What to Do When You Don't Know What to Do
In this solo episode, I share about the struggle many of us face. We have so many things we could be doing, but what things will be the bring the best return on Investment? How do we know when to work on what? In this episode you'll learn practical steps you can take when you're trying to figure out how to best use your time.
Takeaways include:
How to navigate the double-edged sword of freedom and ambiguity.
Learn to categorize your tasks to stay focused.
Learn to approach goal setting with balance.
How to enhance your work through spiritual practices.
Why coaches for essential clarity.
GIFT FOR YOU
If you’re a meditation teacher or coach who wants to create unique meditations people listen to over and over again, enroll in my free course Meditation Script Mastery
Music Credit: Nova by River Roots - https://www.youtube.com/riverroots
Podcast Transcript
Welcome to another episode of the Art and Business of Meditation podcast. I am your host, Lou Redmond. Today is a solo episode. And let me remind you of the intention of this podcast is to help you craft beautiful pottery. That's right. Beautiful pottery that you can put in your home, that you can have as bowls and plates so that people love coming over to eat and use your pottery now. Just kidding. Of course, this podcast is not about crafting pottery, but I gotta keep you on your toes. I gotta be like, wait a second, am I listening to the right podcast? Or did Lou absolutely lose his mind? What is going on here? No, just have having some fun before we get into today's episode. If you're new here, I will say this is not a podcast about pottery. This is a podcast about helping meditation teachers, coaches, creators, artists, guides, bring their soul work, bring their mission into the world, help you make a living and a greater impact with your art, with your gifts. One of the greatest parts of working for yourself, which is what you're either doing or you're wanting to do, is not only that you can completely make stuff up and talk about pottery on a podcast about helping people in meditation, but that there is no one telling you what to do. One of the greatest parts of working for yourself is having no one telling you what to do. One of the most challenging parts of working for yourself is there is no one telling you what to do. Some people think that they want to quit their jobs and go all in on their passion. But as someone who did it, I can say, wait a second. If you're at a job, you have some higher up giving you direction on what needs to get done. Mostly you had to work knowing what needs to be prepared or accomplished. Accomplished. And what deadlines to meet. If you're not on the right track, your boss will tell you if they are a good boss. If this is your only understanding of work, then when you quit your job to pursue your passion, you might be in for a rude awakening. Yes, freedom at last. But unbounded freedom can be overwhelming, even paralyzing. When you're used to a structured week and schedule, having endless time on your hands can feel jarring. Now, I'm talking about quitting your job here. But the same can be said for retirement. After I quit my job, there would be times, literally, I'd be laying on the couch staring at the ceiling. I'd hear the mail person come by and I would feel envious. They had a purpose, they knew their task and they were getting paid. And there I was laying in a void of uncertainty with endless hours and no idea how to fill them. But let's assume that you didn't quit your job like I did, with absolutely no direction or understanding of what I would do if you did leave your job to focus on your passion. You probably already know what that looks like and best case scenario, you're already making money through it and it is demanding you leave your job so you can clear up more time to focus. So now what? Now that you have the time, what tasks will move the needle forward? The choices are literally endless and this is where hiring a coach is invaluable. They help you get clarity and direction on what to focus on. And a coach can help you navigate the sea of uncertainty. And they act as a boss to keep you on track. Especially a coach who has done the thing that you are trying to do. Hint, hint. If you're ever looking for a coach, I can help you in that way. One of the biggest lessons in being an entrepreneur is embracing ambiguity. You have to be okay with not knowing, trying new things and reminding yourself also that most things won't work Work now. It's been about 10 years since I started this journey and you would have think or thought or thunking that I would have figured it out by now. But I still face these questions and just last week I woke up with a chunk of time and had no idea what to work on. Now I have a good problem that I didn't have in 2015, which is too many options. I could do my coach training, prepare for my weekly mastermind, update my speaking profile, my website, promote a meditation course, write a newsletter, create a YouTube video, reach out to podcast guests, work on my book, create a meditation, promote my podcast, update my speaker page, create a course, go live and it's a timer. Work on admin, all the things. Plus, since I have a weekly mastermind, clients and other meetings that I need to facilitate and coach, I need to manage my energy so that I can show up fully in those spaces. So my solo creative