Welcome back, my Boss Chicas, to our sanctuary of self-improvement and triumph over trials. Together, we'll tackle the true essence of setting goals that resonate with your deepest desires and craft a blueprint for a year that sparkles with your authentic self. I'll peel back the layers of my challenges, from self-doubt to health hurdles, offering you a front-row seat to the raw, unfiltered journey that has led me to where I stand today. We'll celebrate every victory, big or small, and learn to dance in the rain when life's storms hit hardest.
As your coach, I'll share the secrets to spreading the seeds of success across all facets of life—from nurturing your mental and physical well-being to achieving financial savvy and decluttering your world for clarity and joy. We won't just dream about a 5k run or a balanced bank account; I'll show you the actionable steps to make those dreams a vivid reality. Our exploration will encompass the power of vision boards, the art of navigating relationships, and the courage to redefine career paths. Each stride forward is a piece of the puzzle, fitting together to reveal the masterpiece of your year.
So, my cherished listeners, let's raise a glass to the power within us and the community surrounding us on this podcast journey. Your fierce spirit and unwavering support humble me, and I can't wait for us to unfold this year's tapestry of transformation together. Remember, the wisdom and encouragement you'll discover here are yours to carry into each day, lighting the way for an extraordinary 2024. Let's embark on this adventure, hearts open and ready to embrace every moment of the magic ahead.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and should not substitute for therapy. We recommend you seek help from a trained professional for your specific situation.
Q&A: What are Your Thoughts on This Episode? Please message us at contact@smilieempowerment.com
Are you a leader dedicated to achieving success or a professional driven to boost your leadership skills, establish effective teams, and improve your personal and professional development? Look no further! Smile Empowerment coaching offers comprehensive and personalized guidance that caters to your needs, whether individual or executive coaching or team-building sessions.
To book a free 30-minute consultation, please contact us at contact@smilieempowerment.com. During this meeting, we'll discuss your goals and create a tailored plan to ensure your success. Together, we can make a difference and embrace a journey towards your ultimate potential!
Follow Coach Smilie on Instagram and join us live on Thursdays. Conversations with Smilie: we have insightful discussions on different topics at 7 pm EST.
Join our weekly Empowerment Conversations with Smilie in Spanish Live on Tuesdays at 7 pm EST.
Únase a nuestras conversaciones semanales de nuevo empoderamiento con Smilie, Martes de Empoderamiento
a las 7 p. m. EST.
https://www.instagram.com/smilieempowerment/
Follow and help Coach Smilie g...
Welcome back, my Boss Chicas, to our sanctuary of self-improvement and triumph over trials. Together, we'll tackle the true essence of setting goals that resonate with your deepest desires and craft a blueprint for a year that sparkles with your authentic self. I'll peel back the layers of my challenges, from self-doubt to health hurdles, offering you a front-row seat to the raw, unfiltered journey that has led me to where I stand today. We'll celebrate every victory, big or small, and learn to dance in the rain when life's storms hit hardest.
As your coach, I'll share the secrets to spreading the seeds of success across all facets of life—from nurturing your mental and physical well-being to achieving financial savvy and decluttering your world for clarity and joy. We won't just dream about a 5k run or a balanced bank account; I'll show you the actionable steps to make those dreams a vivid reality. Our exploration will encompass the power of vision boards, the art of navigating relationships, and the courage to redefine career paths. Each stride forward is a piece of the puzzle, fitting together to reveal the masterpiece of your year.
So, my cherished listeners, let's raise a glass to the power within us and the community surrounding us on this podcast journey. Your fierce spirit and unwavering support humble me, and I can't wait for us to unfold this year's tapestry of transformation together. Remember, the wisdom and encouragement you'll discover here are yours to carry into each day, lighting the way for an extraordinary 2024. Let's embark on this adventure, hearts open and ready to embrace every moment of the magic ahead.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only and should not substitute for therapy. We recommend you seek help from a trained professional for your specific situation.
Q&A: What are Your Thoughts on This Episode? Please message us at contact@smilieempowerment.com
Are you a leader dedicated to achieving success or a professional driven to boost your leadership skills, establish effective teams, and improve your personal and professional development? Look no further! Smile Empowerment coaching offers comprehensive and personalized guidance that caters to your needs, whether individual or executive coaching or team-building sessions.
To book a free 30-minute consultation, please contact us at contact@smilieempowerment.com. During this meeting, we'll discuss your goals and create a tailored plan to ensure your success. Together, we can make a difference and embrace a journey towards your ultimate potential!
Follow Coach Smilie on Instagram and join us live on Thursdays. Conversations with Smilie: we have insightful discussions on different topics at 7 pm EST.
Join our weekly Empowerment Conversations with Smilie in Spanish Live on Tuesdays at 7 pm EST.
Únase a nuestras conversaciones semanales de nuevo empoderamiento con Smilie, Martes de Empoderamiento
a las 7 p. m. EST.
https://www.instagram.com/smilieempowerment/
Follow and help Coach Smilie g...
Hola Boschica. Welcome to the Smiley Empowerment Podcast. This is where we celebrate the strength, resilience and determination of Latina women and all women who are constantly on the go, pushing through challenges and achieving their goals. I like to call these women Boschica, like me. If you're a busy woman ready to be uplifted, inspired, empowered to take charge of your healing journey and be a Boschica, you've come to the right place. We can all agree, life can be hectic and overwhelming, but anything is possible with the right mindset, attitude, tools and support. Let me introduce myself.
Speaker 1:My name is Smiley Filomenos Rodriguez and I am a Latina Life Empowerment Coach and a social worker. I started this podcast because I know what feeling alone and overwhelmed with past wounds and challenges feel like. I want to help you with self-discovery, self-love and self-empowerment so you can grow and thrive. Do you sometimes feel alone? ¿deciende sola? Well, you're not alone. No está sola. You have me, your coach, smiley.
Speaker 1:In each episode, I'll share personal stories of resilience, healing tips, practical advice, strategies for managing your time and priorities for improving your relationship with yourself and others, and insights on cultivating a positive and fulfilling, joyful life. So grab your earbuds and tea or coffee, take a deep breath and get ready to be inspired and encouraged. Let's begin this journey together and empower each other to become the best versions of our lives. Let's get started. You got this. Welcome back, mi Boss Chica. I am so excited. We made it to 2024. What an exciting time. Thank you so much for being here, for listening to all my fellow listeners. My Boss Chica, I want to share with you that it has been quite quite a year for us here at Smiley Empowerment, as I know for you all. But I want you to take this time to answer this question for me Are you looking to achieve success in your life? Are you ready to achieve success in your life in 2024? If you answered yes, then prepare yourself to manifest a successful year ahead. Get ready to manifest the year that you want for yourself. If you are on the fence and you're not sure, that's okay as well, keep listening. Maybe by the end of this episode, you will change your maybe to a full. Yes, I want to achieve success in my life in 2024. So who is excited? Who is excited?
Speaker 1:I want you to know that you can start improving some aspects of your life a little bit at a time. You don't have to tackle everything at once, you can just pick one or two areas that are important to you, that matter to you, that you want to focus on, and you are going to do this by being intentional and setting goals for yourself as well. Before we go into all of the setting goals and what are some of the tips that I have for you, I want you to know that you can do this. If you are doubting yourself, it's all normal. We all tend to doubt ourselves from time to time, so that is important.
Speaker 1:Now I want to share with you, at the top of this episode, what are the differences between the New Year's resolutions, as we call it, and goal setting and intentions right. I want you to get a clear picture of what these three aspects mean, because we are listening to many folks, different cultures, on TikTok, on Instagram, youtube, google, everywhere, right, where some people are talking about drop the resolutions. Don't use that word anymore. Don't approach the New Year to say to yourself that you have a New Year's resolution. I'm one that believes that we can incorporate all these three aspects the New Year's resolutions, goal setting, your intentions right and being very clear on your vision. We can put that all together. Now let me just clarify a little bit for you. What does this mean when we say New Year's resolution? So New Year's resolution, if we want to talk about it very practically, by definition it's just the broad, overarching statements about what you want to achieve or change in the coming year. It's what you decide that you are going to do. So it's just a statement, right, and it could be a few statements of what you really want to achieve and change in the year for yourself, right. However, you can have resolutions, but without a plan of action, which that's where I take you into.
