Intentions Over Goals: The New Year Revolution!

Well, hey, everyone, it's Justin Courtney, and welcome to Working From Home.

We have a special guest here, and I'm Camden.

Cam wants to tell you about our YouTube channel. So, Cam, what's the YouTube channel they need to go subscribe to or take a look at right now?

Brown dad, Brown Boy, Brown Adventures.

So those are all our adventures on YouTube. So it's a link below if you guys want to click on that. And also if you click on the homepage, you'll see Brown Dad, Brown Boy Adventures, and you see all of our fun little adventures all around the world.

Really, it's so fun, you guys. We. The channel takes you everywhere that we go as a family. Crazy places, normal places, things that you may not discover. Maybe you're looking up things to do in your family. We're in Northern California, but we kind of go all over the country, even the world, and we review and tell you the real deal.

And the thing that mommy don't like, there are snakes.

Oh, wow, Cam, thanks for telling thousands of people my biggest fear.

So please go take a moment like, and subscribe or take a look at that channel. And so welcome to all of our new subscribers. When we were on here last, we had 143 subscribers. Started really doing some shorts, and I think that could be one of our podcasts. So you went from 140 to over a thousand in less than a month.

Wow.

And we can talk about that eventually. How to go from like, we had 143 subscribers. Now we're over a thousand from our YouTube shorts. And so to all of our new audience that has tuned into our podcast today, welcome to Working from Home. And hopefully this will assist and push you. And we're going to do some Bible studies as well on here with all of you too. So welcome. And so let's jump into our time together. So thanks for being here, Cam. Thank you.

Thank you.

Bye.

So today we want to talk about what's the new year, right?

New year, new me.

Yeah. So new year, new everything. And as well, actually. Yeah. So I think it's interesting to think about what you said before we got on here. Our thought for our. Our talk today is forget setting goals and start setting intentions.

Yeah, right. Yeah, I thought that'd be good to talk about, to really set an intention for like not what other things that you want to do, but who do you want to be? I know you say that a lot too, where you don't make to do list, you make to be list. And I think a thing thing is like hey, one of, so one of my to be goals that I've set out is I just want to, to take care of myself better. I want to be the best Courtney as possible. And whether that is like in all the things that I am. So that's a better wife, a better mother, a better worker, a better whatever, that's what I want to be. And so setting intentions is really important to our identity and who we want to be. And I don't think we said enough of looking at the true identity of ourself of who, who do I want to become in 2024.

You know, being is far more important than doing, right? Because anyone can learn to do. Yeah, everyone can't be. And that's one of the things even for like, even the work I do. Like, I protect culture like it's like a baby, right? Because anyone can do, anyone can do the job. That's why like everybody's replaceable, but everyone can't be, right? So in our own lives. But the same thing goes for like, so great success is in your being, right? And now you're doing and the same thing, great failure is in your being and not your doing. So if you are a coward, if you are weak, if you choose to be whatever, the being is what get you fired, the being is what loses relationships.

I used to work many years and in my career have hired lots of people. People, right? So I've gone through a lot of processes of, you know, interviewing people, looking at resumes. And there are thousands of people that apply for one job that can absolutely do the job, right. And that's what we look at like, you know, do you have the skills? Do you have the experience? Do you have what it takes to do the bare necessity of the job? But let me tell you what goes forth and this is like a big time secret for those that are looking for jobs or those that are going out culture, who are you as a person? That's what gets you hired at places. And can you fit our culture? Can you fit looking at your team, looking at what you want your team to be as people are hiring, looking at, okay, what is this organization's culture? What is this? Who am I? And asking yourself, do I fit? I think a lot of times we get so unhappy in our jobs because we not a good fit, right? Like, sure, you could be very analytical, but you're not a stuck up, stuffy person. But we're applying to these stuck up, stuffy jobs and you're like wondering, why do I hate this so much? Because you're not a good cultural fit. Right. You're not a good fit, but you would be fit for another company that's just perfectly aligned and designed just for you and your personality. And so it's not like work. You're just fitting in. You don't have to act, you don't have to be like, oh, I got to do this again today. I have to do that. You, you have to fit within it. So culture is huge in who you want to be. Don't change who you are, but who are you becoming? And then also saying, like, as you look into things and even as organizations, culture hires are important.

