Tips for Goal Setting to Start 2024 with Purpose

Welcome to The In Between Podcast. I'm Astrid.

And I'm Alexis. And we're 2 best friends on a journey to living a fun, intentional life.

We know it's easier to share on a season of life once it's behind you, but what about when you're in the middle of the growth, confusion, and decision-making?

This lifestyle podcast is for the everyday gal who loves to travel, talk about business, relationships, fashion, and everything in between. Hello and welcome back to another episode of The In Between Pod.

It is one half of the pod, Alexis, and this is the other half, Astrid. And today is extra special, not just because it's our last episode of the year, but we are recording in person.

I'm so excited to like sit across from you, record in person. It's very exciting. And also, how crisp does our audio sound?

Oh my gosh, this is like claps all around, hearts, fires, everything.

Fire emojis.

I'm getting throwbacks to our first podcast recording. I know it was in this exact same room.

It was so special.

All the mems. Yes.

Yes. Well, we are so excited to be wrapping up the year with solid goal setting tips for you all. So if you have been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that we are no strangers to setting goals. And this time of year happens to be the time that we all evaluate our lives, evaluate what we want to do for the new year. And so we know that can also be so overwhelming. You're thinking of all the different ways to set goals, all the different ways to implement them. And so really, today's episode will break down some simple tips that can help you implement the goals and make them feel a little bit more digestible.

I am stoked about this because another— we kind of brought this up last week in last week's episode on life audit. So if you haven't listened to that episode, I highly recommend Giving that a listen on kind of auditing your year and auditing these different categories of your life. But why it's helpful to be thinking about this now is so that January isn't overwhelming. Like you're actually feeling empowered. You're feeling really confident. You have a plan. So if you can carve out even 30, 45 minutes between now and the end of the year to think about some of your goals, think about some of your intentions.

Mm-hmm.

And how you wanna actually implement them, I think it'll help you feel more like ready for the new year.

Mm-hmm.

Because I don't know about you, but there have been times where I'm like, okay, it's the second week of January, let's figure this out.

Yeah. And it feels like everybody else has it figured out with their vision boards and you're like, uh, question mark.

I guess it's the new year.

But yeah, I think the bit, the best part is there is no right or wrong way. Right. And we'll share lots of different aspects. And there's been tactics that have worked for us in certain areas and not in others. So you take what works for you, do it one step at a time, and as long as you're moving forward, that is what counts. But before we jump into today's topic, catch us up on your weekend.

Well, I have surfaced from my bed. I was sick all last week, and even after we recorded, I then went down after that.

I saw that.

I was like, and we're down for the count again. Um, so it took the majority of last week off work and then started feeling better on Saturday. Then we drove home, and by we, I mean Matthew.

Um, shout out.

Drove home 13 hours from Texas, and now we're back in Illinois for the next couple weeks for Christmas, and it feels really good to be back. I was like, last time we were here for Christmas, we had only been gone for 6 months.

Mm.

If that makes sense, because we lived here And we moved to Texas last summer. And then when we came home last Christmas, it felt heavy, like more, maybe not heavy, more emotional. Okay. We're returning. Like it's been 6 months. I left this place 6 months ago and now I'm like, okay, I'm home.

Yeah.

Great to see family settled in. There's like no lingering feelings after the move. Yeah. It's been a year and a half.

I love it.

I love it. Well, it's hard to move from somewhere that you love, yet you're ready for something new.

Yeah.

So it makes sense. And now you're settled into your lovely home in Houston.

Yeah.

And now And now you get to just be a visitor, which is the best part.

It really is.

I'm hitting up all my favorite places to eat, seeing all my fave people. But yeah, feeling better and excited to be here. How are you? How was your weekend?

My weekend was great. I think you virtually passed on whatever you had because—

It's going around.

It's going around. Um, I started feeling pretty rough on Sunday, but the rest of the weekend was great. We, uh, I hosted my boyfriend's parents for the first time on Saturday.

Oh, fun.

It was so fun. I'm in my hosting era and I love it. It was so much fun to just do everything together. It also— I forgot how nice it is to have someone that just helps with everything when you're hosting people.

Yeah.

Because normally in the past when I was single, just like, I have to take care of the entire house before everyone comes over, right? And he's so helpful. And so it was fun. We just like went and shopped for all the things, did the food together, cleaned together, and had fun. And then Sunday night, um, we shot my business anniversary photos in my basement.