Speaker 1:Goal setting. Right, and, by definition, it's very being very specific. Right, with measurable, specifics and time bound objectives that will support your resolutions. Right, the resolutions that you have. Goal setting will give you the plan you are going to work on your goal setting, and that is just being very specific, with measurable goals, right, time framed, and that will support the overarching statements and resolutions that you have for yourself for the New Year, if that makes sense. Right.
Speaker 1:And then you need to be very clear and know what your intentions are and, by definition, that is the mindset. Right, the attitude or the approach that you will bring into taking your actions. Right, and that also will involve in you being very clear on what is your why behind each of your goals and your resolutions. What is the purpose, what is the meaning, what do you want? Right, because I want to give you an example.
Speaker 1:If you intend to prioritize your self-care and being a little bit more mindful of your daily routines, right, and your physical fitness, these resolutions are that I just mentioned. They're the big picture, right, what we talk about, resolutions. But when we go into the goals, then you're going to be very specific and you're going to have specific steps to achieve that big picture, which that big picture is your resolutions, right, but I talk about combining all of the three so you can really have a comprehensive approach plan for your personal development and achievement to manifest the life that you want in the year of 2024 or whichever year you're listening to this moving forward. So this is very important and I hope that you are ready. I hope you have a pen and paper. If you don't, don't worry, this is an episode that you can pause, rewind, listen to it often, so download it, share it. Make sure that you are taking the time and making the space for your goals, for creating vision boards, if that's your jam right and I am going to do.
Speaker 1:I had planned to do on December 31st, a vision board party explaining all of this about resolutions and goals, setting an intention. However, I had a bit of a technical issue over on Instagram when I did the live, so I actually rescheduled that for January 4th at 7pm Eastern time over at Instagram at Smiley, smilie Empowerment. If you want to get more excited, get into the groove of things, share with the community right Of empowering women and people, then I want you to go and join us live on the Instagram masterclass that I have for you and also I'll have it up, complimentary to you. I'll have it on replay also. So if you can't join us on that day or on that hour, it's okay because I will post it on the replay, all right. So let's get into it. Let's really get into it.
Speaker 1:I know that you maybe are feeling a little bit anxious about 2024, given that the previous years we were encountering so much of the aftermath of the pandemic, as well as many losses, so many things have occurred out of our control, our comfort and our desires right, because we want peace and harmony and it just seems like so much is happening out of our control that we are not happy about. But I want you to focus for this time that you're listening with me, I want you to focus on what you can do for yourself and I'm going to take you through some exercises. I'm going to help you in this episode for you to really work on your overarching resolutions, getting very specific about your goal setting. I'm going to go and unpack seven areas of your life that all of us, that we, can really focus on. It's up to you to start with one or two, but I'm going to unpack seven areas of our life that, when we focus on these areas, they really make a significant impact on our overall well-being and in our life. So I'm going to get to it right now.
Speaker 1:So get your pen and paper, get comfortable, get comfy. If you're at the gym and you're listening, power away you are rocking it. If you're home in a cozy area of your home drinking your favorite beverage with your notebook and your journal, awesome. If you're just listening while you're watching washing dishes or listening while you are actually going out for a run, that's great. If you are with your family and maybe a few other friends listening to this together, having like a podcast party. Awesome, too.
Speaker 1:Wherever you're at, I am meeting you. Where you are at, you can always pause and know that there's no judgment here, it's a safe zone and it's all about empowering you. It's all about motivating you as well as giving you action plan and provoking thought for you and helping you with your deep, with your deeper reflection and your personal development, as well as just being there for you. So I hope that you appreciate the time and I certainly appreciate you and the time that you've given me by listening, and I love that you've welcomed me, welcomed me in your home, in your car, drive safely, but we are excited about 2024. Happy New Year and I am so blessed and thankful that I have you in my life and that, one by one, we are going to make our life better together.
Speaker 1:And I always share a little bit of my vulnerability with you in each episode, with you, because I understand that you also have vulnerabilities and when you share with me your vulnerabilities and also when we do that, we can create change for ourselves as well as help others to make those changes by offering support. We cannot make anyone change, but we can offer support, so let's get right into it. I'm so excited? Who is excited? Are you excited? And if you're not, I know that if you stick around by the end of this episode, you will have some sheer of excitement and I hope that it really helps you to get into what you need to do, and you don't have to feel pressure. You don't have to rush. You could take your time. However, take some action. All right, I'm here for you. You're not alone.
Speaker 1:So I want to ask you what do you want for 2024? We are in 2024. I'm recording this on January 1st of 2024. So we have 365 days, and it seems very overwhelming when we think about it like that and it makes us feel like, wow, we have a lot of time, which we do. But I want you to focus on your goals and on what you want, to approach it in increments. So for you it might be week to week. I recommend, if you can do month to month and possibly do a check-in every quarter. My companies do that.
Speaker 1:I know the 12-week year is great, which I am going to unpack more on a live that I'm going to do on January 4th on Instagram. It's my empowerment. I think that the whole concept a 12-week year is great because you can focus in intervals of three months at a time and each week within that three-month marker seems more doable for many of us to look at and work on some habits and work on some goals and really monitor it on a every three months basis, as opposed to wanting to do all your goals and monitor and just think of the whole bigger picture of the whole year and within that that quarterly right you have each month and you could break it down also by each week within that three month period, which you can act as if that three month, which is a 12 week, you can act as if it's that's your year, right, and it makes you feel more relaxed. You can really break down things in bite size, right for you, at your own pace, and you can also start at whatever you want, right? You don't have to necessarily start January 1st or the month of January. You can say you know what, I'm going to take it more easy and I'm going to go in in the second month of the quarter and that may be that you start really getting in on your goals in February. Let's just say so. You can start it in March and go run with that.
Speaker 1:Everybody is different, so there's no judgment right. Many of us want to start right away, january 1st I mean I'm going to do it. However, midway, actually within the second week of January, many of us are disappointed at ourselves. Stress comes in, we start, imposter syndrome kicks in and all of a sudden, within the first week of January, we are not working on the visions and the dreams that we have for ourselves, right, and we go back and fold back to our comfort zone and what's mundane and what we know to do best, right, which we're comfortable with, and there's nothing wrong with staying comfortable.
Speaker 1:But where you maximize and grow and I've, from personal experience, not only professionally, coaching people and working with others, but even personally, for myself as well I noticed that where I've made the most growth has been when I've been the most uncomfortable. And that doesn't mean you always have to grow in in comfortability, that's not what I'm saying. But when I have stepped out of my comfort zone to try something new, to learn a new skill, to take a leap right To doing something different in the different areas of my life, that's where I've seen the maximum growth. That doesn't mean that in the comfortability, when things are going well and you know what you're doing with your eyes closed, whether that's in your job, whether that is at home right, if you're a stay-at-home mom or you're in business, you're an entrepreneur right. There are things that you already know many years that you do with your eyes closed. That doesn't mean you don't have satisfaction, that you're not fulfilled. However, that's not where you maximize your growth.
Speaker 1:Your, your next level right. Your next level comes with discomfort because you may have fear of the unknown. You have to learn new skill sets. You may have to change and consider the way you used to do things, to move with the times, to provide the service, to deliver your best self to your boss right To your team, to your business, to your home life. Change is not always easy and we are a creature of habit. So when there's something that we want to change or change sometimes comes without our control. There are things that change that in your life that you're like oh my God, I didn't welcome this, I didn't want this, but then you have to learn how to pivot, you have to learn how to manage your emotions and even if there's some negativity, then how do you respond to that? Right, without really being reactive, but more proactive and being productive. So I want to share with you seven areas of our life right that we can focus on Now. You don't have to focus, like I said, you don't have to focus on all of the seven at the same time, so you can pick one or two and really go at this at your own pace, okay, so just make sure that you know that I don't want you to pressure yourself. So, if you're looking for fulfilling your life, making your dreams a reality, there's seven areas that are very essential to our life right that we can focus on in order to try our best to achieve some type of balance and that includes our self care with our goals right. And these areas are very significant to many of us, and I'm going to unpack them and give you some examples on how you can really improve yourself in these areas, and this will give you an opportunity to set the premise for your goal setting right and for you to start thinking.
