Motion Changes Emotion (05.12.26)

Today we talked about frustration, negative thinking, and the trap of constant complaining. It’s okay to feel discouraged sometimes — we all do. But staying stuck there drains our energy, steals momentum, and keeps us emotionally parked in the problem.

We pulled ideas from The Obstacle Is the Way and The Four Agreements and talked about how the obstacle may actually be the thing developing us — teaching resilience, patience, adaptability, and growth.

We also talked about how easy it is in business to complain about:the market, technology, our company, systems, tools, rates, or difficult situations… but eventually we have to ask: Is this conversation creating momentum or reinforcing frustration?

The people who grow aren’t the ones with perfect conditions.They’re the ones who keep moving anyway.

Sometimes the answer is simple:Take the walk.Make the call. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

All right, good morning, everybody, and welcome to the 6 a.m. call. This is Lee McGuinness, and it's Tuesday, May 12th. As always, Robin and I are so glad you're here. Taking even just a few minutes to start your day with intention always makes a huge difference, and we're so grateful that you do that with us every morning. So today I want to talk about frustration and what we do with it. Because life has a way of testing all of us. Business gets hard, people disappoint us, deals fall apart, we get tired, discouraged, irritated, and overwhelmed. And sometimes it's something big, and sometimes it's just the slow drip of little frustrations all day long. And I think one of the easiest traps that we fall into is believing that because our frustration is justified, staying stuck in it is somehow useful. And most of the time it's not. I heard a phrase recently that has stuck with me, and I think about it a lot. Motion changes emotion. And the more I think about it, the more true it feels. There's a book called The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holliday. The whole premise of the book is that the obstacles are the paths. The things frustrating us may actually be the things that are developing us. The difficult client may be teaching patience and emotional discipline. The slow season may be forcing you to sharpen your systems. The business setbacks may be revealing where you need to grow. Even exhaustion sometimes signals that something in your life or health needs attention. But what happens to a lot of people is they stop moving and start emotionally living inside the obstacle. They replay it over and over, they complain about it, analyze it, feed it energy, and after a while, complaining starts to feel productive because we're spending so much time thinking and talking about the problem. And it feels even more productive when we can complain and enroll others in it. But complaining is not movement. Honestly, I think complaining can become a habit that tricks us into feeling productive while we're actually draining our energy. And let's be real for a minute. We see this all the time in our industry. People complain constantly about their company, their broker, their CRM, their leads, their market technology, AI, social media algorithms, interest rates, on and on. And listen, some of those frustrations are completely legitimate. Because we know systems break, things don't work the way they were explained to us or we were expecting. Companies make mistakes, market shifts, and things don't always work the way we want them to. But eventually we have to ask ourselves: is this conversation creating momentum or reinforcing frustration and staying stuck? Because every company has issues, every system has flaws, and every market has challenges. The agents who succeed long term usually are not the people who found the magical perfect environment where nothing goes wrong. They're usually the people who are learned how to stay adaptable. They troubleshoot, they pivot, they ask for help, they learn the new tool, they take a breath and keep moving. And I love the book, The Four Agreements, and it comes in here for me too. Two of the agreements that really connect to this for me are don't take anything personally and don't make assumptions. Because so much suffering comes from the stories we create around what's happening in our heads. A client doesn't call us back, and suddenly we tell ourselves we're failing. A deal falls apart or starts to fall apart, and we decide this real estate thing is impossible. A company issue happens and we spiral into negativity about everything. And sometimes what's really happening is just life, business, timing, stress, human behavior. Normal. So I want to be clear here because I don't want you guys to think that this is about pretending to be positive all the time. That's not it. It's okay to be frustrated, it's okay to have moments where you feel disappointed or discouraged. We're human beings, and that is absolutely normal. But the goal is to not unpack our stuff and move in permanently. The goal is to move through it. Sometimes the answer is not some giant breakthrough moment. Sometimes the answer is simply getting back into motion before the emotional spiral gets too deep. Go for the walk, clean up your database, do the next right thing, practice scripts, text some people, preview property, lift weights, maybe pray, journal, and take the nap if you need the nap. You don't have to feel amazing to stay in motion. And one thing I've learned personally is that action has a way of changing our emotional state. So often when energy so often the new energy comes after we begin not before. So sometimes we wait to feel that motivation and that change of emotion to do something different. And what I'm suggesting is that we do the different thing first and the emotion will follow. And that's true in business and in life. So today, if something feels heavy or frustrating, instead of asking, why is this happening to me? Maybe we ask, What is this trying to teach me? What's my next move right now? How do I keep moving forward without getting emotionally stuck here? Because the obstacle may actually be shaping the next version of you. And remember, say it in your head motion changes emotion. I hope you all have an amazing day. We'll see you tomorrow on the 6 a.m. call. Robin has the mic. We love you guys. Have a fantastic day.