The Podcast Episode 41: Reflecting on the Year That Was: Making Way for a Fulfilling 2024

Episode Description

As we begin a new year, it can be incredibly valuable to pause and reflect on the previous one. What were the highs and lows of 2023 for you? What key lessons did you learn and how have they shaped your mindset and plans going into 2024? Did certain aspects of your life change in expected or unexpected ways last year? If so, were you able to embrace these changes or do you need to do some work around clarifying your vision and realigning with your core values?

You’re either winning or learning. – Unknown

Mentioned in this Episode

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Embrace Change
• Overcome Fear
• Discover Passions
• Let Go

Embracing Change

Often when things change suddenly, it’s human nature to initially resist. Yet change brings opportunities for growth if you’re willing to embrace it. Reflect on any major changes in 2023 – in your personal or professional realms. If certain changes left you feeling confused or unaligned, revisit your vision, mission and values to rediscover your true north.

Overcoming Fear

Change and the unknown can stir up fear. Yet, fear is usually just thoughts, not reality. Recall a time when you pushed past fear and accomplished something. Use this example when future fears arise, recognizing you likely have the tools and inner resources to move forward courageously.

Discovering Passions

The new year offers a chance to get crystal clear on what makes your heart sing. What hidden or dormant passions emerged in 2023 that you can pursue more fully in 2024? Get these down in writing so you can incorporate them into your goals and intentions.

Letting Go

An essential counterpart to bringing in the new is releasing the old. What negative habits, behaviors, thought patterns or stagnant activities can you shed to make space for more positive pursuits? Make a list, then conduct a ritualistic brain dump to clear your slate.

As you reflect on 2023, allow the lessons, changes and discoveries to shape your mindset and choices for 2024. Use both triumphs and setbacks from last year to propel yourself to new heights.

As you reflect on 2023, allow the lessons, changes and discoveries to shape your mindset and choices for 2024. Use both triumphs and setbacks from last year to propel yourself to new heights.

Timestamped summary of this episode:

00:00:00 – You. As we start 2024 often, we want to just dive straight into what we’re going to achieve this year. But hang on, that’s next week. For now, I want us to pause and reflect on all that happened last year, the good, the bad, and the whopper, before we make any changes.

00:00:24 – Close welcome to the Samantha Leith podcast with me, Samantha Leith. I have a passion for exploring anything and everything that can help us to be extraordinary. Each week I’m going to dive into a topic and explore it extensively. Because if there’s something that makes for a better life, I want to learn about it and more importantly, share it. And hey, you may just get the OD song thrown in.

00:00:49 – There’ll be deep conversations, fun and frivolity. Helpful tools for you to add to your life straight away. Random musings about anything from coffee to sex and information that may just blow your mind. This is a podcast for dreamers, believers, action takers and achievers. It’s personal development, but not as you know it.

00:01:13 – You are listening to the Samantha Leith podcast; episode 41, reflecting on the year that was so you can embrace change for an incredible 2024. Hello and welcome to 2024. Isn’t it exciting? It’s going to be a great year. I can feel it in my bones.

00:01:36 – Now. First off, you’re going to think, where has Samantha been for the last two months? Well, sorry about that folks. You know what? Life and business got so busy I couldn’t put enough time into the podcast and I didn’t want to have a crap one.

00:01:53 – So take a break. While all the other stuff was going on, including my daughter doing her HSE, turning 18, me traveling overseas for exciting business, adventures, Christmas, all of the rest of it. Now I need a rest, but I’m back. The podcast will be dropping every Monday again from now on. And how perfect is it that today is Monday, January the first, 2024?

00:02:19 – Yes. I’m so excited. This here is going to be a journey. It’s going to be fantastic. I know it.

00:02:25 – I can feel it in my bones for myself and for so many people I know and care about and for my clients that I work with. It feels like change is afoot. Change is happening. Can’t remember correct saying for that. But as we all know, life is a journey and it’s full of ups and downs and 50 50 and all of that stuff that we have to take with us onto our next chapters or into the next year.

