Launching into New Goals and a New Year

In this episode:

Let's talk about how you did with the goals you set in 2019. If there are some that you didn't achieve, what got in the way? In this episode, we review some of the ways we sometimes need to adapt in order to deal with real life and to let go of some of our aspirations without guilt. The episode also covers some exciting changes with the podcast in 2020!

Inspired Life: What's coming on future episodes of the podcast

It’s just a few days into a brand new year, and a new decade. I’m launching the year with some news about this podcast as well as some reflection about the last year.

Just a little over a year ago, I launched the Life, Repurposed podcast. My intent was to inspire others to find joy in the middle of the not-so-fun stuff in life, to challenge themselves toward change if they weren’t happy with the status quo, and to discover helpful resources that would encourage them to grow and change.

In the last year, I covered topics about setting goals and simplifying. I talked about decluttering, about health, and about my own challenges with making time for self-care. I’m still working on the rest of my plan for 2020, and I’m working on being even more intentional about what I share with you.

I have some exciting news to share that will make it possible for me to bring you more episodes of Life, Repurposed. Here is what’s on the docket for 2020:

  1. I’m going to include bonus videos here and there on my Facebook page (link in shownotes MichelleRayburn.com/24. But from this point forward, regular episodes will be podcast/audio only. By taking away the extra time it takes to produce video, it will lead to the next change…
  2. I am going to produce more episodes! Instead of being a bi-monthly show, I am going to produce weekly episodes.
  3. This one isn’t really a change, but I’m going to stick to episodes that are 15 minutes long as often as possible. You’re busy! Your life is crazy. If you’re like me, you have a few minutes while you’re styling your hair, and you don’t have time for a 1-hour episode. Me either!! I want Life, Repurposed to be short and punchy and packed with something practical.
  4. I have moved to a new hosting platform, which allows me to share much better show notes with you right on the podcast pages. As always, every episode will have an article that I call show notes, to go along with it. You’ll find links to any resources I mention on an episode so that later, you can hop on and grab that info. If you’re in the car, I don’t want you to get out paper and try to take notes. I care about your safety. You’re welcome! When you’re free later, just get the show notes! MichelleRayburn.com slash the episode number.
  5. Having more episodes will mean I can include more guests, as long as their content fits my audience.
  6. Each episode will still have the three sections that include Inspired Life (a topic that touches practice issues), Life, Repurposed (either a story about how someone pressed forward, despite challenges, or practical tips to help you see your circumstances in a new way) and Resources (books, articles, or episodes of other podcasts that I have curated for you.

As we think about 2019, I am reflecting on the goals that I did get done and the ones that I didn’t. Did you have some like that? I set goals, but I hold them loosely. The last week of December could be guilt-week if all of the unfinished stuff from the year came crashing down in your brain. I did a review of my year and worked on focusing on what I did do, not only what I didn’t do. Let’s talk about what to do if you didn’t come close to the outcome you had hoped for last year and look at what you can do about that in 2020.

 

 Life, Repurposed: How goals change with life changes

In the next episode, I’m going to give you a behind the scenes look at my own evaluation of goals. But here are some questions to ask yourself as you begin a new year and debate on what to do about goals:

