Who's Holding You Accountable?

The pride that you have in yourself, it makes you get your head down and get your shit together and get shit done. Because you don't want to let the side down. You don't want to start the day, set your intentions on that check in call, get to the end of the day, check in at the end, and the other person has done all of these things and you have basically done nine tenths of fuck all. You're listening to the Shickle C Project. Foreign welcome to the Triple CE Project, the podcast that helps you gain clarity, boost confidence, build courage so you can live lifeless. I'm your host, Ryan Spence. The big lord, dropout, life coach, author, speaker, lover of hoodies, hip hop and big hairy, audacious goals. If you're tired of living the life you think you should want and ready to start living the life you do want, this podcast will help you get from where you are to where you really want to be. So now with friends, I invite you to grab a drink, take a seat, allow me to guide you towards living a life that lives. Hey. Hey. Welcome to episode 49 of the Triple C Project. This episode is brought to you by Podcast Power Day. What's Podcast Power Day, you ask? Aha. I was hoping you would ask that. Well, if you've listened to this for a while, you know that whilst I have great creative ideas that I like to execute on, yes, I know, I'm humble. Organization isn't my strong point. And by that what I mean is I tend to record each week's episode probably a day or two before it's due to go out, which is fine. I don't make that a problem because it's just the way that my brain works. And in what I say about living life lit, about being yourself, about you don't have to do what you've always done and be who you've always been. It's not about change and growth for the sake of change and growth. It's not about change and growth for the sake of fulfilling other people's expectations. But it's about, first of all, accepting who you are, your strengths, and your quote unquote weaknesses or what other people perceive as weaknesses. And that's something which I have been working with over the last couple of years myself. And one of those is the fact that my brain works the way that it works. And I'm very much an off the cuff kind of guy. Creative ideas come and I put them out. I'm not so great at strategically creating ideas to then drip feed at a later date. Which is what all the gurus say that you should do. But I'm good with that. But one of the things I wanted to do this year was to find a healthy compromise between being this off the cuff, free flowing, kind of creative soul, but adding a dash of structure, because I could see in my own mind how that could create a little bit more time and space for me. And time and space are things which I crave and obviously the things which you can't create more of. So how was I going to do that? Well, I was having a conversation before Christmas with a friend and fellow coach of mine, Kelty McGuire. Kelty is the host of the Clarity podcast. And we connected a while back and found that we were very aligned on a lot of things and we got on really well and we had a catch up before Christmas. And I was sort of saying that I kind of would like to just record a bit more in sort of batches, in burst to kind of create time. And she was saying that she wanted to get back to a regular release schedule for her podcast. She hadn't put some out in a while. And then she came up with this genius idea. She said to me, would you like to do a podcast Power Day? I was like, what? Just the name sounds amazing. And basically what it meant was that we would get together on a day, meet on Zoom, and work on our podcasts. Sounds simple, right? It sounds really simple. But here's the thing which you've probably found yourself. When you have things to do, even if it thinks things that you like doing, it's very easy to get distracted, particularly when there's nobody else holding you to account. So you'll sit down with the best intentions at your desk to do a piece of work. And then you might think, let me just look at this new story online, or let me just check what's going on on Instagram, or let me just go and watch a YouTube video or two just to kind of get me in the mood. And then before know it, time has passed by. I've talked about this in earlier episodes about digital distraction, but this is more just general distraction. It's very easy because we're human, you know, we. We like shiny things. When things pop up, we get curious. So it's very easy to get distracted and find that the day or the time has passed by and you haven't got the thing done that you said you would do. And all the books and the podcast, they can help. And all the personal development tools and strategies, they can all help too. And they can help you increase your level of focus or productivity or whatever it is that you want to call it. But there are going to be times when you just really kind of need to crank something out and having some accountability would help. And that's what we found in doing Podcast Power Day. So a little confession. This episode is the third episode that I recorded almost back to back on Podcast Power Day. Sat down. So actually, let me go back a little bit. Let me just tell you the parameters of how we sort of set this whole thing up. So the parameters of Podcast Power Day were this. We choose one day to focus on one thing, and that was important. We had to be focusing on one thing, hence why this particular day was called Podcast Power Day. Because we're both going to focus on our podcasts and we could focus on doing