August Conversations: Pick, Pivot, Progress - Getting Unstuck

Finding yourself stuck between summer's freedom and fall's structure? You're not alone. August represents that peculiar transition period where we crave both relaxation and readiness, unstructured days and clear direction.

Getting unstuck starts with stillness. When was the last time you intentionally sat quiet enough to hear your own heartbeat? Not because an app prompted you, but because your soul needed that grounding? Whether it's wrapped in a cozy blanket, sitting among trees, or standing on a mountain peak—your personal environment for stillness matters. This isn't just self-care; it's self-connection, creating space where your inner wisdom can finally be heard above life's constant noise.

Once centered, you have three potential paths: do nothing (sometimes the wisest choice when environments are unstable), just start (building momentum through small consistent actions), or go big (leaping toward what your heart already knows needs to happen). The paralyzing factor isn't identifying these options but choosing between them. We become immobilized by "what-if" thinking and fear of wrong choices. The liberating truth? Just pick. If your choice doesn't serve you, pivot—you'll still be in a different place than where you started. Progress isn't always linear, but zigzagging still creates movement away from stagnation and toward possibility.

As you navigate this August transition, consider where you might feel stuck and what stillness might reveal about your path forward. Amazing things happen when we listen to our hearts and, most importantly, when we finally choose to pick a direction. Share this episode with someone who needs this message, and connect with me on Instagram @shontrapowell_provennotperfect, YouTube at Proven Not Perfect™️. Listen, Follow, Like, Share... let's build community and see great things together! 

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Transcript

Getting Unstuck: Hear Your Heartbeat

Speaker 1 1:03

Hey, proven Not Perfect, it's Chantrapal, and I'm so glad that you're here with Proven Not Perfect podcast in the month of August, when it's a time where so many of us are moving and sitting still and just not even trying to have anything regimented, because we all have that vision of the regiment that's coming as summer comes to an end. So not so sure how you're living your August, but I'm trying to be incredibly intentional with my August. So here's how I'm planning to navigate through the month of August Instead of having a schedule of guests this month, I'm allowing my guests to maintain the peace that they all deserve in the month of August and lining up a wonderful series of conversations, starting up in September. And when I tell you it's a wonderful series, I mean it. You do not want to miss it. Okay, so make sure that you get ready to start listening to my phenomenal guests and conversations in September, but then also stick with me through August because, as I launched in the last week in July, a podcast that was a solo conversation, taking it all the way back to the beginning in 2021, I'm going to continue to do that through August. I'm calling this series August Conversations and really it's really all about vacay mode. It's about getting back in gear mode. It's about easy living mode. It's about losing the structure mode before we all get really, really regimented and focused on the back half of the year and all the things that come along with that. Okay, why August for this conversation, these conversations in August?

Speaker 1 2:51

August for me has always been filled with great expectation. I was one of those kids who looked forward to the beginning of school. I also look forward to the summer, don't get me wrong. I look forward to the summer experiences and the get me wrong. I look forward to the summer experiences and the good times that I would have with my family and friends doing all the things. But I also, by the time I got to the end of summer, really looked forward to that newness that comes with the change of season, that newness. I grew up in the South, so it's not like I saw, like turning leaves on trees or anything. I'm talking about just that air of OK, get everything together right, get organized, get refocused, make sure you have everything that you need for the next leg of the journey, which would mean right into school. Right into school programs, extracurriculars, all those things, and for someone who seeks that opportunity to chill, but also looks for that opportunity to get engaged and drive. It can be that kind of season that's so crisp. So that's what these conversations are about. It's about getting us ready. It's about inspiring that incitement for what's about to happen. It's about making sure that we have all of the new utensils that we need to have the best experience going into this, back half, going back into that period of structure, that time of structure.

Speaker 1 4:35

If you were a kid, equate it to having your new backpack, having your new pencil case, having your new lunchbox, your new fresh clothes, all those things, y'all all those things. Lunchbox all you knew, you knew fresh clothes, all those things, y'all all those things. But as an adult, it's about making sure that you have a mind's eye to the objective. That is your priority. It is your North star. You know what that objective is. You see what that objective is and you've got focus there. Okay, you've got focus. And to maintain your focus, you're spending some time thinking through what do you need to let go of, where do you need to make space, and then how do you add the things that help you to keep that space that you made and to keep your eyes on the prize, okay.

Finding Your Grounding Environment

Speaker 1 5:26

So with that, I thought I'd talk to you a little bit about getting unstuck today, and I see it kind of in three phases getting to the goal of being unstuck. And so the first one, I think it's just acknowledging that there can often be so much noise, so many competing priorities that we lose the ability to absolutely hear our heart. Yes, pregnant pause was on purpose. We lose the ability to hear our heart because we're constantly hearing all of the noise and seeing all of the movement. So what are you doing to ground yourself and to stop the overthinking? What are you doing to get still Psalms 46.10, y'all. What are you doing to get still and to hear, to be and to know? What are you doing? What are you doing?

Speaker 1 6:52

That's the first thing for getting unstuck. It's actually sitting down, getting still, rooting, grounding and knowing what environments allow you to do that. Well, for some of us it's a cozy blanket on a wonderfully plush couch. For some of us it's a cozy blanket on a wonderfully plush couch. For some of us, it's sitting in nature. It's hearing the sound of the birds, it's listening to the wind. For others of us, it's top of the mountain. For others of us, it's being in the water. There's no one formula. We're all different, we're all unique.

