How to Navigate the Emotional Rollercoaster and Achieve Your Goals - Even During Chaotic Times S4E65

Is summertime chaos throwing your goals off track? 

You're definitely not alone! Even the most motivated among us can struggle to maintain focus when schedules get disrupted and routines fly out the window.

In this episode, I shared a powerful concept called the Attitude Wheel that perfectly illustrates the emotional ups and downs we experience while working on a new project.

“The Attitude Wheel… helped me always realize, one, my feelings are normal, and two, how to get out of that dippy dump area, that dip where we might want to give in and say, I'm not supposed to be doing this, I can't do this."

The Attitude Wheel breaks down this emotional journey into four distinct stages:

• Excitement (12 o'clock): You're brimming with enthusiasm and feel unstoppable.
• Doubt (3 o'clock): The initial excitement wanes and the finish line seems miles away.
• Fear and Procrastination (6 o'clock): Self-doubt creeps in, and you start questioning your abilities. Procrastination becomes your best friend (or worst enemy!).
• Renewal (9 o'clock): You remind yourself of your "why" and refuel your motivation.

The key takeaway? These emotional shifts are totally normal! The important thing is to recognize them and have strategies in place to move through the inevitable dips in motivation.

This episode equips you with 7 actionable tips to navigate the Attitude Wheel and stay on track, including:

• Revisit your "why": Reconnect with the core reasons behind your goal.
• Remember the reward: Focus on the positive outcome and how it outweighs the challenges.
• Create mini-habits: Break down your goals into small, manageable tasks.
• Schedule breaks: Avoid burnout by incorporating dedicated rest periods.
• Work with your energy: Match your activities to your natural energy levels.
• Seek support: Don't hesitate to ask for help from others.
• Take action: Commit to a single step within 24 hours to keep the momentum going.

Ready to conquer your summer goals? Let me know in the comments below! Which tip from the Attitude Wheel will you use first?

Transcript

UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT 
Automatically Transcribed With Podsqueeze

Sheri Miter (00:00:01) -  There's a good chance you don't need to hear this from me. But summertime can be absolutely crazy, and it's one of those seasons that we really have to guard our well-being. We have to guard our goals. We have to guard our time and space. Because if you're like me, it's not our normal routine at all. And you know, I share it in season or episode 61 of season four that I'm kind of doing a rest and writing this theme this summer. But I do have some other goals keeping the podcast going. still running my business. you know, just on a lower key. But even just minimizing what I'm doing, it's been chaotic, especially these last few weeks, because even as I'm recording this right now, I have one dog laying by my side. She's been my shadow all week. Our other son's dog is panting like crazy in the other room. I apologize if you can hear him. My middle son right now, whose dog is panting in there. Him and his wife just took our seven and five year old grandkids over to the park.

Sheri Miter (00:01:13) -  Our youngest son, Jacob, and his wife, whose dogs laying by my side are on their way here with their little two year old Louis. And Tom is at work right now, so I have this little time space to myself, and I thought, I need to really maximize this, get focused. My number ten talent theme, my first executing theme, and get this podcast recorded. Well, it's semi quiet here. And maybe you've been struggling with this whole thing. You've had big goals this summer that you were going to check off and do, and you're just not getting anything done. And maybe there's been a time that you feel like, maybe I just need to give up on my big goals, give up on my big dreams. And today I want to share with you a reminder on sometimes our attitude. We just need a little adjustment and it's okay. And it's normal to feel like we want to give up and give in and not keep working towards our big goals. And I have some tips for you how to overcome it as well.

Sheri Miter (00:02:16) -  So let's get into this podcast because who knows when chaos is going to ensue here. Starlin put the intro here. Okay my friends. So as I was sharing, you know, earlier, it has just been really chaotic this past week. We've been we've had our seven year old and five year old grandkids here for the week while their parents were, doing some travel. And we've had our other son's dog here all week. So my schedule is so off, so off, and I love hanging out with my grandkids and everything, but sometimes it just it messes up my routine. And it's times like that that I really gotta get. Take the time to get in a mental space, because it would be so easy for me to say, oh, you know what? I'm not even going to attempt to write this week. I'm just going to, you know, give in to my goal or give in to the chaos and not try to achieve anything over the next few weeks. And, you know, that'd be okay if that's the decision I wanted to make.

