We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Risa Williams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Risa below.

Hi Risa , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about the best advice you’ve ever given to a client? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

The advice I give to my clients each week is: Small steps add up! Most new things we want to do often seem very overwhelming and intimidating. It’s very common for people to feel so overwhelmed that they won’t move themselves forward, even a little bit.

We tend to think in extremes when we’re taking on new challenges, we often “future predict” that things will be too difficult, too much work, and we won’t be “enough” to do them. This is a really harsh and extreme way to look at things, and it won’t make your brain want to move forward. We need to go gentler, easier, and kinder on ourselves in the way we’re talking about what we want to do.

You don’t have to see things in extremes. You can break big things down into tiny steps until that first tiny step feels really easy for you to take. Over the last ten years, I’ve helped hundreds of people from a wide variety of industries get themselves un-stuck, take that first step, and then go on to do some pretty amazing things afterwards!

Remember: You only have to take one step at a time! You can go at your own pace. You can go at a pace that is sustainable to you. Slow it down until the stress comes down. Go easier on yourself. Build up the confidence to do something in little, tiny, micro-steps first. After awhile, the momentum kicks in, and the confidence starts to build, and then you will be off and running!

Risa , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I spend a lot of my time talking to people…about time! I am a psychotherapist and the award-winning book author of three books including: “The Ultimate Time Management Toolkit,” “The Ultimate Anxiety Toolkit,” and “The Ultimate Self-Esteem Toolkit.” (JKP Books). I’m also a university professor, a mom, and the host of the award-winning productivity podcast, The Motivation Mindset (apple/spotify). I also host “Get Stuff Done” workshops for people who want to work on setting small goals each week in a calmer way. I like to collect and invent practical tools that help people get stuff done without all the stress.

There are lots of unhealthy ways to accomplish your goals; I like to find heathy systems for people to achieve things while staying balanced, calm and feeling good about themselves. My main goal with my books, my podcast, and my practice is to take big, complicated, overwhelming things and break them down into steps that feel easy for people to do. If you’re interested in my work, please check out my books and podcast at risawilliams.com and follow me @risawilliamstherapy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I’ve had to unlearn is that you don’t always have to be “busy.” I think we live in a society that encourages “non-stop productivity” and often tell us that taking a break is “bad” or makes us “lazy.” As a result, these days people are more stressed out than ever, and often people tell me that they don’t feel good even when they achieve major things in life.

In my own life, I’ve definitely experienced burnout in the past from pushing myself too hard. As a result, I’ve developed a more holistic, healthier approach to getting things done that includes taking care of myself daily, making sure I reset my brain frequently by taking lots of breaks, and learning to step away from projects for a little while to regroup before I start again. Downtime is so beneficial for our brains. We need more downtime regularly, and “real breaks” that actually bring our stress down.

If your stress level is staying the same, it isn’t a real break! Let your brain and body have a real break, more regularly. You will wind up being even more productive when you sit down to work again, and more importantly, you will feel better. You will feel balanced and calmer as a result.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

Learning to take care of yourself, bring your stress down, rand really allow yourself to relax and unwind is so important when you have a stressful job. A lot of healthcare professionals talk about self-care, but making time for it in their own lives is a different story, and it shouldn’t be! It’s a stressful job, we need to get honest about how stressed out we’re feeling and then look at ways to bring the stress down a little each day.

Sometimes, when I’ve had a hard day, I look for little things I can laugh about, however small they are. I watch funny shows, I listen to funny podcasts. It really helps. Laughter is one of the best medicines around. It’s free. You just have to make up your mind to look for the lighter side of things, more deliberately.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.risawilliams.com
• Instagram: @risawilliamstherapy
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/risawilliams/
• Other: My books: www.theultimatetoolkitbooks.com, and my newest book on procrastination will be out in stores in 2024!

Image Credits
Book Covers: Jessica Kingsley Publishers