Hello. So today, this is episode 3. We are talking about decision energy. What it is like when you make a decision on your scary goal or any decision, [00:01:00] but we're talking about scary goals, and you commit and what that is like. And often why we hesitate from doing this, why we put off making decisions, we don't wanna make them, we don't really commit, and what that's like.
So if you're doing that, I'm gonna talk through some ways to overcome that so you can make powerful decisions towards your scary goal. But first, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone, not only that has listened to the podcast, and that is to you, dear listener, if you are listening right now. But those of you that reached out, people have rated it. This is the craziest, craziest thing. And thank you so much for reaching out for all your lovely comments.
And the bit that I love the most is just hearing about your own thoughts about scary goals, your own goals that you're working towards, how you're deciding to listen to this calling inside of yourself, something bigger that you want to create, and you're going after it. It's just the most amazing thing. I feel like we're on this journey together, which is why I wanna be so open and honest about what I'm going [00:02:00] through. And, yeah, it's just so fun. So keep sharing them with me.
I absolutely love it. Now I also just wanna say, you can probably hear I'm pretty blocked up at the moment. I have had another cold.
It seems to be, like, a week on, week off at the moment just with Flynn and Nursery and other, like, kid groups, and it's wintertime. I actually feel okay. Energy wise, I feel fine. It's just that it sounds a little bit nasally. So this podcast episode is gonna be nasally.
Also, the craziest thing came up when I submitted the podcast to be published to Spotify last week. So you have to kinda upload it or link I linked it and connected it and then published it. I got this screen came up, you know, on my laptop, like, with Spotify.
It was like, congratulations. And all this, like, confetti was raining down. I was like, it's published. It was the craziest thing because I had it so enjoyed everything up to that moment, creating the podcast, you know, even taking the big scary action, going through [00:03:00] it, it almost felt like I wasn't allowed. I had this sense that in any moment, I was gonna get, like, an email or someone was gonna reach out and be like, I'm sorry, but you can't do that.
Like, you're not allowed to do that. As in, like, you need to check it with someone else before you do this. You didn't get permission to create podcast. You didn't you just decided and then you did it. , it's the weirdest thing.
And I guess thinking back, it's like we have this conditioning. We're often brought up to ask others for their opinions, to look to others, to experts for the answer. You know, even starts with, like, parents and teachers and believing that other people know what's best for us. And, again, it comes back to what we'll talk about today with decisions. Sometimes we can get into asking others permission to make decisions or getting other people's buy in before we make a decision as to whether we should do something or not because oftentimes it can feel scary if the decision doesn't work out in the way [00:04:00] we we hoped.
Then then we're like, well, someone else is involved, so it's not all on me. Whereas it's only been really in the last few years that I've given myself permission to make a decision. Like, this is what I am doing now. Somewhere this conditioning of seeking permission, asking others opinions, checking if I can actually make this decision. I'm just crazy.
It was a sense that someone was gonna say, you can't do that. It's like, work can't be this fun. It can't be this easy. I can't just go and just some random girl in Scotland. I just go and create a podcast and put it out into the world.
Like, actually, I can. So if any of this is coming up for you guys, like, oh, but I don't know if I'm allowed. Right? That's that's the 1 that keeps coming back for me, a belief. Like, like, am I allowed to do this?
All these rules of how things should be. It's like, of course, you're allowed. You give yourself permission for it. So I just wanna offer that. The other thing that's been coming up a lot is a lot of perfectionistic [00:05:00] thoughts of my brain saying, oh, but it's not good enough.
Not in terms of the content, but, for example, I got my hair done last Friday, and my brain's like, oh, you should just rerecord the intro because you filmed it. It was a little bit dark. You actually missed a few words. Like, it doesn't it's not that powerful, the intro. It's a bit fast and rambly.
You should just rerecord that. I know that is just not a good use of my time and energy at the moment. And, also, I'm purposely not doing it because I don't wanna get into the tiny tweaking details of stuff that actually doesn't make that much of a difference. If you have noticed that I, like, skipped some words and ramble a bit, okay. But it doesn't change the actual value of the content for me anyway, and I'm really just allowing myself to let it not be how perfect I want it to be and be okay with that.
Because I know my energy is better placed coming up with new ideas, thinking about how to make them really simple [00:06:00] and digestible for you, coming up with stories, like, thinking of the content is far more useful than rerecording the intro right now. I will do it at some point, but for right now, it's letting myself really just sit in wanting to change things and not. And it's the same with and we'll be able to get into the teaching. I just know there's some I just wanna share some things that are going on for me right now. And the other piece of that is I've had for over a year to want to update the website and make some tweaks and simplify it a little bit.
I haven't done it. And my brain's like, but you've got the website linked on the show notes. People can go to the website, and it's out of date. It doesn't really talk about what you do.
It's not that it's not perfect. Right? And, again, it's sitting in the discomfort of that is not a reason not to take action. That is not a reason not to press publish, not to show up and record another episode. Okay.