Well, that's where Netflix I base a lot of our my own professional culture on Netflix's culture. Right. And I've been always based. I love Reed Hastings book and Patty McCord's book powerful and no rules Rules. Besides shameless, what is it? It's a shameless plug and unpaid Advertisement. Is Patty McCord's book powerful and Reed Hastings book no rules Rules. And if you're looking to transform your culture, I think that's great. And also we coach that. So another shameless plug. If you're interested in organizational coaching to that end, go to capacity today. We would love to coach you and your organization on that, but one of the things is you hire. So one of the. A couple of the things that hastings and Patty McCord implemented was adequate work at generous severance. Right? We do adequate work. Give you a very generous favorite phrase. Yes, it has been not prophetic either. But adequate work gets a generous severance. Right. And it's just such a big thing where it's like, if you can do adequate, anyone can do adequate work. Yeah, you can pull anybody in from anywhere. Any student, any person looking for job can do adequate work. But that gets a generous severance, Great work gets high. And that's where you have to attract great talent and be willing to pay them as well. Right. And to have a culture of high performance culture mean that we expect high performance when you're working, we also expect you to restart. And one thing Netflix prides itself on is giving people intense rest. Right? And so the moment, there was a moment in their history where a couple of years ago where like on the brink, like once Covid started, Once Covid started going, Patty McCord was longer there. And you could tell something got weird in Netflix. People left. And you see all these other streaming platforms come. And the reason all the other streaming platforms came is now those people who were doing great work but could not keep up with the demand of Netflix at the time is the only streaming place left and went and created Paramount left and would help Disney plus left and wouldn't help ESPN plus. And so you lost a lot of great talent. Right. And they wouldn't get adequate work. So now Netflix is hired everyone and it just got weird. But, but you're seeing a lot of these companies right now, especially in tech and in the world in general. They're laying off or releasing a lot of people because of just adequate work. And so but anyway getting awful work stuff to you personally. Yeah. Being is so much more important. And to those of you who are tuned in. I'm currently preaching at my church the book of Deuteronomy. And I'm amazed because Deuteronomy, chapter 11, verse number 23. I just couldn't get over this when I read this narrative. It's based upon scripture says like every place your feet go is your feet. Every place will be blessed. Yeah, right. And the, the. The text is not boundaries, right. So all my life I never hadn't studied it. I just heard people say, everybody, my feet go go me blessed. I'm gonna step on scorpions. I've always seen this boundaries, right? It's like I'm a. Wherever my feet go within the boundaries of where God gave us are going to be blessed. But when you really read it, it's this old practice of kind of like when you get a house, you get an organization and you have the plot, right? And the plot land you get, you, you, you mark it off by flags like.

Right. Reminds me of you. When they were. I was watching something when they were like creating the state lines. At the time there wasn't airplanes or Google Map trucks. Like people had to walk the land to say like this is the barriers of this state.

And that's what God was saying. And the reason we have issues now in Israel and still have had for years is because God told them to walk the land. They didn't.

Right?

And so I mean they did, but they didn't care and their hearts weren't in the right place. And that just leads to a whole bunch of other issues we have nowadays. But even with that, right, so like God told them to walk the property and he told them go as far east is this, far north is this far south is this whatever. And go as far as Mediterranean Sea. New freight is river. And I want you to evaluate for like you And I did this literally. I wrote this out and drew it out of my own journal was I put a Box on. And I said, what is our territory? Right? Like, what is the land that we're walking? How far north are we going? How far south are we going? How far east and west are we going? Then naming it. And so for me, that's how I'm looking at this. Not. Not setting goals this year, because we could set goals, but goals, to me, my mind, I'm reading this other work called you need a manifesto, and goals are only as big as your vocabulary at this moment. And so I can't insult my future, right, by using words I know now, thinking that that's going to be anything. No, that's what. That's the best thing I think can happen.

