252: Boosting Productivity With Guilt-Free Play Time As An Entrepreneur - #GrowYourLife

Hey everyone, thanks for listening to the Grow youw Life podcast. My name is Jeremiah Gracowski and on this podcast I'm excited to help you if you're a coach, mentor, trainer on how to grow your business and make more money. One of the number one strategies that I've had over the last couple of years for growing my business is making sure to prioritize play, and particularly guilt free play. I think one of the problems that people have is that when they're building a business, growing a coaching business, they believe they don't have enough time, time to do things that are fun in their life. They believe that, well, I will have fun when I get my to do list done. And I can tell you this, that that's actually one of the worst things that you can do. One of the best things that you can do is actually make time in your schedule for guilt free play even when you feel like you don't have enough time to do it and right away. Even what I've just said, it goes against many ingrained beliefs that we have in our minds, what we've been told by gurus and mentors, what people tell us to do. And it actually just inherently to most people, especially in business, feels wrong. And yet in my experience and when I talk to millionaires, when I talk to people that are the most successful, they say that this is, this is actually one of the most true things. And I can tell you this for me, and that's really the only thing I can draw from is my own experience, is that I am way more creative. When I take time just to have fun, when I take time to do what I want to do, when I take time to set aside the to do list and unplug, distract and do something else that is fun for me. You know, a lot of people, they just, they feel like, well, no, if I just grind through and I do all the stuff that I have to do, that's going to get it accomplished. That's what's going to help me do the stuff that I have to do. Well, that's the furthest thing from the truth. There's nothing that I can say right now that's going to convince you of that though. And that's the interesting part about this. As I've been saying this for a long time, and it's one of those areas a lot of people skip over, a lot of people ignore. A lot of people think, oh no, if I can just grip tightly and control things, I can make them happen for me. You can white Knuckle it for a while. But what is the hard work even for if you don't give yourself time to have fun and time to play? So here's one of the things that I would challenge you to do is I would challenge you to explore. Where does that belief come from? I can't play, I can't have fun until I get all my work done, until I do everything on my to do list. Because what's going to happen is that will then become your personality and then weeks and then months will go by and you've been nearly grinding. And I can tell you you will be less productive overall when it comes to the coaching business, when it comes to the mentoring business, when it comes to helping other people, when it comes to sales, when it comes to you producing the results that you want to produce in your business, giving yourself opportunities to goof off, mess around, go on a, go on a, on an adventure, on a date. To do something that is not productive is actually one of the most productive things that you can do. So I would, I would challenge you whether it feels right or not. Try, trust me on this, that by you detaching and what you want to do is when you're doing that, you want to not process and think about all the stuff that you have to do while you're doing that. See, I, I meet some people, they're like, well yeah, I take time for myself and self care and I do, I take a bath and a glass of wine or I spend time with my family. But while they're doing that, they're thinking about all the stuff they have to do in their business. They're thinking about all the stuff that they're not doing and that's where the guilt comes in. Or they're saying, well, I'm just multitasking, I'm being productive by multitasking. Multiple ideas. It's a lie, it's a facade. So I want to challenge you. What if, and maybe you can't turn it off. And that's one of those things for you to maybe grow into is learning how to be present while you're having fun, learning how to be present. And still while you're doing those things, I can tell you you're going to come up with a thousand and one reasons why you can't. What are you trying to avoid? And that's where, see this is the fun part about it. When you do the stuff that's actually fun and enjoyable for you and the thoughts come into your head, that's actually what's really bothering you beneath the surface. You know, for me, when I play, when I have fun, I have things that come up my to do list, ideas like that. You know, interestingly enough for me, it's actually enjoyable for me to do the dishes, which is funny. I, I enjoy doing the dishes and yet I come up with all these things I need to do when I'm doing the dishes and then I start making notes as to what those are and stuff like that and creativity starts coming through my brain. So when you detach from the doing all the time of the obligations of what you feel like I must do and I must grind and I must go into and that frustration and that trying to make it happen, when you can detach from that temporarily that need to have a tight grip and control everything to make it happen for you and you can let go and you can say, you know what? I'm going to let go and it's okay if I miss a day of productivity to do xyz, you want to know what's going to happen. It will rewire certain parts of your brain when you can truly do this, when you can truly tap into not doing all these things. And it's scientifically proven that having more fun in your life is productive. In fact, you know, I was thinking about doing this. We're