They look so good.

Thank you.

Happy 6th year.

Thank you so much. I think that sometimes it can just feel stressful to be like, oh, I need to advertise or do this thing for my anniversary. And I just took my mindset off of that and I was like, what if I just had fun with this and did a fun shoot? that is out of the box. And to me, it just pushes me a little bit outside my comfort zone. And I could just be right here in my house, doesn't have to be anything crazy. And it was so fun and so refreshing. I ordered a cute little cake.

That cake, that cake though, that was really cute.

It was so cute.

I stole it from a wedding inspo.

Um, I ordered like a fun sequined, uh, jacket and then just did like my hair straight, which I had— I've always been like blow drying it. I just decided to do like pin straight and then like blue eyeshadow. And I told my boyfriend when I walked out, I was like, I feel like the Hispanic Avril Lavigne.

Is that how you say her name? Because I had like dark eyeliner and pin straight hair.

Oh my gosh, that is so funny. That is hilarious.

We had a blast. It was so much fun. Oh good.

Yeah, the photos turned out so good, so crisp. And the cake and all the, like the giveaway, killing it. Thank you.

Thank you. Well, before we jump into our topic for today, every episode, we always share what we find ourselves in between in life. So what are you in between right now?

Ooh. Okay. I would say right now in this moment, I am in between a big wrap-up season.

Mm-hmm.

Like with work and then being off last week. And yeah, I'm just, I'm in between wanting to finish really strong. I have like a week and a half left of work before taking PTO for Christmas and then being in London for New Year's.

Mm-hmm.

So I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna let myself be overwhelmed. And there's a lot to do.

Yeah.

And so I'm constantly holding myself accountable to my mindset. Mm-hmm. Of like, okay, I'm so stressed, I'm so overwhelmed. It's like, Okay, let's take one task at a time. Let's lay these tasks out. How long is it going to take for us to do them? What do we need to cancel, offload, delegate, or move so that we can get these tasks done? And I think like that mindset piece plays a really big role in doing the work because we can like have so much anxiety leading up to the work. It's like, we have to do this, like no matter what, no matter how we feel about it. We actually have to get this work done. So what if I choose to be methodical and strategic and like calm?

Level-headed.

And level-headed about this. And this is my plan. Here's how I'm going to execute on it. We're going to get it all done. And then the things that we don't get done, like we need to communicate that we need to make sure that we're like getting that done in the new year, like whatever the situation is. But I think that has really helped me set myself up for like mindset success, not just doing the work success. And I'm like proud of myself for regulating my emotions and regulating my mindset and noticing when I go to that place of anxiety around my workload, like that does not help me. We know that that's not fruitful.

Yeah.

So let's focus on what we can control and let's also not lean into those like doom scrolling tendencies or procrastination tendencies. Because that's also not helping us either. Yeah. So like, I feel like I'm in between taking extreme accountability and also like that overwhelmed feeling of end of year.

You are 10 out of 10, uh, doing a successful job at parenting yourself.

And I love this.

Parenting me.

I love this. No, that is truly so powerful because for whatever reason, we tend to spend extra energy avoiding the work.

Yeah.

Than just conserving the energy and putting it into getting stuff done. Yeah. And it can be so challenging. To not avoid it, to just go the extra way out. And I think your discipline overall and the, the way you've built that up throughout the years shows in these moments where you're able to stay disciplined with the work, stay level-headed. You're like, we can do this. I'm able to get through anything that I, I need to do. Um, and such a powerful lesson of staying focused. I'm so proud of you.

Thank you, honey. Thank you. What about you? What are you in between right now?

Hmm.

I am, I am in between knowing that my rest is coming for the holidays and also having so much energy ready to plan, execute, do the things for 2024.

Yeah.

But I, I, I need to keep reminding myself. How much I worked and how stressful, like, especially the past 6 to 8 months have been and how much I need this rest. Because if I just rest one day and then go straight to it, and then January is straight to it then, and then February I pick up and leave for a month, then I'm going to be in burnout in March and it's not sustainable, but it is where my heart wants to go. And so I guess I'm in between.

Mm-hmm.

not being so black and white about it and thinking about how I want to manage that during my break. Like, do I just want to give myself 1 hour a day where I just like free brainstorm and write it down and then just keep on with like my day? Do I just want to idea dump and not organize and not execute? Like, how do I want to do that? Because the truth is that's just how I am and who I am.