Speaker 1:At the top of this episode, I said what do you want right? What do you want for your life in 2024? The next question I want, before we go into the seven areas of our life that I want you to look at and then select. What are the areas you want to work on first. You can work on one or two at a time. I suggest that it would be one or two at the time, as opposed to all seven areas in one shop.
Speaker 1:I want to have you answer this second question, which is the first one, was what do you want out of your life while you're time here and what do you want for this year? Right, 2024. Because we don't want to go too far into the future. That creates anxiety and we don't want to stay stuck in the past as to what I didn't do, your regrets. Right. I want you to stay right, focused in the present, which right now, in the present, you're listening to me, so stay focused on that. But I want you to reflect a bit on what do you want for this year? Right, and it could be what do you want for the next three months? Right, if we want to break it in quarterly, but that overarching remember I said the New Year's resolution it's like an overarching statement which then we're going to plan for with the goal setting. But what is it that you want overall? Right For you in 2024.
Speaker 1:And the second question that I would like for you to reflect and think about is your why, why do you want what you want? Right, and in the different areas you may have different goals. You may have short term goals, long term goals, right. I want you to focus on the reason, why, the meaning, and that has to be connected to what matters to you, not what matters to me, smiley, not what matters to your neighbor, not what matters to your best friend, your partner, right? Not what matters to your kids, but what matters to you. I love that I'm going to do a live to really coach you complimentary, to do a vision board and just to really unpack all of this and guide you and get you excited. So that's going to.
Speaker 1:That's coming up on January 4th, 7pm Eastern time. I've mentioned it before. I keep mentioning it because I'm so excited about it and I hope you can tune there. But in the meanwhile, I'm offering you these nuggets, these gems, right now. Take advantage of it. So those two questions are very important. I don't want to saturate you with many other reflective questions that we can have. I can do another episode just specifically with just guiding questions to help you with your journaling, to help you with your deep reflection, but for right now.
Speaker 1:I want you to focus on what do you want for 2024 and what is your reason behind it? Right, and it doesn't have to be huge. It's what matters to you, okay, and number three what are you willing to do to achieve that? What are you willing to do Emphasis on willing because I can guide you and many other coaches and your mentors, your teachers, your family, many people can share things with you as to motivate you. But what are you willing to do and there are times that we're just not willing to do at the time Certain things that it's for our benefit, but we're not willing to do it for whatever the reasons.
Speaker 1:So, number three is what are you willing to do for your New Year's resolution, for your New Year's resolution, for what you want, for the goals that you have and that you will be planning out and taking the steps to do? What are you willing to do? And if not now, then when? Right, because you may be saying, well, not now, okay, so when? If not now, when? When is it? Possibly you had many goals in 2023 that for what different reasons, you were not able to do it, and I understand. But now you're in the now. So what now? What are you going to do now? What is it going to take for you to start making the changes that you want for yourself?
Speaker 1:And if you tell me, smiley, I really don't know what I want, I have to tell you it's in there. It might be covered with the imposter syndrome. It might be buried with regret. It might be buried with criticism of other people. You know. I want to share with you some lessons that I feel that through the years I've learned.
Speaker 1:I've learned more than ever in the year of 2023, I have to say 2022 and 2023, especially 2023, I learned some tough lessons, and one of them was that I noticed for some time now that I was operating from a place of fear of what other people would think of me, and I often was reviewing myself and believing what other people's perspective of me was. So, yes, I know who I am, but throughout the years and there's so much to that, and for you it might be just as me having fear of abandonment coming from, you know, growing up with a, with a single mom and my sisters and not having that father figure in the home so much stuff that comes with my childhood wounds right that I grew up being a people pleaser and also wanting to always take care of people and overthinking and over caring for folks because of my own feeling of not being cared for the way I wanted to what any child would want by their father and his family. Right, and also, throughout the years, also some friendships that didn't treat me as I deserved and I withstood it and stood there. All of that created in me this feeling of lack of self-worth, as much as people saw me being, you know, obtaining accolades and achieving things Occasionally. I got my you know, my degree in college, right In the university, in psychology, and then I later on I went into doing my master's and social work and worked for so many years in the mental health field and just very successful. However, little by little, I started noticing that I was looking at myself through other people's lenses Other people I don't mean strangers, I mean people that mean something to me, that I admire them, that I took what they said to heart and that may be you and what that does is that sometimes it prevents us from working and operating from our best self, internally, from a confident place, and we get stuck in the past and we start feeling very much not worthy of success, fearful of success, going into more what we're not good at.
Speaker 1:Focusing on that, especially if you're in an environment with a lot of people in your life or significant people in your life that are very critical of you, and that has to do more with them, and I learned that just in recent years more, and I'm a professional mental health professional and a coach. But for my own good right, I kind of felt like, oh no, this person must be right about me. Maybe you know they're thinking you're too sensitive, you are an overthinker. Yes, things that I related to. I'm an empath and I recently, in recent years, got to understand myself better by learning more about what is. Is it to be an empath? And I'm like, oh my God, I finally found out a little bit more of why I am how I am.
Speaker 1:So I say this to say that, in the areas of your life that you want to improve, what do you want to do different for yourself this year, or the same? Because if something has been working for you, you can also carry it into now, this year, it's okay, but I want you to focus more on what are those dreams that you have, what are the visions that you have, that you possibly are listening more to the imposter syndrome, listening more to a friend, maybe, or a mom or dad or someone significant in your life that they don't see that for you because they themselves don't dream that big and therefore you're part of us. So how can you want a bigger dream, how can you want to do something so different out of our realm, of our community, of our family, right? So when we do things that are out of the norm for folks and they don't accept us and support us, sometimes we then go back and retreat to do the same of the same and also to please them. So I want you that, if that is, you don't judge yourself. Just know that you're not alone. I've experienced that, many people have experienced that. If you have not experienced that in that way, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Just be more supportive of us that have experienced that, because sometimes, when we don't experience something, we may be very quick to just be like oh well, that's not me, that doesn't pertain to me. But I always say no, pay attention, listen, because someone in your circle or someone you're going to come across, or yourself at a different time, may need some of these nuggets that I'm sharing and to be more empathetic to each other and put ourselves in each other's shoes for a bit and have more compassion and be more supportive. I hope this is helping you, because I wish I had listened to this when I was going through so much a few years ago, right, and that's why, when I speak like this, instead of being from a place of this is what you have to do I like to share a little bit about my vulnerability, my struggles and combination what I've helped other people right Overcome and accomplish, but, more importantly, what I have been through and what have I done to get better and even share the things that I didn't do so well that maybe, if you have not done that, you can probably I can spare you some time right In you doing it differently and more healthy for you. Okay, so here are the seven areas that I want to ask you to really look at. In those these areas, I want you to look at what can you do better, if there's changes that you want to do in any of these areas or all of these areas, or if some of these areas, there are things that you're doing very well, that you did very well in 2023, and you want to continue it. So this is not about only getting yourself better, but it's also and making changes. It's also that some things you want to pay attention, what did work, and sometimes we don't focus on what worked for us, right, and that's why I want you to be in the spirit of gratitude, because when we are grateful right, and we operate from a place of gratitude, that gives us the opportunity to stop and look at what we are doing well, what's working for us, and that could be from being grateful for the sun that's beaming on us, being grateful for the air that we breathe, right. So it's from simple things to very complex things in your life that I consider them blessings that I want you to really focus on. What are you grateful for, right?
Speaker 1:So, in the seven areas that we are going to be unpacking today, a little bit, and I'm going to give you some goal ideas so you can start thinking about what you want to put on your vision board. If you want to do a vision board, there are folks that don't believe in vision boards, and that's fine. I believe in action, taking vision boards with what I mean by that, besides putting pretty pictures or pictures that you can visualize and they represent the goals that you want and what do you want to feel and what do you want to obtain. There's nothing wrong with that. I also like to put on the vision board or, if you want to do it right on the board or in your journal, like what is the plan to get it and what do you want to feel? What do you want to feel with these goals? Right, and the why. So these are the seven areas that you can look at. What can you do in these areas for yourself? Okay, it's so important for you to really evaluate these seven areas of your life, so it can really help you to start narrowing down some of the goals that you have for yourself for each section. Okay, so are you with me? Are you ready to unpack these areas? I hope that you are, because I'm going to get right into it. Right? So there's seven areas, so it's even good to celebrate those achievements in your areas.
