Episode 003: Decluttering Your Mind: Making Space for What Truly Matters in Life

Welcome to Limitless with Lisa Z. A podcast about how to move from inspiration to action and bring our dreams to life. I'm Lisa Zahiya, and each week I'll release two podcasts, one where I walk you through action steps about how to make your dreams a reality with another podcast in which I interview amazing change-makers from all over the world. This podcast isn't just for listening. Take notes and take action. Let's ignite and change the world together. 

Hey, y'all, it's Lisa Zahiya, and it is week two and this part of this podcast, the four weeks, is to really start you on the journey to turning what you want in your life into actual action. And of course, that's gonna take more than four weeks, but this is a great place for inspiration. Last week we talked about how to really figure out what you want, but what we're gonna talk about today is how to make some space for those things that you really want in your life. And we're gonna talk about two key things to transformation, which is dealing with distractions and then also working on identity. Who am I believing that I am so I can put it into the world? So we're gonna start with distractions. So I have a question for you, and I want you to an answer this very honestly, and I'd love for you to journal about it. 

If somebody saw a record of how you actually spent your time and they also saw your bank accounts, which is how you are actually spending your money. So if somebody saw a record of how you're actually spending your time and then they saw your bank accounts, would it be a clear reflection of who you truly believe you are in your heart? Ooh, ooh. This is an intense question because here is the thing, is that we are not our thoughts, and sometimes I think we get so caught up in this idea of like, I think I'm this, I think I'm that I'm beating myself up. All these things are happening in our head. We are not our thoughts, and in fact, you'll hear me talk about this throughout the four weeks, is that don't believe everything you think start to create an identity that allows you to become what I call the person across the street, which is if I am standing and I'm looking at across the street at a future version of me, the person who can grow the business, the person who can achieve the goals, the person who can interact and create relationships in the way I want if I'm looking at that person across the street, what skills do I need to work on? 

And an actual reflection of who I am as a person is what I do with my resources, and my resources are truly my time. So what are you choosing to do with your time? The second one is money is a resource. And then the third thing is your energy is a resource. So I like to really think about those three. So essentially, it's what am I doing? What am I supporting? Because that, to me, a lot of money is supporting. And then the third thing is, what am I? Where am I choosing? What am I choosing to pay attention to? What am I putting my energy towards? So if I am spending four hours of a day, scrolling on Instagram, is that a true reflection of who I know I am in my heart? And I, I think that this is really interesting is like am I spending my resources to show me and the world who I am? 

So this is a huge topic, and I want to say that I can't fully teach you how to become and live without distractions, but I can inspire you. So the first thing we're gonna do is identify what are the things that are taking up those resources that is not in alignment with who I am. So the first thing I do is, print out my bank account. And I'll tell you what I wanna be really clear about this is that for me, clearly, some people are in different financial situations as you're working to change your financial situation that I'm not necessarily saying that's a reflection of you. I'm saying, are you spending money, or you are ethically aligned? And then my second question is, are you spending money in alignment with who you are? Meaning like I looked at my bank account, and I was like, that's a whole lot of DoorDash and Uber Eats. 

And one of my core values is to be a person who's not wasteful. And that's a lot of it's wasting money to me, and you get to self-define that, but it's also wasting a lot of like paper. And I, you know, I acknowledge that I'm also not in a time in my life where I can be cooking all the time, but if I just take some time to plan, I step into being the Lisa across the street. So the first thing we're gonna do is look at our money. And then the second thing, which is what I wanna talk about today, is where am I choosing to spend my time. 

So the first thing you wanna do is a time audit, which is really starting to get honest with yourself for a couple of days and really look at what am I spending my time doing. Am I looking at Instagram, feeling bad about myself or critical of other people? Is that me across the street, that person who I wanna be? Is that person critical and judgmental of themselves? Probably not. So that means I just need to shift that idea of, of what I'm spending my time doing. Am I spending a lot of time on other distractions? So the first thing we wanna do, I wanna do a really basic three-step process with this. The first thing to do is just do the time audit. I'd say three or four days and days that are relatively typical within your life. And then the second thing you're gonna do is go through that and audit and say, which of these things are a representation of how I'd like to be moving my life forward and which one of these are not? And then with are not like, it's not so simple to just cut it out. 

