If you’re setting goals or resolutions for 2025, this episode is for you!
This year, I was asked a question that stopped me in my tracks and shifted my entire approach to goal setting. The end result was goals that made me feel joyful instead of shitty.
Now, I’m sharing that question with you.
You’ll Learn:
Listen to learn the process I used to create a vision, goals and some actions steps for 2025.
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This year, I was asked a question that stopped me in my tracks and shifted my entire approach to goal setting.
What about your life doesn’t need to improve or change?
When I read the question, I immediately felt myself push against it. I was like, “Oh, I don't want to think about what’s going well.” To be honest, it took me a couple of days to get back to this question.
Maybe you’re like me when it comes to goal setting: I usually approach them from a kind of a “manager type” - let's find out all the problems in this system, and let's address those problems.
I usually start with questions like: Where are the gaps? Where are the problems? What are the things that are going wrong? What needs a Re-Solution? The “fix it, change it, stop it, solve it” thing.
But this year, when I opened up Ameila Knott’s “Reimagining Resolutions” workbook and she asked me to look at “What about my life doesn't need to improve or change?" I saw very clearly how much I was using goal-setting as a “whip” to compare, measure, and criticize myself.
(This workbook is SOOO good, and Amelia is sharing it with the Calm Mama community for free! Get your copy of Reimagining Resolutions by clicking here.)
Creating goals and dreams from a negative headspace of scarcity and “not good enough-ness” is like letting our inner critic give us a pep-talk. Not fun. (My inner critic can be pretty mean, although she’s much nicer than she used to be.)
When we let our most negative self define us, we’re left feeling “less than” and hopeless. No wonder most of us give up on our goals by mid-January…
But this year, very cool things happened when I spent time reflecting on my life from a place of gratitude, hope, satisfaction and contentment. Mostly I didn’t feel like shit. Instead I felt so joyful!
The best thing you can do for yourself right now is...
This is the mindset you want to be in BEFORE you think about what you want to create or do in 2025.
From that headspace, you can take a look at the 7 major life areas (Spirit, Mind & Emotions, Body, Relationships, Livelihood, Play, and Space & Things) and decide if you WANT to work on anything new or different. I talk all about these in the episode.
You don’t have to do any of this, btw. You can let everything be good exactly as it is. Contentment is a super power.
Get your copy of the Stop Yelling Cheat Sheet!
In this free guide you’ll discover:
✨ A simple tool to stop yelling once you’ve started (This one thing will get you calm.)
✨ 40 things to do instead of yelling. (You only need to pick one!)
✨ Exactly why you yell. (And how to stop yourself from starting.)
✨A script to say to your kids when you yell. (So they don't follow you around!)
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Welcome back to become a calm mama. I'm your host. I'm Darlyn
Speaker:Childress. I'm a life and parenting coach. And today on the
Speaker:podcast, I wanna talk a little bit about new year's
Speaker:resolutions or goals or vision planning
Speaker:and talk about my process that I've gone through to prepare
Speaker:myself for 2025, and then invite you to
Speaker:take part and do some inner work for yourself so that
Speaker:you feel really clear about where you're going in 2025
Speaker:and what you wanna work on. And I wanna take a slightly
Speaker:different approach to goal
Speaker:setting this year and invite us to think
Speaker:about our life from a place
Speaker:of fullness, from a place of wholeness,
Speaker:from health, from complete, from
Speaker:great, from excellent, from not perfect, but,
Speaker:like, good enough. And approach
Speaker:our goals from a place of, like,
Speaker:I could change nothing, and it would be just
Speaker:fine. Like, I think that a lot of times goal
Speaker:setting is really fueled
Speaker:from, like, that there's something wrong. And I was even thinking
Speaker:about the word resolution. And if you break it down,
Speaker:it's like resolution. And that
Speaker:inherently means that there's a problem that you're solving. So we come
Speaker:to the next year as like, oh, this year was such a
Speaker:disaster, and I've gotta do better, be better, get more, have
Speaker:more, improve, change.
