SSP 044: Simplifying Your Life

Foreign Shifters Podcast, a show dedicated to helping you discover your true potential through connecting the mind, body and soul. What's going on, guys? Jordan Kanlish here, and I've got a bit of a solo episode for you today. And today I wanted to talk a little bit about simplicity and how to simplify your life, because really, when you're not simple, when the things you have in your life are complicated and you have lots of things on your mind, life can get overwhelming. Life can get complicated. And really, when life is overwhelming and complicated, you're draining lots of energy. Now for you guys who are listening, you know, a lot of the people that I work with are usually high performers, type A personalities, the people who are always looking to strive and achieve and become better and grow and become better than who they were yesterday. Because I'm able to serve these people best, because this is exactly who I am. I'm someone who's always looking to better myself. But this kind of blessing also comes with the curse of never feeling like we're doing enough. And I remember reflecting back on, you know, my. My time in Toronto a couple of years ago. When I first arrived in Toronto, I just quit my corporate job. And here I was embarking on a new journey, looking for. For a new job, a new outlet for where I wanted to express my. My creative potential. And when I was at my corporate job, that was one of my biggest fears, was not expressing my potential, not reaching my potential. And although one of my greatest fears resulted in me having this insatiable drive to want to better myself, I realized that when I was in Toronto, looking to kind of make an impact in a city where there's so much opportunity, it can be very easy to being. To get caught saying yes to everything. You know, I all of a sudden found myself committed to so many different things, you know, seeing so many different people. When I was living downtown on King street, downtown Toronto, like I had, you know, everything was really accessible, like, you know, getting. Get on a streetcar, I'll be down at the local gym. I'd be down at, like, different events, different meetups, meeting different people. And although this served me for a brief period of time, it got to a point where I was starting to get overwhelmed. I started to feel this sense of anxiety that creeped in over me because I was doing so much, yet I wasn't getting the return on my doing, meaning I was struggling to pay my bills and I was struggling to enjoy the process of the doing because I was doing it from a place of fear. I was doing it from a place of not feeling like I was enough. So on this podcast, I wanted to dial into that because I know if you're listening, you've probably gone through this at some point in time where you feel like you've done, you're doing so much for others or you're trying to, you're trying your best to make an impact. Like, you're really hustling, yet you're just not seeing the return. And most importantly, maybe you're not feeling the return. You're not feeling the happiness and flow and peace and joy that should come with you. You know, working and enjoying and hustling in life. Like the Hustle should be fun, like, straight out, if you're listening to this and you're hustling and you're not enjoying it, then it's time to slow down, reflect on, okay, what is out of alignment here? What is getting in the way of you enjoying the Hustle? And my intention with this episode is to help you see that something, it might be quite something really simple. And when you start to simplify your life and you get clear on, okay, maybe you don't enjoy the work that you're doing now, but you can see what direction it's taking you and you can start to remove all of the distractions that pull you away from you, doing the things you know need to be done so that you can get out of that job as soon as possible. You can actually start to accept it and enjoy the process. Because that's what happened to me. I was in a corporate job and life changed, when all of a sudden I got clear on, okay, I know this isn't me forever. I know I'm not going to be a tax accountant forever. And I know that through daily consistent action of stacking habits upon habits, developing a new identity that I was going to get to where I wanted to be. And ultimately, you know, three years later, here I am working on a business full time, traveling the world and coaching and inspiring others. You know, this was my dream. I wrote this down in my journal three years ago. And now when, now that I'm here, living it and I reflect back on, came down to a very simple process of accepting wherever you are right now, wherever you are in your journey right now, if you don't like your job, if you don't like whoever you spend time with, accept that this is how it is for now. And through that acceptance, you can start to get clear on, okay, how can I simplify my life so that I do the things that I know I'm gonna pull me in the direction of my future goal, whatever that is. And if you don't know what your vision is, if you don't know what you want, then maybe it's time to start there. And that's a topic for another podcast. But if you're clear on what you want, being the feelings you want to experience and the lifestyle you want to have wrapped around those feelings, then it's as simple as creating a life that really removes all the distractions so you stop wasting your energy. And then the clarity allows you to have reduced ambiguity and you pretty much know what you need to