The Podcast Episode 42: Planning your 2024

Episode Description

If you’re feeling frustrated and stuck in a cycle of setting goals but not achieving them, then you are not alone! You might be taking action by setting strict deadlines and pushing yourself hard, only to find yourself overwhelmed and burnt out instead of making progress. You might be feeling the weight of disappointment as you see others around you succeed while you struggle to make your own dreams a reality. However, there is a way to break free from this cycle and gain the clarity and motivation needed to pursue your goals with a renewed sense of purpose. 

Life is too freaking short at this point. We don’t think we get a do over, okay? So just get out there and do it.

Mentioned in this Episode

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Strategize for success in the upcoming year.
• Reflect on achievements and set inspiring goals.
• Choose a word to guide and motivate your year.
• Create an exciting list of life goals to pursue.
• Craft powerful affirmations and seek valuable advice.

Choose a Word for the Year

The essence of powerful self-advocacy is deeply rooted in a strong sense of self-confidence and self-awareness. Unearthing the value of one’s own needs, rights, and desires is fundamental in crafting a personal advocacy strategy. This innate understanding of one’s own worth creates a stable platform that energizes self-confidence, empowering individuals to stand up for their own rights, embody their authenticity, and navigate life confidently. 

The resources mentioned in this episode are:

• Visit www.smithfolith.com and go to the freebies section to download the planning resources for 2024.
• Go to Amazon and search for Samantha Leith to purchase the extraordinary 90-day journal for planning and goal setting.
• Join The Club at samanthaleith.com/theclub for monthly membership to receive guidance and support for personal development.
• Consider creating a vision board to visualize and manifest your goals and desires for 2024.
• Explore the possibility of setting sail on a yacht around the country for six months and take action on your dreams and aspirations.

Timestamped summary of this episode:

00:00:03 – 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.        

00:00:26 – 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.         

00:00:51 – Welcome to episode 42 of the Samantha Leith podcast. Oh, it’s the second week of January, and this week we are talking all about how I am planning this year. Planning 2024. I’m doing it a little bit differently, but a little bit same, same to previous years. Now, last week we talked about how to go back and look at your year previously, the good, the bad and the what the in order to try and kind of set yourself up for more success this year.        

00:01:26 – So I did touch on a couple of things this year, but I want to last week rather. But I want to go a little bit deeper into the things that I want you to do or encourage you to do. Remember, there’s no should in this world, things that I encourage you to do and things that I have been doing myself. And I’m actually still doing a little more of before I kind of completely nail. Well, I think I’m almost there.        

00:01:52 – What I’m planning for my 50th year, 2024. Very excited. Have I mentioned that? I think I have mentioned that a couple of times by now. So how we talked about last week, what had gone before.        

00:02:07 – Now I want you to kind of think about stuff for this year. And I’ve got don’t do it on video, as you know. But if you could see me, the inverted commas going stuff, you know, that word that encompasses absolutely everything. So one of those things is your word for the year. Now, I’ve had words for the year for a long time, and I normally get a word cloud made on fiver to try and encompass a whole lot of things for me that bring up feelings or thoughts or actions about the word that I choose.        

00:02:45 – So some of the words I’ve chosen over the years are abundance, love, consistency. That was my word till last year. And got to tell you, it didn’t work well, kind of did in some ways, I consistently didn’t do the things I thought I was going to do, and I consistently did a whole lot of other things. But that’s okay, forgive myself, move on. Last year was actually a great year for many, in many ways.         

00:03:13 – So that’s not a negative comment at all. But I chose, on reflection, I chose that word because of things I thought I had to do rather than what really meant something to me. So some words that I’m tossing up for this year, for example, and I’ve got a theme. I’m motivated and disciplined. I show up for my goals every day.        

00:03:38 – However, a word I haven’t kind of nailed yet. I’ve been thinking about completion. I’ve been thinking about showing up. I’ve been thinking about a whole lot of stuff and nothing’s really gone. Wow, this is my word yet.        

