We're All Just Making Excuses | Ep 38

In today's episode I talk about the excuses we make for not doing the thing and how often there is a deeper meaning behind our excuses. 

I also share how I'm making it easier for you to start building movement into your day 

Connect with me on Social Media 

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MoveWithCharlotteE/

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charlotte_elizabeth_dance/

Weekly Email - https://movewithcharlotte.myflodesk.com/email-list

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:33

Hello and welcome back. So you'll notice that those of you watching the video version of this, that the background is slightly different. Um, so I am recording this from a hotel room because I'm at an event this weekend and just didn't manage to get the podcast out Friday. I was gonna do it on the Friday as I arrived at the hotel, but I was I was a bit drained. So actually, because I've gained some time back this morning because the event I thought started at nine. It doesn't, it starts at 11. Um, so I was like, do you know what? I'll do my podcast today instead. So you've got a very different angle from me, and I don't know what the sound is gonna be like because I'm testing doing it with my airpods. Um, because obviously I didn't pack the microphone and the camera as normal. So we'll see how it goes. And if it if it doesn't work, then um it'll still go live. So obviously, if you're listening to this, I still feel it live. Um, but I will redo the the topic if it doesn't sound as good. But as you know, I'm not precious about the audio quality of my podcast, which may or may not be a detriment, but my whole thing is Donna's better than perfect. So today's episode is the excuses we're making. So I went to a networking on Monday. It's a networking that I regularly go to, so shout out the network in Southern Caulfield. Um, and there was a plan for the meeting. However, we got some newbies and we all just got talking, and it was really nice to see that we're all in the same boat. We might have different challenges, but we're essentially all in the same boat. That we're not telling people the things that we have to offer. We're all amazing at the things we do. Um, but actually repeating ourselves is really draining, and we would just love it if people would book or interact straight away. It would make it so much easier, but that's not how life is, and people do need to see things more than once. Um, because they're testing you, they're testing to see how consistent you're gonna be. Proof is in the podcast. I have made an effort to, no matter what, even if the episode gets recorded on the Friday that it goes out, the podcast still goes out, or it goes out a little bit later. So I'm trying to make a real effort to show up regularly with the podcast and not make the excuses. Um, because I've got things to say and I've got expertise to share with people, and it's a way for people to to know whether to trust me with my movement, and that's where this is leading because I know that not everyone listening to this is a business owner, so it was really good for me to see that I'm not alone. I might be different in the fact that yes, I have a full-time job, so kind of brain capacity and emotional and all of that is a bit challenging at times, and that I'm still trying to find my flow on being consistent with my social media so that it's not just pole dance videos. As much as you all love the pole dance videos, um, I do want you to come to the movement sessions. So it made me realize that actually we make the same excuses for movement. We tell ourselves that we don't have the time. We'll we'll do it next week. Next week will be easier. Insert whatever other excuse you utter as to why you're not doing anything. Um, the the kids need to do this. Yeah, that's great, but you can't help the kids if you are not looking after you. They tell you on an airplane, put your life jacket on first before helping your child. They tell you to put yours on first before helping someone else. The same goes for everyday life. You have to help you first. So that's why on socials I will be sharing ways that you can do it through everyday life. So having a boogie doing the washing up, having a boogie making the breakfast, like taking your everyday tasks and making them fun. Because the only way this is going to happen is if you make it fun. It's not gonna happen if it's a thing you have to do. Um, it's got to feel easy, and that is also why I've done the weekly sessions, because some for some people, having it booked in the diary as a this is my time, the kids can join you. It's absolutely perfect for the kids to join you because it's not a set thing, it's respond to how you feel. So they might be all jumping around like a Jura Cell bunny, and you're just gentle taking your moment to decompress, just be and chill and not worry about all the jobs and the responsibilities that you've got, it's perfect for that. And so for some people, they need it as a dedicated thing in their diary to then help them build it into their everyday life. So it is on me to keep telling you that it exists to come and join me on a Thursday evening, and they are recorded, so I get it. If despite it being in your diary, life happens and you cannot make it, fine, you've got the recording for when you do have five minutes, that moment where you're like, I am drained. That's the moment you log into that video, and there is going to become a membership that's gonna be kind of mood-based. That's that's building in the background, um, because I've got to sorry, I've got to put myself in that mood almost to give you the video and the direction to help you when you're in that mood. So it's a work in progress over time, um, but it's coming because how often do you go? I just need a stretch. And you go to YouTube and you're inundated with so many options that you just you just you you don't know because you watch a little bit first to see what it's like, and then before you know it, half an hour's gone, you're like, oh well, I better move on and do the next thing. Whereas if there was just a portal for want of a better word, because again, I haven't worked out the logistics of this. Um, if there was just a portal that you log into and you go, right, I need stretch, and you go to the stretch section, and there's five videos. You could do all five, or you could go, I'm just gonna pick that one today. I've taken the kind of decision overwhelm out of the way, which a lot of my audience are neurotypical. Um, I have elements um with being dyslexic, dyspraxic, dyscalculus. So I get it. That the decision overwhelm is real, and so I've I've taken that decision overwhelm away from you because you'll have three to five videos to choose from. And maybe over time they will build because you might get bored of doing those and you go, Shah, I I