Welcome to the graceful confidence podcast. I'm your host, Lauren De Beck, the founder of Life coaching with Lauren, a female empowerment coach, an entrepreneur m path and a lover of the ego friendly lifestyle. My mission is to help women take control of their lives by teaching them how to increase their confidence in an authentic and genuine way so they can achieve both personal and professional goals. I will share ways to increase your confidence tips on how to integrate grace into your life as well as stories and advice from other experts on how as women we can better empower ourselves and those around us. I will show you exactly how to use the power of confidence and Grace to create an empowering and invigorating life that you are excited about waking up to every single day. Now let's dive in. Hello and thank you so much for tuning into the last episode of the graceful confidence podcast for 2021. Before we get started, I want to give a huge shoutout and huge thank you to my patrons was lows lisa, Britain barbie and Glenda, thank you so much for your support and encouragement and everything you do to keep this podcast going.

If you're interested in becoming a patron of the graceful confidence podcast, please check out my link in bio. Once you're a patron you have access to bonus episodes the opportunity to ask me anything and some other exclusive opportunities, can you believe we are at the end of the year already christmas has gone, New Year's is upon us and we are about to move into a new year, one of the great things about a new year, a new start is the opportunity to really take a look at our lives, where we are, where we want to go. That's why this month's episode is all about Setting yourself up for success for 2022 and I want to start off by talking about the difference between resolutions and goals because this time of year, there are a lot of people talking about resolutions, so I wanted to highlight some of the differences and then also lay out an idea of a plan that you could potentially use to set your own goals and Really create the life you want to live in 2022. Like I said, usually this time of year people are thinking about resolutions that they want to set. So resolutions are very high level habits or something that you will stop or start doing, it could be start going to the gym, it could be stopped drinking pop or soda just very again high level while a goal is a desired result that someone might want to achieve and it has a target that has an endpoint where you can measure if you are successful or not for that particular goal, why do we set goals or resolutions?

There are several different reasons for this. It could range from just wanting to see different changes in your life to wanting to feel better to wanting to gain material things or tangible things in your life. So there's a bunch of different reasons why people could set resolutions or goals for themselves and each person's why is a little bit different. But it is important to identify that, why, why are you doing what you're doing once you have that, why determined then we can talk about the benefits of setting these goals to achieve your resolutions. The first benefit is it provides direction. So just like a GPS leads you to your destination goals, really do help provide a direction for your life. Another benefit of setting goals as it relates to resolutions for the new year, is it provides focus. So once you have this goal and you have this focus, you know where to spend your time, energy and money when you're making decisions about things, if it's not in line with your goal or what you want your life to look like. It's a lot easier to say no to certain things.

It helps you prioritize what's most important to you. The third benefit of setting goals is it provides clarity very similar to the focus. Once you are clear in your decision making, it will help you. When you're faced with a decision, refer back to your goals and your y and see how your choices will impact where you want to go. And then finally, a benefit of goal setting is it offers motivation. It gives you something to aspire to. Once you achieve a goal, you create more confidence to move forward towards achieving your next goal and your next goal and so on and so forth as it builds upon each other. While both the goal and resolution do include making some changes or following a different pattern or doing something different that you've been doing in the past. They do differ in the terms of duration and exactly what they are. If we are looking at it through the lens of understanding the definition of a goal as that desired result that a person wants to achieve. And then resolutions refer to a decision to do things differently, then that can help us as we move into setting our plan for 2022 what we want it to look like, studies actually show that more than 80% of people fail at keeping the resolutions every single year.

One of the reasons for this is because resolutions requires making long term changes. It is very high level, you don't have that action plan associated with it and it requires a little more effort to maintain those resolutions without really knowing what road map you are following. And I'm not here to say that one is better than the other. It's really how they work hand in hand and putting together a plan that works for you. Because setting goals is eventually what helps people maintain a person's resolution. So if you have that very high level resolution of, I'm going to eat better, your goal could be I'm going to eat three home cooked meals a week or whatever it is to help achieve that higher resolution. If we're looking at it through this lens, where resolutions are the high end thing that you want to change or things that you want to do differently and your goals are the steps that you can use to get there. Let's explore some goal setting tips and tactics that can help you really accomplish these resolutions and goals that you set for yourself in 2022, the first tip is to write down your goals and review them periodically.

