Mastering the Mindset
Mastering the Mindset
Why You’re Stuck (Even When You Work Hard)
Ever feel like you’re busy all the time — but not actually getting anywhere? You’re not lazy. You’re just stuck in an old cycle. In this episode, we break down what it really means to be ambitious but unproductive, and how to finally get unstuck.
You’ll learn the four key shifts that turn intention into momentum: building a clear vision, structuring your schedule, taking consistent action, and setting routines that automate success. This isn’t about working harder — it’s about working with purpose.
If you’re tired of feeling tired, overwhelmed, or stuck in “almost” mode, this conversation will show you how to break the cycle, move with clarity, and finally start seeing real progress toward the life you want.
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Losing myself and finding my strength came to the conclusion that I want it all. Feeling that pressure of tryna do better. I wanna reach heights, but too scared to fall. Too scared of failure, way more scared of feeling regret. I'm not even trying, that's terrifying. I understand that chasing my goals, I bury my clocks because it takes time. I gotta go. I already know. If I wanna grow, you reap what you sow. That be the case. Planting my seeds and water my base. Yeah, I make mistakes. Yeah, I know you grow in your garden, but watch for the snakes. The people that act like you're crazy, but trying this, they fall away. They don't think it's possible, I think it's possible. That is just hate. If they hate themselves, cause they on the shelf. Why you create a life that you love?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:A life that you love. Loving the fact to improving yourself. Decided that you would not settle. Decided that you got the drive to do it. The road got bumping your foot on the pedal. You go up a level, you turn up whenever. It's time for you to go put in that work. I know my work, huh? I know it ain't gonna be easy, yeah. I know it hurt, but thing is for sure. Yeah. Until it put me in this earth. Before I ride in that hearse, I'm chasing my goals. I'm chasing my goals.
SPEAKER_00:Loving the fact to improving yourself.
SPEAKER_01:Alright, and welcome back to another episode. Thank y'all so much for being here. Like I always say, if you are listening or watching on YouTube, go ahead and like and subscribe to that channel. If you are listening to me on a podcast platform, please leave me a review. Those things help me out a whole lot. Also, become a monthly supporter of the show. It helps me keep this thing going for y'all. You can choose the monthly amount, it can either be three, five, eight, or ten dollars. And I left links in the description. And you can also cancel it at any time you want to, but why would you ever do that? Anyway, let's get to this episode. So this one is going to be an important one because I feel like a lot of people might be feeling like this right now. And tell me if this is you. You ever feel like you've been doing everything except for the things that actually matter in life? Like you feel like you do a lot, like your day. You feel like you've been ripping and running, you feel like you've been working and working and working, and you go through your day, your week, the month, and you feel like you finally get all the things done you need to get done, and at the end of it all, you feel like you ain't really getting nowhere. And the thing is, you're not being lazy. You just might be stuck in a cycle, an old cycle that you need to break free from. Because it's tiring, right? It's tiring waking up tired, feeling like you're stuck, feeling like you ain't going as far in life as you should be. And that can be demotivating. And let's talk about it. How to be motivated and how to break that pattern. So today we're going to talk about four different things that can help you take more action, to take action to go in the direction you need to go to, to go in. So I want to start this one with a quote I found, and it really applies to us, and I believe in it. And don't forget this quote. The quote is Let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. Let action and routine drive your life, not emotion. And boy, if that ain't worthy of a whole sermon right there. But so many people, they want to do more, they want to take action, they want to be more driven, they're not lazy, they have the ambition, they just don't have any idea of how to sustain action. They don't have any kind of plan of how they are gonna get to that destination. They don't start out their day with any intention, and they just don't truly know what it is they're actually working towards. How can you get to that thing you want to achieve if you don't even have all the facts about what it is you want, about what it is you're working towards? It's gonna be way harder to take action to get you there. People just wake up, they have no intention of what they what the day is gonna be, and they want to take action. A lot of times they do take the action, but eventually you either feel lost, you feel unsure of what to do next, like you're not making progress, right? So imagine