Happy New Year! – Episode 288

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity Podcast listeners, both Kim and I want to say welcome to the new year. Kim, do you want to ring in the new year for them? I do. Happy new year, happy new year. Unfortunately, Emma Dogg is taking a nap on the couch because I think she wants to add her woof woof as well. She would definitely do that. You would hear the bass from that voice. Yeah. And I will tell you that we’re a major firework family. And so my husband’s figured out how to buy wholesale fireworks of which he and his brother hooked together with some technology that lets them remote control, set them all off. And we always park the trailer. This is as Hickville as it comes. Believe me, we park the trailer on the dam between these

[00:50] two lakes that we have. And we have what could seriously be considered a professional firework show. It is awesome. Oh, that sounds amazing. And it sounds like a Hickville experience that I would enjoy. You’d be welcome, Spencer. I don’t know that I’ll extend that offer to everybody since we’re talking publicly here on the podcast, but maybe we’ll throw a few picks up on Facebook or something. Sure. So with New Year’s, here’s what usually happens. And just so our listeners are aware, if you’re listening to this podcast in the morning, I’m sorry. You’re probably in a crowded gym, but by the end of the week, it will empty out. So why is that? Why do people have these giant ambitions and then it just fizzles out? And then how can they actually accomplish something this year?

[01:46] We would love to hear from you, Kim. So I have a couple thoughts around this area. The giant ambition thing is great. Like, have it. That’s super. That gets you out. It gets you maybe changing habits, etc. And then, in my opinion, the reason that it doesn’t happen is because the habit doesn’t get changed. And so what I encourage people to do, and I always think about this in my own life, is first of all, focus on adding, not subtracting. So let’s say, for example, that you decide you’re not going to drink pop, okay, like soda. That’s what I call it. Like Diet Coke, Coke, that kind of thing, Pepsi, whatever. So rather than I’m not going to drink pop, you know, no pop, no pop, add water. Like I’m going to drink water. I want to add water. I’m adding water to my

[02:35] life. I’m thirsty. I’ll have a Diet Coke. No, I’ll add water. So that’s the first suggestion, is to focus on what you can add rather than focus on what you have to take away. Because when you add the good habit, then the bad habit, if you will, subject to your own definition, is going to just fall off the table. It’ll just run out of room and the good habit will just overtake itself. I think that is a very specific thing that will help people get better results with these changes that they want to have in their lives. And then the other thing I want to suggest is verbs, words, the stuff that comes out of your mouth is so important. And just the other day, my husband, Todd, was saying, I have too

[03:21] much to do. He just was, like we all do on occasion, like, I have too much to do. And so I said, would you consider rewording that and just shifting your thinking, which of course is then going to shift what words come out of your mouth to, I have one responsibility. So this is how I chose to shift the words. You can shift the words however you want, but I just made the suggestion. I have one responsibility and that is to be the best that I can be, or to honor father, mother, God. That’s how I would choose to word it, or to make sure that I’m in a graceful state at all times. So if you think about it, having too much to do is in a stressful state. And again, going back to my first suggestion,

[04:15] what can we add? Well, if we add trying to be in a graceful state and being focused on adding a graceful state to our being, then we can, I think, get much better results than if we’re running around in our heads going, I have too much to do, I’m stressed, there’s too much going on, I have too much to do, because that is not helpful. Absolutely. It’s not helpful at all. But it seems like a lot of people live in that cycle of life. And that is a choice and they can choose better. They can choose different. So it all starts with that mindset, right? It’s got to go in the mind first, and then it needs to come out in the words. And then it will come out in the actions. Okay. So we would love to hear a couple

[05:05] different insights. So for example, highly productive people often have different goals, objectives, habits, things that are focusing on improvement. When a new year comes around for you, do you write out a list of things that you want to accomplish or goals or things like how does that work for you? That’s a really good question. And I absolutely support those that do that kind of thing. I choose to approach it a little differently. So the way that I choose to approach it is to be very, very clear on a vision, which is admittedly fuzzy. So wait a minute, am I like talking out of both sides of my mouth? No, I want to be clear on the vision, which is fuzzy because that’s what visions are. Visions