Yeah, you said something like super powerful even today. Like what you just said about, like, how people, like, walk the bounds of who they are. Like, this is how, you know, like, this is all your land. This is all that you are. Like, I don't think that we've done that enough as people have not discovered are we have not walked the boundary lines of who we are as ourselves, of people, right? So setting goals, a lot of times when we set goals, it's goals of who we wish we were, right? Like, so I want to be a millionaire, but you're not consistent with your $50,000 of salary. You're not consistent with this, or we want to be a millionaire within that $50,000 parameter that God has given you in those. We haven't walked the bounds of that. Right? We haven't gone through. And yes, it's treacherous. Can you imagine those walking the land, right? Like, oh, we hit a river, we hit these, we hit this, okay, we might have to build a bridge. We might have to do this, these things, okay, That's. We might have to build a dam to actually have more land over here. That's going to take away from this and from that. But, you know, there's so many things that come up in discovering who you are and walking the bounds of yourself. And we just don't do a good job. I think of people of exploring where we are. So, like, that's the. The number one thing is, like, as you set your intentions of going into 20, 24, explore everything. And that's when we know when God. When we've explored everything that we had at the level that we are at, we've hit the bounds. We can no longer do what we're supposed to do. That's when God gives us more. More territory to occupy. That's when God gives us more things to govern, to be over to have to be in our territory. That's when we become the millionaire status. And really, because you've explored the bounds of every little step beforehand. And I think that we would be so content with our lives where it's just like, I had such a real moment yesterday and I was sitting here in my house and I'm like, wow, I prayed for this house so much. And I think we can forget it because we move on to the next, right? And I'm like, I. I want to walk the bounds of this house. I want to see the most that I can do. Like all of this. Yes, that it houses us and that it does great things. But I want my potential and my everything in this house can be and where we are in this spot in our lives to be everything that we needed to be. Right? And that then generates gratitude. And that's how you combat anxiety. Like, it's all in there, right? Once we fully know, like our identity, we go and we use the full bounds of who we are. At least the gratitude. And gratitude helps to lessen the anxiety that we have in our heart of like, oh, what's next? I don't know what to expect or will I ever have or can I ever do or can I ever do that? Go back to knowing the fullness of who you are in this season.

That's it, you know? So let's let me do something practical. So I've been practicing something more recently in light of Shameless Plug. I've been reading a lot, I guess.

You and these plugs.

I joke about like, I feel like I don't read enough. And then I'm sitting here just like.

Oh, oh, you read enough. How many books did you read?

48. Go to jr Lester.com click blog and you see all the books I read last year. Actually 49 because I finished one more.

I'm an audible person. Shout out if you're an audible person.

I downloaded six books on Audible, but that's reading too. So there's this activity that I learned in this book from Stanford E School. And it's going to make sense. It's like it's just plastic bag. So I want you guys, wherever you are, if you're driving, do this when you get to work. But it's a practice that I've been. Been imploring to help build my imagination. Right? And so what I want you to do is take something random in front of you. So literally right now I have a reading novels.

You mean like build your imagination. I love a good novel. He doesn't like novels so much.

The only novel I gave time was the Splendid in the Vial. Great book, by the way, Spinning in the Bible.

But it's, like, based on, like, World War.

Yes.

That's not enough.

The dude walked around naked. Like, it's really weird. He smoked cigars naked and his wife just thought he was crazy. But it was a great book anyway, so what I want you to do is take whatever you have there, and I want you to take a second and think of every use for this. Now, I don't want you to think of the normally. I want you to think of everything, like every possible use. And we're gonna. I wanna do this activity where we think of every single use for this. So we have a bag. That's all we have, just a basic plastic bag. And so whether that's that, we have a remote here. I did this before with a cup. I've done it with a pen. I've done it with a notebook. I want you to think about every possible use for that thing. You ready? So.

Oh, we're gonna do it now.

We're doing it now. We're live. So expand our imagination. So, okay, what are the things this bag can do? Court. So it obviously can hold stuff. What else can it do?

It can hold stuff. It can be a barrier to protect.

Barrier? Yeah, like something you can serve things. You can put things on top of it. What else it could be? Oh, it could be a place to like. It could be like a cup if you fill it up.

Oh, yeah, it could be a cup. It can be.

You can present things because it's clear.

Yeah. What else it can be a arts and crafts. I've seen the crafting thing with the blacks.

What else?

I don't know. What else can be like an umbrella, like a bonnet, like a rain covering.

It could also be someone using your hands to protect you from things.

Oh, yeah, I've done that a couple of times. Use them as gloves.

You can use it as a thing, you know, when you. Cupcakes and cakes.

Oh, yeah, the. Like the piping bags.

Yeah, we said storage, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Piping bags.

Those. Just a couple things we thought about. But the reason this is so important is, first of all, you would know. Would not think of this immediately until you're doing cooking, until you're doing whatever that is, to use it in that way. Right. The goal of. If we're gonna see, like, finding ourselves completely, I want you to do this with things around you to expand your mind and train your mind to see like multiple possibilities, but then also do this with your own life, right? So there's a picture of yourself or whatever and see multiple possibilities, see endless possibilities with yourself. And that's just a bag. And we did that just off the cuff. After you do that, that's step one. And you write those things down. Then every single day, find an object, find something and spend five minutes thinking of every possibility that that thing has. Just to train your mind on imagination.