Speaker 1:It's very good to celebrate what did you achieve in 2023? What did you overcome, and then noticing how did you feel, what were the things that were difficult for you but that you did overcame, or some of the things that you might be still working through them, as you are now in 2024. That doesn't mean that everything of 2023, you're like, nope, not gonna look at anything. I'm starting completely fresh with nothing. No, there is this sense of starting new. The first day, the first month of the year, the first day right, it does give us a sense of hope and I think that's very powerful, but we're still who we are and we still have our struggles and our challenges that came from years before 2023, 2022, 2021, right, it doesn't mean that all of that just goes away. I just want you to focus on what worked and what do you want to do, moving forward right In these areas.
Speaker 1:And also, what got you messed up? How did you self-sabotage? Because I know there's things that in different areas of my life that, due to fear, due to being very in tune more with how other people perceived me and their own opinions of me right, and those insecurities in me, they really screwed me over. Actually, I screwed myself over in some areas of my life where now I'm looking at it and I'm like, okay, I know what my triggers are. I know what triggers me in those pain areas of my childhood wounds, right, and just in the last two years, I've really have hone in on learning more to self soothe, as opposed to wanting and expecting my husband to self soothe. My childhood wounds right that come up to surface from time to time.
Speaker 1:We all have an inner child and we all have, for the most part, we all have parts of our childhood or growing up where there was some type of some of us it could be trauma, others just difficulties that we experienced, right. Disappointments that then, as you growing up, when an adult disappoints us or don't keep promises, if you come from a childhood where significant people in your life broke promises for whatever reason, then when you're an adult and people break promises, that could be a big trigger for you. So it's really learning more about yourself and I want 2024, for you to be a boss, chica, a person that owns your stuff right. Be accountable for your own emotions and feelings. Of course, get support, but own that. You are in control of your happiness and how you feel.
Speaker 1:And who do you allow in your life? Okay? And what are the areas of your life that you want to improve or make better? Right? So let's talk about them. Let's talk about the seven areas where you may want to be making some changes for yourself, okay, and that could be in your overall wellbeing, in your physical right. It could be in your physical, in the area of physical relationships number two career right, finances, spirituality, your mental and your environmental wellness right. These are seven areas that you may want to look and examine closer and I would say, pick one or two that you want to focus on in a period of time and then you can move on to another two.
Speaker 1:It's a little harder when you work on all of them at the same time because really, as much as we want to do work-life balance and just balancing our life really true, true, true, true balance really doesn't exist. It's more like us trying right Because it's something that you're focused on. If you're focused on your career right, something else doesn't get you 100% right. It could be that your children see you less because you're working longer hours in your job or in your business. So you try your best to finagle it and try for it to not be so extreme. But let's be honest, right, we don't evenly distribute our energy and time and effort to every area of our life perfectly. That's just impossible as human beings. But we do our best to try, our best to weigh everything a little bit, for it not to be so extreme, right? And that's where the balance we try to have this illusion of balance, so it's important to really focus on these areas.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give you, for each area, I'm going to give you some examples of goals, right, just to get you thinking, because some of you may be saying I'm so overwhelmed, smiley, I don't know even where to begin, where to start, what area to focus on, and, of course, this is something, ultimately, that you have to make a decision right. However, I can help you and I can guide you, and that's the purpose of today's episode is to really offer you some guidance and some help in you doing some goal setting. Okay, so get excited. Get excited, and what I mean by excitement is keep it real, but think about the possibilities if all of this works right. I want you to focus on that more than it's not going to work. I'm never going to do it. I'm lazy, I never stick to anything. I don't want you to focus on those things.
Speaker 1:It's good to identify what are the things that you struggle with, right? What are your poor habits? It's good, be real with yourself and, at the same time, I want you to be optimistic and shift that mindset, to be more optimistic right To be more realistic, with a positive mindset, which means I'm going to focus on doing and I am going to focus on my optimism to be that this will work. When will it work? When will I have everything figured out? Possibly never in life. You can figure everything out. But when can I hit these goals? Yes, you can plan for it and you can start hitting these goals a little bit at a time and go for it, and go for goals that you really want.
Speaker 1:Don't shortchange yourself due to fear. Don't have dreams that are very. How can I explain to you I'm trying to think about a way to say this without sounding like I don't want you I'm giving more importance to bigger dreams than small ones. Dreams are dreams and to you, you give it the significance that you need to give it for yourself, right, but it's important to understand that sometimes we limit ourselves, we shrink ourselves, we dim our light, and I've done this and I've counseled many, many clients that've done this as well, and seen it throughout my friendships. We dim our light to make other people comfortable. We don't go for certain dreams or even attempt to do it because of fear, right. So that's why I'm saying don't let your dreams just be dreams. I want you to take action towards your goals today. Start as much as possible today or when you are equipped to do it right. And what I mean equipped is being willing to do it, because if you're not willing to do it, then you're not willing to do it and you're not gonna do it. But give it the shot. Just do it right and guide yourself. And if there are days that you fall short, it's okay. You're not gonna have every day where you're hitting everything right.
Speaker 1:Failure will give us the opportunity for us to learn as to what we need to do better, to go back at it and try again. And for many years I saw failure as something that was bad and it comes from stemming from my childhood. The seventh grade teacher that was emotionally abusive with me right To me actually. So that abuse of you know that teacher has impacted me for life. But I've learned more and more that failure it's okay. If you don't pass an exam, okay. Then you gotta see what you need to do. If you didn't pass that certification, if you didn't pass that driver's license, if you didn't pass anything, anything that you failed at your business failed for the second time. Then do it again. It might be in a different way, it might take a different form, but do it again. Or if you decide to, you know what, I'm not gonna do this anymore, I'm gonna do something else. Then that's fine.
Speaker 1:Pivoting, changing, it's all good, but don't lose sight of what makes you happy and don't lose sight of what you want for your life while you're here, because we are on a timeframe here in life. We're not here forever. So, making use of your time, regardless your age yes, in your 20s you have a lot of time, right, and I know Gary V speaks of this and other folks speak about you know this is the time, especially in your 20s, to make your mistakes, to try things out, and there's not a lot of meaning risk. But I understand what he's saying and I agree, and I wanna add as well time is of the essence. Still, I've seen folks, very young, passing away or very young with complex lives that maybe at another time they could have done something. But now their life got complex due to health issues or family matters, and that doesn't mean that they're in their 50s and 40s that could be in their mid 20s, where life gets very complicated. So, while you are in existence and you are healthy and you have the ability to move, make. What I mean move is to do the things that you want.
Speaker 1:You may have certain disabilities. There's people that have disabilities and they have certain limitations and then they turn it around and they do other things and they get creative with their dreams and their goals and how they're going to achieve it. There's many people that have chronic illnesses. I'm one that suffer from a lot of chronic autoimmune disorders. Where create I get some of my issues around inflammation of my body, extreme fatigue, even after resting forever. So there are things that I threw out, and this started when I was very young, in my early, very early 20s, even in teenage years, and I had to learn, year by year, how do I achieve certain things, certain dreams that require a lot of my energy right, and my body sometimes did not match what my mind was wanting to do right Physically. I had some challenges and I've overcome a lot. So I know that it's not easy, and I speak of this because when we're speaking about goal setting and excitement of the new year, there are many people that are not as excited, and not because they're lazy.
Speaker 1:You may be one that you're experiencing a lot of hardships, a lot of grief, a lot of loss, a lot of health issues for yourself, where the priority has shifted in your dreams, where you might have had to have paused it. But I want you to know that there's always hope and you can take this little by little in this journey, and you have to do what's best for you. So, as a disclaimer, I'm not sharing here that you have to do everything that I tell you that. I'm sharing here what you can do. I'm asking you to know that you have great resilience and sometimes there are ways to get around certain things and then sometimes there's not. I've had too many times paused on my dreams, on bigger dreams that I had due to my own health right and due to, on top of that, having relatives that were very ill at a time, many years ago, and I had to take care of them and then they passed away and the impact of that. So there are times that throughout many years, even a decade at a time, I paused things that were in my heart, desires that I wanted and that I know I was called to do and here I am now.
