8. One Simple Tool To Create More Time in Your Life
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you’re only taking shallow breaths, going to bed thinking about every task you didn’t complete, waking up worrying about everything you have to do, with no idea how you’re going to get it all done? It’s exhausting, but this is a common experience for Ambitious-ish women, and it’s impossible to show up as our best selves when we’re busy beyond belief.
So, why are you so busy all the time? There is a reason. And once you discover what that is in this week’s episode, you can implement the one simple tool we’re teaching you to start creating more time and energy in your life. The amazing news? You can do this all without rearranging your schedule. This is self-care from the inside out, no cold plunges, saunas, or laser treatments required.
Tune in this week to discover one simple tool to help smart, driven women like you create more time and energy in their lives. Find out how using this tool for just five minutes a day can help you create more than 10 extra hours in your week, and how to start prioritizing yourself and your well-being so you can organize your life in a way that protects you and intentionally supports your self-care from the inside out.
Want to start ramping up your self-awareness so you’re on to yourself before Burnout fully takes over? Click here to get your free Burnout Alarm Bell Study Guide!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
How the ‘solutions’ marketed as self-care do nothing to address the larger issues that create burnout.
Why real self-care is self-driven and needs to be done from the inside out.
How, as people socialized as women, we push ourselves too hard when we’re already in a world that pushes us too hard.
Why nurtured, nourished people who love and care for themselves are the real rockstars of the world, and how to become one.
An exercise to get clear on how you’re currently spending your time and what is keeping you so busy.
Why productivity isn’t about getting more done, and what it’s really about.
Why your worth has nothing to do with how much you get done each day.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
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Full Episode Transcript:
Nina: I’m having one of those weeks, Kel. I’m only taking shallow breaths. I’m sprinting through my day and every light needs to be green to get it all done.
Kelle: Been there, Nina. Let me guess. You go to bed thinking about what you didn’t get done. You wake up thinking about everything you have to do, and you have no idea how you’re going to get it all done.
Nina: Yeah, totally. And I hate the way I’m showing up along the way. But this is when I need to do my work to unpack the real reason why I’m so busy all the time. Likely the impossible standards I hold for myself, impossible and damaging.
Kelle: Yeah. Today we’ll talk about the one simple truth you need to understand to create more time and energy in your day without rearranging your schedule, to hashtag self-care from the inside out, so no cold plunges or laser treatments required.
Nina: We’ll offer one simple strategy specifically for smart driven women like you to practice for five minutes a day to create 10 plus more hours in your week.
Kelle: Alright, let’s get going. This is Ambitious-Ish.
Burnout? Check. Daily overwhelm? Check. Resentment rash, stress, and a complete lack of well-being? Check, check, check! You’re not alone. We’re your hosts, Kelle & Nina, and we are here to help you feel calm, balanced, and empowered so you can redefine success, make choices that feel authentic, and ACTUALLY enjoy the life you work so hard to create. You ready? Let’s go.
Kelle: Hey, I’m Kelle.
Nina: And Nina here. So I was on social media the other day and went down a bit of a rabbit hole, Kel, as one does. But I was kind of blown away at how bombarded I was by all of the hashtag self-care messaging on the platform from cold plunges and saunas to Pilates and laser treatments.
Kelle: Totally. So when we inevitably find ourselves without the time to keep up with these tools of self-care solutions, it’s on us. We’re doing something wrong because we’re not keeping up with our self-care.
Nina: Can we be real? Let’s just be real. The Jade face roller. The Vagus Nerve Pillow spray and the new blah blah blah laser treatment are like empty calories. They don’t deliver real deep life changing nourishment.
Kelle: I mean this kind of self-care, of course, it’s fun like a sugar high, but it’s outward focused and short lived at best.
Nina: And it’s everywhere we look. The wellness industry is worth close to $4.4 trillion with a T and targeted largely at women.
Kelle: Oh my God. What? How many zeroes is that? I could go off on a rant here about how our capitalistic consumerism driven society and its marketing machine tells us we need to buy the latest $200 cream or detox or this special hair tool so that we can finally be good enough and pretty enough. We get that outside validation that we’ve been programmed to crave. It’s just so gross. I’ll save that for another time.
Nina: All we have to do is buy these things and do those things and stay pretty and skinny and quiet. I’m unsubscribing, anyone else?
Kelle: Here’s the thing, these methods do nothing to change the larger systems that have us craving relief in the first place. We dive into wellness without knowing that the real solutions need to come from within ourselves.
