We are on Part 2 of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method where we are reflecting and evaluating how this past year went. Was it all that we intended? Are there things we want to keep and things we want to throw away?
Understanding where we have been can help us identify where we want to go and how we can achieve all the things that God has in store for us.
Let's get right into todays' Truths & Promises.
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Show Notes:
Bloom Where You're Planted: Finding Your Purpose - To read more, click here.
Get Caught Up with Episode 6: Clarify Your Vision Before the Vision Board Party (F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method Part 1)
F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method Part 2 - Transcription
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Hey, y'all, and welcome to the second installment of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Goal-setting Method. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you should go back to last week's episode and take a listen to a Blooming Where You're Planted and the first part of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method, which is the Free Write and Visualize after you've listened and done the Free Write and Visualization, then you can move on to the next pieces for today. Today, we are doing the next four steps of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method, which are to reflect on where you've been, evaluate where you are, embrace yourself and decide what kind of year you will. Have next week, we will talk about the " O" and F.R.E.E.D.O.M., which is optimizing your goals, and lastly, the "M," which is simply making it happen.
So let's go ahead and get into week two, and week two is all about starting our backward planning. Okay. This is where we kind of get really clear on what it is we want to see from the year ahead of us from the journey ahead of us. And then next year, our next week, we'll start to really go through what steps are necessary to achieve.
What we've set up in this week as well as last week. So the first part of the read and F.R.E.E.D.O.M. is to reflect on where you've been. I like to say that gratitude is a by-product of a wealth mindset. The opposite of gratitude could be seen as complaining, and that's what we saw a ton through the 1140 story.
That's what kept the Israelites in the wilderness, going in a circle, decade after decade. So keep that in mind; gratitude is the by-product of a wealth mindset, and a wealth mindset is what we need to continue through the journeys that we're on. So I want you to ask yourself in order to reflect, "what are you most proud of?"
What have been your wins this year? I know this year, as they rolled out 2020, may have felt like another 2020 for some people. So dig deep and really ask yourself what have been my wins. What has historically brought you the most joy? If you're thinking about this in terms of your business or your brand, I really want you to dig deep and say, what was the original mission, vision, purpose, or goal of whatever you've created.
As you're answering these questions, you can journal, or you can create a timeline. From January 2021 to this moment, you can make a mind map of all the great things that you're grateful for and thankful for. Whatever you're most comfortable. And then, as an optional piece to this work, I would say create a gratitude jar.
You can write down each thing you're grateful for and toss it in the jar. And in a sense, this is the same as filling yourself up. As you fill-up the jar with all the things you're grateful for, you're also filling yourself up. If you need help identifying some of your wins for this year.
Flip back through your calendar. Hopefully, you keep track of these things on your calendar. I started doing that last year. Look at your social media updates or your archive stories. Look at your text messages or your emails. Talk with your significant other, your mom, your dad, your sister, your brother, whoever. They can remind you of what some of your wins were this year.
The second step for this week is to evaluate where you are. Where did you start this year? What did you say that you would accomplish this year? Do you have new goals or challenges that weren't present when you began the year? What are they? How do you feel and think about those new goals and challenges?
What could you have done differently this year? So the work for this piece is to decide what your priority areas might be for the year ahead of you. These priority areas could fall under love, business, spirituality, and faith. It could fall under branding or your finances. It can fall under physical or mental health.
There are a multitude of sort of areas that you could identify as your priority areas for this year. And then, I want you to determine when one of these areas might take precedent over another. And these areas really should be broader strokes. So for me, in 2021, the broad overarching sort of priority for me was wellness, financial wellness, physical and mental health wellness, a healthy, strong, and fun marriage.
So wellness in my love life, spiritual growth, fitness, and wellness. So I had all of these sorts of big overarching areas, and there were times that I had to decide, okay, my marriage is going to take precedent over my career right now, or, you know, sacrificing to buy this really cool, unique gift for my husband is going to mean a ton as opposed to just tucking that money away and never spending it.
So really start to try to get clear on where those areas are in relation to one another. And when you might have to draw back on certain areas in order to give more time and attention to another one of those priorities, a lot of times we have competing priorities that make a stressless life feel impossible, but if we can go into our year and knowing these are my priorities, this one's at the top, you know, these might shift around from time to time. I just need to get clear on when I can make that shift. Maybe another example I can give you is, you know, in this year of wellness, I really learned to value rest. Okay. And oftentimes, rest is my priority over everything else. I mean, I'm in bed most times at 8:30 PM, real old lady-like, and I don't work on work, work, my actual paycheck job past about 4:00 or 5:00 PM every day. I refuse like rest is everything to me, but there has been, I think, one weekend this semester where I sacrificed. I don't work past 5:00 PM. I also don't work on the weekends, like period. I am past my dissertation, okay. I've already got the Ph.D., past that school life.
