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Have you ever thought, “I KNOW what to do. Why am I not doing it?”
Maybe you know you need to organize your office, clean up your files, work on your business, or take better care of yourself. But knowing and doing are two very different things.
In this episode, I’m talking with Samantha Hawley, host of the Beyond Awareness podcast, about what’s really happening when we know what to do but still aren’t doing it.
Samantha shares how our beliefs can keep us stuck and why more discipline isn’t always the answer. We also talk about journaling, all-or-nothing thinking, and her five prompts for moving from awareness to action.
You’ll learn:
- Why knowing what to do isn’t enough
- What your procrastination might be protecting you from
- How all-or-nothing thinking keeps you stuck
- Samantha’s five prompts: Awareness, Meaning, Curiosity, Clarity, and Action
- Why doing a little bit still counts
- How journaling can help you uncover what’s really going on
Your Organizing Coach,
Connect with Samantha Hawley
Samantha Hawley is a clarity coach who works with women in leadership who love what they do but are drowning in their to-do list, putting out fires every day, and coming home with nothing left for their family. She helps executives, business owners, and high-achievers stop bringing work stress home…not through another productivity hack or boundary workshop, but by digging into the root beliefs underneath the burnout & performance. Her clients go from mentally replying to work emails during bedtime stories to actually being present with their kids; and from just accomplishing everything to actually enjoying it. Samantha is also the host of the top podcast, “Beyond Awareness.”
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Organized LIFE Academy (OLA) for women who want to be clutter-free.
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You Know What to Do. So Why Aren’t You Doing It?
Have you ever looked at something you’ve been avoiding and thought, “I KNOW what to do, so why am I not doing it?” Maybe it’s organizing your office, cleaning up your digital files, getting healthier, working on your business, or finally finishing a project that has been hanging over your head.
Most of us assume we have a discipline problem when this happens. We tell ourselves we need to get motivated, stop procrastinating, manage our time better, or just make ourselves do the thing. However, what if the problem isn’t discipline at all?
That’s what I talked about with Samantha Hawley, host of the Beyond Awareness podcast. Samantha helps women close the gap between knowing and doing by looking at the thoughts, beliefs, and emotions underneath their behavior. Our conversation made me think about organization, procrastination, and taking action in a completely different way.
Why Knowing What to Do Isn’t Enough
After having her son in 2020, Samantha went through a season where she was constantly in her head. She was thinking about her career, checking on her team, worrying about income, questioning her parenting decisions, and navigating challenges in her marriage.
Eventually, Samantha realized she had spent so much of the first 10 months of her son’s life thinking, analyzing, and trying to figure everything out that she wasn’t fully experiencing her life. Naturally, she tried changing the circumstances around her. She got more help, removed things from her schedule, and stopped doing certain activities.
Still, she felt busy, overwhelmed, and overstimulated.
That experience helped Samantha recognize that reducing what was on her schedule wasn’t the entire answer. Something deeper was happening. Instead of only looking at what she was doing, she began paying attention to what she was thinking and believing.
This is an important distinction when you’re trying to figure out how to stop procrastinating and take action. Sometimes you already know exactly what you need to do. Another checklist, planner, productivity system, or morning routine isn’t going to solve the problem if a belief underneath the behavior is keeping you stuck.
What Is Your Procrastination Doing for You?
One of my favorite ideas Samantha shared was to get curious about what your current behavior is doing FOR you. At first, that sounds strange. If you’re procrastinating on something you really want to accomplish, how could procrastination possibly be helping you?
Consider the discomfort you might be avoiding. Not sending an email protects you from hearing no. Putting off your launch means you don’t have to find out whether anyone will buy. Avoiding your finances keeps you from seeing numbers you may not like. Leaving your office messy saves you from starting a project you believe will consume your entire Saturday.
Suddenly, procrastination makes a little more sense.
Rather than immediately deciding you need more discipline, Samantha encourages us to become curious about what we’re getting from the behavior. What discomfort are we avoiding? What feels safer about staying where we are? Which belief is influencing the decision not to begin?
Those questions help us get underneath the surface problem.
How All or Nothing Thinking Keeps You Stuck
Of course, I had to bring this conversation back to organization because I see this pattern with my clients all the time.
Imagine your office is a disaster. Papers are piled on the desk, random things need to be put away, and every time you walk into the room, you think, “I really need to organize this.”
The obvious solution seems to be cleaning the office. Yet there might be another thought hiding underneath that solution: “Once I start organizing, I have to keep going until I’m finished.”
Now organizing doesn’t mean putting a few things away. Instead, it means sacrificing your entire afternoon, making a million decisions, getting exhausted, and possibly ending the day surrounded by piles because you pulled out more than you could finish.
