Welcome back to another episode of the published and paid Podcast. I'm super excited for this particular episode. This is the very first episode of 2025 and I decided to record it and it's unedited because I wanted to make sure that it got out, and I want to make sure that you all received something fresh from me, so we don't have intro music on this one. It's like again, it's not being edited by my team or any of those things. I'm not sure if you all will end up hearing some type of background noise, because it is January 1, and the family is home, okay, but in this particular episode, I'm sharing five changes that I'm making in 2025 and just reflecting on 2024 as a whole, I think that a lot of people think that they need to have all of their reflection done by January 1, and it just doesn't always work that way. And so 2024 was really a milestone year for me, number one, I turned 40, which is a milestone age, and I had so much going on at the time, I really didn't do a lot. And to be honest with you, you know, even though things were going well professionally, I didn't feel like I like I was where I wanted to be, personally, right? Like I felt like there were some milestones that I wanted to hit that I had not hit. I didn't look the way that I wanted to look at 40 when I envisioned myself turning 40 or whatnot. And so I, I didn't do much to celebrate. We were in the midst of so much transition with we moved, moved the kids into a new school district. Around that time, I was in flux with a ton of Team transition. I had just let go of my long time executive assistant, and was off boarding to other team members. Was transitioning new people in. And when I tell you, it was so much, I was in quantitative statistics, doctoral level, part one, and at the time I was like struggling to stay afloat. It was so much going on. So for those reasons, I didn't do, like, a huge celebration. I didn't do 40 a year, 40 photo shoot. I didn't do any of those things. I just did something with my family. And at the time, I'm like, that was how I wanted to spend my year, because I recognize and realize that the older that I get, or the more that I age, the more mature that I become, trying to find different ways to say that, you know, my mother gets older, my aunts, my family members, you know, and so I know that they're going to there's going to come a point in time when I have a birthday celebration where they're not going to be there. And so more than anything, I think mortality became very real for me at 40 years old, like it was like staring me in my face, my mortality and the mortality of those around me, and I'm blessed to still have both of my parents living, my in laws, like all of my aunts. You know, everyone's still here, and I'm very blessed we haven't lost anyone in the past few years. And I really just wanted to lean into that and savor that. And so for my 40th, I just wanted to be with my family. That's what I did. And so for this upcoming year, I said, you know, I want to do something different. So, you know, as I reflect on 2024 I looked at, you know, who I was, and the woman that I became At 40, and changes that I'm making going into the next year, going into what was now, Next year's 2025 Happy New Year everyone, and I wanted to share with you all some changes that I'm making, because I know that this time of year everyone is reflective, and you may be reflecting on changes that you need to make. You may be reflecting. On. You know, last year, maybe it was a breakout year for you, or maybe you're just like, listen, last year did not go the way that I thought that it would. But one things for sure, and two are for certain, and that's, we are still here. You're still alive. You still have air your body, you're still able to get up and go throughout your day, and that means that there's still purpose here for you. There is purpose here. There's something here for you to do. It's not over, it's not too late. Your year, last year may have gone great, and you may want to repeat those things that helped you to have a breakout year. And then there are those of you, all your year may not have gone great, and it's like, okay, or it didn't go the way you thought it would. And this is your year to make some changes, so that this year, December, 31 2025, you can look back on your year and say, You know what? Not only did I make it through, not only did I survive, but I progressed. And so I'm going to be sharing with you some personal changes and some business changes that I'm making in 2025 I know for many people that have a word of the year, a word that they want to focus on. And at first, I wasn't going to have a word of the year, right? And like, frankly, last year, I felt like my word of the year, none of like my word of the year last year was expansion. And I don't feel like I expanded business wise, but I definitely expand it personally, right? I feel like I stepped into, you know, like, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, just having the clarity of who I am as a woman, and standing firm in that and articulating it, and not being afraid of anybody's pushback, not being, you know, concerned, not gonna say not being concerned, but just not concerned about other people's opinions, about me standing in my own authenticity and power. And that doesn't mean you know you go around throwing your weight around or anything like that, but there's no like you go through life you have a firmness and a level of assuredness of of who you are and what you personally stand for and what you will accept and what you will not accept, and just articulating that and allowing your personal values to guide everything that you do in your relationships, in your marriage, you know how you interact with your children, how You show up in your business, so on and so forth. And so I wasn't going to have a word of the year until I was talking to my friend, to Masha last night, when I called her on New Year's Eve, and I was like, I don't think I'm going to have a word of the year. And as I was talking, I was like, actually, I do, and my word of the year is progress. And I was like, you know, I a part of me felt like, maybe that was just, you know, kind of too simple, or too quote, unquote small. But for me, progress that fell in my spirit. Because for me, I just want to get better. And it's not just in business, it's in every area of life. And as I was sitting at my desk this morning, as I was drafting up my notes to record this podcast, and I began reflecting on my morning time with the Lord and my prayer time, and I'm like, There's something missing here. And so the Spirit of the Lord dropped in my spirit intention. And I'm like, I do everything with intention, but I put it together, intentional progress, intentional progress. And that goes a little bit deeper than just saying, Oh, I'm going to lose weight, or I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that. That means that I'm being intentional with the progress I'm going to make in every area of my life, in my personal life, in my spiritual life, in my business and I feel like you can have intentional progress in one area, but not in other areas. In this year, I want intentional progress in all areas of my life. So I'm going to share with you what this means for me, because this is my phrase for the year. I don't have a word, I have a phrase, and I encourage you to meditate and pray for.