Yeah.

And I don't want to miss a wave of ideas and stuff and just be like, okay, well, this is gonna hit me. Like, you can be creative on January 3rd and like, what if I'm not?

Yeah.

What if I'm creative on like December 28th?

Yes. Because I'm resting.

Exactly.

When you rest, you're more creative.

Yeah.

So it's a weird in-between, um, that I feel grateful for and excited for. And, um, yeah, just, just trying to, to digest all the ideas and be like, okay, what's actually what I wanna focus on? Um, But you know, learning to take it one step at a time.

Yeah, I am literally so excited for the for Christmas. Yes, I am so excited for like that Christmas New Year's energy. That's what I'm like.

I'm channeling that all the holidays.

I feel like I'm really in the Christmas Christmas spirit this year too.

I love it.

We went and looked at Christmas lights with our friends Saturday night, and I'm like watching Hallmark sometimes in the evening, and I'm like okay, I'm like really in. Christmas, maybe even more than I have been in the past. And I feel like I'm leaning into that because of like the workload stuff.

Oh, it's like the magic, the Christmas magic.

It's like Disney right now.

It's carrying me through.

I love it. Yeah.

Um, well, I'm really looking forward to today's topic around like how to set goals. And like, I think when we get to the beginning of the year, it's like, okay, I have all these different things I want to accomplish, things I want to achieve, and It can be really overwhelming on like, how do I actually make that happen? So it's like, I want to hit 6 figures in my business next year. I want to hit half a million in my business next year. I want to, you know, um, grow organically on social by 20,000 followers. Like we can set some of these metric goals. We can also say, I want to purchase a new X. I want to buy a home. I want to save, I want to take that trip. Like there's all these different goals that we might have for 2024.

Mm-hmm.

And while I think stating them is so powerful and getting really specific on them is really helpful, it's also helpful if we break it down how we're actually going to achieve it, right? Like granularly. Um, so I think that's kind of what we're going to talk about today. Like, how do we break that down and look at some of the habits and some of the behavior change that, like the accountability that it takes to achieve those things? And when we're setting these goals. How do we think through some of these simple tips to set us up for success?

Mm-hmm.

Instead of like, I have this big audacious goal, no idea how it's gonna happen.

Yeah.

Um, which sometimes can be me. I'm like, I'm gonna set the goal. And then I also need to plan to, for how to hit the goal.

Mm-hmm.

And be strategic about how to hit the goal. I definitely have done that in the past. So I'm excited for today's topic. I think this will really help people.

Yeah.

get in the, in the helpful frame of mind when setting goals.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that whenever it comes to goal setting, I almost feel on the opposite side of the scale where I feel I used to feel very scared to set these big goals because I thought, what if I can't achieve that? And so if we're able to backtrack, like, okay, if this big scary goal is X, Then what would it look like broken down? And can I do that physically every week, every month? And you're like, oh, actually, yes. Then we're able to get there. And so I think the first thing when it comes to goal setting is we really have to get in the right mindset because whenever, say you have a goal of hitting half a million in sales for your business next year, and that goal scares you, but then you also start feeling all the Like all the, the, the, the playback of imposter syndrome starts rolling through, like, well, I'm not going to hit that. Well, I haven't had any inquiries this month. Well, nobody's really talked to me. Well, all these limiting beliefs, limiting beliefs that start popping up, then no amount of strategy will be able to fight where our mind goes with that. And so I think it's important to look at each of our goals, see what emotions pop up.

Mm-hmm.

Tell ourselves what the truth is about that. And from there on, we can move on to the other tips. But it's important to know what the resistance is, because when you lay out the resistance, then it doesn't feel as scary anymore. But the resistance will be there when we set goals that are way outside of our comfort zone.

That's huge. I love what you said of like, no amount of strategy can fix where the mind is going to go. So it's like, if we don't If we don't have systems or tools in place to help our mindset and like overcome, overcoming those limiting beliefs, which we have done a podcast episode on, um, in the last 2 months on limiting beliefs, like getting into what those are and how those might show up can really help you implement the strategy. Whereas like you can plan and create all the tasks and have the best strategy in the world, but if the mind is telling you no, Then it's going to be difficult to actually achieve it. Yeah.