Speaker:And that isn't necessarily the
Speaker:place that we wanna be coming from in order to
Speaker:achieve the, like, the most love for
Speaker:ourselves, really. And if we come to
Speaker:our goals and to our life from a place of not
Speaker:being enough or not being good enough and we're mean to ourselves and we let
Speaker:our critic, our inner critic, tell us what to do and
Speaker:dictate our dreams and visions, then that is going
Speaker:to feel really negative and mean. And
Speaker:so I wanna invite you to think about your
Speaker:life from a place of gratitude and having
Speaker:perspective of of hope and satisfaction
Speaker:and contentment. Now even if you have things that are really
Speaker:hard and really you've struggled with and you're struggling with now,
Speaker:we aren't gonna ignore those things. But I want you to spend
Speaker:time thinking about where things have gone right.
Speaker:Now the process that I use this year to set my goals
Speaker:is a little bit new for me. This past year on the podcast,
Speaker:I invited Amelia Knott, who's an art therapist, to
Speaker:come talk to us about bringing more art and creativity into our
Speaker:life. And I loved that interview so
Speaker:much, and I joined her group. Like, she has
Speaker:a coaching group program called the anti hustle
Speaker:art studio. And I really have just enjoyed learning from her,
Speaker:and she put together a really beautiful
Speaker:guide called let me get it right. Reimagining
Speaker:resolutions, using creativity to envision the year
Speaker:ahead without the hustle. I asked Amelia if she
Speaker:would give our community access
Speaker:to this beautiful workbook, And she said, yes.
Speaker:And so if you are part of my email list, you
Speaker:would have gotten that in your email when this episode came out. So go check
Speaker:that out. And if not, there'll be a link in the podcast show notes,
Speaker:or you can just reach out to me on Instagram, and I'll make sure you
Speaker:get a copy of this. But if this is a lot of this that I
Speaker:did that I'm gonna talk about in this episode is from Amelia's
Speaker:workbook. So I highly recommend you get your copy of it. The
Speaker:question in Amelia's workbook, reimagining
Speaker:resolutions, that really stopped me in my tracks,
Speaker:that really forced me to
Speaker:spend time to think about my visioning
Speaker:and goal setting for 2025 from a different perspective
Speaker:was this. She asked, what about your life
Speaker:doesn't need to improve or change?
Speaker:And I opened up the workbook, and that was the first question. She has
Speaker:some opening lines in it, but then that was the first kind of journal prompt
Speaker:question to answer. And immediately,
Speaker:I was, like, dumbfounded.
Speaker:I realized I don't come to my goals from
Speaker:a place of of, like, what I talked about in the beginning of the episode,
Speaker:like, from this place of enoughness.
Speaker:I usually come from where are the gaps, where's the problems, where's the things that
Speaker:are going wrong, what it needs to be fixed, fix it, change it, stop it,
Speaker:solve it. I I come from, like, a, kind of a
Speaker:manager type of place where it's like, let's find out all the
Speaker:problems in this in this system, and let's, you know, address
Speaker:those problems. And instead, I was forced
Speaker:to question what about my life doesn't need to improve
Speaker:or change. And to be honest, it took me a couple of
Speaker:days to get back to this question. I kind
Speaker:of read it, and then I felt myself
Speaker:push against it. I was like, oh, I don't wanna think about that. I wanna
Speaker:think about, like, oh, the improvement plan, the 10
Speaker:step improvement plan, and all the things I'm gonna do to fix it and get
Speaker:better. And instead, I'm being invited,
Speaker:and I'm inviting you to think about where in your life
Speaker:is okay. What is going well?
