Welcome to the Elevated Edit Podcast.

I'm your host, Blakely Ramsey, and the goal of this podcast is to discuss all things personal development, wellness, and the art of editing your life in an elevated way.

From mastering morning routines to mastering your mindset, we're going to sift through the noise and empower you to take elevated action.

Make sure you catch the show notes for all the details.

Enjoy the show.

If you have ever stared at your to do list and thought, where do I even start?

This episode is for you.

Today we are talking about the power of discernment, what high level execution actually looks like, and how to stop spiraling in the land of shoulds.

Shoulda, coulda, woulda.

Okay, I have been hypothesizing that we are collectively, I say we, me and you, all the girlies, we are overwhelmed because we have too many options now.

I love an option.

I think options are great.

I think it's amazing.

But with AI and tech and templates and tools and strategies, it is like a buffet of options.

And most of us, especially if you are an entrepreneur, if you're an aspiring entrepreneur, we are overfilling our plates.

We are putting way too much on our plates because we get excited.

We get on TikTok and see an idea, we get on Instagram and see an idea.

We meet a friend in person for coffee and we get an idea.

Like, there's so many different directions.

You can start a business on your phone, you can, you know, voice chat with someone in Tokyo in real time, you can hop on a zoom, you can get on a loom, you can do all the things.

Like, we literally have so many options and it can be really overwhelming.

But the truth is, a lot of us get hard on ourselves.

We're like, you know what?

I'm not doing enough.

That's my problem, is I'm not doing enough.

I just need to do more.

I need to do more.

But really, overwhelm isn't coming from doing too little.

That's not the real issue.

The overwhelm is that we are trying to do way too much all at once without true clarity.

Now, I have had the honor and the privilege over the last couple of years, especially in the last year, of spending a lot of time with women who have really stepped into their power and who are high performing and crushing it in business and crushing it in sales and crushing it in motherhood and crushing it in their friendships.

And they're just all around, they feel good, they're in the gym, they have, you know, that balance.

That to me I think is unattainable, but they, they have a flow of balance.

Sometimes they're a little more work heavy, sometimes they're a little more mom heavy, but they just got it going on.

I know that a girl's coming to mind for you, that she just walks in the room and you're like, good.

How does she freaking do it all?

And she looks good.

Like, how does she do it?

The thing is that I have realized with a lot of these women is that they're not doing a hundred things.

Now granted, some of them have teams at work or they have a nanny or you know, they have an executive assistant, whatever the case is.

But most of these women, they're not doing everything.

They're not running around like a chicken with their head cut off doing all the things.

They are doing three to five things with insane clarity and consistency.

Now a lot of us, we have the best of intentions.

We get organized the night before and we're like, okay, I've got my action list, I know exactly what I time blocked my day, I know what I'm gonna do.

And we sat down, we've got our matcha, we've got our espresso, and we're like, okay, today's the day.

Like I am doing the things, I am doing all the things.

I'm gonna get this list checked off like I am boss, babe.

We sit down and then all of a sudden a text comes in and we go respond to that.

Or we're like, okay, I'm gonna make a social post today, but first I'm gonna do a little bit of research.

That is the, that is the death of a day is doing a little bit of research on TikTok.

Because before you know it, if you're anything like me, I, I'm doing research, alright?

But two hours later I've got like a hundred posts that I want to do and I have come up with three new side hustles and I've got 20 new things on my list and I'm like, what the heck just happened?

Like, I came on here to spend 15 minutes looking for inspiration and now I have like four new business ideas.

My list is twice as long as it was before and I haven't actually gotten anything done.

Most of us operate from that.

We are very reactive, we are very scrambled and it's because we don't have a clear picture of what we need to be doing in our business to actually move the needle forward, to actually make progress, whatever that progress looks like.

If it's slow incremental progress.

If it is that quantum leap that we're trying to go for, like, we are not focused because we're trying to do too many things at once.

And the truth is we don't need more hours.

We need fewer tabs open in our brain.

And this is where we have to be really careful because if we get in this reactive mode, we are going to teach our subconscious brain that in order order to get to the next level of success, we have to work more hours.