Speaker 1:So I share this because I want you to understand, wherever you're at, it's where you're at and it's okay. You can find a way, little by little, on how you can achieve some of your visions, and they may look different from what you thought it could be due to many other issues that may be beyond your control, but what you can control is your mindset and how you can figure out ways to achieve what you want and to understand that you're not alone and that your vision, your dreams, takes more people around you that are positive and encourages to help you to achieve it. So no one gets to success by themselves, right? So if you are having experiences with betrayal and not trusting which I've also had that experience when you are trying to get your dreams up and running or working on it, understand that then you're not around the right people, right, and you can love them. They could be family members, friends but be careful and mindful who you share your vision with. But I do believe don't stay so guarded where you're closed off and you don't network and you don't have other people getting excited with you and also you excited for them and creating a good support right, and it could be one or two people, but it's good to get that and for accountability, that's why it's good to get a coach as well. Hit, hit.
Speaker 1:If you want to work with me in the show notes. I have all the information, the email. You can contact me or DM me on the Instagram and just we can have a brief chat just to see if it's a good fit right, all right. So the first area of our life that I wanna share is the physical, and if this is an area for you that you have a challenge with right, you're physical right. How do you feel in your physical body, in your health, how are you physically right? And if, in this area, you want to improve it, I wanna share with you a few ideas that maybe you can have them as goals for yourself.
Speaker 1:So it could be that there could be a goal for you where you want to get more fit right and you wanna have a healthier weight for yourself, and I always encourage you to speak to your doctor, speak to professionals right, especially your medical doctor, your nutritionist right To talk about it, because, according to your height and your weight, and what is it that you want to do with your physical physique, right. There might be specific things that the professional the nutritionist and your doctor may recommend for you, especially if there's other concerns. You have medications, there's things that you're taking, so, please, please, please, always speak to your doctor, to your practitioner, as well, as, if you have a nutritionist, which is great, to get those two combined. It can really help you with your physical area in your life and you may have some goals as to right and having like a plan if you wanna lose or gain weight, whichever one that you want, right, how do you incorporate exercising regularly? Right, some of the goals that you may be putting as steps, action, steps for that in your physical, you may say, okay, I'm gonna drink more water. Right, and that water intake, are you gonna set alarms for it? Right, that you're gonna have every so often, you're gonna have a glass of water? Right, everybody's different. Some people get these big pictures, these big water containers that have lines and, throughout the day, with a different time, it tells you where you should be. That works for some folks. For some folks it doesn't work. Setting alarms on the phone could be a great idea, right, about drinking. On our phones there are many apps that you can use also that maybe have like reminders and they track where you are in your water intake. Right In your physical health, you may also wanna improve your, and it might be a goal to sleep eight hours daily.
Speaker 1:Some of you may say, oh my God, I have not slept eight hours in years, and now I want to incorporate that because I noticed that the lack of sleep has really impacted me in a negative way and I wanna change that. So for you, in the physical area could be right, in your physical wellness, it could be a goal to sleep eight hours. And what are you gonna do for that? Are you gonna set alarms on your phone or work with an app that's gonna help you? Right, to hold you accountable, remind you of sleeping? Right With your watch, if you have an Apple watch also, I noticed that I recently got one my husband gifted me, so he's so kind and I like that. There. It monitors my sleep. Right, how do I go into deep? How often do I go into deep REM sleep? How often I wake up during the night? And that's important for me, right, because of the chronic issues that I have sleep really affects sleep deprivation when my sleep is irregular. It really for many people, but for those that suffer of certain chronic illnesses, it may have even a further negative impact, right?
Speaker 1:So these are some ideas of goals that you may have and that you wanna unpack in taking action steps. I'm not gonna go deep into each action step because it's a lot and in the interest of time, but if, if you are interested in improving your physical, it might be in these different goals. It might be you want to learn how to eat healthier, right? So then you may want to Google or find out healthier, healthy recipes for yourself, right? If you want to improve your physical and the losing and gaining of weight, then you have to do certain Meals to get the outcome that you want. You may have a goal of saying you know what, as a plan of action within this goal of getting physically fit and Better, I am going to go for a walk twice a day, right? You may set for yourself a goal of running a 5k. So these are the things that you can have as goal ideas and then unpack each one, which, like I said, I'm not gonna get into that right now, but if you're interested, you can really hit me up, let me know we can work on that together.
Speaker 1:Number two the second area, is very important. It's our mental right, it's our mental, our mental health, our, our mental wellness and this is so important also, and it can incorporate right of you eating healthier and Maybe combining it with the physical goals. It combines with mental, with the mental area of our life right. So it's important for us to be mindful that our Our mind is everywhere. At times, we're always thinking and we're always, you know, having some type of thought and we get mentally exhausted and our mental development is very crucial. It's very important for us to Change our perspective, the way we learn things, the way we need to Be embraced more, our mental health and mental wellness.
Speaker 1:And if you really are struggling and if you are struggling with your own mental health, it's important for you to take time to explore. Maybe you want to connect with a therapist, right. Maybe a therapist is not your thing, maybe you don't believe in that, maybe it's too expensive for you, or maybe you need to speak to someone that you trust. I I recommend always a counselor as much as possible. If you can, I also recommend speaking to a trusted person. It could be someone in your church. It could be an elder, it could be a mentor that you have and really express what you're feeling. And you may also want to Incorporate some journaling right, and you may have some, some thoughts that you just want to dump on a piece of paper or in a journal book. I I Like the journal because it can you can really look back at when, from month to month, where you're at, or from week to week, where is your mental and nowadays also on the phones, there apps for this to where you can really monitor and reflect what are you feeling on a daily basis. And that's important because that's you check, checking in with yourself.
Speaker 1:So setting goals for your mental well-being is so important and at times I know that it can be challenging. It can feel like You're alone in moments where you're feeling with your mental, you're not feeling all together, you're feeling overwhelmed, you're feeling burned out, you're feeling depressed. But that's why it's important to seek Professional help or and also to talk to someone that you trust, because you're not alone and our feelings can be all over the place, our emotions, and you can really feel like you are writing a Roller coaster. I know I have, and it's so important that you understand that emotions right, go up and down, they change, nothing stays the same and you can feel like you're in despair. And it's so important for you to know that you're not alone and that this is an area of your life where you can really have Some goals as well in your mental, with mental health and your mental wellness. You can approach it with a little bit more of optimism and Understand that it can get messy, especially with our mental health, and it can also feel very At times it can be unpredictable.
Speaker 1:We can sometimes feel like we are not in control and we can feel very doomed, and sometimes folks have to go seek the medical help and sometimes folks have to Consider getting on medication and things like that. And you know it's something you have to Navigate for yourself and that's why it's important to speak with your, your doctor, point out what's happening, what are the symptoms, what are you feeling, and most likely they can refer you also to a mental health provider and it's up to you to make decision about you know what regimen you want to keep if you want to do the talk therapy, if you want to incorporate that with any type of meditation practices as well, as if there is a need for medication, that's between you and your doctor to determine. Okay, so let's, let's talk about a little bit of in this mental, in the mental area. Number two, that we're talking about Some mental health goals that you can have for yourself to help you right, because we're all human.
Speaker 1:We all go through different, different experiences where we may say, okay, in this area, I do need to get help and I do need to really work on getting some goals in there for my mental health and mental wellness. And I want to give you some ideas of goals that you can have in this area particularly so, and how you can improve right and what can you do to improve your mental wellness? Okay, so, of course, it could be seeking Right, seeking help, professional help, but some goals that goal, ideas that you can do and you can put on your vision board Is, if you want to write into improve Right, that that can also be a goal of saying, oh, you know what, I'm gonna explore some mental health providers and see with my budget what can I do. Or if there's some free help, where can I get that? Or pro bono, that's one on the top right, but you can also learn a new language right, you can have a goal to learn a new language, and that could be taking a Class to learn the language. You can attend a workshop or a seminar right. And also you can have some goals that it could be Practicing mindfulness right, you can have as a goal Okay, I'm gonna practice more mindfulness. I'm going to do some yoga, I'm going to start the therapy, begin therapy. Finally, right, that can be a goal for yourself and say you know what, in the next three months, I'm going to do the research and I'm going to set book that a first appointment, journaling your thoughts could be a goal for you and taking action to do that, because the importance of writing down your thoughts and it doesn't have to be perfect English, perfect Spanish, however, whatever Grammar to be correctly, this is your journal.