Which I think is, I've seen a lot of entrepreneurs, they realize, okay, I need to start creating content about X, Y, and Z, and then that's how I'm going to achieve this thing. Well, then they end up delaying creating content about that thing because they have a limiting belief that they're not that type of person. So if they, if we just rewire it and start with our mindset and work through that as we're achieving those goals, not just going to go away, it's definitely going to help us in that framework. And so. Once we are able to work on our mindset, I think the next thing is being able to break down those goals that we have into digestible formats. So sometimes here's where I feel like there's 2 different strategies. You can set an annual goal, say you wanna hit $500,000 in sales, or you want to have enough for a down payment for a house. Then say, how can we break that down per month? So if it's a down payment for a house, say you need, I don't know, For easy math, let's say you need $12K. Obviously you'll probably need more than that. Then $1,000—

In this economy. Yeah, right? Like straw— small town Illinois. Yeah.

Um, but then being able to say, okay, I just need to save $1,000 per month. What can I do extra? Can I, uh, do Uber? Can I do— sell something different? Can I pick up, um, or take dogs out for walks? I think there's an app for that, Rover.

Rover.

Yeah, yeah, there's different ways that you can make that money. And when you're able to break it down into goals like that, then it feels more digestible than I have to save this large sum of money for that goal.

Yeah.

Now the other flip side that I have seen is actually only setting a quarterly goal because you don't know what— like, you might outgrow that specific thing by the time the second quarter rolls. So you're actually keeping yourself very small-minded. So I'm curious, because I know that you do like monthly goal setting and then you also do annual one, like how do you bring those 2 together?

Yeah, so for annual goals— not annual goals, sorry, for monthly goals— something I implemented a year ago, it was November of 2022. I got out a piece of paper. Matthew and I were at Our weekly date night. And I was feeling really in my head about like not making progress I wanted to make in certain areas of my business and in my personal life. And I wrote down the different categories or the different goals. And then I looked at what frequency was possible for that goal in that month. So for example, movement, I'm like, okay, well, I want to move my body. How many times a week could I commit potentially? To moving my body, and then I'm gonna multiply that by 4. So if I'm gonna move my body 4 times a week, that's 16 bubbles. Then I would write underneath that category on that piece of paper, and then every time I moved my body, I would fill in the bubble. Another one is like books read. Maybe you wanted to, hey, maybe you wanna learn more this year.

Yeah.

You know, could you do a, you know, I wanna read 1 book a month, or I want to, um, you know, work on a house project. I wanna organize a space in my house once a month. Okay, well, that's the goal. And then over the course of a year, you will have organized 12 spaces in your home.

Yeah.

Whereas when we're like, oh, I need to organize 12 things in my house this year. What? Okay, well, if you break that down monthly. So those are some personal things, but something I actually did 2 weeks ago is one of my goals while I have a W-2 working in tech, I also am a coach and a consultant and I want to hit 6 figures in my side hustle next year. I want to like blow past 6 figures, but I want to hit and exceed 6 figures. So how I, I started to map out revenue models of like, okay, what would need to change in my pricing to get there? How many clients could I realistically take on in a side hustle to be able to do that? What programs would I need to launch? Um, and what would the frequency be of those programs? Like a coaching program or maybe a 4-week cohort. Where it's, you know, I'm helping business owners achieve a specific goal. How often would I run it? How many people would need to take it and what would it need to be priced at? And I built out like, I built out 3 different revenue models to help me get there. And then I tweaked my pricing and tweaked my client load based on, okay, if I did this model, I would hit well over 6 figures by X month.

Yes.

And that helped me be like, okay, Now I have, I had, I started with a revenue goal. Now I have a strategy of I'm going to do one-on-one coaching. I'm going to do X amount of cohorts and I'm going to launch this specific group program and it's going to be X amount of hours.

Yeah.

Wow. It's only going to take me X amount of hours in 2022, sorry, 2024 to earn $100K. So then I broke it down like, okay, that's, I can easily do that. And then, okay, what am I going to have to do monthly then to either take on more clients, launch those programs? But that helped me make it more digestible. Not even on a monthly basis, but like, okay, if I'm going to do that, how am I going to do that? So back to like the extra $1,000 a month, breaking down where are, what revenue streams are feeding into that $1,000 a month. Same for me. If I need over $8K in side hustle income a month, what does that look like? And like, what's feeding into that? Um, and that was really helpful for me and it made it feel more digestible versus like, okay, well, how am I going to end next year over $100K in side hustle income? Yeah. Okay. Well, now I have a plan.

