Stop Buying Online Courses! They’re Not Helping You. How to Get Unstuck. For the Introspective Introvert

Feeling pulled in a thousand directions by online courses and expert advice? 

In this episode, we talk about why online courses can’t give you vision, even when they offer a solid plan. If you’re considering how to get unstuck, it may be time to mute the noise and listen for God’s direction. 

This is for the introspective introvert who keeps collecting tips but still feels unsure. We’ll explore how to get unstuck by starting with clarity, not more content, and why online courses make sense only after your vision is clear. If you’re an introspective introvert craving peace, you’ll leave with a simple practice to clean your inputs, pray, journal, and choose your next right step, without guilt. Because online courses are tools, not a compass, and the introspective introvert doesn’t need more pressure, just space to figure out how to get unstuck.

Key Takeaways

1) Vision comes before strategy.
 Plans are helpful, but they can’t tell you why you’re doing what you’re doing. When the “why” is missing, the plan becomes pressure.

2) “Research” can become a hiding place.
 Emily talks about how we can call it research when we’re really just looking around because we feel unsure. But you can’t research forever. At some point, you have to get quiet, listen, and choose.

3) Quiet is not easy, but it’s worth it.
 Getting quiet with God can feel uncomfortable at first. You might feel lost before you feel led. But that doesn’t mean you’re failing. It may mean you’re finally slowing down enough to hear what matters.

4) Boundaries are a spiritual practice.
 Sometimes the most faithful move is to unfollow, mute, or unsubscribe, at least for a season. Not because people are bad, but because your soul needs room to breathe.

If you feel unsure right now, you’re not alone. Many of us want quick answers, but clarity usually comes through quiet time, prayer, and honest reflection. Scripture reminds us that God leads us step by step:
 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart… and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)

You don’t have to force it. Don’t rush clarity. Make room for vision.

Thanks for being here! If you'd like to support the show, please visit buymeacoffee.com/remiroy to give a one-time or monthly gift. 

And if you can’t give financially right now? A rating, a review, or simply sharing the show with a friend goes such a long way.

Thank you for being here. I see you. I appreciate you.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

I bought my last online course in 2024. Here's why you've been buying online courses, books, and resources and still feeling stuck. Think about it. You're looking for a tactical plan when what you actually need is a vision. And those are two completely different things. Let's get into it in this episode.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

