Transcription
[Music] Welcome, welcome, welcome to another episode of Moment Life Happiness Podcast. I'm your host, William Jackson, and I'm so excited because we have another opportunity to live, learn, and grow together. And I'm excited about this conversation that we are going to talk about because I guarantee you this conversation is going to spark something in you. It's going to challenge parts of where you are and it's going to give you practical tools to live your most fulfilled life. I'm going to teach you within these few moments of how to take where you are, multiply it, and gain momentum in every aspect of your life.
What we're going to talk about today is a concept that I think transcends all demographics, all geographical locations. At some point in time in life, we all hit a space where we feel stuck. Today I'm going to talk about what's keeping you stuck and how to get unstuck so that you can live a life of momentum and productivity. So, I'm excited.
If you caught up on the last episode of the podcast, you know and you have heard that there have been incredible life changes that have taken place. But we are live in studio. And this could not come at a more pivotal time because in every space that I go into, whether it's business, whether it's ministry, whether it's in the community, whether it's in government, wherever I am, when I'm interacting with people, they're all trying to figure out how to maximize momentum and productivity. And I think one of the key things that most people do when they're trying to gain momentum or create spaces where they want to live in a more productive space where they want to be more effective and more efficient, the first thing that they do is focus on the next movement or how can I do something now that's going to infiltrate the next thing so that we can get this thing rolling. But you know, if you've listened or watched this podcast for any length of time, you know, one of the foundational things that we always do before we move on to next is we identify how we got to now. And the way that we do that is we examine what came what we came out of or the last moment effectively so that we can extract and not erase. You've heard me say often is that what most people do is when they want to move on from something, they just erase it. That didn't happen. That relationship didn't happen. That failed business didn't happen. I'm focused on the next thing. Well, you can't effectively move on to the next thing without prioritizing what happened in the last thing. So, when you come into this thing, you aren't taking the last thing into this thing, which is going to affect that thing. So, we got to figure out how to create spaces where we can pause, slow down, and effectively identify areas that has kept us from gaining momentum.
I'm going to talk about today. What's keeping you stuck? And I'm going to tell you some things that I can without a shadow of a doubt, I'd bet good money, if I was a betting man, that these core foundational concepts that we're going to talk about, if you get these right, you are going to create spaces of incredible momentum, incredible productivity, and you're going to be able to live in a more fulfilled space so that you can access so much more of who you are, who you were created to be. so that you can live on purpose.
So, you know me, I always like to talk from an aspect of something that can get stuck in your head, pun intended, and I always like to use acronyms in spaces so that when you see this word again, you'll be reminded of what we talked about in the conversations that we had. So, if you're taking notes, I want you to write stuck s T U C K uh in a in a vertical fashion going down a piece of paper. I want you to write it on a piece of paper for all the digital aers. Put it in your notes. Write it down so that we can outline each one and then we're going to talk about how each one of these core concepts are keeping you stuck and how to get unstuck so that you can live a life of productivity. So, let's dive into it.
