Hello 2024! Start Your New Chapter with These Thoughtful Questions

Happy New Year! Happy 2024. Here we are. Look at that. How did that happen? I thought this was so cool that my podcast was just going to naturally just drop on this fabulous, magical January 1st. And so I figured, well, of course, this should be a New Year's podcast, a podcast for reflection. Something to give you to chew on and think about as you go through what I'm sure all of you do some sort of, right?

I guess there's some people who are very dismissive of New Year's resolutions and all of those things. I'm not. I love a fresh blank slate and I love to honor that. And so I thought about what I'm going to ask myself, and what- I'm going to actually be doing a retreat in Hawaii. It starts about four days after this podcast drops. And so I was also already thinking about what are we going to talk about when we're meeting and setting up our ambitions and intentions for the year.

So welcome. And my intention for this podcast is for you to treat it as your own little mini retreat. Over many of the past few years, I've done virtual retreats with my clients. Not doing one this year, just because of scheduling and couldn't make that come together.

So the way that I want you to think about this is listen and then press pause. I'm going to give you some questions to reflect on. So listen to the question, then press pause, or listen to this podcast all the way through once, write down all the questions and then go back and use it throughout the week. However you want to do that, or just today with your cup of tea, right? Or coffee, which is my preference.

But this is sort of to be not just- I mean, my preference would be that you don't just listen. That you actually listen and you get your beautiful journal, or your pen or your remarkable or whatever it is that you use and tune into yourself for a few minutes. And however is the best way for you to do that, I invite you to that.

So I'm going to basically just be asking you a series of questions and some of them I might illuminate on a little bit, and others, it's just the question and that's up to you to do what you would like with it.

A few tips for when you do these kinds of journal prompts. I think it's always best to do some free writing first about what's on your mind. And I think about that a little bit like you've got some junk in the tailpipe. So you could just ask yourself a really broad question. Like, what do I want to be thinking about when it comes to 2024? Like something really, really general, but just let your yourself free, right? Just scribble, scribble, scribble.

And time yourself. I've heard people do three minutes at a time, five minutes at a time, 10 minutes at a time, 13 minutes at a time, 15 minutes. That's up to you. I think somewhere probably in the three to eight minute range is enough. Otherwise you're sort of over analyzing sometimes, but I do think you need to set up a timer. You need to, you know, write the question on the top of the page, set the timer, and then let your pen go.

And we want to do that first sort of question because it blows some of the junk out of the tailpipe. It sort of gets some of the over-critiquing, ego-y thinking out of your mind. And then it allows for your intuitive, your wisdom, your spirit, you know, whatever your best language is, the word of God. Like, whatever it is that is true for you, it gives space for that to appear. Which is really what we want this exercise to be. It is not an exercise in your ego and in your shoulds, but really in your inner knowing and wisdom and how she wants to inform you.

Okay, so without further ado, I'm going to get started asking you some questions. So let's keep going. Who have I become in 2023 that now influences who I will be in 2024? Who have I become in 2023 that now influences who I will be? In 2024.

If 2023 was a lesson in the curriculum of my life, what was the title of the year and why? If 2023 was a lesson in the curriculum of the year, what was the title of the year? And why?

Many of you know that my kids all played sports. My daughter still plays soccer. And so I know that athletes do game film review. They watch the film review. They do that in order to identify how well they stuck with their plan. How well they individually performed. How well they worked as a team. What they didn't do well. Where they breached and got off plan. All the things, right? And we do it as an analytical exercise, not as an exercise of personal judgment.

And that's what I think we should all do. I think we should look at our game film of our life and we should be able to reflect and evaluate our own results in our own performance, our own decision making. The things that we did. But do so, not from the lens of "I'm amazing" or "I'm horrible". But really just, let's just look at the film and ask ourselves, what does it tell us? What do we learn?

So let's review 2023 as your life game film and do an objective, growth-focused analysis. Consider your actions, your decisions, your setbacks. And then I'm going to ask you questions that go with that. So review 2023 as your life game film and do an objective growth-focused analysis. Consider actions, decisions, setbacks, et cetera.

What did I do better than expected? What did I do better than expected?

What did I do exactly as I had prepared to do? What did I do exactly as I prepared to do?

What did I let go of and stop pursuing too quickly or too easily? What did I let go of or stop pursuing too quickly or too easily?

