Episode 135 Transcript

Heather Porter (00:02.892)

Welcome back to episode 135. Take a deep breath. That is what the Calm app tells me to do each time I open it. And that is exactly what I do when I see those words. I breathe in and I breathe out. Sometimes feeling better is as easy as taking little baby steps.

 

So guys, I'm running ads right now for a coaching service that we offer. It's essentially there to help business owners with focus, clarity, and working in their zone of genius. So what they're really good at. In other words, it's basically there to help people feel happier with the work that they're doing in this world. And this is what's interesting. I do marketing in my business.

 

was testing a whole bunch of phrases and positioning and language and all sorts. And three things have really, really, really resonated with people that are seeing the ads promoting the coaching. I want to share these with you guys, see if they resonate with you as well. So the first sentence that really struck a chord is this one. Did you know over 30 % of business owners struggle to focus on what they need to do?

 

The second sentence is this, always busy no matter what you try. And the third sentence is this, do you even work on weekends and are frustrated that you're not able to take time off? So those three sentences, out of all the ones I'm testing, people are just clicking on like crazy.

 

And because of this, I thought in this episode, I will share a couple of ideas to help shift these feelings of overwhelm, constantly working, constantly feeling busy, constantly feeling behind. So there's two little sections I want to share with you. And the first one is this. Here's how to seek fulfillment in the midst of chaos and busyness in your life and your business. Here's how to seek fulfillment.

 

Heather Porter (02:20.918)

Number one, embrace micro moments. So find fulfillment in small, everyday little moments. It could be a meaningful conversation that you have with somebody. Maybe you just do like I said on the Calm app, a three to five minutes guided meditation, or maybe appreciating nature, just getting outside and feeling the sun on your skin or the ground on your bare feet.

 

embrace little micro moments. The next is to set intentional mini goals. Now instead of big huge daunting goals which have their time in place, set achievable daily or weekly goals that provide a sense of accomplishment. That's the key without overwhelming your schedule. I have learned that a lot of my to-do's are like project plans. I'm

 

Like seriously, I'll put in my calendar, redo my website. I mean, come on, like how many tasks, milestones, things in there are needed to make a redone website happen rather than say, put a, like maybe map out a project plan to redo my website. That could be a task, but instead I'm like, redo your website. Okay. Right. So.

 

Do you do the same thing? you put in your calendar like actual tasks, but they're actually project plans, like projects. And here's the other thing about tasks is there are probably a lot of cases even be, you know, should be broken down into further, more tangible action steps. If you look at something in your calendar and you get overwhelmed or you think there's no way I can get that done and you keep pushing it off and pushing it off and pushing it off.

 

It's not a task. It's not a task. It's a project or it has multiple steps to accomplish it. So just rewiring yourself around that because how are you going to set little mini goals if you have a calendar filled of projects? The next thing is to reflect on purpose amidst, amidst, amidst,

 

Heather Porter (04:43.907)

Find meaning you guys in the tasks that you do daily by connecting them to something larger. So maybe it is a bigger picture goal or a project, but make sure that you have it broken down in that hierarchy. It could even just be remembering why you started your business in the first place. Like, why are you working so hard? What's the reason for doing this? The last step or idea in this idea of, you know, how to seek fulfillment in your busyness.

 

is to be present. Focus on that person right there in front of you, right there in the moment, or the task that you're working on. Being present, I find, has this incredible way of calming you down. Like right now, I'm incredibly present with this recording and talking to you. I'm not thinking of anything else, and I'm feeling a lot calmer during this moment. So, number one is how...

 

to seek fulfillment in the midst of busyness, embrace micro moments, set intentional mini goals. Remember, keep an eye on those tasks versus projects in your calendar, reflect on the purpose of your tasks, like reflect on the purpose of why you're doing them and be present. There's another thing I wanna share with you and that is some ideas on how to bring in more happiness without sacrificing time because I find that fulfillment and happiness are the key to feeling good.