What is keeping you stuck? The first thing that we have to examine that I would be willing to bet is not as efficient as it should be. When we hit spaces where we are stalling in our productivity, where we're stalling in our momentum, where we're stalling in our effectiveness, the thing that we have to address first, what's keeping you stuck is your system. S system. The thing that is keeping you from accessing this unparallel amount of success, this momentum that is driving you from one success to another because we're good at achieving one milestone. But then what happens after that milestone? After you reach the thing that you were working so hard towards, what happens when you get there? Once you get there, do you have enough? that is established on the inside of you and also externally in terms of a system that causes that winner's momentum to continue on to the next thing. The first thing that's keeping you stuck is your system. You are only as strong as your system. When you're talking about business, you're only as strong as your SOPs, your standard operating procedures. What is the system of how we do business? What is the system of how we do ministry? What is the system of how we do life? What is the system of how we do marriage? If you don't have a system for everything, then we consistently hit this place or this parallel where we keep having these revolving doors of ups and downs and we keep having these revolving door moments where we have a good moment, but then we come right back around and we hit another rough patch. We have a good moment and then we come right out of that moment and we go right into another uh difficult moment. And and some of that is life, but a lot of it is because we don't have a system cuz the system sustains you in aspects of success when you are trying and working towards trying to build momentum. You are only as strong as your system. Here's my question. Do you have a system for everything? And when I say everything, I mean everything. Do you have a system for your health? Do you have a system for your wealth? Do you have a system for your relationships? Do you have a a system for how you interact with others? Do you have a system for business? Do you have a a system that or a systematic approach to life? What is your system? People who have systems, they have routines, they have schedules, they have deadlines, they have budgets, they have things that are keeping them in in alignment with the system so that they don't go off course without structure. We start to get into the space where we start to do what feels right. And the danger in doing what feels right is because what feels right right now may not be the thing that's going to create spaces for you to be effective in your next. What is your system? When you think about systems and you start to establish a fine-tuned perspective, a fine-tuned perspective where I'm literally going in and I'm fine-tuning everything and I'm looking through every single way that I am doing life, I start to become more intentional. See, people who are scared of systems will always be deterred on in their efforts to establish a greater aspect of momentum and success. People who are deterred by systems will never experience sustained success because your system is the thing that carries you forward from this success to the next success without losing momentum. The system is your foundation. Your system of of how you wake up. How do you start your day? Even when you look at it from a practical perspective, how do you start your day? Do you have a system? After you identify the system and how you start your day, how do you end your day? Because some of us have great systems to begin things, but we don't have a system in order to end things. How do you go into the day? And how do you then come out of it? Cuz if you have a system, guess what? You're prioritizing your rest. You're prioritizing your nutrition. You you have a system of when I go to bed, how I'm setting up my night. Certain people who are ultra successful, they have a system for what they do each night. Why? Because it carries over into the quality of your sleep. And the quality of your sleep directly impacts your ability to be successful in the next day. What's your system?
The next thing that keeps us in the space and what we're going to do is we're going to go through all of these and then we're going to come back and outline a plan of getting unstuck in these specific areas. The next thing that keeps people in a space where they are stuck is their time management. How do you manage time? How do you create spaces of intentionality with how you manage your time? Cuz often times, if we're really going to be honest, we don't manage time. Time manages us. What do I mean by that? is we often hit to a space or we often get into a space where instead of me taking an intentional approach to what I'm doing, setting a schedule, setting a start time and an end time, I allow time to dictate how I respond to the day. And then I get behind time and then I'm rushing. And when I'm rushing, everything is out of whack. I'm forgetting stuff. I'm missing stuff. If you are rushing at work, you miss cues. You miss deadlines. You miss opportunities when you're rushing because you're moving so fast. You don't have an opportunity to let the moment breathe so that you can identify what's around you, who's around you, and what opportunity is being presented to you. How are you managing your time down to every aspect of your life? Now, this is all based on the level of success that you would like to see in your life. Because some of us may say, "Listen, I'm only going to schedule this part of my day, and this is where I'm going to be intentional about the time management, and the rest of the day, I'm just going to flow." And that may work for you, but if we're talking about sustained intentional success, it's going to cause us to have to take a finetuned look, a fine tooth, take our time management through a fine tooth comb to really identify, is there something that is preventing me from getting getting into a space where I'm receiving and experiencing more out of life. One of the greatest things that keeps us stuck is time management. How I'm managing my time. I tell you all the time, take a quick snapshot of how much time you spend on your device and compare it to the things that you are most frustrated about and compare the the amount of time you spend on your phone and the amount of time you spend working on that frustration. How much time do you spend on social media versus how much time do you spend on the things that are stressing you out? How much time are you investing? Because what we do is in order to create spaces of comfort instead of leaning into the discomfort, we maximize our need for socialization or escapism. So, I will escape my reality through the things that I'm seeing because I can just disconnect for a moment. And I'm all for disconnecting and and allowing your brain just a moment to breathe and just recharge. But when that is the bulk of your time because you're so stressed that you just need to escape all the time, you are not managing time effectively. We're in spaces now where we're trying to figure out how can I engage with more intentionality and I can be more present and I can be more intentional and I got to look at how I'm managing my time when you think about even in aspects of how how successful you are right how much time are you spending building your business in relation to how much time you're spending building your home, building your family, building your your parent relationships, building relationships with your friends, building relationships with your spouse, because we can be ultra successful and and by the time you reach a level of success, everyone that you were doing it for, everyone that you were working so hard for, everyone that you are trying to put in positions where they were able to be taken care of, now you have no relationship. So you are able to give them aspects of what you built. But when when when all you can give is what you built and you haven't taken intentional time to give them what they need, which is more of you. You haven't managed your time effectively. So how are you managing your time? Time management is what keeps a lot of us stuck because we want it, but we really don't want it bad enough to really put the work in to make sure that we are managing our time effectively. And the way that we'll see is ways and I'm going give you ways of how to manage the time effectively so that when you're going into moments, you're already setting expectations. You're already setting opportunities for you to to hold yourself accountable. So, we're going to look at time management.