00:02:53 – And then this is stuff that we can let go of and say goodbye. Bye bye or of was. So I want us to reflect on what 2023 was. I know for myself there were some major highs and some major lows. We had deaths in the family, we had really bad diagnoses, we had illness, we had surgeries, I had the HSC, as I said, with my daughter Elodie.

00:03:23 – I had business changes, I had house. Oh my God. Like so much happened, so many good things and so many crap things. And I’m sure the same is for you. Because after all, that’s life.

00:03:37 – That is absolutely life. And towards the end of the year, I was faced with a bit of a decision about business and how much time I could spend on the coaching side of my business and the speaking side of my business because I had this amazing opportunity to go into my family business, which they manufacture bath, body and skincare products. And there’s a really exciting range called let’s be frank, skincare, which is all for perimenopausal, menopausal and postmenopausal women. Now it’s right up my alley. So I was faced with that decision of do I jump in there and let a couple of other things slide?

00:04:13 – Because I couldn’t do it all. I’m 50 this year, but more on that in a second. And I had to say to myself, I actually can’t be the mum I want to be to a child finishing school, her schooling and the coach that I am, as well as doing this, that this, that this, that some things had to slide. So unfortunately, for a few weeks, the podcast was one of them. Sorry about that, folks.

00:04:38 – Sorry, not sorry, as Ariana says. And I’m okay with all of it. All of that stuff that happened. My daughter did really well in her HSC. She got awards; she got into law, which is what she wants to do.

00:04:54 – Journalism and law. She’s going to change the world, that kid. I tell you. She got her driver’s license, turned 18. Oh my gosh, the list goes on.

00:05:01 – Of her accomplishments. And as a single mum, I have to own my part in that. Last year was a lot for me about being the mum that I wanted to be for my daughter while she did that. So other things couldn’t happen. And then other things did happen, some really exciting things.

00:05:21 – So I know that I learned lessons last year. One of them was to say no a lot more. Another one was to rest more. And I always thought resting was lazy, but it’s not. We actually need to rest.

00:05:38 – Imagine that. Thinking resting’s lazy. Cuckoo lala. Anyway, that is honestly what I thought for a long time. And another lesson I learned was, I think I’ve learned this lesson many times, or maybe I hadn’t actually learned it yet, but I’d been hit in the face with it, like slapped around with a fish kind of thing multiple times in my life.

00:05:59 – But I think I’ve have finally learnt the lesson that it is okay. It’s more than okay to seize the day. Seize the day, take an opportunity, et cetera. And to mean that you change direction and you kind of do other things, that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

00:06:16 – What’s the saying? You’re either winning or learning, succeeding or learning something like. Something like that. Okay. So I really want you to think about some of the lessons that you learned from last year.

00:06:29 – The first thing I want you to do about your reflection from 2023, what were the lessons and then how have they kind of shaped you and what you’re going to be doing in this coming year or this current year? Can’t believe I’m actually recording it on the first. That’s kind of exciting. Really. So exciting.

00:06:48 – I’m changing my studio set up next week, too, so audio may change a little bit because I do think their quality could be improved. But that’s a side note. So one of the other things I know that I just touched on that I want you to think about when we’re reflecting on our year is embracing any of the change that went along with it. Now, I know for myself that shining light on perimenopause kind of got a bit brighter and hormones went a little bit out of whack, and I learned a lot more about that. There is still so much to learn, and changes are happening now my daughter’s going out without me, and I’m staying at home by myself, actually, I kind of like it.

00:07:32 – I get to choose what’s on the TV. But all jokes aside, I don’t have to make a school lunch anymore. It was a huge part of my identity. Getting up, doing the breakfast, making lunch. I loved doing it.

00:07:44 – Like, absolutely loved doing it. And now that changes. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to make a university student’s lunch, but we actually haven’t discussed it. And as I said, some of my business aspects changed. So what has changed in your life that you did and didn’t like, and how did you embrace it?

00:08:01 – How could you have embraced it more? Or do you need to do some work on actually embracing it now? Maybe you need to reclarify your vision statement or your mission statement. Okay, maybe that’s really important to you. And you go, I haven’t been in alignment, but this thing changed, and that doesn’t feel in alignment, or this thing changed and it does feel in alignment.

