Overwhelmed? 5 Ways To Get Back On Track!

There's one thing that separates the folks that are able to get back on track and not. And it's a very simple idea, but it's adding more. It's adding more time and space for you to figure it out, to take care of yourself, to be out in the world. And so when you feel overwhelmed, when you feel stuck because you just got knocked off track, we have to have a, a plan and a rubric in getting back on track. So that's what we're going to be talking about in this. So I'm certified high performance coach Sean Butner, and I know it's really counterintuitive because a lot of times when we get thrown off track, it's because we're too busy. It's because it was overwhelming. It's because we don't know what to do in the next steps, that those are some of the things that we really need to get back into. As someone right now that is very focused on health and getting back into running, getting back on optimizing my nutrition, I personally, even as a coach, even though I know that there will be dips and dives and curveballs on the path, sometimes get tripped out. But it's the highest performers, it's the people that often end up succeeding that can get back on track quicker. So that's another reason why we really need to make sure we have a set of habits or strategies to get back on track when we get thrown off. So that all said, oh, what are the five different things that we should be thinking about when we get thrown off track to get back on track. And before we get into it, if you, you are struggling with this yourself, where you're like, hey, I have this diet, I have this workout plan, I have this career path, and I'm just not showing up consistently or I'm not getting the progress that I want quick enough, then sometimes it's really great to talk to a coach. So I handle these types of situations on the regular in my coaching practice. Certified high performance coaching, if that's you and you're looking for a little bit more help other than a video online, it's important to engage and get around people that have a different perspective that will cheer you on, that help you move through with more confidence and get more consistent in your plan. And so the best way to do that is to sign up for a free strategy session at the link below. There's an option for to pay for that. Also, the way that I have it broken down is I'm going to be running a YouTube series where I'll be highlighting people. So if you don't want the session to be public, you can pay for a private session. But you go on, hit that link, you fill out the application, you choose the free option, which I'll take clips to show people the power of coaching, or you pick the private option and then we sit with each other for an hour focused on your life, tailored to your life, situations and abilities. And I love doing these sessions. So make sure you hit that link below this video if you're interested in that extra level of help. If you want to test out these five habits and strategies that I have right now before. Awesome. That sounds pretty smart of you. I encourage that to you. So let's get into it, right? The first reason why people get thrown off track consistently that I've seen in my coaching practice, in my personal life with friends and family, is there's not clear on what they're going after or what the big picture is or what the next steps are. So there's a clarity component. You have to get more clarity in your life if you're going to get back on track. So what does that look like in the health example, if you're like, I need to lose 30 pounds and I'm going to go running. But you've never run before. You're just going to. Maybe you try. You go for a couple runs, you run for 15 minutes. It's really hard not seeing progress over a week and you get really bummed and so you stop. And then, you know, it's harder and harder to get that momentum to get back in. Getting clarity around it would be getting a book like how to Train by Hal Higdon that tells you the breakdown and tells you what to expect along the way. Or if you're trying a new diet, you're like, oh, I want to improve my nutrition. I don't know what I need to do. You get a book like the whole 30. Get into that program. And I'm not affiliated with either of these folks, just for the record. It's things that I've personally used and have found helpful over the years. You do the whole 30. And the whole 30 is really great at saying that, okay, you're cutting out sugar, you're cutting out dairy, you're cutting out legumes, and you're cutting out carbs, right? So meat and vegetables and fresh things is basically the basic tenets of that. And they break it down. So you go for 30 days and they're like, week one, it'll be great. Week two, you're going to hit the, it's going to feel really awful. Three, you're going to have that sugar dragon really trying to tempt you to go off course. And fourth week at the end, you'll be feeling like you got it under control. You'll be getting a lot of the sleep benefits and anti inflammatory inventory stuff, blah, blah, blah. But the key is you're very clear on how you're going to feel throughout the process. You're very clear on what your next steps are and you have a set plan to follow it. So you just don't have to do the thinking. Because a lot of times too when people get thrown off track, you're like, oh, what do I do next? What's the next mileage to run? Or oh, it's raining out. And then you're like, instead of saying I have three miles, I must go out to go and run three miles. And it's irrelevant if it's raining or not. If you don't have that sense of clarity on the next step, it's when most people fall off. So avoid those moments in your life and get more clarity on the big goal. So a big goal for running could be not dying, running a marathon. The big goal for health could be, so I just want a lifestyle change where I'm more active every day. And that's great and reminding yourself of those big things can really help. But also knowing the next steps and knowing how you're going to feel along the way, those three things are going to make a difference in getting back on track. Getting back on track quicker and sticking to it. The second thing when you get thrown off track is, and I alluded to this before, it is you need more of a plan, right? And I feel this is the trickiest reason why people get thrown off track. Because a plan is a plan, but a lot of it is lost in the details. So if again, that you have to run 20 miles in a week or you know that you're going to run four miles, four miles, four miles, four miles, five miles. I've been trying to do the math in real time here, but you get the point. Like if you are trying to, if you break it down by day, what you need versus by week, you're going to have more success on reaching that goal, right? Because what will happen inevitably if you have a more big goal with a bigger timeline, you're going to say, oh, I got it tomorrow, I got it tomorrow. And it's one day before, just like in school Oh, I have to run 20 miles tonight in order to get the weekly plan taken care of. And then you just don't because you screwed up. And as I'm saying, get more clarity or have a plan or the other three points coming up. I'm assuming there's a sense of grace that you have for yourself in this, because it's very normal to goof up to, and it's really hard to change habits. So you're beating yourself up for not getting it perfect 100% of the time. You're being unreasonable. And I say that with a smile on my face and cheering you on, because I've been there. I've coached so many people through that. And