00:03:55 – And I’ve probably got a list of like 30 of them because there’s a whole lot of different things that I want to make work for me this year. One year I chose celebrate as my word and maybe that’d be a great one for 50 because I’m planning on celebrating a lot. But no, it still doesn’t feel kind of right either. So I’ll let you know when I have nailed it. But just go online, like grab a thesaurus, pick up a book, have a Google word of the year, or just when you’re doing your thought download about all the things that you want to happen this year and the way you want to feel, et cetera.        

00:04:34 – What are some of the words that come up in that for you? Some of the words that emphasize how you want to focus your attention this year? And it might be money, it might be love, it might be health, it might be visibility, it might be experience, it might be fitness. Look at so many things. But when you think about what you want to focus on, think about a feeling word that comes with that.        

00:05:06 – Now you can get all the notes for how to do this in my freebie section on the website. I’m going to confess I haven’t redone it for 2024. So it is planning 2023 and I’m not going to promise I’m going to get around to that soon. And I know it’s only a quick change in Canva that my VA could do, so we will put it on the list. But if you go there at the moment, it does still say 2023.        

00:05:31 – Okay. Now, once you’ve done that, when you think about all the things you want to feel, you’ll go, oh, there’s a common thread between all of those things. Okay. And you’ll be able to figure out what that is, but you only want one word. Okay.        

00:05:51 – Or maybe I’m kind of also this you thinking maybe I’ll have the two words, motivated and disciplined. Oh, I’ll get back to you on that one because I haven’t quite nailed it yet, but most times I have been able to completely nail it, so it’s a bit strange for me. Now, the next part of that planning phase is your bucket list for the year. And again, I know we touched on that this year, last week. I keep saying last year, last week.        

00:06:15 – It’s like it’s all over already. But write down, brainstorm all the things you want to do, be or have this year and go to town like the biggest, craziest, badassery, dreams and things you want. Like if it is one of those really, really fancy ass French stoves that you want shipped over from Provence, go for it. If it’s being part of the naked photo shoot that happens sometimes around Australia in front of the opera house or on the beach or something, write that. Know, just go crazy.        

00:06:59 – Do it. Write it all down. Do all the things you want to do? Now, in the next phase of that planning sheet, I talk about your goals. Now, I’m not going to do that tonight.        

00:07:13 – Today for you, I really want to spend the whole episode next week on Goal setting, but I want to give you a couple of ideas about how to think about goals. So I’m a smart goal setter. Specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, timely, that kind of thing. And I have done that for as long as I have been setting goals. In fact, I wrote 52 tips for going for goals.        

00:07:43 – And I used to hold host goal setting workshops and a lot of my clients have come to me over the years in order to help set and attain their goals. So it’s a really big thing for me. But one of the things I found last year, which is what I want to talk to you about now, is that a lot of the goals I set for myself, I didn’t achieve. Now, I’ve been open and honest about that. I had an awesome year in many, many ways.        

00:08:12 – But as far as goals, my goal attainment went last year. No, fell short, fell way short on most of them. So I’ve really been sitting with how can I do it this year? I still believe they need to be smart, but how can I do it this year? In a way that kind of reignites my excitement about goal setting and maybe helps propel me to that next level of all those things I’m going for.        

00:08:44 – And one of the things I’ve talked about previously when talking about goal setting is the difference between the bigger goals. Let’s just go some random ones. Pick one that’s not mine. I want to be married by the end of the year. Now, I don’t have control over that and I don’t want to be married by the end of the year.        

00:09:07 – So it’s a completely random one that I’m picking. But for many people, that kind of goal setting can sometimes work. And for me it has worked in the past. I also talk about setting do goals like daily do goals, and I break that down in my three by three goal setting method. And that’s things like write a blog post every day or make three phone calls every day because it’s something completely under your control.        

00:09:39 – So if instead of setting the goal to get married by the end of the year, maybe an idea would be something like go on 100 dates. So it actually has kind of a more momentum thing happening. Because I’ve grown to understand about myself is that if I don’t have daily things, habits, charts to tick off, things I need to do every day, I will go to my default mode, which is, oh, she’ll be right. I’ll figure it out in the last minute and I’ll get to the 28th of December and go, oh, bugger. Haven’t done any work towards that goal if I haven’t actually set those smaller things.        

