How to stress less and be happier this December as a Creative entrepreneur
With the end of the year looming, we are all feeling the crunch of time. The pressure to do more, faster. If you are someone like me, who tends to lean into a scarcity mindset when it comes to how you conceptualize time, it’ important to know that it doesn’t have to be this way! There are things you can do to support yourself to remain grounded, calm and secure in knowing that you have all the time you need. As a multi-passionate entrepreneur, the time stress crunch can be 10x as stressful for us as the year wraps up because we tend to have a LOT of plates spinning in the air. Having lots on the go is totally inspiring and energy fueling but when we suffer from time anxiety its even more pronounced because we apply that level of lack, scarcity and stress to every single project we have on the go. It can be a lot!
TAKE YOUR DAMN TIME
Time is such a stress point many of us. Trust me, I know - I’ve had running out of time stress dreams since I was a child. Seriously, ask me about my Halloween dream. Or the Christmas Eve dream. Or the day at Disney World dream. They all circle around the same idea - being in a scenario where I didn't realize it was happening (coming home to find out it is Halloween) and you have had no idea so you are totally unprepared (no costume, no candy) and the clock is ticking (trick or treating starts in an hour) and you are scrambling like mad to sort things out. The dreams have morphed over the years as I moved from trick or treater to the one who treats but the fear-based sentiment is still there: you need to scramble like mad if you want to succeed.
It appears I am not alone in this. I have heard from several of you that you struggle with the same thing, and that it roots into our brains in many ways. A feeling of sped up chaotic pressure to tick all the boxes and launch our websites, our new products and services, and that if we aren't succeeding NOW then we have already failed.
Why is this? Perhaps it’s because we are not as open as we should be about the process. We see competitors launch things in what looks like pristine perfection, unaware of the hours, days, weeks and years that went behind launching it. Is social media to blame? Perhaps. But perhaps that’s a cop out.
Time is one of those funny things, the more you fight it, the more you try to outrun it, the more overwhelming it becomes. What does overwhelm lead to? You stop. You stop trying, stop dreaming, stop creating and stop putting yourself out there. What does stopping lead to? More feelings of running out of time, because you haven't been using the time you have. See where I'm going here?
TAKE STEPS TO OUTRUN YOUR FEAR, NOT TIME
1 - Rewrite The Rules. If don't like what you are seeing on social and how it makes you feel in relation to time, action and success, change it. Share the mess, the process, the ups and the downs. Share the ride.
2 - Anchor Yourself. I have a visible reminder that I can access throughout the day to override the script of not enough time in my head. I literally have a sticky note on my mirror that reads: "3 years, not 3 days" as a constant reminder that I am in it for the long haul, working on a process of long term goals and that everything doesn't need to be done right now.
3 - Break It Down. Take big goals and separate them into manageable chunks. Mindset is key. Yes having goals and ambitions are good, but if you aren't constructive about how you organize your progress toward them you're gonna be overwhelmed, burn out and drop out. Rome wasn't built in a day, but it sure as hell could burn in one. Not sure how to set goals that are achievable.? You're in luck, that's coming soon.
4 - Get Friendly With Fear. Reality slap coming at you - the thing you fear is likely the scenario you are living. Terrified you will never make it enough to leave your 9-5 and all the hellfire that comes with it? That's probably where you are right now - balancing a side hustle with a 9-5. And guess what? You aren't dying. You aren't collapsing into a puddle of emotional shut down. It may not be ideal but you are still able to move forward (I mean you're here aren't you?) And what does that tell you - even in your worst case scenario (having to keep your 9-5) you still have the gumption in you every day to keep showing up, to keep at it and not let it stop you from making your art, being there for your community and stretching yourself to try new things.
5 - Celebrate. Every. Damn. Win. It is the micro movements that accumulate to create massive change, accomplishments and success to fill your gas tank so you can keep driving. Bubbly on a weeknight because you finally finished a blog post? Cheers m'dear!
Where are you in terms of your relationship with goals, time, anxiety and fear? If you were to leave yourself some anchoring words related to time, what would they be? What are you celebrating right now?
