FULL TRANSCRIPT
Hi everyone, this is Adrian here with the Spirit Up Show and today I’m going to be speaking about what exactly is the productive state?
What exactly does it mean to be productive versus being unproductive?
Why does that matter?
Well, first of all, we actually live in pretty difficult times. And because times are tough, I think the first thing we need to do here is to overcome certain misunderstandings that do exist on what exactly it means to be productive versus to be unproductive.
And, you know, the adage goes, you cannot really improve what you don’t measure. Seems pretty obvious, right? pretty clear. But you cannot really measure what you haven’t yet identified as measurable. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? You need to have identified clearly what it is you want to measure, and then start measuring it. And I think that for many people, what you could measure in terms of productivity is Missunderstood.
I’m going to make a very clear case here, give me in very few seconds, five typical traits that are for you identifiers of your unproductive state, just like this. If they don’t pop up your head right away It’s because you’re a little bit fuzzy on what it means to be unproductive. And I should ask you the same thing. What does it mean, when you’re productive? How does it look like? What would I see? What would I physically see? What would I hear if you were productive? How does it work? Physically, you know, like, concretely, tangibly. More in the background: What are your thoughts? If you’re not able to tell me what the traits are that would qualify for being productive or unproductive, then there’s still work to be done.
Knowing what you’re going to measure creates cognitive dissonance. Because the clearer you are as to what exactly it means to be productive, the clearer your are as to what it means to be unproductive, the quicker you can get from one state to the next.
If being productive is this big concept, something that is not very clear, your brain doesn’t know how to get your there, it needs to have a clear mental image, a clear mental picture of what it looks like when you’re productive.
That way you can actually move quicker into the productive state. Why am I speaking to this right now?
Well, because I spend much time looking out for tools, tricks, tips, strategies to become more productive, because I was really, unproductive. I know what it’s like to simply not manifest what I want to be manifested, and get things done. And so I looked kind of everywhere. And you what I could see on the tip of the iceberg of productive people was that they were doing a lot, they were doing massive things, like working on so many different projects, had a personal life had a job, pretty important job, massive responsibilities worked in associations, in the community. You know, they were, for me impressive in terms of the quantity of things that they could do.
And so, I equated to doing a lot with being highly productive. It’s not the tip of the iceberg that sank the Titanic. So, I asked, what am I missing? Okay, they do a lot when I look at the top of the iceberg, but what is beneath the surface? What is productivity on that level? And so, I did try many things out, but I needed to have a more strategic understanding of what it is to be productive, because simply doing more could not get me any more productive. I got more stress. I lived unhealthy. And so that couldn’t be a solution for me.
I am part of the NLP community. That’s the neuro linguistic programming community. And what we’re interested in as NLP Coaches when someone comes up to us and say I need help, I’m unproductive for example. I will never say why? Or what happened or tell me your story.
I don’t care. It’s kind of rude, but I don’t care. Why? Because what matters is how. How do you do unproductive? How do you manifest that state of unproductivity? That’s really helpful to know. And when I say how it’s what are the images you have in your head? What are you telling yourself? How do you use your physiology? What do you focus on? What is the meaning you attach to things? And with that, I already gave you the three things that we all kind of need right now.
Because the times are tough, we all are looking for things that we can control. So many things are outside of our control. And I think we ought to have a few things that we, that we feel we can control. And I know it helps me It soothes me a lot. So, I hope you’ll find a little bit of peace in here.
Because feeling out of control is horrible. What you can control is
1) Your body, right? I mean, I can get up now I can move my hands, I can shake myself, I can move quickly, fast, or I can like slow down, I can change my pitch in my voice in the rhythm, I can speak much louder, or I can be singing, speaking with a much lower voice. All these are things I can control; I have power over them. But people don’t believe or what people don’t see, if they haven’t tried it is that our physiology has a massive influence on how we feel, and on all the emotional states. So, using your physiology, is something you can control, and it’s something you should control. So that’s the first thing you can do.
2) The second thing is your focus. If a glass is half full or half empty, both statements are true, if in fact, the glass is half empty, or half full. But you’ll be pointing out something very different if you look at the glass half full. Now that’s something you can control. You know, people are used to look at the world in a certain way. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the only way. So looking at the focus, like how you focus on things, in relation to productivity might be very powerful for you.