need I need something new because these are great, but I need the next thing, and and it will build and it kind of will build it together, but taking that decision overwhelm because I get it myself. Like I go and look at YouTube for ideas for like choreography or kind of seeing what other people are doing, just to kind of know that what I'm doing is needed and that there is a want for it, and to just see what already exists, because I don't just want to duplicate existing stuff, as much as it's my point of view. I so I do it as like my research and I get overwhelmed with it, and I'm like, I am lost. So it's no wonder that you're not doing it either, because it's a lot, and how do you know that they're any good? Because a lot of the people that I see on YouTube, I then have no way of checking their credentials, they've not linked to a website or a social media, so you've got to improve of their credentials. Whereas one key thing that I've made sure with my YouTube, and again, the YouTube is something that is kind of developing because at the moment it's just got the podcast on there, and I know there's so much more I can be putting into that because some people love a YouTube tool, um, is making sure that my credentials are there because um hate to say it, I have a lot, and again, I don't talk about them. I rarely talk about the fact that I have, and I'm gonna give you like a whistle stop tool, but if you listen to the introduction episode, I'm pretty sure I've covered it in there, but I'm certainly going to be covering it in future episodes. But so from the age of four, I've danced. Literally, that's why I say Abba, thank you for the music is my song. Um, I've danced at Her Majesty's Theatre six or seven times, Saddler's Wells, four times, The Royal Abbot Home, three times, Yuri Disney, four times. I've done the Anniversary Festival with college. I did my undergrad degree at Bath Bar, got two on honours. That's where I injured my hip. It wasn't the uni that injured my hip, my hip was injured prior. It just finally gave up as I started my degree, and the support from my lecturers was phenomenal with the fact that I was on a dance degree and couldn't dance. That makes sense. Um, so the support was incredible to help me get a degree. Um, I helped with the local youth dance company. I was in charge of them for three weeks whilst the owner was away on a freelance contract in China. So I was in charge of teaching the girls, um, helping, uh assisting with the workshops that were already booked in, took them down to Bournemouth for a weekend to take part in a youth dance platform. I was in control of everything. It's kind of where some of my teaching journey came. Um, I got one or six international places to dance in Namibia who use with their first professional dance company who use dance to educate their local communities on social issues such as teenage pregnancy, drugs, um sugar daddies, a passion kick, kind of anything that's coming up quite regularly in the news, they create a dance physical theatre piece and tour it around the country to educate and develop. Because as much as English is their national language, not everyone speaks it. So the message doesn't get across, but they can all just move. They can all just move. So they use that to educate their communities, and then I did my teaching degree, and then the government cut down through their curriculum. So I started self-employed journey at 22. So yeah, I'll let you do the maths because I've been doing it for 10 years. Let you do the maths. Um and yeah, that that that's a lot for 32. So it's safe to say I know what I'm talking about. I just don't tell you that I know what I'm talking about. I don't trust in myself in some of the science behind it, and I don't necessarily understand the science behind it, I just know it works. So it is something I'm currently doing is researching more behind it, because there is science to moving, what it does to the endorphins, the dopamine here, and all that. So I'm doing the research to then put it in the podcast, put it in my socials in layman terms. Because that's me. Um, so where was that going? Oh, yeah. We need to move, uh, we need to stop making excuses. We need to put ourselves priority. Because you cannot fail from an empty cup. I have been there, I have tried, but failed. Um I have had many, a many a knockback. In fact, it's taken me 10 years to get to this point. Because I was following what others were doing, seeing their successes, going, oh, if I just follow what they do, it will work for me. But it wasn't mine. This is what works for me. Dance is and always will be my little baby, and the thing that I have never given up on. Um, you don't pay 12 grand on a hip to not do it. Um, because for me, dancing was not an option, and it's still not an option. I'm just doing it in a very different capacity and an easier capacity because with a full-time job, I do have limited time. I have limited kind of logistic expenditure, hence why my movement sessions are online, because certainly since COVID, I've kind of built a semi non-local audience. So it doesn't really make sense to try and build local sessions, but that's not to say they won't happen. But for now, it's online. In fact, I had someone in America do the free session and she told me that I saved a line. I was a live saver in a very stressful time because she had that moment, half an hour, to decompress. And that's just one caveat for the membership portal thing. They won't be long. The actual sessions are half an hour because I give you such a variety and the beauty of the replay that you can stop and start the track. So I will be putting time stamps as to different tracks so that if you go, oh, I want an upbeat track, you can skip. You don't necessarily have to do the full half an hour. For the membership mood-based videos, they're gonna be five, ten minutes. Certainly, the stretch ones, they're gonna be five, ten minutes, so they're not gonna be long because the whole point is this is supposed to be easy and built into your day and not taking up time and effort that things such as going to the gym can do because you need a decent 30 to 40 minute workout if you're gonna go to the gym. Five, ten minutes is not really, unless you're going just a stretch, you're not gonna really see the benefits. Whereas this, you see the benefits straight away, like you'll have seen it from my videos, like my little boogie in the garden videos. You can see the dopamine kicking in. So it gets to be easy because life gets to be easy and it gets to be fun. Absolutely gets to be fun. The big thing for me now is fun because when I've got a full-time job that can be quite challenging and a lot, like I'm exporting goods all over the world. So this week I have exported to France, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Netherlands.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