I would recommend on a quarterly basis. One of my favorite things to do this time of year is really dive into my planner for the next year and write down my different goals and I have them broken up into categories of personal well being, health, passion projects, career, professional life, greater impact, and then just fun. So I have different categories for the different goals that I want to set for this next year. And if you are interested in finding out more about what my resolution slash goals where for 2021 where I landed, you can find that episode as a bonus episode if you sign up to become a patron of the graceful confidence podcast, so I go really in depth with what I set for myself and where I ended up because it was an opportunity to hold myself accountable as well. Not only do I write out my goals at the end of the previous year or beginning of the next year, but then on a quarterly basis I go back and review where I am, where I might need to make adjustments and then at the end of the year I do a really deep dive self reflection about what this past year looks like for me and what I want to do for this next year.

So write down your goals and review them periodically because if you have them written down that will help them stick with you and then also reviewing them periodically will give you the opportunity to see where you are on that road map and help hold yourself accountable to any changes that need to be made. I would also recommend putting these goals in a visible place where you're looking at them every single day because the more you see it, the more reminders that you have, the more you're going to integrate those goals into your life and the more likely it is that you will take the steps toward accomplishing these goals. Some of the things that you can do or some of the places you can put them is on your bedroom wall next to your bed. So it's the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning or the last thing you see before going to bed on your bathroom mirror, you can take a picture of it and set it as your screensaver or somewhere near your computer if you work at a desk or you're in front of your screen a lot or even as your phone screen saver. Again, just visibility is key when it comes to your goals first tip, write them out and then look at them frequently. So you have it as top of mind awareness.

The second tip is to break your goals up into different categories. I mentioned the categories that I use for my goals each year and really it could be whatever you want it to be. One of the reasons for setting up these goals in different areas of your life is it makes it a little more digestible. Instead of this overwhelming, huge thing that seems very difficult to tackle. If you break it up into different compartments, you have a better picture of what you want your life to look like and you might also notice some trends and overlap and that could offer some opportunities for different things that you want to do. Some ideas for the different categories that you can use for your goals are relationship goals, health goals, work goals, finance goals, spiritual or impact goals. It really can go as far as you want it to go and whatever is most important to you. The third tip when setting your goals for this next year is to set goals that are realistic and attainable, you have probably heard of the acronym Smart when it comes to setting goals, Smart stands for a goal that needs to be specific measurable, achievable relevant and time based.

So if you are setting up your goals using this smart framework, it's going to make it more attainable because you have a very clear picture of what that goal looks like and you will know if you are achieving it or not. One of the reasons goal setting can be difficult is because sometimes people set these very large lofty goals and it's difficult to achieve them and people get discouraged and just kind of give up if you can set smaller goals for yourself and start building upon that, you're really gonna notice progress. So that's why it's also important to set these smart goals that are realistic and attainable. So if you are looking to lose a certain amount of weight over this next year, make sure it's something that's realistic for you and then set it out and set the goal with that smart framework because that can help you accomplish your goal more reasonably and once you accomplish that, you can set your next goal as you move forward. Sometimes when I work with clients, one of the biggest conversation points that comes up is how difficult it can be to set goals and accomplish some really big things and that's why I work with them on setting the small realistic goals so they can take those first steps forward.

For example, if someone is unhappy in their job and looking for a new career, it can be very overwhelming to determine what those first steps are. In a case like that, your resolution might be for this next year, find a job that more accurately aligns with who I am. So that's your big picture. If you are going to break down those goals to get to that resolution, one of the goals could be send out 10 copies of my resume to 10 different companies within the next month or so. So then it's something that's realistic. There are timelines associated with it, there are measurables associated with it and it's something that can easily be done. It's a little more easier to say, okay, I can send out 10 resumes, apply for 10 jobs over this next month than it is to totally reconfigure your career and professional life. And then if that goal is a little daunting as well, you can back it up even further and say, okay, first step is I need to have someone look at my resume or I need to update my resume and then take it from there.

And that's just one example, you can apply this framework to any sort of resolution that you have for 2020 to 1 of the important parts about the smart goal as well is to make sure it is measurable because in order to stick to these resolutions to stick to these goals, you need to be able to see that you're on the right track and measure back to something, setting shorter goals over shorter periods of time and building upon that can really help you see progress. I would highly encourage you to put numbers along with any of your goals because it will make it easier for you to see where you're going. And those numbers can look different depending on what the goal is. If it is a weight goal, then it could be inches lost, it could be pounds on the scale, if it is eating healthier, it could be swapping out the number of fast food nights or take out nights with home cooked meals if it's a salary or finance goal, That's usually pretty easy to measure because there's numbers associated with it, where it gets a little tricky sometimes is goals that have to do with the way you feel and as an empath and someone who is a deep feeler.