Yeah, I really do like blame society, you know, like when you're younger they always ask you, you, what do you want to be when you grow up? What do you want to be? As if like life just hands you or God has for you one thing, right? And so we go all of our lives saying, okay, like you know, when we're younger we have a bigger imagination, right? I want to be a fairy, I want to be a dinosaur this, I want to be that, I want to be, I just want to walk on the moon. Like we don't know all the stuff that it takes. And then as we get older, our imagination lessens and it becomes much more like practical things, right? But it's always just one thing, right? And I've even learned with our own child of like, who do you want to be? Like who do you want to be as a person? And like how can we make you in pour into you all the things that you need to be in. In that being is a plethora of things, right? Like in that being, like, hey, I want to like influence people to do things that, that's a lot of things that you can do to help influence.

And that's the thing.

And let's start small, you know, if.

We, I think that's what. So in light of artificial intelligence, in light of everything coming on with technology that we don't even know about yet, right? I think it's nothing. It, we talked about this before that human enterprise is what's going to be current. It's going to be the successful places. So higher education, non profit work, things like that. That's going to be the success of the human interest. Because like therapy is going to go AI right. It's just you can train enough stuff to ask the right questions to give you introspective. A lot of these things are going to go artificial intelligent. But there's certain situations in certain spaces that you, you can't because of the human element, right? And human engagement, interaction. And I think that that's what's essential, right? To teach people to be. So if you want to be an engineer to go do that, then be great, then do it if you want to be that. But I think a lot. I think a lot of our jobs and opportunities we have in the world right now are byproducts of a lot of doing. I have to make ends meet. So, yes, we've stopped being ourselves to make ends meet.

Yeah.

And I just refuse those of us who are believers. I refuse to either be servant God who gave us everything we needed to make ends meet. No, he is the beginning, he is the end. He is the first, he is the last. He is the alpha, he's the Omega. And because He. He doesn't need ends to meet. He is all ends. And. But until we trust that and my own life, right, until I've trusted that, now I can see God do things in phenomenal ways. And I think that that's. That that's a great space to be. So I really challenge all of you to be beers, not doers, and to be doers of his word by being who God called you to be. God signed off on you and signed off for the world by get grace in the world with you. So b. So B.

So come on.

Yeah. So set intentions this year. And is there an activity court that you would give everyone on the screen to, like how to set intentions or a way that they can center down and set intentions or how you set intentions?

Well, yeah, well, a. I think the easier, easiest way is I'm a huge journal writer. Like, I write everything down. I just like to document where I am, how I'm feeling in that day. Documenting every. It doesn't have to be. Be a perfect science. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be whatever. And I even like, write down the things in my head that are kind of flooding my mind to take away the space and the time, but fully leaning into, like writing down what is it and what. What is it that you want God to do? And what do you. What is it that you feel like you're missing in life? And how do you really see the expansion of all that you are. You have to see. In order to see yourself better, you have to see God better. And I think a lot of times we fail to spend enough time with God or just enough time of. Just quiet time of really hearing and reflecting to our whoever, whatever is guiding us to know where we're supposed to be. I'm also big on this time of year. I love vision parties. Like, I got a request from one of my good Friends page, if you're listening. Hey, girl. About a vision party. And I like to put. So I don't do a board because I'm like, you know, I'm not 17 anymore that's gonna put like a pulser up in a room. But I love getting. I like going to the dollar store. They have these really cute, like, journals now, or just these blank things. And they even have, like, them. They're like faux leather, but they're so nice. But I get a really cute journal that's like a blank one, not the one or the ones with the lines too. And. And then I take, like, pictures and magazines or different things like that, and I cut them out and I put them in. And I like it in a book better than a boy, because I could take that with me. I always have it. I can always go back to it. And it's funny. You found my one. I started one with the group that we had. And you were like, well, you did these things. I did. It was just the beginning because we ran out of time. And I was trying to give them an example. And you're like, well, you already did this, this, and this.

And I'm like, interestingly enough, the shoes I just got two days ago, they were on yours. They were in the vision board.

They're in your vision book.

The patent leather Vanderbilts is what I'm calling them. Were in there.