anything and everything around the podcast, whether it was planning new episodes, recording new episodes, hosting, writing show notes, whatever it was that we felt would be useful for us to do on that day. And we both sort of committed to planning and recording episodes. So the important thing was to set a goal. Then at the beginning of the day, we had a quick check in, call on Zoom to set our respective intentions. And that's important because speaking out, as you know, when I talk about the DID framework and the inscribe and then the describe, you write it down and tell somebody. It kind of makes it more real. And so speaking it to somebody else is kind of like, okay, this is a thing I need to do, do now, I've committed to, and then respectively work throughout the day with no distractions, although I'll come to that in a bit. And then check in at the end of the day to follow up and see what we did. If we did what we said we're going to do and just to kind of get a general vibe for how we, how we were feeling. So that was the general flow of the day, very simple and straightforward. But the unintentional side effects of that whole thing was it led to some healthy competition, because it wasn't supposed to be a competition and we're both supposed to just state our intentions and then sit down and get our things done. But I think partly because we are aligned in the way that we think we get on so well, and we both had an intention to record, plan and record episodes. It kind of became a, well, let's see who can record the most. And I said, there's supposed to be a day without distractions, just focusing one thing. But there was a little bit, and I blame Kelsey for this because she posted on LinkedIn that we were doing this thing and then was posting on Instagram about it and what we'd done and how far she got, which then led to me as well. So that kind of created this sort of healthy rivalry throughout the day. And it was great because it really then sort of pushed me to just kind of like, no, I'm going to get my head down. I'm going to do this. And all in all, it was a really, really enjoyable experience and one that we are going to do again. And so I want to share some takeaways from the experience and I want to share how and why accountability just works. Hey, I'm interrupting myself to give you this short message now. If you're listening to this pod, you're likely looking to change your life. Here's the thing. Transformation doesn't happen by doing what you've always done. It happens when you change your thoughts about what's possible for you. My book, the Triple C Method, helps you do that by giving you the tools and strategies to stop living a life of lethargy and start living life lit, described as a transformational toolkit. And the book I wish I'd had when I decided to leave corporate the Triple C Method will change how you see yourself and how you live your life. Available now as paperback, ebook and audiobook read by yours truly. Head to iamryspence.com book or over to your favorite bookseller to grab your copy today so you can stop living a life of lethargy and start living life Next. So some of the key takeaways from this podcast Power Day. And it can be in anything. Power Day. It doesn't really matter. But some key takeaways are this one, as I say, focus on one thing. If you're both focusing on the same thing, that's cool. It doesn't really matter. You could both be focusing on your own individual things, which are completely different. But if you're focusing on the same thing, it does help to kind of breed that sort of healthy competition and rivalry, which I think gives an added edge to the process. The Power Day. It makes any task more interesting. Even if the task is interesting, it doesn't mean you're not going to get distracted. But when you know there's somebody else on the other side of the desk, other side of the room, other side of the world who's also working alongside you, then that adds another element to another layer of interest. And it also adds another layer of excitement as well. Going back to the competition side of it and the pride that you have in yourself. It makes you get your head down and get your shit together and get shit done. Because you don't want to let the side down, you don't want to start the day, set your intentions on that check in call, get to the end of the day, check in at the end, and the other person has done all of these things and you have basically done nine tenths of fuck all. So it makes you really focus, like beyond focusing on your own. And that's the beauty of accountability, having somebody who is holding you accountable to what you said that you would do. It's not about making you do things that you don't want to do. You're making the commitment, you're setting the intention. You're just letting the other person know then so that the other person can then hold you accountable and can call you on your bullshit if necessary, can challenge you as to, well, why did you not get that done? What do you think happened there? And kind of get you sort of thinking about, what if I didn't get it done this time, what was it? And how can I maybe set things up in a different way next time to help me win, to help me succeed, to help me achieve what it was that I set out to achieve. So we're going to have another one in February, which we're very excited about and we're sort of kicking around other ide in and around that that we we may talk about a little bit more. And you'll meet Kelsey. At some point on this podcast we're going to have an episode to just talk about this whole podcast Power