Tackling the Rest of the Year as a Turbo Thinker

I often notice common themes among my clients over the course of the week. This week, besides guilt over Halloween candy consumption, I have heard both panic and shame over not being productive enough. 

There are only two months left! The holidays are around the corner! I should be doing more! 

Where does that “should” come from? Who says so? How is that judgmental voice of your inner critic serving you? What do you even mean by “productive”? By whose standards? 

Sometimes we encounter  an experience known as imposter syndrome. We gloss over the wins because they felt too easy or because we feel that we don’t deserve them. Sometimes we know we could have done better, so we discredit our accomplishments. Maybe we attribute the wins to sheer luck, or see them as a rarity, or give another person credit. What if, instead, we could celebrate our success and explore our part in making it happen? How can we appreciate our progress instead of punishing ourselves for failing to achieve perfection?

When feeling underproductive we should ask ourselves: What is the reality? What is the minimum requirement? What have you been able to do so far? How can we decide ahead of time on our definition of “good enough”? And how can we use this definition to guide us, so that we can automate, delegate or eliminate tasks as needed? How can we live intentionally rather than passively?

How do we make choices and decide with conviction? How can we pause to reflect, make a final decision, then execute? When there’s a will, there’s a way. Often when I ask a client, “How did you do that?,” they answer, “I don’t know. I just decided.” Once the commitment is there, we can move on and follow through. We make magic happen. And that is more than enough. It is more than anyone else could have ever possibly imagined.