The next thing that keeps us stuck you is understanding. What is your understanding about where you are and where you're headed? Because so much of frustration in life is tied to our inability to understand where we are and where we're supposed to be, where we want to be, and the gap between our desires, our dreams, and what actually is readily available for who we were created to be in the earth. Some of us have a lack of understanding in regards to what we want to be. Because for instance, I love sports and at 40 years old, if I said, you know what, I'm going I'm going to try out for an NFL roster. I haven't worked out like a NFL player. I haven't studied anything from an NFL playbook, but I'm going to try out. Guess what? I have a lack of understanding as to what is readily available for me. And it's great to dream big, but your dreams, your big dreams should be realistic. Let me say that again. It is great to dream big, but your big dreams should also be realistic because unrealistic expectations limits your understanding. And then your understanding or limited understanding creates a level of frustration because you don't understand why this plan isn't working. You don't understand why this plan is not is yielding the results that you desire because we don't understand where we are and where we're supposed to be. So we keep trying to create a a life, a dream, a goal in on the basis of what we see or or what we we we desire in this fantasy world and we haven't come down to earth to realize okay I may desire that but let me develop a level of understanding of is is that even attainable are my goals strategic? Are they measurable? Are they attainable? Are they realistic? And can I put a time stamp on it? Can I measure it on the basis of a timetable? Do I have smart goals? Or am I frustrated because I have a lack of understanding of who I am, what I was created to do, and where I should be putting my energy and effort. So that's you. We got to look at our understanding.
The next thing that we got to look at in terms of what's keeping you stuck, C is your capacity. Because some of us, you have great goals. You are you're managing your time. You you you have a level of understanding of what you are created for and what you are supposed to be doing, but you don't have capacity to go after it. Your life is so full that you don't have the capacity to put the energy and effort into building this next thing, into creating spaces where you can be more intentional because you're so full. You you have filled every moment with something. You filled every opportunity that you have. You don't rest. You don't recalibrate. You don't even have any time to dream. The thing that's keeping some of us stuck is that you don't have a capacity for more. The dream that you want so bad, you don't have capacity for it. And one of the greatest frustrations in life is being full up with purpose and passion and nowhere to pour it out because you don't have capacity to pour out the thing that you desire to see happen in your life. So it'll stay stuck in your head and it'll start eating and eroding in your heart because you don't have the capacity to put forth the energy and effort that it takes to get this off the ground. And then that starts to create this this cycle of regret because I want to do it, but I don't have the capacity to do it. So then I start beating myself up because I'm not doing it. And I never address the thing that's keeping me from doing it. Some of us just don't have capacity.