No wonder your brain doesn’t want to start.
One of my clients had this exact struggle. Once she started organizing, she felt like she couldn’t stop. She would continue until she was completely exhausted. Over time, her brain learned that organizing meant a long, draining experience, so naturally she avoided beginning.
A new belief could change the entire experience: It’s okay to do a little bit.
You can organize for 30 minutes and stop. One drawer can be enough for today. Clearing off part of your desk still counts. Putting away five things is progress. Nothing requires you to finish the entire room just because you started.
That shift makes getting organized feel much safer and easier to begin.
The Five Prompts That Move You Toward Action
Through her own journaling practice, Samantha realized she naturally used five types of prompts to work through what was happening in her mind. Those prompts became a framework she now teaches to help women move beyond awareness and toward action.
Her acronym is AMCCA, which she remembers with the phrase, “Always Make Cotton Candy Again.” I have to admit, that’s a pretty effective way to remember it.
The five parts are Awareness, Meaning, Curiosity, Clarity, and Action.
Awareness starts with noticing what’s happening. What are you thinking about? What do you believe you need to do? Which problem keeps taking up space in your brain?
Meaning takes the process deeper. What are you making the situation mean? Perhaps a messy office means you’re bad at organization. Maybe an unfinished project means you never follow through. A slow month in your business might suddenly mean you’re failing.
Curiosity gives you room to question those conclusions. Is that thought completely true? Could something else be true? What evidence can you find for a different way of looking at the situation?
Clarity helps you decide what you actually want instead. Once you’ve questioned the automatic story running through your head, you can intentionally choose what you want to believe or create.
Finally, Action turns that new perspective into a practical next step. Instead of making the action huge, you can choose something small enough that you’re willing to do it.
For the messy office, your action might simply be putting away one mug.
Seriously. One mug counts.
Why Journaling Can Help You Stop Overthinking
Journaling played an important role in Samantha’s own journey. During a difficult season in her life, her journal became a safe place to acknowledge emotions she had previously been afraid to feel.
Writing gave her space to process what was happening without immediately needing to fix it. As she became more comfortable acknowledging her emotions, she gained clarity about conversations she needed to have and decisions she wanted to make.
Interestingly, Samantha wasn’t sitting down for hour long journaling sessions every morning. She shared that her average journaling session was around seven minutes.
That matters because journaling can easily become another thing we think we have to do perfectly. Suddenly, we imagine needing a beautiful journal, a quiet house, a fancy pen, a cup of coffee, a candle, and 45 uninterrupted minutes before we can begin.
You don’t.
Five, seven, or 15 minutes can be useful. The goal isn’t to become the world’s most dedicated journaler. Instead, the purpose is to create enough space to notice what’s happening in your mind and get curious about it.
Make Your Journaling Personal
Another important point Samantha made is that journaling works best when it connects to what is actually happening in your life. Random journal prompts from Pinterest might be interesting, but they may not help you understand the specific thought or behavior that is keeping you stuck today.
Start with the thing that keeps coming up.
Maybe you keep avoiding your bookkeeping. Perhaps you’re procrastinating on creating an offer. You might want to organize your digital files but never make time for it. Maybe you keep saying you want to exercise, yet another week passes without doing it.
Write about THAT.
Ask yourself what you believe needs to happen. Notice what you’re making the situation mean. Get curious about why you haven’t taken action and what not taking action might be protecting you from.
Then decide what you want to believe instead and identify one small action you’re willing to take.
You Probably Don’t Need More Discipline
As coaches and online business owners, we have plenty of opportunities to convince ourselves we should be doing more. There’s always another system to set up, strategy to implement, email to write, offer to improve, file to organize, or task waiting for our attention.
When we don’t follow through, it’s easy to turn that into evidence that something is wrong with us. We decide we’re inconsistent, undisciplined, unorganized, or terrible at finishing things.
Before you make that conclusion, get curious.
The gap between knowing and doing may have less to do with your ability to take action and more to do with the beliefs you’ve attached to that action.
If organizing means working until you’re exhausted, of course you’ll avoid it. When launching means risking failure, procrastination makes sense. If saying no means disappointing someone, continuing to say yes feels safer.
Once you understand what’s happening underneath the behavior, you can begin questioning the belief and choosing a different response.
Most importantly, your next action doesn’t need to be impressive.
Organize for 30 minutes. Put away one mug. Write for seven minutes. Send one email. Make one decision.
A little bit still counts.
If you’ve been telling yourself, “I know what to do, so why am I not doing it?” listen to my full conversation with Samantha Hawley. You’ll learn how to look beyond discipline and motivation, uncover the beliefs influencing your behavior, and start closing the gap between knowing what you want and actually taking action.
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Until next week, have a fantastic day!