do. You create space. Space is so powerful. If you don't have space in your life, you don't have space in your calendar, then you're never gonna be able to achieve what you want. So like I said at the start, high achievers, you know, we're really prone to over commitment. We're prone to saying yes to too many things. And this results in burnout, feelings of overwhelm and a good way of, a good way of gauging this is really by looking at, looking at your environment. So I want you to reflect on your environment now. You know, wherever you are listening, maybe you're listening at home or driving or on a commute, but just think back. What state is your room in? What state is your car in? What about your desk? Now your environment is an indicator of what's going on inside of you. It's an indicator of your state of mind. And if your state of mind is messy, meaning you have lots of thoughts, you've got lots of things going on, you've said yes to lots of things, you're always busy, then chances are your environment's going to be messy desk, messy bed, not made rooms, a mess, not on top of your finances. So your environment is actually an indicator of your internal world. So one of the cornerstone habits like a keystone habit and a keystone habit is really a foundational habit. Once you get a keystone habit in place, you can wrap a bunch of other habits around it because it's really that foundational piece and you know, a keystone habit for a lot of people is journaling. Journaling. Such a great way of just like setting the tone for the day. But before that, a keystone habit I've implemented is just making your bed. Simple but effective way to kick off your day. When you just soon as you wake up and get out of your bed, just make it, make it neat, make it tidy. Because when you return from, from your day or Whether you're coming in out of your room, you see a nicely made bed. It's. It does something to your mind. It's very therapeutic. Very therapeutic. So that's my first invitation. Start making your bed because this is going to help you with this feeling, okay, I've got, I'm, I've got things under control. I'm clear. I know what needs to be done. So with this awareness now of knowing that your environment is an indicator of your internal world, how about start with cleaning up your environment? Because if you slow things down and say, okay, wait a second, let's, let's slow things down. I'm gonna say no to hanging out with the friend, my friends on the weekend, or I'm gonna say no to that event or say no to watching this Netflix series or whatever it is that's keeping you busy. And say, I'm gonna carve out a couple hours to just fully clean up my desk, clean out my car, clean out my room, and, and make sure everything is clean and tidy. Then watch what that does to your mind because that's where you're going to start to see the benefit of having decluttering, decluttering moving. Start to throw out anything that's distracting. You start to get clear on, okay, what are these little jobs that I've been putting off for a while that, you know, start to build like sandbags. If you've got all these small little things you need to get done, whether it's like cleaning a room or booking an appointment, going to see the dentist or catching up on your finances or doing your taxes, all these small little things that don't seem like a very big priority stacked over time, they start to weigh you down like sandbags. So my invitation, my suggestion, start chipping away at all these small little media tasks, like, let's get real, real super laser focused and, and clean on everything that's in your environment. Clean it all up. Like, prioritize this and, and make it a weekly thing or maybe every couple of weeks. Clean check in. Okay, what's. What needs to be done? What needs to be cleaned daily? Making your bed like this is gonna really start to change the game, guys, seriously. So take stock on your environment right now and whatever needs to be cleaned. Pencil that in. Clean it. So here are some other helpful things to be aware of when it comes to decluttering. When it comes to your personal environment. We've spoken already about cleaning your space and make sure your space is clean. Check your wardrobe, make sure your wardrobes tidy all your Clothes are clean. Don't have, like, dirty washing stacking in the corner that just, you know, you walk into a room like that, you're just gonna feel like a mess straight away. You don't want that. So clear out your storage space. Throw away anything you haven't used in a few years. Like, really honestly, like, minimalism is so important. Just throw shit away. It doesn't need to be there. And again, do you have fresh air and comfort in your home? And because fresh air is important. Now that I'm back home in Australia and getting this fresh air off the sea here, I'm realizing it's really powerful. And if you're stuck in a dirty condo or a dirty house and there's this stale air swirling around, it's just not going to feel very nice to clear that up. Get an air purifier, whatever you need to do. The other thing is finances. So finances is such a big area of struggle for a lot of people. Because finances, if you don't have them in check, creates stress, it creates uncertainty, creates anxiety. And I felt this. And I felt this feeling of not being on top of my finances. And at the back of my head, knowing there was so much more coming out than what was coming in. And I was actually. I remember those days. I was just too scared to look at my bank account. I didn't even want to open my bank