Day thing together because I think you also get a slightly different dynamic when we're both sharing our experiences together in real time. I think that will be really helpful for you to kind of see how it works and to hear our individual perspectives on, on kind of what worked in that process and how it helped us to kind of do what it was that we said we would do. And I'm also planning to get her on for a separate episode just to talk about the work that she does, her business and all that good stuff as well. She's a really interesting person to know and really good fun. So I think you're going to like listening to her. So what I'd like to invite you to do as you leave today as you listen to this episode, is think about what it is that you want to do. What tasks or missions or plans do you have that you keep knocking to the back burner or that you keep getting distracted by. Maybe you're thinking I really need to start looking for a new job. Maybe you're thinking I really need to start preparing a case for that promotion. Maybe you're thinking I really want to go and start learning that new hobby or that new skill, or I really want to go and set up that business or write that book, whatever it is that you've been putting off. Get that thing in mind. If it's really important to you, then I would invite you to have your own power day. Find a friend who's equally committed to something. It could be the same thing, it could be something else and create a day like this. It could initially, it doesn't have to be a day, it could be an hour. I mean, it depends on the time that you have. Maybe you only have one hour each month where you check in and you do this. But having that accountability is really going to help you move forward a hell of a lot quicker than you will do on your own. Because if you've been wanting to do this thing for a long time and you still haven't done it, then obviously doing on your own isn't really working for you for whatever reason. And sometimes you may only need that accountability for a short time. Having that sort of injection of excitement into the process could kick start your momentum that allows you to then continue on your own. And maybe you don't need the accountability long term, or maybe you think the accountability is fun and you do keep it long term. Because there is something quite nice, even when you're working in different places or in different things, to kind of have other people alongside you who you can kind of kick ideas around, where the riff off, have this sort of friendly rivalry and competition and if you can't find a friend or somebody who is in that same headspace as you, or if you want some professional support from someone who has no skin in the game at all, who can take that high level view of what you're doing and also has experience of being in these situations and coming through the other side and of helping people find through these situations and getting them to do the things that it is that they want to do, that they, they've committed in their mind to do, but haven't actually started, that's where coaching can help. That's where I can help you as your coach. If that sounds like something which is interesting to you, you're a little bit curious about, you're not quite sure what it is, how it can help and what benefits are going to be to you. I invite you to book a consultation call. That's what it's there for. You can head to iamryanspence.com coaching, read all about what coaching's like, and book yourself a consultation call. It's a free call. We get on, talk about what it is you want to do, where it is you want to go, what's been holding you back, all those sorts of things, and come up with a plan as to how together we can work to move you forward from where you are to where it is that you want to be. Okay, that's it for me for this week. So, as I say, this is the third episode of podcast Power Day. There may be a fourth, but it's been a really great experience and I feel. I feel quite smug having three episodes recorded in advance. This is. This is new territory, territory for me and I think I quite like it. So, yeah, I advise you to get on this accountability train. It's really going to help you move forward. Forward. Thank you as always for listening. See you again next week. Until then, stop living a life of lethargy and go ahead, start living life Lit. Thanks for tuning in. But before you go, the weight of limiting beliefs is heavy. It literally weighs you down and keeps you stuck in that life of lethargy. I know. It's why I stayed in Big Law for so long, and it's why so many of my clients don't believe they can do the things that they want to do. But what causes those limiting beliefs? It's a lack of confidence. Lack of confidence in the belief that you can do the things that you want to do. And I got something for that. It's my confidence journal. It's six journal prompts that I created that I've used to help me get from where I am to where I want to be, to help to give me the belief to do the things that seem outside of my control, outside of what I can do. If this sounds like you, you need to get your hands on the journal. Best thing about it, it's free. All you have to do is head to Iamry Spence.com hit the button for Confidence Journal and get your copy today. It's going to help you start to reframe your thoughts and get you thinking about what you can do instead of focusing on what you can't do and shed that load of limiting beliefs that you don't need to be carrying. See you again next week. And until that time, stop living a life of lethargy and start living life lit.