And reflect and see, open your spirit to hearing and seeing what the Spirit of the Lord says to you about your word and your or your phrase and your direction for this year. Right? So my personal for your personal milestones, like before you start setting goals for this year, do a quick reflection of your 2024 what were some of your personal wins? What were some of your areas of growth, and what are some areas in which you need to set boundaries and guidelines with people and determine what those boundaries will be. If you're anything like me, I am the quintessential high performer, and I've always been this way, just kind of going from accomplishment to accomplishment, from thing to thing to thing. Oh, this is done. I'm going to go on to the next. What's the next thing on my list? But one thing that I've actually learned from watching my husband interact with my children is rewarding yourself. You know, rewarding yourself. And in order to reward yourself, you've got to acknowledge your growth and your wins. So before you start creating your vision boards or creating your goal list or your strategic plans, reflect on your year and write down your wins. What are some things that you felt like went really, really well, or that you won in last year? This could be a fear that you overcame. This could be something challenging that you did, even though you knew or felt like it was challenging, right? This could be an area in which you showed some level of improvement. And be honest with yourself and write down some areas in which you need to grow, areas in which you need to grow, those shadowy areas, those things that we don't really need to that that we know exist, but we tend to turn a blind eye. What are some areas of growth for you, and what are some areas that you know that you don't have the boundaries that you need to have and you need to set boundaries. This could be what people this could be with your own capacity, like some of y'all, some of us, we overwork. You could set a boundary to say, I'm going to shut it down at this particular time every single night. I don't care what you have going on, but you have to set some boundaries and guidelines in regarding how you're going to interact with yourself and with others, and determine what those boundaries are going to be. That's personal. Now, in regards to your business, you want to do some you want to do similar, but it needs to be slightly different. So look at some of your wins from your business, some of the areas that you need to grow in regarding your business, and some experiences that you had that you felt didn't go so well, and the lessons that you learned from them. This is wisdom building, right when we learn lessons, and we identify what those lessons are, and then we work to correct them. Okay, so here are some five changes that I'm making in 2025 okay. Number one, I'm putting extreme focus on my health. I know that I've shared about this in previous podcast episodes. I am really prioritizing my physical and mental well being. I really, truly am like it was really my goal to get this podcast out to you all. And so it is January 1, and I woke up this morning and I prayed and I journaled, and I wanted to get this out early, and so I after this, I'm going to go and get in my 60 minute workout. Okay, so you have to I'm prioritizing my my physical health and my mental well being. I actually started last year, but I really want to keep it going with doing something to grow in the area of my health and mental well being every single day. So that could look like running, that could look like stretching, right strength training, praying, meditating, having white space to do brain dumps, um, that also includes, for me, having a solid morning routine and end of the day routine, wind down routine, like a wake up routine and wind down routine. Now I. I used to have a really solid wake up routine until I started back school, like, let's just keep it all the way real. I had a really solid wake up routine for literally, like 15 years, until I started this doctoral program. And the difference is that my children are older. I used to have the I used to make the assumption, as my children got older, things would get easier. No, as my children got older, they got busier. I got busy too. I got busier too busier than I already was because I'm involved in everything they have going on, like, at least, I would say, like, even at the end of 2024 my daughter had a birthday party to go to every single weekend for like, eight weeks in a row. And of course, I was the one who ended up having to take her right? So that means, and I'm not one to drop my daughter off and then come back for you. I'm staying so you know, when you have things planned out on different days, and it's like, Oh, mom, remember I got this party. Sometimes I put in my calendar. Sometimes she let me know at the last minute, because parents planned it at the last minute, and so me just kind of, especially since she's at a new school trying to support her in that space, there was one she didn't go to, but there was, like a party every single weekend, And we went to 98% 99% of them that practices, you know, just the regular day to day, you know, doctoral work. So I was up late, tired, all the things I got off of my routine, and it was start my doctoral program, and then starting back exercising. So those two things all together kind of messed up my wake up routine. And so I realized I am not willing to sacrifice my wake up routine. I'm not willing to sacrifice my time with the Lord, but it just