And what I love about that too, and the specific goal is that even though it was a goal that is pushing you, it's also one that you're making digestible and breaking it down. And so sometimes we get intimidated by certain goals and things that think that we can't achieve that because we don't break it down. But I love that it pushes us to be extra creative with what we're offering, with our pricing, with adding things to it. And so even like the photography world, like if you only have so many weekends, then how can you get higher value clients? How can you upsell certain things? How can you do a rush gallery, uh, service fee? Like there's so many things that each client is willing to pay for, for a higher level experience, right? And so these goals, really, if we can shift our mindset from I have to to I get to be creative with my business now, yeah, it's such a beautiful way to approach that. So we encourage you to do that. I love Alexis's format with doing like the, the bubbles. I did something similar with a book that I bought for my monthly goals, and one for me was I wanted to hang out with my nephews more. And so I planned those out. And so if you're someone like me where I can tend to be a bit forget— forgetful, that is why I live by my calendar. If there's certain things in your personal life that you're wanting to do more or in your business, add it to the calendar.

Yeah.

Definitely like schedule out those date nights, schedule out the weekends that you just want to be home and veg out and be present. Schedule out the weekends that you want to travel. I block out. The entire birthday week, which next year is my 30th.

I will be blocking out way more than just a weekend.

I am literally so excited.

Matthew's like, what are you excited for next year?

I'm like, Adrienne's birthday.

That was me last year. I was like, I can't wait for Alexis's birthday. It is my holiday.

I love how, I love how like big birthday gals we are.

Yes.

It's a big deal.

It is.

It absolutely is. Um, but definitely do that. I, I Jumped ahead, but the third point was to automate and plan ahead. So anything that you're wanting to do, say you want to move your body more and you want to take some fitness classes, go ahead and sign up for it and then block it out on your calendar. Say it's every Tuesday and Thursday, add it to your calendar. It's non-negotiable. Some places have a cancellation fee, and I have a lot of friends that are very motivated by that and will push them out of bed because they don't want to have that fee.

Right.

Um, if you're wanting to have a certain savings goal, how can you automate that every paycheck a certain percent or a certain amount goes straight to that savings account. And then again, with like your calendar, being able to block out those things that you're excited for, or even if you're wanting to do more activities and look for an art night that you want to do in a certain city and sign up for it and keep that in mind.

I love that. I think the piece that has really helped me is Blocking out, like going back to frequency. Sometimes when we set these goals or these intentions for a new year, we in our heads think that we need to be doing them daily or even weekly. And a lot of times we would feel so enriched by a new goal or a new intention if we even made time for it once a month.

Yeah.

And it's like, okay, what on your goal list for 2024 could be a monthly ritual? What could be a weekly ritual? What could be a daily ritual? And then also what's a quarterly ritual? And like, what are those quarterly check-ins? I have a 6-month ritual where I check in on my career. I do a 6-month career check-in. I'm like, so what are those rituals that you want to bake into your 2024? Um, I love that you mentioned the automation too. Um, one of my goals this past year was to start doing more investing on my own.

Mm-hmm.

Um, Matthew. Is very into investments and very into just finance in general. And so he helped me set up a Robinhood account. I send $300 a month. Yes. Over to Robinhood. Been doing it for months now. We're up. Market's up right now.

We love it.

And I've made a decent amount of money and I got a couple grand in there.

I love that.

That's one of my goals. I need to talk to you more about this.

Well, well, let's talk to Matthew about it. I'm still learning, but like, that's my goal. For 2024 is I want to read, I want to read 4 finance books, one a quarter in 2024. I don't want to overwhelm myself with finance information because that's actually not something I gravitate to. And I don't want to push myself to do something and not actually enjoy it.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm like, okay, I can commit to either 4 Audible books or 4 short books about finance. I can commit to that. So looking at frequency, planning ahead, and automating.

Yes.

I think sometimes when we're big goal setters and we say, for example, okay, I have to start investing, we go all in and we say we have to like listen to all the podcasts and do all the things and all our extra income's going into it. And I think that's such an important habit to break as goal setters is how can you actually, if it's something you're not very comfortable with, how can you start Smaller and then build off of that. Is, say, your movement routine— you haven't really done that yet, start small. Start with twice a week, once a week, whatever that might be. And when you build that frequency and that trust with yourself, then add more to that. But I think that is just recipe for disaster when we try to take on so much.