Speaker 1:The good part of logging your thoughts and putting them to paper. One is that you dump everything on paper and there's a sense of relief when you do that. Number two, you can use that journal when you start therapy To really work on the first few sessions, as you're establishing a rapport with the therapist when they ask you what brings you here. Then you're not sitting there like so overwhelmed, like, oh my god, it's so much. Where do I start? Well, if you have your journal, it can, and you take it on that first few sessions, speak from the journal and and it can really help and guide you to frame the session with your therapist. Okay, so that's why journaling is it's so important. So, in this area of mental, you can have goals, as, as well as doing some daily affirmations to Improve your mood and elevate your mood, right, you can also have goals of Reading a book every week. You may want to read something. It could be self-help book, it could be a fiction books, right, it could be anything of interest to you. Key is what matters to you, okay.
Speaker 1:Then we have the area of spirituality, and that can be something that, for you, is very personal. For me it's very personal. It has to be your own journey and what you feel that you believe in, right and spirituality is, you know, connecting to something greater than you're, connecting to something greater than all of us, right, and having this space For you to explore, right, your deep emotions, your perspective on life, your experiences, to be curious, to be grateful. So I'm not speaking of one, to define definite religion, right, I'm talking about just the spirituality, right for you to look within and if you want to Examine, right, what are your beliefs, what is your faith, what are your morals, what are your practices, your spiritual practices, if you have any right and remember that your journey, your spiritual journey, is very unique to you. So, if this is an area that you want to have some goals, right, you know you want to feel connected in this area and you have some goals.
Speaker 1:So I have a few goal ideas that maybe you would want to consider and you may want to consider in connecting with a spiritual mentor. You may want to seek mentorship in spirituality. You may want to do that. You may want to set a goal in this area to improve. Or you want to practice forgiveness and Letting go of grudges right, and that's connected to our spirituality, right, so that's something that you may have as a goal that you want to. You may have a list of names of people that you want to Through your spirituality and your belief and your faith, right, you would like to forgive and Really work through those grudges and eventually let them go, because they're toxic more to you Then to the person that caused those grudges. For you, that's a goal that you may have.
Speaker 1:You may want to explore meditation and prayer, right. You may want to, as a goal, say you know what, I'm gonna meditate three times a week. Or I'm gonna meditate daily in the morning for five minutes, ten minutes. Start, start small. If you've never really done it or if you haven't done it in a while, don't feel like, oh, I have to meditate for an hour. I have to know, start little by little and then you can increase the time if needed. Okay, so that's another goal.
Speaker 1:You can have a goal in the spiritual Area of your life. You know you may want to be part of a prayer group. You may want to Practice more prayer right, and that can be a goal for yourself. So these are ideas that I have for you, right, and these are ideas that then you can, from writing them down, these goals in these areas of your life. You can then maybe Transport that into a vision board so it can reflect visually what you want to feel, what you want to achieve in the areas that you want to. You don't have to do all seven at a time. On a vision board you may select a few that you want to prioritize right now in your life. Okay, I hope this is making sense for you, and If it's a lot, you can listen at the to this episode in your own pace. You can pause it, work on it, come back to it. You can listen to it all again in one shot or in increments, right, so don't feel pressure. Okay, so we already have gone through three Areas.
Speaker 1:Then there's the area of career. So, for your career, you may be at a place where, in life, you want to set some goals in your career, and this may be Anything in your career that you want to change. It could be in your professional life, right. And you may want to Start out in a career that you enjoyed, right? Or that you just I first did it because you really not that you enjoyed it as much, but it was something that you needed to do to pay the bills. So what I say with this is that you may have changes Throughout your life. You might have wanted to have a career in cooking and then, all of a sudden, you also wanted to do something In writing a book, right.
Speaker 1:So whatever it is in your professional life, understand that there's nothing that it has to be hardcore to be one thing you can start out in your career doing something that's totally different to where you end up or where you want to achieve Little by little as you climb that ladder of success for yourself right. So it's good to start with one thing at a time, right, and then Understand that if there's something else that you feel that you want to do because you're not as happy or fulfilled, then examine that right. And it might be Going back to school. It might be getting a certification for yourself. You may want to have a degree some people don't right but you may need to learn some new skills to Land a dream job that you've been wanting to get right. Or it may be that you want to learn a new skills because now you're going to go Into entrepreneurship and now you have to learn new Skills, or you have skills that you can transfer right into your entrepreneurship or into a new job.
Speaker 1:So I want you to really think about, in the area of career, what are some of those goals that you want to achieve, because if you are one, that you are in your early 20s or in your mid 30s or you're up in your 40s, wherever you're at, I want you just to be happy. And as we get older, we do feel like, oh my god, I'm running out of time, and literally it is because, you know, we we don't know when, but there's gonna be a time where we are no longer here. So there is time. Time is of the essence. However, I don't want you to feel pressured. Right, there's a there is an old saying that says, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. And that's interesting, right? So I want you and I hope that you can have the mindset of Planning to succeed, right to be optimistic about it. So, in that we need a plan.
Speaker 1:Here's some ideas that you may have if you want to set and improve your professional life, when your career life right. So a goal could be that you want to get a promotion. You may want to go for a promotion that comes with okay, what do I need to do to get this promotion, or at least compete to get this promotion? It can also be a goal that you want to learn a new skill. You may want to learn a new skills to then get that promotion, or change jobs or Advance in your career, right. You may want to start to do your own thing in freelancing at the same time that you're in your nine to five, you may want, like we call a side hustle or just freelancing for a bit, right, so that may be a goal for you. Right, you may want to, as a goal, to say you know what in my career life, in my professional life, I want to work on my resume, I want to update my resume, and that could be a goal for yourself. Right, that's so important.
Speaker 1:Another idea that you can have in this area for goals if you, if this is the your area for you and you're thinking of making a Career change as scary as that might be you may want to put as a goal, you know what, once a month I'm gonna attend a career seminar. I'm going to Shadow somebody else in the career that I'm interested in, I'm going to get more involved, right? So those are some of the goals that you may have and that then you have to unpack them. It doesn't stop there as to just state the goal, right, then we have to unpack and plan for it and do the goal setting. Right. So that's so important. You may have another Goal here for this area of professional in the professional and career you may want to have as a goal improve your communication skills. You may notice, you know what I think I need to improve my communication skill. Your, your supervisor might have addressed it in supervision or in your, your review, or you yourself have noticed you know what I need to improve on my communication skills and sometimes, if you notice how you are communicating and people are Engaging with you, you may also notice and be a little self-aware and say I have to improve in this area and that might be a goal for you in in in the section of careers. Okay, alright, so now we are at number four.
Speaker 1:The category is relationships. With relationships, that is one that, if that's your area that you want to do, that is important and significant to you. It's important Because the people you surround yourself with are the people that bring you different feelings and if you wanna feel happy and social right, then you have to look at how are you maintaining those social relationships and how can you build them to be contributing more to a happier life and a happier relationship. Right, so that might be an area for you. You may want to set some goals in the area of relationships and that's perfectly fine and it's important to in the area of relationships. I can say that it's very important for you to review who are the people in your circle right, whether they're platonic or romantic, those friendships, the partnerships that you have right, that are contributing to your healthy well-being and your healthy and having a healthy social relationship right. And it's important and some of you may be very fearful of this because you may feel like you don't have a lot of friends or you don't trust people, and that's okay. Identify how you're feeling. But if this is something that you want to improve, you can also seek professional help to do this as well. You can also seek a coach like myself to help you in this area or in some of these areas, if you would like.
Speaker 1:But specifically for relationship, it can be difficult to set some goals around this because sometimes we don't want to take the risk right To get the outcome that we would like. In this area, especially in relationships, we can be very hurt by them. We can have some bad experiences, some good experiences, but also some experiences that don't make us feel so good. And also, as we getting older, sometimes we are not in the settings that can be more conducive to us socializing more or improving those relationships. Also, even if you're in your early 20s, regardless of your age.