Speaker:She goes on to talk about in the book in the workbook, you know,
Speaker:what are you proud of from this past year? What challenged
Speaker:you? What did you overcome? What was fun? What felt
Speaker:easy? What was boring? Maybe that can give you an
Speaker:insight to maybe what you wanna change. Was there conflict? Was there
Speaker:connection? And I went through this process
Speaker:and really found a lot of
Speaker:hope and healing from reflecting on my
Speaker:year in a positive way. When I was asked what about
Speaker:my life doesn't need to improve or change, I then went in and did
Speaker:some categories of where my life is going well. And I thought
Speaker:about my health, and I know I've talked about on this podcast a lot about
Speaker:my body dysmorphia and struggles
Speaker:around eating and and taking care of my body. And I actually
Speaker:looked at my health as a as a thing of itself,
Speaker:not necessarily my physical body and what it looked like, but, like, my actual
Speaker:systems in my in my inside of my body, not the outside of my body,
Speaker:but inside. And I realized that I'm really strong and I'm really healthy and
Speaker:that I've done a good job this past couple of years of
Speaker:focusing on my health and going to the doctor and taking care
Speaker:of things that are, quote, unquote, wrong or that need improvement. I got a foot
Speaker:surgery. You know, I've taken care of my hormones as I've aged.
Speaker:I've gone to the dermatologist. Like, I've done a few things
Speaker:that are really helpful to get make sure that my systems are
Speaker:all working well. I've gone to the dentist, and I've gone to the eye
Speaker:doctor, and I, you know, do do all of these things and I take care
Speaker:of my body. I I exercise most days, and I really
Speaker:am strong and healthy. That alone was so
Speaker:powerful for me to look at what is going well
Speaker:and find that my body is going well. Because usually, I'm like, oh, I gotta
Speaker:lose £10. I gotta get stronger. I gotta go to the gym more. I gotta
Speaker:not eat sugar. I gotta and not eat flour, blah blah blah, all the rules.
Speaker:And when I thought about what is okay, what's going well,
Speaker:and I discovered that I'm really healthy and strong and that I've been
Speaker:taking really excellent care of myself, it made me really happy.
Speaker:Other areas that usually I kind of look at as problems,
Speaker:like my business. Right? This this thing that I do, this,
Speaker:program that I teach, the Calm Mama coaching program, it's
Speaker:very easy for me to wish it was bigger, to expand it, to reach
Speaker:more people, to grow, to have more influence,
Speaker:not for me, but for the community, right, to have a
Speaker:bigger impact on the world. And I can look at where
Speaker:I'm at compared to where I think the potential is,
Speaker:And I can get really discouraged and think, oh, I'm so far from where I
Speaker:wanna be, and I can get upset. But instead, I force myself
Speaker:to look at what's going well in this business, what's going
Speaker:well in this program that I teach. And I realized that the CommMama Club
Speaker:is amazing, and I worked at it a lot this past year
Speaker:and made it a really wonderful program. And the women that
Speaker:are in that program are getting so much out of it. And
Speaker:it made me really happy. I think about this podcast and how many of you
Speaker:listen to episodes and share episodes and go back to
Speaker:episodes. And that some of you, this is one of your coping strategies is
Speaker:listening to different episodes and getting advice and getting ideas
Speaker:and getting hope and getting soothed and all of those things.
Speaker:I made some changes to my business at the beginning of the year that really
Speaker:helped create a better life balance for me, work life
Speaker:balance, and that took some time. And so instead of
Speaker:looking at the problem, I'm looking at where I am in a solution
Speaker:already. Same for my home, looking at my home
Speaker:and and finding it to be beautiful and wonderful and really
Speaker:satisfied, like, the different spaces that I've created in our
Speaker:family, in our in our home to for for sleep, for
Speaker:play, for art, for connection, for community. And I just was
Speaker:like, wow. I love my home. These are
Speaker:areas like my clothes, my marriage, my friendships,
Speaker:like my business, my body. These are areas that usually
Speaker:I feel frustrated about. And asking myself,
Speaker:what about my life doesn't need to improve or change
Speaker:gave me this insight into where things are so going so well.
Speaker:And then asking myself, what am I proud of? And I had
Speaker:this beautiful list of things that I navigated this past
Speaker:year that I am really proud of. This past year was kind of
Speaker:a big deal. My youngest son graduated from high school and I launched
Speaker:both kids into college. They live away and I became
Speaker:so somewhat of a empty nester. Right? A roomier nester.