Yeah. I would love to have this, like, shiny new cool looking episode episode of cool looking website, but I don't. And [00:07:00] that's okay or not right now. It needs refreshed, and that's alright. And it's not a reason not to keep moving forward.
And, again, thinking if there's anything for you that there's a big scary goal you're working towards, whatever that is, is your brain offering you reasons for the why it doesn't want to start the perfect condition. So just allow yourself to be okay with imperfection, taking imperfect action. And that's 1 of the things I really wanna demonstrate on this podcast is it's not perfect. I'm showing up.
I'm gonna make so many mistakes, and that's okay. And I just wanna show that imperfect action, that's how you practice and get better. So even as I've been editing it, it's quite amazing. The software I have, it comes up with all the the transcript so I can see all the words. And realizing I do sometimes skip words.
I start a sentence and then my brain's like, jump to something else mid sentence and then come back. [00:08:00] I say um sometimes. Not actually that much. I say okay. I say right.
I say like. Oh, the other good 1. Here we go. Here's me jumping to something mid sentence, and I will bring it back. It's like it's software, obviously, with my Scottish accent.
So many times I've said scary goals club and it comes up with scary girls club. I don't know if that's a Scottish thing goals and girls Goals and girls. I guess maybe it is. Anyway, so welcome to the scary girls club. Am I a scary girl?
Are you a scary girl? So it's been so interesting even just making peace with my own quote, unquote imperfections of how I talk and how I communicate because I'm seeing it written out. It's like, oh, did it do I really say these things? Is that how it talk? Does it jump all these different places at a million miles an hour?
Yes. And that's okay. So also knowing, like, when you take imperfect action, you learn as you go. And if you're willing to make it [00:09:00] imperfect, then you will improve. So for example, because I'm willing to show up and just talk about things that I think are important that hopefully will resonate with you guys, I can see in the transcript, okay.
These things are ways that I talk. Maybe I can shift some of them. So now I'm a bit more aware of how I'm communicating and what ways I'm communicating so I can shift it. I'm getting a feedback look. I'm taking perfect action.
I'm kind of reflecting, adjusting, seeing what's working, seeing what's not, taking more imperfect action. The same with the intro. I could have recorded it last week or today, but what if I waited 10 or 20 podcast episodes or 50 podcast episodes? When I do rerecord, it's gonna be so much more powerful. I'm gonna have shifted how I show up and maybe have, clearer things I want to say.
Whatever it is, just allowing it to be imperfect as you continue to grow and take action and then changing it and not getting bogged down. This is what we often do with the kind of perfectionistic pieces, bogged down in the tiny details [00:10:00] that actually don't make a big difference because it keeps us safe. It keeps us from not having to do the scary thing, which is recording the episode and pressing publish.
So I wanna offer if this is you and you find yourself getting bogged down in tiny details and reasons not to do something, just let it be there. Be the the thing I love to think about is we are all imperfect humans. There is no such thing as perfection. It doesn't even exist. It's this made up thing our brain tells us we should be attaining so that we never get there so that we can just stay small and stay safe.
So you are perfectly imperfect. I am perfectly imperfect. We all make mistakes. We all are learning and growing and shifting and becoming different than we were last week and better at things and improving. And the only way to improve is to take that action and then learn from it.
Be okay when you make mistakes. I'm gonna make so many mistakes in this podcast, and I'm here for all of it, even if it's public to bring it on. Okay. That [00:11:00] was a slight slight tangent, but I just I'm finding it also so helpful for me to really understand this journey that I'm going through and what I'm noticing is coming up and being able to reflect that back, and maybe it's helpful for you guys too. Okay, so what I wanna talk about today is making a decision and committing to it and the power, the energy that comes with that. Okay? So this is a decision when you decide this is the scary goal I'm going after. This is the time frame. This is how I will know it's done.
And you commit to it. You decide this is what I'm doing. Fully commit, I'm going all in on making this happen, the most amazing thing happens. You get this rush of energy, of motivation, of, courage to go and start taking action, putting things into place. Your mind is more open to opportunities.
Things will seem like they unfold in a way that you could never have imagined [00:12:00] before you made the commitment. Okay?
You know, this amazing quote by Scottish mountaineer William Hutchison Murray, which I'm gonna read this out now. It's it's so good. A few years ago, a colleague I used to work with sent it to me, and it just resonated on so many levels. It was what I had found to be true, and I just kept coming back to it. I was like, oh, it's so so good.
Okay. I'm gonna read it out now. So concerning all acts of initiative and creation, there is 1 elementary truth, that the moment 1 definitely commits oneself then providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help 1 that would never otherwise have occurred and which no man could have dreamed of would have come their way. So good. And I have found this to be true time and time again when we shift from having different options and not making a decision and maybe going back [00:13:00] and forth, and we commit. We narrow in. We're like, this is what I am doing.
It just yeah. Providence moves to whatever you believe, whether you believe in providence or not, it's like this power. It's like the the universe delivers things or whatever resonates with you. Opportunities open up. People reach out.
People help you. You help you make this dream, this decision, whatever you've committed to actually come alive. And we found this to be true specifically. I'll give you a specific example. In 20 17 Luke and I decided we were gonna do a human powered expedition across Alaska.
