What If You Did The Thing You’re Stopping Yourself Doing?

What If You Did The Thing You’re Stopping Yourself Doing?

What If You Just Did The Thing You’re Stopping Yourself Doing?

What could happen if you actually just did the thing you’re stopping yourself doing?

What if you wrote the book?  Started the group? Launched the programme?  Started the podcast? Started the Youtube channel?

Allow yourself to go there for a minute.

What comes up?

You might have a mix of positive and negative so grab your journal and really let yourself sit with it because there will be some BIG clues as to why you’re REALLY not doing it.

What are you telling yourself would or could happen?

Are you fearing the judgement?  The success?  The commitment?

What could happen?

The reason I’m talking about this today is because I had some lovely full circle moments last week.

I attended the first Podcast Show in London with my friend Kirsty and a couple of other members of Monday Network which is a podcast network I’m a part of.

Now Kirsty has been on the podcast before and we talked about our very own full circle moment of our friendship.  

We both used to work in media and worked at the same company but at different times.  We both had the same experience there, a glossy magazine so you can imagine.  Our mutual client said ‘you HAVE to talk to Kirsty’ introduced us and we instantly became friends. 

We lost touch for a few years and then up she popped.  She was training with the same ICF accredited company I trained as a coach with and was starting her coaching business and now has her own podcast too. The rest is history and ever since we keep each other entertained with ridiculous voice notes.

Anyhoo. There I am at the podcast show, watching some great talks and chatting to people on the stands and I said to Kirsty, ‘It reminds me so much of my first ever job in media’ and I explained I used to have to go to shows like this and pitch to independent financial advisors and companies where IFAs were there ideal client when I worked at the FT. 

My old friend Sarah popped into my head with fond memories and I thought to myself it was a shame we lost touch.

About an hour later guess who I bumped into! 

Not only that but she was going to work for someone we both used to work with who I had also been wanting to get in touch with about doing some corporate work.

WHAT?!  My mind is blown at this point.  Same thing then happened where 2 people I used to work with are now at another big company I’d love to work with and there they were on the stand.

I’m thinking at this point, what the fudge is going on, this is so weird. 

But my point here is this. 

Had I listened to all my thoughts and fears around starting my podcast these full circle moments would NOT be able to happen.

I was expecting to see other entrepreneurs that I knew but not people I used to work with and now I have a rekindled friendship and an in at 2 huge companies that have been on my dream client list for ages.

The potential opportunities that can come out of doing the things you fear are endless, and may be TOTALLY different to what you’d expect.

I started my podcast simply because it really called me.  I loved the idea of audio.  I’ve never been someone who’s bothered about being ‘known’ or ‘recognisable’ . It’s always been about telling people that who you are today isn’t who you have to be tomorrow. 

It’s always been about people being able to hear something that can make a difference to their lives. 

I started knowing I could get judged.  I started knowing people might not listen (to be fair I was stuck on 30 downloads an episode for months!) I started it to play the long growth game. 

I could so easily have not. 

I could have so easily listened to the ‘it’s too hard’ or the ‘I don’t know what i’m doing and it’s overwhelming’ I could have listened to the ‘what will people think’ and ‘who do I think I am’. But I didn’t. I knew in my gut it was something I wanted to do and was going to do. 

And here we are. Almost 300 episodes and almost half a million downloads. Taking me full circle. 

I sat in the audience of some of these talks, really actually acknowledging what I’d done and how I really hadn’t thought about it in some of the ways they did. That it was a big deal.  

I don’t think I’ve ever really thought of it that way, which is funny for someone who’s incredibly self aware and all about celebrating the little wins.  Which of course I did. But I think since I celebrated certain milestones I’ve not really thought about the big picture of it.

I really didn’t see it as this huge deal and I think that’s because it’s something that felt so natural for me because it was based around my personality.  I had a solid reason why I wanted to do it and a solid purpose for it from the listener perspective. So it was easy for me to put aside some of my worries or overwhelm. 

Because who I am and my values were at the heart of it. 

I love audio.  I see it as such a privilege that you lovely listeners let me into your ears in your life moments.  That’s very special to me. 

So what might that be for you?

What is that thing that when you think about doing it you just know it’s right for you but you’re holding yourself back?

Allow yourself to feel into it in your body. When you think about having it, what comes up for you?

I think I just launched my podcast with a very, ‘let’s see what happens’ vibe. I talk about this a lot, that I like to experiment and see what happens. 

Letting go of attachment to the outcome is a beautiful thing that allows something to just be what it is and you can objectively look at where you want to course correct or where you might want to take it. I don’t get it right every time but more often than not.

So my point with this episode is twofold.  

Firstly, what if you just did the thing?  Dig into that. See what stories are there that might be in your way and allow yourself to ‘go’ there and make the unconscious conscious. 

And second, to really allow yourself to think about what else could come from it. Allow yourself the day dream. Might it lead you to full circle moments?  Might it be your biggest referrer of clients? Might it lead you to amazing opportunities?  How might you feel?  What might you do?  

All too often we have these big dreams and big ideas and our thoughts get in the way of it for many reasons that make sense. But too often we don’t really take the time to dig in.  To allow ourselves to day dream or play it out. 

Might it be time for you to take a chance?

Fx

Fran Excell, Success Mindset Mentor at www.franexcell.com – Helping Business Owners & Executives Overcome Stress & Self Sabotage so they can get back their time, get off the emotional rollercoaster and feel more in control. 

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