Speaker:That was a big deal. My husband navigated
Speaker:almost 9 months of being unemployed this past year. I didn't
Speaker:talk about it because it's not something I would normally share on the
Speaker:podcast, but it was a challenging year for him in his
Speaker:career and a lot of uncertainty. And
Speaker:we navigated that as a couple really beautifully. And as as a
Speaker:family, going to Paris with Sawyer obviously was a huge
Speaker:fun thing that we did. Like I said, what challenged me, some of
Speaker:these changes is uncertainty.
Speaker:Then another question that Amelia has in her worst workbook is what was
Speaker:fun? What was fun this year? Think about what what did you
Speaker:do that was great? What did you love? What
Speaker:was easy? What was fun and easy?
Speaker:And I really tried to give myself specific moments of
Speaker:time that were, like, really little, almost
Speaker:vignettes of fun and joy and ease that I
Speaker:experienced this past year and invited myself to reflect on
Speaker:those and to think about them. And that was really, really
Speaker:fun. And then what was boring or what was there where
Speaker:was there conflict? Looking at that and then kind of going, oh, okay. So some
Speaker:of these parts of my life maybe I might wanna improve or not. I don't
Speaker:know. I don't have to. I just taking a look at where am
Speaker:I feeling unsettled or where am I feeling a little bit of disconnection
Speaker:or where is there some conflict in my life, making decisions from
Speaker:that place. In her workbook, I'm just kinda walking you through
Speaker:this part of it. It she has you then go into
Speaker:a lot of kindness, self kindness, self compassion. So
Speaker:you do this reflection. That's where you start. You start in this
Speaker:reflective place, but looking at where things went well from
Speaker:the positive space of reflection, then
Speaker:going into sell saying something kind to yourself and being
Speaker:kind to yourself and finding out, like, what
Speaker:brings you joy, making a quick list of 10 things that bring you
Speaker:joy. So think about it. What are things that
Speaker:bring you joy in your life? I have hiking,
Speaker:completing a workout, reading, learning something new,
Speaker:talking to a friend, baking something new, working
Speaker:on a puzzle, coaching moms, getting lost in a TV show or a
Speaker:movie, being at the beach, and planning a trip. I like
Speaker:being on vacation, but I also like thinking about vacation. I like thinking
Speaker:about places that I'm gonna go and imagining being there.
Speaker:I like being there, of course, but the anticipation is often more
Speaker:satisfying to me and more fun and more joyful than the
Speaker:actual being there, which, you know, both are
Speaker:great. Then another question is what are easy, fun, and
Speaker:pleasurable pleasurable experiences you would like to have this
Speaker:year? Maybe you've already had them. Maybe you already have them in your life
Speaker:regularly. That's fine. Do you wanna do more of that or keep doing
Speaker:it? Not even more. Just keep doing it. So I wrote that I wanted to
Speaker:have weekend getaways with girlfriends. I wanna have a weekend getaway
Speaker:with Kevin. I wanna do do a summer trip with my kids,
Speaker:do a puzzle a month, do a new piece of watercolor or
Speaker:art a month, hike with
Speaker:a new friend, go out on dinners, a couple dates, like dates
Speaker:with other people, go on the trip of a lifetime. We are doing
Speaker:that. We're going on a safari in
Speaker:September, doing hard workouts, and
Speaker:then the experience of not buying. So this is, one of my
Speaker:personal goals this year. My theme for this year
Speaker:is consume less, create more.
Speaker:So I'm embarking on a year of buying less.