And then we quit. And then we quit.

And that's why, like, gym memberships in January are up, and then in February and March they are Back where they need to be. So let's do it nice and slow.

Nice and slow. Slow and steady.

Slow and steady. Yeah.

And I also think like where you know yourself best, so what will help you feel like you have a quick win? So like, what is there a specific result or a specific thing that you want to achieve in a specific set of time that's going to feel rewarding to you? So I think another aspect of building habits in general, but setting goals is what is the reward for the behavior that supports the goal? So figure that out for yourself. And not every reward has to be monetary or anything like that. Maybe it's a feeling. Maybe it's, you know, filling in that bubble. Like, what is that reward for the action that you're taking towards that goal? I think that helps reinforce the behavior.

Yeah.

And it helps you build that habit so that you can actually achieve the goal. Instead of it be like spurts of energy.

Yeah.

And then it drops off.

Yeah, absolutely. I'll share to that too. One for me is I want to feel peaceful in my life. And so how that has turned into a goal is that I will block out weekends, or when I look at my schedule and I'm traveling back to back, I am blocked off for the next few weeks equally to reset afterwards.

Yeah.

And so when I am tempted to take on more work, I remind myself that I wanted to feel peaceful and there's a reason why that's blocked off. And so back to your point, those feelings also turn into tangible goals of how we can achieve that. So second to last is having solid accountability. So whether it's a friend, a partner, being able to share what those goals are and asking them specifically how they can hold you accountable, um, is definitely something that has helped me. Um, it's actually been very beneficial being in a partnership because they see— like, he sees me every day, essentially. And so he's able to be like, well, I thought you said you were going to shop.

I just picked up these packages from the front of your house.

What are you doing?

What are you doing?

Um, and I think that having someone that can challenge you, that can hold you accountable to what you said that you were going to do And also to help you and be like, okay, hey, this didn't work out. What can we do different next time to make this work? And I think for me, sometimes I would just like block myself out. I mean, like, I don't know how to do it. He's like, okay, like, let's take a beat. What can we do different to make this work for next time? Like, do you need— for me, it's just like I get very overwhelmed. So being able to break down how can you delegate, how can you do different things differently.

Mm-hmm.

So finding accountability in these goals or just If it feels, for example, investing feels intimidating, how can you make it a little less intimidating? By maybe talking with a friend that is excited about it or listening to a podcast that they really break it down in a digestible format.

Yeah, accountability is huge. I think that's also where, like, if you have a specific goal that you want to achieve and you know that you need accountability, can you hire a coach, a trainer, a consultant? Sometimes investing in accountability can help you actually like do it. Whereas sometimes like having your partner or your friend hold you accountable isn't enough.

So true.

In certain, in certain areas of life, it's like you need someone who has full context on your business, full context on your health goals, who can see through the different behaviors and, and like create a specialized plan. And they get to know you and they get to know the ups and downs and the ways that you are like fully committed. And when you're kind of back off, like there is something to be said about someone that's really in the race with you.

Yeah.

That's why a lot of people that train for marathons, they hire running coaches to help them train for a marathon. So it's like, if you have some sort of marathon, whatever analogy that might look like in your life that you need help training for, and you have the resources to invest in a coach or in someone that can help you with that specific goal, I highly recommend finding budget, finding resources for that. Um, because we, when we try to hold ourselves accountable, we, or even like someone close in our lives, I still think there's a level of hiding that I'm just speaking for myself. I can like hide a little bit, but if it's like, I'm investing in this, like I'm paying money.

Yeah.

There's no hiding. Like. I didn't get this done. This is what happened. Or like, there's a level of like, I don't know, I think you know yourself best. And also I think that we can sometimes limit our ability to hold ourselves accountable.

Mm-hmm.

Because we can like, I'll do it next week, I'll do it next month, I'll do it next year.

Yeah.

So I think that's a big like element that has helped me in different seasons of my life.

Yeah, I love that. I think that also being able to stop and ask ourselves, why haven't we been able to achieve that before? If that is something that we're circling back to, can help determine, do we need a coach? Do we need accountability from a friend, from a partner? Is this a new thing that we're introducing that we're excited for? So we already have momentum, right? And we just need that extra support for those harder days. Or have we already been here multiple times and now we need someone else to help us figure out why we're stuck in the rut?