getting in your car and starting the engine up and just driving. And you know you want to go somewhere, but you ain't really thought about how. You just drove, you just drive and you make turns, you take highways and service roads, you take county roads, and then four hours go by and you get pissed off because you ain't where you want to be. Well, duh, you didn't have any vision, any intention, none of that. You just started driving. You don't even know where you want to be. And a lot of folks end up living their lives like that. They just go with it, with life, and they just drive. And they have no intention of where they're going, where they want to be. And then 10, 20 years go by and they look up and realize, you know what? I don't like this. I don't like it here. This ain't the place I want to be. And if we're being honest, that can be depressing or make you mad. But the thing is, they got to that place because they didn't do anything intentionally to get them to a different place. Right? And so today, let's talk about getting to the point where we drive ourselves and go in a direction that we want to go in. That direction that you plan on taking. So here we go. The four things we're gonna talk about today. The first one is vision. And this is such a simple question, but when you really sit down and you break it down, it can be difficult as hell to answer. And the question is, what do you want? What do you want in life? And if you let it be, it can be one of the most vaguest answers you'll ever answer that you'll ever give. Vaguest. Is that a word? No, it's not a word. Most vague. You can make that the most vague answer in the world, but really go deep. What do you want your health to be? What do you want your relationships to be? What do you want your finances, your location? Ask yourself, what do you want, what do you want to be in the next 12 months, five years, 10 years? And you need to get so clear that you can be able to just spit this out. Let's say of a random person or in a job interview, or if your cousin asks you, what do you want in life? You can tell them, well, I want to be an artist who creates art that positively impacts my community and eventually the country. I want to be a leader with the inspiration I put out in the world to help folks become their best full versions of themselves. That's my elevator pitch, if anybody asks me that question. But get clear on what you want in life and your purpose. And don't just don't just take my word for it. Research shows that when you have a clear, specific goal, it leads to higher performance and motivation. It's gonna be way harder to find the energy, the motivation, which I don't like that word, but it's gonna be way harder to find those two if you don't have that vision, that goal. When you have that clear vision, that clear goal, and you try to go for what you want, right? You won't be easily distracted or as easily distracted. And by distracted, I mean taking the wrong actions, doing stuff that don't actually get you closer, and just life distractions like Netflix and social media. Have that clear vision, it helps you take action. So that's the first thing. Have a clear vision. Number two is to get very clear on your schedule and how you set your time aside to take action. And I know you feel like you don't have enough time, and there could be a chance that you truly just don't have a single minute to spare in your 24-hour day. But I promise you, 95% of folks think they don't have time when in reality they just ain't good at managing their time. They ain't good at scheduling their time. So what's your schedule? What is it? And I ain't talking about your work schedule. I'm talking about your schedule for working on the things that you have goals in, the things you want to accomplish. What's that schedule? Do you have one? No. Do you just do you just wing it? Do you just think about it when you don't have anything else going on? Do you just make it up as you go? Well, I hate to tell you, but that ain't gonna be sustainable. It might work in the beginning, it might get you some progress, it might get the ball rolling, and that's good, but you have to schedule that time. You have to plan out your day. And I highly recommend a planner. And I know it might be easier with phones to just look at your schedule that way and sync it up with your work calendar and all that, but having a physical planner in front of you, being able to physically write in what you plan to do with your time, it goes way further. Because I guarantee you, if you truly sat down and you broke down everything you did throughout the day in 15-minute increments and you truly think about it like, okay, so from 4.30 to 4.45, I'm doing this. From 445 to 5, I'm doing this. From 5 to 5.15, I'm doing this. I guarantee you, you're gonna find some time where you really do have free. And maybe in that past, maybe um in the past you've been scrolling on TikTok, or you've been using those minutes to watch TV, or you realize you should be sitting around talking, right? Or better yet, do this. Look at your screen time on your phone. Look at how many hours you spend just looking at your phone. I bet you're gonna