3) And what flows naturally from your focus is the meaning that you attach to things, that’s something you can control. Let me give you a concrete example. Imagine we’re in the desert, it’s really hot, and you’ve been thirsty, and you’re so hot, you haven’t drunk in hours, and I come, and I take like this bottle of water, and I throw it all on you and it’s all fresh and good. Imagine the same thing happens, I do the same thing. But we’re not in middle of the desert. And it’s not four degrees. We’re in Antarctica, and it’s minus 10 degrees, I think the meaning you will attach to that same move, throwing water on you will be kind of different. You know, that’s a silly example. But I just want to make clear what I mean with meaning.
What is the meaning that you attach to what happens around you, to the circumstances around you ? That’s something you can control. And now that I’ve given you three things: The physiology, the focus, and the meaning, which are really things you can control, how will you control it? If I’m telling you this is so that you can get clear as to what you’re looking for.
Being productive is being clear as to how to move on, I’m productive. How do I use my body? How fast am I? How quick am I? How swift? Am I? What do I focus on when I’m productive? Am I focusing on all the opportunities and all the Wow, awesome things that are going to come from whatever I’m doing or am I focused on saying it’s hard? It’s tough. It’s challenge. I’m lost. I don’t know… What are the things you’re telling yourself when you’re productive versus when you aren’t productive? And then what are the meaning of those situations?
When things are tough, I’m not going to tell you change the fact that it’s tough. No, it’s tough. So if something it’s tough, just say that it is tough. But what is the meaning that you attach to toughness? Does it mean you will quit? Does it mean because it’s tough that you’ll do something else? Or does it mean: Ok great. It’s an opportunity. It’s tough. So it means that if I follow through, I’ll get great rewards afterwards. That depends on the meaning you will attach to a situation being tough. That’s up to you. That’s something you can control.
Most people actually don’t know that or I should say most people know that intellectually, but don’t use it on an everyday level.
So let me tell you here that productivity is not doing a lot. It is not doing everything. And it is not being perfect. What do you see on top of the iceberg? It’s Bs, it’s not about that. What it is, and that the definition that comes from getting things done: The Art of stress-free productivity by David Allen. productivity is being relaxed, in control, and meaningfully engaged, three things relaxed. Sorry, in control, and meaningfully engaged. Relaxed is obviously the opposite of being stressed at events being just, I’m fine with whatever is happening right now I am relaxed. In control means I know what I’m not doing. I know what I am doing. And I feel that I can control things. And the cherry on the cake of that state is that you start being okay with everything you can’t control.
It’s an actual wisdom, you know, to know the difference between what you can control and what you can’t control. And the productive state gives you Well, not all, not everything, obviously, but a great perspective on what it is you can control and what you can’t control, you know, the next action, that’s something I can, in most cases control. The big outcomes are things more difficult t to control. And being clear to that is essential.
Because you don’t waste time working on things you can’t control. You don’t waste your energy on being pissed off at things that you can’t control, you spend most of the time on the things you can control. So it’s really, really powerful to realize that.
And the third thing, and probably the most important thing that comes naturally from being relaxed and control is being meaningfully engaged. Now, what does that mean being meaningfully engaged?
Being meaningfully engaged, means you summon the right resources, according to each situation you’re facing, at every moment in time.
So, if you are on a high stakes call with a client, you have to persuade him, you know, it’s a big account, you might lose him, and you are in this in this battle for the client. And you’re doing everything you know, to hold on to that client, and you need to persuade him and to argue. You’ll need very particular resources, you know, you, you will need to be highly focused, you need to be very attuned to every little detail your client or that account is telling you, you need to feel the situation, you know, you need to know when you’re going too far, what is enough, like, it requires lots of resources.
