020: How tracking can help you achieve your goals

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Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Canny Crystals, the podcast. I think you all know by now who I am. If you don't, where have you been? Get back to the first episode. How are you all? I hope everyone is good. Oh, just bear with me 2 seconds, I'm just going to get comfortable in my chair. There we go. Um, so how have you all been? What have you been up to this week? I've had a lot of positive feedback about last week's episode. Of dealing with negativity. So thank you so much for all your lovely messages and all those lovely reviews for this podcast that keep rolling in daily as well. They make me feel so grateful for everything. And really, I just thank every single one of you that has left a 5-star review so far. So from me, a massive, massive thank you. I couldn't do it without you. So thank you. I've had a couple of people message me about the 75-day challenge that I'm on as well, saying that I was inspiring them to keep up their January diet into February. I'm an inspiration. Nah, like, that just baffles me as well, that people find what I'm doing inspiring. I mean, I'm just doing a diet, but hey ho. Um, but anyway, it's kept them on, uh, with and kept their diet basically on from January rolling into February. So if that's you, well done to you as well. I'm officially at the halfway mark, so today is day 38 out of 75. I've hit my goal weight. So when I started, I was basically the heaviest that I'd ever been at 15 stone. And my target for the full 75 days, so it's like just under 11 weeks, was to lose a stone and get down to 14 stone. And I thought, well, that's only like a pound and a bit a week, isn't it? That's doable. But guess what? This morning, halfway through the challenge, I am 14 stone exactly. I've been visualising for weeks now, for the last 5 weeks, okay, 14 stone, 14 stone. Every time I step on that scales, Like, there were some days I wasn't even looking at it. I was just like stepping on the scales and visualizing in me head it saying 14 stone and feeling happy that I'd finally got there. And today's the day, I've got to 14 stone.

Woohoo!

So yeah, I'm absolutely over the moon. It doesn't even feel like I'm on a diet either because I'm eating nice foods and I'm just tracking me calories through an app. If anyone's used MyFitnessPal, I'm just using that. So I'm still eating foods that keep me satisfied and things like that, but I'm just portion controlling them. Don't worry, this isn't Weight Watchers. We are going to get on with the show. But this kind of brings me on to one of the subjects that I wanted to talk about today, and that's tracking, okay? So keeping track of things. I wanted to talk about the benefits of tracking things in everyday general life. So you might remember that a couple of weeks ago I started attending a money manifesting workshop, and that ended last week. And one of the pointers was that if you were attempting to manifest a set amount, you have to track every single last penny that you got. Now, obviously, sometimes if, for example, I was trying to manifest £10K, like £10,000, I might have actually manifested it, but in chunks, but then just not seen it because of the outgoing bills, if that makes sense. So it was kind of in one hand and out the other, and therefore I might be disappointed that the Law of Attraction hadn't worked and not believe in it, but I've actually had that £10,000, if that makes sense. So anyway, I downloaded this app from a writer that I absolutely adore, She's called, um, Denise Duffield-Thomas. Go and check her out, she's amazing. She's really inspirational for women and stuff. I know I'm not a woman, but hey ho. She writes like entrepreneurial books. Like I say, it's mainly aimed at women in business, but I just love her real talk. Anyway, she has this app called Lucky Bitch, and you just basically track every single penny that comes your way, and you track this on the app. So if it's your daily wage from your job, or £10 that your mum gives you, or an unexpected refund that you get from I don't know, your gas or electric company or something like that. Even down to just finding a friggin penny on the floor, you note it in this app and it tracks it and it adds it all up. Now, my goal for February was to manifest £30,000, which is a lot of money. I know it sounds like a shitload of money and it is, don't get it wrong. But I thought to myself, that's only £1,000 a day. Only, he says. But I've done that before just from sales on my website. I've hit sales of £1,000 a day. So I've had a few days where I've hit that. So what's to say that I couldn't do that every single day in February? But obviously when you're attempting to manifest, you just have to let go of the how, because the money can come to me from anywhere at the end of the day, do you know what I mean? So as I record this, it is— what date are we on? It is the 10th of February, and I'm just under £9,000. And that's not just from sales, like I've tracked everything, everything that I've had in value. So things that I've got unexpectedly offer free. So for example, Tuesday I went to a yoga class with Josie, and I got talking to the owner afterwards about crystals and crystal