might need to look a little bit different, you know. So this consists of me still getting up early, you know, and instead of taking an hour to do my wake up routine and my morning routine, taking 30 minutes, you know, still praying, journaling, right, but then also opening myself up to listening to the audio Bible while I'm running, or while I'm on the treadmill, you know, if I'm on the treadmill, or if I'm out running early in the morning, having my prayer time while I'm running like whoever said that you have to be in a room, or if you have to be in a closet to pray like, what matters is your heart posture and and my heart posture is right now, I've got to get this done. This got to be a part of my life, and I'm not willing to sacrifice it, but I'm also very aware and cognizant of my capacity. And so I'm like, God, this is my running day. This is the day where I'm I have, I have to go out to run. And for me, if I don't work out in the mornings, it's not going to get done. My physical health, you know, helps to reduce my stress. It helps to make sure that I am taking care of myself, that I am preparing for longevity, you know, or however long as God sees fit, but I've gotta take care of my vessel, so I'm back to having my prayer time while I'm on a pavement, listening to the audio Bible while I'm on the pavement, you know. And and spending time doing that, you know. So what I realized is that it's not a this, or that it's an and, and finding space for the and and in different seasons of life, you know, things just might look differently, or you might just need to adjust how you doing them. So at least while I'm in school, you know, working on this doctorate, especially since I have classes, I've got school work the kids, you know, my husband started his business, so he's, you know, working more than usual to get everything up off of the ground. And I understand that God has given him a wife that has the capacity to understand and and empathize and support with that, right? But I've got to make some adjustments, because I'm not going to stop what I'm doing.
So I got to just make some adjustments. So part of that is implementing my wake up routine. Now I'm making time. I'm going to get up and, you know, have my journaling time, but also being very intentional with my prayer, making sure that I get the word in once, twice, if not three times per day, whether it's reading a physical Bible, if I if I have the opportunity to do that, or listening to the audio and taking time to journal about, you know, epiphanies that I had, right? And I'm not saying that I'll do that every single day to be audio Bible on the run, but sometime I have long runs, and on those days, that's what's what it's going to be but just making sure that I implement my makeup routine, Bible reading, prayer every single morning, five to 10 minutes of journaling. That's my limit, because I can journal for an hour and then the whole morning's over five to 10 minutes, that's my boundary for that I've got to journal. Journal. Can journaling can look like me writing it, and also journaling can look like me talking it out in my notes, you know. And using that dictation tool, if you have an Apple iPhone, you can journal out your thoughts and notes by talking and getting things out, getting out and speaking the things that you want to write that's an option too, right? Reading my 10 pages. And so one of the adjustments that Well, I read a lot of audio books in 2024 and so I'm going to continue that, but I also want to make sure that I'm reading physical books as well, so listening to or reading my 10 pages per day, again, depending on capacity, right, and making sure that I again get in some type of physical activity. All of that is my wake up routine, Bible, prayer, journaling, reader, listening to 10 pages and physical activity. And I like to have that done before 7am okay, implementing a solid wind down routine is very important for my physical health. It's one of my physical health because it's one of my physical health goals. And having a just like I have a wake up a wake up routine, having a wind down routine is going to be so important for me, because I'm one of those people where my mind is constantly on the go. I don't know if you all have ever felt like it's difficult for you to just quiet your mind, because I'm so used to doing things, whether it's things in my business, things with the kids, I've never been a person to just sit down and watch TV all afternoon, like it drives me crazy. I can watch some shows, but after and I can have my binge days, but to just do that on a regular basis, I feel unproductive, but so my mind, I'm constantly in creation mode, or I'm constantly in, you know, running things mode, just with the kids or whatnot. So to quiet my mind, quiet my spirit, and regulate my my nervous system. And I say, regulate my nervous system, because let that's letting go of the stress from the day and literally winding down. Having this wind down routine is very important. So this means for me, this is going to consist of me putting my phone up an hour before I go to bed. That's the beginning of it, being very intentional about being on my phone less, putting my phone up in a way, an hour before bed to give myself time to stop processing. My doctors have told me that well, my doctor and my therapist told me that when you are looking at the screen at night, it the light, the light from the phone screen, tricks your mind or makes your mind thinks that it's still daytime, the mind does not know the difference. So in order to actually begin to wind the mind down, you don't need to look at light like that or screen time, your body needs to get in the frame of it being night time, and it can't do that if you're constantly looking at light. And so putting my phone down an hour before bedtime, making sure that I do an evening stretch. This is so important. Y'all. I don't know what happened when I hit 40, but I'm like, I can feel, literally in my joints and my bones and my body when I've been sitting too long, when I've been stagnant too long. And so because the work that I do is mostly at a desk, and it's set. And Terry, you know, I have started i Well, I've got me an electric desk a few years ago, but I've got me a walking pad. I try to use it through throughout the week now. And one of the things I realized I absolutely have to do is to stretch, or I'm going to, especially with this running I'm doing, or you gonna pull something, tear something, break