Episode 273: What's on your LESS list?
We focus so much on more, growth, and building and not on what we want to do less of. In today's episode, Fiona shares a quick tip that can help you in your business and life. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Group Coaching
The less list
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Welcome to episode 273 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. I hope that you are enjoying the new year if you're listening to this in real time, and I hope you're enjoying the future. Today you are listening to a quick tip episode and it's really where I share a tip, tool, or tactic that you can implement immediately. Today has had a huge impact on my own business since I started using it. I wanted to share that with you today. Before I jump into it, I just wanted to let you know we are closing very soon the applications for Group Coaching. You can find all the information over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching that kicks off in March, and we will close applications at the end of this month.
If you are keen, please let us know as soon as possible and head on over and apply. Like I said before, the URL is just mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching, and we'll link to that in the show notes. The other thing, of course, is to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of this beautiful land on which I record this podcast. That is the Wurundjeri and Wurrung people of the East Kulin Nation. And I pay my respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. I also pay my respects to any other Torres Strait Islander, an indigenous people from all over the world who might be tuning in and listening to this today. Thank you so much and welcome. Let's get into today's quick tip episode.
Today, it is a tool and tactic that can help you in your business and life. Especially as we're starting off this new year, I think this is a really important thing to do if you haven't already. If you are on my email list, I send a Sunday email every single Sunday, and you can find how to subscribe to that over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/subscribe. I've been sending it for years and years and just before the end of last year, 2022, I decided to send an email about what I'm about to share. The responses were just beautiful and meaningful, and I feel like a lot of people got a great sense of relief from doing this, but also a great sense of clarity about where they want to go.
A huge part of my business is helping people with clarity in their business because I feel like if you have clarity, you have confidence and you can move forward and try things and experiment and test and get yourself out there in all sorts of ways because of that confidence, which is a direct result of the clarity around where you're going and what you want to do. Today I thought I would share what happened a few years ago I was scrolling Instagram and I saw this bit of prose that was written by a writer, Amy Weatherly, and will link to her in the show notes. I'll just read the bit of prose and then tell you what came up for me from that. This was around Christmas time a couple of years ago that I read this and it said, “You're going to come in contact with an awful lot of people who are at their absolute breaking point this week.”
Friends, family, coworkers, teachers, retail workers, and nurses will let you in on their struggles, but the majority will nod and carry on and pretend that everything is okay. People are overrun with to-do lists. People are overwhelmed with obligations, budgets, depression, and anxiety. People are overcome with grief and mourning and missing loved ones who aren't near to celebrate. While it may be the nearest time of the year, for some, we have to remember, it may be the saddest, most stressful, loneliest, most heartbreaking time of the year for others. We are all busy, but we are not too busy to be kind, caring, and patient. We're not too busy to tip waiters or strike up a conversation with the person behind us in the line at the grocery store or smile at the mother trying to comfort an upset child.” As I said, I read that a few years ago.
The writer of that passage is Amy Weatherly. I read it and at the time that was the year that my father actually passed away a couple of days after Christmas. But I remember thinking, she has just hit the nail on the head and that so many of us walk around at the end of the year, but also now at the start of the year with this to-do list that never seems to diminish. Today I wanted to share with you a different type of list that has been really crucial in my own life and something that I always do at the end of the year or at the start of the new year. That is to create a less list. Now, I think so often we are carrying around these to-do lists that are just about more especially in business.
I want to get more followers, more this, more that, and more money. I work with people and their money all the time. I'm not for a minute saying you don't want to necessarily get more money. But I think what we don't focus on, we focus so much on more and more and growth and building and building and not on what we want to do less of. What do we want to say no to? The less list is literally a list of all the things that you're going to do less of this year. And whenever I've sat down to write mine, I always wonder if will there be one or two that I can think of or let's say three or four. Before I know it, every year without fail, I have filled an entire page in my notebook, which is about 22 lines.
Many things come out and they can be big things like I am going to do less of bending over backward for people who do very little for me. Not that it's a tit-for-tat, but I can sometimes feel that I'm taken advantage of in certain situations, not necessarily in business, but in other things. It could be less like a big meaty one like that, which really is about self-development and understanding why you are doing those things and why you're not necessarily setting your boundaries. But it could be other things like less email or less clutter on my desk or less caring about this or that person, not as in God that sounds really awful, but as in caring what they think. For example, it could be less messy at tax time because I'm really going to be focused on being a little more organized or structured.
It could be whatever you come up with less judging yourself, less critiquing yourself, less self-negative talk, like all sorts of things. But coming up with that less list, because we all have so many things that we actually don't want to carry into the new year, but we don't sit down to actually write them out. We sit down with a whole list of goals and that is great, but we are looking into the future and we're like, "yes, but we're not necessarily learning from the past." What have we done in the last year or the last couple of years that we just don't want to do anymore, or we want to do a lot less of? That is it today, it is figuring out what is on your less list for 2023 and every other year that you bring this into. It might be something you do quarterly, it could be just something that you do once a year.
But it's really important to not only have all these exciting goals and what we're trying to grow and build and all of that but also what we're actually trying to reduce in our life, what we want less of. It's been really impactful for me. When I shared it at the end of last year, I had so many incredible replies from people who just said the most beautiful things. I've realized the older I get, the more that I just need to focus and be still and be okay with that stillness through to somebody whose parent is passing away is dying at the moment, and is close to passing away. They were saying that's really hit home that I've been chasing the wrong things for many years. I just think that the power can't be underestimated even if it might seem like such a simple thing.
Often it is literally those simple things that have the greatest impact on us. If you've never done this before, literally find some quiet time. It has to be quiet. It can't just be something you're doing while you're half doing something else. Sit down, be by yourself, get a cup of tea or whatever it is, and just think about the things that are working, the things that are not necessarily working, the things you'd like to change, and where perhaps pulling back on some things may actually make you a happier, more fulfilled business owner. That is it for today's quick tip episode. As usual, the show notes will be available over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/273. As I said at the start if you're interested in Group Coaching, it is available now for applications for March and that'll kick off and go for 12 months.
We do open it one more time throughout the year, but if you're keen to get started and the earlier the better when it comes to this stuff, then check it out and apply over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching. Now often we have people contacting us saying, "if I'm not in Australia, can I still apply?" Yes, you can. We pretty much always have somebody who is not in Australia who is in it with people, we had people from the US, UK, Amsterdam, and New Zealand. Don't feel like you can't apply if you're not in Australia. We work with the group to figure out the best possible time, and that includes different time zones. As long as you've got an internet connection and an eagerness and a commitment to be part of a group program get on over to mydailybusinesscoach.com/groupcoaching and apply. Thank you so much for listening. If you found this useful, I would love it if you could give it a quick, I was going to say it thumb up, but it's like a star rating or a review on Spotify or Apple. It just really helps us get found by other small business owners who probably really do need to create a less list. Thanks so much for listening. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram @mydailybusinesscoach.
