12/14/2023
Hello Beautiful! 🦋
With the new year just around the corner, many of us are deep in planning mode—we’re reviewing what went well and what didn’t in 2023, setting our 2024 goals, deciding what habits to keep, toss, or add, and maybe even drafting up a new vision board to help us keep our North ✨ front and center. It can often feel energizing and exciting to consider our future possibilities and put YOUR dreams down on paper. 💟🎶 it’s the most wonderful time of the year! 🎶💟
This is why this week is all about clarifying your vision, re-establishing your values and principles, and setting yourself up for your version of success in the coming year.
✍️ Here's your homework: set aside a couple of hours this week to do some reflection and planning. Start by pulling out a good old-fashioned pen and paper (science shows putting pen to paper gets the creative juices flowing more effectively than typing!) and consider the following questions:
What were some of my top moments this year? (Hint: review your calendar or social media posts to remind yourself of anything you may have forgotten!)
What smaller wins or personal growth am I proud of?
How did I celebrate them? Did I even allow myself to? How can I celebrate wins, big or small, moving forward?
What were the most difficult aspects of this year?
What worked? What didn’t?
What areas would I like to improve on?
What felt good? What didn’t?
What habits should I keep? Add? Drop?
What books, podcasts, or resources stood out to me that I would like to refer back to when needed?
What relationships do I want to put more focus on?
Did I make time for rest and play? What do rest and play look like for me? How can I make more time for this?
My Answers below:
Top professional moment: speaking on stage at Family Reunion! Top personal moment: reconnecting with a daughter who ran away at 17 (she's 27 now) until this year, refused to talk on the phone (only text for a decade)
Smaller professional wins: packed house for She Speaks Power which will serve to be our new workshop in 2024! Smaller personal win: lost 12 pounds and kept it off through intermittent fasting and calorie restriction
I celebrate my life/wins each day by allowing myself uninterrupted "Me" time 1-3 hours each day for reading, meditation, learning, writing, content creation, and when in the mood, spending time with special people and cooking and or baking high-nutrient/healthy foods
The most difficult professional aspect was deciding to leave a 15-year professional relationship because it was toxic and the most difficult personal aspect was deciding to share my home with my Mom (for obvious reasons) we said YES and it has been going GREAT!
What worked professionally? I went deep instead of wide in my networking. What worked personally? I found the courage to tell my siblings about my new minimum standards and held them to it. That, BTW, went over like a lead balloon, yet it freed me from angst and now they know where my boundaries are (yep, you guessed it, it has a lot to do with the new normal of Mom living in my home)
What areas to improve on? Professionally, be more disciplined about writing and content/course creation. I need to exercise more which can be a struggle because my body tears easily (so swimming it is!) and I want to continue to stop my first reaction when it comes to listening to my children. I'm training myself to be a friend more than a Mom (my kids are 34, 27 and 24)
I'm going to keep the habits of calorie restriction and intermittent fasting. I've also cut alcohol and diet pop by 99% in my life and I feel so great as a result of it! I'm going to drop the idea of lead generation confetti style. No more cold calls, no more w***y nilly social media ad blasts looking for clients
My goal this year was to feel better and as a result, I've been following two people: Dr. Eric Berg and Dr. Sara Gottfried ~ these are the books I've read: Spare, Daring Greatly, Roar, The Automatic Customer, Stop Settling, Start Leaving! The Gifts of Imperfection, A Woman's Worth, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Braiding Sweetgrass, and up next, The Covenant of Water
Professionally, I want to make more time for my tribe which means creating the VERY BEST workshop ever. Stay tuned!
I've never taken more time for rest and play than I did this year. It's been very emancipating. Im training the new version of me to enter a new chapter of complete flow. I no longer worry about politics and the world. I just wake up and decide what kind of day I will have and then fill it with the ingredients to engage in that kind of day. This means, low social media, zero comparison, low to no news, and no complaining or negative speak ~ even when I received the news that my car needed a 9000 repair...I just said, "This is not life or death!" I spend most of my time working on being the best version of myself that I can. When I'm the best version, healthy, and rested version, I can be wise, thoughtful, empathic and heroic for others who matter to me. Imagine if the whole world were able to do this. I take one week each month from March - October to 'work from the road' and, as a result, I SEE more, experience more, laugh more, and discover more!
