161: Year in Review. "Who Will You BE in 2023"~Did your Habits support you through the year?

Ever wondered if you achieved all you set out to conquer at the beginning of 2023? Join us on a reflective journey where we unpack our past thoughts, actions, and behaviors. We'll be challenging you to evaluate your 2023 goals and whether you kept them burning brightly in your consciousness. Listen in as we traverse our personal transformations and observe the two divergent paths of life - one laid with the bricks of fading motivation due to a weak foundation, and the other constructed with disciplined habits that catapult us beyond our set objectives. 

We’re popping the lid off the jar of hyper-focus and setting intentions - two powerful tools in achieving aspirations. With a grab from our personal experiences, we delve into how a laser-focus and clear intentions help carve the path to success. It's not a solo journey though, so we'll be highlighting the importance of surrounding oneself with a supportive and like-minded tribe. We're also touching on the often-overlooked role of financial investment in propelling us towards our goals. Get ready to explore who you need to become to reach your coveted outcomes in this empowering and enlightening conversation!

Chapters

• 0:00 Reflecting on Goals, Setting Up Success
• 8:53 Hyper-Focus and Financial Intentions

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Paradigm you podcast.

Speaker 2: 0:04

Welcome to the Paradigm you podcast. This is episode 161, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about where you intended to be at the end of 2023. That's right. We are going to ask you to reflect on the past 12 months, the habits that you had, the thoughts that you had, the behaviors and the actions that you took, and if you are not hitting all of those goals by the end of this year that you intended to hit when you set those goals at January 2023, that's alright, but we are going to make sure that that doesn't happen again in 2024. So we want to set you up for success, and that starts today.

Speaker 3: 0:43

You're listening to the Paradigm you podcast. You're about to start transforming your life by growing your mind and expanding your paradigms. Here we'll cover real life topics, just like the stuff you'd share with a good friend. This podcast will serve up topics that weigh on our hearts and keep us up at night, whether it's navigating parenthood and becoming an adult or wayfinding person, of development, marriage and money. You, my friend, are in the right place. I'm glad you're here.

Speaker 2: 1:06

Alright well welcome to the Paradigm you podcast. My name is April Marluski-Hydzinski and I am here with the incredible Lisa Sarnowski for yet another amazing podcast topic.

Speaker 4: 1:22

Today we are going to ask you drumroll oh, you're way better at it than I am.

Speaker 2: 1:27

I cannot roll my tongue. Fun fact we are talking about the topic of where did you start this year and where are you ending this year. You know, at the beginning of the year, we actually recorded some podcast that asked you who do you want to be in 2023? And now, as we're coming into the last few weeks of 2023, who were you being in 2023?

Speaker 4: 1:57

Such a great question. It's such a great time of year to just reflect back and see all that you've done, all that maybe you've not done, and, equally, you know what your life or your business, what that really represents to you at this phase of year you know, april I was thinking a lot about this because when you posed this question as a phenomenal topic for the podcast this week, I thought it felt like two completely different people in 2023. The first half of the year I was being one way and the second half a completely different way, and I'm wondering if our listeners, you know, feel that way as well.

Speaker 2: 2:39

I know I could relate when you said that at first. I, as you're just saying that, I'm like, yeah, you know, actually I'm right there with you and interestingly, I think what happens oftentimes is one of two paths, and correct me if I'm wrong or if this is, if this, you know, let me know if this matches up with how you experience it. But one path could be all right. We're excited at the beginning of the year, we have all of this ambition. It's a new year, a new, fresh, like clean slate, and you get excited and you set these intentions and these cast, these visions, but you don't have the, the solid foundation to get you there.

Speaker 2: 3:17

So it quickly that motivation kind of falls off and you find yourself perhaps maybe a couple of months in for a lot of people, statistically, I think it's right away in February Most people are not able to maintain that level of commitment or desired habits because they haven't fully built that foundation. But then for some, for others, I would say the other path is you've been following this path, you inserted the proper and the needed and desired habits and behaviors to get you to the goals that you wanted to achieve and then, all of a sudden, what happens Leigh a lot of times with our coaching clients. I think we see this. But when people actually are disciplined with their habits and their behaviors and their thought processes, it accelerates those goals. So the goals that they wanted to have happen by the end of the year all of a sudden are happening way quicker.

Speaker 4: 4:10

Absolutely, and that was absolutely my experience and when I was really clear I knew the goals I was was aiming for travel with my family to big, big trips, a new vehicle purchase, going away up north for a month, all these experiences and things to really enrich our lives and I thought this was maybe drip out over the year or whatever. And by the end of July I remember being home in my house again going, well, now, what, now what you know and I thought I've been here before, I know how to get out of it, which is a wonderful awareness and acknowledgement and, equally to your point, having that clear plan, having the intention, being very mindful of money and abundance and how that all flows. It just it happens so quickly and even now I can get surprised at how quickly things can happen. So really midway through the year I remember thinking now, what do I want? What does the rest of the year look like? And stepping into that person has been its own journey. I felt like two years in one this year.

