Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying: How to Stop Feeling Stuck and Take Action

All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I want to talk to you about something today that I think is going to really kind of wake you up a little bit. I heard a quote, and you've probably heard it before. It's actually from a pretty famous movie. And it says this, I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living or get busy dying. How many of you can guess what movie that came from? Well, it came from Shawshank Redemption, so you don't have to keep guessing. If you're listening right now, chances are that you're a founder, an entrepreneur, a leader. You may be feeling a little bit stuck. There's so many times in our lives and in our businesses that we are. Or maybe you're battling through circumstances. Maybe you're paralyzed by perfectionism or imposter syndrome. and something's whispering in your ear that you're just not enough. You don't know what the next move is. But the truth is, every day you're making this choice to move toward your vision or to move away from it, to create momentum or to lose it. So today we're going to figure out why it is sometimes that you get stuck and how you can move forward and some real strategies that you can use to overcome the fear or the complacency, because it might be either or the other. And along the way, I want to remind you that why the urgency of your life should be pushing you forward. What is it that's going to help you to create your version of your best life, but have urgency, not someday, but today? So let's go ahead and start by identifying why you might be feeling stuck. And it might be a conscious or it might be subconscious feeling right now because there's a lot of things that cause entrepreneurs or founders to get stuck. The first is your circumstances. You know, look, the market has shifted, cash flows tight, a key team member might have left you. All of these things are real valid challenges, but they can also become excuses if we let them become excuses. So many times we let our circumstances determine our mindset and where we're going. The other thing is that you might have, you know, mindset traps, things that are keeping you from moving forward, like imposter syndrome or perfectionism. I have that a lot of time. You want to get everything right. Or maybe it's just fear of failure. You know, all of these things live in our mind, but they do shape our actions or the lack of your actions. So it could be your circumstances, it could be your mindset, or it could just be and I want you to listen to me here the complacency that you might have disguised as patience We hear patience a lot right now but I here to tell you that this patience sort of disguises complacency sometimes You know, you think you're waiting for the right time, and you're trying to be patient, but in reality, you've gotten comfortable. Comfort is the enemy of progress. I think you've probably heard me say that before. So I want you to ask yourself these questions. Am I delaying my action out of fear or lack of clarity? Or is perfectionism keeping me from releasing my work into the world and getting that next level of my business? Or am I blaming circumstances instead of adapting to the circumstances or the market? Because I'm here to tell you this, awareness is the first step. You have to recognize what it is that's either making you feel stuck or not making the progress that you want to make, and you can't change what you first don't recognize. So once you see it is what's holding you back, what it is that's keeping you stuck, it's your mindset, your circumstances, your complacency, then we need to talk a little bit about adding a little bit of urgency to your life. Because here's a reality check. Time is the only currency that you can't get back. Every day that you wait is a day you will never have again. Think about that for a minute. Every day that you wait is a day you're never going to get back. And this is something you've got to remind yourself about. The other thing is that businesses that stand still, they lose market share. They lose opportunities. They lose the ability to act on what it is that they're unique and good at. So people who wait for perfect conditions, for example. Other people are just passing you by. You're losing the time that you should have, and you miss 100% of the shots you don't take. But here's the thing you got to remind yourself. You're not just missing the shot. You're losing because you are missing the opportunity, but it's costing you overall. Urgency doesn't mean, listen to me when I say this, urgency doesn't mean rushing. It means recognizing that the clock is ticking. And the vision that you deserve to live, the best life that you want to live, you can't just dream about it. You've got to take action. So you've created some awareness. You've got to get a little urgency in your life. You've got to make it a must, not just a should. And then how do you start moving forward? Well, the first thing that I recommend is that you've got to make some key shifts in your business, in your life. You've got to shift some important things First you have to shift from fear to action You know many of you are caught up in the fear and you got to shift that mind to action Fear is not a stop sign It a green light telling you that growth is ahead. So when you recognize the fear, you've got to use that as the green light telling you you've got to move forward, and you'll figure it out as you go. The other thing you've got to do is, besides shifting from fear to action, is you've got to shift from this idea of having everything perfect to progress. Done is better than perfect. 80% always beats 100% that never happens. And so adopt that philosophy of progress to perfection, not just perfection. And then the last shift that I think you've got to make is from circumstances to ownership. This is that I take personal responsibility. You can't control the wind, but you can adjust your sales. You've heard me give that philosophy before. You can't control your circumstances, but you absolutely can control how you react to those circumstances. So you've got to start making this shift and starting to evolve, and your life is built on the decisions that you make when things are not perfect. Leaders are forged in the middle of the storm, not after it passes. So remind yourself that moving forward is going to get you where you want to be, versus standing still. So let's talk about a couple of strategies and tactics you can use if you're feeling stuck. The first thing is that one action rule. Commit to one bold, meaningful action every single day towards your vision. Take that one specific step. That's one way to overcome fear. You're just going to take that one step. The other thing is, and this is a powerful one, accountability. When you create and surround yourself with people and environments that demand your best, This is when change happens. It's the difference between athletes playing on an average team or a championship team. You know, Michael Jordan was known for, you know, demanding the best from his teammates. And so accountability is a big one that will help you to take action and overcome fears. The other thing is this idea of micro wins. Breaking huge goals that you have down into some smaller, more confidence-building wins. It's like Alex Hermozzi talks about stacking wins. You know, nothing overcomes fear and lack of confidence like stacking wins, but sometimes we're waiting for that big win, and you've got to get those little micro wins, those little stackable wins. And the other thing is that you've got to review and rewrite your vision monthly, because if it doesn't excite you, it's not going to drive you. You got to make sure that your vision is driving you And remind yourself like I said a minute ago small wins will compound into unstoppable momentum if you just start the process. And so the biggest strategy and tactic I could give you is take action. To move past being stuck, it's just take action, move forward. And then I want to just kind of end with this idea. you do and this is my personal experience as well as some advice I'd give you you've got to change your philosophy which is kind of that filter and perspective you have on things I'll give you an example resilience in in business and life is not about never failing it's about getting up faster and stronger each time so when you stop worrying about failure and you focus on getting up faster and stronger each time, that's resilience. And the other thing is that every challenge you've survived has prepared you for the one that you're facing now. So instead of worrying about whether you're prepared for challenges, change your philosophy and focus to the idea that you've always overcome every challenge to this point, so it stands to reason you're going to overcome this challenge now. So when you stop seeing adversity as an obstacle and you start seeing it as your training ground to get bigger and better and faster, that's when you're going to start winning. So you've got to start stacking those wins. And so I really, I think if you stop and you identify and become aware of what's holding you back and you realize and add a little bit of urgency to your life and you just start pushing and shifting and making decisions quicker and faster and find ways to get those stackable wins, your philosophy is going to change, your results are going to change. Therefore, your beliefs and all of your actions will even get compounded even more. So back to this quote I gave you in the beginning, every day you're faced with that choice. Get busy living or get busy dying. Don't wait for the perfect time. It doesn't exist. Choose today, choose your vision, choose your future, and choose to take action. And I hope that's a message that will help you, inspire you, motivate you. If you do me a favor, hit me up on the Daily Mastermind. Let me know what you're dealing with. Let me know what you're working on. I would love to be able to give you some feedback. And also do me a favor and share the show. If you've learned anything, if you've gotten any kind of extra push, please share that show. Help us to drive the community. And check us out on dailymastermind.com. We've got all kinds of cool stuff that's dropping. And I look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Once again, my name is George Wright III. This has been the Daily Mastermind. Have a great day. We'll be right back.