What did I see all the way to completion?

What can I do better? And why does that matter? What can I do better? And why does that matter?

What do I still need to practice and learn? Or what do I still need to learn and practice?

Now, knowing what I know about 2023, how is that informing my options and choices for 2024?

When I think about the year 2024, what are the thoughts and feelings I have about it? When I think about the year 2024, what are the thoughts and feelings I have about it? Why?

Are these the thoughts and feelings you want to have about 2024? Why or why not? And if they aren't the thoughts and feelings you want to have about 2024, what would you like to believe about 2024? And what would you like to feel about 2024 ?

Now we know that circumstances happen to all of us that we never would have seen coming. And that is the real truth of life. There's no real control. There's authority over ourselves based on what happens, but there's a lot of circumstances we just don't have control over. So we have to always remember that despite the circumstance, despite what happens, what right now is the thing you would most like to say about your life and yourself on December 31st, 2024. Independent of circumstance. What relationships would you like to seek out in 2024?

I wrote this for myself. It's like, these are the sunrises. I'd like to indulge in relationships. What are the relationships I want to birth and have a sunrise with in 2024? And what relationships will I sunset in 2024?

How will you invest in yourself in 2024? How will you remind yourself to do so?

How will you feed your spirit in 2024?

Now this next exercise, I want you to make a list of all of the ideas, the dreams, the wishes that you have for 2024. And I don't want you to hold back. I want you to really go all in. This might be one that you give yourself 15 minutes to just unload. This is, if 2024 could be anything in the world, if it could include anything I ever wanted, if it, just let that be true for this exercise.

I don't want you to hold back. I want you to go all in the ideas, the dreams, the wishes, the experiences, the people, everything you have in your brain that- Because I know if you're anything like me, you've had thoughts like, "Oh, Oh yeah, next year maybe I'll..." Or "Next year I could probably..." Write, just write it all down.

This may be something that is an ongoing reflection. So you might not, on this day, at this time, have a lot that comes to you. But as you go through the next few days, or even to the first few months of January, you might just keep having like, "Oh, yeah, I want to add that. I want to add that." This is not a to do list. This is just a dream list. We're going to get it started.

Now, I want you to look once you've done that. So you really do have to pause if you haven't paused. I'm sure you've been pausing. I hope you've been pausing. But once we've done that, then what we want to do. Is look at this list and then let your intuition inform you of how what you want now, is informing you of who your inner wisdom, your soul is propelling you to become.

If we figure that we always have new versions of ourselves, right? Because we do. How does this list of wants and this list of ideas and this list of experiences and dreams and relationships, all the things, how is this telling you a story about that next version of you that's coming? What can we glean from this? Because I don't think anything's an accident.

I also want you to go through the list of things that you said that you wanted, and I want you to really tune in and make sure that we eliminate anything that you put on that list that's a hangover want. And a hangover want is something you said you've always wanted, but the version of who you are today doesn't really want it. But when you say you want something, you go back to the version of you that wanted it.

So it's almost like you're finally able to buy that coat you've been looking at for a month or whatever, or for two years. And then you finally are able to buy it and you put it on and you're like, "Oh, I don't really like this style. I don't really like this coat anymore." Because it was something you always wanted, you feel compelled to continue to bring it with you.

I think a lot of us do that. I think a lot of us, when we talk about things that we dream about, or we wish for, or we want, we go back to this other version of ourselves, but we have to really look at who is this woman today and what is it that she wants. I think she wants different things.

So in my lead advisory program, we're going to be giving attention this year to sprints. And sprints, meaning, the primary area of focus, either monthly or quarterly, it's going to be up to my clients. I think that as, business owners, founders, we have a lot of decisions that we have to make. And what I really want to do-

I got some great feedback from one of my clients who's quite successful and it really stuck me because it wasn't even that I thought it was a great idea. But the reason it was such a great idea is I completely agreed with her, and it was almost like permission to do something a little differently.

So I'm not as big of a fan as making these big goals for the whole year. I feel like it feels really good to write the goal and live into the goal and to feel the goal. But then life sort of sneaks in there. And if we get too far behind on a goal, we start to think we're not going to hit it. And then we use the goal against ourselves.

So what I love is the short term achievement, something I'm going to give my attention to for a limited amount of time, and that's going to be my target. That's what I'm going to focus on. So we're going to be doing sprints and my current clients are getting a complimenting private podcast that we'll embellish this even more.