find some time that you've been wasting. And we all do it. So I truly recommend if you don't already have one, you buy a good old-fashioned planner and you turn to the page that has the space to write the notes in the notes in from day to day for the for the day, and I suggest you plan your day. Me personally, I plan my day by the time specifically. Like, for example, so I'm looking at my planner right now. Uh yesterday, and I planned all this. So yesterday from 8.15 to 8.45, I cleaned and responded to text messages. From 8.15 to 1045, I worked on editing a video. From 11 to 12:45, Jim. From 1 to 1.30, I worked on writing a podcast episode. From 1.45 to 245, I worked on memorization for a script at the Science Museum. Then from 3.15 to 6.15, I worked on writing my hip-hop play. So you could do it that way, right? You can plan, or you can plan out your day in 15-minute increments. Or you can write all the things you need to get done in order from most important to least important to make sure you get important stuff done first. Either way, you have to schedule that time. You have to be clear on your schedule and what your plan is for the day. That's having intention. Okay? Intention. And also, what this does is it takes the guessing game out for you. Right now, you ain't spending time trying to figure out what to do. You don't have time, you don't have to keep making all these decisions throughout the day. And studies show this helps. When you don't have to make um as many decisions all day, it makes it easier for you. It reduces your mental load from having to constantly decide what to do because that causes fatigue. And I know you've been there, done that. When you just feel like you can't make not a nine another decision, and you feel like, man, whatever you decide, I don't care. Just make a decision for me, please. It's literally mental fatigue. But when you plan your day and that time, then you don't have to think about what to do next. You already know what it is, and you just do it. You just go. So that's number two. Get clear on your vision. And number three is action. Action. Being able to physically take action. And one of the most important things to do is set up your environment to um the best you can to be able to be conducive to taking that action. For example, uh, are you trying to get work done sitting in front of the TV? Do you have your phone right next to you and you're letting it be a distraction? Are you trying to work in a place where you get distracted by people? How can you change your environment? One of the things I do is uh for the most part, uh I try not to ever work in my room. I go sit at my desk for a couple of reasons. Because it's real easy to get comfortable and sit on my bed or my couch in my room, and I take things just more seriously, like it's my job if I'm sitting at my desk. And it's just a different feeling, it ain't casual. And lately, I still be finding it harder to stay focused at home. So I be going to a coffee shop, I go to caribou, right? Every now and then I need to change my environment, right? And just that small shift helps me focus more. And I know you can relate. Sometimes just being in a location around other folks working will make you more focused. So your environment. Also, your emotions and your body because they're connected. You have been doom scrolling, right? And you've been scrolling and scrolling and scrolling all day, and then at some point you just feel like yuck, I ain't been doing nothing all day, and you feel kind of guilty, or you kick yourself. Well, you feel like that because you're being stagnant. You ain't actually moving your body. Literally. The next time try getting up. I want you to try this. Get up, walking around, or do some jump jacks, or walk up the steps, do something physical with your body, your emotions will follow your body. They will. Get up and get your body moving. Your motivation is gonna come way easier if your body moves. If you just sit in there, sitting around doing nothing, just looking at your phone or binging on Netflix, you think it's gonna be easier to get motivated? Or if you moved your body, if you got up and you moved around, and again, this is science, it's a concept called uh behavior activation, and is used in helping with depression. And basically, it's like uh it's the practice of taking these teeny tiny steps in order to help change your mood. Moving the body, it releases dopamine and serotonin, and this increases motivation. But it's all about getting started, getting your body moving. And like I always say, and I'm gonna say it again, studies show that you actually get more motivation when you take action and not the other way around. You have to take action first, then the motivation shows up. But you can't expect to sit around and it'll just come to you. You need to take the action first. So that's number four, action. Move your body and take action, take the steps, get your butt up. And number four, no, that was number three. Number four, set up your routines. Do you have routines? And I don't mean like skincare routines or like the routine for keeping your room clean. I mean the routines that you set in place