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You stop trying, you stop dreaming, you stop creating and you stop putting yourself out there, you're going to be creating more feelings of running out of time, because you're not using the time that you have. You're listening to the brand camp podcast, a podcast for food content creators who want to level up and build a creative business that's profitable and enjoyable. I'm your host, Jennifer Hulley. Let's dive in.
Hey, everybody, today, we're going to talk about taking your damn time, and why it's okay to take your time. And the reason we're gonna dive into this is because the concept of scarcity of time, and not being able to achieve everything that we want in the time that we have or feeling like we've showed up to the party too late, and we're not going to be successful, whether that's like, due to age, or when we jumped into a platform or a business, whatever. It's something that affects all of us. And if you get into the mindset where you're constantly trying to outrun time, and you feel like you're always catching up, and there's not enough, there's not enough time, you're never going to get it done. Well guess what you won't get things done, because you're going to burn all the critical energy and brain space that you need to make the decisions and do the actions you need on a daily basis to bring your business forward. And I think it's an important topic to talk about, because it is something I have talked about with a lot of people recently, and it takes, like I said, many forms, some of us think like, you know, I'm too old to be getting started at this business, or like, I should have done this in my 20s. And now I'm in my 40s, or I'm almost gonna be 40, like 40 is a big number for us. And it can really fuck up the way that we view what we're doing. Like that's one way we've, I've encountered it recently. But the other aspect or the other way that I've seen this manifest in people's lives is feeling like, I have so many things that I have to do to get my business to go forward, I need to do email marketing, this accounting, whatever, right? And we look at the time that we have available, and we think there's absolutely no way I can get all of this done. And therefore I'm not going to be successful. So whether it's a fear from feeling like we're too late, and we don't have enough time, because we're starting at the wrong point, or whether it's a fear space from thinking that there's just not enough time available to us to achieve and to do what we need. It's toxic in terms of what it does to your business because it gets into your head, and it makes you neurotic, but it also chips away at your self efficacy and your self confidence and the feelings that you have about yourself and your ability to get the job done. And what do you think that's going to do to your behavior, right? If you're setting the framework in your brain where you feel like, what's the point, this is never gonna work, I'm too late, I'm too old, there's not enough hours in the day, it's gonna affect the way you actually end up taking action. And I'll just start by saying like I have this fear myself, I literally had to have a sticky note put on my wall for a couple months that said, the time I need is available to me. I've always been wound up or nervous about time being late, not being prepared, not having things ready. I used to have a dream, a recurring dream from many, many years. It started when I was a kid, and even as an adult, and it would be about like Halloween. And I would get home and realize it was Halloween. But I hadn't been aware of the time like I had been distracted or whatever. And I didn't have a costume. I didn't have candy. And I didn't have pumpkins and there were kids at my door. And I wasn't ready. And it appears that like I'm not alone in this deeply rooted fear or scarcity mindset about time I've heard, like I said from so many people recently that we're all struggling with the same thing. And it's expressing itself in different ways. But essentially, it's the same concept. The same root of it is that there's this sped up chaotic pressure for us to tick all the boxes, launch the websites, launch our products, launch our services. And then if we're not succeeding right now, then that means we've already failed. And why is this like why do we have this feeling that if we're not succeeding right now and succeeding in everything, why do we assume that means that we've already failed, we're never gonna succeed. Like, it just puts a stamp on us. It says like failure forever. And I think part of it comes down to that maybe we're not as open as we should be about the process of running a creative business or running a successful content creation based business. Because we see our competitors and our colleagues launch things in what looks like to us is like pristine perfection, right? We're on a Wow, unaware of the hours and the days and the weeks and the years that went into behind them launching this thing, partly maybe social medias to blame, but also maybe that's a cop out, like maybe we're choosing not to see it. Time is one of those funny things because the more that you fight it, and the more that you try to outrun it, the more overwhelming it's going to become. And what does this overwhelm lead to, it leads to you stopping you stop trying, you stop dreaming, you stop creating, and you stop putting yourself out there. And we know what stopping leads to write, if you stop taking action, you're going to be creating