EP114: The Radical Power of Doing Sh*t, Just Because

What if joy didn’t need justification? In this episode, I call out the sh*tty, toxic pressure to monetize every moment and be productive at all costs. From a simple Pilates practice to dancing alone in the kitchen, I shine a light on what we lose when everything becomes a performance — and why reclaiming your time, mediocrity, and autonomy is a radical act of self-leadership. If you’ve ever been made to feel like your hobbies need a purpose (or a paycheck), this episode is your permission slip to stop performing and start living. This isn’t about anti-capitalism. It’s about coming back to yourself.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:03

Welcome to the Business Blasphemy Podcast , where we question the sacred truths of the online business space and the reverence with which they're held . I'm your host , sarah Khan speaker , strategic consultant and BS busting badass . Join me each week as we challenge the norms , trends and overall bullshit status quo of entrepreneurship to uncover what it really takes to build the business that you want to build in a way that honors you , your life and your vision for what's possible , and maybe piss off a few gurus along the way . So if you're

Welcome to Business Blasphemy

Speaker 1 0:30

ready to commit business blasphemy , let's do it . Hello , hello blasphemers , welcome back . You want to know what's exhausting Feeling like . Every decision you make has to be productive , has to be strategic , has to be monetizable . Let me give you some real life rage fuel .

Speaker 1 0:51

Okay , I told someone recently that I started Pilates twice a week , 50 minutes , nothing intense , just a way to feel more present in my body , move a little , breathe a little , show up for myself a little , and I'm doing it with my older daughter , which is great because it gives us time to do something together and bond and we both really enjoy it . And , to be honest , I haven't really moved my body in any kind of a meaningful way since my younger daughter was born seven or

When Joy Needs Justification

Speaker 1 1:18

eight years ago , so I shared this and they looked me in the face , dead serious , and said oh , that's not really enough to lose weight . Though , right , when I tell you , it took everything in me not to flip the fucking table , because when did we start needing to justify joy ? Why can't it be enough to do something that simply feels good ? And I want to talk about that today . I want to talk about how the world keeps trying to turn every spark of joy into a business plan and why saying no to that pressure is a radical act of much-needed self-leadership . I want to get something straight . Okay , this is not about capitalism . I'm not ranting on capitalism . This is about autonomy and identity and self-leadership .

Speaker 1 2:06

There is this cultural obsession right now where the second you enjoy something , people rush in to ask well , what are you going to do with it ? What are you going to do with it ? You learn to bake bread or you make really good recipes oh , you should sell those . You should start a restaurant . You should start an Instagram channel . Get into watercolor oh , you should open an Etsy shop . You go hiking oh , you could start a wellness brand . And I get it right . I get it .

Speaker 1 2:30

We live in a world that rewards productivity and performance , but the consequence that few people think about ? We've been trained out of doing things just because we want to . We've been taught that anything that doesn't serve our image or our brand or our bank account is somehow a waste of time . And that is a dangerous belief , particularly for leaders and especially for ambitious women who have internalized the idea that every hour must earn its keep , that unless you are doing , you are not productive and somehow your value does not exist . And here's what we're losing in the process .

Speaker 1 3:12

When we frame everything around outcomes , we lose three very powerful things . Number one we lose the ability to be present . When you are always thinking about how something might pay off , we lose the ability to be present . When you are always thinking about how something might pay off , you're not actually in the experience . You're half a step ahead . You're calculating ROI , you're wondering if this moment will translate into content or influence .

Speaker 1 3:36

It's kind of like if you listened to a few episodes back

Three Things We Lose

Speaker 1 3:38

where I lost my phone . I didn't lose it , it was stolen . My phone got stolen in Spain and I did not have a phone for a week and a half of my two-week trip and it forced me to sit and be present . I had an entire content calendar planned out . I knew exactly which pictures I was going to take and what I was going to take pictures in front of , and blah , blah , blah , blah , blah . And when I lost my phone , let me tell you , it forced me to sit down and actually be in the moment , to enjoy the flavors in a cup of tea , to enjoy nature when we were at the lake , instead of worrying about taking pictures of the swans and setting it up so that it was something I could post on Instagram . Presence is the foundation of clarity and that presence that I was forced to have . It was the catalyst for all of the clarity and all of the changes I've been making in my business and , for the first time in years , I feel so aligned and so in myself that it is freaking unbelievable . So , like I said , presence is the foundation of clarity . If you cannot be where your feet are , you cannot trust your thoughts , your needs or your boundaries , and without that , your leadership becomes reactive instead of intentional , and this is a really big one .