Speaker 2: 5:21

Yeah Well, and you know, the exciting part of that second half of your year is that you joined on to the Paradigm you team and joined this podcast. So I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful that you accelerated all of those other things to create space and capacity to join this and actually, fun fact, we'll do a little teaser right here Next week. We're actually going to be unpacking and reflecting on how our partnership has evolved. But today's topic, it's a fun one. It's fun to ask people hey, pull out your goals from last year, or not last year, but from January. Pull them out. Have you been looking at them? What did you do to keep those goals front of mind? Or are you in a place where we're coming to the end of the year and you're like, wow, I'm in the exact same place. I was last year at this time?

Speaker 4: 6:12

Yeah, that being in the exact same place you were year after year after year. To me that is a place where you know I get. I struggle immensely Because one of the reasons why the second half of the year has been so interesting to navigate is that trying to up level all areas of my life again with business and health and our abundance here at our house. But what's fascinating is a lot of people, I think, forget that at any point in the year you can make that choice. And so right now, if you're feeling like, oh, I did it again. Every year I set these goals in January and every year I just completely, you know, fail and I don't do them, there's a reason for that and it's exciting once you start to learn how to reprogram and not be in that same pattern and same cycle.

Speaker 2: 7:11

Yeah, and you know much to your point, the last few episodes in the series that we just had wrapped up about subconscious reprogramming. I think that offers one of many tools to get people to where they want to go, perhaps a little bit faster than if they tried to do it on their own, wouldn't you agree? Yeah?

Speaker 4: 7:31

absolutely. It's a great tool, but to your point, there's definitely a foundation. That's needed and you can't just like insert that and everything magically works. There's a process and a methodology behind it.

Speaker 2: 7:44

So I guess you know circling back and asking listeners where were you at in January? Where were you at, what did you intend? And giving you a little bit of space. Now Perhaps you're listening to this at the gym, on a walk, in your car, while you're taking a shower.

Speaker 2: 8:01

Wherever you listen to our podcast, I think one of the questions I'd like to ask you, and perhaps maybe offer the space for you to reflect on, is where did you intend to be in December of 2023? And are you there? You know, I think one of the other pieces to ask yourself is what did you do to keep those goals front of mind? Did you have people in your world that were accountability buddies? Did you pull out those goals every month or every couple of weeks to look at them? What were some of those behaviors? To what either get you there or to perhaps maybe hamstring you a little bit so that you couldn't get there? Lisa, for you, what did you do that felt like that was the most helpful to, I'd say, accelerate those goals that you had at the beginning of the year?

Speaker 4: 8:52

Such a great question. Honestly, it was hyper-focus. I was so focused on exactly what I wanted that everything I did every single day related to that. So getting the trips organized or, you know, just being like what does it mean to be a world traveler as a mom and just really kind of taking on that full identity? So for me it was really the hyper-focus, the looking at my money every single day, visualizing exactly how I want things to go. For the listeners.

Speaker 4: 9:24

I don't know if anyone's familiar with the phenomenal country of Scotland, but that's where my family and I went for two weeks. We had lived there. My husband and I had lived there years ago. We wanted to take the kids back and so one of the things I visualized, again with the hyper-focus was an amazing trip, but with beautiful weather. Now, if anyone understands Scotland, they know that it's typically gray, rainy, very windy. My kids do not believe us that it rains in Scotland and in fact, most of the tourists in the country their faces were burned because for the two weeks we were there it was in the low 70s and sunny the whole time. Wow, I know. So hyper focus, I guess, was my answer. The clarity, the intention around it and the hyper focus. It really all synergistically worked together.

Speaker 2: 10:18

Yeah, I would agree. I had a very similar experience. I had set some intentions at the beginning of the year and I think there's lots of little hacks that you can use to keep that clarity. So, for example, at the beginning of the year, I knew I wanted to recalibrate my identity with our businesses and I wanted to take some of my responsibilities off my plate and I wanted to shift them to do more coaching, actually, and a little bit less of the real estate investing. But I needed to hire the right person that I could hand off a lot of that to, and so it was truly to your point, lisa.

Speaker 2: 10:56

I was envisioning this person and I felt so excited when they were coming on board and I hadn't even met them yet. I didn't even know who this person was going to be, but I knew that that's what I needed to do to allow me the space to step into that next level. And when you start to focus on that in fact, I actually just had post-it notes up and it's kind of funny because I actually stumbled upon that post-it note I'm like I don't need this one anymore, but it feels like it should be framed. That was a good one. It was a good one. It's pretty exciting. But I think to your point if you can envision it, if you can stay really hyper-focused and perhaps if you need that accountability and that external support, surrounding yourself with people who are going in the same direction is a really great way to keep that as front of mind.

Speaker 4: 11:49

Yeah, who you surround yourself with does matter when going for what could be perceived from an old version of yourself as something so far off and unavailable to you, because what you want is you want people in your corner that believes that it's possible for you and are going to try to dampen that. So, yeah, who you surround yourself with is absolutely a critical one, and I attribute a lot of my success to being surrounded with you, because you always were like awesome, send me pictures. You always were believing that it was equally possible and that's important.