something, you gotta stretch. So that's one of my wind down routines, is to stretch, because when you're stretching, you're counting your deep breathing, it's relaxing. So it's similar to a form of like meditation, except for you're not just sitting in one place. You are stretching out your muscles, your body, and when you stretch, you can sometimes feel the stress release from your muscles. So putting my phone down, making sure that I take time to stretch, and I likely incorporate the children with this, but also journaling about my day at the end of the night. This is another reason why I'm not tripping on journaling time in the morning, because I'm going to be journaling every single evening about my day, and also making sure that I set my goals for the next day and closing out my day with prayer and actually reading the physical word. This is where I'm able to open up the word and read it. I do feel like there's a difference between listening and reading, but it's important for me to get as much of the word in my spirit as I can. So like in the morning, time is probably best that I listen, because I have a lot to do in the morning, but in the evening, time is part of my wind down routine, actually taking 10 to 15 minutes to read and pray and bring my day to a close. So I want you to think about what your wake up routine is going to be, what your wind down routine is going to be. It may very well look different than mine, but yours has to work for you, your lifestyle and the goals that you want to achieve. Okay, so those are some of my my health wins because all of that, even though some of it's not directly dealing with health, is dealing with mental health and emotional health, and I feel like the spiritual component helps to balance out, and it helps to make sure you have a solid foundation for everything else that you Do. All right, another change that so my health focus those that's the changes I'm making with my health, with work life balance. Y'all, listen, I know a lot of y'all struggle or are challenged with work life balance, because you have a lot going on, just like I do. And so some of the changes that I'm making in the area of work life balance is setting clear boundaries to ensure my personal time, meaning that I can't work on my business or I can't work on even school work past a certain time, because I have To have my time to wind down. Now, of course, I might work later or work late, you know, I'm saying like a certain day of the week, but I've got to set boundaries. This could be you saying, Listen, I'm going to cut work off. I'm going to cut this off, I'm going to cut the TV off. I'm going to do X, Y and Z to make sure that I have the life balance. I'm going to do this to make sure I have time with my spouse. I'm going to do this to make sure I have time myself. I'm going to do this to make sure I time my children. So you've got to set those boundaries to ensure that you have personal time to nurture those relationships that you need to nurture, and even to just give yourself, you know, a balance. Also when it comes to work life balance, I had to make some adjustments, and one of those adjustments had to be with the goal that I set to finish my doctorate. So when you are setting goals, or when you realize that you need to make change, or when you realize that there are some things that you want to achieve, don't be afraid to make some pivots or make some changes, even if it was even if it didn't align or fit into your original plan. So like, for instance, I wanted to finish my doctorate in the summer of 2026
when I started my doctoral program, I had some credits that carried over from my specialist, and I was within the 10 year mark. But I had to finish my my doctoral degree by a certain deadline in order for my electives to be credited. So all this year, I've kind of been stressing on like, how am I going to do this? How I want to do that with all of these boundaries that I have and the things that I have to do, IRB approval and all this stuff, prospectus, IRB, approval, all these things, you know, how can I meet my goal? And I'm like, I started talking to people. They were like, Yeah, I was doing three I was studying three hours per day. I was researching three hours per day. I doubled up on classes, this, that and the third, and all I could feel is that y'all this sounds stressful, and I asked myself, what's most important to me, is it for me to reach this goal in three years, or is it for me to maintain my peace and my sanity? And I lean towards the peace and insanity. So I say, You know what? I don't want to cause any additional stress on myself. I don't want to ask my I don't want my family to have to sacrifice because of this personal goal that I have. Like, I don't want to tell my kids, hey, for a semester or two, y'all aren't going to be in any extracurriculars, because I need to study that. Like, no, I'm not going to do that. So I had to make the adjustment and say, You know what, even though I had these credits, in order for these credits to apply, I need to finish by this deadline. And just due to my current capacity and what's going to be required of me to hit that deadline. That's not a sacrifice I'm willing to make. I'm not willing to stress myself out. So I had to come to terms with, okay, I'm just gonna finish that following winter. When I thought about I said that following winter, that's not bad. I can still finish in a year. I don't have to finish it, you know? I don't have to, I don't have to rush it. I could go ahead and take these two semesters of electives and then just finish up. I can just go ahead. I'll take these two I'll suck it up. I'll take these two semesters of electives so that I'll still be on track. And then I'll just finish a semester after I plan to finish. I plan to finish in July, 2026 now I'm like, Okay, I'll be done in June, in december 2026, and I say, You know what? That's feasible for me. I didn't want, and I didn't want to take four additional electives, even though I have credits for them. But in order for the credits that I have to apply, I'd have to finish the whole entire program by a certain deadline, which means that I would have to double some things up, and I'm just not willing to, I'm not willing to do that. So since I'm not willing to make that sacrifice, this is the change I'm going to make. I'm just going to take these I'm just going to go ahead and pay for these classes and finish a semester later, and I'm not going to even