Sheri Miter (00:03:20) -  But I don't really want to do that. I have good momentum going and writing my book, so I have to be very intentional with how I'm working when I'm working, and also being okay with if I can't work like normal. And as I'm writing the book and going through the Discovering Your Calling Academy process, which is what the book I'll be writing about, is what I'm writing. and if you haven't heard me talk about the book yet, go back and listen to episode 61 of season four and you'll hear what I'm talking about for the book. But anyway, and just in my own experience this past few weeks, it reminded me of something I teach in the Academy called the Attitude Wheel. And this was something that I learned in my direct selling days early on, and it just was so valuable to me because it helped me always realize one my feelings are normal, and two, how to get out of that dippy dump area that that dip where we like, want to be. We might want to give in and say it's I'm not supposed to be doing this, I can't do this.

Sheri Miter (00:04:38) -  And we could slip into just walking away from our big goals. And I don't want that to happen to you, my friend, because you're on a mission. I know you are, and you have some big goals, and you were designed for such a time as this. So we need to make sure that we're just aware that and normalize these feelings, but then how to overcome them. So this attitude will. And if you want you can pause the podcast right now if you're able, if you're not walking or driving and grab a big sheet of paper and just draw a big circle on the, on the paper. And and if you can't draw it, just imagine like basically a large clock. So a large circle and there's 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00. And I'm going to take you through the normal emotions and, and our attitude, thoughts that we have any time we are working on something new. And this could be a work project, it could be writing a book, it could be starting your own podcast.

Sheri Miter (00:05:45) -  It could be starting your own business. It could be the thought of leaving your current career and doing something new. It could be getting married. It could be buying a house. It could be, having your first child and debating on that. So we go through these emotions and have these attitudes anytime there's something new coming into our lives. And at 12:00. So up at the top is where we have that exciting, that excitement, and we feel unstoppable. And we can do anything we put our mind to, like, we just have that, like, this is going to be so exciting, and it's new and it's fresh and it's that fun stage that when we first set the goal. But then what happens is we start to slide and we can't stop this. That's the other thing I want to emphasize is you can't stop these emotions from happening. Now I will share what to do during the emotional trip around this clock that you have so that we can move through it, but you can't stop it.

Sheri Miter (00:06:55) -  And so around 3:00, what happens is the newness of whatever this thing is has worn off. And we can't see the finish line yet. So it seems like the end goal is so far away, we're not as excited as we were when we first set that goal. And this is where it's easy to kind of just like, I don't know if it's even that important to me anymore. you know, you can kind of just get wishy washy on your goal, but this is where it's really important to just dig in. You want to dig deeper into that goal. Drink that energy drink. Have another shot of espresso and keep going. Don't stay stuck in 3:00, but be ready, because 6:00 is really ugly. And and again, we can't stop this process. But what happens is we slide into 6:00 next, and at 6:00, this is where dreams die. And I remember in my network marketing days, it would break my heart because we would lose so many amazing women who got stuck in 6:00 and didn't know how to get out of it.

Sheri Miter (00:08:21) -  And I'll talk about why that happened in a minute, but I want to tell you what happens at six. So six is where doubt, fear, procrastination sets in. This is where we really start to question everything about our goal. We might go into a blame game of blaming. you know, like in our network marketing days, I know there were times they probably blame me. The recruiter, she lied to me. She didn't tell me the truth. Well, the truth is they did hear it was hard, but they didn't hear it at 12:00 or 3:00. But it is hard work. It's hard work reaching any goal. It's hard work to buy a house. It's hard work to get married. It's really hard work to be a parent. And it's hard work to achieve any goal worth achieving. And at 6:00, we just. All we see are the reasons why we can't or shouldn't or won't achieve the goal we have. And a lot of times what happens here, how it shows up is again, it could be blaming others for our lack of success.