Nina: Yeah, real self-care, the kind that creates boundaries, helps us make difficult decisions and shifts our relationships, including the one we have with ourselves, is an inside job. It’s an internal self-reflective process. It’s self-care from the inside out.
Kelle: Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with you, rock star. You do not need to be fixed. Just like you, we need to learn how to self-care differently to manage our burnout, our anxiety, and our workaholic perfectionistic tendencies.
Nina: Yeah, boundaries, working smarter, not harder, kickass relationships, more time and sustainable success are all available when we learn to accept ourselves and make choices that bring us closer to ourselves.
Kelle: The big bonus here, we can maintain these results internally, not by something bought on a shelf. Real self-care is self-driven, sourced from you by you.
Nina: This is all to say that there’s a deeper reason why you’re so busy all the time and a massage or pedicure isn’t going to change this.
Kelle: So many of us have PhDs in depriving and neglecting ourselves. We’ve learned to push ourselves hard when the problem is that we’re already pushed too hard.
Nina: And it totally makes sense. As humans socialized as women we’re rewarded when we serve others before ourselves, to over-serve, overdo without complaining at our own expense.
Kelle: Yeah, you want to become more present in your life for the people that are most important to you. But you can’t turn off all the to-do’s and don’t know how to relax. We get it. We have been there. This is totally our wheelhouse.
Nina: And we’re here to offer your worth has nothing to do with how much you get done each day. Nurtured, nourished people who love themselves and care for themselves are the real rock stars of the world we live in.
Kelle: We know what you’re feeling because we have been there, working long hours. I was in pharmaceuticals, Nina was in PR, hustling to get it all done, but only to get home and continue to rush at home, feeling exhausted and then wake up and do it all again the next day.
Nina: Yeah, we’re on a mission to help women do stress better and do life better, to have the freedom to still live their incredible lives without worrying that they haven’t accomplished enough in the process. To actually enjoy the life they’ve worked so hard to create.
Kelle: Alright, so an exercise for you. We’re going to do a mini time audit. So just take a look back at the last two weeks. How did you spend your time and in what areas of your life? So a few examples are work, travel, kids’ schedules, summer schedules, driving, projects at work, seeing family, cleaning out the closet and stuff around the house. My email inbox, which by the way, please do not email me unless it’s urgent, just text me. I’ll give you my phone number if you want my phone number. Emails get lost and I will respond in a month, sorry, not sorry.
Nina: So take a look at this inventory and then consider why? Why did you choose to spend your time in those areas? Why have you felt so busy, too busy? How do you want to spend your time? How long have you felt this busy rushing energy? We’re guessing years. What do you want more of in your life?
Kelle: Okay, so here’s the real reason you’re so busy all the time. You’re likely telling yourself any one or many of the following thoughts. If I rest, nothing gets done. The busier I am, the better I am. I can outwork anyone. I’m not good at relaxing. I don’t walk slow. If I don’t do it, it won’t get done. I have to do it all. It has to be done right. I have so much to prove. I don’t have time. I’ll look stupid if I make a mistake. I don’t want to let anyone down.
Nina: You can outwork anyone. It’s your superpower. Working yourself to the bone, doing it all by yourself and having it be hard makes the accomplishment that much more satisfying. The dopamine hit is that much more intense.
Kelle: But how are you feeling along the way? How are you being? How are you leading? How are you exampling? Just because you can do it all, it does not always mean you should.
Nina: We think productivity is about getting more done, but that’s an oversimplification. True productivity is really about getting the right things done. It’s about eliminating distractions so you can focus on what matters.
Kelle: And that means delegating, outsourcing responsibilities, being resourceful, asking for help, setting boundaries. And we teach and refine those with all of our clients.
Nina: I think a big one for our clients here is actually asking for help and not making it mean failure or weakness. I think it’s Brené Brown who says that somehow we’ve come to equate success with not needing anyone. Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re really reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into those who offer help and those who need help and the truth is we are both.
Kelle: Asking for help is the ultimate act of personal responsibility, for living life on purpose with purpose. And this is a core concept for Ambitious-Ish women. You’re not meant to do it all alone. We are tribal beings. We are meant to operate in a collective. So instead of resisting this, we need to give ourselves permission to be in community with each other and ask for help when we need it, empowering those around us to step in.