So if we spend, say four hours working and half of that time we spend on TikTok and we come up with 20 ideas and we, we get in it with chat GPC, we're going back and forth.

We've, you know, built an entire empire.

We've got all these crazy ideas.

Like, it can feel really good to feel like, okay, I got stuff done today.

Like, I had 10 pages of ideas.

Wow.

And your brain's gonna go, okay.

Your subconscious mind is gonna go, okay, we spent four hours and we didn't actually get anything done.

Okay, I understand that.

So in order for her to actually get stuff done, we're gonna have to double the time that we spent working.

So your subconscious brain is gonna go, okay, if she actually wants to achieve these goals that she claims she wants to achieve, we're gonna have to work double, we're gonna have to work harder, we're gonna have to burn the midnight oil.

And your subconscious mind, like, if you don't feel safe in that is going to self sabotage you.

It's going to be like, okay, well never mind.

We don't want to work more hours, so we're just going to constantly stay in this reactive loop.

And all of this is happening in our subconscious brain and we're not even aware of it.

And that is why we have to be so careful about really making sure that we have discernment, that we are making confident decisions and that we're not piling stuff on our plate and, you know, having all the ideas and wanting to do all the things, we, we need to make sure that we are able to sit down and execute on the things that really matter so that we can teach our subconscious mind, okay, I am safe.

I am safe going after success because I know it really matters.

I know what moves the needle.

I know exactly what I need to do when I sit down.

And I know that if I put three to five things on my list, I'm going to get those done.

I am safe to put them on my list, and I know that I'm going To check those tasks off and create a new list for the next day with three to five things that I can actually execute.

And that's how we teach our body and our mind to get comfortable with success, to want to go after the thing.

Because if we just stay in the.

In the fight or flight, in the reactive mode, then our body's gonna go, you know what?

She actually doesn't need to go for those goals.

Like, we're gonna spend, you know, 80 plus hours a week working, and that is not what she wants.

That's not good for her.

I'm gonna keep her over here in her comfor, and I'm never gonna let her even think about that over there.

And like I said, all of this is happening in our subconscious brain, and we don't even realize it.

I lived in that cycle for years and years where I was just so reactive every day, and I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.

And I was technically doing a hundred tasks, but I was never getting anything done.

I was not actually taking action on the things that really mattered.

And so I would tell myself, like, man, I've got all these big goals.

I've got all these things that I want to do.

Like, if I could just do more.

If I could just do a little bit more.

And so my subconscious brain was like, okay, well, Blakely's gonna have to work.

You know, she's already working 10 hours a day.

If she wants to achieve her goal, she's gonna have to work 12 hours a day and work on the weekends and do all this.

And it can just be so easy to fall into that trap.

And if we don't develop awareness around it, we are going to stay there forever.

And then the world doesn't get to see all of your big, beautiful goals and your dreams and all of the things that you have to provide to the world.

Like, the world's not gonna get to see it.

And we need you.

We need you to step up and do your big things and bring your big ideas, because the world needs it.

Now, y' all know when I start talking about awareness, that I'm about to give you a solution.

Because we are all about action over here.

We are about taking simple action.

I'm going to give you some tangible things that you can use to help develop that discernment, to help develop that decision making skill.

It's going to be very simple.

It's going to be three questions, three filters, whatever you want to call it.

There's no perfection around here.

There's no, my way is the right way.

These are just three questions that you can ask yourself to develop this discernment skill.

Okay?

I call this the one thing formula.

You can name it whatever you want.

You can change it.

You can do all the things.

This is yours.

Okay, question number one.

What actually moves the needle in my business?

This is a hard one if you answer it honestly.

When I first asked myself this question, I was like, oh, everything I'm doing, check done.

But when I, like, sat down, and I was like, okay, Blakely, make a list of everything that you're doing in the day now.

Make a list of everything that is actually moving the needle in your business, that is actually providing value to your customer, actually providing value to your client, actually making you money, actually helping you build credibility, actually helping you develop as a coach and a mentor and a podcaster and a business owner.

There were very few things that actually moved the needle.