You're listening to the Driven Introvert Podcast, the place to be for dreamers, doers, and entrepreneurs who are ready to burst the dreams, callings, and ideas the Lord has placed in their hearts. Do you sense that God is calling you to step out and do something new, but you're held back by fear and uncertainty? Do you struggle with believing that you can do great things because of your quiet, reserved, and introverted nature? Welcome here. I'm Remy Roy, your host and founder of CheapHack.com. I'm an author, an entrepreneur, a creative, and a committed trier. I'm here to help you get on stuck and make progress on your God idea. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Hey friends, so this is chapter 14 of the book The Next Right Things by Emily P. Freeman. I'm loving this series. Let me know if you're loving it too. Decision making is so crucial for life. And that's why I'm really excited about this. This chapter is titled Stop Collecting Gurus. And I have to do this thing that Emily's talking about. I know I have to do it. I had to do it and I still have to do it. So let's set it up. Emily talked about how she was in a season of decision fatigue. You've probably found yourself in that position at one time or the other. She had a lot of decisions to make and she was overwhelmed. She didn't know what to do, so she decided to clean out her inbox because that's one thing she could control. And as she cleaned it out, she realized she had so many emails, like you probably do. So many emails from coaches, marketing people, experts, quizzes, personality type, dressing type, marketing type, kind of all sorts of emails. She realized she had all these people she was listening to and reading from and hearing from, and it was making her even more confused. But how can that be? Because with all this information, she still didn't have a direction. She didn't know what do I need and how can I exactly find what I need. Not more, not less, but what I need. And that line really hit me. She said something that really struck me. She says, and I quote, it turns out the best time to look for an expert is not when you need a vision, it's when you need a plan. Because as much as we want somebody to tell us what to do, an expert can hardly give you a vision. A vision comes from inside of you. It comes from your direction in life, your purpose, your passion. And nobody can hand that to you. You gotta find it. You gotta be quiet. You gotta take time, you gotta find it. But when you do need an expert is when you need a plan. You know what you want to do. Now you need someone to help guide you. And it's funny because I had never thought about that distinction before until this. So she says it's a great idea to find teachers and mentors. You just have to do it in the right order and at the right time. So this is my reflection on this, on my online course cycle. This makes sense for me because 2024 was when I bought my last online course. And I realized I'd been paying for these things and not completely using them. I'd buy them only to realize either I don't need them for where I am right now, or I still have a lot of work to do before I get to that point where I can need that content, or maybe they're just not as effective as I thought they were gonna be. And frankly, I don't know what these people were selling me. And part of the reason I felt pressure to buy was because I felt like this person had something practical, something I think I might need, want, or a desire. I let that pressure lead me. And then I realized it's not all that is cracked up to me. Now, listen, this doesn't mean there's anything wrong with buying online courses, classes, talking to experts, coaches, and all of that. I send emails every day, well, not every day, every week, but I I get it. Right? Other people have paid for something I created to access my course or my time or whatever. So I get it. But the question is, are you looking for a plan when you actually need a vision? Because until you have a clear vision, a plan takes you, you know where? You don't know exactly what you what you're doing. You don't even know why you're doing it. So what you need is the big idea. You need a vision. Emily talks about this whole thing as guru collecting. And what do you think about when you think about collecting something? You collect it for the pleasure of it, you collect for sentimental value. But that's not really helpful when you're trying to move in a particular direction in life. So, like when you need a particular skill, when you need a particular plan, that's when you need to go to a guru, somebody that has the expertise to help you do that thing. She says when she starts looking for help before she's established a clear vision, it leads to feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and emotionally whiplashed. Like what just happened here. Because if you don't have a vision, purpose, or intention, then how do you know which steps are right for you? How do you know you're doing the right thing? And this is so crucial. So start with a vision. Then you can figure out the right steps to take to get there. Let's talk about why this is very hard online today. If you've been around online stuff for any length of time, especially if you're a creative, an entrepreneur, or you're intentional and you want to build stuff, you've probably experienced this. You find yourself in that place where you're looking for, or maybe you're not even looking for it. Instagram just delivered to you on a platter of ads. How to market your book, how to write your book, how to get more signups, how to declutter, get the PDF here. You know, there's nothing wrong with all that. Like I said, I have an email list. I know it works, I know how it works. But the problem comes when it's giving you more anxiety than it's helping you, when it's making you feel overwhelmed instead of giving you clarity and direction. And here's the point: strategic plans can come from those kind of things. Tactical things can come from that. Strategies you can implement can come from that. But strategies and all the tactical stuff don't help if you don't have a vision. So that's the big idea in this episode. What is your vision? Where is the direction you are actually going? I know. Sometimes it's hard to answer those very simple questions. Somebody asks you, so what's your vision? What direction are you actually going right now with your life and your business? You may be like, um, I I'm not, I'm I'm not exactly sure. I'm trying to figure it out. So if you feel lost right now, I get it. It's fine if I if you are at a place where you feel like, I don't know what my vision is, I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. I feel like I'm running around in circles. I get it. I've been there much more than I've ever been clear about what I want to do with my life. So I think the first thing you can do is get quiet. And for me, that's like getting quiet with God. He's my creator, he made me. Like he has the blueprint. Ask him questions, let him speak to you. Take time away from all the noise, and that's how you get clarity. To be honest with you, practically, this just looks like it sounds. Take time away. Have you ever tried sitting down and saying, I want to pray or I want to meditate? And you find yourself looking at the clock, after like two minutes, you're like, oh my gosh, I've been here