Episode 165 Transcript

Heather Porter (00:02.69)

Hey guys, welcome back to episode 165. I can't believe it's July. That's insane. Where did the first part of the year go? And speaking of time, today I want to talk about lack of time. You know, I know you guys are smart like me and you've probably heard that saying we all have the same amount of time in a day, right? And I know you get that.

 

But are you still wondering how some people seem to have such a much more fulfilling life? You know, a quote unquote successful business when we all have the same amount of time and you're spinning your wheels and it's still not happening to you. I think it all starts with this real simple question. What if 30 minutes a day could change everything? Now I know what you're thinking. 30 minutes Heather, that's

 

That's nothing. Of course.

 

I have that time or worse or worse. could be, my God, 30 minutes. How do I even find an extra 30 minutes? I get it though. Life is like totally full. We're bombarded by messages, work, family, friends, commitments, making dinner, putting out fires in business. And 30 minutes absolutely can sometimes feel like a luxury, especially if literally you are working from morning till night and you're really trying to get rid of that cycle.

 

But here's what I'm seeing time and time and time again from the interviews I'm having with people, my clients, my friends, peer groups, we're desperate for change, but we're sort of terrified of disrupting comfort. So I had a conversation with a client of mine who's in her fifties, just roughly early fifties or turn 50. She's really lovely, kind, compassionate, very, very capable, has a very successful business.

 

Heather Porter (01:57.33)

so from the outside, she looks like she has it all together, but inside we were having this discussion discussion and she's like really, really, really feeling stuck. Like almost like there's this whole part of her that she has yet to tap into. And then I asked her, what if you gave yourself 30 minutes a day, just to explore what's next. No pressure, no expectations, just.

 

space.

 

And I'll never forget what she said. And she said, how am I supposed to find an extra 30 minutes a day? Her day was absolutely packed. And that's when it hit me. We're not short on time. We're actually short on space. Hear me out for a second. When your life is full of routine and appointments on the calendar, even the smallest

 

tweaks feel threatening. We absolutely protect our comfort like it's gold right even though we might be telling ourselves yeah I'm spontaneous and you know I always get out of my comfort zone.

 

You know, it's funny because I think of me a lot in this way. Like a lot of people go, my God, Heather, can't believe you do public speaking all the time. You started your podcast, you run this business, you travel. Sometimes you travel alone across the world. You do all these things. And it's, it's funny because I've been telling myself, yeah, that that's adventurous and that's brave. And I'm pushing myself, but I'm not actually pushing myself anymore because I've been doing this.

 

Heather Porter (03:40.79)

since I was in my late twenties. I that's when I moved from California to Sydney in Australia. I mean, I've actually been doing it for like 20 years. The same stuff, speaking, traveling alone. Yeah, I mean, I take on more challenging opportunities, but are they really pushing myself? Am I really spontaneous? Am I really out of my comfort zone? It's interesting to think about, right? Because our own comfort zones can be very different from somebody else.

 

who needs to just maybe maybe something we do is just really, really scary to them. So just, you know, kind of ask yourself that question. Is it something that is your comfort zone? Have you been disguising it as adventurous and bold and brave and spontaneous? Because comfort is often just a distraction from what we always want, what we actually want. Now, don't get me wrong, you guys, comfort's not bad, of course, right? I our brains are wired to try and make us comfortable.

 

We all need downtime if we can get it. But when it becomes a cage, when you're actually like so caught up in your time management tools, then we start to get a little bit restless. Do you know that feeling? Do you? You know when your days are really, full, but your soul starts to feel a bit empty, just unfulfilled. It's not a time problem. That's actually a meaning problem. And you don't have to burn your life down to fix it. You just need

 

a window, 30 minutes, 30 minutes to learn something, something new, to brainstorm, to draft that idea that's been floating around in your head for months, to play, to try new things. We underestimate how much we can shift when we create even the tiniest space in our days. Like,

 

If you think, if you're running a business, which I know most of you guys are like me, we've absolutely glamorized like the big pivot and the big leap, the all or nothing moment. But really, to get to that point, transformation doesn't start with drama. It starts with like a little whisper. I always remember when I worked, you know, for Tony Robbins and then ran big events for other speakers when I first moved to Australia. And a big thing we always said in the industry was,

 

Heather Porter (06:03.586)

You know, listen to the universe. It will whisper in your ear and then it will chuck pebbles at you and then it will throw rocks and then it will chuck boulders at you. So essentially it's going to keep coming until you listen. So it all starts with a whisper, maybe a little post-it note, maybe a little idea that you email yourself or you stick in a to-do list on your phone or brainstorming, you know, tool or app.

 

It all starts there, a 30 minute block in your calendar. It's not confirmed for anything but space. The real goal is to create instead of consume. And I say this all the time when I teach, be a producer, not a consumer. Start to create again. Use that time that you might spend endlessly scrolling social media or studying other people's marketing to create your own.

 

to practice change. So here's my question to you today, no matter where you are or what you're up to. What could 30 minutes a day unlock for you? What's that little dream, that little nagging idea that maybe someday that will just keep showing up for you over and over? And what would happen if you stop pushing yourself or I should say that idea

 

to the edge of your to-do list. I'm guilty. I have my to-do list and my calendars. I have these really great ideas and moments where I wanna just think and be in play and I keep pushing them. I keep moving them, because they don't seem very important. But what if they became equally important to everything else you have on your calendar? 30 minutes a day, not forever. You don't have to overcommit. Just enough to see if there's something there.

 

bubbling up from underneath the surface. You just need to start the conversation with that part of you that knows that there's more, more to how you're currently living. So that's it for now. Just a little quiet nudge from me to you. Don't wait until something breaks to make a change. I guess that's the main thing. One of my last conversations was about.

 

Heather Porter (08:24.568)

Burnout actually a couple people I just interviewed on this show was about their moments of absolute mental physical burnout. Don't wait, you know, until something like that happens to make a change. Make the space now before you're forced to. Yeah. And if you're thinking, I can't even find 30 minutes, then you probably need 60. You guys, thank you for being here. A little bit of a different.

 

I guess energy to this podcast than normal. And if this resonated with you at all, and maybe there's somebody else out there in your network that could use it too. So please forward it on. It means a lot to me and it helps my show get out there as well. Thank you for tuning in guys as always, and I will chat to you next time. We have some really cool guests coming up. Stay tuned. Bye.