In this solo episode of the Overgivers Anonymous podcast, host Angela Mondor (the Geeky Girl) welcomes listeners to 2024 by reflecting on the past year and outlining a framework for personal and professional growth. She emphasizes the importance of reviewing 2023’s milestones and challenges, then shifting from vague New Year’s resolutions to clear, purpose‑driven intentions. Angela explains how to craft intentions—through words, phrases, or outcome‑based actions—and use them as a decision‑making filter for opportunities throughout the year. She stresses adaptability, sharing how unexpected events (e.g., the 2020 pandemic) forced a re‑evaluation of plans and highlighting the growth that comes from stepping outside comfort zones. Building healthy habits is presented as a foundation for resilience, with specific reference to James Clear’s Atomic Habits and the habit‑stacking technique. Angela recounts her personal practice of present‑moment gratitude, describing how fully focusing on work or family at a time eliminated “guilt monsters” and improved performance. She recommends creating vision boards—whether word‑based or image‑based—as daily visual reminders of goals. The episode underscores the value of supportive communities, citing the Rockstar Mastermind and Success Circle, and advises listeners to seek accountability groups. Finally, she outlines an iterative review process (quarterly, monthly, weekly) to keep intentions aligned with actions, encouraging listeners to view 2024 as a blank canvas for authentic, purpose‑filled growth.
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Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're going to be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Here we are, new year, new chapter. We get to look at 2024 with open eyes. Super exciting to be here. I love the start of a new year, just like I like the start of Uh, you know, school season when you got new school supplies, those kinds of ideas. The new year's fun. This new chapter, I want to share with you, um, the idea of embracing growth and possibilities. I can't wait to talk to you about this. So when we're looking at where we are right now, January 1st, 2024, as we bid a farewell to 2023. We usher in the new year, farewell to the old. The New Year's Day marks a profound moment of reflection, or can, and anticipation for what's up and what's coming new. It is like having a blank canvas in front of you where you can paint or draw or create with fresh aspirations and learning from the past, which is super, super important. And of course, the promise of new beginnings and what we can accomplish moving forward in 2024, regardless of what happened in 2023. Now, when we're looking at this new adventure of 2024, what's in front of us, it feels good. It's clean. It's brand new. It's fresh. But I encourage you to not just look at what can be created. But also to reflect on the journey beforehand, to look at what has come before, to take a moment to reflect on the milestones that you've accomplished, maybe some challenges that you've had in the past year, to really look at it and say, what lessons did I learn in 2023? How did it go? Did it go the way I anticipated? Did it go differently? Am I super excited because it went in a completely different way than I anticipated? Acknowledging your accomplishments and the resilience that brought you here is super, super important. As part, you know, if you are somebody who is part of the Rockstar Mastermind already or the Rockstar Success Circle, you'll know that reflecting is something that's really, really important to us. Being able to review and revise of what's going on, not changing our goals on where we're headed, but to be able to test and adjust all the pieces along the way. It is important to honor our growth and to look at the lessons that we have so that we can build a better tomorrow, essentially. So think about your intentions rather than resolutions. Okay? So after you reflect and see what happened in 2023, then being able to pour yourself in and say, hey, where do I want to go? What are these intentions? So resolutions to me are sort of, I don't know, blasé. They're easy to ignore. But an intention is different. It's more powerful. The thought of what am I intending to bring into 2024 to me is more powerful than thinking about a resolution like, you know, most people set resolutions on New Year's Eve. And I gotta say that, you know, I start thinking about what are my intentions for next year back in like October, November. That's when I start to sort of create the energy and what I'm bringing into the new year. If you're not there, that's totally okay. And if you're sitting on today, January 1st, going, holy crap, what am I going to do next? That's totally okay too. Looking back, review and revise what's happened. Where are you coming from? And then let's talk about what is it that you are intending to accomplish. So you're thinking about this intention. If you think about your intentions, there's a lot of different ways to create an intention. You can do that by creating a word or a phrase of the year, something that can guide you with your decisions. You can create intention based on actions— not actions, but based on results of actions that you want to have in 2024. It's going to be hard just to keep saying that, but looking forward, what is the intention? What do you want to bring to the planet in 2024? What is it? What energy do you want to have? Um, how do you want to present yourself to the world, and what changes do you want to make? Having those ideas, those intentions rooted in purpose, they will help guide your actions in the new year. So they help you to be able to make quicker decisions. So for example, if an opportunity comes up on in sometime during 2024, and I'm like, that's really