Christmas Episode – Episode 651

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[00:01] Welcome to the Prosperity Podcast. Prosperity thinkers, welcome to the podcast. This is our special annual episode. This is our Christmas episode, the holiday episode, the gratitude episode. It’s all of those things pieced together. Kim, you have been a thought leader, or we’re gonna call it a thought pioneer, for gratitude and prosperous thinking for a number of years. I would imagine that Christmas time and the holidays, it’s ramped up a little bit, but that doesn’t mean that it’s ever down. So talk to us about that. Well, it’s fun. For those of you on video, I’m wearing green today and I very specifically do not wear green or red during the months of November and October. And I’m not like a fall color person.

[00:58] I can’t wear orange and some of those other colors. So I have to basically stick with brown. But it’s interesting because I just do whatever I can to be very purposeful about everything that relates to my being in the world on a daily basis. And obviously clothes are one of those things. And I’m not a huge clothes person. I kind of used to be, but I’ve sort of fallen away from that. Nevertheless, anything that I can do physically or materially to keep what is so important in my thought at the forefront, I will do. And I won’t go to extremes, but I will do things like watch the color of clothing that I’m wearing. And it’s another little tip that I have is because it’s just so important that the little things help us create this vision,

[01:53] this auditory, this visually space around gratitude and Christmas is I don’t ever abbreviate Christmas with an X. And I did hear the other day that was originally done as a cross and it’s kind of been shifted to an X. But nevertheless, I abbreviate it C-MAS. So it reads C-MAS instead of X-MAS. So just little things like that. I heard something the other day that I loved and it’s from Madeline Moppen, who’s a Bible scholar that I follow. And she said, place your Bible next to your TV remote and then choose wisely. Which I loved. I actually, I can literally say that since I have been married to Todd, I have not touched the TV remote. I don’t even know how our TV remote works. It is the most complex thing

[02:54] with so many buttons and capabilities on it. And literally, if somebody comes over and like, hey, can I watch the football game? Yeah, but you’re gonna have to have Todd turn it on because I don’t know how. So I don’t have a TV remote that I can place a Bible next to. Nevertheless, I do keep in various places in the house a Bible out and sometimes open so that I can be very purposeful. And so I’ll tell you a quick story. So we’re recording this on a particular Monday in early December. And in the last two hours or probably even just like the last hour, I had one of those weird computer things that just make you wanna take your laptop and absolutely huck it into the air from the second story of my office.

[03:45] I was so mad. And then, you know, I get to record and notice my words, right? I get to. And so I’ve gotta get my act together. I literally was so frustrated. I was close to crying. Like, okay, I couldn’t get into my Gmail. Come on, I could get it on my phone. You know, let’s not be a really dramatic Kimberly. Nevertheless, I was so frustrated and this is what happens in our lives sometimes. And this is when we have to turn to whatever it is, the Bible sitting on the desk, the clothes that we’re wearing, the spiritual peace, P-E-A-C-E, that we know we can garner. And so what did I do? I walked away from my computer. I took a minute to love the dog. I stood by the fire for a few minutes and I just let a semblance of peace filter down.

[04:49] I adjust my breathing. So let’s take a quick shortcut. Spencer, do you remember when you taught your boys how to breathe when they were in our pool? All the adults were sitting in the jacuzzi and your boys were in the cold pools, about 50 degrees, it was winter time. Do you remember this? I do, I do. What did you teach them to do with their breathing? Wasn’t it the four seconds? It was a, then hold and then exhale. And realize that the water’s not going to warm up and so you’re still there. So I have been taught that’s called box breathing, B-O-X, up for four, over for four, down for four, back over. And that kind of thing can make such a difference and it’s hard. And while you’re doing box breathing,

[05:48] you start to dig out the things that you are grateful for. So it happens to be sunny today. I have an amazing dog, who I was also ready to kill in the summer when she was a puppy, but if I’m not killing dogs, I’m killing computers. Great, Kim, super helpful. But I share that to maybe get one little further step for some single person out there that might be listening to this. And I love the do for one, what you wish you could do for many. And so however many this podcast reach, or even if it is just one, and notice too we’ve layered in humor. Now I am not typically a very humor oriented person. I absolutely never laugh at comedy unless it’s just a rare occasion. I will laugh at the dog, which is one of the reasons to have a dog,

