Tony Suriano breaks down over-chunking, when you split tasks into too many pieces and freeze up. He uses a three-step fix: define your concrete outcome, clarify your why, list the essential actions. Then he explains snack bribes, small rewards that jumpstart motivation when you're stuck, sharing how a Whole Foods snack got him through two and a half hours of editing.
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When you don't want to get things done, or you want to but you're feeling lazy, or you're feeling unmotivated, sometimes you need a snack bribe. My wife says this intro sounds like a conspiracy mystery, so I'll stop that voice and tell you this show is for you to get you on the track you want for your life. I'm gonna share encouraging educational content, hopefully entertaining, that will help you direct your life. Welcome back to another episode. I'm in my car. My name is Tony Suriano, and this is episode 35 of the Direct Your Life podcast. And it's been a while since I actually released one, and that is why I'm making this episode right now, because getting right into it— when you over-chunk things, meaning you create unnecessary overwhelm, you don't execute. So when I make these episodes, I want high production value. I want the camera to look great. I want to look great. I want to feel great. But sometimes I have too many to-do lists and I don't get it done. Do you know what I mean? Has that happened to you where you have this goal but then you over-chunk it, you overthink it? There's 25 different things you need to do, and then you convince yourself, well, I need 5 hours to do this. I'm not doing it. Sometimes that happens to me still, even when I understand what you need to do to execute. So today, this episode, I want to share how I just set up in my car and started this episode right here. If you're listening to YouTube, thank you so much. Please give me a subscribe and share this episode if it is needed to be shared to someone you know. And then also, if you're on The Spotify, the Apple, please give me a review. Give me a comment. Let me know what you think. I'd love to hear it. But getting into it, how can you take your goals, those important things in your head? How can you take those, create a little plan, and then execute and make progress? Why do we want progress? Progress equals happiness. Progress equals happiness. We all want to be happier. Am I right? Am I wrong? You tell me. If you want to be happy, you got to understand you're the most excited, enthusiastic, happy when you're making progress, when you're growing. But sometimes growing takes a lot of work, so we do other things to satisfy that happiness, but we're not really there. Stick with me. Let me try to get this all out of my head here. Speaking of getting things out of my head, first, you have these goals, these ideas, these things that you know you want to do that will give you progress. That could be progress in relationships, progress with your family, progress with your self-love, whatever it is for you. Think about that, but go beyond, because when you think about it, you know, it's kind of cool, but it's just a dream. You need to extract it, and then you need to make a mini plan, an outcome plan. This is what will happen if you circle it on a page and you write what you really want. Like, for instance, right now I wanted to get this episode out to you so I can get on track, provide some value, and also meet my year outcome, which is— I just wanted to give out 52 free podcast episodes reflecting on what's helped me in my life, what gets me into enthusiastic mode, what gets me into happy mode. And I wanted to share 52 episodes. Maybe I'll keep going, but that is the outcome. So I circled that on the page. Second thing we have to ask is why. Why do we want this? One, I'm gonna be a little selfish. When I make these episodes It forces me to reflect on what's going on in my life right now, what I really want to stay in alignment with, and who I'm becoming. Those are important things to me. So I love making episodes like this because that's what it does. So that's one of my whys. And then the other why is I do like and love the idea of sharing what you know, sharing where you were and how you got out of that or overcame that with people such as you. And that, that always helps each other out, right? And that's what I love about learning from others. That's what I love about teaching. So I have my why, I know the outcome. So what do you do? You do have to write what action steps you need to take. Now, if you have 8 action steps, that's good. It's not 20,000. But out of the 8, then you have to decide which 2 or 3 do you have to do in order to get the outcome. So in this case, making an episode and sharing some value, I just need to make sure I shoot it when I'm in a good mode, a good mood, and I have 2 to 3 interesting or valuable