Your Path Out of Chaos

About the Episode:

You’re drowning in problems right now. I get it. Your desk looks like a war zone. Your mind’s spinning in ten different directions. You feel like you’re getting pulled everywhere and accomplishing nothing. Here’s what’s happening. You’re trying to solve all your problems at once. That’s why you’re stuck. That’s why nothing gets done. When you try to handle everything simultaneously you solve absolutely nothing. The solution is simple but not easy. Prioritize and execute. One problem at a time. Detach from the chaos so you can gain a fresh perspective. Stop letting emotions drive your decisions. Start saying “I got it” to one thing instead of panicking about everything. Your overwhelm isn’t because you have too many problems. It’s because you’re approaching them wrong. Time to shift your focus and get after it.

Listen to the podcast here:

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan, and today we’re going all in. This one is for everyone out there, all my people who are just feeling overwhelmed and like you can’t get ahead because you got just so much on your plate right now, and you feel like you constantly get pulled in 10 different directions. A lot of this could have to do with work or with your business, or even just like keeping your house in order. But today, this is a shout-out to you. I went to Click Funnels or Funnel Hacking live right a little while ago, and it’s the first time I ever saw Jocko speak in public. You know, I’ve listened to his podcast, awesome show, by the way, and I think you should listen to it, but he had some tips that I wrote down. I’m like, Man, these are beautiful, especially when it comes to business, especially when it comes to work, especially when it comes to, like, prioritizing your life. Because he’s a Navy Seal, a very successful one, and I’ve actually had a great navy seal on the show two times, Larry Hatch.

 And it’s very similar concepts, right? So what they’re looking at here, because the thing is, is you do probably have a lot of things, like a lot of problems. Everybody has a lot of problems, right? None of us are that special to where we’re the only ones that have to deal with a lot of crap every single day, right? None of us is that special to it’s like, oh, you know, don’t get into that competitive mode. That’s a side note. But think that your life is worse than somebody else’s. I guarantee you, you can always find somebody’s life who’s worse than you would never trade for in a million years. Because you’re like, I’ll keep my own problems. That’s all good, but your problem, I get it in the moment because I feel the same thing a lot, is that you’ve got a lot of them, and you feel like you’re getting pulled, and you’re not getting anything done whatsoever. The problem that you probably haven’t realized yet is that you’re trying to solve all of them at once. 

You’re like, looking at this big mess of stuff, like in the same bowl. Like, if you had 10,000 post it notes, or we’ll go with a more reasonable number, like 27 post it notes, we’ll go lower. How about that 18? Post it notes that you’ve written a problem on each and you put it in the bowl, and you’re like, Man, that’s a lot of problems. But then you might take them all out, and you might start sticking them on a desk around a wall, and you’re looking at them all together, and it’s overwhelming, because every one of them is urgent. Every one of them seems like it could be a fire. Every one of them just drains you mentally. The problem, though, is exactly what I just just described, is that when you try to solve all of your problems at the same time, you will solve none of your problems at all. You have to start picking these things off one by one. You know, when it comes to Jocko and the Navy SEALs or Larry Yash, like I had on here. 

There are times when it’s like a huge strike that you can do in a military operation, where you see, like, 10 bad guys. And instead of, like, picking them off one by one, you’re like, oh, man, I could take them all out at once with this missile. But the problem with the missile this is the problem with this approach. The problem with the missile is it might not cover just those 10 guys; you can have that thing called collateral damage around you when you actually try to send in something more than what you need to try to deal with all your problems at the same time. You will create more problems when you try to deal with all of your problems at the same time. So there are things that you need to do, and those two words that you need right now when you take a look at your problems. Are you prioritizing and execute? The first thing that I’m going to give you is a way to do that. Okay, the fir it comes from a former board member of mine who is amazing, and this is something that has stuck with me for the last several years. 

Would always tell me, it’s like, Rick, all of your goals do not require your action. And at first, I felt like he was messing with my brain, right? I’m like, what are you talking about? It’s like, if it’s my goal and I don’t do anything about it, he’s like, I think you’re missing the point, man; not all of your goals require your action, which means the first thing that you need to do is recognize that you can put other people around you. You can delegate if you’re in a leadership role, or you can ask a peer for help if it’s at work or if it’s at home. You could ask your partner for some help. Not all of your goals require your action. This is part of prioritizing and executing, because somebody else can execute on this something for you, and you know what it might be? One of the best things you can actually do for them is ask that person for help. They might love the chance to jump at it, because maybe they love you and they just want to see you succeed. Or maybe they’re a peer and they figure that they’re all in this together with you on a team. 