Speaker:And when I buy something, it's going to be intentional
Speaker:and with the goal of only buying it one time,
Speaker:like buy once or buy for life. So
Speaker:really researching and making a decision
Speaker:not based on something that I can get quick and easy and
Speaker:cheap, but instead thinking about what will last. If I
Speaker:was only gonna buy this thing, like this couch or this pillow or this
Speaker:new jacket or outdoor furniture
Speaker:or a notebook, I don't know. Some of those things are consumable. But if I
Speaker:was only gonna buy it one time for the rest of my life,
Speaker:what would I purchase? So really being thoughtful and thinking
Speaker:about what I'm buying and trying to be as sustainable
Speaker:as possible and not just get stuff
Speaker:that's trendy or fashionable, like in your home or your clothing
Speaker:or makeup colors or any of those things. I just kind of wanna move away
Speaker:from consumeristic lifestyle and become more of
Speaker:a creator of my life instead of a consumer of
Speaker:things. So that's my theme. There's no reason for it to be
Speaker:yours at all. But it is nice for you to
Speaker:start thinking about who you are becoming
Speaker:and what your values are and whether your
Speaker:goals reflect your values. What is it that you're
Speaker:chasing this year? So another question
Speaker:is to brainstorm words or phrases that
Speaker:describe how you would like to feel in 2025.
Speaker:That's another prompt from Amelia's workbook. How do
Speaker:you want to feel? What's a word or a phrase?
Speaker:So when I did that exercise,
Speaker:I came up with free,
Speaker:full, fun, satisfied,
Speaker:joy, peace, and content. So these were some of the words
Speaker:that I was chasing or these phrases and these feelings
Speaker:that I'm chasing this year. Kind of exploring,
Speaker:you know, how do I know when I'm feeling free? How do I know when
Speaker:I'm feeling full? How do I know when I'm feeling
Speaker:joy? And trying to picture what
Speaker:that feeling feels like in my body or what usually is happening in
Speaker:my surroundings or who am I with or what are the
Speaker:circumstances that help facilitate those feelings
Speaker:of freedom, be feeling full full, like, as in
Speaker:contentment and feeling joy. And I wrote, I
Speaker:know I'm feeling joy when my cheeks hurt, when my body feels
Speaker:light, when I'm energized, when my chest feels
Speaker:radiant. I know I'm feeling full when I have a
Speaker:fullness in my belly deep within and my brain is
Speaker:silent and still. I know I'm
Speaker:feeling free when I'm not overthinking, overplanning, overlearning,
Speaker:over researching, overconsuming. And then I decided just
Speaker:to take the word over out and realized I know I'm
Speaker:feeling free when I'm not thinking, planning, learning,
Speaker:researching, restricting,
Speaker:and purchasing. So
Speaker:these are some of the things that you are
Speaker:invited to reflect on before you set
Speaker:up your goals. I think of all of these as,
Speaker:like, you know, creating like, before you garden, before you plant
Speaker:any seeds, how you have to go and address the soil, how you have to
Speaker:amend it, if you make sure there's enough ingredients in the in the
Speaker:soil. I don't know anything about gardening really, but, like, you know, the soil is
Speaker:good and that you have enough space to grow what you wanna grow, that
Speaker:you're got a plan for your garden a little bit, that you're ready for
Speaker:it. And that's what I'm thinking about when I'm thinking about
Speaker:going back and reflecting on 2024 from a positive
Speaker:place. What's going well, what it feels good, what
Speaker:worked, what do you want more of? What did you
Speaker:love about this year? How can you create even more experiences
Speaker:like that? That is sort of the
Speaker:the soil that I want you to be looking
Speaker:at this year from. Then when you get
Speaker:into the kind of visioning
Speaker:or goal setting, I then switched
Speaker:gears personally and I started to use my Danielle
Speaker:Laporte. She has a planner. She used to do
Speaker:it. It's called the heart centered planner. And I bought it for years, and
Speaker:then she stopped making it. And then she made it again this year. So I
Speaker:was really excited because I love this planner. I'll link it in the show notes.
Speaker:What I love about this planner is there's a lot of places in the
Speaker:planner for the it's like a weekly planner that you can plan your life out
Speaker:and make your to do lists and all that stuff on it. But what I
Speaker:like about it is that there's also places for reflection, for meditation,
Speaker:for thinking, for reevaluating and reflecting.