00:10:26 – So I’m looking at this year maybe not having the bigger picture goals and only setting. I nearly said just setting then, but only setting. It’s not a just and setting instead rather more of an active, participatory do goal kind of thing. Now, those do goals still lead to a bigger picture, but instead of saying, I’ve got a million followers on Instagram, which you’re right. Oh, so not in my goal picture for this year at all.        

00:11:09 – But if I said I’m going to post 365 times, that is a goal that’s completely under my control and it gives me that momentum. Remember a couple of years ago I did the 365 days of Facebook lives? That’s the kind of thing I’m talking about where it’s like being on a treadmill, you’re just like, and you’ve got to keep going. Or Dory singing. Just keep swimming.        

00:11:32 – Just keep swimming. We want to kind of keep that stuff happening. So maybe we don’t necessarily want the big end picture goal. We want more little goals or we do both yes, we can do both. Anyway, that’s enough on that one.        

00:11:51 – The next thing I want to talk about is your affirmations or your power statements. Again, I’ve got worksheets on all of these things. You can go to the freebie section, your perfect day. So many things that you can do in order to set yourself up for success. However, caveat here, people.        

00:12:13 – If you are like me occasionally, or anyone else that has ADHD like me, occasionally gets into hyper focus mode. I don’t want you to spend the whole of January perfecting what you think you’re planning your year is going to be and not actually doing anything else. And then you actually have to start the year again in February because you’re behind, because you’ve spent the whole month perfecting this beautiful plan. Now, I’ve got my hand raised as being guilty of having done that. So we are now the 8th of January that this podcast is going out, and I’m planning on having all of this completely nipped, nailed in the butt, finalized in cement, in concrete, Canva templates done, and printed out to do is done, ready to go by the 10th.        

00:13:08 – Okay, that’s my promise to myself and my promise to you. Because one of the things I’m promising myself this year is to honor the promises I make to myself. Oh, isn’t that ironic? Yeah, very ironic, really. I make myself chuckle sometimes.        

00:13:27 – Where am I? To other things I do for planning a year? Plan your perfect day. What does it look like? Like, what does your day in 2024 actually look like?        

00:13:38 – Not the one that you think you have to do. Not the one that your brother wants you to do and your mother wants you to do, and your children want you to do, and the dog wants you to do and all those things, what in a perfect world, if your fairy godmother turned up, would your day look like? Now, mine, as I’ve said before, is 05:00 a.m. To 09:00 a.m. Is mine.        

00:14:00 – 09:00 a.m. to 05:00 p.m. Is the world and business and work and things like that. And then from 05:00 p.m. to 09:00 p.m.        

00:14:07 – That’s me as well. Now, sometimes there’s a blur in that. Like, I’m recording this podcast after 05:00 p.m. But that’s okay as long as it doesn’t happen every day because it makes it easier to keep boundaries and just makes you actually feel better. Okay.        

00:14:24 – If you actually do that kind of thing. So another thing I really encourage my clients to do is to write affirmations for the year. And again, there’s an affirmation worksheet, or it’s in the planning download as well. And you can write. Honestly, I could give you 100 affirmations, and there are some on that sheet.        

00:14:44 – You can Google affirmations. You might know some already. And sometimes I like to think of not just affirmations. Reading out an affirmation to myself, as I said, I can feel a bit too woo woo. And other times I love it.        

00:15:02 – So we all have different phases and stages of our lives. So some of the power statements I’ve worked with recently, one of them is I’m fit, fab, and effing fabulous. Not quite an affirmation, I don’t think, but I like it. So we want to just write out a few things that you’re going to think about this year, or you might stand in front of a mirror and repeat it to yourself, or you might pick up your copy of the extraordinary 90 day journal and write it every day in your journal, because that’s what I do. There’s a section there for you on your power statements.        

00:15:42 – And I think it’s really important, especially sometimes you wake up those days and you’re like, had a bad sleep, and, oh, I ate dinner too late, and then we had half a bottle of wine, or a whole bottle of wine. And then. And writing out those power statements can kind of just give you that new injection back into your day, like, oh, that’s right. I know who I am. I know where I’m going.        