worry about trying to carry over, or I'm not going to even worry about trying to carry over those credits by this particular deadline, like it's just too stressful. I'm not going to stress myself out. And what I what I realized with that, you know, I think that sometimes we stress ourselves out unnecessarily by sometimes trying to be too ambitious or really not looking at the cost of the things that we want to do, everything that you want to do has a cost. And I say this all the time, especially like in my live trainings, into my clients, because the in the cost that you're paying is not just money. There's a cost for everything that you do, there's an investment for everything that you want to do. And I think that many of us erroneously think that the investment is only financial, no that the financial investment oftentimes is the easiest investment, because you could pay your money, right? But what comes after that is what chokes up a lot of people, and that's putting in the time, the effort, the attention, the capacity to actually bringing the goal forth. So yeah, I'm gonna start working on things behind the scenes. I'm gonna start my research early, but I'm just not willing to deal with the stress of having to double things up or accelerate to try to fit this deadline that I I'm just going to pay for some pay to take new electives, because I don't want to try to stress myself out by trying to carry these. Old electives over by this deadline that expires July of 2026, I'm just not willing to do that. So when you're talking about work life balance, this is an this is an area in which I'm making changes, and I want you to think about your capacity. I want you to think about changes that you might need to make, like, I just share it with you. Hey, listen, I realize I'm just going to go ahead and pay for two semesters of electives and work on my doctorate, my work on my dissertation while I'm taking those electives, instead of just trying to rush the process, some of you all might be in coaching programs. You're trying to rush to finish when your capacity just really, you might, really may not allow it, and you're putting more stress on yourself. Just extend your time in the program so that you can get everything done at the level that you need to get it done. Will it make a Will it require some type of sacrifice? Will acquire financial sacrifice, will acquire a time sacrifice, probably, but the payoff is going to be that much better, and you'll be able to do it without the stress of trying to rush. And that was my thing. I didn't want to pay for more electives. I'm like, I already got these electives from my master, from our specialist, these electives carry over, but in order for them to count, I would have had to finish the entire program by a deadline that it would stress me out to me, so let's just X that out. Let's continue the path of the program. Go ahead and pay for these electives. Take these electives even though you don't want to take them. Take them so that you can get what you need to get. And I had to shift my mindset around this, because I'm working on something that when I have it, I never have to pay for it ever again. I will have it, and I will be able to leverage it for the rest of my life, literally, to make money for me. This means that by before I turn well, by the time I'm 42 before I turn 43 before my daughter goes to high school, before my son enters into middle school, I will be done and I can leverage it and make money from it for the rest of my life. Is it worth the temporary inconvenience of having to pay for or take some additional classes that I didn't want to take. Absolutely, a lot of us, we make decisions based on the short term instead of the long term. Long term, I don't want stress because stress makes you sick. Long term, I value quality of life. Long term, I'm going to finish. Not finishing is not an option, and I'm going to maximize it to the best of my ability. So why not? Why not take my time. Why not stick to the depth? Stick, stick. You know, extend my extend my goal or my time. Why not? It's only pluses. There's nothing negative about it. Some of us, we have to change our perspective and how we're looking at things, because we're looking at things from a limited lens, and it's hurting you more than it's helping you. All right? So I'm making changes in my health. I'm making changes with my work life balance, and I just shared with you all how I am doing that also my work life balance. I last this year, I was trying to work on thing, on work with my doctorate for like an hour. Right now, that doesn't work. I'm still trying to do an hour. I'm still going to do it, but I will. I will go for 30 minutes per day instead of an hour for me right now is to do something,
right and so, and the reason why I'm saying that is because by the time my kids get home from school, then we're going to practices. Either it's taking my son to tutorial, taking my daughter to volleyball practice, taking my son to basketball practice, taking my daughter to basketball games at her school like they have to have parental support. So typically, my Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday afternoons are locked up after work, doing things with the kids. Mm. And so I tried to, I was trying to do my doctoral work, but I just can't focus, like, I don't even lie, there was all that noise, and then I have to go through articles and stuff, and I'm like, You know what? What am I doing? I do? I can work on my business more than I can just focus on doctoral work and trying to write some things out and stuff, because my daughter wants me to watch her, and then Jared likes to get up and play, and it's just too much going on. So so what I said, in order for me to hit my hit my goal of being in the bed by 10 and start my wind down routine by nine, I still need to get some time in every evening, working on my doctorate. I'm working on my schoolwork. So I'm like, Okay, right now, I know I can do at least 30 minutes per day, but I have because I can manage my own schedule. I'm taking Fridays to really focus in on my doctoral work. And I didn't make that up. I actually got that idea from Tara body on one of my former clients. But she also has a a great podcast called God, called God in therapy. Make sure you check it out. And she's in a doctoral program, and she said that's what she does. Like her, Fridays are dedicated to her, getting all her schoolwork done. And I said, You know what? I can do that