Now, let’s say you hang up. The next minute you call your loved one, your partner, your spouse, whomever, and probably in that moment, you’ll need different kinds of resources. You know, and the idea of being productive is the ability to be in that moment you’re with your client or with the account on the phone present, not worried about anything else than whatever you’re doing right now, not disturbed by anything else, then whatever you’re doing right now, all the resources are there. Present. And a moment you’re off that situation, and you’re on the call with someone else, all the other resources that are needed for that being loving, being caring, being listening. All that comes in that new situation, in a split second. I know, that in the past, I spend hours, you know, to move from, I’m in work mode to I’m able to go to bed. Now it’s that fast. Why? Because going to bed requires different resources than being working. And I need to be summoning up those resources very quickly. And that’s what is meaningfully engaged.
Now, when I’m with my daughter, I summon different resources than when I’m working. And that’s what it is to be meaningfully engaged. So quick recap here.
Being productive is not about doing so much. It’s not about doing a lot. It’s about doing whatever you’re doing, profoundly with all your resources here in present where you’re relaxed, you’re in control, you’re meaningfully engaged. That’s the real definition of what you should be looking for in terms of productivity.
So what I want you to do is to take a piece of paper like it’s an actual work, guys, don’t think about it, do it. Right. If you don’t use whatever I’m giving to you, you lose it, you’ll never get better at it. So take a piece of paper and think of a real unproductive state. Look for your unproductive state. Don’t think in general terms of what it is to be unproductive. Take your situations you know situations in which you wish you’d be more present more productive in which you wished “If only I was more present in that moment, if only I could have summoned the right resource, the right confidence, the right energy, things have would have been different.
Take that kind of situation and ask yourself:
– What are your thoughts?
– What do you focus on?
– How is your body? Are you tense? Is your head down or your shoulders back? How is your voice when you communicate with someone? Did you laugh? How were the muscles on your face? all tied like this? Are all open like this? Did you actually smile? Or not? Do you get a serious look? Or fun looking one?
Try to really boil it down to the actual things I could see with you. How did you breathe deeply, profoundly, or very shallowly? You know, like, be on the lookout for the physical identifiers of your unproductive state. And on the other level, look at whatever you focus on, what are your thoughts?
What are the images you’re having? Are you worried? Do you draw like worst case scenarios? Or best-case scenarios?
– And finally, what are the meanings that you attach to that unproductive statement? What is the meaning you attach to that unproductive state, it might be difficult to do. You might need to do it once, twice, three times. Because if you’re not used to be observing yourself in that way, it requires Well, it’s a muscle, right. And if you haven’t trained that muscle yet, you need to train, you need to start.
Just start small, just start once, do it once, give me five minutes of it, just take five minutes, you know, like I use that as well. I use this cube and just put five minutes and do the exercise just once and maybe next week, a second time. Do that for both states, unproductive state, and productive state. If you do this, you’ll start to nurture your brain with what it should be looking out for you to be productive, you know,
the productive people are not the ones that are constantly productive. They’re actually those that know exactly when they’re unproductive and move just like this into productive state, something completely different, right? It’s not about being all constantly high up, high energy, high performance, it’s about knowing when you’re not and what is what meaningfully engaged means in that moment
So many people dwell on the fact that they are unproductive. And it only gets worse. You know, if I keep thinking of everything that is not working, then I won’t find solutions. When I tried to get more productive, I didn’t know what to be on the lookout. I realized that all my problems would never get to them if I stayed in that unproductive state because it systematically brought me wrong answers bad answers.
Thinking when I was unproductive, didn’t yield any kind of results. And being productive is not again about doing but it’s about the results you’ll get. So, if you realize, you know being unproductive equals bad results, then you’ll have an incentive to move more quickly out of that productive state.
Sounds obvious. But to many people, it really isn’t. And if it’s obvious on a cognitive level, great if you know this already here, but do you, do it? Like do you do the work that brings you from unproductive to productive states. Ask yourself the question like, be accountable for yourself.
I want to be your accountability partner. If you need help, please tell me I’m here. I’m here and happy to help. But whatever you can do right now is take a piece of paper, do that kind of exercise, and please don’t think in general terms. Think in your own terms. Be patient with yourself. Take the time, redo the exercise, be on the lookout of both physical signals, thinking signals, and the meaning you attach to all of this. I hope it helped. Please share if it did, please post any comments or questions if you have, I’ll be happy to answer and to engage with you. And until then, I wish you a wonderful day and as always, live up to your potential and God bless Cheers.