So weekends are a no-go non-negotiable for me, but sometimes they are negotiable. And so I've already set standards to say, okay, if I've got a really tight deadline and I've got to pump some things out, I'll sacrifice x number of hours on my weekend, or I'll sacrifice the entire weekend, whatever it takes.
And so that's when work will take precedence over rest, but that is not the normal order of things. So I want you all to get clear as you're evaluating where you are, get clear on those priority areas. And when one thing might take precedence over another. The next piece of this is embracing you. Okay. I love this part of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method because it allows you to really just visualize who you are and who you want to be.
How do you want to feel in this coming year? Okay. We'll talk so much about the goals that we want to achieve. The visions we have for ourselves. What our purpose is. But how do you want to feel in the coming year? What do you want from yourself? This is physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
This is a time for you to really dig deep and think about how you want to feel in the coming year. For me, I want it to feel stress-free. Now, every day I did not feel stress-free, but for the most part, I had a very peaceful year where things were just going into the place that they were supposed to be in. And even when they weren't going my way, I found ways to dig deep and find my peace regardless. Okay. The last piece of this is to decide what kind of year you will have. I want you to speak over yourself, choose a word, a quote, a phrase, a scripture, something that will help guide you through the next year.
Usually, I do this right on New Year's Eve. I start thinking about it at least a month in advance. So I've already been sort of thinking and praying about what this next year will bring for me. And I will say last year, the word that I got from God was to "sync," to sync with the heartbeat of heaven. And I will say I have done everything I could this year to make sure I was on one accord with what God was calling me to do in this time and in this season on this journey. So I want to encourage you to just get some time to get quiet before God and really seek him on what this next year will bring for you. I would love to share with you all where I was back in 2020 and where I've come to now. You know, my 2020 in review, ultimately compared to everything that was happening in the world around us, was a great year.
Okay. I'd named it my year of completeness. And that is what it was. It had been a great year. It felt great. I had clarity on so many things, but at the same time, I lacked a lot of clarity around other things, like 1140 Glory didn't know where to go or what to do with that or how to handle it. But here we are now at the end of the year with an entire podcast.
So that's all I'm really going to share for today. I would love to share more, but I think I want to do it in more of a private setting. So although this has been a short episode, I hope that it's been helpful, and if you're interested in hearing more about my 2020 to 2021 journey or what I'm thinking 2021 till 2022 will be like, then I want to encourage you to come on over to the Own Your Journey Facebook group. This group of insiders gets all the goods before anyone else gets the goods. Okay. They get more goods than you get here on the podcast. So come and join the group. I want to share with you all my journey in an intimate space. So I'll be happy to discuss there. But yeah, this has been the second installment of the F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method.
Again, go back to week one and listen to the Free, Write, and Visualize so that you can. All of those dreams, visions, goals, and ideas out of your head and onto paper, and then this week, be sure to do your reflections, your evaluations, learn to embrace yourself, and then decide what kind of year you will have.
And then next week, come on back to this podcast because we will talk about how to optimize your goals by setting Ready Goals. Maybe you've heard of S.M.A.R.T. Goals. But next podcast, I'm going to teach you about Ready Goals. So get ready for the next week of optimizing your goals. I hope this F.R.E.E.D.O.M. Method has been a blessing.
Go ahead and share it with someone. Talk to y'all soon.
I'm looking forward to helping you all prepare for the next year. If you want more detailed support, please join the Own Your Journey Facebook group. I'll be doing one-on-ones to help people go through this process. So looking forward to meeting y'all there, have a good one.
As always I'm so happy that y'all could take a listen to today's episode of the Truths and Promises podcast.
If you want to connect with me or 1140 Glory, go on over to 1140, eleven40glory.com, there you can find show notes under our blog section, sign up for our email list or join our online community. If this has blessed you, or if you have topics that you want covered, let us know in the comments of the blog. And lastly, if you got anything, something, no matter how big or how small from today's episode, then be sure to share it with one of your friends and one of your family members.
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