I wanna be gentle and kind with myself and think, well, why am I doing this? And there typically is a good and valid reason, but it's just something we wanna shift. So I keep using the social media example because it is my example. I was spending a lot of time on social media, and I realized I was doing it for two reasons. I moved to New York relatively recently, and I was a little bit lonely. So I was looking for connection, and I was also looking for some validation. So instead, before I went to, I'm gonna delete this, I'm not gonna use it, this and that, what I did was I created better connections. So I started to create phone dates with friends. I started to say when I want that feeling, instead of going on social media, I'm going to text or WhatsApp a friend of mine. And keeping that list of who I could feel the most connected with, I think, is a great idea. 

This podcast is brought to you by coaching with Lisa Zahi, a business development company which provides strategy coaching and staffing support to mission-driven businesses. We help create bold and impactful businesses and to help the founders become the people who can do it. Curious about how to grow your business? Schedule a free consultation at www.chatwithlisaz.com. 

What we're gonna do is we're going to identify what those distractions are, and then we're gonna find a healthy way to fulfill that distraction and choose to make that part of our time. Because think about this difference if, is Instagram scrolling a good definition of who I am? No. Is reaching out to lots of friends and loving on them. Yes, is occasionally going on Instagram to use for my business and to see what people are up to. Sure. But mindlessly doing it like any mindless activity is not what I'm gonna choose. So before we ever eliminate anything, we're gonna identify better ways to deal with what's making us do that. Then we're gonna work on removing the distraction. This can be a longer conversation. This could be a whole podcast is like different ways to deal with different distractions. But what I want you to do is choose what are you gonna do with your time ahead of time. 

So the best way to not get distracted, I use time blocking. Now I use a zero white-space calendar, meaning that I schedule all of my time. And I bet you're like, that sounds awful. But I schedule in giant blocks of free time. So I actually choose when things are gonna end. So I actually do give myself rest and free time. Now, even if you're not gonna do that, what I want you to do is start time blocking and not using a to-do list. Meaning, instead of saying, tomorrow I'm going to take the boxes to the Goodwill, I'm gonna say tomorrow at one o'clock, I'm gonna teach, take my lunch break. And as part of that, I'm gonna take the boxes to the Goodwill. Awesome. So we are time blocking what we wanna be doing, which again is focusing on the positive. Instead of going to, I'm just gonna delete all these things. 

And then you can find a time to do the thing that is the distraction, whether it is Netflix or phone or too much time talking to people. You wanna have a strong boundary there, and you can schedule it, but do it in a time where it is done with intention. And that is the final part of this, is to do anything with intention. Because if I go on Instagram and my intention is to connect and to laugh, then I can choose to do that. If I don't have an intention, then, it will default to just being mindless. So the last part of this is going to be setting intention. So that's really some basics in dealing with distractions. As I said, this is a much larger conversation, and there is this amazing book called Intractable by Nir Eyal, which I highly recommend, which is gonna be a much deeper dive into this. And then as far as what you're spending your money on, I actually recommend the book. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi, which is really good. So, worth, those are great resources for that. 

So the second part of this that we're gonna do before we start working on action, action, action next week is we are going to talk about identity, which is if we develop a strong enough identity for something, we will not be, we will not choose to waiver on it. So, for example, I am not a smoker. I've never smoked a cigarette, and it is a very strong part of my identity. So if somebody came up to me with a cigarette and they were like, Hey, do you wanna smoke this? I'm never gonna say yes because that identity is so strong. So if you're like, I wanna be a person who gets up early in the morning and meditates and goes for a walk, if you start to make that part of yourself, then you're never not gonna do it because this is me. 

So one of the strongest ways to do that and this week is to start working with I am statements, which you can say to other people. And you can also say to yourself, so I am an early riser, I am an early rise tomorrow, I'm gonna get it up at this time. So you're gonna start practicing that with other people using very strong I am statements and also saying it to yourself. If I start telling everybody I am a runner, I'm gonna start running. So using those I am statements. And then the second thing is putting it on the calendar. So saying the I Am statement. And then we wanna immediately go do the thing. So I am a person who goes for a walk in the morning. I tell people that, and then I go do it because that is going to train me and my mindset to start to align with each other. So these are our two key tools that we need to start to move from our inspiration into action. And next week is all gonna be about that: action, action, action, action, action. And I am so excited. 

That's it, folks. Another amazing episode of Limitless with Lisa Z. I am inspired and wanna give you the homework. Take some notes, take action. Do one thing today that can move you towards your dreams—got feedback. Let us know. You can write to us at lisa@lisazahiya.com or visit us at www.lisazahiya.com.