was just kind of this moment, this reminder that, wow, we used to want this more than anything. Freedom, the ability to have our own money and make our own decisions. And now we're living that life.
And I think sometimes we forget that. I think sometimes we forget to honor the milestones and the goals that we have in our life, and we forget to honor our past selves and how we so desperately wanted things, and now we have them. And it's so easy, isn't it? Easy how once we have things, it can be. It can feel really easy to just kind of push it to the side.
We become so used to what we have that it's not necessarily that we become ungrateful toward them, but we forget the power that they truly have and the joy they truly bring us. Even the fact that you have a roof over your head. Maybe you have a pet. You know, for the longest time, I always wanted a dog. Now I have Bella.
And I remember when I was first dating my husband and I really wanted a Bella. I already knew I was going to name my future dog that. And we would talk about it, we would watch YouTube videos, and now I have her. And it's incredible. So consider that.
What do you have? Or what are you experiencing right now? Even if it's not perfect, but what is it that you wanted more than anything in the past and really hold space for that? It's a great way to practice gratitude. It's a great way to shift your perspective, especially if you're feeling really negative or you're feeling like things aren't going your way.
It's a great way to shift everything. Okay, question two is, what have I done in the past when I had to make something happen that felt out of reach or impossible? A lot of times we don't take action on things because we don't think it's possible. We don't think it's possible for us. We don't think we deserve it or we're worthy of it.
But chances are there is something that happened to you before where you had to make something happen out of urgency, out of circumstances, out of something that pushed you? Whether it was like desperately needing money for something or having to make something work within a timeframe, whether in your personal life or maybe a deadline for work, there was a time when you got pushed out of your comfort zone and you had to just put something together and make it happen. And you did, and you did make it happen. So it's important to think about that. What have you done in the past when you had to make something happen that felt out of reach or impossible?
Who was the person that you had to become? What kind of action did you have to take? What kind of mindset did you have? What are the kind of things that you had to tell yourself? What were the things that you did?
I Know, for me, when I've had to kind of like push myself out of my comfort zone to make something happen, there are a couple things that I've had to do and a couple things that I have done in the past. One was just like making sleep a priority. Now, this depends on, like, what you're going through, but, like, there were times in my life when I just had to make things happen. I remember in college, during my undergrad, I was working three jobs. I had like two internships.
I was taking like more than a full course load, trying to graduate in four years on time. And I just was nonstop. I remember over the summer, at one point I was working so many jobs and I had this two hour long bus ride commute to this really crappy job at a call center. It was awful. I hate.
I hated doing it. And I actually found out years later that they got shut down. I wasn't surprised. But anyway, I remember just like every day fighting for that energy. And I remember I had to just go to sleep.
I had to go to sleep like within five minutes of getting home to make sure that I got through that, to make sure I made that happen. Also, you know, there were other times when I just had to. I knew I had to get into a mindset because I was about to do something incredibly uncomfortable. And so I would listen to audiobooks or I would read books that just really helped me, helped me ingrain that belief in myself, like into me at my core. One of those books, and I mentioned it before, and I'll always mention it again, is thank and Grow Rich by Pam Grau.
That book I read, I read each chapter over and over and over again. When I was about to come back from Italy to make everything happen, to manifest the money I needed for the flight, to make sure that Bella was going to be with me in cabin on the plane back. So many things I had to do to make that happen. So when you're thinking about things that you've done in the past, maybe it was reaching a, you know, a physical fitness milestone or goal. Maybe it was moving, maybe it was leaving a really difficult relationship.
What were the things that you had to do to make that happen? And who was the person that you had to become to make those things happen? I remember in my early 20s, when I left a very emotionally and verbally abusive relationship, I had to become this person that was so strong and was so blunt. And even though I didn't like it, in every moment, I knew that I couldn't let any kind of emotional attachment to that relationship. Come forward.
I needed to be extremely blunt with that person. I needed to tell them that there was no way I was going to continue that relationship. I had to put firm, strong personal boundaries. I had to say no repeatedly. And I had to not step into this place of welcoming, welcoming them back into my life.
When they broke down crying in my apartment for the last time, I had to say, I had to tell him, no, you've got to go. And that was the person I had to become in that moment to make that thing happen. Think about all the ways that you've showed up for yourself in your life. There are some pretty powerful things that you've done that you may look back on now and think, holy crap, how did I do that? How did I?
