Following through with the plans you make can feel like an uphill battle sometimes, can't it? It’s not that you lack the skills or knowledge; it’s that doing it all alone can be a real struggle. Society often tells us that if we’re not succeeding, it’s because we’re not trying hard enough. But what if the real issue is that we’re not allowing ourselves to seek support? In this week's episode, I dig into why having support when planning can make a world of difference, helping you think more clearly and actually follow through. Can you imagine?!

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Welcome to Unfrazzle, a podcast for solo business owners with a big vision who are ready for a kinder, more sustainable approach to productivity.

I'm Louise Miller, and each week I share bite size insights to help you step away from the hustle, stop faffing and stay focused so you can make your brilliant ideas happen and make a bigger impact in the world.

And before we dive into today's episode, if you enjoy what I'm sharing here on Unfrazzle and you'd like to support the podcast, you can buy me a cuppa by going to buymeacoffee.com louisemiller and making a one off donation.

I'll pop a link to that in the show notes.

Okay, grab yourself a cuppa and let's get started.

Have you ever sat down to plan your month, written a list of everything you need to do, and then closed your notebook, feeling really fired up and ready to go?

But by the end of the month, you haven't got nearly as much done as you'd like?

Now, in all of my years working with small business owners, I have yet to meet a single one who is a complete novice and completely clueless when it comes to planning.

And my guess is that that's true for you too, right?

You're a smart, capable human.

You've read the books, you've tried the apps, you've watched the YouTube videos.

And yet still, the things that would make the biggest impact aren't getting done.

At least not in a way that feels good.

So, you know, you might still be getting things done, but at what cost?

Maybe you're scrambling at the last minute, or working into the evening, or firing up your LAPT once the kids are in bed.

So why, when you're a smart cookie with so much productivity know how at your fingertips, is it still so hard to follow through with your plans?

Well, after 10 years of doing this work, here's what I believe to be true.

It's not that you can't do it.

It's that doing it alone is genuinely harder.

So let's address the elephant in the room, which is the unhelpful.

And I would go so far as to say damaging myth that you should be able to do it yourself.

So back when I was starting out, the Internet was showing me people like Gary V. Yelling that if I wasn't succeeding, it's because I wasn't trying hard enough.

I wasn't hustling hard enough and working hard enough.

And I'm sure that his intention was to inspire.

But all it did was make me feel there was something wrong with me, that if I wanted any level of success, I was going to need a personality transplant.

The Internet was full of people telling everyone to just get on with it.

The JFDI mob would have us believe that it's as simple as putting the thing in your calendar and then doing it.

And if you can't, then you're a moron who doesn't want it enough.

And so we get embarrassed, don't we?

Right?

And then we try harder and harder to figure it out on our own, often keeping quiet about the fact that we're struggling, which is bonkers, really, isn't it?

I mean, we're not ashamed to get support with other things.

People are quite happy to join a gym if that's going to help them exercise regularly.

But for some reason, planning on your own with no support and no structure is supposed to be easy.

And if it were as simple as knowing what needs to be done and then just deciding when to do it, that would be one thing.

But I think you know by now that it is not that straightforward, because we humans have these pesky things called emotions and responsibilities.

Outside of work, unexpected things crop up.

Family emergencies happen, menopause does its thing.

So do you really believe that you should be able to negotiate all of that on your own and that it should be easy?

So I'm not suggesting that you need to invest a huge amount of money to work with someone one to one on this, right?

For many people, just having someone hold the space for them is enough.

When it's just you in a notebook sitting down to do your planning, there is a high probability that you're going to skip it, particularly when things get busy, which is when you need it the most.

But when you have a space to show up to, even if that space is online, you're way more likely to protect the time, right?

Someone is expecting you to show up somewhere and so you'll show up.

And I think we can all agree that's part of the battle, isn't it, actually showing up to do the planning?

We know we should be doing it, we know we're capable of doing it.

But are we doing it?

But another benefit is not just about the showing up, right?

When you're in a calm, quiet, guided space, your thinking slows down and you're able to access a different quality of thought than you do when you're scribbling your new to do list in a stolen moment in between calls, right?

When someone is guiding you through a process.

And when you trust that that process has been carefully designed so that it actually work.

You no longer have to worry about whether you're doing it right.

All you have to do is follow the prompts and by the end you'll have a thoughtfully considered plan that makes it easy to take action.

Now, one of my clients once said that she used to feel that she shouldn't need that kind of support, but eventually she realized that thinking that way wasn't helpful, because the reality was that she did need that kind of support, which meant absolutely nothing about her competence.

She was she is a very capable business owner, but trying to plan on her own wasn't working.

That was the reality.

And instead of wishing that it weren't, she decided to do something about it.

So, as I said right at the start, it's not that you can't do your planning yourself, it's that it's easier and it will be more consistent and therefore more powerful when you have the support of a container around you.

And although it might feel that tools like Asana or, you know, Posh Planners are providing you with that container, those things don't inherently give you time and space to think.

So if anything that I've shared today has resonated for you, it might be worth thinking about what kind of container would actually help you.

And if you would like me to provide that space for you, that's what Make It Happen Club is for.

It's a calm, guided space for you to sit quietly in the bubble of your own business so that you can figure out what matters and make a plan to get it done.

The doors to Make It Happen Club open once a quarter and I'll pop a link in the show notes if you'd like to find out more.

So as always, I hope that this helps and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

Thank you for listening to Unfrazzle.

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and share it with a friend who needs a dose of calm productivity in their life.

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You'll find [email protected] quiz and there's a link for that in the show notes.

So thank you so much for being here, and I look forward to seeing you next time.