Speaker 1:It's difficult, sometimes right, to have to maintain the relationships in our life, but relationships are a big part of our social life. There's many research that shows that as we get older and if we are, our friendships decline and we don't have a lot of socializing, we age more quickly, illnesses take hold much more quickly, right, and they even have said in research, they have said that even the lifespan shortens when we are not actively in socially and also having friendships, those connections that deepen our life experience and helps us to minimize the depression, minimize the feeling of feeling doomed and things like that. So it's so important. It's such an important aspect of our life and if this is an area that you want to have some goals, then I want to share some goals for you to improve, if this is an area for you, right and remember, taking risks is important, because when we take some risks, we can gain from it. But sometimes, when we are keeping it always safe, we may not gain what we ultimately want, and it's those deeper connections. So it's so important for us to be intentional about setting these goals in the area of, in all areas, but especially in this area of relationship if this is for you. So here's some tips that I have for you that you can have some goal ideas to really improve your social life, your friendships and your relationships.
Speaker 1:So a goal could be that you want to meet up with friends regularly, more consistent. You may have reviewed that you've been inconsistent. I know the pandemic didn't help, covid didn't help. All these situations didn't help us in our socializing because we became more isolated. But moving forward in 2024, you may have this goal and say, hey, I want to meet up and connect with friends on a regular basis. So make a list of those friends that you have. Maybe it could be two people that you really want to focus on, maybe more at the beginning of this year, because sometimes some people have bigger group of friends and they're like, oh my God, I can't see everyone all the time, but maybe there's one or two people that you really want to deepen more the relationship and be a little bit more consistent. So you maybe want to have that goal of meeting up with those friends consistently or more regularly and get creative If they're out of town. Maybe you want to schedule some face times. Maybe you want to schedule some time where you are on FaceTime but you guys are playing a game together or watching a movie or talking about a movie you just saw at the same time. So those are some especially if people are out of state or in another country those are ways that you can maintain your friendships and have fun with it.
Speaker 1:You may have another goal here where you can say, ok, I want to host dinner parties and I want to host some game nights and some dinner parties because that can improve my social life. If that's the case, that's great. You can have that as a goal and then you can unpack those by actions like setting when you want to do it, how often, and get really detailed with it. But that's a goal, an overarching resolution that you may have, that you want to make more friends and the goal could be hosting some dinner parties and scheduling, sometimes with friends, being very intentional. Another goal that you can have here in relationships it's also the relationship to self.
Speaker 1:You may have a goal of going out alone on dates for yourself, with yourself. So I know that I in my lifetime, I think it's only been three times, three or four times throughout my life that I've gone to the movies by myself, and the first time that I did it. It stems from many years ago. My god, this is more than a decade, more than maybe two decades the first time that I kept asking my friends and my sisters to see this particular movie with me, and for different reasons. Some people were like canceling. We rescheduled, they canceled again and I was like, oh my god, I want to see this movie in the movie theater. I don't want to see it.
Speaker 1:When it came out at home, I wanted to see it in the movie theater. So one night I just told my husband let me get the car keys. And then he goes. But what are you doing? You want me to go with you, I'll go see. And it was a girly movie, romantic and stuff like that, not that guys don't like it, but it was not his big thing that he wanted to see. But he noticed that I was so upset because I wanted to go and people were either busy or, for different reasons, they were not matching the time that I wanted and the movie was going to be out of the theater and what was important and mattered to me was to see the movie at the movie theater. You see, that mattered to me, my friends and my sisters. It didn't matter to them that was not important. They did want to share with me but they were not too into that movie. So that night after maybe I think it was like three or four cancellations of different friends and my sisters, I said you know what, I'm just going to go. So I took the keys to the car and I went by myself to the movie theater and I did. I think I got upset at myself for relying on other people to do something and because I love, I'm an extrovert and I get energy and feel very good in sharing bonding with folks. So for me that was important.
Speaker 1:Right To enjoy the movie with someone and it feels good to do it with someone. But there are some people that they can do it alone as often as possible and actually they even enjoy it more. I've heard people that they feel that way, but that's not me. But I did. I went that first time. It felt a little, I was uncomfortable, but at the same time it was very freeing and I loved it and I got to see the movie that I wanted in the theater and it was very empowering. There were things of it that I didn't like and that's why I wouldn't do it consistently. But I have done it throughout my life four times I believe, for different reasons, and I think now it's very empowering and I've been now intentional. There's been times where I've purposely just said no, I don't want to go with anyone, I'm not even inviting anyone, I'm just going to go me. I've done that twice within those four times and it's very empowering.
Speaker 1:So that may be for you a goal to go out on a solo date with yourself, because you also may want to, as a goal, improve your own relationship to self, and that can be a goal that you can have. So you can plan also your dream vacation. That can be planned as well. So we are up to, I believe, number. I don't want to shortchange. I believe we are already coming close to the end.
Speaker 1:So the next one is finance. This is another area of your life you might want to work on. Your finance and money can be very emotional subject for people, and understandably so. It's not easy and you can have a lot of stress around it, but it's important for you to understand that it's good to know where you're at in your finances and what do you need to pay off. What are some of the debt that you want to pay down? Are you saving towards retirement? Are you investing? Are you taking a look at your finances? You can really look at your goals for finance as short-term and long-term. But you need to take some type of action and I think for many years, especially in our marriage.
Speaker 1:When we first started, we married very young. I was 23. My husband was 25 at the time. Yeah, I was 23. My husband was 25. And when we first started, we had a lot of financial issues and stuff like that. We were starting off in our career and all of that, and many times we didn't want to look at our finances and it took maturity for us to really learn and also getting involved in seminars financial seminars and getting involved with folks that knew about finances and seminars and workshops and things like that, where we started learning more about financial stability and what does it take to be stable and looking at our finances. So it's very important for you to look at your finances. And there's a Netflix Someone else had shared with me. I was reading somewhere that they recommended watching a Netflix series how to Be Rich to give you a beginner's understanding on how to manage your money. So that's something that you can watch and see if it's something that you're interested in.
Speaker 1:But, really looking at planning your financial, your financial outlook, your financial future and you may have some in this area of life you can have a few goals to improve your finances, and that could be having the goal of paying things off, paying debts off. You may want to save for down payment of a home, if that's a goal for you. You may want to start a business and need to assess what do you need to invest in this business and to start your own business. You may want to save for a vacation trip, and that could be a goal for yourself as well. That in your finances. You may want to start an emergency fund where you have an amount of money that you have to cover you in case of an emergency. So these are goals that you can have for yourself, and it's good to write them down and really be very purposeful when you do this intentional, because that will help you to achieve your goal. Once you define what the goal is, why you want to do it, what's the reason that really can help you to achieve those goals, or come very close and know what you need to do so. It's not so much about you not being motivated or being motivated to create everything that you want for yourself. It's to know what you want and what are you willing to do to get it. That's so, so, so important.
Speaker 1:And the next area could be environmental. You're environmental, so this is very important. This is part of your everyday routines. Also, what are you the spaces that you're living in decluttering? Right, because when we have a lot of clutter, it really lowers our energy. And then many folks talk about using eco-friendly cleaning products. Right, that make you feel better and all of that and this is something that's for you and not something that everybody's different. You may use different products, but it's what they're saying that eco-friendly products are better for your health, right? Decluttering helps your mental well-being. So, in the area of environmental, you may, of your environment, changing your environment, improving your environment.
Speaker 1:Here are some goals that maybe you have for your environmental goals, and it could be that you want to start recycling, right, you may want to start recycling. You may want to donate and resell some items that you don't use anymore and declutter your closet. This is a goal that you may have for yourself, right? That's so important. You may want to start a garden Nowadays they have indoor gardens that you can have really nice that you can do. Or if you have a space outdoors, or you may have a community garden that you visit and you share right, so that may be a goal for you. To get more connected and improving your environment right.
Speaker 1:You may want to really organize, look at as a goal to look at your home and work in sections by room. How can you make that space better and declutter it? And I have to tell you that's something that for a long time I've struggled with myself. I'm a person I don't like to any little knickknack that I get. I want to hold on to it and I've been working so hard on that for a long time. And decluttering your home is important, decluttering sections of your home that may be more clutter than others. That's important, right, that's so important. You may also, in this area of environmental, you may want to get involved with a group that does planting trees and getting involved to improve the environment, to improve nature and all of that. If that's important for you. That's an area that maybe you are saying you know what I wanna get better with, I wanna be more conscious about. I want to not produce so much waste. I want to maintain clean environment in my office space, in my home life. So these are examples of goals for you, because the environment is also very much connected with our mental wellbeing, right, and it's very complex. However, it really creates a better, our better health and creates more happiness, more joyful moments, right. So it's so important for you to really look at what do you want in this area, if this is your area to improve, right, to improve your living space, to improve your brain health.
