You know how you go through phases of listening to different podcasts? One I have cycled through on and off throughout the years is called The Next Right Thing, hosted by Emily P. Freeman. It is all about taking a simple next step before you have full clarity in your decision making, and really about helping you get unstuck without having to see the full picture of where you are headed.

This podcast has been around for years, but one episode I absolutely loved was episode 32 from all the way back in 2018. It is eight years old at this point and I still think about it. I am going to link to it in the show notes for you. The title of the episode is “Stop Collecting Gurus.”

She starts by saying “I am all about creating space for your soul to breathe,” and in this particular episode she mentions that she had identified she was experiencing anxiety and decision fatigue. She was unclear about some next steps when it came to her work life, kind of avoiding the deep work required to get to a resolution, and because of that she did not have a lot of answers about where to go next. She felt stuck. And because she felt stuck, she wanted to do something productive that she had control over, and at the time that was clearing out her email inbox.

As she was cleaning it out, she noticed the inbox itself was a hidden stressor. There were emails from an Instagram growth coach, a business coach, a coach who helps people launch books, someone who teaches you how to create an online course, and a PDF guide on how to declutter your house. She also had all these freebie guides she had opted into and taken no action on.

As she was going through everything, she remembered how valuable these materials felt at the time she subscribed. But what she realized was that she had been trying to listen to way too many voices at the same time. She said, “I realized that I had started to collect gurus.” The problem was not the materials themselves. It was that she was trying to do too many things all at once.

Something else she said she does is take inventory when anxiety shows up rather than avoid it. Stop and notice. She had been seeking out information to help her make a big next step in her business, thinking she would find the answer through all these different coaches and resources. She noticed that because she felt insecure in her next decision, she latched onto other people’s confidence thinking it would give her a feeling of security. She thought that by raking through their resources and materials, a lightbulb would go off and the answer would be hidden somewhere in all of it.

What she needed was vision, not a plan. All those resources would have been helpful if she had known the direction she wanted to walk toward. But because she felt aimless, all they did was cloud her already cloudy mind. She said, “When I start looking for help before I have established a clear vision, it leads to anxiety, overwhelm, and emotional whiplash.”

Once you have a vision for where you want to go, then you can find a coach or mentor that best aligns with that path. Someone who has worked with people who are currently where you want to go and has a proven track record of getting them there. She believes vision comes from the quiet place within us first.

And because her entire podcast is called The Next Right Thing, she also encourages you to not stay stuck waiting for a lightning bolt strike from heaven that says “this is the way, walk in it.” She says to simply take the next right step. She says not to purge everyone from your inbox or follow list immediately, but to sit with your thoughts for a minute and ask yourself if now is the right time in your life to be consuming their content.

The big question is this: Are you grasping for clarity everywhere and all at once? Because if so, that might be creating so much additional mental clutter that getting unstuck becomes even harder.

Maybe for you, the gurus you are following are health and wellness creators on Instagram and TikTok. Maybe you listen to podcasts that make you think they have discovered new, never before seen wellness hacks. If you have been around my content for any length of time, you probably already know how I feel about all of that.

Here is my challenge for you: Stop Consuming and Start Getting Your Hands Dirty.

We are stuffed with information and starving for simplicity. You have not taken the time to figure out how to track your family dinners, but you are using ChatGPT to research perimenopause because you are certain that is why you are not losing weight. You are stuffed with information and starving for simplicity.

You do not want to take the time to snap a picture of your meal at a restaurant and have ChatGPT estimate the macros, but you think cutting out seed oils is going to reduce your inflammation. You are stuffed with information and starving for simplicity.

You used AI to create a structured calendar for both work and home life with everything organized down to the minute, but you hit snooze on your alarm. You are stuffed with information and starving for simplicity.

You just do not realize you are starving for simplicity.

Here is my challenge for you, and it is the exact title of that episode: STOP COLLECTING GURUS.

Stop following the fear mongerer Paul Saladino and start tracking all the food you eat. Stop reading the weekly wellness emails that teach you how to biohack everything and start getting quality sleep. Stop watching the perimenopause expert on Instagram and start getting more steps. Purge your list of experts.

I never put episodes out without applying this in my own life first, here is what I have been doing the past few weeks. This is the reason I created this episode.

Take some time this week to purge your digital clutter, and spend time this weekend purging your physical clutter too.