more feelings of running out of time, because you're not using the time that you have. You see what happens, you start feeding your own fear of running out of time by not taking action because you think you don't have time. And what we want to do is support ourselves so that we can take steps and take action and support ourselves to outrun our fear not to try and outrun the concept of time. And there's a few things that you can do to get yourself into a mindset and a space where you're supporting yourself to be like, Hey, I see you fear. Let's go. So let's dive into these. There's five of them. And I want to just run through them with you. And I encourage you to like, revisit these and look at them and ask yourself like which one would affect you or what would impact your life the most because, again, overwhelmed, we don't want to see all these things and think like, oh my god, I gotta do all these five things to help myself with my concept of fear my time and my fear around time. But you'll know when you listen to them, there's there'll be one that hits home and you're like, yeah, that's, that's where I need to be. Alright, so step number one to outrun fear and not outrun time, is rewrite the rules. If you don't like what you're seeing on social media, and you don't like how it makes you feel in relation to time, your action or what success is, change it, change what is out on social media, like become part of the solution. You know, it's like the Be the change you want to see in the world. Well be the content, and the reality check that you want and need to see on social media. Get out there and share your message, share the process share the ups and the downs, like include people in the humanity, and the personalized experience of what you go through as a business owner share the ride. The other thing you can do is anchor yourself, right, I talked in the beginning about how I have a sticky note on my wall. But like I really needed a visual reminder that I could access throughout the day to help override the script of not having enough time in my head. And I had this sticky note, the first sticky note I had was three years not three days, like I've had, we've gone through a trajectory of sticky notes in my last few years of a as being an entrepreneur. But the first one was three years, not three days to remind myself that I'm in this for the long haul. And I'm working on a process of long term goals and that everything doesn't need to be done right now. The other quote that I found really helpful was don't compare your day one with someone else's day 100. And it's the same thing about time. And our own individual timelines, don't compare where you are right now to where somebody else's further down the line in their trajectory in their business timeline. And the one that I use most recently was the time I need is available to me. And that was a big one a big one for me to just remember that. Like, if I need time to do something, or I feel that I need time to invest to do something well, so that I am satisfied with it. That time is available and I can choose to use it however I want. So think about what is it about time that is causing you to get all squirrely and spiral and run away. And what is a sentence that you could write to like counteract that thought, something that makes sense to you. I was talking on a previous podcast episode with Lauren Runyon about affirmations and making them personalized. And it's the same thing for this when you're making an anchoring sentence, possibly writing like I have an abundance of time that might not resonate with you. Like you might read those words and be like that is not how I talk. The point of this exercise is to write things in the same verbiage, the same wording, the same characteristics, like the way that you speak, use your own words and write exactly what your brain needs to hear so that they can replace that like shit. I don't have enough time to get this done or shit. There's no point in wasting time doing that or whatever it is that you're you know, running away with when I said when you're going down the spiral. What are the words that you can write to anchor yourself that's going to help snap you back into reality and get You moving again. Step number three to outrun your fear and not time is to break things down, we get very overwhelmed when we see the big goal. And it's like, there's a million routes and a million roads to get there. And something that I like to do with my clients is to take these goals and to separate them into four themes. So if your goal is to I want to make 100k, or I want to launch a cookbook, or whatever it is that you want to do, what are the four main themes and then four areas of focus that you're going to have to work on that? And then from that, you break it down even further to what's happening, maybe for a month? And what does that one month look like if you break it into 10, little steps, you know, breaking down big ideas into manageable chunks, makes things more digestible for your brain, having ambitions and goals is great. But if you're not constructive about how you're organizing your progress towards them, you are just going to set yourself to be overwhelmed, to burnout, and then to drop out by opting out of your goals. Another strategy is to get friendly with fear, okay, this is my reality slap that I'm going to send you because the thing that you fear is likely the scenario that you're already living. Or if you're terrified that you're never going to make it out of your nine to