Podcast

029: Stepping Out of Stagnation – 5 Actionable Reminders for Taking The Next Big Step in Life

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Making it easier to take action on your next big thing.

Usually we’re going to experience some fear when taking a big step into a new experience; moving out of home, travelling overseas, starting a relationship – these are things we may genuinely want for ourselves but find ourselves unable to take action because where afraid of what this new experience will bring.

In this episode, I share five actionable reminders that have helped me become clearer on my next big step and allowed me to take progressive action towards achieving it.

Highlights and Takeaways

1. You Don’t Have to Do Anything [07:38]

  • I often put pressure on myself to take that next big step. This results in me feeling stressed. Once I remove those expectations the pressure and stress go away.
  • We don’t need to do anything. We don’t need to do anything we don’t want to.
  • If we feel pressure on us it usually means we are placing expectations on ourselves.
  • When we take action from a place of pressure it affects the action we take and can lead to us feeling stressed, which can result in conflicts with those around us.
  • We always have the choice to say, ‘Yes, I’m doing this.’ Or, ‘No, it’s not the right time.’
  • We forget we have this choice because we’ve placed expectations on ourselves for such a long time.

2. Change Your Environment [12:04]

  • By changing my environment I’m changing my perspective. From this new perspective I can see the different pieces I’m working with more clearly.
  • There are a few ways I change my environment and they can be fun:
    • Reorganise my whole bedroom and work space.
    • Brush my teeth in a different location; sitting in the bath, standing in the shower or facing a different direction in the bathroom.
    • Walk a different way to work, or take a different bus or train.
  • Refreshing your environment helps you see your situation more clearly.

3. Become Clear on What You Want to Do and Why [17:09]

  • Without being clear on what you want to achieve and why it’s easy to take unfocused action.
  • Writing can help us become clearer on what we want to achieve.
  • Write about what you feel you want to achieve and keep asking yourself, ‘why do I want to achieve that?’ After every why questions usually there will be some more words to write. Through this process, you become clearer on what you’re trying to achieve and why.
  • With more clarity on what you want to achieve it’s easier to see what the next action step is.
  • Using this process you may uncover that you are trying to achieve multiple big steps at once. Use writing to explore which one is the most important next step for you.
  • It’s very difficult to tackle multiple big steps at once.

4. Reflect on Your Past Achievements [20:08]

  • Reminding myself of my past achievements helps me know I’m capable of handling any situation.
  • Seeing what I’ve come through in the past helps to remove some of the fear of, “What is going to happen when I take this next step?”
  • We know we can handle any situation that’s thrown at us because we’ve come through tough situations in the past.
  • Write down one of the most stressful situations you’ve been in. If you got through that then you can take the next step even though you don’t know what’s going to happen.

5. Breaking Big Steps into Small Actions [22:55]

  • Breaking our big step into smaller steps makes it easier to take action everyday and not be overwhelmed by achieving the end result.
  • What action is actually going to bring you closer to your end result?
  • An actionable step consists of a defined task and a defined timed for completion.
  • We need to schedule the time to take action on our next actionable step.
  • The specific nature of an actionable step makes it easier to take focused action.
  • However, we can still experience difficulty taking action on these smaller steps.
  • Procrastination is a sign that fear is present.
  • Using the tool of writing we can explore the fear which is resulting in us procrastinating.

Additional Reminders

  • Wherever you go there are always people there to help you. [26:38]
  • We are always allowed to change our mind. [28:40]
  • Life moves at the pace we want it to. [30:27]

Mentioned in This Episode

The Podcast

The B is for Being Podcast is a collection of conversations with friends, psychologists, and thought-leaders on the most effective tools for uncovering authentic expression and navigating the obstacles we may encounter on the way to discovering ourselves.

About Benjamin

Hi, I’m Benjamin. I podcast and blog about authentic expression and self-discovery. I also make slow-videos for rest and reflection. You can read more about me here.

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