the family's gone, or I can go into a co working space, lean in on a Friday, start early in the morning, and get everything knocked out so that way my weekends aren't locked up. I can still do what I need to do for the kids, you know, but I'm still going to do my 30 minutes, because I've I need to be in bed by 10, definitely no later than 1030 and I need my wind down routine to start by 930 at the latest. So in order to do that, I've the these are the adjustments that I have to make. Now, for those of you all who you know, you're working every single day, right then you might have to take a Saturday, or you might have to say, instead of sleeping in on a Saturday, getting up earlier on a Saturday and getting things done, whether you're pursuing an academic goal, a professional goal, or working On your business like there's nothing keeping you from waking up at 5am on a Saturday morning when your house is sleep and working on your business for five to six hours. Either way, we it's just about figuring out how to make it work. Figuring out how to make it work. All of us have different lives. Your schedule doesn't look like mine, but all of us have time in which we can do things. Because let me tell you something, if I wasn't doing my stuff on Fridays, like the past, the past semester, it's been Sundays for me. Sundays, I go to the early service for church, and after church, oh, I'm knocking it out. If the whole family knows jazz is working, mom is working on her schoolwork. So Sunday's worked out for me because the kids, typically, they were chilling. They didn't have school work to do. This was their day to just kind of relax. You know, Sunday's like a relaxing day or prepping for the week. I would start prepping for the week in the afternoon, but after church, oh, I'm locked in to doing what I need to do for school. So I don't want you guys guys to think, Oh, you can just dedicate your whole Friday to working on this, because you are you have your own business. Well, let me tell you, my business kept me busy Monday through Friday. I'm making adjustments for this upcoming semester, which means I have to actually start work a little bit earlier so I can have my Fridays open. So it's not as simple as, oh, you can just clear your schedule. No, I've gotta still make adjustments in other areas, and I have to make adjustments with my team and roles to ensure that my that I'm still getting in the things I need to get in, but that my Fridays are open for me to lock in and do my schoolwork, because that's extremely important. That even means that I gotta change the day that I go volunteer at the kids schools. I was volunteering at the kids schools on Fridays. I'm not going to be able to do that. I'm going to have to go, probably on a Thursday or another day during the week. So when you are making adjustments for work life balance, you're going to have to just sit down and figure out how your schedule works and figure out how you can make it work for you and make adjustments. Don't be afraid to change things. But let me tell you something else. This is where focus comes in. This is where discipline comes in, and we're not talked about setting those boundaries. This is where boundaries comes in, especially if you have a family, especially if you have a spouse, because you're. Gonna have to have those conversations. Hey babe, Hey guys, I'm working on something. This is what I'm working on. This is how it's going to be able to benefit the family when I'm done. And so while I'm working on this, I'm gonna take this day to focus on this. I'm gonna take this period of time to focus on this. And so I'm going to be in my office, or I'm going to go here, I'm going to go there, okay? And I'm going to shut my door. And this is what I want to do. Now, if you have kids and a spouse and you do most of the cooking, you might want to make sure they have snacks, make sure you know food is prepped, and all the things. I'm just keeping it real, like my husband is not a cooker. He just, he's not a cooker. He will get food, but his version of food is going to get hot wings or going to get fast food he's doing. He's trying to do better, but that's how he lived for almost close to 40 years before he married me. And he was not health conscious. He was not that health conscious. He's definitely become a lot more health conscious since being married to me, because I'm health conscious, but I can't knock at how he chooses to help, but the way that he helps isn't necessarily my preference. I don't like, I don't want the kids to eat a lot of fast food, so I make friends. I mean, he'll go buy fruit and stuff like that, but like, I try to make sure that we have some healthy snacks, you know, or meals cooked or things like that, because he'll make breakfast or something, but he's just, he's not a cooker. I'm I am because I like cooking healthy. He likes, he's a southern boy. So he likes, he's a southern man. So he likes fried chicken, gravy, all of the things, macaroni and cheese, all all of that, which is okay occasionally, but we know that you cannot eat like that all the time, or you gonna have some hypertension, high cholesterol, all that kind of stuff. So I just I take care of it. So you also have to consider, how do you need to prepare for your time to ensure that it's maximized and uninterrupted. These are these are the things we got to think about as we're going How do you need to prepare to make sure that you can maximize your time and ensure that your time is uninterrupted, okay? Because my husband's extremely supportive, but he he works a lot, he's getting a business off the ground. So a lot of times when he's home, he's resting, he's asleep, you know? And his, like I said, his version of eating, I'm gonna get something to eat. And that's just not my preference. I prefer home cooked meals. So you i I've got to prepare for the family before I do what I need to do. Oh, and there are those times I'm like, Babe, I'm not cooking tonight. Can you just go ahead and get something to eat? He's like, Okay, I got you. But if I want it done the way I want it done, I need to prep it. Otherwise, it's like, Babe, can you take care of this? And he's going to take care of it in his way. Either way, what I'm saying is that you've got to prepare so that you have so that you can maximize your time while you're working, so there's uninterrupted Okay, and I'm using my doctoral journey to explain this, because this is something that I've added in. So I know, like a lot of you all, you are trying to work in your business while you are we're also working a full time job. Well, me, I'm working on a doctoral degree while I'm running a business,