that will eventually turn into habits. Because routines turn into habits, and habits, that's what drive you. My routine, and I do this every day, and it's really been helping me be the most productive I've ever been in my life. So every day I wake up, I make coffee. While the coffee is brewing, I make my bed, and then I pray, then I write out my plan for the day, and with with the times that I schedule and all that, and the first thing I always write in my plan is to clean. And what that does is it keeps my house clean, my room clean, and it's way easier that way if you just make it part of your routine, right? Part of getting dressed or getting ready in the morning to keep things clean. And it also gets my body moving, right? So I get my cleaning done while I sip my coffee, then I'm ready to tackle my list for the day. And that routine helps me keep the habit of being clean, the habit of being close to God, which is really important to me. It gives me the habit of being intentional with my day, the habit of being productive. And do you see how having uh uh a routine will help you be successful? Habits and routines make it easier to be consistent. So let your routines automate your success. I like that. Let your roots let your routines automate your success. That's number five. Figure out what those routines are. So you ain't lazy, you ain't unmotivated, there's a good chance that you just don't have the vision of what you want and where you're going. You probably don't have your schedule set up. You might be starting your day without any intention and just getting in that car and driving and driving and making turns instead of planning your actions and um setting up the routines to help you get there. Right? If you feel like you're lazy, it's not who you are. It's not. Don't identify as that. Think of it as being more of you not having the right system set up to help you be more productive and driven. So today, I really want you to go through all four of these things and write down how you can solidify what these things are for you. One, what's your vision? What do you want? Two, your schedule. What does it need to be? Find that time, schedule that time. Three, the actions, right? Notice your patterns of inaction. Don't be afraid to move your body. And four, what are the routines you have to you need to set up? So that's what I got for you today. I mean, thank y'all for listening. Uh, please share this to your social media and tag me in it. Also, share it with a friend or family member who you think would um benefit from hearing this. Also, become a monthly supporter of the show. You can choose the monthly amount, it can be three, five, eight, or ten dollars, and you can cancel at any time. But why would you ever do that? But uh, let's go ahead and get to this music. The sound I got for y'all today is lemons. Let's ride out. Uh you know it's easy to figure out that you don't always win. But like they say, life is 9 to 10. 10% of what happens to you, the other 90%. Life gives me limits. I got the juice, I hit the booth, and I tell the truth. I talk about me, what I've been through. Then I got hot, like I got the flu. I can be a cool reaction. I'm making moves. Yeah, I got the moves. I do what's so smooth. Then do I keep it lit? Like I made a fuse. Like she wanna hang, like she made a news. I put a god they outseen me. When I made the news, was I on the SPN? Finna so cool. No, I ain't listening. That's not what I do. I can't get them less. I said I chew, cause life gave me lemons. I got the juice. Watch my shoes, these brand new. They wanna walk up my steps, but this ain't the shoes. Wait, let me change my shoes. Cause like I said, these new hulla, right wanna hang with us, better lace them up, like we about to hoop. We all take three. Hope you can shoot, and I don't keep up. Not with all that gossip. I just tip up out my teacup. Like I got the flu. Cause life gave me limits. See me and my feelings. What did I do wrong? What didn't I do? I look in the mirror, I'm feelin' so different. Like what's going on? Is that really you? I don't wanna tension, I wanna be sippin', I wanna be numb, I don't wanna feel it, I don't wanna hear it. Don't wanna go back and forth, don't wanna play tennis. Life gave me limits, I got the juice, I be trippin', I stuck to the strippin', I stuck to the truth. I stuck to my word and held them all together. I guess I'm the glue. Whatever don't care yet, I wanna make it strong. I guess I'm the proof. Cause I'm still living, I wanna feel it. I give me limits, I got the juice, but I was through, I was so blue. I took a leap of faith with no power shoe. I gave me wings, that's when I flew. Feeling brand new, if you only knew what I've been through. Don't ever stop running. Hope you never do. Cause when you start grinding, you will love the view, cause life gave me limits. Now I got the juice. What's in a bad mood? Still a good dude. I need the doors to open for me, they wouldn't move. Got my foot in the dough, for me to intrude. Cause life gave me limits. Life gave me limits, but I got the juice. I hit the booth, I tell the truth. Talk about me. What I've been through. Then I got happy. Like I got the flu.