[05:54] are not goals. Visions are just a general sense of what’s out there in the future and what I want things to look like. And here’s why I choose not to write goals or to think in the form of goals. And it is because they could potentially be limiting. Now I know there’s gurus out there that say, oh, well, make your goal that you’re going to say, serve a hundred clients. And this or something better is what I’m looking for. Or this or something more, you know, to sort of add those words to your goal so that you can not have your goal be limiting. And if that works, awesome, have at it. But I’ve just never really operated that way. I can’t say never. Absolutely. I’ve had times in my life where I sat down and wrote down some

[06:47] goals, but I will admit I’m not a big journal person. I’ve tried. It just doesn’t seem to resonate with me. And I think it’s super important as we go forward in our lives, when we listen to people that we respect, mentors, gurus, whatever you want to call them, that we take to heart what their suggestion is. But then we really check in with ourselves and with our maker, if you will. I use the term father, mother, God all the time. Is this right for me right now? Because some suggestion might be right for me some other time, or it might not be right for me at all. Or it absolutely might be right for me right now. So again, for me, I choose not to write goals. I find them limiting. It doesn’t work

[07:27] for me. I don’t like the idea of the whole scene. The whole writing thing doesn’t work for me. So instead, I tend to just do it more in the form of a vision. And I think about my vision, but I’m also constantly listening to, and again, I’m going to use the term father, mother, God. For me, you can use universe or whatever else. I’m listening for what that vision is and should be according to that guidance, not necessarily according to what Kim wants. Okay. You know, I like that you had mentioned a lot of people will hear something from a guru or a book, and they try and adopt it or adapt it to their lives. And one of the phrases, and I should probably put this up on a bathroom wall on a picture frame or something,

[08:23] but it is you can’t compare someone’s front stage to your backstage. And I think oftentimes, we see the best of what’s being published out there, be it on, you know, the travel pictures on Instagram, or the person just getting off the stage with everyone clapping or whatever it may be. And it’s very easy for us to compare that best. But when we actually see how the sausage is made, it’s a lot different story. So for myself, I focus on habits. So instead of saying, I’m going to write a book this year, I look at the habits and I say, I’m going to write, you know, 500 words a day, because I want to just develop the habit. And if I end up writing a book, that’s great. If I don’t, I’ve still developed the habit. And that’s what I’m interested in. So,

[09:17] you know, that’s a little bit of a different approach. Vision is one approach to definitely get there. So what else are you doing with your new year? Well, I totally agree with the habits. And then I think two, it’s principles and values that I want to, again, just revisit all the time and be focused on. And I pay very, very close attention to what I’m feeding both my body, but also my mind. And I think that the latter parts more appropriate for our discussion today, because I, as I’ve shared numerous times, I do not want a bunch of negative information put in my brain in any form or fashion. And so as the new year begins, I think it’s just super important to revisit principles, to revisit values, because those things, well, values and in for sure change

[10:15] principles, maybe not so much, but those are the things that guide my actions during the coming years and months. And frankly, I work on doing this every quarter. So I attend strategic coach every 90 days, I have a great reset. And consequently, the quote New Year’s time is maybe not as big of an issue for me than it would be if I weren’t revisiting these things every 90 days or so. And yet at the same time, I do absolutely love to make sure that sometime between Christmas and New Year’s and sometimes maybe even, you know, could be the first or second or third of January, that I have some really quiet time to reconnect to those things and that the reading that I’m doing at that time of year is particularly focused on the good and

[11:06] the big and the bold. Like one book I’m absolutely going to have on my list is growing boulders new book that growing boulder.com. You can check it out. They’ve got a new book that’s going to be available. And that’s going to be some of the input for my mindset at that time. Well, Kim, we have gleaned some wisdom from today. And I think all of us can look at this and say, we’re going to sharpen up that vision. We’re going to get more closely focused on the principles and values that we hold. And we’re going to have an incredible year. I think that’s something all of us can commit to. I’m looking forward to it. Wonderful. Well, listeners, thank you for spending time with us today on the podcast. If you’d like what you hear,

[11:53] we would love for you to leave some feedback. What that means is go onto your device and give us a review and a rating. We love hearing from you. And if you happen to have a five star rating and review or just even a review of telling us how we’re doing, we would love to hear that from you today. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money and have it work for you, visit us at partnersforprosperity.com. If you liked this episode, make sure you subscribe and leave a review.