healing, and we were talking about the potential to work with her in the future. And then I asked her how much I owed for the yoga class, which I'm sure it's around £10 usually, and she told me that it was free. And that obviously made me do my standard response of, "Eh, are you joking? Are you sure? Eh, no, I can't do that. Here, here's a £10 note." And I just couldn't believe that someone was just genuinely being kind enough to let me have a free session. And then halfway through the little meeting that I was having with her, Josie came in with a cup of coffee that she'd got from the coffee shop around the corner. And usually, again, I'd rush around trying to find the right change to give back to her. So that I don't owe anyone a penny, 'cause I hate owing people money. But as part of the work I'm doing around money, I just thought, you know what, I'm gonna learn to say thank you, accept the gift. And that's what I did, I said thank you. And I mean, I know it's not much, but that was maybe another £3 or whatever the coffee was worth. And then last night I got an email from the National Lottery, and I was thinking, oh my God, this is it, I'm out of this shithole. And it was an email from the lottery to say that I'd won. And when I went online to check my account, I mean, I had won, but it was a free Lucky Dip ticket for the next draw. And I just thought, yeah, okay, I'm grateful for that. I mean, at the end of the day, that's still £2 in value that I got for nothing. So again, I put that down as £2 worth of value on the app. Do you know what I mean? Can you see where I'm going with that? So every single thing that you receive for free, whether it be money or just worth value, you track on this app. Now, if you had asked me basically how much money I'd earned in February and I hadn't been tracking, I probably would have said somewhere in the region of £2,000 maybe. That's taking into account me NHS wage and sales from me website. But I wouldn't have thought to look at freebies worth value, small amounts of cash that I'd found on the street or in me pockets or in the car or in me drawers, do you know what I mean? But it all adds up, it really does. And that's why I'm advising you to track. And it doesn't just have to be about money. Like I said, I'm losing weight on me diet, and I'd say that 90% of my struggle was that I wasn't tracking my food. I was craving like a bloody McDonald's last weekend. I don't know why, the burgers never look anything like they do on the pictures when you open the box anyway. But because I'd thought about McDonald's all day, I thought, I'm gonna make meself some burgers for tea. And now this isn't like anything out of the norm, do you know what I mean? Like, I would usually have like a cheat meal on a Saturday afternoon when I wasn't on a diet. So I started tracking the calories of everything that I was going to have with me burger on me app, and within minutes I was just gobsmacked. Like, I would often have this tea on a Saturday afternoon before me challenge, obviously with more sides and bread buns and things like that, because part of my diet is I'm cutting out wheat, so I'm not having bread. Um, But before tracking, I would have been like, "Okay, so the burgers are 250 cals each, the chips are 400 cals, that means that my tea here is 900 calories." But when I started tracking on this app, obviously you scan everything, you scan the barcode of everything, and I've been scanning every single thing that passes my lips. The coleslaw, the mayonnaise, the burger sauce, the pickles, the salad, the cheese, the bacon on top, and before I knew it, I was already up to 1,600 calories. 1,600, and I've been tracking that meal as about 900 calories every time. I was 700 calories out. I couldn't believe that. It's almost double what I thought it would have been at first glance. And that's without the bread buns, without the onion rings, without the halloumi fries, all the sides I would usually have, as well as the Maltesers afterwards that I would usually have. I mean, no wonder I was never losing weight before tracking me food. I just think that tracking is the way forward. It just makes you a lot more conscious about what it is that you're tracking. And like I say, it doesn't just have to be about food or money. It can be anything in your life. Okay. This is the point I want to make, and it brings it all back to the Law of Attraction. For any goal that you're working towards, track your achievements, celebrate them. Okay. Sometimes as human beings, we become oblivious to all the things in life that we have to be grateful for. And I know I talk about being grateful all the time, but tracking something as simple as finding a penny on the street or being bought a cup of coffee, like for me, that's— it's just made me so grateful. Whereas I would have probably just let those moments slide by undetected after a very brief moment of thanks. Obviously I would have said thank you to Josie for the coffee and stuff like that, but I would have just then like forgot all about it because I would have given the money back. But because she had gone out of her way to get me a cup of coffee and I didn't pay for that, I'm so grateful. And I'm like giving thanks. And I know you're probably thinking, Martin, it was a friggin cup