because I knew how fast the money was going down, and I was just worried I wasn't gonna be able to pay rent. And it made me anxious every time I thought about it. So I thought it would just go away if I just didn't look at it, you know, if I just ignored actually does the opposite. And I'm here to tell you, finance is something you've been trying to ignore because you don't want to know how much you spend. It's time to put a stop to that. It's time to get clarity around your finances because this is going to give you personal power. So do you have a budget? Do you know what your cost of living is? Do you know how much you need to make so you can survive? You know how many outgoings are coming out of your account, what your subscriptions are, what's. What are the investments you're making? Are you aware of all this stuff? And if you're not, it's time to start doing it. Do you pay your bills on time? Are you getting, you know, everything paid on time? Because you do not want to be missing credit card payments out of lack of organization? Just unnecessary money wasted. All of your receipts, invoices, and financial records, are they filed in order? If you run a business, is this stuff filed? Is this stuff kept in order? The business will only grow as much as you're willing to grow. So when you start to prioritize you getting ahead of the game in terms of finances, your business is going to start to soar. So get clear on all your receipts and invoices. Do you have automatic saving plans that are set up? You know, starting to invest 10% of your income and as though this might seem small, like, seriously, over time. I used to study finance like this, this is what I studied at school, finance and accounting. So I guess it's something I'm realizing now as I start to grow my own business and, and really help other coaches who started trying to start their own business. I'm realizing how there's a. There's a lack of knowledge, a lack of awareness when it comes to these, these simple things in life that can bring so much more peace and clarity when you take care of it. So trust me, this, this shit's important. Like, I talk about the emotional stuff, you know, on, on some of my other episodes of my content, but this plays into that. If you ain't aware of what's going on, it's going to keep bringing up the same issues. Because organization brings clarity, decluttering brings clarity, it brings calmness, it brings a sense of personal accomplishment. So take care of your finances. So when it comes to relationships now, I want to, I want to speak about identifying the drainers. When it comes to arguments that you have with people or disagreements or things that really start to drag you down, when you have an argument with someone, you don't address it, don't bring it up. It's so important that if you have a breakdown with someone in your family, then call them up, make amends, call them up and just say, look, hey, I'm sorry that the way things went the other day, I want to clear the air. Do you have time to chat? Just get things out. Don't keep things bottled up in your relationships because that will start to eat away. You start to drain. You start to weigh you down. And do you make requests rather than complaints? Because nobody likes someone that's complaining. If you're complaining, you're, you're, you're honestly not helping anyone. And if you make a request to someone, it's like, hey, you know, like, I would love it if you could carve out a couple of, couple of minutes to spend some time with me so we can, you know, get to the root of what's causing this breakdown between us. Instead of saying, hey, you never, you never make time for me. Why, why you? Why are you doing that? Or why are you prioritizing other people over me? Why do you always, why are you always on your phone? Make requests, don't complain? Do you respond to phone calls, letters and emails promptly or do you even respond at all? You one of those people who just like looks at a message and never responds. And I have to say I put my hand up for this. I've noticed in myself that, you know, as I engage with a lot of people online, it can be difficult sometimes to want to want to respond because my energy is sometimes the last thing you want to do. When you've had a busy day and you've got a bunch of unread messages or emails, you don't want to respond to it. And again, I've noticed this does create a bit of anxiety for me as well. And the solution to this is finding a time in your day when you can carve out an hour to just catch up on all messages and emails. And for me personally, that time is usually in the afternoon because I've done all my creative work by then, I've done most of my coaching by then, and I'll spend some time later in the afternoon just on my phone messaging people, catching up on messages. Sometimes it'd be nice to have like a tea or a coffee or something to just get the mind stimulated to do this. Because if you're messaging people when you're tired, you're going to be like, you're not going to sound are inspiring. So that's my helpful tip there with that, staying on top of your messages and your communications. The next part I want to chat about when it comes to simplifying your life is well being and the types of habits you incorporate around your health and wellness. So like this sort of stuff again, if you find yourself really busy, then your health and exercise starts to take a backseat. You start to oh, I don't have time to go to the gym today, I got to work on the business or I got to go, I gotta go pick up extra