[06:46] even though they also cause frustration, but all of these things are self-knowledge, super helpful, absolute purposeful thought, super helpful, overt focus on the words coming out of my mouth, super helpful, and then circle back around, right? So it’s like breath or state of thought. It’s what you’re doing physically, and then that impacts you physiologically, and then it’s what’s coming out of your mouth. And also the look on your face, right? Because if we can get ourselves into a smile, there is studies that are showing that actually has an impact on the rest of how we’re feeling. And so these are things that sometimes we have to do in the moment. I am not kidding you, two minutes before we got on the recording today,

[07:42] I was standing by the fireplace dealing with all of this. And so what an awesome example for us to be able to set that purpose as we go forward into this special time of year, whatever your religious beliefs are, it’s a special time of year. And so it’s an awesome time of year, and thank goodness there is space in our lives. Generally, some people, I get it, super, super busy during Christmas, et cetera, but generally there’s a capability of finding some space and some peace in our lives where we can be very purposeful. And the best way to do that is to bring in the gratitude and to focus on praising. You can praise whatever you want, but praise instead of plead. And I say that to myself often.

[08:36] Are you praising or are you pleading? And it just helps when we begin with gratitude. We begin with the praise. We begin with getting our minds quiet and our bodies quiet, that’s what breathing does, so that we can be grateful. Because then we can do the visioneering or ask the tough questions or whatever it is that we need to do to take the next step. Yeah, that’s a really good point. You mentioned the word peace, and that was the word that I hung onto as you were going through that, because this is a time of year when people are focused on peace, and you’re talking about the gratitude, and you’re talking about praising and the things that we’re doing. And this is, depending on our circumstance,

[09:29] for a listener that’s tuned into this podcast as some of our loyal listeners are, they’ve probably done a lot of things that have helped out their lives, they probably have great memories intact, they’ve been responsible, they’ve set the trajectory of their life, yet there’s still some peace that’s missing that they want. And then there’s listeners that, maybe someone new that’s coming in, and their life is chaotic, and they’re seeking that peace. What made you use that word? The P-E-A-C-E word? Yeah, P-E-A-C-E. To differentiate it from P-I-E-C-E, which is a really valuable word, because it implies a baby step. But I think peace is something that we just are all seeking, and it comes in a variety of ways, right?

[10:22] We want peace in our relationships, we want peace in our monetary lives, we want peace in our work environments, we want to know that we are contributing to worldwide peace, or nationwide peace, or community peace, or what have you. I don’t know, that’s just the word that popped into my head. I like that. I also like that you were very intentional, because the word P-I-E-C-E, and then you associated it with a baby step. So you weren’t sitting there saying, okay, life is perfect, and look at all these great things. It was a baby step. Months ago, you had a puppy. Well, you still have a puppy, because it doesn’t look like a puppy, because this is a great day, and so it’s giant. But you had a puppy,

[11:05] and there were moments of smiling and laughter, and then moments of terror that we all have with the puppy. And there were pieces of good, and then there was peace, as well, that filled your heart. Well, how fun that the English language enables us to be that specific, and challenged at the same time, right? And so that’s good, because we need challenges, or we’re not growing, and if we’re not growing, we are dying. That’s a quote from Albert Einstein. So good. For all of you listeners, we are so incredibly grateful for you, regardless of where you are in the world, or where you are as far as a subscriber that’s been listening, or maybe you just found this as a random episode. We’re very grateful for you.

[11:57] We’ve been on this podcast for hundreds and hundreds of episodes, and that means we’ve also had this gratitude type of episode for a number of years. Kim, it’s a wonderful tradition, and it’s one that I see us continuing on. So thank you for sharing your wisdom, and the piece of knowledge, P-I-E-C-E, and the piece, P-E-A-C-E, that it brings to us today. So thank you so much for doing that with us. And thank you, Spencer. I absolutely, thoroughly enjoy our conversations that our listeners get to listen to, and couldn’t do it without you, literally and figuratively. Thank you for listening to the Prosperity Podcast. To take control of your money, and have it work for you, visit ProsperityThinkers.com.