An Argument Against Productivity, Hustle and Optimisation (and for results)

Bec Cameron: Hey guys, and welcome to Disgustingly Easy, the podcast for the Long Game. I'm your host, Beck Cameron, coach, mother, ASD advocate, and founder of the Long Game Programme, your neurodivergent health, fitness, mindset, and identity hub. today we're talking about something that's gonna sound backwards, but I promise you, once it lands, it will change how you approach literally everything you're trying to build, whether that's habits, lifestyle, nutritional changes, etc. ⁓ Now it may come as no surprise to many of you who are regular listeners that in my humble opinion, you don't need to do more. fact, you to stop doing a lot of what you're already doing. I know that's not what you've been told. ⁓ You've told that if you're not moving, you're falling behind, that if you're not grinding, you're lazy, ⁓ that answer to I'm not seeing results is always to do more. But After 10 years in the health and fitness game and years before that as a social worker who worked primarily in behavior change, and someone who's rewritten the rule book for my own body on how to get what I want, I can tell you that that's backwards. Because I'm willing to bet that the reason you're not seeing results isn't because you're not doing enough. It's because you're doing too much and most of it is the wrong thing. You're spinning your wheels, you're moving with that direction, you're confusing motion with progress. And the way out isn't faster, it's fewer. And that's what we're going to be unpacking today. So let me be really clear about something first. If you're listening to this, you're probably not lazy. Because I would hazard to say, you're not just listening to this, right? You're listening and cooking. You're listening and working out. You're listening and cleaning, or listening and driving somewhere. You're listening and getting your steps in. You're not someone who lacks ambition or discipline. You're actually the opposite. You're someone who's highly committed. You show up, you follow through. You've probably read the books, done the courses, tried the systems, and you're fucking exhausted. Because somewhere along the way, we've been sold this idea that busy equals progress. That if you're moving, you're working, that motion is the same as direction, but it's not. Think about it, you could be incredibly busy going to the gym, meal prepping, working, your job, managing your family, creating content, learning new skills, optimizing your systems, still not be actually moving towards anything. You could be spinning. This is what I see over and over with women that I work with. They're not lazy. They're overcommitted to the wrong things. And the thing is, you feel when you're busy. Your brain rewards you for motion. ⁓ dopamine hit of crossing something off the list, of feeling like you're doing something, of being in motion. That feels like progress. But progress isn't about how much you're doing, it's about how clear ⁓ are about what actually matters. And that requires you to stop. It requires looking at your list and asking which one of these things is actually moving me forward. And which one of these things am I doing? Because it's on my list. Most women I talk to, about seventy percent of what is on their list falls into that second category. And that's the busy trap. You're caught in a cycle where the busier you are, the less actual progress you make, because all your energy is going into motion, not direction. So let's name the three specific flavors of busy that are keeping you stuck because once you see them, you can actually do something about them. Problem half stated is a problem half solved. There are three types of work that fill your life and create the illusion of progress without actually moving you forward. Our first one is noise work. This is the low-value task that fills time. It creates the feeling of productivity without actually achieving anything. This looks like scrolling for research. When you could just start, it looks like tweaking the plan instead of running the plan, reorganizing the system instead of using the system, reading about the thing instead of doing the thing. For a lot of women, noise work is where they hide when they're scared because noise work feels productive. It feels like you're preparing, you're researching, you're getting ready, but you're not. You're procrastinating with a productivity veneer. You see this with health. You see the research about the perfect workout, the ideal macro split, the best supplement stack. You're doing so much about the work, but you're not actually doing the work. Noise work is seductive because it feels like work without the vulnerability of actually trying. The second is should work. this is the kind of thing on your list ⁓ someone somewhere told you that it mattered. ⁓ because you believe it matters, but because you've internalized the message that you should. This looks like ⁓ 6 a.m. wake-up that you hate, but you think you should do. ⁓ The macro tracking that you've never been consistent at because that's what fit people do. The workout style that doesn't suit your body or your life, but it's the one that's trending right now, or your friend saw heaps of success with. The routine that looks good on Instagram, it makes you miserable. Should work is where a lot of women's energy goes. We're doing things because we've been told that they're important, not because we've actually decided that they're important. And here's the thing about should work is it doesn't stick because you're not gonna do Something that you hate. You're doing it because you think you're supposed to. And the moment life gets hard, the moment you need to drop something, should work is often the first thing to go, which means you fail at it, feel guilty, and add it back to your list so you can fail at it again. third is performance work. And this is the thing you do to feel like a person who is doing the thing. It's the identity performance without substance. ⁓ might look like buying the perfect gym outfit before you've committed to going to the gym. getting the new app. Maybe this one will be the one that makes it stick. It's starting fresh on Monday with a new plan, a new approach, a new system, the productivity planner, the color-coded calendar, the new journal. Performance work is about the feeling of being someone who is doing the thing, not actually being the person who does the thing. And it's particularly loud for women