If we're going to be honest, when we think about being stuck, some of us don't have K, the knowledge that we haven't invested in the knowhow to do the thing that we desire to see done. So, we're in a space now where we're saying, "Listen, I want to move. I want to gain momentum. I want to be in the space where I'm extremely successful." But you haven't increased in your knowledge to identify areas and spaces where you can now gain the the instruction that you can now apply to the dreams, the goals and the desires that you have. You want to do it and some people will do it. You'll launch out without the knowledge. And then when it doesn't work, you'll think that something was wrong with the dream that something was wrong with the goal. when in all actuality something was wrong with the amount of knowledge that I that I acred before I stepped out in order to accomplish the thing that I desire. How much knowledge have you invested in this area so that you can know the ins and outs, the specifics? Because you can have a desire, but if you haven't disciplined yourself to learn how to be effective in the thing that you desire, you will ultimately destroy what you've desired because you were illquipped to handle the desire. So, how much knowledge have you invested? How much time have you put in to learning this thing? You should be a lifelong learner. And this is across the board. How much time have you invested in learning your spouse in this season? How much time have you spent investing learning your child at this age? Not last year, not three years ago, not four years ago, but have you learned the changes that they're experiencing at this age? You want to open a business. How much knowledge have you invested in learning how to do business? The ins and outs of your niche, the ins and outs of of what is going to make you successful. What are you going to need to break even? What are you going to need to be profitable? What are you going to need to have sustained elongated success? What does success look like? How can you measure it? What are some realistic goals? What is the level of investment that you need before you get started? How much knowledge have you invested? What are the things that you need to be pouring back into you? You should. If you are not enjoying your life, if you are at a space now where there is something in your life that's frustrating you, where there's something that is not where you want it to be, where there's something that is keeping you up at night and you are just you're you're you're being driven by this this unadulterated desire to do more. You should have something every day that's increasing your knowledge bank every day. Because if I really want to get out of here, I'm going to do the work that's necessary. And one of the main areas to do that is in my knowledge. Some of us are stuck in these these cycles, these loops of unproductivity because we don't have the knowledge. You want the promotion, but you haven't learned what that level takes. You want to get to a space where you're accomplishing more. How much knowledge do you have to be able to step up into that level to step up to that next space? What's your knowledge like? Because that's what's keeping us stuck if we're going to be very honest. It's our systems. It's our time management. It's our understanding. It's our capacity. And it's our knowledge. That's what's keeping you stuck. And if you just invested in all of these areas little by little to where you became intentional in your systems, your time management, your understanding, your capacity and your knowledge, the amount of productivity, momentum, it is limitless as to what you can accomplish if you just invest in these areas.
So, we talked about what's keeping you stuck, right? And now I don't want to just leave you there in terms of what's going to be the thing that you can identify. But some of us, if you're taking a moment of of of intentionality to look inward, you can identify spaces where you need to tweak. So I'm going to give you some suggested tools on how to tweak the things that are going to allow this momentum and productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency to just skyrocket. I'm going to give you in each area, how can you be more intentional? Starting with your systems. The first thing that you can do if you are going to establish a a a more fortified system is to strengthen your structure. How you structure your day. But before you even structure how you go about things, you need to structure your perspective. What is the system of how you set your mind up before you start the thing that you desire to work on? How do you set up the moment? How do you set up the the the mindset? How do you set up the day? How do you create spaces that before I even step into it, I'm ready? Because if I don't enter well, I won't be effective in the thing that I desire to do. And then now I will I will miss out on an opportunity to maximize this moment because I don't have a strengthened structure of how I go about what I'm doing. So if you're going to strengthen your structure, there's a few things that you can do. Number one, you have to do an honest audit of your system structure right now of where are the holes, where are the loopholes, where does the productivity normally uh begin to falter, what is the thing that keeps us where we're building momentum and then we hit this crest and then now we start to descend. Where where is that? Where is the downfall? Where is the trigger? Where is the the quick sand? Where is the loophole? You have to do a audit of not just the area but the people who may be contributing to to keeping you in a space where your system is ineffective. Because for some of us the system is how we actually go about things. For others it may be