Nina: But this starts by thinking of ourselves as more important and treating ourselves that way. Then organizing your life in a way to support that belief, that you matter. Does this resonate? What we’re saying here is, when you don’t make time for yourself or create space for yourself and your needs, you’re telling yourself you’re not worth the time.
Kelle: Oh, man, okay, so that’s where we check in. What’s the point here? What’s most important to you and at what expense?
Nina: What if you thought of yourself as more important, like an asset, the asset? Is that reflected in your to-do list? How are you protecting the asset? This leads us to our one simple truth, your thoughts create your feelings.
Kelle: So what are your thoughts about yourself? What are your opinions, your stories? What are you believing about you? We just touched on what’s most important in your life, your values, the core values that keep you in aligned action all day long. So check out episode seven if you missed it. It’s all about values.
Nina: Yeah, maybe it’s your kids, your family, your work. Why aren’t you on that list? You make, create, care, work, earn, organize, serve, lead, and accomplish so much for everyone around you.
Kelle: If you thought of yourself with importance as an asset, how would you show up for yourself? How would you manage your time? How would you make decisions and invest in yourself?
Nina: It’s tricky though because we’re praised most when we care for ourselves the least. Then when we notice this and wake up to our desire for more, we have a really hard time actually doing it, giving our time and energy to things that are for us, for our own benefit.
Kelle: Yeah. And just to go back to our society and how we have learned to be as women, we are really taught to be pretty and to serve others. Those were our two main things if you go back in history. So it totally makes sense that we think it feels selfish to invest in ourselves, in our own real health and happiness and fulfillment. To make decisions from our own conviction and self-worth, instead of his or hers or theirs. Making decisions out of obligation because you think you should. So we bail and it all feels wrong.
Nina: It’s the cost of ambition, though, right?
Kelle: But if you believed you were the asset, it wouldn’t be hard. You’d be making sure your needs were met daily because you’d believe you were important. The flow of your life would work in your favor because you would set it up that way.
Nina: You’d be protecting the asset.
Kelle: So you don’t have to quit your job, hire an au pair, get a divorce, buy a new planner, or get the latest book on time management hacks.
Nina: Having more time in your day starts by managing your mind. We call this clean thinking. It’s the practice of becoming aware of how your thinking impacts your emotions, behaviors, and the results you create in your life.
Kelle: Let’s take a sec and revisit where you’re putting your time from that time audit from a few minutes ago. What we want to challenge you to consider, the reason why your obligations and work and relationships are sucking up your time and energy is actually because of a root cause belief that they are more important than you and your needs.
Nina: You’re sidelining yourself and it’s costing you. You’re running on empty. Instead of building energy reserves you’re constantly leaking energy.
Kelle: When you tell yourself, the busier you are, the better you are or that rest is lazy or I can’t make mistakes or I can’t ask for help, I can do it on my own on repeat. What is it costing you?
Nina: Yeah, if you don’t change these thoughts, you’ll just fill up that new planner with a kajillion of your existing to-do’s and rinse and repeat.
Kelle: So do you want to have a full life where you like how you allocate your time and your resources to protecting the asset, you? Or do you want to have a busy life?
Nina: Yeah. This is where we challenge you to kind of think on purpose, to consider challenging the belief that the busier you are, the better you are. The more depleted you are, the better you’ve done. You are the asset. Are you protecting the asset?
Kelle: Okay, so here’s a five minute practice called protecting the asset. Number one, check in. Look back at the past week. What are you saying yes to and what are you saying no to?
Nina: And then number two here is checking in on why. Because when you say yes to one thing, you’re automatically saying no to something else. This is how you’re protecting the asset, you. Where are you saying yes out of obligation?
Kelle: Where are you trying to meet someone else’s expectations? And one more question. Where are you trying to be polite or do things because you think you should?
Nina: Yeah, when you’re aware of what you’re thinking, you can begin to see how you might be holding yourself back. And when you learn to question these old stories of why you’re saying yes and no, the thoughts in your head, and then you start to manage your mind, you spend less time overthinking.
Kelle: You have less self-doubt and insecurity. You stop second guessing yourself. You spend less time worrying. You stop people pleasing and start to make decisions for you, guilt free.
Nina: You’re more intentional about what you’re saying yes to and what you’re saying no to. You stay in alignment true to how you want to feel and actually enjoy the life you work so hard to create.
Kelle: When you put this into practice you create more time in your day, in your week, in your life. And listen, we have big, bold, full fun lives. And that’s all part of it, cramming in the good stuff and not just letting it go by the wayside.