and it's not it's not easy. The work itself is easy, but the most challenging part is the time, and so I'm sharing with you all in real time adjustments that I'm making in order to reduce my stress but still be able to hit my personal and professional goals. Okay, all right. The third change I'm making is really leaning into my own personal and professional development, really leaning into my own personal development. So I'm giving myself a goal of reading one book per month. I've shared with you all about listening to the audio books, but I also shared with you like how I really want to read a physical book, and so again, in the evening, time during my wind down, time after I read my Bible and pray and actually journal, then that's going to be my time to actually also read a book. I'm. Uh, reading is calming to me. I have my pants, my pencil, my markers, my sticky notes, and I annotate as I read. So reading one book per month. And here's the thing, I have books that I suggest to my clients, but I also have books that I have to read as a CEO, and I have books that I'm reading for my marriage. So a lot of the books that I that I read for business, or even the ones that I'm reading in conjunction with my clients, I listen to those on audiobooks, but the ones that I'm list that I'm reading personally, I have, I have the physical book. So I'm starting out this year reading money for couples by Ramit Sethi, my husband and I, we're reading that together. All of the books that I'm reading the top half of the year deal with money, because my financial security is very important to me, and I really want to master money. I want to master finances. I want to master investments. And this is just that year for me. And so I've got about five or six books that I'm reading about money. I know y'all want to know. I'm going to put the links to those books in the show notes, okay? And I'm also reading some business books as well. That's you know that I am reading in terms of my growth and development as a CEO. Now my business books, I do share my community. So if you want my business recommendations, definitely, you know, consider joining us in the publishing paid membership or one of my coaching, long term coaching programs, the the authority collective or the Publish to pay Academy mastermind, okay, but I will definitely put my personal book links down in the in the show notes, because my whole entire book list for the year should be way too much. So reading one book per month and reducing my scroll time and reading instead, a lot of us get caught up into unnecessary discussions online. We definitely saw it last year with the election, you in this back and forth banter with people for what for, over politics, over political candidates for what for what what did you gain from it, other than being stressed and irritated? What did you gain other than your anxiety going up, what did you gain from scrolling this year? What did you gain from going back and forth? What did you gain from reading the comments? I'm a comments person. All day. I'll be up and down in in those comments, reading the comments, all the things, responding. I don't, yeah, I'll respond to comments, but I really read them and see what people are saying. This is my year to reduce my scroll time and read instead. If you could reduce your if you look back over the amount of time that you spent on social media last year, whether it was in scrolling, whether it was listening to some of these insane podcast clips and engaging in discussions about them, and just going back and forth, what could you have done, or what could you have accomplished had you utilized your time differently? One of the things I was looking up these stats about millionaires, Imma actually, because I told y'all, I'm recording this live, habits of millionaires, habits and I and I'm typing it up because I'm looking it up because I can't remember the actual data. I can't remember the actual data, but I remember reading somewhere that a lot of millionaires wake up early. A lot of millionaires read books, and they exercise daily. And I will have to, I will have to find that article, and I can find that article. It was not even an article. It was a it was some kind of report that was done. I think that I was listening. I think I was listening to something, and one day and it, it directed me to some, some type of report that I found, and I gotta go back and find it, but I remember seeing this report, and I remember because I was in the car, and I was sharing it with my husband, and it was just talking in in regards to statistics and the percentages based on income level of people who exercised, people who read, people who woke. Up people who, like it was talking about the habits of people who were at a poverty level, people who were middle class, people who were, you know, millionaires. And the the data was collected by by surveys, and it was a study done, and I forgot who it was that released this, but they put out like the percentages, and you could see stark differences in the habits of people based on their income level. And you could see stark differences I so here you go, you can see stark differences based on income levels of people who watched a lot of TV, like the demographics of people who watched a lot of TV, or the demographics of people who the income levels of people who watched a lot of TV, the income levels of people who, you know, exercise consistently, read consistently and and due to the the data and the characteristics like, there was stark data, and there was, there was stark differences in the data of of um. Let me rephrase this. There were stark differences that the data showed. That's it. This is an edit, y'all, but the data show stark differences in the habits of people according to their income level. And Jim Rohn said, you don't wake up and start making a certain amount of money, you become the person that reaches those goals. You have to become the person first. And I know not everyone, but I know a lot of my listeners. You know your parents, you know you have a lot of other responsibilities going on outside of yourself, and even in that, even in life happening, you still have the opportunity to create new habits every single day. So my habit that I'm changing is reducing my scroll time and increasing my