Free Yourself

How to Kick Overwhelm In the Ass

0 Comments 21 May 2012

Your mind is moving a million miles a minute. It wont stop.

It wont shut the hell up.

You can’t think.

You’ve got all these awesome ideas but you can form an action plan because your mind wont slow down long enough to listen.

It just keeps talking and talking.

“Should I start by creating a product? Should I start with social media?

“What if it doesn’t work?“”  “Should I blog or use video?” 

Why would anyone listen to me? When I am going to find the time?

“What if it doesn’t work?”

And on and on it goes..

All this bickering in your head leaves you confused and  exhausted. So in an effort to block out the pain of confusion and you end up doing…

Nothing.

At least nothing that will move you  in the forward direction of your dreams.

You even start to wonder if you were cut out to run your own online business.

Surely there must be an easier way to create a lifestyle you love while making your contribution to the world.

I mean right? Isn’t there?

Nope.

If there was everyone would be doing it. (I know. I can’t even believe I used such a lame cliche. It’s all your fault

But seriously. Think about it.

The internet is the most powerful medium in the world that ever existed which allows us to reach out to our exact prospective customers in the furthest reaches of the planet.

It doesn’t get much better than this.

And hey listen, I totally ‘get’ where you are at right now.

Because I’ve been there. And every now and then I go back there when I’m not paying attention.

I just wanted you to know that it’s ok.

We all go through this when were presented with a multitude of options and mountains of information for starting an online business.

The key is to start small and grow from there.

Pick one thing and work on it exclusively. Put all your focus  and energy to it and don’t stop, don’t even look up until you’ve finished.

And listen, because this is really really important.

STOP WORRYING IF YOUR PLAN IS GOING TO WORK OR NOT.

Because it doesn’t matter and chances are it won’t, at least not the way you think.

What matters is that you gained some first hand knowledge under your belt that didn’t come out of book and you use it to leverage your business.

You now intimately know more about the workings of “X” than the person who didn’t try anything because they’re still trying to predict the outcome without the effort.

Every action you take produces results.

Good results, bad results it doesn’t matter…..all results provide you feedback and all feedback is good because it lets you know whether you are on the right path or not.

The feedback you gain will not only give you valuable insight you won’t find in a book, it also allows you to correct your course before you get way off track.

But it all starts with taking action.

Without action you have nothing.

You will remain in your fogged overwhelmed state forever until you either decide to either quit or get off your ass.

Just Decide

So take some time (not too much time) to decide which course of action you are going to take next, then sketch out a quick action plan and commit to it for the next 30 days.

And stop wondering whether you know enough.

You do.

You know more than enough to be dangerous. You just need to take the shot.

Once you get out of your own way long enough and stop entertaining your thoughts on whether its all going to work or not, you will finally be on your way to creating YOUR something great.

We can worry and procrastinate and put things off all we want but nothing really changes. If you want something, you have to go for it right now.

And the only way to overcome overwhelm is to move yourself from the thinking stage to the doing stage.

I’m a big thinker but in moments like these, thinking is highly overrated.

When overwhelm hits, it’s time to roll up the sleeves and get busy.

Free Yourself

How To Uncover Your Authentic Voice

0 Comments 16 January 2011

Over the last few months I have been doing a lot of research on self-expression and finding ways to tap into my true ‘authentic voice’.

Your ‘authentic voice’ comes from the place where the real you exists -a place free from our internal censors that water down our true thoughts.

As a blogger, it’s vital to be able to connect your readers on almost a cellular level.

With over 1 million blog posts created every day, you have to be remarkable if you want to be heard above the noise on the internet. You have to be real.

I think it’s a mistake trying to build up this authorative persona of yourself. That was the path I started down originally and never was I more uncomfortable in my own shoes. I had convinced myself that I needed to be someone else in order to be successful.

Of course, being able to express yourself freely is not something that comes easy for most of us- certainly not for me anyway.

It can be very scary at first to share with strangers the way you really see things-to trust yourself enough to open yourself up to criticism-to be ok with the fact that not everyone is going to like what you have to say.

But you’ve got to be willing to cut the majority of people loose in order to impact the few who matter. It’s not an easy thing to do when for so long we’ve been auto-programmed to try and please everyone.

However self-expression can be incredibly liberating.

I believe that true freedom and energy comes from knowing who you are and then having the courage to shout it from the rooftops.

But first you will need to touch with a very clear place buried deep within yourself. A place where our deep beliefs, our passions…maybe even our obsessions live freely without censorship.

You need to be able to burn through your first thoughts that are obstructed by ‘social politeness’ and ‘political correctness’ to get to the place where your mind actually thinks and feels, not what it ‘thinks’ it should see or feel.

Thoughts can be so quick, so fleeting- that if you are not consciously aware of them the moment they happen, you may never get the chance again to ask yourself “hey what did you mean by that?”

Then poof… that thought, that golden nugget, that glimmer of insight can disappear faster then it came.

Sadly, most people will never take the time to explore themselves. Instead they will sit mindlessly in front of the tv allowing their minds to be programmed by the big corporations who tell us how we should feel, what we should think, and what makes us happy.

I think alot of people have trouble “finding themselves” because they’ve kept themselves so distracted, they don’ t even realize they’re lost.

Just Start Writing

One of the best ways I’ve found to true self-expression is to start writing. I got in the practice of carrying a small notebook or journal with me so I can capture thoughts alive they happen.

This way I am ready to take action whenever the universe runs through me.

Start recording what your mind actually sees and feels before your internal censor squashes them. When you feel moments of inspiration write them down.

When you feel moments of clarity, write them down.

Whenever you are reading an article or book-take a moment to reflect on how it impacted your thoughts & feelings…and write them down.

Just keep writing what’s in your head. Don’t stop, don’t edit, don’t censor. Keep writing forward without looking back.

Don’t worry what other people will think. The only person who is going to see this is you. No one is going to grade you on your thoughts.

It can take a lot of practice writing before you are able peel away all the layers of social conditioning that has hidden your core self for so long. To discover all the complexities that make up you.

But when you are able to finally pierce through that tiny membrane that separates your façade and the real you…

-that’s when you will be able to radically transform the way you see yourself and your ability to communicate with others.

So how about me?

Am I able to bleed my emotion all over a page and share it with the world without fear of judgment?

I’d be lying to you if I said I could.

But I know that with every journal entry I make, I get a few words closer.