five, and all the like shit that's going to come at you in your life, because you're trapped in this job. That's probably where you are right now, you're probably balancing a side hustle while doing a nine to five. And guess what, you're not dying, the world is not coming to an end, you aren't collapsing into a puddle of like emotional shutdown. It's not an ideal scenario, but you're still able to make moves and move forward. Right? So when you look at it that way, ask yourself like, what does that tell you like even the worst case scenario, which in this, you know, fear example that I'm giving you, I'm afraid that I'll never be able to live my nine to five, and I'll be here forever. Even in that worst case scenario of having to keep your nine to five, you are still able to show up every single day and to keep at it and to keep working and make your art and connect with the people that you want to work with. And you're still stretching yourself to try new things. And I think that's important to remember is that the thing that you're afraid of, it's probably a continuation or an iteration of something that you're experiencing. And you're doing okay, right now. I think it really helps for us to look fear in the face, right to look fear in the eye and be like, what is it that I'm actually afraid is gonna happen? I'm afraid I'm never going to be able to do this. Are you doing that right now? No. Is the world collapsing? No. Okay, keep going. And the important part of this is to like recognize, okay, what is it that I'm afraid of? What is the scenario? What is the, you know, situation that I'm afraid like, I'm afraid that I'm too old, and I'm never going to get this business off the ground, or it's like, it's too late for me. Well, you're old right now. Right? You are as old as you are right now. And you're not launching it? And that's okay. It's okay. If if you decide not to launch it. But do you want something different? Do you want something more? And what can you do to get yourself moving in that direction of where you want to be. And that concept leads really well into the last step number five, which is to celebrate every single win, every single step, every action, every success, it all adds up, we tend to look at other people's business models, again, we're talking about like, looking at what we see on social and seeing people's success highlights, and we don't get to see the dirty work and the grime and the crying and the struggle that happens before we get there. So it's so important to remind ourselves that in order to get there, it is an accumulation of micro movements and micro accomplishments. So everything counts, you sign up for an like an email marketing thing. Maybe you sign up for flow desk or something amazing. Celebrate that because that is a step in the right direction. You have to acknowledge and you have to make time for these accomplishments and success because you have got to fill your gas tank so that you can keep driving on this journey. That's the way to look at it. Right if you're going to pop some champagne on the weeknight because you finally finished that blog post cheers do it. Whatever it is that you need to do to recognize the efforts that you're putting in, you have to do that thing. And one of the reasons you need to celebrate this is not just to fill your gas tank and make you feel like okay, cool. I can keep going at this but also to read like to wire your brain to pay attention to the fact that you are moving forward you are taking steps because what will happen when we're afraid that we don't have enough time. We're going to look right for all the examples to prove that thought If you can keep showing yourself and saying like, no, look, I'm making good use of my time I did this, I got this done this week, I'm taking this off my box. So you know are taking this off my box, ticking this box off my list,
it's going to help you, you know, get really honest with yourself and just black and white and be like I'm doing it, I'm doing the things. It's not as bad as we think it is. And that goes back to you know, we talked about breaking your goals down number three, we said break big ideas into small manageable steps. So that you can celebrate every single win. And you can show yourself like look how much I got done. Right and what you get done in that month or in that week or whatever. However you break those goals down into small manageable steps. The key word there is manageable, and the manage the manageability, the manageable illness will say manageable pneus, the manageable this is going to be totally, totally individualized. Right? What is manageable for me as a solo parent of a two year old right now, without a nine to five is completely different than what was manageable for me before as a single mom, with a nine to five, it's completely different than what was manageable, you know, five years ago, with a nine to five but no child, it's completely different to somebody who is you know, maybe they've retired from their nine to five, but they have adult children who have young children and they have you know, they're in grandparent phase like, it's different for everybody. So in order to put all of these into action, right, like showing up on social and sharing the journey, anchoring yourself with some affirmations or just some statements that help you have a reality check for yourself. Breaking your goals down all of it, you have to first step back and be like, What am I working with? Where am I in my life? What time is available, because