Wow. Yeah. And. And my last thing is, I think documentation is really great. I think now if you record a video to yourself, right? One of the things, the most powerful things I remember, like, in Covid, and we got Covid in 2020, and I wrote. I recorded a video to myself before when I found out, okay, we're positive for Covid. And it was scary. It's like before the vaccine was, like, in the height of it, nobody knew what was happening. All this kind of stuff. And I'm like, let me record a video of when I'm feeling okay. And, like, knowing that this is what it is and to encourage myself in it and through it and to see on the other side, like, hey, do we make it? What's going on? This, that, and the other. And it's funny to look back on how, like, you know, had no idea. But going on the other side of COVID where it's like, you did it. This is what happened. This is what it is. And it was like, almost like this encouraging of yourself. So I encourage you to create a video that. Where are you now? Right? What are the things that you want to do ask yourself questions in the future, am I this person? Did I do this? Did I do that? And then now that you have somebody to be accountable to yourself, you have yourself to be accountable to. And so I think it's important to be like, I have to answer to this girl. I have the answer to this person that I'm in looking at on this video. And like, yes, we did that. No, we said no to that. Yes, we had great boundaries. No, we grew in our careers or. Yep, we started that business and we did these things and you were a great person and you became these things. No, your salary didn't change, but you saw all that you could do to do it, and it's great. And you're here another year, and it's great. And knowing that you have someone to answer to, I think is really powerful.

You know, the last thing I'll say is, to that end, I think it's so wonderful when people, now people, when you get into prayer time and I started doing this a couple years ago, if your mind wanders, write that stuff down.

Yeah.

So if your mom. Because. Because that's the stuff that you really are concerned about. Right. I think writing it down to either tabling or having it after and engaging with it. So that's very powerful.

That's what I tell people. That is your prayer. Right. So a lot of. A lot of people. People that I talk to and we lead lots of Bible studies and we talk to and we encounter. We have a over a thousand member church here in California. So we talk to a lot of people and we hear a lot of stories. And the number one thing that people say is like, you know, I just. I get so distracted and I have so many things going. That is your prayer? Yeah, that is the starting point, God, like, how do I be the best mom and I have to, like, help me. Holy Spirit, remind me to get the perfect treat for my son's football team. Or, you know, Holy Spirit, let me know how I can serve the teachers this week and giving them what they need. God, help me to have an organization schedule to get laundry done and to make sure that the kitchen is clean. Or how do I help mobilize my family to be the best that they can be in their rooms, in their territory, in their. In their space. How can I, you know, pray for my husband or what are the things in my mind? I start with the to do list. And that is your prayer? That is your prayer. And it's like, no, we don't have to have these magnificent, like, Mary's magnificent, like her. But that was the Lord, and that was the concern of her heart. Right? Yeah, yeah. You know what I meant. Or whatever.

Chapter one, verses 26, 32. Right. One of the most beautiful hymns in scripture. Right. Thank you guys for joining us for working from home. Courtney, what is your unpaid advertisement?

My unpaid advertisement? Come here, Kim. My unpaid advertisement is for the brown boy himself. For Kim the man, my baby, who bought this shirt with his Christmas money. It's a beautiful color of Chartus. And my unpaid advertisement is for the brown boy adventures with brown dad. Brown boy Adventures. I really need you guys to check him out to like and to subscribe and. Because you really want to be a YouTube influencer, right?

Yeah, and I really want to get the silver button, the golden button, and the in the diamond button.

So his to be and his intention this year is to be a YouTube influencer. And we're going to max out in our area. That we are. So that he can get the. What is it? The gold.

Yeah, the gold, the silver.

The silver button, the gold button, and the diamond button. So if you know a friend, tell them about it, and we're gonna help Cam get there.

My. My unpaid advertisement today. Stanley Cups.

Hey, go get my Stanley Cup.

Oh, my God.

Well, now Gen Z are leaving, so now we gotta go to that.

Who cares? Gen Z is a lost generation. Sorry for all of our Gen Z listeners. You guys are not lost, but Stanley Cups. Courtney got a new Stanley cup for Christmas.

I got two.

She got two Stanley Cups for Christmas. And we'll not. We'll make sure the world knows that she got this Stanley cup for Christmas. So. Stanley cup, the cup of the millennial woman.

Try to be.

This is working from home. I'm Justin.

And I'm Courtney.

See you guys next week. So I'm thinking, what do you think about next week? I did an old podcast on Made for Mondays. One of the first ones I did, it was with my mom. And so. So next week. Yeah, so next week you guys will meet. On the 7th, you guys are gonna meet my mom, and she passed away, but her birthday's on January 7th. And so my mom and I recorded a podcast during COVID actually, about Christian education, spiritual and development. So on the 7th, next week, you guys will remember her and get a chance to meet her. So, yeah. So have a great week. Wiz is working from home. We'll see you guys next week.

Yeah, the heart, like the Gen Z. Oh, my gosh.

Because you got to Stanley Cup. Speaking of, check out the tech pastor online, you guys will see a song that AI put together for Courtney called Daddy the Hottie because her new Stanley cup for Christmas. All right, see you guys next week.

Don't forget to. Don't forget to like and subscribe to Brown Dad, Brown Boy, Brown Adventures.