Nina: And when we can put more time into our days, we can create a more fulfilling life. We can savor each moment with what we’re wanting to create on purpose instead of mindlessly using up time in our life unintentionally.
Kelle: We’ve worked with women for over 10 years and a huge part of what we do is helping clients learn how to like themselves more, to feel better and more empowered in pursuit of your big dreams and big life and big ambitions.
Nina: So you show up at your full potential, not leaking energy or burnt out. You’re protecting the asset along the way. It’s self-care from the inside out.
Kelle: We’ll help you create long term sustainable success and make changes in your life faster.
Nina: And if you really want to transform your life, you have to learn how to manage your mind and take action from new thoughts, new beliefs.
Kelle: When you coach with us, we meet you on the couch. We watch your brain and hold up a mirror. We help you become aware of your thoughts, question them, and decide what to do with them, keep them, tweak them, don’t keep them, totally get rid of them.
Nina: Yeah, we coach clients together. That’s two coaches for six months. And our coaching is not for you if you want a quick fix. Sustainable success, calm and balance, take practice, especially for the women we work with who have had their current MO for 40 plus years.
Kelle: And listen, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken. Coaching isn’t about fixing you. It is just another way to think about the circumstances in your life that will make you feel more empowered and create different outcomes.
Nina: Yeah, some of the women we work with feel like they’re underliving. Maybe you can relate. Our business coach actually calls this underearning, when you know you could be making more money than you are and the only thing holding you back is your self-concept.
Kelle: A main cause of underliving is underestimating your own worthiness. You forget you’re priceless and you don’t treat yourself like the priceless prize that you are. We all have all kinds of stories about why we don’t deserve the things that we deeply crave.
Nina: So are you underliving?
Kelle: Are there dreams you hold in your heart about your life, your work in the world that you know you’re capable of but you’re not currently doing?
Nina: You can live the life you want. You can organize your time and your schedule from a place of sufficiency and abundance, not scarcity. It starts with awareness and this little mini time audit and then making decisions with intention.
Kelle: Alright, give this a try and let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you.
Nina: Yeah, that’s all for today. Thanks all. Talk soon.
Kelle: Alright bye for now.
Nina: If you enjoyed today’s show and don’t want to worry about missing an episode, you can follow the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you haven’t already, we would really appreciate it if you share the podcast with others who you think would benefit from it, and leave a rating and review to let us know what you think.
Kelle: It doesn’t have to be a 5-star rating, although we sure hope you love the show. We want your honest feedback so we can create an awesome podcast that provides tons of value. Visit ambitious-ish.com/podcastlaunch for step-by-step instructions on how to follow, rate, and review.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Ambitious-Ish.
Nina: If you’re ready to align your ambitions with your heart and feel more calm, balanced, and connected, visit https://www.kelleandnina.com/ for more information about how to work with us and make sure you get on our list.
Kelle: See you in the next episode!
Kelle: Been there, Nina. Let me guess. You go to bed thinking about what you didn’t get done. You wake up thinking about everything you have to do, and you have no idea how you’re going to get it all done.
Nina: Yeah, totally. And I hate the way I’m showing up along the way. But this is when I need to do my work to unpack the real reason why I’m so busy all the time. Likely the impossible standards I hold for myself, impossible and damaging.
Kelle: Yeah. Today we’ll talk about the one simple truth you need to understand to create more time and energy in your day without rearranging your schedule, to hashtag self-care from the inside out, so no cold plunges or laser treatments required.
Nina: We’ll offer one simple strategy specifically for smart driven women like you to practice for five minutes a day to create 10 plus more hours in your week.
Kelle: Alright, let’s get going. This is Ambitious-Ish.
Burnout? Check. Daily overwhelm? Check. Resentment rash, stress, and a complete lack of well-being? Check, check, check! You’re not alone. We’re your hosts, Kelle & Nina, and we are here to help you feel calm, balanced, and empowered so you can redefine success, make choices that feel authentic, and ACTUALLY enjoy the life you work so hard to create. You ready? Let’s go.
Kelle: Hey, I’m Kelle.
Nina: And Nina here. So I was on social media the other day and went down a bit of a rabbit hole, Kel, as one does. But I was kind of blown away at how bombarded I was by all of the hashtag self-care messaging on the platform from cold plunges and saunas to Pilates and laser treatments.