00:16:11 – I used to sing in one of my very first singing teachers. Actually, I know where I’m going. Random thought. I haven’t thought about that for a very long time. So think about your power statements.        

00:16:24 – And another thing I want to cover in this planning part of your year is your advisory board. Now, I love, love having an advisory board now. Most people don’t know they’re on my advisory board. I’ve never met them. I may never meet them.        

00:16:48 – They’re still on my advisory board, though. You can go, like, so bonkers excited on this part. How we go to social media sometimes for inspiration, and we want to look at architecture, or we want to look at food, or we want to look at fashion, whatever it is, and we kind of go, oh, that’s what Vogue magazine is telling us, is the next best thing in manicures. Oh, no, I’ll get that. Now, I’m not saying we always have to jump on the bandwagon and copy something.        

00:17:23 – But we do go to those things for inspiration. So what I really want to encourage you to do, and I am giving you this as a beautiful suggestion, do with it what you will, but I really hope you do it, is to create a virtual advisory board of the people that you’d like to kind of help you on this road on this thing called life. It might be a personal development person. Feel free to add me, but let me know if you do add me. I’d love to know.        

00:17:56 – There might be a fashion person, there might be a business person. It depends on your stage in life. When I was really working hard at concentrating on getting small speaking gigs a couple of years ago, my virtual advisory board had lots of speakers in it. And I’ll hate, but embarrassing, but a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. Not that long ago, actually.        

00:18:19 – Sadly, you may remember a company called Serranos, and the woman that ran it anyway, Elizabeth Holmes, who’s now in jail. At one point, she was on my advisory board because at that phase of her life and in our world, she was doing incredible things in tech and startup and a female founder. And I found her really inspirational. She quickly came off the advisory board. When we worked out, it was all fake.        

00:18:50 – But, you know, we live and we even. No, I’m not going to say anything more about that. But maybe Oprah’s on your advisory board. Maybe it’s. Who can I think of right now?        

00:19:07 – The barefoot Contessa. There you go. Maybe you’ve got one of the guys from queer eye on your advisory board. Maybe you’ve got the head of a local community business or the head of your school or something, but someone that inspires you and you think they’d have a really good answer. So what you want to do with that advisory board is not ring them when you’ve got a problem or you want to brainstorm something.        

00:19:33 – Unless you do know them. In that case, it’s amazing. I want you to put yourself in their shoes. So say in six weeks’ time, you’re having a bit of a wibble wobble on one of your goals or something that you wanted to do this year, even if it’s go back to the Barefoot Contessa idea. If you can’t decide what to cook for your three children for the fifth night, this.        

00:19:58 – Huh? What would the Barefoot Contessa do? And just ask yourself that. Swear it really, really helps. May seem totally crazy and too simplistic, but it works.        

00:20:12 – I promise you, this stuff works. Okay. Anyway, that’s the stuff I wanted to cover for a bit more of your planning for 2024. As I said, you can go to www.smithfolith.com and go to the freebies section and you can get the download. And I also want to encourage you got a bit motivated there, didn’t I?        

00:20:35 – To go to Amazon and you can just pop in my name, Samantha Leith and you can grab your own copy of the extraordinary 90 day journal. And in there it’s got some more exercises you can do in order to help you plan. So a bit more of some habits, your goals. Get a whole page on creating your vision board, which is really, really exciting. And the things that you want to do be and have projects all that kind of like the normal stuff, habit tracker, whole lot of stuff in there.        

00:21:08 – So when you’re planning your year, plan to do some shopping and grab one of those and then you can use it every day in order to help you get to what you want to actually achieve in 2024. The feelings you want to feel, the things you want to do, the things you want to have, the people you want to see, the clothes you want to wear, all of that stuff. Maybe you want to have the complete life flip and set sail on a yacht around the country for six months. Go for it. I encourage you; I really, really encourage you to do whatever it is you want to do in your bones this year.        

00:21:50 – Because remember, my friends, life is too freaking short at this point. We don’t think we get a do over, okay? So just get out there and do it. So until next week, have fun planning and thinking about your 2024. Yay.        

00:22:17 – 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 theclub for more information. I’d love to see you on the inside.