How did I do that? But in moments of, you know, deliberate intention, in moments where it feels like you're stuck and you have to do something to get out of it, you will become that person. And it's possible to channel that energy and become that person when you need to at any moment. You don't always have to be stuck. You don't always have to be at your wit's end.
You don't always have to be in a place of desperation to step into that person. You need to become. There are ways to tap into that. So consider that for question two. Question three.
What do I need to let go of in order to jump forward? So we often carry this weight of our past, and it really prohibits us from walking or even moving forward or even thinking about it. I often have this analogy. I may have shared it before, where we're given, like, a backpack when we're little. And when we're little and when we're young, man, we put everything in that backpack.
We pick up everything. Like, I mean, it's like walking my dog now. Like, if there's something on the ground, she takes time to smell it. There's some things now she's realized, oh, that's just a piece of cardboard. That's not food.
I don't need to take the time to look at it. But when we're little and when we're young, we are just experience magnets. We want to experience everything to the point of doing things, you know, doing dumb things. Like, we know aren't going to serve us, we know aren't good, but, like, we just want to experience it, right? The problem is, is that as we move into adulthood, as we leave that time of adolescence, and there's nothing wrong with any of these periods of Our life.
We often keep all that crap in our backpack. We often keep stuff there that's weighing us down. These are, you know, expectations of other people. These are goals that we had maybe in our teens or early twenties or thirties or whatever that no longer are goals that represent us. They're no longer things that we want.
They don't even really make sense when we think about the momentum and the journey that we're now on. So it's really important to open it up, right? Just like, it's so important to open up your purse every now and then and be like, oh, wow, what are all these receipts doing in here? Like, is that like an avocado? Like, seriously, these are things I found in my purse or, I don't know, like acorns.
I used to pick up acorns when I lived in Maryland because, like, they were so cute and I never saw them before. And at one point I threw my purse in the back and all these acorns fell out of my purse. And I was like, oh, maybe it's time to not do that. So thinking about that analogy, thinking about what you've been carrying, you know, some other examples are just the burden of doing things for other people that you know that you don't need to be doing. You know, how you show up and support other people.
The relationships that you're keeping in your life that maybe aren't so great, or the time that you're spending on certain things you think you quote, unquote, should be doing but don't need to be? What can you let go of so that you can really jump forward? What can you let go of so that you feel a freedom and that weight lifted off of you? Make a list. Make a list.
Share it, talk about it. Tell other people about it. Have a get together where you talk about things. Seriously, this is so, so important. Okay, let's talk about question four.
And you'll see that these all kind of tie together, right? Question four is, how do I want to truly feel and what has to shift to make that happen? How do you truly want to feel? I wish I could just insert your name into this podcast. How do you truly want to feel your name here?
Really? Like, this is a conversation I'm having with you because chances are you're listening to this, you've got your headphones in, Maybe you're walking. Like, can you just stop for a minute and listen? How do you really want to feel? Like, take a look around you.
What's going on? If you're driving, bring Some awareness to your surroundings, like, I hope you already are. How do you really, truly want to feel right now? And I don't mean just like that, you know, oh, I just want to feel happy. Like, what does that really mean?
How do you want to feel on a daily basis? How do you want to feel during certain times of day? Do you want to feel energized in the morning? Do you want to feel excited to get out of bed? Do you want to be excited to come home after work because you've got this creative project you're working on or because you're finally letting yourself binge on a new Netflix show that you love?
How do you really want to feel? Take away all the, you know, the shoulds about it away. Let go of the, oh, well, that's not for me, or, oh, I can't possibly do that. Just like, let that go for a minute and like, how. Think about how you really, really want to feel.
And then like, what has to shift to make that happen? What has to shift? And I say shift instead of sacrifice because there's a big shift there. When you think about how you. If you want to feel more energized in the morning, that's a big one, right?
We're always tired in the morning. What really has to shift for you to make that happen? Not sacrifice, not, oh, I'm going to have to sacrifice my evening and go to bed. But what if you thought about it as I get to. I get to choose.