Kelle: Totally. So when we inevitably find ourselves without the time to keep up with these tools of self-care solutions, it’s on us. We’re doing something wrong because we’re not keeping up with our self-care.
Nina: Can we be real? Let’s just be real. The Jade face roller. The Vagus Nerve Pillow spray and the new blah blah blah laser treatment are like empty calories. They don’t deliver real deep life changing nourishment.
Kelle: I mean this kind of self-care, of course, it’s fun like a sugar high, but it’s outward focused and short lived at best.
Nina: And it’s everywhere we look. The wellness industry is worth close to $4.4 trillion with a T and targeted largely at women.
Kelle: Oh my God. What? How many zeroes is that? I could go off on a rant here about how our capitalistic consumerism driven society and its marketing machine tells us we need to buy the latest $200 cream or detox or this special hair tool so that we can finally be good enough and pretty enough. We get that outside validation that we’ve been programmed to crave. It’s just so gross. I’ll save that for another time.
Nina: All we have to do is buy these things and do those things and stay pretty and skinny and quiet. I’m unsubscribing, anyone else?
Kelle: Here’s the thing, these methods do nothing to change the larger systems that have us craving relief in the first place. We dive into wellness without knowing that the real solutions need to come from within ourselves.
Nina: Yeah, real self-care, the kind that creates boundaries, helps us make difficult decisions and shifts our relationships, including the one we have with ourselves, is an inside job. It’s an internal self-reflective process. It’s self-care from the inside out.
Kelle: Yeah, and there’s nothing wrong with you, rock star. You do not need to be fixed. Just like you, we need to learn how to self-care differently to manage our burnout, our anxiety, and our workaholic perfectionistic tendencies.
Nina: Yeah, boundaries, working smarter, not harder, kickass relationships, more time and sustainable success are all available when we learn to accept ourselves and make choices that bring us closer to ourselves.
Kelle: The big bonus here, we can maintain these results internally, not by something bought on a shelf. Real self-care is self-driven, sourced from you by you.
Nina: This is all to say that there’s a deeper reason why you’re so busy all the time and a massage or pedicure isn’t going to change this.
Kelle: So many of us have PhDs in depriving and neglecting ourselves. We’ve learned to push ourselves hard when the problem is that we’re already pushed too hard.
Nina: And it totally makes sense. As humans socialized as women we’re rewarded when we serve others before ourselves, to over-serve, overdo without complaining at our own expense.
Kelle: Yeah, you want to become more present in your life for the people that are most important to you. But you can’t turn off all the to-do’s and don’t know how to relax. We get it. We have been there. This is totally our wheelhouse.
Nina: And we’re here to offer your worth has nothing to do with how much you get done each day. Nurtured, nourished people who love themselves and care for themselves are the real rock stars of the world we live in.
Kelle: We know what you’re feeling because we have been there, working long hours. I was in pharmaceuticals, Nina was in PR, hustling to get it all done, but only to get home and continue to rush at home, feeling exhausted and then wake up and do it all again the next day.
Nina: Yeah, we’re on a mission to help women do stress better and do life better, to have the freedom to still live their incredible lives without worrying that they haven’t accomplished enough in the process. To actually enjoy the life they’ve worked so hard to create.
Kelle: Alright, so an exercise for you. We’re going to do a mini time audit. So just take a look back at the last two weeks. How did you spend your time and in what areas of your life? So a few examples are work, travel, kids’ schedules, summer schedules, driving, projects at work, seeing family, cleaning out the closet and stuff around the house. My email inbox, which by the way, please do not email me unless it’s urgent, just text me. I’ll give you my phone number if you want my phone number. Emails get lost and I will respond in a month, sorry, not sorry.
Nina: So take a look at this inventory and then consider why? Why did you choose to spend your time in those areas? Why have you felt so busy, too busy? How do you want to spend your time? How long have you felt this busy rushing energy? We’re guessing years. What do you want more of in your life?
Kelle: Okay, so here’s the real reason you’re so busy all the time. You’re likely telling yourself any one or many of the following thoughts. If I rest, nothing gets done. The busier I am, the better I am. I can outwork anyone. I’m not good at relaxing. I don’t walk slow. If I don’t do it, it won’t get done. I have to do it all. It has to be done right. I have so much to prove. I don’t have time. I’ll look stupid if I make a mistake. I don’t want to let anyone down.