Speaker:So she has a way to set a
Speaker:vision or way to create goals based on life
Speaker:areas. So what I did was I looked at her life areas. I'm
Speaker:gonna walk you through them. And thought to
Speaker:myself, first, is this a life area I wanna focus on this year
Speaker:or right now in my life? Because I believe deeply
Speaker:that we don't need to be working on everything, all the things all at once.
Speaker:I don't it's not possible, and it's not actually respectful of
Speaker:your nervous system or your brain or your thoughts or anything like
Speaker:that. I think it's helpful to think about 1 or 2 areas of your
Speaker:life and kinda double down on those. Last
Speaker:year, my theme was internalized security.
Speaker:So I was really working on my mind and my emotions
Speaker:because my goal was to get rid
Speaker:of anxiety, like, ruminating
Speaker:anxiety, the ways that I overthink and overplan and
Speaker:overprocess. I realized that I did that because
Speaker:I didn't feel safe inside of myself.
Speaker:So this past year, I worked a lot on creating
Speaker:internalized security, internalized safety so
Speaker:that I didn't have to work so hard to get back to
Speaker:calm, to, like, work through my anxious thoughts. I tried
Speaker:to get rid of them in the 1st place, which is not possible for
Speaker:the record. But the more kind I was to
Speaker:myself and the slower I was when I was feeling anxious, and I just
Speaker:stopped and, like, reassured myself that I'm safe, that things are
Speaker:okay, that I can figure it out. I didn't have to go
Speaker:into my strategies of coping. I
Speaker:could kinda settle settle the ship a
Speaker:little bit faster, which was great. So
Speaker:the life area of mind and emotions
Speaker:is your thoughts, your speech, your actions, and your
Speaker:feelings. So my pattern for my life
Speaker:had been to feel anxious about
Speaker:something because I didn't I couldn't control it because it
Speaker:was uncertain. For example, Kevin not working, something
Speaker:like that. That would make me feel really anxious. So
Speaker:then I would start to over control,
Speaker:over plan, over organize in another area of my life
Speaker:in order to cope or soothe with that insecurity.
Speaker:So, like, if I have financial insecurity that I can't really do
Speaker:anything about or, you know, my brain says I can't,
Speaker:then I feel really anxious so I can't solve that. So I go over, I
Speaker:create a new problem, and then I, try to solve that problem.
Speaker:Like, oh my gosh. I have to get rid of sugar because
Speaker:my joints hurt and then, like, I create a whole plan of control and
Speaker:restriction and all of that in one area of my life.
Speaker:I that's my pattern. I'm not saying that those behaviors
Speaker:are necessarily wrong, but what I was trying to learn for
Speaker:myself is what if I didn't use
Speaker:those strategies? What if I didn't have to go
Speaker:create rules and restriction and new plans and over
Speaker:productivity and over managing in one area of my
Speaker:life to soothe another area of my life? What if I didn't have to do
Speaker:those actions to calm my emotions?
Speaker:That's what I explored last year. So mind and emotions is something
Speaker:that maybe you want to explore this year. Maybe you wanna
Speaker:think about how you how you think
Speaker:and feel and act. That's a lot about
Speaker:what life coaching is and what it's for, and that's I'm here for that.
Speaker:I'm here to help you with your mind and your emotions. It's one of the
Speaker:main things I do in my work. So
Speaker:you can think about if you want to work on that life area. Some of
Speaker:the other life areas are spirit, which
Speaker:is really your prayers, your rituals, breath work,
Speaker:meditation, journaling, reflection, kind of that inner work
Speaker:of feeling safe and connected
Speaker:to either to something spiritual for
Speaker:you. 3rd area, body, like
Speaker:nutrition, movement, rest, supplements, medicine,
Speaker:sex, sensuality, healing modalities. Maybe you
Speaker:wanna take this year and focus on your body and focus on your
Speaker:nutrition or your rest or your you know, a
Speaker:couple years ago, I really focused on my hormones and really took took a
Speaker:lot of interest and intention around getting
Speaker:a handle on what was going on with my body as I'm
Speaker:aging. And I'm really glad I did that. I'm really glad
Speaker:I, you know, spent time doing that. For me,
Speaker:most of the years of my life, my body has been a
Speaker:focus, especially in the new year. But it always
Speaker:comes from a place of fear and it and self
Speaker:loathing and negativity. I'd love for you to
Speaker:come to your body from a place of what's working well, where are you
Speaker:strong, where are you feeling good, and then what would you like
Speaker:to, improve? Would you like to improve your nutrition?