Speaker 1 5:09

Being bad at something has become taboo , especially for people who are used to being excellent , gifted people . But the truth is , mastery is born in mediocrity . If you're only willing to do things that you're good at , you're never going to grow . And maybe you don't want to hear this , but you don't build success by staying safe . You build it by sucking at something , staying with the discomfort and learning from that , growing from that . Mediocrity is not failure . It is actually freedom . It's a stepping stone to something greater and it's proof that you're

Self-Leadership is Messy

Speaker 1 5:36

stretching beyond your current identity , which is where the evolution happens .

Speaker 1 5:41

But we are so worried about what people are going to think . People are not thinking about you . They don't give a shit . You think of yourself way more than anybody else does , and you have to allow yourself to be bad at things in order to be good at things and then eventually be great at things . And number three we lose a relationship with ourselves when everything becomes performative . You stop asking yourself , do I like this ? And you start asking will people approve of this ? I want to say that again you stop asking do I like this and you focus on whether people will approve of it . Instead , you start building your life based on optics instead of alignment . You start making choices to manage perception instead of honoring the truth that you know deep down . And here's where it becomes really really critical True leadership , true success .

Speaker 1 6:34

Whatever your end point , your end goal is , it doesn't come from external affirmation . It comes from knowing who you are . It comes from knowing what you value . It comes from knowing how to move through the world in a way that feels like you , even when nobody is watching . And we don't do that enough . We really really need to stop and come back into relationship with ourselves , and that has to start with allowing ourselves to do things for joy , to do things simply because we want to do them , with allowing ourselves to do things for joy , to do things simply because we want to do them . That's real , honest-to-goodness self-leadership . And self-leadership is the catalyst for any goal achievement . It's the catalyst for any happiness , it's the catalyst for better boundaries , for literally everything . Self-leadership is what it takes .

Speaker 1 7:21

But a lot of leadership experts will talk about self-leadership like it's this polished thing . Right , you journal , you have vision boards , you have high performance routines , you're part of the 5am fucking success club . I have a whole rant about that , I'm not going to get into today . But no , self-leadership is actually messy . It's doing the thing anyway . Right , doing the thing anyway , even if it's inefficient , if it's imperfect , oh God , especially if it doesn't scale right . It's choosing Pilates twice a week because it makes you feel good , not because you're trying to get lean or post-transformation pictures or build a fucking brand or content strategy around it . It's baking cookies and burning half the batch and still enjoying the process . It's sketching in a notebook . You know no one is ever gonna see . God , I'm getting emotional . It's it's dancing in your kitchen at midnight because you want to .

Speaker 1 8:15

Those things matter and the second you tell yourself they don't unless they produce results . You have lost your compass , your inner guide , you have lost your true north . So here is the radical ask that I'm making of you this week Can you let yourself do something just because you want to ? Can you give yourself permission to be mediocre , to fall on your ass , to not finish , to not monetize ? Because that is where real growth happens , that is where identity gets built and reinforced , that is where your capacity expands and that is how you start separating who you

Do Something Useless

Speaker 1 9:12

are from what you produce .

Speaker 1 9:16

Like , I'm not going to tell you to journal about this . I'm going to tell you to do something useless this week . I want you to carve out time for one thing that has no ROI , no social value , no path to monetization , just joy and you know what . Don't turn it into content . In fact , put your phone in another room . Don't explain it to anybody . In fact , put your phone in another room . Don't explain it to anybody . Don't even tell them you're doing it . Just let it be yours , let it be messy , let it be pointless . Because in a world that measures everything , choosing not to be measured is its own kind of power .

Speaker 1 10:01

I'm Sarah Kahn . This is Business Blasphemy and , like I say every single week , you can have success without the BS . But sometimes you need to remember that not everything needs a strategy . Some things just need space . I'll talk to you next week . Some things just need space . I'll talk to you next week . That's it for this week . Thanks for listening to the Business Blasphemy Podcast . We'll be back next week with a new episode , but in the meantime , help a sister out by subscribing and , if you're feeling extra sassy rating this podcast , and don't forget to share the podcast with others . Head over to businessblasphemypodcastcom to connect with us and learn more . Thanks for listening and remember you can have success without the BS .