So we were aiming to become the first people to travel human powered from the southernmost to northernmost point of mainland Alaska and we'd been dreaming up some kind of expedition we wanted to do together. So a few years previously, he had become the first Scot to ski solo to the South Pole. I'd helped him with the logistics and the PR, and we're like, we know that the next expedition we wanna do is [00:14:00] gonna be together, and what is it gonna be? We were dreaming up all these ideas with all these different maps that we Google Earth up and just letting our mind you know, the the fun process of dreaming up a goal, like, oh, what would really light us up? What is really exciting?
What is meaningful for us? And we settled on this. And as soon as we have we were like, that's it. This is what we're doing. The energy, the motivation, suddenly, we reaching out to people.
When you have this goal, this it's like this bigger vision that you were bought into, other people can buy into it as well. Other people understand where you're going and they offer how they can help. We had people all across Alaska that we had never met that were willing to let us post massive food parcels from Scotland all the way out to Alaska that we could then pick up on our expedition. So we didn't have to carry all this food with us for 3 months. We picked it up along the way, and we posted it out in advance.
We had a salmon [00:15:00] fisher bit in Southeast Alaska help us get to the southernmost point. We had friends back home that were helping, that were supporting, helping us ship our gear out. I mean, it was just unbelievable, and it was really and it was the same with the South Pole expedition. It's like once you have that big vision, you have that commitment, people can buy into that. It's not always about other people.
It's like you are bought into that. And just having that commitment, having that decision made, everything shifts. Because if you think about it, before we make decisions, we are in this kind of uncertain, not sure place. Right? Like, oh, I don't know what to decide.
I'm not sure. Like, when we're in that place, it's very easy to go back and forth on this. Oh, wait. It could be this. It could be that.
Maybe we ask other people, and this is what I used to do. I'm like, well, I don't really know. So I'll ask other people what they think. We think the decision is gonna be made somehow outside of us. Maybe we spend time [00:16:00] researching.
Like, oh, I wonder what other people are doing, what other people are thinking. Like, we're looking for the answer to the decision somewhere outside of ourself. And this is because usually there is some underlying fear of commitment that if it doesn't work out, then the decision was on us and we have to deal with that. And And we'll get onto this in future episodes about taking that ownership and, you know, what if you fail, all of that. But going back and forth, not deciding, it uses up so much mental energy, so much time, like, the time spent when you haven't made a decision and you're like, oh, is it this? Is it this? And when we tell ourselves we don't know, we literally shut down our all of our creativity. Like, when we're feeling unsure, when we're feeling uncertain, it's really hard to access the part of our brain that's going to be coming up with amazing ideas of how it could be possible. We just almost shut all of that down.
We can't harness that creativity, that innovation. Even within your business, like, noticing are there places [00:17:00] that you're not deciding, that you're questioning your decision, you're going back and forth, you're asking others for their opinion, you're checking out what other people are doing. All of that is a sign that you're not trusting yourself and that you're not taking that ownership or that decision. If you are doing that, it's okay.
We all do it. But how much time and mental energy is it costing you? Going back and forth on decisions, not moving forward, it's such a time suck, and it's such a mental energy suck. And you miss out on making that decision and having the energy and the motivation and the momentum pouring in from that place. So if you haven't decided what your scary goal is and you don't know what that is yet or for some decision that you're putting off, I really wanna encourage you to make it and really just feel that power.
I mean, like, I am a decision maker. I am decisive. This is what I want. Trusting yourself that you know this is the decision you want. There is no right or wrong decision.
You [00:18:00] just make it the right Let's do that. Like, you're always gonna make what you think is the right decision at that point in time. Let's do that. Like, you're always gonna make what you think is the right decision at that point in time. Maybe things will change in the future.
Okay. Life changes. Things happen. You learn things along the way. That's okay.
But I just wanna offer make that decision and just really sink into it, and you will feel that, like, lightning of energy just, like, pouring out of you being like, okay. Let's go. Other people will see that. Other people will start to help you as well along the way. So whatever decision you're putting off, commit.
Make that commitment and just see how things are gonna shift. See how your whole being is gonna shift. Like, you're gonna show up in a completely different way. It was even the same with this podcast. I was kinda going back and forth like, what's the name?
And is it this? And is it this? And as soon as I was like, oh, it's the scary girls [00:19:00] club or the scary girls club, I was like, this is the decision. Boom. Suddenly, it was like boom boom boom boom boom.
And I released the like, recorded the first episode and released it within, oh, it was a few days of actually being like, no. This is the name. I've been going back and forth. I'm like, I'll do it at some point, and the name is this. What's the name?
And I just committed, and I just made it. And I was like, this is it. And things started to happen so much more quickly. So make that decision. It's gonna save you so much time, so much mental energy, and , things are gonna unfold in a way that you could never ever have imagined.
So I hope you have an amazing rest of the day and an amazing rest of the week, and happy making those decisions and committing to them, really owning them. And I'll see you next time.