Speaker:Would you like to improve your movement? And be really gentle with
Speaker:your goals and with your thoughts about it. Instead of thinking, what
Speaker:can I lose? I'd love for you to think about what can I
Speaker:gain? I can gain healthier habits. I can gain
Speaker:more movement. I can create more health.
Speaker:So instead of thinking about what you can lose, what can you gain?
Speaker:Relationships. That's the 4th area. That could be relationship
Speaker:with yourself, with your inner child, your marriage,
Speaker:your parenting, extended family,
Speaker:animals, work, community, service,
Speaker:the world, thinking about how can you do you want to
Speaker:work on relationships? Is this the year that you wanna focus on your marriage? Is
Speaker:this the year you wanna focus on your parenting? If it is, join the
Speaker:Com Mama Club. This is the year for you that you wanna actually
Speaker:work on yourself so that you don't show up as a mean mom or
Speaker:stressed parent or anxious mom or, you know, overwhelmed.
Speaker:Your kid's behavior is overwhelming for you. If that if this is the year
Speaker:you wanna work on your mind and your emotions and your parenting,
Speaker:that's great. That's a life area that I have worked on for
Speaker:years years. That's, you know, not something present for me
Speaker:right now because I did that work and I feel good about
Speaker:where what I did in the past. And I did commit
Speaker:to working on it. I was thinking about the word resolution.
Speaker:It's like resolution or resolute, like
Speaker:a commitment when you're when you're resolved to
Speaker:finally address something and get it done. And that requires
Speaker:commitment. It requires resolve. So if this is the year
Speaker:you were like, I'm done yelling at my kids. I'm done being permissive.
Speaker:I'm done giving into them or feeling
Speaker:overwhelmed by parenting every day, then commit
Speaker:and connect with me. The other
Speaker:the other relationships are livelihood. So that's your work,
Speaker:your finances, your service, leadership,
Speaker:education. Is this the year you wanna go back to work or focus
Speaker:on your career? Go go back to school, work, use
Speaker:your education for something. You don't have to. But if
Speaker:it's inside of you, if it's a goal, you can have that. You can create
Speaker:that. You can create meaning outside of your family and
Speaker:have a purpose around your livelihood.
Speaker:Play is the next one. Play. I really focused
Speaker:the second half of the year on creativity,
Speaker:hobbies, travel, interests, and I'm gonna bring more of that
Speaker:into my life this year. That's why I invited Amelia
Speaker:originally onto the podcast because I wanted to bring more art and creativity
Speaker:into my life and into the your lives and offer that to you.
Speaker:And so play, what does play mean to you? How
Speaker:can you bring more of it into your life and thinking
Speaker:about about that? Then the last area is
Speaker:space and things. And so that can be your home,
Speaker:your workspace, your material things, and your belongings.
Speaker:I started to say something about this early on, but this is an area that
Speaker:I am working on not so much as improving my
Speaker:space. I feel like I have done
Speaker:a lot to improve my space, and I have a lot of belongings.
Speaker:And I wanna be satisfied with the belongings I
Speaker:have. I wanna be satisfied with the space I have, with the
Speaker:clothing I have, with what I currently
Speaker:own, and be content with it and not
Speaker:pursue consuming more. So my
Speaker:relationship with space and things right now is consuming
Speaker:less and appreciating
Speaker:more of what I've already created,
Speaker:what I've already consumed. And it's been an
Speaker:interesting exploration for me. So this is an a big area of my life
Speaker:this year that I'm exploring. And, I'm sure I'll bring it up
Speaker:in the podcast over time. I wrote about this. I
Speaker:said, I wanna change my relationship to stuff. I want to
Speaker:purchase less, and I want to own things that are beautiful,
Speaker:well made, purposeful, long lasting,
Speaker:personally enriching, and thoughtful. I want to use what I
Speaker:have and only add new things with intention,
Speaker:research, and planning. I wanna get out of short term shopping and
Speaker:impulse buying. I want to not use retail therapy for
Speaker:soothing. So that's what I'm working on this year. These
Speaker:are the things that I've decided. Then what I did after
Speaker:I explored these life areas, see where it's working, where it's not,
Speaker:then I made a little bit of an action steps for myself.
