Session 1 of GOYOW (Get Out of Your Own Way) is free to listen to any time — but if you’d rather read it, or want to revisit a line that stuck with you, here’s the full transcript below.
Listen to the full session instead: watch on YouTube.
What does get out of your own way actually mean? And how does it help you get what you want? Great questions. But let’s start with this. Are you currently as happy, fulfilled, successful, peaceful, confident, and satisfied as you can be in life? If so, fantastic. That’s absolutely great. If that’s not the case, this is for you.
Whether you’ve never read a self-help book or spent a lot of time in various therapies, meditation practices, and personal growth exploration of any kind, whatever your personal reason is, maybe you’re seeing time pass by quickly, and you know you’re not as fulfilled or relaxed or happy or satisfied or successful as you know you could be. Maybe you have big goals that for some reason just aren’t happening yet.
Any goal you have becomes more attainable from getting out of your own way because you learn to recognize your own skills, assets, worthiness, and equality. Getting out of your own way clears the path for whatever your version of happiness is. And without a doubt, none of this depends on your age, your income, your past, what year it is, or what’s happening. What you have or haven’t accomplished in your life, it doesn’t matter. Every single person, no matter how successful they look from the outside, has made mistakes, has regrets — whatever it is, who cares? It doesn’t matter. Now is what matters. And now is where it all can happen.
But this goes beyond manifesting. You can manifest and live dreams and still be quite unhappy, unfulfilled, and even insecure. That’s human. Everyone’s facing something, dealing with something. People are burnt out, striving, pushing, forcing, fighting their way to get somewhere or just to survive, and it’s exhausting.
Get out of your own way is a mindset. It’s one option, one that’s worked for many, that helps you transcend this modern life chaos and uncertainty. Turn down the noise out there and find a steadier, clearer, more genuinely satisfying way to live. It’s not by checking out. It’s about checking in with yourself. Because living a happier, better, more successful life is not about fixing other people, fixing the world, or forcing others into your point of view, because it simply isn’t possible. What is possible is updating what you’re thinking, believing, speaking, and acting out in daily life. The full focus is on what are you up to right now? What are you thinking, perceiving, projecting, and creating?
Here’s a quick sample of how getting in your own way actually shows up and blocks you and stops you from being happier, more effective, more successful, just more fulfilled in moment-to-moment living. That’s what we all want. But when you start to overthink, judge yourself or others harshly, resent other people, compare yourself negatively, seek approval from everyone so you can feel good, don’t allow yourself to speak freely or express yourself openly, spend time blaming and complaining — which might feel good but is completely useless in helping you get what you want. But the point is, of course, everyone does this to varying degrees. So everyone can benefit from getting out of their own way.
And yes, it’s absolutely possible because you’re working with the one person in your life who you have complete and total control over. And it’s not your spouse, not your parents, your teachers, your co-workers, your partners, your neighbors. We’ve all been taught a certain idea that if we control and fix them, we can finally feel better. We all do that. So welcome to the club. We’re all human. But we can’t fix, manipulate, and cajole them. This is a dialogue with yourself, with that life force that is alive in you. Maybe you’ve never really listened to it. Maybe you’ve been too busy on social media, in society, in group think, in everyone else’s version of how life is supposed to look. And that’s fine, and we all do that too. But this is something far deeper than all of that.
But here’s the truth about everything that you can’t control. The news, other people’s behavior, the economy, your past, and whatever else is happening out there that makes you feel stuck or powerless — not because it isn’t real, it is real, but everyone has to deal with that stuff. So if you’re waiting for perfect circumstances before you embrace change, updating your thinking, updating your beliefs, you’ll be waiting forever. But we can focus here on you, on right now, on the next hour, on the next minute, on what you can do and practice and rise above to give yourself a more satisfying life experience. That’s the whole game. This does not have to be hard. It doesn’t have to take years. You don’t have to excavate your entire past. Real shifts can happen today, in this session, right now.
These ideas are opening things up maybe that have never been examined before, these possibilities. Maybe you’ve never looked at things this way, because small shifts lead to seismic ones. That’s just how it works. You’re here now because you know in some form you can be happier, healthier, more present, more yourself, and experience more inner freedom than you ever thought possible. It’s not a fantasy. It’s not wishful thinking. That’s absolutely available to you and everyone right now in your actual real life, and you deserve it. Not someday. Now, even listening to this, you might already feel a little more open, a little more curious, a little more hopeful, a little more intrigued about what you can actually be. Getting out of your own way has already begun.
This system is based on training, life experience, and real results. If you already are in therapy, have a meditation practice, a spiritual path, whatever else, your work here can supplement, support, and enhance any other practices. It’s all good. Keep doing what you’re doing. This isn’t here to replace any of that. This is all about expanding yourself and enhancing the reality of your day-to-day life. None of this is one-size-fits-all, but a lot of it is universal, and a lot of it is just true. So keep an open mind, have some fun with this, and dive in.