of coffee, get over it. Like a cup of coffee 2 days ago. But I'm just thankful that like someone would go out of the way and do that for me. If that makes sense. I hope I'm making sense. But it's definitely something that you can do as well. If you journal daily, for example, you don't have to use the app. I'm just talking about the app. Don't worry, I'm not sponsored by the app or anything, but I'm just all for using technology because I'm on my phone working 24/7 anyway, so it's just easier for me to keep track. But if you journal, you could just pop it on the top of your entry. Today I received X amount of pounds worth of free items from friends or family, or I received X amount of pounds in unexpected income today. Do you know what I mean? Track everything. Every slight step towards your manifestation goal, track it. When you feel like you're struggling, you can then go back and you can read over what you have to be grateful for. And you know by now what happens when that big bad bitch, the universe, sees what you're grateful for. It'll send you more circumstances, more situations, and more things to be grateful for. We know by now, like attracts like. And speaking of that, I've got quite a funny example actually. So on a weekend when I've not really had much to do, lately I've been decluttering the house room by room. I was going to have like a full day when I just declutter the entire house, but I just don't have time to fart at the minute, like let alone declutter the entire house. So anyway, I've been decluttering room by room, and last week I thought, okay, I'm gonna go through the kitchen, I'm gonna give away any appliances that are just sat in boxes in cupboards, because I mean, everything's just sat there, and I'm going to get rid of like all the chipped plates and the chipped bowls, replace them with new ones. I'm going to get rid of the excessive number of tinned food in the cupboards that are probably way past the use-by dates anyway. And in doing so I ended up getting rid of about 13 mugs from the cupboard where I keep all my teas and coffees, and I gave some of them to me friend, uh, because she weirdly collects cups. Anyway, who does that? Um, the next day I was out for a dog walk and I got a notification on me phone saying that someone was at the door, so I answered it on me phone and asked if they could leave the parcel behind me bin, but I was then confused because I wasn't expecting a parcel and neither was me partner, So once I got home, I saw this little brown box, and we got in the house, and I started opening it, wondering what the hell it was. And once I pulled the bubble wrap out, I just burst out laughing. So I got rid of all them cups, okay? And you know what I say about decluttering? You declutter something, the universe gives you it back tenfold. So anyway, I opened this box, and it was a cup, or a mug, whatever you want to call it. So my local radio station That's Metro Radio for anyone listening in Newcastle. Um, I have a couple of friends who run the breakfast show every morning on Metro Radio called Steve and Karen, and it was recently their 21st anniversary of them starting their radio show. So when I pulled the cup out and saw it was their faces on the side with a big 21st anniversary sign, I started laughing. And then all of a sudden it hit me. I received this cup because I decluttered my own cups to make way for more. The universe saw that I was grateful for the cups, that I'd let go, and it bloody sent me another, didn't it? So I'm going to continue decluttering the house room by room and see what else comes up. And honest to God, I hope no freaking more cups come. Um, I know in feng shui they often say if even just to touch, uh, or dust an item, it—

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Re-energizes it and it brings it back to life. And I've also had a weird experience of this this week as well. It's been a bit of an odd week, but I was cleaning out one of the top bedrooms last weekend, and it's one of the spare bedrooms in our house that I basically have all my stock stored in. It's like my Canny Crystals office, so it's got all my crystals, my candles, everything from my website. And I took everything off the shelves and I started dusting them all, touching them as I put them all back one by one. I had a really zen afternoon because I do love cleaning. I'm not like Mrs. Hinch mad, but I, I do love cleaning. But anyway, the next morning I woke up to a few sales, which was no different than normal, but the items that had been ordered actually shocked me. So there's been crystals that I uploaded to my website back in March 2021, last year when I first opened, and they've had like barely any views on them, barely had any interest. And I've just left them there because there were some of the first crystals that I put on the website. So because I didn't really know about pricing and things like that, I put them on so cheaply priced anyway that if I did reduce them, I'd actually be making a loss because I didn't know about pricing and things like that. So anyway, 2 of the orders that came through overnight were orders of products that I had uploaded when I first launched. Isn't that weird? Like, honestly, I just couldn't believe it. It was like I'd awakened the items by