Life Unfolded
Join us as we unpack the trials and triumphs that shape our lives, offering practical advice, heartfelt encouragement, and inspiring tales of transformation. Whether you're navigating a difficult phase, seeking motivation to chase your dreams, or simply looking to enrich your perspective on life, "Life Unfolded" provides the wisdom and support you need to thrive.
Life Unfolded
Escaping the Trap of Perpetual Busyness
Ever feel like a whirlwind of busyness is mistaken for productivity? Let's challenge the myth of hustle culture together. Do relentless networking and social media engagement truly pave the way to success? Drawing from my personal experiences in the service industry and from attending countless local events, I explore the reality that quality trumps quantity.
Discover how prioritizing meaningful work and embracing self-care can lead to genuine efficiency without the burnout. Join me as we redefine productivity, focusing on what truly matters and shedding the weight of constant hustle.
Plus, there's a short clip of my upcoming single at the end of this episode!
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Please note that the content of this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or mental health concern.
Well, hi there friends, it's been a little while since I released the last episode of Life Unfolded. I've actually been a little busier than a few months ago with work, which is great, but that's where most of my time has been going. It's suddenly 90 degrees again. It's suddenly 90 degrees again. Last week we had rain and it was either last week or the week before that. We had thunderstorms and I had accepted that summer was over and fall was here, and now it seems like summer is back and I'm just ready for it to be fall.
Speaker 1:Honestly, got my little pumpkins. Okay, dollar tree has the like most chic fall decor I've seen. I got these really cute, kind of like jewel tone, fuzzy pumpkins with golden stems, just like bougie color palettes for fall and fun textures. So go check out the Dollar Tree if you're looking for some seasonal decor. That's my little ditty about just ready for summer to be over so we can get to being cozy. I want to wear my sweaters, I want to be under my cozy blankets reading books, sipping tea, watching movies. I mean, I kind of do all that stuff anyways, but it just feels better when it's actually cold out and dark. Oh, my gosh, something else that's new.
Speaker 1:I mentioned and I can't remember which episode it was that I was just going for it with music and recording an album. Well, I got the first track back that I recorded and it sounds so good. I'm so excited about it. How it's been working is I hired a ghost producer and so I send them what I have, which is the acoustic version of the song, like what I've written, just the guitar and vocals and I tell them kind of the sound that I'm going for and they build the song, I do all the instrumentation and then they send it back and then I record the vocals here at home when I can and then send them back and then they mix it in and then send it back and it just it sounds awesome. So I have a group through my website. My music link is hop H O P P dot bio slash melody Jordan sings and you can sign up to be an airwave angel, which is my group. It's just $10 a month and that's where I'm posting first listens of all the tracks and the different versions that I get, so you can hear how they kind of go from one mix to the final mix. I'll be adding in behind the scenes like exclusive little updates about how recording is going, and your support would mean so much to me. The first track is set to release on Spotify mean so much to me. The first track is set to release on Spotify. Well, all the music platforms Spotify, apple, amazon, iheartradio, I think, pandora, basically like all of them but you can pre-save the track on Spotify by going to that link that I shared earlier. Hop, h-, p, p, dot, bio, b, I, o, slash melody Jordan sings. You can pre-save that track. And if you're interested in being an airwave angel and um following more closely along the album recording journey and being a an angel sponsor for that, I'd love to have you sponsor, for that I'd love to have you. I'm going to throw a little sneak peek of the track at the end of this episode, but if you want to hear it in full before it's released, then you'll want to sign up to be an airwave angel. All right, let's get to it.
Speaker 1:Today I'm talking about productivity and overproductivity. I think that our world overvalues productivity. Hyper-productivity is encouraged. People say how you been Busy. Good, it's a good thing to be busy, but overproductivity have you ever noticed that sometimes you're like really busy but you're not really doing anything important and it's like if I just didn't do some of this stuff, it doesn't really matter. That isn't actually moving me forward. And I was more relaxed, like would I still get the same results, just be less stressed. And so, to further elaborate this thought, I'm going to tell a story. So I have worked to tell a story. So I have worked in the service industry Well, customer service service like since I started working when I was 15 in a coffee shop, and so I've worked in a few different restaurants and one that I worked at.