Like, when I got super honest with myself, I was like, oh, wow.

Like, 75% of my list is just busy work.

75% of my list is not actually doing anything for me or my business.

It is something that I saw on TikTok that I thought was a great idea that I just had to do or something that I read in a book that I felt like I just had to do, or a podcast that I just had to do.

And then all of a sudden, you have this scattered list of things that don't actually move the needle in your business.

And this is where you have to get really clear and honest with yourself, because your things that move the needle in your business are going to look a lot different than mine or as your friends or, you know, the.

The influencer that you follow on TikTok.

So just be really honest with yourself here.

Give yourself grace.

Of course, we can't get upset with ourself if we didn't, you know, if we weren't aware of this before.

But sit down and be really honest with yourself.

What actually moves the needle in my business?

Okay, question number two.

What gets me closer to the woman I'm becoming?

This is something that I really, really, really focus on in my coaching programs because it is so important.

And to me, when I started practicing this, this was the one thing that really, genuinely helped me with decision making, is to visualize what I want my life and my business to look like a year from now, three years from now, five years from now.

Not what society wants it to look like or not what my husband wants it to look like or not what my friends think it should look like, what do I want my business to look like?

Do I want to have a physical location?

Do I want to be able to work while I travel?

Do I want to be able to close up shop on the weekends and not work at all?

Do I want to use social media to build my business?

Do I not want to be on social media at all?

What do I actually want my business and my life to look like?

And from that filter, you can start making decisions every single day that guide you towards that.

Now, there's going to be some things you have to do that don't directly guide you to towards that direction, and that's going to be okay.

Especially in the beginning when you're trying to figure everything out.

You might not get it just right all the time, but where I am at this point, I do have opportunities that come in that, like, really excite me.

I'm like, man, that'd be so cool.

Or, you know, I see ideas of things that other women are doing.

Like, that'd be so cool.

But I have to tell myself, blakely, does that support your business and your life in three years?

Does that support your business and your life in five years?

What you want it to look like, what you want it to feel like?

And I'm going to be so honest, it can be really stinking hard to say no to those things, because some of them might come with a lot of money, Some of them might come with a lot of credibility.

Some of them might just sound really freaking fun for you.

And if they are like, go do it.

But there are a lot of things, if you are anything like me, that seem like a good idea and seem like a good opportunity, and then you get in the middle of it or you finish and you're like, man, like, that was cool, I guess, but it really actually didn't move the needle in my business, in my life.

So just ask yourself, like, is this getting me closer to the woman that I truly want to become?

Okay, question number three.

What can I execute with excellence today?

And not just dabble in this one is the most important, and it is the hardest to be honest with yourself.

And that is why accountability is so, so stinking important.

Because when you are, you've got your zone of genius, and, you know, the things that you're really good at.

But it can be so easy to lose discernment when it comes to, like, okay, I know I'm great at this.

I know my zone of genius is right here.

But I also want to do this and this and this and this and this.

And before you know it, you're just dabbling in everything.

You are not actually executing with excellence on anything.

And I'm gonna.

I'm gonna say this as gently as I can.

And I have to say this to myself, too.

Trust me, you're not good at everything.

I.

I know.

I know.

That was really mean.

It was a little aggressive.

But I have to constantly remind myself, blakely, you're not good at everything.

I have such a high level of delusion, and I figured out that I also have this delusion for everybody in my life as well.

But I truly think this.

You're gonna be like, this girl is.

She's lost it.

I truly think if given enough time and allowed to truly focus on this one thing, I could do anything.

Like, put me in the NBA, put me in the NFL, put me in outer space.

Like, I could do whatever.

I truly think that in my mind, I genuinely think that.

And you.

There's a closet in my house that will prove this.

It's got paint, it's got yoga mats.

It's got, you know, stuff for gardening.

All these random things that I was like, oh, my gosh, I would be so good at that.

I would be so great at that.

And then you buy all the stuff and you dive in and something clicks one day.

You're like, man, like, this is actually.

I'm not super interested in this, or I'm not really all that great at that.

Like, maybe I shouldn't have dove all the way in and bought literally every single product that was possibly available for this thing.

