The one small shift that changed everything for me

Happy Tuesday Friend,

A few months ago, back in December, I hosted an event that was unlike anything I had ever done before. 

It was called Ignite Your Best Year Yet. 

Maybe you remember hearing about it, or maybe you were there.

I’m not even totally sure why I decided to do it, other than the fact that I love goal-setting and planning for the New Year, and I thought maybe it would be fun to try something new.

What I wasn’t prepared for was how much it would impact me.

You see, as I mapped out the content for each of the five days, and thought about what concepts I wanted to teach and how I could help it all come together in a powerful way, I realized that the only way to teach it authentically was to actually go through it and do the work myself, for my own life, in real time.

And so I did. And let me tell you, it was powerful.

On Day 2, we talked about resistance, and how so often our fear—and the thoughts that play on repeat inside our head—hold us back from actually going after the thing that we want.

To walk people through this, I introduced a simple exercise I called the Resistance Repair, which basically helps you identify the thoughts that are leading to the feelings that are leading to the actions that are leading the outcome. I showed how if you change your thoughts, you can change your feelings, which will change your actions, and in turn change the outcome.

Sounds simple enough, right?

But then I actually sat down and started working through this exercise for some areas in my own life where I knew I was experiencing a lot of resistance.

It was like holding up a mirror to my deepest fears and insecurities.

And honestly, I didn’t like what I saw.

Because the resistance that I had been grappling with was a fear of putting myself out there into the world. Of being seen. Of having people not like what I have to say. Of being rejected.

And maybe that sounds silly, given what I do for a living, but for the past few years it has been something I really, really struggled with. I started hiding in my business. I retreated to the background and let my team take the lead. I convinced myself that I wasn’t a necessary part of our success as a company. I told myself it was humility.

But really, it was fear.

Which is frankly, a little embarrassing, given that I literally wrote the book on fear. #irony

But doing this resistance exercise made me realize that I have the power to change my thoughts, and by doing so, to change my feelings and my actions.

And so, I decided that this year I was going to change my thoughts.

Instead of focusing on and worrying about the OUTCOME, which I can’t actually control, I was only going to focus on my daily ACTION and how I show up.

I was going to commit to taking at least one concrete step, however small, every single day, without putting any pressure on myself for the immediate results of that action.

No overthinking. No perfection. No worrying about what people might think.

Just consistent action.

And can I just tell you? This one small shift in my thoughts has been SO FREEING!

It helps me measure my success day to day not by my results, which are never certain, but by effort and consistency. There’s no getting discouraged when things don’t turn out the way I hoped, because I’ve already accomplished the thing I set out to do. I took the step. That was the win. Everything else is just learning.

It’s made me so much braver about what I’m willing to share. Just yesterday, for instance, I released a fiery podcast that a few months ago I would’ve never dared to record.

If you’ve been following my journey on Instagram since the beginning of the year, you’ve probably watched that shift happen in real time. It’s one of my small, consistent steps—committing to posting something every single day, even when I don’t always know what to say. Writing this newsletter each week is another step.

I think it’s so easy to get stuck inside our own head when it comes to achieving our goals.

But the reality is that no matter what it is you want right now, whether it’s improving your health or starting a business, or even just figuring out this next phase of your life, the real key to getting there is choosing to focus only on the part that you can actually control—the action that you can take right now, today.

Pablo Picasso once said, “action is the foundational key to all success.” Along those same lines, Steve Maraboli noted that “an inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention.”

In other words? Focus on your OUTPUT, not your OUTCOME.

And I guess that’s my challenge for you this week. First, ask yourself what thing you’ve been avoiding. Then walk through this Resistance Repair worksheet to identify the thoughts that are leading to the feelings that are leading to your current action or inaction. Then think about how you could change those thoughts to focus on your output, not necessarily your outcome.

Take the pressure off yourself to get results, and just focus on action.

Then see what happens—I dare you.

Live with purpose, friend, and have an amazing week!

xoxo, Ruth

P.S. Was this helpful for you? I’d love to hear about it! Feel free to hit reply to this email to let me know what you’re working on right now, and how I can cheer you on!

This week’s podcast episode…

What’s cooking in my kitchen…

Here are the recipes I shared this past week:

The latest from my Instagram…

One of my goals this year is to be more consistent on social media, so I’ve committed to sharing at least one post a day on Instagram. If you’re there, I’d love to connect with you—find me at @RuthSoukup

What’s Happening Around RSO…