Nina: You can outwork anyone. It’s your superpower. Working yourself to the bone, doing it all by yourself and having it be hard makes the accomplishment that much more satisfying. The dopamine hit is that much more intense.
Kelle: But how are you feeling along the way? How are you being? How are you leading? How are you exampling? Just because you can do it all, it does not always mean you should.
Nina: We think productivity is about getting more done, but that’s an oversimplification. True productivity is really about getting the right things done. It’s about eliminating distractions so you can focus on what matters.
Kelle: And that means delegating, outsourcing responsibilities, being resourceful, asking for help, setting boundaries. And we teach and refine those with all of our clients.
Nina: I think a big one for our clients here is actually asking for help and not making it mean failure or weakness. I think it’s Brené Brown who says that somehow we’ve come to equate success with not needing anyone. Many of us are willing to extend a helping hand, but we’re really reluctant to reach out for help when we need it ourselves. It’s as if we’ve divided the world into those who offer help and those who need help and the truth is we are both.
Kelle: Asking for help is the ultimate act of personal responsibility, for living life on purpose with purpose. And this is a core concept for Ambitious-Ish women. You’re not meant to do it all alone. We are tribal beings. We are meant to operate in a collective. So instead of resisting this, we need to give ourselves permission to be in community with each other and ask for help when we need it, empowering those around us to step in.
Nina: But this starts by thinking of ourselves as more important and treating ourselves that way. Then organizing your life in a way to support that belief, that you matter. Does this resonate? What we’re saying here is, when you don’t make time for yourself or create space for yourself and your needs, you’re telling yourself you’re not worth the time.
Kelle: Oh, man, okay, so that’s where we check in. What’s the point here? What’s most important to you and at what expense?
Nina: What if you thought of yourself as more important, like an asset, the asset? Is that reflected in your to-do list? How are you protecting the asset? This leads us to our one simple truth, your thoughts create your feelings.
Kelle: So what are your thoughts about yourself? What are your opinions, your stories? What are you believing about you? We just touched on what’s most important in your life, your values, the core values that keep you in aligned action all day long. So check out episode seven if you missed it. It’s all about values.
Nina: Yeah, maybe it’s your kids, your family, your work. Why aren’t you on that list? You make, create, care, work, earn, organize, serve, lead, and accomplish so much for everyone around you.
Kelle: If you thought of yourself with importance as an asset, how would you show up for yourself? How would you manage your time? How would you make decisions and invest in yourself?
Nina: It’s tricky though because we’re praised most when we care for ourselves the least. Then when we notice this and wake up to our desire for more, we have a really hard time actually doing it, giving our time and energy to things that are for us, for our own benefit.
Kelle: Yeah. And just to go back to our society and how we have learned to be as women, we are really taught to be pretty and to serve others. Those were our two main things if you go back in history. So it totally makes sense that we think it feels selfish to invest in ourselves, in our own real health and happiness and fulfillment. To make decisions from our own conviction and self-worth, instead of his or hers or theirs. Making decisions out of obligation because you think you should. So we bail and it all feels wrong.
Nina: It’s the cost of ambition, though, right?
Kelle: But if you believed you were the asset, it wouldn’t be hard. You’d be making sure your needs were met daily because you’d believe you were important. The flow of your life would work in your favor because you would set it up that way.
Nina: You’d be protecting the asset.
Kelle: So you don’t have to quit your job, hire an au pair, get a divorce, buy a new planner, or get the latest book on time management hacks.
Nina: Having more time in your day starts by managing your mind. We call this clean thinking. It’s the practice of becoming aware of how your thinking impacts your emotions, behaviors, and the results you create in your life.
Kelle: Let’s take a sec and revisit where you’re putting your time from that time audit from a few minutes ago. What we want to challenge you to consider, the reason why your obligations and work and relationships are sucking up your time and energy is actually because of a root cause belief that they are more important than you and your needs.
Nina: You’re sidelining yourself and it’s costing you. You’re running on empty. Instead of building energy reserves you’re constantly leaking energy.
Kelle: When you tell yourself, the busier you are, the better you are or that rest is lazy or I can’t make mistakes or I can’t ask for help, I can do it on my own on repeat. What is it costing you?
Nina: Yeah, if you don’t change these thoughts, you’ll just fill up that new planner with a kajillion of your existing to-do’s and rinse and repeat.
Kelle: So do you want to have a full life where you like how you allocate your time and your resources to protecting the asset, you? Or do you want to have a busy life?