Getting out of your own way can be an incredibly liberating way to live. Here’s a few guidelines to keep in mind. For the first few times, listen to each session in order, 1 to 5. An exercise later in this session provides a building block for all future sessions. Each exercise will create momentum and even deepen the foundation of this work. From there, you can revisit any session any time as you’re inspired to. Each session is independent and valuable. There’s no timeline, no deadline. No one’s watching, no one’s grading you. You can’t do this wrong.
This is also your private time. It’s for your own honest self-inventory, self-discovery. Nobody else needs to know you’re even doing this. You don’t need to discuss it, ask for advice, broadcast it. Because the minute you bring other people in to get their opinions, their fears or limitations, suddenly you’re doing their work instead of yours. It’s a suggestion to keep in mind. So trust your own voice here — your intuition, your inner knowing — that’s the only voice that matters. That’s not selfish. It’s like putting on your oxygen mask first on a plane. We all know that story. What good are you to anyone else if you’re running on empty? So this again starts with you, and that’s why it works.
One thing for sure you need is a notebook or the provided worksheet, something to write with. You will refer to this again and again. It can be anything, because as things start coming up — and they will — you want to write a lot of it down. Not because anyone’s going to read it, not because it has to look a certain way, because getting something out of your head and onto paper gives it clarity and power. So write down whatever is coming up, a few words, a sentence, a whole page. It’s about you. There’s no rules. This is between you and you.
Another incredibly valuable guideline: in the midst of these sessions, you’re encouraged to literally ignore, deny, and take a vacation from, quote, “being realistic.” Everything like that should be put on a shelf in the corner. This is to find out who you are when you’re freed up from playing those roles and fulfilling society’s expectations. All of that goes away. You get a vacation from that for this time. And that has immense value, because a lot of this is about using your imagination. And imagination has very little to do with being realistic.
So most of getting in your own way comes down to judgments and self-judgments — mostly old, looping thoughts that become such a habit you start to believe them. You start to think they’re facts. They’re not facts. They’re just habits. Habits can change faster than you think. Sometimes in a single honest conversation with yourself, a gentle confrontation with an old idea is incredibly powerful. So this is an honest, private, no-judgment space. That’s where things start to shift. This is a little vacation. Treat it that way. This is where feeling better stops being a concept and starts being something that’s actually happening right now.
Throughout this process, what we’re doing is just giving your brain direction. Your brain wants clear, positive input, and it responds accordingly. It’s not magic. It’s just how we’re wired. You’re literally giving your brain new information, new possibilities. Now it’s time to make some updates. You can have had the best life ever up until this point, but this point, the now, is still all any of us have. So we all get a clean slate and a new opportunity to start fresh.
And this exercise, your ideal day, is a fantastic way to stretch your imagination, which creates room for the possibilities of experiencing more, being more, being happier. Grab your notebook, your paper, whatever you’re going to write on, and imagine — without editing, second-guessing, and certainly not being realistic — describe your ideal day. Not a realistic day, not a responsible day. Your ideal day, if everything was handled, paid for, taken care of, no limits, no obligations. What’s it going to look like?
Now start to imagine: where would you wake up? What kind of room are you in? What would you eat for breakfast? Who is with you? What’s the weather? What would you do that morning? Where would you go in your idyllic best possible life? Start to get specific. Get detailed. Just go there fully. Start writing some of this down. Because here’s what happens as you write it — everything wakes up. Your imagination starts humming. And you’ll realize that some version of that day, maybe not all of it, but pieces of it, are closer than you think. And that’s not wishful thinking. That’s your brain getting new direction, opening up to possibility. The moment you give it that permission, you start moving toward it — consciously or not. That’s just how it works.
Take your time with this. Enjoy it. Write as many pages as you want. You don’t need to get it all down at once. There’s no rush. You’ll keep adding to your ideal day. This exercise is about freedom. Give yourself the permission which you may have never even imagined doing in the past. Anything goes. Pick whatever city you long to live in, another country, another climate — anything is possible. This is your ideal day. Give yourself permission to live that day on the page. Everything we ever do starts with an idea in your imagination. There is real reality in this exercise as well. This is how things start to happen. You imagine them first, and then you move toward them.
And when you’ve gone as far as you can go, sit back and appreciate the effort you’re putting in right now to liberate yourself, for challenging the idea that you’re stuck where you are. Nothing could be further from the truth. And let yourself feel great for putting this time in. That’s fantastic. That’s a success on its own. And know that you’re already making great strides to getting out of your own way.
If any of this hit home — the getting stuck, the noisy mind, the wanting something more — GOYOW might be exactly the next step. Five sessions, at your own pace, no pressure, no timeline. Listen to Session 1 free → mitchrustad.com/goyow/
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