A lot of my goals do revolve around how I feel about certain topics or certain things. Sometimes it takes a little more reflection and a little more deep diving to pull out what those goals are out of those different feelings. One of my resolutions over this past year was to worry less. That's a very big resolution. How do you make goals that come from that and how do you measure that? One of the ways that I approached this particular resolution over the past year and honestly I did not do that. Great added. And it's going to go on my resolution and goal list for 2022 is to pull the goal out to meditate more and journal more because I know that when I am centering myself, when I'm taking time for myself, when I'm getting all the thoughts out of my head on paper, That is when I tend to have less anxiety and less worry. So that is a very actionable thing I can do and there are measurables, I can pull out of that. For example, I can say I want to meditate five days a week for 15 minutes.

Those are very specific numbers and it's realistic, it's attainable, it's something that I know I can do and it's something that will assist in that overall resolution of worrying less and having less anxiety over this next year. So that's just one example of those more high level and feeling type of resolutions and goals than some of the more tangible goals. Another tip for goal setting over this next year is design goals that can be accomplished with someone else. We've talked about the importance of accountability when it comes to goal setting accountability with yourself by writing your goals by reviewing them periodically. But if you are doing something and you're working with someone else that also is a very great way to have an accountability partner. Usually if we have someone else working with us or someone else that's counting on us for particular goals, we are much more likely to follow through with them. Accountability is key. When it comes to goal setting, partner goals can range from health and fitness. So if you have someone that you're going to go work out with or a running buddy, that's something that you can potentially look into if one of your goals is to make more time for yourself and to show yourself more self care.

If you are in a relationship work with your partner on swapping off household duties and nights where you might be able to invest more in yourself than having to do all the chores. If getting involved in your community and volunteering is something that is important to you and you want to get more involved in over the next year, talk to a friend a colleague because someone else might be interested in doing that same thing, they just didn't know who to go to or what to do to make that happen. So lots of different opportunities for setting goals with different individuals depending on what exactly those resolutions or goals are that you want to set for yourself. Another tip for achieving your goals in 2022 is reward yourself as you're moving along in this process. That's why it's important to set those smaller short term goals because you can see the hard work that you're doing is paying off and when you do accomplish that goal. celebrate, do something that feels good for yourself and this is going to look different for every single person, you know what you enjoy, you know what feels good to you. So make sure you put in time to reward yourself for accomplishing those different goals because that is going to make you more inclined to stay motivated and keep accomplishing them as you move forward.

I hope over these next few days, the next few weeks as the year kicks off, you really do take some time to do some reflection, really get in touch with yourself, find out what is most important to you and why and realize that you have the power and you have the capability to create the life that you want. And it really does start with these large scale resolution ideas and then breaking it down into these goals that are super attainable, Super achievable and things that you can do to really create the life that you are excited about waking up to every single day. I would challenge you to approach resolutions in a different way this year. If you're listening to this, Recognise that you do have the capability, you do have the power to achieve whatever it is that you set your mind toward and there are ways to do it that make it a little bit easier than these very high level grandiose ideas that seem very difficult to tackle. So I would challenge you instead of just setting these resolutions and saying them out loud once really commit to creating a plan that's gonna work for you for 2022.

And it doesn't have to be a million things. It could be the top three things that you want to see done differently in your life in the next year. And defined goals that are associated with each of those resolutions and break them down into short term goals that are actionable, that are smart goals and really watch as the magic just happens. I'm so thankful for everything that this past year has provided. I've learned a lot of different lessons. I've had the opportunity to connect with many different listeners, many different people across this platform and I am just so grateful I am going to take time myself over these next few days to create a plan for what this next year looks like for me. But if you are struggling or you want to get more information about creating a plan that works for you, please reach out to me. I would love to have a conversation goal setting and setting action plans is one of my favorite things to work with people on. So If it's something that you're looking for a little help on, please reach out to me. I would love to help you.

In the meantime, I hope you have a very happy new year. I hope 2022 is the most exciting and empowered and inspirational year of your life and that you go out and create the life that you are truly excited about waking up to every single day. Thank you so much, and I'm looking forward to connecting with you in 2022.