Speaker 1:When you declutter, your brain gets a break from labeling everything. I learned this in a show that I saw I forgot where, but I was like they gave the example. When you go to hotel rooms, right, you feel automatically when you enter a hotel room in your vacation. Automatically, you feel so relaxed just by being there, right, and what they said was is that our brain is working less, not as much, because if the room, all the surfaces, barely have things on it, our brain doesn't have to do all that work in labeling everything. Even if you're thinking, you're not really conscious of it, it's already doing it the colors, the objects, all of that. So the less things that are on surfaces and in our space, then we don't feel as drained mentally. The more clutter, the more things that we have in our space. Our brain automatically is labeling everything, the colors, what it is, all of that. So we're really overworking our brain. That's what I saw from that show that I saw that it was explaining about brain health and the connection of clutter and all of that. So it's very powerful for us to declutter and it's very beneficial for our brain and making small changes at a time is ideal because then you can really create those daily habits and improve your environment and it can really improve your mental wellness and it impacts your brain and your health and your physical health and if you're feeling more happy, more joyful, more relaxed, it really has a positive effect on you, your family, your relationships, as well as the impact that it may have in your health right your respiratory health right, when you dust things off, when you don't have so much clutter, it really does contribute positively to your overall wellness. Thank you, I really hope that these areas that I covered with you and the examples that I gave for the goals can help you to start thinking about which of these areas do you want to focus on now that we started a new year?
Speaker 1:You may just select two. It could be career and relationships. There's no right or wrong. It's what you need to work on for yourself. This was a lot that I covered today, right?
Speaker 1:But I hope that this helps you in setting goals, right, and if you want to do a vision board that is amazing and great, you can, and people do different types of vision boards visuals with great pictures. You could go to Pinterest to get visuals on things that you want and how do you want to feel. You can also put statements up right In your vision board of affirmations that will remind you to keep consistent to these goals, to your intention, right? What is it that you want to feel? What do you want to gain from these goals? What is the final outcome that you want and why? Right, so vision boards can really help you to have it visually.
Speaker 1:Don't obsess over it, right? You can put up your vision board where you can see it from time to time, or in a place that it's sacred to you. Once in a while, you go in and you check on it, right, but I would suggest to not overly obsess over the vision board. But have fun To all of this of what you're listening to me today. I want you to also have fun with the process. That's why if you could pair up with a group of people that are also in the same wavelength as you as doing a vision board party or wanting to share goals and hold each other accountable without ridicule and criticism and without pressuring anyone, then that's great. That is so great. So I hope that this has helped you. Definitely come join me January 4th for the vision board party and more on defining what visions are and goals and all of that and giving and other people exchanging ideas of what they already have created and getting excited.
Speaker 1:It's getting excited. It really is about getting excited. It's so important. We are all connected. Try to unlock new levels for yourself of joy and fulfillment. What makes you happy, what makes you joyful, what makes you tick and it's those small changes at a time that then creates this domino effect and, next thing, you know they're affecting other areas of your life that you start tackling and you start unlocking through the fears, through the excitement, because sometimes we're fearful but we're excited at the same time. Then there are other times that we are completely flat, we're not excited at all, but when we get connected with people that are excited, it's contagious and it's important. But I want you to really start small, take baby steps right and remember that everything you do, one step at a time, is progress. And I want you to also celebrate that progress, because it doesn't matter how big or small. When you're doing the work and you're having progress, even though that you haven't achieved the goal yet, that is worth celebrating for yourself. It doesn't matter what other people may think that, oh, that sucks, you're not a real winner because you haven't obtained what you said you were going to set yourself out to do. I don't agree with that. I say celebrate your progress, because we don't celebrate our progress enough and in the celebration, it's us acknowledging what we've done, the hard work. Sometimes you do a lot of hard work and you still don't obtain that end goal because you failed at it or because you had to pause, whatever, but you did the work, so celebrate that.
Speaker 1:This is the beginning of 2024, or you can be listening to this or came across this in the middle of 2024, or at the end or the beginning of 2025. Whenever you're listening, this I want you to understand wherever you're at. This all can apply right, because I shared key things for you in different areas and we're all human, so we all have all these areas. That's living right. However, we may have more priority on some of these areas than others. We may be very early on in our career or we may still haven't got our first job. You might be listening to this and you're young, or you're older and you're like I was a stay home mom or dad and now I'm in the field for the first time or back in the career. So, wherever you're at, understand that you got this and you have the support here at Smiley Empowerment. You have the support of people in your life. If you don't have a lot of support, then seek and make it your business to find people that are like-minded like you, that are on your same wavelength or even more advanced, so they can mentor you or you can learn from them. Don't be afraid to ask questions and, for those that are my experts, that are out there too and that are very comfortable with goal setting and achieving and all of that, be a mentor to someone else. Don't hold the cookies. Don't feel like the goodies. Don't hold them. Don't hold the nuggets Share, share with folks, be open about your successes.
Speaker 1:How did you achieve it right? Of course you're gonna do it with people that are not ill-will and competing with you or trying to outsource you or anything like that in a negative way. You can. You know there's enough for everyone so you really don't have to do unhealthy competitions and you know being petty about things. I say that if you've had success in something, share it. It's great to share. You know, share the things that work, that didn't work, or how did you achieve the success. And for those that wanna achieve that, get curious and get involved in other people's success and ask them.
Speaker 1:Right, some people become very intimidated by people that have succeeded in things that are hard for them or that they wish they could do, when they haven't or they don't dare to. I say, instead of feeling intimidated or getting locked down on that intimidation more, get curious and you know if you're in admiration, right, ask the individual how did you do this? What did you do? You know, hire, you know, a coach if you needed. You know. I remember the podcast. I hired a podcast coach. Finally and it's been it's gonna be now eight months that I launched and I'm so grateful to my podcast coach that she really helped me to finally do this dream that I had for myself and you know I'm doing the best that I can not perfectly. I'm a Puerto Rican podcaster, now a Latina podcaster. I'm so, so proud of myself.
Speaker 1:But that came with a lot of hurdles and kicking the imposter syndrome to the curve many times, out of my mind and with my coach helping me and learning new skill sets to do the podcast and still growing and learning, because I haven't refined it as much as I project to be in the future, because I'm going through it and I'm learning and there's learning curves. So know that you are not alone and you can do this one step at a time. And if you listen to this podcast all in one shot, I congratulate you, and if you listen to it in increments, I congratulate you as well and please share. Share this podcast like comment. If you can rate it, rate it. Let me know what you thought about this podcast.
Speaker 1:I don't take anything personal into offense. It's learning and growing and seeing what we all need and what can we improve right. So I take this very seriously because I am sharing my knowledge, I'm sharing of my time with you and I am so optimistic for 2024, what it has in store for us and what we're gonna work through together, not promising you that it's gonna be painless, I'm not promising that it's gonna be smooth. I'm not promising you that everything you will have it figured out. I'm not over delivering here, over promising. I am just saying that together we can do it and that you do got this, you do got this one step at a time. So till I see you if I see you in the live, right In the platform, if you're off the platform, you see me, you say hi. If you email me, if you wanna collaborate together, if you want me to come and speak with your team, if you need help team building, if you're a professional, a supervisor, and you need help and you want to improve your communication and some of these goals, you want help, you can talk to me to see if it's a good fit and we can work something out as well.
Speaker 1:As there's so much material and content that I've put complimentary here and on Instagram and across platforms. Take advantage of that as well and share, share, please share. So all my best to you till I see you again. Until you are here with me again. Take good care of yourself. This is your coach, smiley, signing out. Happy new year blessings to you all and thank you to you all for being so supportive and being here as a boss, chica, and a listener of the Smiley empowerment podcast and my community, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Take good care. Besitos, when your engine starts right now, remember toWebinar stories were too much for practice and yourvoid casters.