That's a great point.

Yeah, I love that. Well, last but certainly not least— I love that saying, last but certainly not least. You know what, all Americans say that. I'm an American girly now, so I am introducing all the American sayings. I'm dead.

Little by little. It's my little Easter eggs. I love it.

Um, I, I'm blanking on what I was saying. Oh yeah, um, the last one is communicating our goals.

Yeah.

So being able to say what it is that we're focused on can really help with boundaries, can really help with, um, direction on where it is that we're going. So if you have a business and say you have a team, being able to communicate like, hey, we're going to be focusing hardcore in marketing in this quarter, and then the next quarter we're gonna be focusing just on client experience, or whatever it is, like being able to give that specific direction. And even in your own personal life, Being able to tell your partner, your family, like, hey, I won't be doing birthday gifts this year because I'm saving for a house, or I need to take a step back on date nights, or we need to take a step back on date nights if we want to do this big trip so that we are able to do what we want to do and not let the money just fade into the abyss.

Right.

That can sometimes happen. Um, but that's huge. I feel like sometimes we can set certain goals and not specifically communicate to people how they can support us. Like, hey, I would like if you're gonna eat a pizza, like maybe just let me know ahead of time. I would rather step away. Like, that's really hard for me right now with my goals. Because then if not, we start resenting people or we start being like, well, don't you see that I'm trying to achieve this goal? Why are you doing that specific thing?

Mm-hmm.

So I think just being able to communicate how it is that people can support you, what are some of your boundaries during this season of life, can really help you achieve achieve that and just keep the peace as you shift your lifestyle really in certain ways.

Yeah. And then you feel supported and like you're bringing people along with you instead of, oh, I think sometimes there's a narrative around setting big goals or achieving goals is that it's very lonely.

Yeah.

And I think, yes, it can be. And I do think that we can also bring people along with us by communicating our goals, setting some of those boundaries up front and inviting them into the process with you. Um, Something too, if you're, if you have clarity on your goals, ask your friends, ask your partner, ask your siblings, ask your parents, like, what are some of your goals this year and how can I support you?

Yeah.

Do you want me to check in with you monthly? Like, do you want me to, like, do we want to, like, I think it's helpful if you know how other people want to be held accountable too. Like if someone. doesn't really like direct accountability, then I need to know that because I'm like, so how's that project you're working on? And they're like, wait, I, I'm, I don't want to talk about it.

This feels pushy.

Exactly.

Yeah.

It might not be the right approach for how they want to be supported. So yeah, know how you want to be supported, but also ask people in your life their goals for the year and how you can support them. I think it's like a nice reciprocity as well. Cause sometimes if it's like, these are my goals and I'm communicating with you and here are my boundaries, it's like, okay. And then I'm like, but what about me? Like, so it's like, okay, tell me, tell me about you. Like, tell me about your goals and like how I can support you. Cause here's, here are mine. And I think that's a nice like way to feel supported in a friendship and in a relationship. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's a beautiful time to share why you're setting that goal, why you're motivated by it and give a glimpse into your life while also asking what it is that they can be supported in. So I have loved this conversation.

Me too.

I am so grateful for this podcast, for every single one of you that have tuned in this year. We hit 20K in downloads. We got invited to our first conference. We have gotten so many special DMs on how our podcast has helped you all out. So thank you so, so much from the bottom of our hearts for tuning in. We have some very exciting things planned for next year.

So definitely stay tuned.

We actually did, before we recorded, we did our 2024, like, vision and goals and things we want to do for the podcast. We're really excited for just ways we want to continue supporting you, um, in your journey as entrepreneurs, as business owners, as just human beings. And we're really looking forward to 2024. We love you. And if you are loving the pod and you are looking for some goodwill to— or Christmas cheer to spread, leave us a review.

Don't be a Grinch.

Don't be a Grinch. Leave us a review. Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and happy holidays. But yeah, leave us a review on whatever podcast, uh, platform you're listening on. And you can always connect with us personally— or sorry, connect with us for the podcast at inbetween.pod. Or you can connect with me personally at Alexis Teichmiller.

And you can connect with me at Astro Johanna Photo Thank you all so much for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next year.