that we have the wrong people in the wrong place. So I may have people in position who are keeping my system from being able to flourish because I have this loyalty to the person that I put in this position. But if I'm going to do a audit of the system, I have to see if am I putting the right people in the right places so that we can win collectively. So you got to do a audit and then you have to be able to identify what are areas and spaces that I can now extract to say this thing I need to address so that I can make this a repetitive motion. You the goal in your system is to get things to autopilot that you don't have to think about it that now it's just happening to where every day you're in the system. The system creates the flow and now you're flowing and now you don't have to do so much maintenance on the way. Imagine being in a plane. The plane takes off and every 100 yards they have to now land in order to do some spot maintenance. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to take off. And as we take off, we get in the air. You're up in the air for about 20 minutes. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to land really quickly because we're going to meet the maintenance team uh in this next city and they're going to just do some spot maintenance to get us back in the air. All right, we take back off. All right, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to land again so that we can do some more spot maintenance. How aggravating would you be? You probably would never fly that airline again. And this is why some of us don't have the ability to maximize momentum because we keep having to take time to do spot maintenance because we haven't done done a complete honest audit of our systems where the holes are and how can we take time now to patch this so that when we get in the air we can maintain flight. Not just so that we can The goal isn't just to take off. The goal is to maintain or increase altitude to stay in flight so that when you land, you're at the destination that you desired to be at when you took off. So, you got to do a audit and and when you're strengthening your structure, after you do a audit, you have to find spaces that you can automate things that you can do that you can start to free up your time because time is your greatest commodity. What are things that are tedious that are keeping your your mind keeping you in a space where you're unable to focus where you where you can't create uh where you can't uh have vision where you can't now uh do what's necessary in order for you to thrive mentally emotionally because you're so caught up in the menial task. You have to be willing to do what's necessary so that you can automate as much as possible. I don't want to have to be thinking about this. I don't want to have to be every little thing. I don't want to have to be the pilot and the the flight attendant and the maintenance worker and the person who's putting the gas on a plane. I need to be able to fly this plane. And in order for me to focus on flying this plane to get us to where we need to be, I have to put people in their proper perspective places so that we can all be collectively effective as a crew. So that brings us to the next thing. How you going to strengthen your structure? got to do a better job at delegating. You have to be able to delegate certain things so that you can focus. Some of us our focus is so convoluted and so diluted because you have so many things that you have to consider that you have to and and I get it. Listen to me. I get it. You know what it's like to be in a space where you give it to someone and they don't do it to the level that you desire for them to do. The knee-jerk reaction is to take it back. I'll do it. I'll do it. I'll do it. When every time you give something to someone and they don't do it well, it's an opportunity for you to develop the delegate. You didn't do this right. Let me show you how we could have did this better. This is the way that we need to do it. Let me show you and let me give it back to you so that you can go try again. Because if I do the early investments, if I give you an opportunity and another opportunity and another opportunity for you to get it, I may take four or five different opportunities for it to click for you. But that will save me the the amount of time that the four the five opportunities that I'm spending to pour into you, to develop you, to strengthen you, to get you to a place where you can be effective is going to save me so much time versus me having to do the entire task that I'm needing to trust you with. So I got to be willing to delegate. So if I'm automating, if I'm doing an audit of my system, if I'm creating spaces where I'm I'm I'm creating the SOPs, your standard operating procedures, where I'm creating systems of how I start, how I end, what do I do in the middle? You need to have a system that is encompassing of all the things, all the the unknowns. How do you handle stress? How are you going to handle loss? How are you going to handle u if this doesn't work out? How are you going to handle if this doesn't align or show up the way that you want it to show up? What are you going to do? You need a system for not when just things go right, but when they go wrong. Got to have a system. Because if you're only planning for things to go right, when they go wrong, when life happens and things go wrong, you will not to be able to recover. You will not be able to recover. You will not be able to bounce back. you will not be able to get back into a space where you're able to be effective and that loss that that catastrophic event will you because we didn't plan for the unknown. So, you got to strengthen your structure. You got to strengthen your structure when we're talking about your system.