I'm taking the power of choice back. I'm taking that element back and I'm giving myself the power to choose how I want to show up and how I want to live each day. When you think about how you truly want to feel, it might be a little bit more intangible, right? It might be kind of hard to describe. I know a lot of people want to feel more empowered.
They want to feel like they are embodying their true self. They want to feel that, like no fucks given attitude where they just are so true to themselves, aligned with their decisions. Maybe you just don't want to feel indecisive anymore. Maybe you want to feel decisive and that's another thing too, right? Focus on how you want to feel instead of how you don't want to feel.
Because when we think about what we don't want and what we don't have, it puts us into that kind of negative space where it's hard to feel expansive and it's hard to create new momentum and new possibility. It's Hard to see opportunity when you're looking back and saying, I don't want that, I don't want that, I don't want that. That's great. Know what you don't want, like, take time for that, you know, make a list. But when you think about what you do want and how you do want to feel, so much can change.
I know for me right now, I want to feel so physically fit. I really do. I want to be able to run like I used to run years ago. Not that many years ago, actually like three. I used to run miles every day, like two to eight miles, depending on how I felt and I could run.
And my endurance was so strong. And it wasn't so much. I mean, my body looked great, but it wasn't so much about that. It was how I felt in my body. I felt so free and liberated running, listening to like my EDM and techno music that everybody gave me crap for running, feeling so alive.
It was that. It was those things. And when we tie feelings to our actions, they can really become strong motivators. I know a lot of people will tell us or you'll hear contradictory things like, well, don't focus on emotions. Emotions don't rule you.
Don't focus on feelings, sure. But we're human and we do feel feelings, right? So when you can tie them in a positive way to the actions you're taking and you can really bring, build that self awareness of how things make you feel, guess what? You're gonna do them. You're gonna do them more and more.
So think about that. How do you want to feel and what has to shift in your daily life to make that happen? Shift over sacrifice. Question 5. This is a big one.
This is gonna make you think. It's pretty simple though. But when I think about it, whew, I get chills. And it's, what would I do differently if I was in the last 10 years of my life right now? Now I'm not just talking about like, let's say you have a terminal illness or let's say you're gonna get in a car accident in 10 years.
I'm just talking about what if you were even in the older stages of your life and you were in good health, but you only had 10 years left or you knew those 10 years were coming. These are things we don't think about. I'm assuming most people don't think about until they are older, until they are feeling the weight of time, the weight of how much can change and how little can and Also, how little can change if we don't change ourselves. If you only had 10 years of your life left, chances are that you would be doing things a whole lot differently. Or maybe you wouldn't, right?
It's important to think about what you want. Some people want a really simple life. Some people don't want a bunch of huge goals. That's fine, man. What's important is that you are clear on what you want.
But if you only had 10 years left, I'll tell you one thing that I would do differently. I would stop holding back on some of my bigger dreams. I would stop waiting to foster dogs until I have X, Y, and Z, yard, house, whatever, time, more money. I would stop waiting on looking into how I need to open an animal sanctuary and, like, what that means. I would stop waiting.
I would stop waiting in terms of pursuing other avenues of education that I'm so passionate about. I would stop waiting on writing this other book I want to write. I would go. It'd be go time. And I would have a clearer sense of what my priorities really were.
I'd also kind of get clear on, oh, wow, okay, okay. Some of these goals I have. You know what? Now that I think about it, now that I've only got 10 years left, I don't know that those are as important anymore. You ever think about that?
Like, sometimes I think we get caught up in career goals or we spend a lot of time doing one specific thing. We just get in this, like, minutia of forward momentum. Excuse me, working towards something. And then if we take a step back and we really realize what we really want, man, we can go, like, wait a minute. Hold.
Pump the brakes. Like, this happened to me a couple times during my early 20s when I started two different master's programs. I started one doing an MBA and didn't like it. It really didn't like it. So I stopped.
And then I started a second one in project management, which I liked. But when I really thought about it, when I really took a big step back, big picture, like, I looked back, I was like, okay. Like, at the moment, in the moment, I was like, all right, the next two and a half years, whatever, it's just gonna be go time on this. On this master's degree in project management. And then I, like, had this moment, and I don't even know how it kind of happened, but I was, like, walking through downtown Seattle.