touching and dusting them and brought them back to life. That's what I felt like just from touching them and re-energizing them. And I know that might sound a bit cuckoo, but like, I know my mom always thinks I sound cuckoo when I'm telling her stuff like this and her face just glazes over. Um, but there wasn't really any other explanation for it. For one order to come through, yeah, maybe, but for two orders to come through entirely made up of crystals that have sat on my website for almost 11 months, I find that mind-blowing.. And I know I've touched upon like feng shui in past episodes, so I think I'll probably go into that a bit more depth about it all in a future episode. Might do it next week, might do it the week after, but we'll learn a bit more about feng shui because I would love to start learning like more because I am just learning myself at the minute about it all. But it's so interesting, isn't it? And what else happened? Oh, and another thing that happened to me this week as well, and I mean, yes, I think this episode is just going to be what did Mark get up to this week. Saws. Um, but on my vision board that we did a couple of weeks ago, you know, when I did that vision board episode, I popped a picture of an iPad on there. I wouldn't say I was like gagging for an iPad or anything like that, but I just thought it would really help like develop Candy Crystals, take it to the next step when I'm out and about so that I can sell products on the go, you know, that kind of thing. It's just overall like a good investment for my little business because I never invest in myself or anything like that. Anyway, Johnny, me partner, was talking to me in the kitchen on Sunday morning about how he was thinking about getting himself an iPad Pro. Now, as I've mentioned before, he's a graphic designer, and I bought him this drawing tablet, uh, so he could level up his art a few years ago. And when he started working from home, he then ended up going self-employed a year ago. He cleaned out his old office and he realized that the tablet was broke and wasn't turning on. He can't get it to work anyway. So he's gone without any, like, drawing aids for his graphic design work for a while now, and he's practically just done everything digitally on his Mac. And I mean, he's amazing at it anyway, but I just thought this will really help him, like, level up his business, do you know what I mean? So I suggested that instead of him splurging his money on something that he might not even like, that we maybe go to the Apple Store at the Metro Centre where you can have a play about with them. Just for him to like physically test one out and see if it's right for him, or if he should maybe like look down other avenues on cheaper things. So off we went and we had a play around, and I mean, you probably know yourself, but like Apple is so fucking expensive. I mean, just for the iPad alone it was over a grand, then he needed to buy the keyboard that clips on, along with the Apple Pencil stylus thing that was like £120 on its own. I think it came to about £1,500, but I just said to him, I was like, look, You haven't spent a penny on your business yet. You've been self-employed now for just over a year. This is a real investment. It's going to level up your artwork. It's going to justify what you charge to your customers. Do you know what I mean? It's just going to really, really help him in his business. So I said to him, when you buy it, just feel grateful that you can pay for this. Feel happiness as you buy it so it's not filled with resentment and bad energy. And I was doing the same for him too. Like, I was feeling the feels of being proud that he could afford this. And how it could upgrade his business so that he could justify charging more for bespoke artwork for the bars and restaurants in Newcastle like he does. So anyway, when we got talking to one of the sales girls, out of nowhere she asked if either of us worked in the NHS, and I was like, "Oh yeah, I do," and she went, "Oh, you get a 10% discount on accessories." I'm sorry, what? The amount of years I've shopped in Apple or bought Apple products or wires or accessories All this time I could have had friggin' 10% off. Anyway, back to the story. I suddenly thought back to me vision board, and I ran over to the iPad that I wanted to buy for Kenny Crystals that I've been looking at online, the same one that I'd put on me vision board. And when I asked if it was in stock, the guy said yes and asked if I wanted it. And I make— made a little joke and I said, as long as I can get the 10% off that as well, I would. And he went out the back. And when he came back, he said, "Oh, this is actually £40 cheaper than the price over there," and then he still gave me that 10% off the iPad. All in all, I think we saved about £250 between the two of us just from feeling grateful and happy about our investment purchases for our own business rather than feeling that resentment or the fact that we were having to fork out all that money. And I can't stop thinking about all the different ways that it now makes Canny Crystals easier for me. For example, I'm trying to get over me fear of public speaking. You wouldn't have thought so, would you? I never shut the fuck up on this podcast. Anyway, so I've been approached