Sheri Miter (00:09:35) -  It could be feelings of they lied to me as I shared. It could be feelings of I'm not good enough to do this. I'm not qualified enough to do this. all those icky thoughts that will creep in. And if we are not careful again, we can stay stuck here. And so many people fall into 6:00. And what happens is they don't understand that it's normal. And if you hear nothing else that I shared today, that's the takeaway I want you to. To hear from me is that having those emotions and feelings are absolutely normal. We all go through that and it doesn't matter what your goal is, how long you've been working. I mean, I was in direct sales as a leader for 25 years. I would still go through this every time I set a new goal. But the difference was I recognized what was happening and I could get out of that 6:00 rut really quickly. And that's what we want to do, is just move through 6:00. It's going to happen. We can't stop it.

Sheri Miter (00:10:50) -  We just have to learn to move through it and get back up to 9:00. So again, if you're picturing a clock, think about 9:00 over here on the left side. And this is the renewal stage. At 9:00, we start to remind ourselves again of why we wanted this thing anyway. Why did this goal matter? Why is it important to us? We remind ourselves that we can do hard things and that we have succeeded in the past. And there's no reason why we can't do this right now. We remind ourselves that it's up to us to achieve this. Nobody else. And we just get back in there. And once you can get back to 9:00, it's really easy to then keep on going around that circle and hit that 12:00 stage again. And as a reminder, 12:00 is that excited stage that unstoppable stage. This is where most of our work gets done at 12:00. So what are some tips for moving through this? Because again, it's going to happen and you're going to fall into 3:00.

Sheri Miter (00:12:08) -  No matter how excited you are about your goal, you're going to feel like you want to stay stuck in 6:00. And here's the other thing about 6:00. I've experienced this myself. I do this myself still. and I definitely saw this happen a lot with other people. We procrastinate at 6:00. That's where all the other things in life become more important to us than our goal. even cleaning our house and doing laundry might be more important than doing our goal. And we need to break through that. We need to recognize that's happening like that's sometimes what I'm feeling. This last this week is like, oh, you know, I could just play with the grandkids all week and give up on my writing goal for the next two weeks, but instead I want to figure out, well, no, I don't want to give up on it. I want to figure out how to work through it. How can I just carve out a few minutes of time to write? I can't do my normal writing schedule, but I can do something.

Sheri Miter (00:13:04) -  So we got to kind of negotiate with ourselves, and I'm going to talk more about that in a minute. so I'm going to give you like steps to really work through that. but again it's just normalizing it. It's knowing it's coming, it's being ready. And it's kind of funny with my students in the discovery in your Calling academy have gone through this, or any anybody has really worked with me for a longer amount of time. Like they will call me up and say, okay, Sherry, I'm stuck at 6:00 and I know exactly what they mean. So it's just knowing this now that 12, that excited excited stage three, is that like, oh, it's getting a little hard but I know I can still do it. Six is that stuck stage you You want to procrastinate. You want to give up, you doubt everything. And then nine is where we want to quickly get back up to. And that's that renewal stage, that reminder of your why that can boost you back around to 12:00.

Sheri Miter (00:14:06) -  and knowing that the feelings are normal and we just need to acknowledge it and let it go. Don't dwell on the guilt or think you're lazy or something's wrong with you or you're not supposed to. I hear that a lot. Well, it's not my destiny. It's not what I'm supposed to be doing because it's gotten hard. No, you got to move through that and remind yourself that you're motivated and you can do this, and you have the energy to create things, great things. And you have a destiny to do that. there was one more thing I was going to say, and it totally just went on in my head. Sorry. All right, well, ten quick things here because I have talked about this before in the past, but one is these are steps to help you move through this attitude. Will, oh, I know what I was going to say is. It's funny now because and I think my husband realizes this, it used to take me weeks to move through this entire cycle.