time is limited, which feels like an added pressure to make the most of it. So what I want to do today in this episode is to give you ideas on what you can do that are both practical and spiritual. The first is to write down everything you can work on. And before you start, let's break these tasks into four categories. The first is growth activities. These are the things that will bring people to your work. These can be social media and if we're talking about Instagram or YouTube shorts, they could be Reels that are likely to get in front of new people. For Insta Timer, this can be going live. Growth activities can also involve getting in front of other audiences. Includes being a guest on a podcast or reaching out to others that you can collaborate with and get in front of their people. Reaching out, going to community events, trying to speak for free at a Lions Club or things like this can be supportive and just getting you in front of new people. The key metric is new people growth. We need to keep inviting people in so that we find that everyone that we invite in or attracting is not going to work with us. They're not going to go that deep. But that is how we start finding our thousand true fans. We have to find first a million people. Maybe not a million people, but 10,000 people that are going to come through so that a thousand really resonate. Growth activities again can include creating Instagram reels, getting in front of other audiences, reaching out to be a podcast on a guest, collaborating with others, reach your audiences, speaking at events, going live on Insight Timer or YouTube, creating a new lead magnet or free offer. Promote Lead magnet, free offer. Create YouTube content, create a challenge for people to participate in. Run paid advertising. I know I'm going fast, but you can always rewind and listen. So the next I want you to write down are your nurture and long game activities. This is what you do to nurture the people that are already in your world. This can be creating new meditations or focus Instagram content that people with context will understand. Reels on Instagram go to new people. But if you do carousels or posts with your picture and write long stories, that's more going to go to the people that already follow you nurturing them. For me, this means recording this podcast and this is where it gets blurry because the podcast is a way for new people to come in, but it's really also nurturing the people that are already invested in hearing the things that I have to share. So this podcast goes out each week as a way to nurture and for me it's also responding to comments on Insight Timer or writing and sharing my newsletter. So again for you it could be creating new meditations, getting focused on your Instagram content for your current audience, recording podcasts, responding to inside timer comments, writing and sharing newsletters, running a private community or a Facebook group, engaging with your followers on whatever platform, and also working on longer term projects. I'm kind of slowly working on a book and so understanding that some of these longer term projects they might not have an immediate payoff. They might not grow immediately, but in the long term that they are both nurturing and potentially growing and potentially making money. So again, these can be blurry, but it helps to separate and just give us a sense of what is it that we want to focus on the next your money making activities, your mma I love this term thinking about what is my money making activities, what actually brings in revenue to keep my business alive and thriving. So these things have the potential to bring you income or they directly will bring you income. These are also you marketing your direct offers. People need to know about the thing that you sell. These can also include the trainings you're in. Like I said, I'm in a coach training right now. And as you get better at your craft, you can feel confident in creating change and transformation for others. And thus you can feel confident charging higher rates equaling more money Money making activity. For you and me, they can be making new courses on insight timers. That's one of the main places to make revenue. Or for me it's promoting my paid course meditation course Creators Academy. So again recapping money making activities, making a new meditation course, promoting your one on one coaching, creating and selling online courses, launching a membership program, hosting paid workshops or webinars, running group coaching programs, selling digital products like eBooks, PDFs, guided meditations courses, organizing retreats, whether it's in person or virtual, offering corporate wellness programs or cold calling, emailing potential companies to speak, or potentially even doing this to or for one on one clients. Lastly is the administration and these are just the things that you'll need to get done in some fashion and they might not be the most creatively inspiring. They could be replying to emails, bookkeeping, planning content, scheduling sessions, anything that is just keeping the lights going or keeping things happening. Just a public service announcement to you and more so even to myself. Don't let your inbox become your to do list. Replying to people can feel productive, but it gets in the way of the tasks that actually move the needle forward. And so what I want to invite you to do is to go through