Speaker:Like, what am I actually doing this year?
Speaker:And, I don't know if I wanna share
Speaker:them, but, you know, intent here's a couple. Intentionally choose
Speaker:play every day. So that's consume less, create more,
Speaker:be a thoughtful purchaser, take excellent care of my body with
Speaker:with a balanced nutritious diet and daily movement with strengthening,
Speaker:be kind and outgoing. One of my goals is to create a new friendship,
Speaker:a new couple friend for my husband and I to hang out with that live
Speaker:close to us. So that's something I'm like, I'm just waiting for that friend
Speaker:to come. So I wanna be more open to that. I'm gonna enjoy the friends
Speaker:I have, make room for new ones. And I've personally
Speaker:decided I wanna meditate and visualize more this year to bring
Speaker:that more of that spirit area into my life, picking a couple
Speaker:of meditative group gurus or leaders or or thought
Speaker:leaders that I want to spend time with this next year.
Speaker:So that's where I'm at. Those are my goals. My
Speaker:theme for this year is consume less, create more.
Speaker:And I'm gonna be really gentle and loving with
Speaker:myself and create more play, more rest,
Speaker:more intentional intentionality around
Speaker:work, around friendships. Yeah. Just kind
Speaker:of explore a little bit more about who I am in
Speaker:this period of my life with my kids away at college and
Speaker:see what happens. And I want to invite you this
Speaker:year to see what happens. You know, you don't have to come
Speaker:at the new year from a place of,
Speaker:you know, my life is a disaster, and my kids are a
Speaker:mess, and my house is a mess, and my relationship with my husband or my
Speaker:wife is a mess, and I'm, you know, so unhappy, and my parents
Speaker:are sick, and I'm not a good daughter. And I like, yeah.
Speaker:You don't have to do any of that. You can be like, I'm kicking
Speaker:ass. I'm doing great. Here's all the
Speaker:evidence of that. Find evidence. Write a list of what you're
Speaker:proud of, what you've overcome,
Speaker:what's going well, and then decide
Speaker:how do you want to take excellent care of yourself this year
Speaker:from the framework of I'm worthy, I'm lovable,
Speaker:I'm deserving. What would you like
Speaker:to create more of for yourself? Do
Speaker:you want better relationships? Do you want more health? Do you want
Speaker:more wealth? Do you want more peace? Do you want more
Speaker:ease? Make those your goals and then
Speaker:be resolute about it. Resolve to
Speaker:prioritize yourself and create more of what you want and
Speaker:what you love. If you need any help with any of this,
Speaker:please reach out. You can. If you're on the email list, just reply to the
Speaker:email that you received, and I can schedule a consultation
Speaker:with you. If someone sent this to you, you can follow me
Speaker:at Darlyn Childress on Instagram or go to
Speaker:calm mama coaching.com. There's some free resources on
Speaker:there and just connect with me and start, you know,
Speaker:getting signed up to the weekly emails and learn
Speaker:more. I wish you all just the most
Speaker:beautiful 2025, and I thank you so much for
Speaker:listening to this podcast and for being such a a huge
Speaker:part of my life even though I don't get to see you or talk to
Speaker:you, most of you. You mean a lot to me. And I think about you
Speaker:all week long when I'm thinking about what episode I'm gonna record
Speaker:and what you might need to hear. So I'm wishing you
Speaker:just the most beautiful 2025, and I
Speaker:will talk to you next time.