How to Get Unstuck

What are you hiding behind that's keeping you stuck or slowing you down from making progress on your vision? And for many of us, it's not that we don't know what to do, it's that we get stuck behind these invisible barriers that we've built for ourself. Perfectionism, procrastination, fear, overthinking, or even the idea that we need to get ready to take that action.

What's good? I'm Rob Cressy, and I want to uncover a few things that we hide behind to help you break free and step into your power so that you can create more of what you want that is aligned towards your vision in a very authentic manner. And the inspiration behind this is yesterday I had a 90-minute conversation with my friend Phoebus, who is also a coach. And in it, we explored self-development, authenticity, and aligned action.

And one of the big themes that came out of this for both of us was all around hiding behind the work. And I'm putting the work in air quotes because for any of us who live that life of personal growth and self-development, we understand what the work means, a.k.a. the work on ourselves, the inner work.

And one of the things that I've experienced being a part of a lot of different entrepreneurial and personal growth and coaching-related communities is how amazing it can feel to live in being, to cultivate your being, the best version of who you are, and to radiate this. And we can even teach this to other people. But there's a challenge oftentimes. So many people are hiding behind the being, meaning they only want to live in being and not actually taking those aligned actions that bring everything that they want into life.

And they sit there and they say, wait a second, what's going on in my life? I'm creating my being, the best version of who I am. I'm radiating. I love this. I live in this. Why are my results not happening faster? And that's what we really explored and peeled the onion on. And I want to dive a little bit deeper on this because it's really alive in me right now. And I think it's something that a lot of people are challenged by. And hopefully this can be some inspiration for you if you're going through something like this.

And this is something that can certainly apply to anybody on a personal growth and development journey, especially for people who want to build a powerful brand or create content or marketing or impact at a higher level. And I'm going to start with this. Where do I struggle with this first? Because certainly you cannot give to others that which you're not experiencing yourself.

And hiding behind the work is something that I've got a very intimate relationship with because I'm a master creator. And I love to create and I love to build. And I love to create systems and processes and frameworks and courses and programs and emails and content that can help people. Similar to this message right here. And in the process, it can be very easy to do a lot of building in the background to where you look up. And I guess I would say to myself, all right, where is the external action that I've taken to where somebody can actually consume or create with what I've done?

And I understand that there is a difference between building a solid foundation for something. It's something that in the building of Unlimited Coach with Colin Scotland and I, we are starting at zero. And when you start a new business or a new project, man, there is going to be a large element of this, of the building that solid foundation. It's why as entrepreneurs, we so often hear or say or live that we're building the airplane and flying it and selling it at the same time. And that's always going to be a reality.

But I know for a lot of people who are creators, we can also hide behind constantly building and not shipping the work. And maybe you ship the work, but then do you promote the work? Do you have that marketing engine behind it? And it's something that is constantly top of mind for me because I actually enjoy building and creating the same way that a coach enjoys living and cultivating their state of being in this. So I always want to be a mirror first in myself of being like, hey, am I challenged by this? Yeah.

I probably also hide behind the story that I tell myself. And in previous episodes, I've talked about abundance mindset versus scarcity mindset, where does my scarcity mindset pop up? That not enoughness and that lack. And so often for high performers that can all be around our relationship to our vision. We have big goals, big dreams, massive visions that we are working towards every single day.

And if you've not yet created those results in your life that you want, it can be very easy to slip into lack and fear and judgment and not enoughness to where you start questioning yourself. And once you start questioning yourself, now you're slowing down and you're coming from scarcity, not abundance. And obviously the scarcity is not going to create more of what you want. And this is a lot of what the conversation with Phoebus and I was going on together.

And why in the world do we hide? Because it's not something that oftentimes we are doing in a way where we're trying to self-sabotage ourselves. It's almost like this silent killer. And here's a few thoughts around this. Number one, comfortable is always comfortable. And it's probably the number one challenge for anybody trying to become a better version of themselves or build a better business. Is it's very easy to stay where you are because with growth, you're oftentimes doing things you've never done before. So there can be some friction, some resistance that you are overcoming there.