  1. Did something unexpected come up that interrupted your plans? I have friends that went through losing a home to a flood, health crises, moving across the country, losing a spouse, losing a job, and more. Rather than tackling their goals, their main goal is picking up the pieces and moving forward from there. Repurposing is about taking a new direction when you need to. You had NO way of knowing last January what was going to happen in the year. So keep that in mind as you hold loosely to your ideas for 2020 too.
  2. Did you accomplish something you didn’t expect you would? I had a couple of huge freelance projects last year that weren’t on my radar in January. They were wonderful and I loved doing them. But they did change my goals. I had to bump the completion of my current book into 2020 instead of publishing it by the end of December.
  3. Did you learn something about yourself last year that stretched you and made you a better or stronger person? Give yourself a pat on the back for that personal growth.
  4. Did you let go of a goal when you realized that it was not only unrealistic, but also not in your best interest? I once let go of a whole career for this reason, but that wasn’t in my 5-year plan when I started the career.
  5. Did you make excuses when you had no reason for not achieving your goals? We do this too. I’ve done it. I sometimes think I have no time and then I realize that I actual have simply chosen not to use it wisely. Rather than shaming yourself for that, let’s make the best of it and figure out what you will do differently in 2020.
  6. Were your goals based on what you thought they should be rather than what you really wanted them to be? Again, I had a career that I pursued because I thought I should based on what my high school guidance counselor said and on what others said. I’m not sorry for what I learned by taking that direction, but as soon as I realized it wasn’t right for me, I made a change—even though others still had an idea of what I should For more on ditching the “should” in the episode called “Friend or Fixer.”

In the next episode, I will walk through how I evaluated my goals from last year. In the meantime, I’m going to share a couple of the resources that I mentioned last year, because I still recommend them for working on goals.

 

ACTION: This week, I encourage you to ask one question. Ok, two. What goals didn’t I reach this past year? And why didn’t I achieve them.

Come back in the next episode when I give you a secret look at what I set for goals last year and how I did.

 

Recommended Resources 

In episode 6 (To Goal or Not to Goal) I talked about Your Best Year Ever:  A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals [affiliate link for shopping] by Michael Hyatt. Michael also has some resources on the book website where you can work through setting goals and even has a mini-course you can take.

From the book description:

 Our big goals get pushed to the back burner--and then, more often than not, they get forgotten. New York Times bestselling author Michael Hyatt wants readers to know that it doesn't have to be this way. In fact, he thinks that this is the year readers can finally close the gap between reality and their dreams.


Another resource I mentioned this year was Atomic Habits by James Clear. That was in episode 10 where I talked about procrastination. In Atomic Habits, James Clear addresses how habits are formed one increment at a time. It’s the accumulation of choices that leads to a habit and leads to a goal. James teaches how to make actions obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying in order to establish a new good habit, and in order to break a bad habit to make something invisible, unattractive, difficult and unsatisfying. If you’ve battled with chocolate, you know how this principle can work!

So often, we think goals are the important part of getting things done. But James Clear says the goals have little to do with the results we see. Instead, it has nearly everything to do with systems. “Goals are about the results you want to achieve. Systems are about the processes that lead to those results” (p. 23). Clear says there are a lot of problems with focusing more on the goals than on the systems.

One of the things that I found helpful in the book is that the author explains how to attach new habits to current good habits. The goal is to make the new habit easy, since we want to do things that feel effortless. The good habits eventually become the cues for new habits.

The book really gets inside the psychology of why and how we change. This applies to so many areas of life: eating, career, writing, fitness, and so on!

I highly recommend Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones if you’re looking for new ideas for breaking bad habits and setting new ones. There is a reason for why some people get stuff done and others just talk about it and wish about their dreams!

Hear James Clear on these podcast interviews:

The High Income Business Writing with Ed Gandia

Amy Porterfield's Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast

 


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(Please note: books posted here on my blog are purely because I want to share them. Sometimes I receive free copies for review, and other times I purchase the books. Some I get from the library. Either way, any endorsement I offer here on the blog is simply because I want to talk about the book. ) *This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. I sell my ebook via Amazon but I’m also a part of their “Associates” (i.e. affiliate) program which pays a commission on books and any other Amazon products people purchase via my links.

Michelle Rayburn is the author of The Repurposed and Upcycled Life: When God Turns Trash to Treasure, as well as a small group Bible study to accompany the book. Learn more about these and her other books here. A sample chapter of the book and Bible study are available for free download.

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This post contains affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a commission. I sell my ebook via Amazon but I’m also a part of their “Associates” (i.e. affiliate) program which pays a commission on books and any other Amazon products people purchase via my links.

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