Speaker 2: 12:27

You're going to make me tear up on this recording. No Well, I mean, it's just so fun to cheer people on when they set their goals and, of course, I believe anything is possible but it's just such a cool experience to witness when people lean into, they get that hyper-focus and they're like all right, this is how I want to craft and curate my life, and then they take action steps. It's like that's my jam, yeah, so good yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:03

At least one of the other things I think it's worth talking about, because this time of year I mean, we just wrapped up a whole week talking about the topic of money within the elevate group that we lead but so I think it's front of mind, but I think it's also important when we look back at the past year. How did we choose to spend and allocate our money and invest, perhaps in ourselves, to help us stay hyper-focused and achieve those goals? So when you were saying the piece about, you were really hyper-focused and you had a lot of big purchases and a lot of expenses. You had a plan, you had the behaviors and the habits and the discipline to get you where you wanted to go, and I think it's important that we call that out.

Speaker 4: 13:48

Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And I would also add to that I had a belief that more would come. So we spent more in one month than my husband made in his salary the very first year we moved back from Scotland. Like it still blows my mind that we spent that much money buying a new van and going to Scotland. And it was no big deal for us. I didn't grow up that way, so that was a big leap of faith to say, yeah, let's do this. Yeah, let's upgrade our plane seats, yeah, let's stay at these cool B&Bs. And it was really a big leap, for sure, but it was one that, like, look where we are now. And so, for anyone listening, if there's something that feels just a little out of reach, we would encourage you get a plan, figure out the habits and behaviors, because that's what'll help you most in 2024. Not a fancy tool or a fancy habit tracker, any of those things. It's really identifying who do you need to be.

Speaker 2: 14:57

Oh, you just like, are bubbling up all of these tears. You gave me a lump in my throat again because I, too, spent a lot of time planning out how I was going to invest in myself. And you know, you know, lisa, I don't know how much you know about this, but we onboarded and we bought a new shopping center a couple of months into the new year, and that was a really exciting goal that we had spent a lot of time with. But I also, equally financially, wanted to allocate and save my money and spend my money on hiring that right person that I was telling you about and that completely changed how I'm able to operate on a daily basis. But, man, when you were talking about putting yourself out of your comfort zone, it was a huge leap.

Speaker 2: 15:43

I think I've talked about that on this podcast. But committing to spending that much money on somebody that you know you're like OK, are we ready for this? And you know, years ago I worked really hard to eliminate and not have employees because I just, energetically and emotionally, I wasn't there anymore. I couldn't sustain it. But going back in, it was like OK, that first employee, that first hire, sometimes it's the hardest one.

Speaker 2: 16:10

But, it was out of my comfort zone, but I had that plan and I really did show up with the habits and the behaviors to get myself there, and that created the space for then us to partner, which is what we're going to be talking about next week, and I'm so grateful for that.

Speaker 4: 16:25

Oh, I'm so. It's been so inspiring to watch your journey this year and see it all unfold, and and I can't wait to talk about our partnership next week too, because that's clearly been, you know, half of the year for us in terms of what we learned and how we were being, in our habits and behaviors as well, so it's going to be great fun.

Speaker 2: 16:46

Yeah, super exciting. All right, well, we won't keep this much longer because we have to, you know, go off and record about next week, that's right. So we will see you over on the next podcast, where Lisa and I unpack the relationship and reflection of how coming together and partnering that journey, how it's been for the last six months, what we've learned, what things surprised us and where we're going moving forward. So, on that note, lisa, do you have any last thoughts for empowering people to really reflect on 2023?

Speaker 4: 17:22

Yeah, I would say that you are where you are for a reason and at this point you get to choose, moving forward, who you want to be. So take a minute, take a powerful pause, look at your year and then decide who you want to be and what you want in 2024. Because we promise you, we're along for the journey.

Speaker 2: 17:43

That sounds great. I'm right there with you. I love it. Yes Again, who do you intend to be in 2024? And also, if you're reflecting back and you're like, wow, I'm actually at the same spot I was at the beginning of the year, all we want to ask you is to collect that data with zero judgment. There's no shame, there's no guilt, it's just data and information at this point, but pay attention to what behaviors and habits hamstrung you or held you back. What did you not perhaps do that you need to do and what needs to be recalibrated moving into the new year? On that note, it is closing time, cheers to good karma.

Speaker 1: 18:20

Thank you for listening to this entire podcast. I hope this episode has left you feeling curious and inspired. This podcast is intended to create expansion in your life through unique stories and shared experiences, and if you enjoy today's episode, I have a request. I'd like to ask you to share this podcast with your friends and family. I bet they'd enjoy it just as much as you have. And, if you found value, please share this on your social media outlets. That is good karma in action, my friends. All right, it is now closing time. Cheers to good karma and the power to choose joy. If you like this, tell your friends.