your four activities, Growth, nurture, money making, admin and write everything down that you can think of. I also encourage you to make space to play around, to think, to make artsy things that may not directly relate to anything but inspire and flex your creativity. After you do that, start to get clear on short and long term goals. It's helpful to understand what your core goals that you're working toward because that is obviously going to connect you with, well, what should I be putting my intention to? And so remind yourself of your vision, why it's important to you, why you are a channel, a conduit for spirit to move through, as I'm sure you feel in your own purpose, and figure out a timeline. So in my mastermind group, we tend to work on a six week and an end of year goal. And so examples could be like, let's say your goal is to launch a group program, start to work backwards on everything you need to do your design, your copywriting, your promotion, your implementation, getting everything set up, etc. If you want to bring on more coaching clients, what are the action steps that would make it possible? Writing emails, posting on social media, reaching out one on one, direct ask, booking, intro calls, et cetera, et cetera. One of my goals is to grow this podcast listenership by 25% by the end of the year. And so here's an action step right now, go share this with someone you think might help or leave a review. That's really not my actual to do list, but since I'm talking about this, maybe might as well pitch it here. And so working backward from there though, I can take some more time to reach out to dream guests. And also I'm working on promoting this on YouTube and figuring out how a podcast title that I have on Apple or Spotify is going to sound different from a podcast title on YouTube. They're going to perform differently. So making sure that I dial that in for YouTube. Now we're in the spiritual world and this is a constant question. And I really believe that spirituality and goal setting are not contradictory. A goal can give us purpose and direction and when it's aligned with our hearts, it creates a beautiful unfolding goal. Setting goes awry when people get so fixated on getting there that they don't enjoy the process. So if you're feeling like, well, I don't have goals, yes, I hear you and it's okay to have a vision, but maybe also try to see what happens. Try to see what happens if you can not be attached to the goal, but to have a sense of direction to help you decide what to focus on. Now. Also, as you think of all the activities you just wrote down and you think of your goal, decide what is your 8020 meaning the I believe it's the Pareto principle that talks about that 20% of activities often bring 80% of the results. So this can help you focus on what is the most high leverage task. They have the biggest return on your energy and Investment, for example, new meditations, for me, they're always a high leverage activity because they get posted in many new places and they have the chance to reach new audiences. Now, shifting a bit from the practical and all the things that you can do and set up, and I encourage you to do all of it, is to remember to deepen your practices, especially maybe if you're at a time where you don't know what to do, because that is what underlies this work. Our spiritual practices help us return home to ourselves. And practices could also mean healing modalities. So whether you're in therapy, whether you're in coaching, whether you do some sort of breath work, you go on retreats, it doesn't just have to be sitting in meditation, any inner work modality. Because as we deepen into our true nature, nature happens. An acorn doesn't need a plan. It becomes the fulfillment of its nature and unfolds into everything that it was designed to be. And I believe we are like that acorn. We just have a lot more stuff in the way, which is another reason for hiring some sort of transformational coach and mentor. I'll give a straight plug again that if my work calls to you, what I bring to this that is so different than someone that you might reach out to for just more of a business coach or mentor in that way, I do offer that mentorship. But it's also the inner work clearing away so that your natural unfolding happens so you enjoy it more, so you feel the sense of connection and aliveness and purpose. Because when you're filled with that primordial energy, you are inspired to take the right action. We don't have to make a plan. We don't have to get too strategized. It will come. But if you are connected, you'll know what the next step is to take. And that's a big intention with the work that I do with clients. And so maybe this sign of not knowing is a sign to deepen your meditation practice or whatever brings you closer to your true nature. And if you need inspiration to return to your practices and trust the unfolding, highly recommend. Whether you've read it before to reread or read Michael Singer's the Surrender Experiment. It will remind you that you are not the one calling the shots. And the more you align, the more you won't need to do anything. I just learned of this beautiful song called the Way Knows by Lindsay Scott, which captures the essence of unfolding. And I'm actually going to sing it for you because it's my podcast and I like to sing. So it goes. You don't have to know the way, the way knows the way. You don't