for like um ten minutes. No, it's been two minutes. It's been literally two minutes. Take time away. It's gonna be hard at first, but it will bless you, I promise. It's not easy. It will test you. You will feel rudderless, like you're sitting on, I don't know, chaotic waters and with no direction. But that's how it's supposed to feel until you actually find your direction. So if you're feeling lost and directionless right now, it's not an indication that there's something wrong with you. It's an indication that you are in the right place to actually find direction. The difficult part is leaning in, getting quiet, spending the time and doing the inner work to find your direction. A lot of people won't stay still or dig deep long enough to find it. That's not you. You're going to do the work. This is why we look for counterfeits in life. This is why we settle for things that don't actually help us, things that don't give us peace or fulfillment. Because it's really hard to go back to something you are unsure of because you're looking for a vision and you don't know what it's going to be. So sitting in that place and trying to find it is hard. It's very hard to stay quiet. Have you tried to quiet your mind for just five minutes? It's hard. Things are coming into your mind. You're thinking about dinner, you're thinking about the kids, you're thinking about work, you're thinking about that video you saw on Instagram. I get it. This is why the journey is important. This is why it's hard. This is why it's challenging. Because it's very rewarding when you push through those times when you're so confused and you were able to find direction. So let's talk about practical next steps for you. The lesson here is very simple. Do you have a vision? Close your eyes right now, close your ears to everything around you that is trying to put you in a direction that you're not entirely sure you want to go, or maybe you're not even ready for. Emily mentions a strategy. If you have to unfollow someone for a while, do it. I mean online. If you have to mute them, do it. If you have to get off their email list, do it. Whatever you need to do to gain clarity and not be overwhelmed and anxious by everything being told to you, you need to do it. You need to do it and don't feel guilty about it. And one more thing, you should also be okay with people muting you, unfollowing you, or unsubscribing from your stuff. If you're the expert, until they can find their own vision and their own voice. And don't take that personally. I remember somebody unsubscribed from my email list once, and I was like, okay, that's fine, but I wanted to check with her and see why. And exactly that's what she told me. She was like, it was just too much. She gets so many emails and so many, just so much content. She's like, I need a break. And I'm like, I respect that. Gurus are great. And I'm not saying I'm a guru, I don't ever want to be, I just want to help people, right? Figure things out. And it's great to want to do that. And gurus can help you move in a specific direction, but you are the one who must decide what that direction is. If not, you're following somebody else's plan. Let's talk about the research truck. This is actually what gets us to this point where we have all these people talking to us at the same time, right? Emily says something quite profound. When we feel insecure and stirred up, we're unsure, we're indecisive, doubtful, sometimes we're tempted to look around and call it research. Because now you're like, okay, let me figure this out. Let me go to that website, let me go to that um email list, let me download that thing, that PDF, right? But the thing is, you cannot research forever. You cannot collect information for the sake of collecting information. So do not collect gurus just for collecting gurus. You need a vision. That's what your heart is crying out for. A vision. You need a specific direction. You need to know what you are about, what you've been called to do, what you're pursuing in the season, and what your next right thing is. Then you will find exactly what you need. Maybe the exact expert, the ex uh, the exact guide, the plan, whatever it is you need to move forward. Then you can recognize it. So Emily has a practice in all her chapters, and this one says, uh, she says, and I quote, purge your inbox. Purge your inbox, your mailbox, and all your bookshelves. She says, make an appointment with your inbox or your work desk, your bookshelf, your calendar, or your social accounts. Your job is to pay attention without judgment. Resist the urge to draw conclusions at first. Just notice and be curious about the story these things are telling you. The teachers and mentors, they may have wonderful things to teach you. The assignment is not to get rid of them, not yet. Instead, the assignment is to discern if now is the right time for them. So here's a practical thought for you if you are an introvert and you're feeling overwhelmed right now. You have questions about your future. You have questions about where you want to go next and how you want to figure life out. Take some time this week. Pick a particular day, find pockets of quiet, retreat if you can. Journal where have you been? Write about the journey you've taken, the things you've done, the questions you had, what's been challenging and what's been hard in this season. Then dream earlier. Where would you like to go? What would be possible for you next? Ask the Lord to give you a vision. Ask Him to give you direction. Ask Him to help you figure out your next right thing and what that should be. It might take a while to get clarity, so don't rush the process. Clarity cannot be rushed. Like I said the last time, clarity cannot be rushed. Don't rush clarity. Take your time. What you want to find is a vision. Most importantly, you want to find your vision. I hope this helps you. I would love to hear about your journey. What are you feeling right now? What are the gurus you might need to mute or unsubscribe from? And how do you intend to lean into this process? I am doing the same thing for myself. I found my vision, and now I'm in a process where I'm looking for plans. I'm figuring out plans. Um, this past week I connected with somebody who I wanted to help me with marketing, specifically for pod ground, and I had a lot of decisions to make about that. And I found myself in my closet a lot, praying, thinking, meditating, and planning. These are the things you have to do to figure out where you want to go in life. And like I said, it's hard, but it's worth it. All right, I'll love to hear from you. Send me an email at the drivenintrovet at cheapart.com. Let me know what you're feeling, what you're thinking, and what your next steps might be. All right, thank you so much for listening to this one, and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy this conversation, please take a moment to follow or subscribe to the podcast. I'd also love your feedback on this episode. You can scroll down on your app and click write a review. I'd love to read your takeaways from this conversation. As always, don't forget to take courage, trust God, and go pursue your big ideas. See you next time. The Driven Internet is produced by GPAC.com and Remy Roy. Want to ask a question or share a comment in a future episode? Click on the link in the show notes to record your question in a voicemail.com.