00:08:28 – So I need to just tweak what I’m doing. And it might be about your values, your vision; it might vision your vision. It might be just about how you’re spending your time. It could be about how whatever you’re doing is making you feel okay. Maybe something’s changed in the workplace or in your business that’s making you feel confabulated.

00:08:48 – Is that a word? If it’s not, I’m going to say it is. Or maybe something’s happening making you feel supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. And how can you embrace whatever it is that’s changing, including your mind, your heart, your body, your workplace, money, all of those things. Some things change.

00:09:12 – Which leads me on to my next thing. Like when all these things are changing, we often get really scared. And fear, oh, it’s a funny thing, fear. It’s a thought. Like it is just a thought that we’re having.

00:09:29 – It’s not actually real unless you’re talking about the fear that you have when you’re about to jump off a bungee thing, which I’m never going to do. And if you do, do it and love it, please don’t send me a message saying, Sam, it’s not that scary because I’m fearful people never going to do it. But fear normally is not that know. Did I receive hate mail because I missed my podcast for two months because life and business got in the way? No.

00:09:57 – And I was fearful of that. Not hate mail, literally, but I was fearful that it would be like, oh, Sam, it just happened. I was fearful that I wouldn’t get back into it because I’d start going, oh, I don’t want to do that anyway. No, I missed it. So that fear was not real.

00:10:17 – So if there’s something that happened last year or something that you’re thinking about happening this year that is making you tremble in your twinkle toes, I want you to think about a time when you have been fearful and you overcame it, just jot something down. Don’t even need to jot it down. If you’re driving listening to this, don’t jot it down. Keep driving. But think about something you overcame.

00:10:42 – Like I just mentioned about the podcast, so many things now. Fear is a big part of courage. And if you pop onto the Samantha Leith website and all the freebies section, you can see a courage exercise there or you can actually, even in the seven day confidence challenge there’s some stuff on fear, so you could do that as well. There you go. Top tip for you then.

00:11:08 – I want to talk about embracing passion and authenticity because something I learned in all those things that I talked about in the last couple of months of last year was being more authentically me by saying yes to these opportunities because they really fueled me. I have freaking loved the travel and the big meetings and talking to people and being part of a physical product business again. It really has lit me up and all of the things I’ve been doing have been me in front of people, which is again, something I love to do. It was just in a different talking about and being part of a different business. Not just, I shouldn’t say just not my coaching and speaking per se as it is.

00:12:04 – But I got to tell you, the message that is there with, let’s be frank for the skincare is totally me. It’s about embracing your age and being confident in your skin and who you are and what’s going on for you. So it’s a perfect match. It really did help me embrace my passions and my authenticity. So if there’s something that’s been going on last year or something that you’re thinking about this year and you think, oh, it might not quite be in alignment, I want you to think about what does make you feel in alignment.

00:12:43 – What are those passion projects? What are those things that you just feel completely in flow with or completely authentic? Like a hurricane could come past and not knock you in your steadfastness because of how authentic you feel. Like it’s just yep, I got it going on and just jot down a few things. Maybe it’s making a cake; maybe it’s writing a book.

00:13:14 – Maybe you feel so authentically you when you’re at a salsa class. Maybe you did that twice last year and you just in your mind it’s going, oh my gosh, that just felt like everything. So maybe you need to add that into your life this year. But we can’t bring things into our life for this coming year or the current year, I should say. If we don’t first look at what happened in the previous year.

00:13:48 – It does feel really weird being the 1 January and talking about last year. It was not even 24 hours ago, people. I know I didn’t stay up for the midnight fireworks. I really wanted to start this year and hit the ground running and that involved not having a thousand cocktails or glasses of champagne and getting a good night’s sleep. That felt really authentic to me.

00:14:09 – I know someone’s going to say boring. Nope, not boring. You should see the amount of work I got done today. Incredible. And that felt fantastic.

00:14:21 – Now, you might have discovered a hidden passion, as I mentioned, salsa dancing, cake making. Maybe you went to a pinot and Picasso night and discovered painting. It could be something so left of field that made you feel absolutely fantastic. So I want you, when we’re talking about next week’s podcast about setting goals and intentions for the year, I want you to remember what those things were that lit you up. Okay, so I’ve talked about some of the fun stuff.