Where else have I done? Netherlands, Sweden.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

So you know, I've kind of d pretty far. And uh next week will be to prepare a big shipment for Sweden, an air shipment to Canada. Oh, I think I've got Dublin, like as well as all the UK orders, so it's a lot, it's a lot of logistics. Um so then I don't have much capacity left by the end of the day. So I'm making it fun and easy for me and bringing you along with me. So stop making the excuses. I get it, it's our default mechanism. Um and if you do find yourself making an excuse for why you're not doing it, I want you to sit and think. Why? Why are you not wanting to make you a priority? Why do you think you shouldn't be making your priority? And I hate the word should. Shouldn't, shouldn't. Um but there's always an underlying reason as to why we're not doing it. So for me, I know I've not been sharing about the the the feel good movement sessions because and I say it's because of time, but actually it's fear that no one wants it. So it's better to tell them it doesn't exist. It's fear that no one will book. It's fear that it's the wrong thing, it's the fear that no one gets it. But I know that they get it. So for me, it's the fear and it's the visibility of as much as I've got this podcast, I don't know who listens to this, if anyone listens to this. Um, so it's kind of a safe, it's kind of like I just talked to myself and I put it out there and it's great. Whereas social media, I know people see it. Um so it's that fear of, oh my god, I'm being seen. So I know that's why I don't do it, because if I don't put it out, then it's okay. Well, it's not okay, but it's okay. So if you're making the excuses for not doing the thing, never think about the deeper reason. Has someone said something to you when you were younger, um like a family member said to me about having a name in a business that it's show me off. So I never put my name in my business for 10 years because I would be showing off. And I'm doing it because I've realized that actually it's me that people are buying into, and hiding behind a name is never gonna work. So why are you not doing the thing? And come and do the thing with me, it'll be so fun. Um so until next time. Keep moving.