Laying Out Your Three Options

Speaker 1 7:31

But the most important thing, I think, is to just make space for that energy to settle itself and for you to get still and rooted and grounded and to be in a place where you can hear again. You can hear, first and foremost, your own heartbeat, your own heartbeat. When's the last time? Be honest, be honest with yourself. When is the last time you sat still enough to just hear your own heartbeat and you didn't just do it for a second, you let that heartbeat build, you allowed yourself to feel it over several breaths. When's the last time you did that and did it without being forced or told to do? It wasn't a class, it wasn't a teacher, it was you sitting down in your environment, in your happy place heck, in your safe place, just sitting still and listening to your heartbeat. So that's your assignment number one Get still, listen to your heartbeat, listen to your heartbeat and let the heartbeat remind you of the beautiful blessing that you are, the beautiful blessed life that you are just amazed to have, and, no matter what's going on, acknowledge that it is a beautiful and it is blessed because it is because you're beautiful and they're blessings that await every single one of us If we get still and allow it to come. Okay. So, so much noise. Quieting that noise, getting still, getting anchored, getting grounded, getting centered. That's number one.

Speaker 1 9:30

Two, to get unstuck, lay out your options. And I like to think about laying out the options in three ways. First, I have the do nothing option. That is always an option, do nothing. Second, I have the start option. I'm not overthinking it, just as a start. And third, I have the go big option. That's the one that feels a little bit out of reach. Maybe a lot of bit out of reach, but it certainly doesn't feel very tangible. It doesn't feel like it's something that I can easily accomplish, easily do from the position that I'm in and with the resources that I have. So, to get unstuck and lay out my options, start and go big. Three, three lanes, okay, now, for each lane, I now start to build.

Speaker 1 10:46

What does it look like? Okay, look like vision. What does it look like if I just do nothing? What does it look like from the point position that I'm in right now If I just do nothing? What does it look like from the point position that I'm in right now If I just do nothing as it relates to getting unstuck, what does that look like? Do I like the way it looks? Is it okay to look this way for a period of time? Is it detrimental if it looks this way for any period of time? Is there an opportunity for me to move forward? And to move forward just being right here, just allowing the environment around me to shake itself out? Because if I move right now, with the environment around me doing what it's doing, I don't know where I'll end up, because the environment is moving right, so too much is moving around me to do anything, but just to be so. That could be a good option for you, based on what you're trying to get unstuck from, just doing nothing, finding a focus point that could be the objective future that you want and just sitting in this movement, because things are too all over to start moving, because you don't know if you're going to step in front, behind, to the side true destiny, true opportunity. So do nothing could be your option.

Speaker 1 12:17

Start. You know that you can't stay in this place the way it is right now. It is not serving you, you are not blessed, you are not blessing and you know this in your heart because you heard your heart. Okay, if that's the case, just start Period. I go to sleep, I wake up, I'm doing this one thing that's going to move me one bit further away from this situation what's the next one thing I can do? It could be the next hour, it could be the next day. What's the next one thing I'm going to do? What's the next one thing I'm going to do? What's the next one thing I'm going to do?

Speaker 1 13:21

Eventually, what happens is that momentum, from listening to your heart say it's time to move, that momentum starts to take on a life and you now start to see the flywheel effect of getting loose from whatever that thing is, whatever that grogginess is, whatever it was that was weighing you down, getting in your way, standing between you and the progress that you see for yourself. That's the second option, to start. The third is to go big. This is when you put faith into action and you really start to say can I stay where? I am Got to move? Heart I gotta move, feel I gotta move, but I feel the momentum and I'm ready to make it happen big for me. No time to waste, no time to delay, not taking baby steps, going big.

The Power of Just Picking

Speaker 1 14:17

What does go big look like? What do you need to do to make go big your reality? See it, see it clearly and then lean into it and just go. Now here's the trick. A lot of times, when we're stuck, you got all these options, you're going big maybe, but how do I know? Goes back to your heart. Your heart knows it, knows you got to move, knows you can't stay where you are because that's getting you nowhere. Told you to start it, told you got to move. It knows you can't stay where you are because that's getting you nowhere. Told you to start it, told you to go big. But what if no? What if Just pick, just pick. I believe another brand has definitely capitalized on just do it. So, okay, fine, great. But I'm gonna say just pick, just pick.

Pick, Pivot, and See Progression

Speaker 1 15:30

I believe that so many of us spend so much time being just mired down by the overthinking of what if I pick wrong? What if I do this and dot, dot, dot, what could be the repercussions of me picking? The reality is, you're not stuck when you pick. If you pick and you're headed down a path and it feels like it's not right, you pivot. There's an outdoor. It doesn't have to stay in a way that you feel isn't serving you. So stop overthinking. I tell myself all the ultimate force of love and truth and honor and all things good, go with it, pick and know that if, for some reason, the pick didn't prove out, I pivot. Reason the pick didn't prove out, I pivot. Now here's where I just had to do a hoot and holler for myself. If I pick and somewhere in the process I realized, oops, I need to pivot. I'm still in a different place than when I started, did you hear me? I'm still in a different place than when I started, did you hear me? I'm still in a different place than when I started. So you pick, you pivot and you see progression. It might not be linear, it might be zigzag, but you see movement and progression and that's where you get that power.

Speaker 1 17:30

All right, this has been a wonderful, fun August conversation about getting unstuck. I hope you enjoy. Tell me what you think in the DMs Instagram Chantrapal underscore proven, not perfect. Youtube proven not perfect. Facebook Chantrapal. And also proven, not perfect. Hit me up. I'd love to hear from you. Share this podcast. Share this podcast with somebody. Continue to rock with me. I think that some really amazing things are happening because the heart knows and I see it and, most importantly, I'm picking. All right, have a wonderful, wonderful week. See you soon Proving that perfect.