00:14:53 – Now let’s talk a little bit about fear. But I want to talk about the stuff that you really got to let go of. Let it go. Let it go. Because there’s going to be some of it.

00:15:03 – There might even be a lot of it. And if you’ve been journaling, as I always suggest that you do, maybe there’s some thoughts that have come up in there for you about what you need to let go of. This might actually be an example for you to brain dump. Like grab a piece of paper. Not now.

00:15:24 – Listen to the podcast, people. Grab a piece of paper and just do an absolute brain dump of the things you think you need to let go of, the things you know you need to let go of and the things that maybe not. Maybe not. Give you an example. I let go.

00:15:43 – Actually, I did a podcast about it last year, I think. Yeah, I did. I let go of my apple watch. I know, because it was starting to make me feel terrible about myself and that I wasn’t doing things right. And, oh, my gosh, I’ve got to stand up again and have a mindful moment.

00:16:00 – And that’s for someone who likes checklists. I had to let go of that. Another thing I’m letting, I know I’m now letting go of, as I said, is making my daughter’s school lunches. I’m sad about that, but maybe I could do something else with her. It opens an opportunity.

00:16:16 – Sorry. It opens a place, a space for me to actually do something else. So when you’re letting go of something, it’s a bit like decluttering. When you declutter something in your house and you are giving this opportunity for good to come in. The same as when you’re letting go of things that are in your mind or habits or programs that you bought and never did, or a book that you’ve had on your bookshelf, on your bedside table for a year.

00:16:42 – And you’re really going to read it. And no, you still haven’t got past page five. Let it go. Let that stuff go. Because when you do that, as I said, you can open up space for the good to stuff to come in, especially when it comes to habits.

00:17:00 – So letting go of one more negative thing, that’s something that’s just you’re procrastinating over or you can’t finish or you don’t really want to finish, let it go and form a good habit instead. Create something really worthwhile in that space. Embrace it. I tell you, this stuff works. I am letting go of lots of things.

00:17:27 – I’m even going to do a bit of a color of some of my wardrobe. I know horror, the shudder, the thought, but I’ve got a whole epic camillas that I haven’t worn for years. So I’m going to let them go. They’re going to find another loving home. Okay?

00:17:41 – And our habits and our thoughts are just the same. So write down some things you want to let go of. And the other thing I want you to do is I want you to think about your feelings. Now, I mentioned it a little bit earlier, but I really encourage you to think about three to five feelings, maybe even two to four. Pick a number.

00:18:07 – Your number. My lucky number is five or 15, but I’m not going to think of that many feelings. Just think of a couple of things that are either thoughts or feelings that you want to embrace for this following year, because we’ve done the letting go stuff. So I want you to think of some thoughts and some feelings that you really want to embody this year. And then next week, we’re going to get stuck into actually how to set yourself up for success in this year.

00:18:38 – I nearly said this coming year again, but you know what I mean. This year, 2024, hey, it’s the year I turned 50. And I decided that, you know how I like Melissa. Am I going to start my 50 things for 50 on the day of my birthday, or am I going to start it the day of my birthday, the year before and lead up to it? And I thought last year when it was about that turning 49, I went, no, actually, do you know what I’m going to do?

00:19:05 – I’m going to start on the 1 January in 2024 because that is the year I will turn 50 and that’s going to be my year of 50. So I can’t wait to share with you some of the things I will be doing in this year. It’s going to be exciting. Can’t wait, can’t wait, can’t wait. Including a freaking awesome birthday party.

00:19:25 – More will be shared. So I just want to encourage you lastly again to look back at last year, the good, the bad and what the hell and reflect on them. Your fears, your feelings, what you want to let go of, what you want to embrace, your passions, what made you feel absolutely on fire. Take some notes and then bring them with you next week so we can get stuck into making 2024 the best year yet.

00:19:58 – Thank you for listening to this week’s episode of the Samantha Leith podcast. If you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the world of personal development and what’s possible for you, then I’d love to invite you to join the club. It’s my monthly membership designed to guide and support you with the tools and the coaching you need to be extraordinary. Head on over to samanthaleith.com forward slash the club for more information. I’d love to see you on the side, close.