Speaker 1:I mean I felt like I was doing pretty good, but I guess there was an issue with my productivity. Like the manager pulled me into the office and I guess they'd been watching me on the cameras, like trying to see what my deal was, why I wasn't producing what they felt I should be producing, and gave me the feedback that I'm very efficient, I don't waste any steps, and I was like that sounds great. I don't know why there's a problem. Like every step has a purpose. I'm making sure that if I am going back for one thing for another table, I make sure that I bring stuff back for other tables if they need it or, you know, just try to plan out the most efficient, quickest route. But supposedly it was slowing me down and I just thought, okay, I mean I felt like I was hustling and I thought it was good to not waste any steps. So I did, I ran a little experiment and one of the one of the owners was in and you know, when the owner of the company's there, everybody's on their best behavior and I was like, well, I'm not like super busy right now, but I don't want to get in trouble for underproducing, so I'm just going to look like I'm frantic, like I'm going to look stressed out, and I'm just going to act like I'm moving around so much faster.
Speaker 1:And it was just like body language, just acting more stressed than I actually was. And they told me, wow, you're really hustling, you're doing good. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't change anything except acting more stressed than I actually was. And that tells me that our society praises stress. If you're not so busy that you're stressed out, you must be failing, you must not be doing what you need to be doing. But recently I found the opposite to be true, at least in my life.
Speaker 1:Over the last year I've been healing and it's kind of been like an up and down journey and a lot longer than I had hoped for. I've been dealing with some PTSD from pretty severe emotional trauma. And when I started my business not January this year but the year prior I mean business not January this year but the year prior I mean I hustled. That summer was like so busy that plus the PTSD that was going to catch up with me. I remember last summer I was hustling and a lot of my productivity was like to avoid what I was dealing with. I just my productivity was like to avoid what I was dealing with. I just wanted to feel good. I wanted to feel like if I was busy and I had more work to do and I was going to this networking event or that networking event or having a booth here or whatever, and then I was distracted from, well, what I needed to heal from. But it caught up with me.
Speaker 1:Things slowed down towards fall and then it was like, because I had more time to rest, like my body was like whoa, I actually really need this rest and I pretty much like tanked. I suddenly had no motivation. Regular daily tasks were huge burdens for me, like overwhelming. I was very tired and that slump kind of felt like it lasted a long time and I was like why? I just wanted to be myself again. I wanted to feel outgoing and energetic and motivated and productive and I just wasn't. And that was really hard and really unsettling. And I did get treatment for it, what I needed, and have been in counseling off and on and I do other like self-help methods like EMDR, informed hypnotherapy it's kind of like self-hypnosis you listen to these meditations and they've got the binaural beats and so you're in that sort of hypnotic state and that has really, really helped, like trauma focused. So that has helped with that.
Speaker 1:Anyways, even throughout that, like this year, I haven't hustled as much as I did last year.
Speaker 1:I've been doing kind of a minimum when it comes to marketing and going to networking events.
Speaker 1:But the next thing still comes Like I feel like being more busy and stressed out doesn't change anything, like if you're doing the tasks and the work that matters.
Speaker 1:All the extra busy stuff posting on social media three to five times a day, going to every single greeters like for every single community in your area every single week that's just like it just sounds exhausting to me now and does it even really make a difference for me? I found not really. I love those events, by the way, and being part of my local chambers of commerce has been invaluable, for sure, but to like feel like you have to be on all the time and hustling all the time, like you're going to fail if you don't go to every single event or take on every single opportunity, that's just not true. So I guess this is going to be a shorter episode, but I would be curious to know if this resonates with you, if you are over the hustle culture, if you would agree that our society today encourages stress and anxiety and hyper productivity, and how you have been maybe implementing less stressful strategies into your life.