[00:00] Welcome back to the Focus B show. This is Katie Suddar here aka the focus b. And on this show, I interview high performers and leaders around the world to discover their secrets on peak performance, productivity, mindfulness and leadership. So if you want to take your performance and your leadership to the next level, then you're in the right place. Listen up and connect with the magic.
[00:36] And we're gradually and slowly approaching the end of both the series and the season. So I hope you've been enjoying this fourth season of my podcast, the Focus B Show, on tea and pie, greater time, energy and attention for improvements in profit, impact and expertise. Because I fundamentally believe that the way in which you manage your time, your energy and your attention has a ripple effect on your profit, your impact, and your expertise in your business. And in this last series of TMPI, which covers expertise, we've gone through constant learning, how what you learn and the ability to always be learning and improving has a huge impact on your expertise. Then we went through the topics of leadership enhancements and high performance. The correlation between being a great performer and leader that supports you in being an expert and a thought leader in your field. And the last episode was on self compassion, which I feel is absolutely fundamental. So I wanted to do a whole episode on this ability to be kind to ourselves. And today we continue a bit in this area as I want to go through sugar cubes. What are sugar cubes? Sugar cubes comes from my mentor, Daria, and this is a term she took from a book, and I don't know which book. So this is just one of those terms. And sugar cubes represent progress. The concept is every time you get a testimonial, every time you have a job that's done and someone's thrilled, every time you achieve something that means a lot to you, you keep a log and you keep track of them. And these are your sugar cubes. Why do they matter? Why do you need to acknowledge your progress and track your results and achievements? Because most people, and by most people, I mean everybody, suffers from time to time, from self doubt or from impostor type syndrome. Although my NLP trainer told me that impostor syndrome isn't just a periodic thing, but something that people deal with always. But similar idea to impostor syndrome, self doubt. And when this happens, you can't reassure the brain by just saying nice, fluffy statements. The brain, very devious, many times, will want tangible proofs as to why you're worth it, why you're good, will start to feel like an imposter, will doubt all of your abilities. And when this happens, having something tangible and written down can really, really help you to overcome those types of crisis. For instance, when you suddenly doubt your ability in your field, or whatever it is, and you look up your sugar cubes and you read the list of testimonials or compliments or achievements. And the list can be very long because you can add any small token of acknowledgment, any small comment that someone sends about one podcast episode, any review. And in those moments, what will happen is you will shift and transition from self doubt to acknowledging that your work isn't about you, but about the impact you make on others. And even if in those moments of doubts you don't actually believe that you're making a difference, you will have in front of your eyes the testimonials, the writing, the reviews, whatever it is that say word for word, black on white. This person made a huge difference in my life. Or this person was a great speaker, or this person really supported me with my marketing or depending what services or businesses or products that you have. And even if you don't have your own business and you're an employee, this also works because you can have words from colleagues or your boss or anyone around you or clients. Anything that sort of confirms that you've done a good job. So every time something like this happens, learning to make a habit of copying, saving it and putting it in a folder, in an Excel file, in a notebook, wherever you want to put it, will help you. Every time you have those moments of discouragement, every time you feel that what you're doing isn't making any difference, and just remembering to transition from that self doubt to acknowledging your progress and to seeing that it is what others get out of it. Because think about it, if you're a painter and you paint this wonderful landscape and you don't like it, okay, you've painted there. You pour your heart and soul into it. You look and you see the shades are a bit off or the seas are the wrong color. Can the sea be a landscape? Probably, yes. And so you see that all of these things are not the way you would like them to be or not how you imagine. But then someone comes in to your art gallery and buys a painting and says, this is amazing. And two months later comes back and says, I look at it every morning and I feel inspired and invigorated, and it sets the tone for a great day, et cetera, et cetera. Does it really matter that you didn't like the painting? Think about it. Was it really about you? You painted it, sure. And then you sold it, or you could have given it also to a friend and it makes a difference in their life. So you liking the painting or not kind of doesn't really matter. And what I mean by this isn't do a bad job because it doesn't matter what you think of it. No, what I mean is if on a moment you're a bit critical towards yourself or you think something could have improved or you don't think you did it as well as you could have, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Just remember that it's what other people think that matters. And by that I don't mean let's not get everything confused here. I don't mean to base your own self esteem on other people's opinions, this is not what I mean at all. Or to base your own work on other people's opinions. That's not what I mean either. What I mean is you do the work to the best of your abilities and then you see how it impacts others. And if it impacts others in a positive way, like in the painting idea, then this makes a difference. Now, of course, if you have a team or colleagues that are particularly difficult and never like your work, then it's another type of internal work that you need to do, where you need to look at what you are doing well because you also don't want your self esteem to depend on other people. Okay, so I realize this is a bit of a tangent, but my basic point is when you collect your sugar cues and you collect the positive words and reviews and testimonials from people that have liked your work, who have benefited from what you've done, this will support you tremendously. When you go through phases of self doubt, when you maybe go through phases where you lack that self compassion that I talk about in the previous episodes. And it will help you to feel more motivated to tap into your why and your mission and your vision to get to that other level of performance. Because you will remember and you will acknowledge that it is making a difference. And it's far too easy. Far too easy to focus on what is lacking or what isn't going well, or what could be better than it is to actually acknowledge how far you've come, all the progress you've made, and how this has actually impacted, which comes back to one of the last series of this season on impact, how far it has actually impacted other people. Because isn't that the whole point? I mean, if you're anything like me, you've realized at one point in your life or in your business that what really matters is the impact and contribution. I remember when I first began my journey, I was all about self growth and learning, et cetera, et cetera. And that's all great, but after a while it feels a bit empty if you're not contributing. You can learn all the amazing things in the world, but if you can't share them with people and if you can't impact other people's lives, it doesn't feel as meaningful. And this can be the same if you don't have your own business because you can impact your friends, family, you can even impact someone you've never met before just by being smiley and pleasant to them on a train ride. So you can really impact a lot of people in your life, even if you're not aware of it. So yes, sugar cubes. Super powerful. Absolutely love it. Love the term. Even though I don't believe in eating sugar, but the term is so cute. Sugar cubes. And this could really help you to acknowledge your progress, acknowledge the impact you're having on other people. Remove that self doubt. Get over the impostor type syndrome that you might be getting at any given moment. And also it will enable you in moments of crisis and doubt, to let go and to rewire your thoughts, because you will be changing your focus from a place of lack to a place of abundance, because you will see the abundance of progress and projects and reviews. So it's really a habit to develop, to have these sugar cubes in place and to notice the progress you're making along the way. If you don't have any yet, that's okay. Start a brand new folder, excel, Sheet, Word, Document, whatever you want. Start writing down what comes to your mind of previous progresses you've done, of previous things that you felt really chuffed and happy about, and then you can just add it on as from now on. So I hope you found today's episode useful. I hope you all start putting in place these sugar cubes because transformation happens with implementation. And if you have enjoyed this and if you feel that it would be beneficial to other people, don't hesitate to share it with a friend or family member. And if you'd like, you can also leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify. Thank you so much for tuning in today and wishing you a great day.
[11:16] Thank you so much for tuning in today to the Focus Bee Show. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback. So let me know in an Apple review or YouTube comment what was most valuable for you, and feel free to share this episode with a friend or a family member. Wishing you a wonderful, magical and focused day.
[11:40] Way ahead.