I was on my way to go get Subway with my husband, my fiance, I think, at the time. And I was like, oh, my. Gosh you ever just, like, think something and say it out loud? And, like, hearing yourself say it out loud, it's like, oh, wow. I didn't realize how true that was for me.
I said, I don't know that I want to do this. Like, I don't know if the me in 20 years is going to be glad that I did this. I don't. I don't know that this is worth all the stress and time I'm putting into this right now. And I almost felt like I didn't have a decision.
Like, I started it, so I have to finish it. And I realized that, like, no, like, there's power in quitting sometimes, right? Like, I think it gets a bad rap. We think, oh, can't quit things. Like, it's bad.
You should follow through. You know, have a good work ethic. Don't. Don't ever stop. But seriously, sometimes there's power in quitting things.
You know, I'm not talking about, like, throwing your arms up and, like, walking out of your job and, you know, not giving notice. Although I've done that, too, multiple jobs. I'm talking about really taking a look at what you want long term and going, is this, right now, in this moment, are these next couple years of my life, is this worth it? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. So that's the fifth question.
What would I do differently if I was in the last 10 years of my life right now? As you think about all these questions, I encourage you to think on them. Have conversations about them with close friends, family, journal about them. Listen to this podcast again. Think about it.
Pause this podcast after each question, but really consider that how you feel is so important. You know, this whole podcast is about mindful productivity. You know, about combining mindfulness, the emotional side of things, with productivity, with more of the masculine energy of go, go, go. Get things done, get organized, Right? When we combine the two, when we really step into this awareness and we use both sides of our brain and we hold space for both, knowing that both are very important and just as important as the other one, everything changes.
And sometimes, too, it can be hard to hold space for this right brain thinking, for this creative, emotional kind of thinking, because our left brain actually can overrule our right brain, the logistical side of things can overrule the emotional side. It's just how we work. It's how our brains work. So it's a practice. But here's my reminder for you today for this week, for moving forward, what you want in life, what you want, how you want to Feel how you want to feel on a daily basis is the most important thing that you can realize and build self awareness around.
If you get clear on how you want to feel, then you'll figure out what you want to do. I know so many people tell me, well, I just don't know what I want to do with my life. I don't know what I want. My purpose is. I don't even know if I want to have a purpose.
Hey, that's okay too. But if you know how you want to feel on a daily basis, if you know what kind of energy you want, if you know what kind of feelings you want to have, if you know what you want to spend your time doing and what those activities are, then it's all going to become a lot more clear for you. So we can't control every aspect of our lives, but we can control a lot. And building self awareness is one of the most important things that you can do. So with that being said, I'm going to leave you for now.
But I hope this episode was helpful for you. I hope that you take time to consider what you want and realize how important your own individual needs are. I'll be back as always next Monday and you can always find more information about everything I have going on. You guys. There's so many things I feel like I've niched down, but then I also haven't.
There's new projects and things I'm working on. I'm taking on one on one clients for life coaching, also mentoring and organizational work. So if you're wanting a hybrid of life coaching and someone that can help you, like organize your life, create workflows for different things, I'm your person. I'm also helping people through many of my courses that you'll find in the Mindful Productivity Academy. There's a number of courses there.
I won't list them all here. You can always find them by going to mindfulproductivityblog.com courses and checking them out. And there's just a slew of free, amazing resources. So whether you're at a point in your life where you have, you know, the ability and the time and the financial resource to invest in yourself, I'm here for you. There's coaching, there's courses, et cetera.
But if you're in a place where you're not, that's okay too. There's tons of free resources for you on the blog. So I try to hold a space for everybody and realize that we're all in different stages. While I'd love to support everyone you know, I also run a business and have to make sure I have those boundaries in place. So consider all of that for yourself as well.
What are the boundaries in your life? How are these five powerful questions showing up for you? And if you want more information about how I can support you, then please feel free to reach out. I'd love to hear from you. All right, I will hear.
You will hear from me next Monday. As always, there are new episodes every Monday on the podcast, and I hope you have an amazing week. And if you've been enjoying this podcast so far, please leave a review on itunes. That helps more people find it. That helps me go jump up a little bit in the rankings so that more people can hear this podcast.
Have a great week, and I'll talk to you guys next Monday.