 

day to day. So let's talk happiness. So a couple little ideas with that. So how you bring in more happiness. Number one is to integrate happiness into your routine activities. How can you add joy with things you do every single day in your life? Like listen to your favorite music while commuting rather than always listening to business trainings or business podcasts like I do just hint hint. But I am getting better at

 

opening really great Spotify sound lists that I've or playlists that I've saved or built. So bringing in music that you love, practicing gratitude during your meals. I mean, you're already doing something. So maybe just take a moment to feel grateful for something in your life. Maybe just watching something inspiring. So in between phone calls, when I need to decompress, I'll go and watch something inspiring or funny. mean, it literally, you know, I'm a big

 

Heather Porter (07:04.066)

dog and cat lover, animal lover. So my discovery feed on Instagram tends to be lots of animals. But I love it. It's brainless, it's fun, it makes me feel good. I watch silly cat videos. Yes, I'm sorry, I'm one of those people, or dogs. Or these days I've been watching raccoon videos because my stepson's girlfriend's into raccoon videos and bears, like big bears. Long story, long story short, they make us feel good and we laugh. So we watch them.

 

but find inspirational funny, funny videos, whatever that means to you. And this is what's most important is make sure that you're not watching videos that make you feel ick. Like if you're on Instagram or wherever you go to watch your videos or Tik Tok or wherever, and you start to feel that comparison, it is like, that person's life is better or she's skinnier or better, or he has a nicer house or a car. That's the stuff I'm not wanting you to watch. Don't watch those. You want to watch things that are neutral and, and

 

Like that's why I animal videos are really easy, but motivational, inspirational, that's why music's good. Things that will lift you up in your everyday routine activities. So little quick breaks between calls or projects or tasks bring these moments in. Number two is to prioritize what truly matters. Say no to things that drain your energy and yes to activities that recharge you. This is a theme that is used throughout this podcast.

 

All the guests that I interview, not all, but many will say this over and over and over again, get better at saying no. So that's something that takes practice. It takes work, but start to listen to how you're feeling around activities and start to audit them, you know, and work hard at saying no to the ones that are draining you. And the last one, ideas for finding more happiness without sacrificing time is leverage tiny wins.

 

celebrate your small successes. Look, I know that's easier said than done and that's kind of a cliche thing that we're all taught. But that's why you have to go back to your tasks. If you feel like you're never completing anything, then you feel like you never have any time and you feel like you always have to work on weekends and you're just in this hamster wheel of craziness. So maybe it's just literally looking at what you're putting in your calendar. Is it a task or a project?

 

Heather Porter (09:28.33)

And also just paying attention to things that are overwhelming you. Like if you constantly have everything in your calendar that overwhelms you, it's the wrong thing to be putting in your calendar. And then therefore you can never celebrate wins because you never feel like you're winning anything as well. So to recap on that, the three ideas on how to bring in more happiness, feeding off the back of ideas for fulfillment are integrating happiness into your routine activities.

 

prioritize what truly matters and leverage tiny wins. To give you guys an example before we wrap up is I just finished a six month project, really huge client project and it was a hard, it was a hard project. I'm not gonna lie. We have hard projects sometimes, but I thought I I should like actually get out of my house, like change my environment and celebrate this moment and appreciate how hard it was and how much the team and I got through.

 

So there's this yogurt place that's in Australia called Yochi yogurt. It's amazing. They have all the amazing toppings and my favorite yogurt is a tart is the tart yogurt. It's like the unsweetened just plain white Greek yogurt. So I went to Yochi yogurt in Manly, which is in the Northern beaches of Sydney. And I got the bowl and I put the yogurt in. I put like some toppings that made me smile and I went and treated myself with a view of the ocean.

 

And that to me was an intentional little gift to myself based on finishing that project. And before I would never do something like that. I would never do something and attach a meaning behind it. Like this is a celebration of this. Because just by doing that, I was able to reflect on the fact that I got through a difficult project and it came out the other side. So find the little things that lift you guys up and make sure that you do more of them.

 

And when I say little things, I literally mean little. Back to the app. Just breathe. Just take a deep breath. Simple little things each day, hopefully, will help you feel more fulfilled and fill your life with more happiness. Thank you guys so much for listening. I will talk to you very soon in the next episode.