by the yoga studio that I go to to see if I would put on a 2-hour crystal workshop. So me being the organized little fairy that I am, I put together a little proposal of what I thought the workshop should look like. And then when I attended yoga earlier this week, I took me iPad with us and we looked through me proposal on screen I brainstormed a few other ideas, and it was just so nice to have and made things so much easier. So I wasn't just like scribbling notes down on bits of paper, do you know what I mean? So yeah, that was me being grateful for the week, and I've got myself a little iPad out of it. But that also leads me on to this crystal workshop, actually. So for any of you Geordie Beauties listening, I'll be at the Corbridge— no, I won't be at the Corbridge, I will be at Corbridge at the Yoga with Natalie studio., and that will be on Saturday the 19th of March, 2022. Get it in your diary. It's 12 till 4 PM. All details will be on my Instagram within the next few days, which is @canny_crystals. But it's basically going to consist of some restorative yoga first, and Natalie, who runs the yoga studio— yoga? The yoga studio is very, very good. Um, I went to a couple of her classes in the last couple of weeks. Oh, and she's amazing, really, really good. Um, she's very much like me as well, she's very spiritual. Um, but yeah, she's amazing. And then after the yoga, there'll be a small lunch break, and then there'll be a 2-hour crystal workshop, which will basically be me talking about what crystals are, what crystal healing is, and then allowing you to choose a crystal. And then we'll all cleanse our crystals together. We'll go through different ways of cleansing them. We'll then set an intention, and then there'll be like a big crystal meditation session. The tickets will be £30 for the full 4 hours, and like I say, all the details and the link to book will be on my Instagram page, so keep your eyes open.. And I guess the only things I have left to mention on today's episode is that I'm getting ready to launch a new section of my website next week. Oh, and this is all super exciting for me. So I guess it's an extension of crystal healing, which tends to come like hand in hand with physical and emotional well-being, kind of linking in with mental health. And as you might remember, a few episodes back I said I was working on some well-being journals. Well, they are now here. I love them. I got hold of one right now. I'm touching it, I'm stroking it, I love it. I'm so excited to launch them next week. There will be a new wellbeing section of my website, and this will include things such as the journals to help you with your emotional state. But I'm also adding in some downloadable products for you all. So these are things that I've made myself, like subliminal affirmation music for self-care, self-esteem, success, abundance, wealth, health, happiness. You can just download them, pop your headphones in for an hour. You don't even have to meditate. You can put them on to go to bed, you can put them just as you're doing the cleaning around the house, or while you're doing your work, anything. These have taken me a bloody age to get together and figure out how to do them, but they're all original recordings, so they're all me. Don't worry, I'm not like subliminally brainwashing you into things like, "You will only buy at Canny Crystals for the rest of your life." So yeah, and then I've also got loads of other downloadable stuff in the pipeline that will launch over the next few weeks too, including like gratitude daily reminders, goal setting planners, and I'm even in the process of writing and publishing an ebook about my own spiritual journey. And that'll be like stories that I've mentioned on the podcast in more detail, as well as brand new things that I've not yet talked about. And I'm so, so excited to launch that as well. Oh, I think I just need to leave me bloody NHS job really, don't I? Canny Crystals is defo the way forward. Anyway, I've rambled on now. Um, I'll love you and leave yous. I'm sorry today has been a bit of a mishmash episode. That's what you get when you don't have time to fart and you don't bother to make yourself any notes before you start recording. Lesson learned for next week. But don't forget, please drop me a review or even just a 5-star rating, darling. Um, it takes less than 30 seconds to do on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, but it really, really does help me out. It pushes my podcast up the charts. It lets me be seen by others who are constantly finding me and it's all because of you lot. So I'm truly thankful and grateful for all that you do. If you do want to drop me a message, you can contact me on TikTok or Instagram. Both my handles are @canny_crystals. All of my links are in the show notes below as well. So have an amazing Valentine's Day for all of you saucy buggers that are celebrating. And don't forget, the full moon is next Wednesday as well. Make sure you get on my TikTok watching my videos of what I'll be doing in the next few days. Before that so that you too can prepare yourself. Thank you so much for joining me again today. Have a beautiful week and I'll see you all again next Friday. Thanks guys. Bye.

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