takeaways for you and for me to reflect on. Then I just gotta put it out there. That's it. That's 3 things. Now, I could overwhelm myself with all the other ideas and things like having the perfect background, always shooting it on my great camera, which takes more time. I gotta set up the studio space 'cause I always move it for different things I'm shooting. And I don't have 2 hours today. Thus, I'm in the car and I'm just taking action. And right after this, I'm gonna hop in a cafe. I'm just gonna get it uploaded. That's it. That's it. So I dechunked it into a smaller little block and I circled it with my outcome, my why, and the musts. The 3 things. Later, if I have a little more luxury on the next episode, I will film it with my higher-end camera and my studio and, you know, my own space. So that is important. So if you're thinking about something you want to get done that fulfills you, that gets you in alignment with the person you're becoming or want to become in the future, This is how it happens. Next on the agenda, when you don't want to get things done, or you want to but you're feeling lazy or you're feeling unmotivated, sometimes you need a snack bribe. Okay, what is a snack bribe? Well, last night, a little story. I'm working on writing a book. I'm on the second draft Edit phase. That's a tough phase because I got to read all the stuff that I wrote and then perfect it, quote, and just keep going through it. And it's a little bit of a drudgery because I'm not hiring an editor right now. I'm doing the self-edit for now, and I just got to get through it. And I don't need 3 hours every day. I just need 20 minutes to an hour. And if I stay like that, stay on track, I'll get it done. Okay, so last night I was starting to go a little insane. I knew I needed to get going. I knew I needed to sit down at the desk and do some editing and writing and continue the journey. But I wasn't. I was actually getting irritable. I was sharing that irritability to my wife. I'm sorry. And then it hit me and I was like, snap out of it. I need to change my environment and I need to bribe myself to get myself going. Self-talk is real. And I had fun. I decided, okay, I'm going to Whole Foods. I'm gonna spend some money and get the healthy snacks that I enjoy and a healthy drink. Semi-healthy. Okay, there's a little sugar in it. Just like 4 grams. It's not a big deal, but you know what? Sometimes you need that bribe, and I urge you to get yourself a bribe list, but make sure it's mostly healthy. Give your celebration something that helps you out in your day. Don't be smoking and drinking and all that stuff. It's not good for your temple. So this little snack bribe— gosh, just thinking about it, I'm a little excited. It was so good. Okay. I got so much done by going to this Whole Foods Cafe sit-down area, bringing my laptop, have my little snack bribe to my left, sipped, had a little bit of that snack, and I was at it. I put my earphones on, I put music on repeat, and before I knew it, 2 and a half hours passed. I did diligence, I made progress, I felt alive, and I was pushing towards the mission. Finish the book. Finish the thing. Do what you know you need to do to be in alignment with what matters to you. That was a rant in my car. That was fun. Okay, now I want to know what helps you stay on track. I have my little list here and I'm just going through some things. What would you bribe yourself with to do The thing you know you need to do. Tell me in the comments. Share. I want to read them. Hopefully they're healthy. Make them healthy. A long walk can make you feel amazing. Give yourself that gift and have intentions that you're going to do the long walk, and at the end you're going to go and do the thing. I promise, when you change your physiology or you change your environment and your mental, things change and you get more done and you feel better. And guess what? You're more of a joy to be around. Okay, I know I'm a little excited, a little crazy in this episode. I just want to say thanks. I hope this helped. I now am going to edit this episode, and then I'm going to work on a couple other things. Then I have the rest of the day. So I hope your rest of the day is amazing. I hope it's filled with magic. Create your vision, create your why, and break through those barriers. Rediscover that magic that's inside of you and go after it and connect. And you know the phrase: go direct your life. I hope this helped you. I hope this served you. If it did, please share it to someone you know. And if you do me a favor, these free episodes. I love doing them for you. I want to keep doing them. If you rate the show and you review the show on Apple Podcasts, it would mean a lot and it would help spread this show around. And if you share it with your friends and family, that would also help. Thank you so much in advance, and get out there and have fun.