reading time. I want my children to see me reading instead of being on my phone. I want my children to see me writing and praying and journaling instead of being in front of the TV. I want them to see these things because children do what they see their parents do. They don't do what their parents say. Do they do what they see their parents do? So that's very important for me. This episode ended up being a lot longer than I ever anticipated it being. But I hope that this is helpful for y'all. All right, so my fourth goal is my financial goals. Um, I have, we have, you know, financial goals together as a couple. And then there's also some personal things that I want to accomplish, you know, just in terms of my retirement contributions and investing in other things. So I'm, I've had a financial invite advisor. I'm actually listening to them, to him now, and and implementing everything he's telling me to do. And the part of one of the parts of me rewiring my mind around finances is really learning about it again, because I used to read a lot of books about finances, and then when I got married,
I was kind of like the budgeter, but my husband was the spender. It was one of those situations. And so he's grown with his knowledge of finances. And so now I have the the knowledge that I, you know, built on, but now I want to take it up a notch. And so I'm going to be sharing with you guys the books that I am reading about finances this year, and another my financial goals, like I said, was to read a book my husband or read books with my husband about finances. My husband, he will read. He'll read. He'll sit there and read to me about things. And so I'm like, You know what? I'm blessed to have someone who wants to read, who wants to share, who wants to grow so let me also commit to this area with him. So, yeah, I bought one book, but we have some other books that we bought in the past but had not committed to reading. So and it wasn't him, it was me, because I was quote, unquote, big. Z and that was one of, one of the ways in which I messed up. I'm like, I can never be too busy for my husband or for the things that he wants to do, especially if I see him putting forth effort to try to grow in areas of our relationship. And so reading books with my husband about finances and relationships. This is an area that I want to grow in. I want to be a better friend. Because again, I'm very busy, and so it's very easy for me to get caught up in what we got going on, with the kids, with the family, with everything, with events, with traveling. And so although I'm not necessarily at the space in life when I can just drop everything and come I'm very much at the space in life when things have to be planned out. But I want to not just say, hey, we need to get together, but actually plan it and schedule it. And so even if that means once a month, I'm going to make a concentrated effort to connect with a friend, then that's what I'm doing. I want to be a better friend, and not just, you know, be somebody to talk to, but show up for people you know, send them you know, reach out to folks, you know, initiate contact, pray for them, check in on them, see how they're doing. We don't have to have long conversations all the time, but I definitely want to check in on people more and just, you know, make sure that I'm sending out the birthday cards, the Christmas gifts, you know, hey, you know, here's, you know, some change for lunch. Get some lunch on me today. Just random acts of kindness, random acts of kindness to friends and family members, and just making sure that I prioritize that, and letting people know how how much they mean to me. And so for me, I want to be very intentional about cultivating and growing relationships again, at least once per month, connecting with a friend for brunch, making random acts of kindness and reaching out to friends to check on them, you know, to let them know that I'm praying for them, to send them a prayer instead of saying, I'm praying for you, sending them a prayer. You know, that's on audio, and just, you know, continuing to grow in that way, because it's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of life and forget about everything else that we have going on. And that's not what I want. I want to end 2025 with relationships intact, with my marriage stronger than ever, with, you know, an ON FIRE relationship with God, you know, with being the the shape and the weight that I want to be right, having great relationships with my kids, achieving my goals and not being stressed. And I think this is the first year, and these are all personal goals, you know? Because I know that when we are our best personally, then we can show up in our business in a different way. Of course, I have business goals, but my business goals are mapped out in a whole entire annual plan. But I think that the same way that we plan for our businesses, we need to plan for our personal lives as well, because you don't want to be the person that has a successful business, but your personal life is falling apart because you let you because you neglected it, and so making sure that you have a plan to continue to grow and excel personally will ensure that when you do reach your revenue milestones in your business that You want to reach, that you haven't sacrificed life to make the money, but you've been able to grow your life while growing your money, and I think that that's something that many of us achieve to do. Thank you so much for listening. I know that this episode is a bit longer than what I normally do, but I think it's warranted for 2025 and it's a sign of amazing things come. And so my prayer for you is that you know you get you get clarity with your path and your journey for 2025 and that you are able to set goals you know that are aligned with what God has for you and where God wants to take you. My prayer for you is that you excel exponentially, financially, personally, spiritually, business wise as well, and that the work that you do throughout the year and the seeds that you. Plant lead to an overly abundant Harve harvest. Until next time, make sure that you check the show notes for the links to the books that I shared. And we have a workshop coming up later this month, and I'm really excited about it, so make sure you check the show notes so that you can sign up for that workshop as well. I'll chat with you all soon until next time, peace, love and impact you.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