And this will be something that we're going to do within the Lead Advisory, because last year I did a whole program called All In where it was a much more accountability focus. We're going to be moving elements of that into Lead Advisory in the Sage program. But for those of you who are podcast listeners, I wanted to give you this framework as well, just to see if it sits well for you.

And like, listen, there's a lot of ways to set goals. I like this one. So if you look at all those things you just wrote down, all the possibilities for 2024, what is it that is really calling to you? I want you to pick one that is the most prescient to you right now. So as an example, I want to increase listenership for the podcast. And so that is a current sprint that we are working on in my business. And having that as a sprint then gives my brain a very clear focus. So, I want you to pick one sprint to focus on just for January, just to play with it. It's January 1st. Pick one

Last year. I, in my All In program, one of my clients has been battling long COVID for several years. And she had a pretty robust list of things she really wanted to achieve, but she still don't feel great. And I said, why "Won't we just focus on feeling better? Because I bet when you start to feel better, all this other stuff will start to feel less hard."

So she did. She just went all in on her health and taking care of herself and doing everything she could do to rally through this long COVID. And that really helped move her into the next year, or into the next goals. So that's your assignment.

And then we have to write down all the ideas that you might have that will support the achievement of the sprint. So if my goal is to amplify the podcast and increase listenership. Now, what I did after that, was I wrote down all the ideas I have, all the potential ways I could do that.

And then what, I've made the decision to do is every morning I asked myself, what's one I will work on today? Some things take a whole week, but every morning I still check in on it, right? This keeps me in the short term process instead of the longer term, which I prefer. Not everybody does.

So we want to give your brain something to really focus on. I'm sure that if you run a business, if you run a life, if you run a team, I know I have a variety of listeners. You have goals for the business. You have goals for your personal life. You have goals for your health. You have goals for your relationships. You have goals for spirituality. You have goals for vacations. You have goals for your career. You have lots of goals.

But the truth is, I think that we need to remember that a year is not a series of perfectly achieved goals. The year is really just a series of moments, and minutes, if we will. To leverage a song from Rent, 565,600 minutes. 565, 600 minutes. If you don't know that song, you will now. It'll be stuck in your head.

So every minute, every moment, we have a new opportunity to, as Gabby Bernstein says, choose again. And so rather than doing this the way that everybody else does it, which is, "These are my big things I'm going to achieve in 2024", I want you to really think more about who am I becoming, who, when I get to the end of the year, do I want to meet in myself?

And let's go talk to her, our New Year's Eve 2024 version of us. And let's ask her, how did you put together such a beautiful year? What did you believe about yourself? What did you believe about your business? What did you believe about the world? What did you believe about your relationships? What did you believe about your opportunity? And see what she says. Because the way that we navigate moments are less about the draw and the pull of these primary goals and more about the alignment to who we want to become, who we want to evolve into.

And so in the moment when I feel like I wasted some minutes, I just parked it and watch Netflix instead of that aspirational part of me that's busy. I want to give myself grace because my intentional version of myself on December 31st is to have amplified my work, and to savor my life, and to nurture my wellbeing. And there's a lot of things that can happen within that. But to amplify my business and to savor my life and to nurture my well being, is the intentional mindset that I want to bring to each moment.

And I'd like to invite you to go into that, go to your future version of yourself, 364 days from today. And ask her, how did you put together such a beautiful year? And see what she has to say.

So I really hope this was beneficial for you. I would love to hear from you. Please send us a message at [email protected].

If you haven't ever written a review for this podcast, but you listen, I would love it if you would write one, just go to your podcast app and take, seriously, a minute. It doesn't have to be a big deal, but it does help other women like you know that this is for them.

And I really do mean it when I say Happy New Year. Let's have a fun one. Let's be lovely. Let's be kind. Let's be leaders. Let's be gentle with everyone. A lot of rawness out there. Big hugs for each of you. My little dog's making some noise back here, so you probably hear him rattling around. He wants to join into the congratulations.

So happy January 1st, everyone. Talk to you again next time.

Hey, guys, just popping in here really fast, because after I completed this episode, I thought, "You know what? I should make a little journal to go with it with all the questions that I asked." And so I did.

So if you want the journal that goes with this episode, just go to thevisionary.CEO/2024journal and you could have it too! So happy new year!