Nina: Yeah. This is where we challenge you to kind of think on purpose, to consider challenging the belief that the busier you are, the better you are. The more depleted you are, the better you’ve done. You are the asset. Are you protecting the asset?
Kelle: Okay, so here’s a five minute practice called protecting the asset. Number one, check in. Look back at the past week. What are you saying yes to and what are you saying no to?
Nina: And then number two here is checking in on why. Because when you say yes to one thing, you’re automatically saying no to something else. This is how you’re protecting the asset, you. Where are you saying yes out of obligation?
Kelle: Where are you trying to meet someone else’s expectations? And one more question. Where are you trying to be polite or do things because you think you should?
Nina: Yeah, when you’re aware of what you’re thinking, you can begin to see how you might be holding yourself back. And when you learn to question these old stories of why you’re saying yes and no, the thoughts in your head, and then you start to manage your mind, you spend less time overthinking.
Kelle: You have less self-doubt and insecurity. You stop second guessing yourself. You spend less time worrying. You stop people pleasing and start to make decisions for you, guilt free.
Nina: You’re more intentional about what you’re saying yes to and what you’re saying no to. You stay in alignment true to how you want to feel and actually enjoy the life you work so hard to create.
Kelle: When you put this into practice you create more time in your day, in your week, in your life. And listen, we have big, bold, full fun lives. And that’s all part of it, cramming in the good stuff and not just letting it go by the wayside.
Nina: And when we can put more time into our days, we can create a more fulfilling life. We can savor each moment with what we’re wanting to create on purpose instead of mindlessly using up time in our life unintentionally.
Kelle: We’ve worked with women for over 10 years and a huge part of what we do is helping clients learn how to like themselves more, to feel better and more empowered in pursuit of your big dreams and big life and big ambitions.
Nina: So you show up at your full potential, not leaking energy or burnt out. You’re protecting the asset along the way. It’s self-care from the inside out.
Kelle: We’ll help you create long term sustainable success and make changes in your life faster.
Nina: And if you really want to transform your life, you have to learn how to manage your mind and take action from new thoughts, new beliefs.
Kelle: When you coach with us, we meet you on the couch. We watch your brain and hold up a mirror. We help you become aware of your thoughts, question them, and decide what to do with them, keep them, tweak them, don’t keep them, totally get rid of them.
Nina: Yeah, we coach clients together. That’s two coaches for six months. And our coaching is not for you if you want a quick fix. Sustainable success, calm and balance, take practice, especially for the women we work with who have had their current MO for 40 plus years.
Kelle: And listen, there’s nothing wrong with you. You’re not broken. Coaching isn’t about fixing you. It is just another way to think about the circumstances in your life that will make you feel more empowered and create different outcomes.
Nina: Yeah, some of the women we work with feel like they’re underliving. Maybe you can relate. Our business coach actually calls this underearning, when you know you could be making more money than you are and the only thing holding you back is your self-concept.
Kelle: A main cause of underliving is underestimating your own worthiness. You forget you’re priceless and you don’t treat yourself like the priceless prize that you are. We all have all kinds of stories about why we don’t deserve the things that we deeply crave.
Nina: So are you underliving?
Kelle: Are there dreams you hold in your heart about your life, your work in the world that you know you’re capable of but you’re not currently doing?
Nina: You can live the life you want. You can organize your time and your schedule from a place of sufficiency and abundance, not scarcity. It starts with awareness and this little mini time audit and then making decisions with intention.
Kelle: Alright, give this a try and let us know how it goes. We would love to hear from you.
Nina: Yeah, that’s all for today. Thanks all. Talk soon.
Kelle: Alright bye for now.
Nina: If you enjoyed today’s show and don’t want to worry about missing an episode, you can follow the show wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you haven’t already, we would really appreciate it if you share the podcast with others who you think would benefit from it, and leave a rating and review to let us know what you think.
Kelle: It doesn’t have to be a 5-star rating, although we sure hope you love the show. We want your honest feedback so we can create an awesome podcast that provides tons of value. Visit ambitious-ish.com/podcastlaunch for step-by-step instructions on how to follow, rate, and review.
Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode of Ambitious-Ish.
Nina: If you’re ready to align your ambitions with your heart and feel more calm, balanced, and connected, visit https://www.kelleandnina.com/ for more information about how to work with us and make sure you get on our list.
Kelle: See you in the next episode!
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