PP 723: You Don’t Need to be Everywhere
“Sometimes, we get in our own way. We think that we need to be there for everybody when in fact, what we’re doing is not being there for everyone or for anyone including ourselves.” -Kim Sutton
Sometimes, we are our own obstacle. We keep trying to be everywhere to get things done, which is impossible. Learn how to take back your time as Kim shares why you should stop trying to be everywhere and what to do instead to increase your productivity.
Highlights:
00:45 Why You Don’t Need to be Everywhere
03:04 Move Out of Your Own Way
05:58 Enlist for Support
07:45 Let Go
#Productivity tips! Increase your productivity as @thekimsutton shares why don’t need to be everywhere and how to get things done without stressing yourself out.
#positiveproductivity #podcast #focus #productivity #askforhelp #letgo #investinyou
#Productivity tips! Increase your productivity as @thekimsutton shares why don’t need to be everywhere and how to get things done without stressing yourself out. Listen at https://thekimsutton.com/pp723 #positiveproductivity #podcast #focus #productivity #askforhelp #letgo #investinyou Click To TweetResources
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Inspirational Quotes:
03:04 “Sometimes, we get in our own way. We think that we need to be there for everybody when in fact, what we’re doing is not being there for everyone or for anyone including ourselves.” -Kim Sutton
05:22 “You don’t need to be there. You need to take care of yourself first and foremost because if you don’t, you won’t be able to take care of anybody else.” -Kim Sutton
08:05 “The more time and the more effort you invest into you, the better service and experience you will provide for everybody else that you encounter.” -Kim Sutton
08:24 “Commit time to you. Let go of things that you do not need to do and let go of the expectation that you need to be everywhere.” -Kim Sutton
Meet Your Host!
Kim Sutton is a Business and Marketing Automation Mentor, Speaker, and Author. She is the host of the Positive Productivity Podcast. Having been through so much including depression, domestic violence, and lack of self-care, Kim’s mission is to help her clients be positively productive by empowering them to achieve success without the burnout. She believes that positive productivity stems from system+support+self-care. Positive productivity is not about perfection, it’s about having Prioritized Purposeful Actions. Today, Kim is out to help fellow entrepreneurs reclaim their lives and make their business work.
EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:
Kim Sutton: Welcome to a new month of the Positive Productivity Podcast. Our theme this month is take back your time, and I just want to share, even though this episode is going to come out for another four episodes, Episode Number 726 features Christy Wright. She inspired this month’s theme with her new book coming out also called Take Back Your Time.
Today, however, I want to impress and instill the thought in your brain that you don’t need to be everywhere. As a mom of five, and a busy business owner, and a wife, and a Girl Scout leader, and a podcaster, and I want to be an author, I struggle constantly with thinking that I need to be everywhere. All the time, I need to be serving everybody. I can’t tell you how many days I will sit at my computer and at the end of the day realize, number one, I haven’t eaten. Number two, I haven’t showered, I smell bad. And have I even seen the light of day today. I’ve gotten significantly better about this, and you can go back and listen to episode number 721 about my smartest investment so far this year to hear more about that. But there are still struggles.
For example, my oldest son left for college this year just about a month ago. I really wanted to take him to school, but it was a busy period in my business. The day he moved into his dorms was also my middle child’s birthday, and I had a lot on my plate. My ex husband and his wife were fully capable and volunteered to take him. And after shedding a few tears and admittedly shedding more tears after I said, okay, I will go visit Jacob in a few weeks. I’ll give him some time to get adjusted, figure out what he means. And in two days, my dear friend, I will be going down and spending the day with him. I didn’t need to be there when he moved in. Quite honestly, it was probably better for him and me that I wasn’t he needed to get in, start meeting other kids in his dorm. start finding his way around campus and get acclimated. I remember back when I went to school, it’s what I had to do. But sometimes, we get in our own way. We think that we need to be there for everybody. And in fact, what we’re doing is not being there for everyone or for anyone including ourselves. You may have already heard the story about me becoming a Girl Scout leader. While I am not the worst Girl Scout leader, I am sure to have ever walked the planet. I can tell you that I am most certainly not the best.
Two years ago, however, I signed up to be a Girl Scout leader because I wanted to say on what night of the week, Girl Scout troop meetings were held on. It never occurred to me that whoever became the Girl Scout leader would have a poll. It never occurred to me that the Girl Scout leader would ask the parents, hey, what night works for you? So at the introductory meeting where girls in their parents were told about the Girl Scout organization and what would be involved, I signed the paper volunteering to be a leader. I feel bad for my co-leader. I just got to say because she is absolutely the leader. She is amazing. And over time, I have stepped back. It wasn’t a choice. Actually, I needed to. I had an extremely stressful period with a client at the end of 2019. 2020 was just crazy with all the kids at home. In 2021 has been amazing, but also pretty scary for me. My husband and I have been going through some struggles and I really just needed to step back and focus on me, the kids and doing what I could to save the marriage. But I had to come to grips with the fact that I don’t need to be everywhere. And my friend, you don’t need to be everywhere either. When a client asks if they can meet with you first thing tomorrow morning but you already had plans, you don’t need to be there. You need to take care of yourself first and foremost. Because if you don’t, you won’t be able to take care of anybody else. If you have a large family that constantly is having birthday parties and gatherings, you don’t need to go to every single one. There are weeks, months, years when sometimes what you really need to do is just stay home and take a nap.
This season, one of the things that I found that I really needed to do was enlist my husband’s support. In the past, I have done so much of the mom chauffeuring. But with four kids in soccer right now, I realized I could not do it all. The oldest of our kids who is still at home has soccer practices twice a week and games two more times a week. So for him alone, there’s four days of mom chauffeuring. And then I have my girls, two girls who are, thankfully, on the same soccer team. And my youngest, a boy who’s also on his own soccer team. So between these four kids, we have three soccer teams with two practices and two games every week for each of them. Again, thankfully, the girls are on the same team, so their schedules are the same. But I needed to tell my husband, I need you to step up, I need you to handle a little boys soccer. That means practices and games because I cannot be everywhere. I need help. Dear friend, it is nothing to be ashamed of to ask for help, but there’s nothing to be ashamed of to say, no, I can’t do this. It is nothing to be ashamed of to say, I am fulfilling my responsibilities right here. I need to delegate everything else to people who can handle it. I will admit that there are things that I’m just not good at, and I can’t be everywhere physically or even virtually on the internet. I need to let stuff go.
I want to ask what you’re going to let go of this week. I want to ask how you’re going to lessen your expectation of yourself to be everywhere and anywhere for everybody, because right now my friend is the time to focus on you. The more time and the more effort you invest into you, the better service and experience you will provide for everybody else that you encounter. This can be friends, loved ones, or clients and customers. So this week, commit time to you, let go of things that you do not need to do, and let go of the expectation that you need to be everywhere. I would love to hear what you’re going to let go of this week so head on over to thekimsutton.com/pp723 and let me know in the comments below the show notes. Until the next episode, go forth and make it a positive and a productive day.