And then number two, and I think this is the thing that's been the biggest challenge in my journey so far, is we want to take effective action or as I say to myself, right action. So you're like, all right, cool. I've cultivated my being. I've done the work. I'm the best version of myself. Now time to start taking that action on my vision. And when you've got this big vision, there's a lot of options. And it's why a decision fatigue is a thing for so many people. So then you say, all right, well, what's the right thing for me to be working on right now that is going to create my results?

And the fallacy is that there is a right or a wrong thing in this. Yes, we can try and take aligned action things that are going to get us closer to where we want to go. But you can take course A, you can take course B, you can go upside down, you can go around, you can go under. There's a lot of different options.

But if you choose one of those options and it does not create the results as quickly as you would like, it can be very easy to then question yourself and being like, huh, maybe I should double check or double think what it is that I'm doing. And now you're slowing down yourself by questioning the path that you're on as opposed to leading an aligned and intentional and effective way of seeing your action.

And one of the things that Phoebus and I talked about was all around brand building. And there's a lot of challenges that people have in building a brand and sharing content and creating that positive impact out there in the world. And this can be for people at zero all the way up to mastery level. And what I'm about to say is probably one of the most powerful things that I say to a lot of my friends and clients, because I've lived in the world of content for so much.

And so many of them think that they need to be ready or, you know what, I'm going to do it in a few months because then I'll have had enough time to strategize or get my formula right of like hook, opening, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And what they fail to realize is that they are stopping themselves. And there's this element of perfectionism or I am ready when dot, dot, dot that stops people from shipping even the smallest thing.

And when I was sharing this with Phoebus, the way that I described this to him is that a lot of people will be good at content. They can even record, but then they allow the distribution to stop them. Oh, I got to make myself look like Gary Vee. It's got to have captions and titles and all of this stuff. And then I've got to be an omni channel brand builder. So it's got to live on TikTok and Instagram and YouTube.

And with all of this, now the process is slowing you down instead of saying, wait a second, I'm feeling something in the moment that I want to share similar to what I'm doing right now. I'm going to ship it and it can be done in four minutes.

So here's always my encouragement because the way that we think about this is think like a painter. A painter doesn't paint only to sell their painting. Of course, that's what they would love to do. But if that was the case, if they did not sell paintings, then they're never going to paint. But the key for a painter is they love the act of painting. Therefore, their metric of success is the one over the zero. Did I paint or did I not?

And this is a very important framework as it relates to what are we hiding behind? Because so often we think that we need this like perfect canvas where it's like, listen, I'm totally ready. I've got my script. I see how everything aligns. Boom. Now I've got this. As opposed to, and this is what I shared with my friend Hakim when we were on our creation vacation is, how about you just share what's alive in you?

I would love for you to drop all expectations of what you think that creating or sharing something needs to be. And instead, you're going to say, what's alive in me? Press record. Because the best thing that you can do is be you and be that authentic version of you. And there's a fallacy that, oh, I've got to chop up my podcast and create all this micro content. And then I got to polish it up. And then I get to distribute it. And man, I don't like doing any of that stuff.

Versus, hey, here's what's alive in me. If you have something inside of you that can help even one person, it's our duty to share it with the world. I'm going to upload that as a reel on Instagram. I'm going to upload that up to my Facebook. And wait a second. That only took me about four minutes. Maybe I'll just add the auto captions in there to make it look okay. And that's it. Because we can overcomplicate the process in the name of production.

But the reality is, and this is where I'm living right now in the way that I create content with my brand, is one is more important than zero. I've run production teams for graphic design, audio, video, images for myself and for clients. I understand the machine. I teach the machine. I've gotten hired to help brands create that machine. And at the same time, what's more important for me is sharing what's alive in me and how I can help somebody else in their journey.

