Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Welcome to The Happy Stack Podcast, where we explore the science and strategies behind creating a happier, more fulfilling life. I'm Teriann Richards and I partner with organizations to address the root causes of burnout, disengagement, and stress. Equipping leaders and teams with the tools they need to thrive, both organizationally and personally. Each episode we dive into practical habits, insights, and strategies to help high performers like you level up from the inside out. Let's get stacking.
[00:00:33] Speaker B: So I want to be honest with you all, I almost didn't record this episode.
And it's not because it's not important or because I don't have time.
It's because technically it felt like my brain was just full.
Have you ever had one of those days where someone in your family, one of your friends, asks you the most ridiculous question like, where do you want to go for supper?
And somehow that feels like the hardest decision you've made all freaking day, right? Like you're not, you're not crying, you're not having like a full on meltdown, but, you know, you're staring at, you know, the road in front of you, driving, trying to figure out, like, where am I going and why am I doing this?
And I guess how I would put that is, you know, welcome to being over capacity.
And if that's you, if you can relate to this, I think this episode might explain more than any amount of productivity books ever could have or would.
Welcome back to The Happy Stack. I am Terianne Richards. I'm a speaker, a strategist, a coach, and someone who spent years believing that if I could just be more disciplined, I'd finally get everything done.
Turns out, discipline wasn't the problem.
Capacity was.
And so today I want to introduce to you one idea that has completely changed. How I show up, how I coach, how I train, how I help build organizations, and honestly, how I look at my own life. Because I don't think in this world we live in right here, right now, that we have a motivation crisis. I think we have a capacity crisis.
And I think we keep asking the wrong questions, right? Like whenever someone isn't getting the results that they want, we ask questions like, what's wrong with them? Why aren't they motivated enough? Why are they always procrastinating? Or maybe you're saying it to yourself like, why am I not just disciplined enough? Why don't they just try harder? And we do this to ourselves. We do this to employees, we do it to students, we do it to our kids.
Do it to ourselves.
But what if the better question is, what is this person's current capacity? What are they carrying? Because capacity changes everything.
Imagine trying to carry groceries, right? One bag, easy most of the time. Five bags, still manageable.
Ten bags.
You're starting to drop the eggs, the milk, your keys, probably a little bit of your dignity.
The problem isn't that you suddenly became weak.
It's that you simply exceeded your carrying capacity.
And I think the thing that we forget or that we were never taught or we're just not aware of is that your brain works exactly the same way.
So most people think the brain works like a giant warehouse.
It does not. It's more like a tiny kitchen counter.
Only a handful of things fit on it at once.
And research tells us our working memory can only actively process a limited number of pieces of information before performance drops dramatically.
So every email, every slack notification, every bang and ting on your phone, every decision, every interruption, every unfinished project, every worry, they're all taking up space on that little kitchen counter. And eventually there's nowhere left to prepare dinner.
So your brain get a little sciency for you. Your brain burns glucose when it's making decisions. And so that's why.
Interesting enough. And there's like, you can Google this because there's a whole research project on it. That's why judges hand out harsher sentences late in the day. So I don't know if y' all get in trouble with the law.
You want a morning appointment? Okay.
It's why there are some very successful CEOs that we can all envision right now will wear the same or similar clothes on a day to day basis. It's why Steve Jobs wore the same outfit every day. It's why Mark Zuckerberg did, too.
Not because they hate fashion, but because they wanted to save brain power for decisions that mattered.
So people think stress just makes them more emotional or heightened. And it does. But it also doesn't. Stress literally changes what part of your brain is driving the bus.
When cortisol stays elevated, the prefrontal cortex, the part responsible for planning, for focus, for emotional regulation and making good decisions, starts losing its influence.
Meanwhile, your survival system becomes louder. And that's why under stress, we forget words, we lose things. We walk into rooms wondering why we went there. We snap at people we love. We forget appointments. We start 10 tasks and finish none.
The reality is, is this is not you. Like, this isn't a you problem. This happens to all of us. And none of us are broken. It's that our brain is adapting exactly as evolution designed it to the problem is it thinks you're running from a freaking tiger.
Instead, you're answering Outlook emails, Gmails, right?
And so that's the problem. That's the challenge. So what actually increases capacity?
And it's not another day planner.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: It's.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: It's not another app on your phone. Capacity grows different, right? When you think about recovery or sleep. How many of you are getting a good solid sleep every single night?
How many of you are moving your bodies not because you want to be, you know, fit and strong and athletic, but because you know that helps your body go into that rest state. That's how you know, you actually allow yourself to be more sleepy at the end of the day. That's how you help to release all those ooey gooey wonderful hormones and chemicals that make you feel better.
How many of you have good boundaries, good borders when it comes to the people and the things that you do?
How many of you are good at single tasking versus multitasking?
How many of you are good at saying no?
How many of you are are good at when things start going, you know, up Schitt's creek? You can regulate your emotions.
How many of you are having fun and connecting with loved ones?
How many of you feel safe in the environments that you're in, Right? Like, these things don't just make you happier.
They literally increase available brain resources.
And the struggle is most of us dismiss them like we are literally living in a loneliness epidemic.
People are so consumed by these things here that they forget that there's real live people that you can connect with that love you where you can just have good, solid belly laughs and deep conversations.
We forgot that we actually are responsible for ourselves in the way we regulate our emotions. And that actually helps us increase those brain resources.
So what do I want you to do with this? Because I'm giving you intel. I'm giving you information.
I like action.
Like tomorrow, instead of writing another to do list, write a capacity list.
Like, ask yourself, what is draining me?
What am I leaving unfinished that is draining me? What decisions have I been avoiding? Am I an ostrich with my head in the sand?
What could I eliminate or delay? Right? Like sometimes we're trying to get everything done right now. And, you know, there's a saying, if everything's important, nothing's important.
So what is on your list that maybe you could delay just down the road a bit, right? Or what could someone else own?
I follow this process called dad, delegate, automate, and delete.
And you know, on a quarterly basis I'm looking at what I have in my. My task list, my to do list, all of my things on my whiteboards. If you could see around me a bunch of whiteboards.
What could I pass on to a virtual assistant or to somebody in the family or just somebody else? What could I automate? There's so many cool tools out there that help us automate things. And even for some of you who maybe aren't in the entrepreneurial realm or the business realm, like myself, there's so many things that you could automate, right?
Making more things more efficient and effective. And then what can you just delete?
[00:10:10] Speaker A: Right?
[00:10:12] Speaker B: I want you to stop managing your time, and I want you to instead manage your capacity.
The reality is, is that we are all constricted with the same amount of hours every single day, every single week, 24 hours a day, 168 hours in a week.
And if today's episode resonated in any way, I just want you to remember one sentence.
Your performance, your happiness, your ability to feel like you're flourishing is limited less by your potential and more by your current capacity.
That changes how we lead. It changes how we parent, how we build organizations, and maybe if I win today, it'll change how we treat ourselves. It'll change how you treat yourselves next week. I want to dive into something that quietly steals capacity every single day, and that's decision fatigue. Because it isn't the big decisions ruining your energy. It's the thousands of tiny ones that you never even notice.
Until next time, I hope you keep building your happy stack one layer at a time.
Peace.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Hey, thanks for listening to The Happy Stack podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who could use a
[00:11:42] Speaker B: little extra happiness in their life.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Let's keep stacking those wins together. See you next time.