have to find the way, feel the way, trust the way, the way. No, the way knows the way, knows the way. So beautiful. No need to push the way knows the way. You can't force the acorn to sprout. Everything unfolds in perfect timing. Do your inner work and the outer work will make itself known. I want to add one more quote that relates to this and this is a Hal Elrod quote and he uses personal development. But you can insert spiritual development and you can just really insert spiritual connection. Says the level of personal development is directly related to your level of success. And so taking that into a more spiritual account, the more connected you are, the more things will unfold, the more good things will happen, the more quote unquote success will happen on an outer sense. But you don't even need it. You won't even need it. It just. It'll become a reflection of the success you feel internally. All right, so two other things. Maybe that you don't know what to do is just a sign that there's nothing to do. And this can probably only be possible if you built a foundation for your work where you don't need to do things, you don't really need to bring in the income necess necessarily. And it's okay for you to take a break and if that's you invitation to slow down and to appreciate the fact that you can slow down because isn't that part of what we work for? I'm going to say it again. If you don't know what to do, maybe this is a sign that it's time to hire a coach. I can't emphasize how supportive this can be. Anyone who wants to do well in their field brings on coaches and mentors. And guess what? If you are a coach and if you've never done any kind of coaching, there is a misalignment because you should be taking the medicine that you are giving and so reach out. Connect with me in the link in this podcast. If you want to see what my coaching is like and submit your interest to work together, I can help you get clear on all of those activities and do that inner work to bring them forward. However, please, it doesn't have to be me. Some of you are not gonna resonate with me or some of you are gonna feel called in other directions. Please hire any coach or mentor. I'm just offering myself in case it resonates for you, but really it's just choosing finding your person. I have so many interviews with other coaches and mentors and guides on this podcast and one of the most rewarding parts of the podcast is when I bring someone on and then I hear from someone else that they found the their coach to work with through my show. That's really my long term vision is I want to use my mission to impact millions of people, to create a really strong community and audience. I want to bring that vision to create that platform because I want it to support other people. I get so much from that. I get so much from it that I'd rather bring the people to other people and just keep doing whatever I do that brings more people in. So we're working on it all. So to recap what to do when you don't know what to do, write down everything you can to work on. Break them out into growth activities, nurture activities, money making activities and admin. Get clear on your short and long term goals and work backwards from your goals. Decide what your most high leverage activities are that bring the most results. Focus more time on them. Deepen your spiritual practices. Come back home to yourself. Remember that when you are connected, when you are fulfilled, when you are tapped into your true nature, everything unfolds from there. Take a break, give some space, wait for something new to come and hire a coach or join a group, join a mastermind, get some support. We don't have to do it alone. We can't do it alone. I would not be even close to here without the support that I've received from coaches, mentors, programs, all the things. So you're probably doing that already. But if not, just a reminder to invest in yourself. A mentor once told me, any dollar I invest in myself, my work is going to come back times 10. And I've taken that to heart. And it's a beautiful energy to think of just circulating. We are circulating our energy around and trusting that it will come back. Not doing it because we need it to come back. Right now, we don't want to have that need or that expectation, but honoring and remembering that there is so much more than enough to go around. And as we keep growing, as we keep aligning, as we keep trusting, as we keep walking in faith in the next right inspired action. I promise you, good things are coming, but also good things are here. Come back home to yourself. Feel that. Maybe even take a breath with me. Feel all the goodness, the love, the success that is right here and right. Now. Sending you so much love and support and blessings for your journey. You know that I am rooting for you. Let me know how I can help. I'll chat with you soon. And before you take off, if you like this episode or like this podcast, please consider taking a moment to leave a review. It really helps the podcast grow. And if you are someone wanting to use meditation to share your gifts, I have a free course called Meditation Script Mastery. You can click the link in the podcast description and get you set up with learning how to create unique meditations that you can share with your students, your clients, and you can share with your friends. So thanks again for listening and I'll see you next time.