Because one of the things that you're going to learn when you stop hiding behind whatever it is that story is that you're telling yourself is, number one, the action that you're going to take at first is going to be messy. And that's a good thing. Because one of the levels to this game that I know to be true, because I've lived this, is what I call loving imperfect content. Or we can say loving imperfect action.

That the best in the world, we don't think and think and think and think. We have, ooh, I have an idea. Boom. Implement at the speed of instruction. Let me post this thing. And you're like, wow. I'm glad that's out there. It's not the greatest thing that I've ever created in the world. But you quickly realize something. The most authentic version of something out there in the world. And you learn the hard way that the most overproduced content that you create usually performs the worst.

Whereas something where you're walking down the street and you're in line at Starbucks and you're like, hey, this thing just happened to me. I wanted to share that with you guys. And boom, you have this positive thing of value and inspiration that can help other people. And that ends up becoming the thing. And of course, there's room for all of these things here together.

But when you understand a tool in your tool belt is your ability to create messy action, you're like, oh, the only thing that's stopping me from creating more of what I want in my life is myself and my ability to press record or to just do that thing. Because what you learn by doing the thing is that you get more confident, aka earned confidence.

So the thing that you are hiding behind that you're afraid of doing, you doing it will actually create more confidence and momentum because now you're the person who is in the game, not sitting on the sidelines. And this is the biggest thing so much with how we hide behind things, perfectionism, overthinking, procrastination, fear, judgment, self-limiting beliefs. We're not in the game. You might think you're in the game or you're wearing all of the equipment or man, you're on the on deck circle. But are you actually in the game? And are you in the game every single day?

So here's two simple things that I can share with you that can help you stop hiding and stop being unstuck and get in that game. Number one, one is always greater than zero. To me, this is all about the micro mindset. Let's not overthink this. Let's keep this simple. Anything that you ship, any action that you do is always going to be better than no action. And this is especially true with brand building and marketing and anything that you are going to ship out there into the world.

Because the best in the world know that this is part of a learning process. That there's no such thing as failure because for every failure or thing that does not work, we can learn from it. If we can learn from something, we can be better for next time. And if we can be better for next time, then that means we have a greater chance of success moving forward.

And then number two, and I just mentioned this, action creates confidence and clarity. So the fallacy that you need to think about this more, and God knows this is probably the number one thing that I've struggled with myself. Where I'm like, man, I've been thinking about this all day every day for 10 years. What have I not thought about? Misplaced focus. It's not about thinking more. It's about more action. Because the action will inform you with your decision one way or another.

So my encouragement is to live more in your heart and less in your head and less thinking. Because when you lead with your heart and you say, hey, what's alive in me right now? Oh, I just had a conversation with my friend Phoebus. There was a nugget that resonated with him and me. Hey, I'm going to share this with some other people. Boom. Boom. Now we're cooking with gas.

And my encouragement for you on this is, this is something that can feel hot, uncomfortable, icky. It can be a loop in your head. It's usually a negative pattern because most of us, if we're hiding behind our work, this isn't just like a one day thing. This might be a one month, three months, one year, five years sort of thing.

Because you can say, man, have I been thinking about starting a YouTube channel or a podcast or learning how to use ChatGPT or integrate AI into my business and my marketing or getting to the gym or committing to that next level of fitness and well-being for yourself.

So like, for example, for me, one of the things recently is I've implemented stretching into my life every single day, 10 minutes a day, because flexibility and mobility has not been a strength of mine. And I'm tired of hiding behind the story of I'm just not flexible. And I said, you know what? Boom. I am done with that. I am making a change immediately. Start using the Peloton app every single day.

So I want to send this encouragement your way that one, I both feel you on this and so many of us, we all hide behind things. And the solution is so much easier and so much better. And it is totally aligned to who you are and everything you want to create in your life.

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