cool. It's, it's a new project. It's a new training. It's whatever. But it's cool. And I look at it and say, okay, that's really neat. But does it match my intention? Does it match the goals that I'm trying to accomplish? In 2024? If the answer is no, then I say no, not now. That opportunity is cool, but it's not something I need to do right now. If I look at that opportunity like, yeah, that could actually help me get to XYZ, okay, now I can start to evaluate whether or not this is the right opportunity. Maybe the concept is good, but maybe the opportunity itself isn't good. That's an entirely different conversation. But being able to look at that and quickly say, oh, either yes, that's something that could be valuable, or no, that isn't, it makes decisions quicker. Success loves quick. Faster you can make decisions, the better. So thinking about this, what is it that you— are you— what are you— what do you want to achieve? What inspires you? What is it that you want to create in this next world, in this 2024? And how do you want to feel throughout the year? That is how you root yourself into those intentions and to be able to take those intentions and move forward with them. The idea here is we create the intentions and we create the goals, we create the action steps, and we move forward in belief that we've chosen correctly in the very beginning. But this is where the test and adjust comes in. This is when you need to review and revise because change happens. Inevitability happens. Things outside of our control happen. And it's important for us to embrace the change and to be adaptable. Because I know that in 2020, when I created my plan, and if you created a plan for 2020 as well, none of us, just none of us saw the fact that the first quarter was gonna be complete garbage. None of us saw that coming. We had no idea that that was going to completely tidal wave what we had planned. So it's important to be able to embrace the change and to be adaptable, to think about, okay, life is all about changes. So now that the change has happened, how do I embrace it? How do I acknowledge— That this is something that is happening, and now I need to make some different decisions and choices. Because when we do make different choices, when we learn, when we grow, the growth typically happens when we are outside of our comfort zone. That is something that is inherently true, is that when we are uncomfortable, there's an ability to grow. When we think about the problems or troubles that have happened, if we look at those things and think, oh gosh, those are so awful and nasty, blah blah blah, then that is a stagnant moment. But if you look at it and say, okay, well, now that this has happened, there's some changes going on, so how can I adapt? What can I learn from these things? How can I be more adaptable so that I can grow? And what changes are you willing to welcome? That's important. Are you willing to welcome the changes that could possibly happen in this new year? Building healthy habits is going to be one of the things that is going to support you wholeheartedly when it comes to the changes. Because when you're all right, when I'm okay, when I'm sleeping well, when my body isn't in pain, when I am mentally stable in how I feel about the planet, And something bad happens or something different happens or a change occurs, I'm more able to handle the sideswipe. But if I'm not okay, if I'm not sleeping, if my body's in pain, if I'm not feeling emotionally strong at the time and I get sideswiped, oh girl, life just sucks at that point, doesn't it? So, building your healthy habits is important and considering what kind of habits are important to you is something that you need to be looking at internally. What is it that works for you? Your healthy habits will contribute to your wellbeing, whether it's physical, mental, or emotional, spiritually as well. One of my favorite books on habits is The Atomic Habits. And one of the things I love most about the thread that I pulled out of that book that was the strongest was this concept of habit stacking. And so, when you're looking at changing a habit, thinking about what is it that I currently do From a habit perspective that I can now add on this other habit to it. It becomes easier to change habits when you're doing that. But when you are incorporating nurturing habits for yourself throughout the year, and I'm not— I mean, don't change your whole world all in one day, but like little bits and pieces. When you do that for yourself and when you're supporting yourself, it's gonna be easier for you to handle those changes that come. Now, one of the things that I thought was most poignant in my journey so far, one of the things I think that was my biggest growth moment, was the concept of being grateful for the present moment. This gratitude of present moment was super, super important to me. When I started this business in 2009, which is a long time ago, my kids were little. I was a mom who looked after them. I was a hockey mom. We drove to all kinds of different hockey things. There was a lot of time we spent in the car, and I was building a business all at the same time. And so that phase of life is different than the phase of life I currently live in, where my kids now are in their 20s, and there's different responsibilities to being a mom of 20-year-olds than there is in young children. But what I learned back then when my kids were little, this concept of being grateful for the present Was how I managed to make it through that phase with my sanity intact. And as we get older, other phases are going to come in. You have aged parents in your family, it's possible that you now will become a caregiver for them on some level. So, even if you didn't need the lesson then, didn't want the lesson, didn't have it then, if you do have a