The next thing that we have to do when you're talking about time management is you have to take back your time. Now, I'm giving you tools on how to be more effective in time management. You have to take back your time. You got to implement moments where you can identify areas that you are giving time away. We're talking about auditing your system. Now, when I'm thinking about time management, go look at areas where you've wasted time this week. and then find a way to now restructure the plan the system so that you can take back that time. How much time have you wasted or how much time was was lost because other people were monopolizing your time? Because there's an aspect where if you are going to create anything great, you have to have a level of intentionality to say, "Hey, I I love you. I'm here for you, but I have to focus. I can't allow this conversation to be an hour today. I only have 15 minutes. So what happens is when you set expectations going in, you can now hold people accountable to the expectation. But if no one has an expectation and you start in on a moment and then you need to abruptly shift, it appears like that you aren't being present, that you aren't supporting them. But you have to be able to take your time back. And the way that you do that is you prioritize your stops. You prioritize boundaries. You create spaces where now you that momentum is starting to build because you have this extra free time. When you start to go back and think about all the shows that you've watched over this past week, count the hours. Especially for those of us who binge watch, you get a good show, you're in it. You're watching three, four episodes at night, an hour long. What could you have done with four hours of intentional productivity? What could you have done? You got to take back your time. You got to create spaces of now, not not only are you reclaiming your time and you're taking back and you're eliminating those time waster moments, but you're also setting up time blocking. I have this amount of time that I'm going to work on this. Because what happens is if you set a start time but no end time, you've heard me say this before, then you won't be as productive. You'll spend the first 20 minutes just sitting there on your phone. Then you now you're thirsty. Now you're hungry. Now you get up and you now you're trying to you're trying to figure out something else to do. And then but if I know I only have an hour to work on this, then guess what happens? I'm coming into this hour intentional. I'm coming in ready. I'm coming in with a plan. I got to be in a space now where I'm I'm managing the time effectively. And the way that you do that after you establish barriers, after you reclaim time and and eliminate the time wasters is you have to set time blocks. This is the time I'm going to work on this and this is the time that I have available. And don't feel bad when you set the boundary for people in order for the time that you have available. You can't give all of you to everyone. If you give everything you have to everyone, you won't have anything left to develop what's inside of you so that you can be more to the people that you care for. If I keep giving you everything I have right now, then guess what? I don't have anything left and I can't be effective and I can't be in in the areas of of what I was needing to do because I'm not managing the time well because I'm giving you every time I have available. Listen, there are times where you just got to put your phone on do not disturb. Can't talk right now. I got to focus. And then when you're managing time, you have to be able to what's called build in renewal time where uh you create opportunities to be intentional about how you pour back into yourself. Leaders make better decisions when they are rested. How do you pour back into you? because if I don't factor in some renewal time, then I'll keep running myself ragged and then I won't have the necessary uh energy effort to be able to put forth to the thing that I'm trying to do. So, you got to build in some renewal time. How are you restoring? How are you putting back into you? How are you being more intentional after that?
When you're talking about now understanding, creating spaces now where we're going to be intentional about identifying areas to become unstuck. And when you think about your understanding, you have to unlock and establish clarity and communication. Unlocking and establishing clarity and communication is how you're going to strengthen your understanding. If I have clarity on where I am, what I'm capable of, and I'm communicating with the people that I need, the people that are around me, the people that are going to help me get there, then I'm creating a level of intentionality now where I am um I I'm being more effective with what's in front of me because I have a clear vision. I have a clear perspective. I have a clear outline on where I am and where I'm going. The greatest frustrations on journeys is when we get lost. One of the the the greatest frustrations of my life is if I'm in spaces where I don't know where I am. When I'm driving and I don't have my GPS and sometime something happens with the reception and now I don't know and I'm in a foreign space. Guess what? Everything starts to go crazy in your mind. But if I have clarity on where I am and not just myself, not just having clarity for myself, but having clarity for the people who are connected to where I'm going. If it's not enough for me to just know the vision, if I can't cast a vision and recast the vision and recast the vision for people to get a clear glimpse or a clear understanding of where we're headed, it will minimize people creating their own visions within the vision. It will minimize people saying, "Okay, this is what I saw. This is what I think and I'm going to do it this way, even though you said we're going that way." And now we have multiple visions going on at the same time because I haven't established clear aspects of the vision and communicate it effectively. Listen to me. People are not mind readers. They are not. You got to be able to clarify this thing. Really establish what your north star is. Where are we going? How are we going to get there? What are we going to do if if problems arise? I got to create spaces where there is clarity. And then when I'm creating spaces of clarity, I got to create spaces where I can translate what I'm saying into actionable steps that everyone understands. How can I create spaces that everyone gets this? You know what your part is. I know what my part is. And this is how we're effective as a team. But we got to be intentional about where we are in establishing our level of understanding.
Now, this is all the time that we have for today, but the next episode we're going to dive into how to get unstuck in the areas of our capacity and our knowledge, and I'm going to give you strategic tools on how to get unstuck. Listen, like and share this this podcast. Share with someone who you feel needs to hear some strategies on how to get unstuck because there are some places and spaces where we can become more intentional about where we are and where we are headed. And if by chance you walk away from this podcast and you forget everything that I have said, I need you to know that you have everything inside of you already that you need to overcome and succeed when life happened. [Music]