at the end of the day, we're not judged by one event in our life. It's how consistent we were over time. And so that's something to really keep in mind as we're going forward as talk about creating a plan, getting more clarity. And this third point, which is to get back into good action. Right? And what does that mean? So if you have clarity, you know what you need to be doing, you know, the big goal, how you're going to feel throughout the process or how you're expecting to feel, and you have very clear granular plan of what you have to do every day to reach that goal, then you just have to do it right. So when you end up getting those extra cupcakes or cookies or whatever, your vices and your nutrition, and you have that one moment of weakness where you didn't catch yourself, and then you feel bad afterwards, you feel that getting yourself beating yourself up again in the back of your head, you go, you know what? Okay, clean slate right now. I'm back in the plan that happened. I can't change it, but I can tonight for dinner, make sure that I adhere to the regular, regularly scheduled nutrition. Vegetables, meat, whatever, vegan, paleo, whatever it is for you, that's not important. But if you have that plan, how are you executing it? And I think that's really a huge thing to call out. And so that's the mantra when you're thrown off track is like, what's the next best action of integrity? What is the next best action? How do I get back? What's the next thing that I do to get back on track? Because I think again, so many times we'll just be like, that's out the window. And so we give up. We don't want that. The fourth thing to do when you get thrown off track is to do an internal Check and see if you need some more rejuvenation in your life. Like you need more of a break, you need more of a time to reflect. You need more time, you need to take a step back and again, give yourself that sense of grace like I talked about just now, or really just feel the goal, feel the plant feel and think about how proud you're going to be when you accomplish this task, this goal, this program, this plan that you have. And so I think I work with so many people that are high performers and like I gotta do everything right now. Gotta keep moving forward, gotta keep pushing, gotta keep going forward. And that's how you, that's a good recipe to burn out, especially if you're not taking care of your body and nutrition and all the things I talk about and the high performance coaching stuff. But and also at this point, it's a really great reason to hire a coach because how do you know when it's your brain tricking you not to do the thing or if it's you actively needing a rest? And I believe you need a discussion with somebody else, a mentor, a family member, a trusted family member, someone that you trust to have the best you in mind And a coaching relationship is that if it's great and embodied to be a great coach. That's how I approach my coaching clients. So get in discussion with a coach, with me, another coach, somebody you trust, and be like, am I trying to avoid this thing? Am I trying to get out of doing this thing? Or do I need to take a step back and just reground myself? Because so much of productivity, so much of being on track, is taking those regularly scheduled breaks to make sure that you are taking care of yourself or that you're feeling the positive emotions that should be coming from doing something that helps you build your life, build your health, build your wealth, build your relationships, build what you want in the world, right? That should be fun. And sometimes it's taking stock of it. So rejuvenate, okay, More rejuvenation. And then if you have all those in place and you're still getting thrown off track, getting pulled off by distractions, then one of my favorite techniques to do is something called active procrastination. And what is that? That is simply you have your list of priorities or your to do list and you have the thing that you're supposed to do right now, you have the next couple of things that are be super important and you actively do the second and third thing and what you'll find and what I've Found is that if you do that enough one like in my personality it'll not mean like I just gotta do this thing to get it off the list because it's driving me nuts, right? So there's that kind of component to it. But eventually to keep adding and burning things off that are their second and third priority, the thing that's most important right now is going to drop in priority and then that'll be the second or third most important thing and then the process takes care of itself. It's really a weird thing. I don't know why it works a hundred percent, but I know it does work for me and I've seen it work for some other folks. So give active procrastination a try. I think you'll really love it. With that said, like when we fall off track again, just to remind you it's human nature, be kind to yourself. It happens to everyone. We're not judged by a one single moment of our lives. We're judged by how consistent we are over time. If you're working on getting promoted, advancing your career, how many things have you done in the last week, in the last month, in the last quarter to help you progress on that goal or in your health? How many miles have you run on average the last three months and have that type of mindset and that will help you get over those bumps that we have naturally in life. So with those, those two points in mind again, get more clarity on the big goal. Get more clarity on you need to do next and the plan number two is to make sure the plan is great and is maybe even more granular than you need and as time bound. So you want daily goals but you want results measured in weeks or months. So that's another way to say that need to get back into the best next action to get back on track. So don't linger in one event screwing you up. Let's get into it. We need to make sure we have planned rejuvenation and are actively taking a break. Or maybe we need to take more of a break because we're feeling a little burnt out again. Talk to a coach or mentor or trusted family friend, trusted person in your life to see if it's yeah, you've been going really hard. Go take two days off, have a couple a weekend where you're cheating on your diet. Not to cheat on a diet, but to celebrate the progress you've made. And then of course this idea of active procrastination, doing the second and third most important thing on your to do list until the most important thing falls into a lower priority that sometimes again works for folks. I know it has worked for me. When I get stuck on I can't do the main thing. So we'll have that for you. So go out there and do more. Get back on track. I am cheering you on. I know that you got this. And if you don't feel like you got this, know below this video to hit that link and to sign up for a one hour free or pride paid private session strategy session with me and we'll get you squared away, we'll help you develop your plan, we'll teach you some high performance habits and you'll get a lot of positive energy cheering you on because that's what I do. Okay, that's it. Go out there, live with more joy, more personal growth, more impact in your communities. We'll see you next week. This is Sean Butner signing off and if you guys are interested, click over here to watch last week's video. We talked about AI tools and in particular how to use Descript to do videos like this for transcripts and all that kind of thing. So I know you love it. Continue watching over there. We'll see you there. Bye.