situation where, you know, maybe aged parents are starting to come up, this could be a very valuable thing for you. I think in any phase of your business, if you haven't mastered this yet, this could be valuable. The concept of being grateful for the present. Because the story, of course, though, how I learned it was when I was with my kids, I was worried about what I should be doing at work. And when I was with— when I was at work, I was worried about what I should be doing with the kids. And there was this constant battle all the time. I had these like guilt monsters who were fighting. The energy I lost In the fight because I was— while I was working, I wasn't present. So I wasn't able to give it my 100% all. When I was with my kids, I wasn't able to give them my 100% all. I was split and torn all the time and everything was scattered. It was a great big mess. And I don't recall the moment when I learned it. I don't recall the time when it came into being, but I do remember there being a very definite switch. When all of a sudden I thought, you know what, when I'm at work, I'm going to be 100% present at work. And I'm with my kids, I can be 100% present with my kids. The guilt monsters dissipated. They disappeared. Because now when I was with my kids, I was giving them my all. They were getting my entire attention. And then when I was at work, I was giving it my entire attention. And because I was giving each of the things the intention, the attention that was required, For those time beings, I was able to flourish in those spaces. I was able to give my children the time that I wanted to give them. I was able to give them the experiences I wanted to give them. I was able to raise them the way I wanted to. And in my business, I was able to grow my business the way I wanted to. It wasn't that I magically got more time. It was simply that I was able to be more present and being more grateful for the time that I had. So this was a massive lesson for me. I hope that you take that one forward for sure if you haven't already. One of the other things that can be really important for you moving forward is creating a vision board. You may or may not like vision boards and they don't all have to be the same. That's also true. I have a vision board over there that's simply words, a bunch of different words on a piece of paper with pretty colors, but they're all different words. And I have another vision board over here that's all pictures as well. There's not one way, one way to make a vision board, okay? But when you're looking at visualizing your dreams, your intentions, your aspirations, the thought processes on how you want to accomplish your 2024, they become a tangible representation that serves as a daily reminder. If you've got them where you can see them, they are a daily reminder of your goals and your motivations. It helps There's nothing— I mean, there's days as an entrepreneur when you're like, ah, this day sucks. But if you have that reminder as to why you're moving forward or what that intention is, what you're trying to create in the world, then it becomes easier for you to find your way back to the road and to be able to get back on that horse and move forward through that different, you know, randomness that you're having to deal with on a daily basis. Having those intentions visually is important, but reviewing and revising your plan all throughout the year is super Super important. Like I said before, in the Rockstar Success Program, as well as in the Rockstar Mastermind, reviewing our goals on a regular basis is important. Looking at them quarterly, checking in on them monthly, deciding weekly how we're going to accomplish things so that we are moving forward to the next step in our goals. All of those things are really important so that we can create what we're trying to do in a supportive environment. If you don't have a group or a collective of people around you that can support you as you're doing your, your visions and goals and setting your intentions, I encourage you to find that for yourself. It could be family members. It could be other entrepreneurs. Just make sure that those people are also wanting you to succeed, that they have your best interests at heart, and that you love spending time with them because having a supportive community around you will strengthen Your connections with your goals, your visions, your dreams, and also with other people. And with creating those connections with other people, you will get to see the way they see the world, and it'll help you to see your world differently. It's absolutely brilliant when it comes to being able to create these goals and intentions and to stick to them throughout the year as well. So As this new year comes to you and you get to see it laid out in front of you, think of it as a blank canvas. And you have many, many days. You've got 12 months throughout this year to give you this opportunity of growth, to be able to provide joy and to discover new things. You can seize the opportunity to write your own script, to literally write your own description of how you want the world to unfurl in front of you throughout this next year. And I hope that your story is encompassing of your own authenticity, that you're able to infuse your purpose and to create boundless opportunities for yourself, your team members, your clients, and everyone who comes into contact with you. And I hope that you have an amazing new year, and I can't wait to see what your future holds for 2024. Have a fantastic week. I'll talk to you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. And if you enjoyed this episode or you enjoyed the podcast in general, why not join us in the Overgivers Anonymous Facebook group where you can connect with overgivers from all over the world? Head on over to geekygirl.ca/group.