going to go live right now and I'm actually going to log into a really fun site that we've been using with AI and we're actually going to find what is the scientific evidence of this? And I'm going to ask it what is the scientific scientific evidence that play and guilt free play is actually more productive for people in business? And perplexity is going to go to work and it's going to actually pull this up. Some of these benefits that an actual surprising way to boost your productivity is play. That even in high pressure environments that whether it be playing a video game or just doing something that's out of the norm of what you need to do produces productivity. Scientific evidence suggests that play and guilt free play can increase productivity. It's essential for achieving quality work and minimizing procrastination. That's the crazy part. It minimizes procrastination. It enhances creativity and creates more of those aha moments. The distance from haha to aha is short and often fun. Leads to unexpected innovation, improved well being. You're going to be happier. Your mental health is going to be there. What are some examples that play can increase productivity in our lives? And this is, this is just Looking up articles and stuff on this right here. There are examples like team building, office games, things like that. Camaraderie. Okay, so like, obviously, like, those are some different examples. But what I want to tell you is this, okay, that the belief that I need to quote, unquote, do everything perfectly and not play the fear, the fear of missing out by doing fun things and needing to grind and nose to the grindstone mindset, how can you break this and give yourself a chance to play? You know, if I ask the AI that the whole, the fear of missing out of opportunities and things like that, breaking free from this mindset allows you to shift into that behavior, recognizing that you actually need to maybe set some boundaries to where you set boundaries so you don't feel guilty and you allow yourself to play. You accept the trade off of maybe I'm not going to accomplish something. And so much beauty comes out of this. And so I would just encourage you, if you're listening to this right now, if you're watching this, start to do some more fun things. How do you come up with some of those ideas and what those fun things are? What did you do when you were child, what did you do when you were a kid that you goofed off and did? What are the things that you wish that you could do when you got all your stuff done? What are some things that you tell yourself, oh, I can't do this until I get my whole to do list done? You know, I've seen some people, they make a joke out of it and they're like, oh, well, I like to, you know, and then they give like this business thing that they like to do, or I do business for fun. I did that. I told myself that for years I was in denial of the fact that I was. I was actually operating out of trauma by guide by, by grinding, trying to do all the stuff that I felt that I had to do and not giving myself opportunities to play. And really it could just be a trauma response that's out, that's at work here, that's causing you to feel like, oh, I can't do that. And so I so think about what are some of those things that maybe you even got in trouble for when you were younger. You feel guilty doing those guilty pleasures. That's one of the things, those guilty pleasures. And then instead of doing it and then feeling guilt afterwards, doing, doing it and not feeling the guilt afterwards, there's. There's a release that happens. There's a, There's a powerful positive benefit from giving yourself the Opportunity to watch a TV show, waste time. You know, I see a lot of people, they have religious reasons. They literally feel like they can't because religion has them convinced that it is disobedient to God to waste time. I've seen this happen with some people, and they won't allow themselves to have fun. And, and, and yet they're literally. They're literally not being productive. They're re. Many of the times I see the reasons why people won't. Let's go. Let's go after, like, the religious one. Well, I need to be productive, and every minute needs to produce what God has called me to do. Well, guess what? Did you know that you're actually missing out on many of the things that you are called to produce by not being willing to, quote, unquote, waste time? And you're actually operating out of a scarcity mindset instead of an abundance mindset. Okay. And so when you can get this, when you can really digest what I'm sharing right now, it will unlock massive levels of creativity, productivity, clarity on things. You're stuck on happiness. You know, if you find yourself in anxiety and stress and things like that, trying to make things happen in your life, trying to work so hard to make them come together, Gosh, I just need to make this thing come together. Maybe you're somebody. You're like. Everything comes easy to me in all other areas of my life except this one thing that I'm trying to make happen. That actually the key is to step back, to give yourself a break, to have some fun, to not strive so hard and then come back later with a new perspective. It's such a huge strategy for success that is so missed. And it's even condemned. And yet. And it's condemned by very successful people, too. But they always end up hitting a plateau where they want to go to the next level of success. And they say, gosh, I wish I knew this sooner. And I'm giving it to you right now. I'm giving you a framework that will literally transform your life if you listen to it. Many will not, but it will change your life for the better. Listen, if this podcast episode has helped you share it with somebody, don't hold this to yourself. Make changes in your life, to grow your life and reach your goals. Talk soon, everybody. Have a good one. Sa.