no time is not infinite, it is a finite resource in that there are 24 hours a day, right? And we need to sleep and we need to eat. And we need to do things that fill our bucket. And we need to connect with humans and grow and like recharge. So really take a moment to be like what do I have available to me? Where is it that I want to go? And what is the most logical sequence for me that I'm able to manage, that's going to feel good as I do it, there's absolutely no point in rushing to the end goal. If you're going to do it in a way that burns yourself out. Because the person you're going to be at the end of that, you know, Marathon sprint, or whatever you want to call it, what are those nasty running things, people who tough Mudders, right, like, you're not going to be in a great state to be continuing with your business. So you need to think of it from that individualized sustainability standpoint, the biggest reason we want to tackle fear and we want to get friendly with fear. And we want to learn to as I said, outrun your fear, have more energy and more grit and determination than the demons do that, you know, reside in your gut, in your psyche, all those nasty thoughts that come out to play like the imposter syndrome, the scarcity, all of it. The reason why we want to be able to outrun it and outperform it is because we have things that we want to achieve. There's a reason you launched your business, you want to connect with people and provide a service and create change for the clients and the businesses that you serve. And the biggest roadblock, the biggest hurdle, the biggest, you know, monkey wrench in your plans is going to be that fear, the fear that there isn't enough time and that you're not going to be able to do it. So I really encourage you this week to sit down and maybe like journal Brain Dump. I know we all have different ideas of what journaling means. And it doesn't mean like you sit down and you write like Dear Diary, today, I thought about this, like maybe journaling for you again, like affirmations, making them personalized. Maybe journaling for you is just bullet points of what's in your brain right now. I encourage you to go and write down like what are your thoughts and beliefs about time? What do you think about time in terms of age and the lifespan of a person and what is achievable? What do you believe in terms of how much time is required to achieve what you want to achieve? What do you believe in terms of what time do you have available to you now? And where are you getting stuck? Take a moment to really understand like, like I said, get friendly with fear, get right up to its face, look it in the eye and be like What do you look like? What does my fear of time look like? Because once you understand the characteristics and the parameters of it, exactly what you're afraid of and why when it comes to time, then you can build in the strategies that you need. There's absolutely no point in saying like, I'm going to start with affirmations and I'm going to put sticky notes around my house. If you're actually bothered by something else, so take the time. Look at that little pun, take the time to learn about your feelings and your beliefs around time. And if you set like I said, Do this journaling or just free writing what you think and what you believe, it will start to be apparent to you like what needs to be worked on first. And you can go back to that list and you can determine where am I going to start? Am I going to start by rewriting the rules of you know, showing the process, maybe I need to be part of the change and show people what it actually looks like to run a creative, you know, content creation business. Maybe I need to anchor myself with some new truths and reality slops, maybe I need to break down my goals better and create a timeline that is actionable and attainable, and sustainable for me. Maybe I need to look at a belief or a thought that is in my head about time and what is possible and get to know it a lot better. Like maybe there's something that you need to dig into me with the Halloween dream.
Maybe I should dig into that and find out like, why I was so wrapped up about Halloween as a kid probably because it has a lot to do with candy. I don't know. And maybe it's that you need to celebrate, like maybe you need to go like holy shit, I am doing stuff. And I'm actually just like not filling my own bucket, figure out what it is that you need to start with and pick one thing. You know, we always talk about sustainability and doing getting into strategies and systems that you're going to be able to continue on with pick one and think what's going to have the most impact on me right now. And start with it today. Thanks for listening to the brand camp podcast. If you found this episode insightful, inspiring or interesting, I would really love your support. There are two key things you can do to support the growth of this podcast so that it reaches other food content creators. Number one is subscribe. Subscribing is totally free and it means you'll never miss an episode. And lastly, leave us a review. five star reviews and positive feedback really helped with podcast rankings within the apps and it helps others find this podcast. I really hope you enjoyed this episode and I can't wait to dive further into these topics with you. Again, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Jennifer Hulley and I'll talk to you soon
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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