slack at work because I didn't get my task done. These things start to fall by the wayside. And when that happens, when your diet drops and your exercise schedule drops, it just becomes a snowball effect where everything starts to compound and your energy gets lower and lower and lower. So take stock. Do you include fresh fruit and vegetables in Your diet? Are you getting enough energy from your food? Are you eating enough food at all? Do you avoid, you know, having too much coffee? Or, like, are you drinking coffee every single day? Two to three times a day? Like, I love coffee, but sometimes it doesn't serve me to drink coffee every single day. And I'll always check in with my relationship with caffeine, take a couple of days off, and often that gives my body a chance to reset. When I come back, I enjoy the coffee, hold them all the more. So experiment with that. Exercise daily is really foundational for me now. I can't stress this enough. If you think you don't have time to exercise, it's time to slow down. Because whatever you're prioritizing ahead of your health, you've got it the other way around. And if work is telling you don't have time, usually it's a sign of unclear boundaries and unclear boundaries a sign of unclear values. So I'm here to tell you right now, your number one value should be health first and foremost, ahead of anything. Because if you're not healthy, you're good to no one. If you're not healthy, you can't experience life to the fullest. If you're not healthy, the people around you suffer because you're suffering. So prioritize your health. And if anything's getting in the way of that, it's time to slow down and start to either have a difficult conversation or get some planning in place. And do you take holidays? Like, seriously take breaks? I can't express this enough. And I've learned. I've learned this shit the hard way. That's why I'm on here talking about it. Because this stuff really impacted me when. Because I thought I had this stuff dialed in. But then all of a sudden, when I was saying yes to everything, thinking I needed to work harder to get to where I wanted to be, all this stuff started to fall. You know, I started to put it as a second priority. I thought making money was a priority. I thought, you know, learning something new was my number one priority. But no, often when you slow down and take a break, when you have a holiday, when you take a week off, you get more insight in that week off than you do for the four weeks that you're grinding. Or you gain more energy in that week off so that when you return, you're 10 times more productive and more efficient. So take time off. I would highly suggest blocking out two days in the calendar. And this is something I'm working at. And I must have been. I'm not an expert at it yet. Blocking days out, literally, if you use a calendar, which you should be, block time off on your schedule. Minimum for me is two days. I want two days off because that gives me the time to refresh and recalibrate. Suggest you do the same. The next thing, the fifth and final thing I want to talk about is the fun and creative element of your life. Do you invest in your personal development? Do you laugh every day? Do you have a hobby? Do you plan regular fun activities with your partner, family or friends? And do you dream big? Do you work on realistic ways to make your dreams come a reality? Now, fun and creativity, I said this is the start. If you're not having fun in this process of life and this process of evolution that you're going through, you're missing the point. So identify. What is it? What is it that you enjoy? What do you love to do? And for me, with my girlfriend, some of the funnest things I love doing is just really going out with her and enjoying a nice sunset and having some wine or going to the movies. Like, it's so important to pencil this stuff in because if you're anything like me, I sometimes get caught in the mentality that I don't have time for this. There's more work to be done, there's more people to help, there's more content to create. And although that, that is important, it's sometimes important to slow down, just have some fun. Switch off from that for a second. Switch off from your work. Find something like do something that makes you laugh. So laughing is all this stuff is so therapeutic for your mind, body and soul. So I really wanted to express the importance of this, guys, and the importance of decluttering, clearing out your personal environment, getting your finances in check, tying up loose ends in your relationships, prioritizing your well being, taking care of your body, putting the right things in and really having fun. Because if you're not having fun, what is the point? Guys, if you enjoyed this episode, if you enjoyed getting these insights and if you had insights and you want to take this even further, like this is, this is what I do. I help people dial this shit in. So if you want to have a conversation, reach out to me. You know, Instagram is usually the best place to find me. It's at State Shifters. Or you can drop me an email jordanstate-shifters.com and I'm happy to have a conversation and we can, we can chat about how we can dial this stuff in for you because big shifts start happening and you realize that everything you want is a lot closer than you think. So thank you so much for joining me on this episode. I appreciate you so much. And stay tuned. Subscribe to the podcast if you haven't already. I got a bunch more stuff coming, so thanks again and we'll see you in the next episode. Sam.