because we've been sold this idea that the right aesthetic equals the right action, that if you look like you're doing it, you're doing it. You're not, but it feels like you are. And that feeling is enough to keep you cycling through the same systems, the same approaches, the same false starts. So here is what I want you to notice. Of everything on your list right now, your to-do list or your habits or your goals or the things you're trying to build, how much of that is actually noise work, should work, or performance work? guess is a lot of it. And that's why you're not moving, right? Not because you're lazy, ⁓ because you're doing the wrong 47 things instead of the right three. So what does it actually look like to get intentional? It's not not often what you think. It's not a morning routine or a color coded planner. ⁓ is simple. It's answering one question. What are the two or three things that if I did them consistently would move me forward? Not the forty things or the forty seven things, the two ⁓ three things. For your health, it might be moving your body in a way that you enjoy and eating mostly foods that make you feel good. That's it. For some of us, we're not in a season where macro tracking is going to work. Maybe you are, but for some of us, we might not have the finances for the epic supplement stack. But you can stick to these two things. You can move your body in a way you enjoy and eat foods that make you feel good, right? For your business, it might be creating content that reflects your actual thinking and having conversations with people who might want to pay you. Not the email sequence, not the landing page, not the sales funnel optimization, just those two things. For your life, it might be protecting your sleep or showing up for the people that you love. Not the morning routine, the evening routine, the productivity system, just those two things. Once you know what the two or three things are, you can build simple repeatable systems around them and you can let everything else go, or you can build them in such a way that you can slowly implement things as you progress. This is where people get stuck because letting everything go feels irresponsible. It feels like you're not doing enough. It feels like you're maybe leaving money on the table, but you're not. You're clearing the noise so that the signal can actually come through. When you're doing 47 things at 40%, you're not excelling at anything. It's the jack of all trades, master of none. You're creating noise. You're spreading your attention, your cognition, your executive functioning so thin that none of it actually works and you don't experience any transformation. But when you're doing three things at ninety-five percent, when you can be focused and dialed in and intentional, that's where things shift. That's when results compound and that's when you actually make progress. Intentionality isn't about doing more, it's about doing less, but doing it so well that it really matters. This is what we do in the long game. Women come in all the time. And when I tell them that they're going to start disgustingly easy, they feel that feeling of failure. They feel like they should be doing more. They feel like if I'm not busy, if I haven't filled every single second of my calendar, then I'm not being effective. And what I get them to do is slow down to the point where it's like, we're going to pick something so ridiculously easy that you can't fail. And when they realize that they're not going to fail, That their success compounds, that they can keep going, that they're not going to see interruptions in their consistency that come from burnout. This is when we actually start to see results. Because here's what I've learned from watching hundreds of women try to change their health, their life, their businesses over the past 10 years. The women that make real lasting progress are not the ones doing the most things. They're not the ones with the optimized system or the most impressive to do list or the most hustle. They're the ones who've gotten very, very clear. On what matters and have built simple, repeatable systems around those things. It is slow, it is intentional, it is boring, it is unglamorous, and it works. Because when you're moving slowly and intentionally, you can actually feel what's working and what's not. You can adjust, you can respond to your life as it changes. When you're moving fast and you're doing everything and you're hoping something lands, you're praying that motion equals progress and you're confusing activity with achievement. That's not. achieving anything. This is the difference between running as fast as you can and not knowing where you're going versus knowing exactly when you want to go and taking the most direct route. One looks impressive, the other gets you there. When you slow down, you regulate, your nervous system settles, you can actually think, you can make better decisions, you can see what's working, and from a regulated, clear place, you move differently, you make different choices. You build something that actually fits. If this is resonating, if you're Tired of the noise and you want the structure that's actually built for you and how your brain works. If you want to see results in your health, in your fitness, in your vitality, and if you want to work on your longevity and think about who you are and how you're going to show up for the rest of your life, if you're done with the six-week shred, the 12-week boot camp, long game is where you want to be. It's not place ⁓ you get more to do. It's where you start to understand and get educated around how the right thing's done consistently over time. compound and get you results. We've deconstructed everything you've been told about what you should be doing and we've rebuilt it around what actually works, what's sustainable, around what moves you forward without burning you out. You can send me a DM on Insta. I'm off socials, but I check my DMs on my laptop. Drop me the word ready and we can chat about how you could finally start ticking off those goals in the long game. But more than that, I want you to take this episode as permission. Permission to slow down, to stop doing things that aren't moving you forward. Permission to audit your life and ask, is this noise work? Is this should work? Is this performance work? And if it is, it go. You don't need to do more. You need to do less, but it with intention. Remember, when is certain, anything is possible. You've got this, and I've got you.