Hello, Cricut.

With all my vinyl and, oh, my goodness, y' all the things that I have spent money on and gone all the way into.

Like, there is a full keyboard in this closet.

Like a piano keyboard.

I thought I was going to teach myself how to play the piano and I was going to become this musical prodigy.

This was, like, last year.

Okay?

It wasn't a long time ago.

This was not that long ago.

It is so easy, and especially in business, especially with TikTok and Instagram and podcasts and books.

There's all.

All this information, and there's so many things you could do, and there's probably so many things you could be good at.

And don't even get me started on ChatGPT, because if you ask ChatGPT, hey, would it be a good idea for me to do X, Y, and Z?

Chat GPT is going to be, like, a hundred percent.

You're so great.

You're the most talented person on the planet.

You can do anything.

Go for it.

We have got to slow down and ask ourselves, what can I execute with excellence today?

And not just dabble in?

Because if we are doing a hundred things, we're not doing anything with excellence.

We need to scale back to the three to five things that we can actually execute on.

And we have to be so brutally honest with ourselves because we can have the best planner.

We can time block our calendar until it looks like a rainbow.

Okay.

We can have all the color coding.

We can be so insanely organized.

And if we are not time blocking things that actually matter, it is all useless.

Okay, so I'm gonna re.

I'm gonna re.

Say these three questions because I want you to spend a couple hours, maybe this weekend or today or whenever you have some free time, and I want you to really go through these and, like, truly be super honest with yourself, because this is going to help you so much.

Number one, what moves the needle in my business?

Number two, what gets me closer to the woman I'm becoming?

And number three, what can I execute with excellence today and not just dabble in?

And it is my hope that this podcast episode gives you the permission to give yourself grace and to give yourself credit and go, okay, you know what?

I'm actually not behind.

I am not unmotivated.

I am not lazy.

I'm just scattered.

And it's actually not true that I'm not doing enough.

I'm actually doing way too much.

I need to scale all the way back.

I need to take a lot of things off my list.

I need to take a lot of things off of my plate, and I need to get laser focused.

Because the truth is, you are beyond capable.

You're probably way overqualified.

You just need structure.

It's all you need.

You are probably doing way too much.

And so I hope that this episode has given you that sigh of relief of like, okay, I'm not lazy.

There's nothing wrong with me.

I don't need to find, you know, more motivation.

I don't need to listen to David Goggins every morning.

Which, if you're like me, David Goggins, I mean, he's carrying the boat, and I want to carry the boat with him.

But we don't need more motivation.

We just need more structure.

Okay?

If this is hitting home and you are tired of second guessing every single move, this is exactly what I help my coaching clients do.

I'm not here to hold your hand.

I show up with the same energy that I show up here on the podcast.

I am here to check on you lovingly and help you be accountable and help you build a business that does not burn you out.

So if you are interested in this kind of accountability, you can DM me the word systems on Instagram heblakelyramsey and I'll send you a voice note and we'll just make sure that we're a good fit for each other and we'll go from there.

My personality is definitely not for everybody, but I think if you've made it to the end of this episode, you probably have a good idea of my accountability style.

And you know that I'm gonna be honest with you.

But the honesty is going to help so much because it's going to get you to that next level.

We're going to take all the things off your plate.

We're going to help you get dialed in on what actually matters.

So I would love to have a chat with you over on Instagram.

I hope even if you don't reach out, that this episode provided a lot of value for you.

I really want you to take the time.

At some point this week, the questions are going to be in the show notes.

If you're driving, you can just screenshot the show notes when you get parked and take some time over the weekend or at some point this week and really dive into those questions.

And even if you're not interested in the accountability program, I'd love to just hear from you how those questions went for you.

Okay?

Please send this episode to a friend if you think that she will get some value from it as well.

And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day and I will see you in the next episode.

Thank you for tuning in to the Elevated Edit podcast.

I hope you found today's episode inspiring and full of actionable tips.

Don't forget to check out the show notes for all the resources and links mentioned.

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Until next time.

Keep growing, glowing and elevating your life.

See you soon.