Or maybe they work for you and you’re delegating, and like, I want to make my boss happy. I want to make this company money. I want to shine. I want to get promoted. So, of course, I’m going to help. When you ask for the help of somebody else, you are actually giving them a chance to do some amazing things, and it helps you, too. Not all of your goals require your actions. You. The second thing is how you prioritize and execute. And these next three are actually detach modes. Okay, the second thing is, detach from the chaos. There are ways that I do this personally: that I will literally, like, walk outside the office, and I encourage everybody in the physical office that we have to actually leave for lunch, or if you’re remote, I will tell people this over Zoom or Google Meet. It’s like, hey, right now you need to take 20 minutes. 

Okay, because you’re feeling overwhelmed at the moment, and the only way you’re going to stop that dead in its tracks is to spiral into emotion where you feel overwhelmed about all these problems, is to literally not do anything right now. Do nothing for the next 20 minutes, detach from the chaos; you have to do that in order to get a new perspective, which is the third one here. You gain a new perspective when you detach from the chaos. You can gain a new perspective. And this might be just because you’re literally looking at things from a different light with a fresh mind. How many of you have stepped away from something for just 15 minutes, or maybe an hour, and you come back and you see the answer like, almost immediately, or you see that you bring in a fresh pair of eyes from a friend, a loved one, whatever, and they’re like, Yeah, right there. 

And it’s like, instant. It’s like, how did I not see that easily? Because you were in the chaos. That’s why. And you’re trying to solve all your problems at once. Sometimes gaining that fresh perspective is essential, but you have to detach from the chaos first, and then this last one I’m going to give you today, because this is these are just steps that you can start right now, literally, today. Okay, the first was obviously to prioritize and execute. Then it’s detached from the chaos three, gain new perspective, and the last one is a detach, which is so difficult; it’s so freaking difficult sometimes is detach from your emotions. I think back on my leadership style. I’ve expressed this to some people, to a coach, and some other people in my company before. My leadership style is actually like that of a coach from a baseball team. I played baseball for nine years, and to me it’s like everybody has their position right and everybody can actually back up people, meaning, like, if something, if there’s a ground ball that gets hit right to the first baseman, what’ll happen is a second baseman will actually, like, run behind that person, just in case they miss it as backup. 

It’s pretty cool how they shift like that. Or if there is a fly ball, this is beautiful. If there is a fly ball to the outfield, and you’ve got the left fielder and the center fielder, and it’s hit right between them, we used to do something that happens all the time still in baseball, where you just yell out, I got it That is assuming responsibility for what’s coming at you, and that way somebody else can be like, All right, they just took complete responsibility for that. I’m just going to back that person up. It’s amazing, but the only way to do this stuff is detached from your emotions, because you might think, Oh my gosh, there’s a run around first as a runner on third. What can I do if I don’t perform? We’re going to lose, you know, or if I’ve got all these problems around, if I don’t do this, our whole team is going to fail. If I don’t do this, I’m not going to make money. That person just pissed me off because of the way that I think that they talk to me, you know. 

And I think that they’re asking too much of me, or my boss is asking too much of me, right? Now, you know what? That person who works for me is not performing? I don’t get it. Why are they so freaking stupid? You start to go down this rabbit hole of emotions, and then nobody can get each other’s backs because nobody is saying, I got it. The only way that you can say I got it is if you detach from your emotions and you start to prioritize and hit one thing at a time, because it is impossible, it is absolutely impossible, to get 14 fly balls at the same time. It’s impossible to work on those 18 post-it notes in your bowl or on your desk or stuck to your wall at the same time. Start to trust your people, start to ask for help from other people in your life, relationships, if it’s a partner at home, or if it’s people that work for you, or maybe from your boss, and you’re saying, I can’t get this thing done because I don’t have time. Can you send me some more help? Mayday? Mayday, I need some assistance here, please, because I’ve got all these problems, and I know that I need to prioritize. That’s the only way you’re going to get all your problems accomplished. Because when you try to solve all your problems at the same time, you will solve none at all. Time to shift your focus, prioritize, and execute. Take these four steps and get after it.