Sheri Miter (00:15:05) -  Like I could get stuck at 12 or 6:00 and stay there for weeks before I dug myself back up again. But now I recognize what's happened happening, and many times, like, legit, I can go through this entire cycle in five minutes. And because I recognize it now and I know where I'm at and I can see what happens to me when I'm stuck at six and like, oh, nope, this is what's happening. How do I fix this? So once you learn your own tools to get out of it and work through it, you can go through the process very quickly. So here's some tips to help you. And I just talked about a lot of these things. And episode 62 of season four, it was five steps to overcome your Fear and create a growth mindset. And honestly, that's a lot of what happens when we're in stuck at 6:00. So go back and listen to that, because the number one tip I have for you today is just remind yourself of your why. That is the quickest way to get from 6:00 back up to 9:00.

Sheri Miter (00:16:08) -  And I shared in that episode the whole peeling back the layer on layer or peeling back the onion layers. until you find your why that makes you cry. So you can listen to that on episode 62. Second thing is to remember your reward needs to be greater than the risk. What is the reward waiting for you? And is it greater than the risk you're feeling when you're stuck at 6:00? Number three create some simple habits. I think I shared this recently with you as well. If you are tired and you feel like, oh, I can't do this, or I really should go do X, Y, and Z instead of doing what you know, deep in your heart you really should be doing. That will help you get closer to your goal is maybe just tell yourself you just need to do something for 15 minutes. Whatever it is. Work on it for 15 minutes. Set your timer. my writing coach says you just need to write one sentence. If life feels chaotic, you don't have time.

Sheri Miter (00:17:18) -  You feel like you're not in the mood. You want to give up. Just go write one sentence that has worked beautifully for me. also. But be okay with allowing yourself to consciously allow yourself 1 to 2 days to totally take off, but be conscious about it. Don't do it because you don't feel like working. Do it because you're consciously saying, I am going to take the week off. I am going to take two days off. Number four work with your natural flow of energy. If you work best in the morning, which most of us do. Use that time to work. If you work better in the evening, then maybe it's turning off Netflix and working on your project for a few hours in the evening. I just attended a great virtual workshop called How to Optimize Your Day with Donna McGeorge, and she shared really emphasize how important the first two hours of our workday are. And it was fascinating to me. It was stuff I kind of knew, but it was like she had the facts to prove it.

Sheri Miter (00:18:31) -  And I know that in a normal workweek, not when I have a family, you know, or family vacation happening is I've got to really guard that time because that's my most productive time. Enlisting support I just talked about this. This is number five. To get through that. That attitude will number five just ask for help when you need it. We talked a lot about that recently. Number six iron sharpens iron. Surround yourself with other people working on similar goals that will help you reach your goal quicker and faster. And number seven I guess, sorry, there's seven tips here. I tell you, my mindset is not correct right now. It's on overload. so seven number seven. The final tip is commit to just one step. You can do within 24 hours because the longer we stay stuck thinking about our goals and thinking about all the reasons why we can't achieve it right now, thinking about all the things wrong with us, all the stuff in our mind. The more we think about it, the more we will stay stuck in 6:00 forever.

Sheri Miter (00:19:52) -  Possibly Action will get you back up to 9:00 faster. So take one step that will take you, move you towards achieving your goal. Move you out of 6:00 into 9:00 and you will be able to achieve your goal quicker and faster and more productively. And just don't stay stuck at six. And remember my friend. You are created for such a time as this. But it's okay if you need to adjust the time frame. But just don't stay stuck at 6:00 and that your feelings are normal. You will feel all of those emotions. The excitement, the doubt, the fear, the giving up, the renewal. Back to excitement. It's all normal. The only thing we can control is how quickly we move through all of those emotions. So I hope this was helpful. As always, love to hear from you and let me know what steps you will take. What was most impactful? Have you heard of the Attitude Wheel before and how will this help you achieve your biggest goals?