Practical Tools for Aligning Mindset and Ambitions | EP293

Unlock the secrets to achieving your goals with our latest episode of Mindset in Action, where we promise to transform the way you think about resolutions. With New Year's resolutions often fading by late January, we'll guide you through a fresh approach with insights from Jenny Donato. Discover why traditional resolutions might be setting you up for failure and learn how to establish realistic, incremental goals that ensure lasting success in your personal and professional life. By focusing on monthly objectives and gradual changes, you'll be equipped to foster habits that support long-term growth and well-being, whether in health, wellness, or business.

In the second half of the episode, we explore the profound impact of maintaining a positive mindset and harnessing the power of vision boards. Hear my personal story of striving for a work-life balance and how setting a clear goal of leaving the office by 6 pm is reshaping my daily routine. We'll delve into how vision boards have played a pivotal role in manifesting dreams, from international travels to achieving work-life harmony. With insights from Vanessa Buck, you'll gain practical advice on creating and using vision boards to fuel your ambitions. This episode is packed with inspiration and tools to align your mindset with your dreams, turning aspirations into reality.

Listen in to Vanessa's episode here https://bit.ly/ep181map
Listen to Jenni's podcast and our episode here >click<

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Chapters

• 0:00 Goal Setting and Habit Formation
• 12:33 Positive Mindset and Vision Board Influence

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:50

You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending. Maria Robinson, welcome back to the podcast.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Everybody, I am so super glad to have you here and I am so excited to be able to tell you that my birthday event, mindset and Action podcast live, is going ahead for the 3rd of April. Mark your diaries, go and run and grab your early bird ticket. There are limited spaces available. I had a flash sale that went to the waitlist. The flash sale tickets have gone, so now we are onto the early bird tickets so you can grab your ticket for £50 off. If you jump on now, you can go to donnadeedcom forward slash birthday event, which is all one word, and you can go and grab your ticket Now. On that page you will find all the details about the event, the location, etc. The running of the day and you will be able to go and buy your ticket. There is a coupon code section and if you use early bird 50 or one word lowercase, you will get 50 pounds off your ticket. I am so excited to be able to meet you in person and to bring you podcasting live. We are going to be talking about growing and streamlining your business. We are going to be talking about podcasting, obviously, and I have got two very special cat sessions that I can't wait to tell you more about. So go and grab your ticket now. Don't wait. There are limited early bird tickets available. The prices will be going up soon and I will see you in April in my home county of Northamptonshire.

Speaker 1: 2:49

Now let's jump into the episode. So this week I wanted to do a quick conversation with you about what it is to set a goal, and that is because we are now in the third week of January and this is usually the time where New Year's resolutions go out the window. So many people on the 1st of January decide to set their business goals or set their personal goals and set these resolutions that they are going to be this way, that way, the other way. This year, you know, I'm not going to eat any chocolate. This year, I am going to be healthy. This year, I am going to exercise three times a week. This year, I am going to, you know, grow my business and double my income this year All of these goals that we set ourselves at the beginning of the year that when we get to December and we look back over the year, we go what were my goals again?

Speaker 1: 3:42

Or what was that resolution I set in January? Because usually it's so far in the past that you can't even remember what it was. And this happens a lot. And I think a lot of times we set ourselves up for failure when it comes to these goal setting sessions. And that is why I was so delighted to have a very special guest come to the Business Women Unlimited networking meeting that I run for Debbie Gilbert online. This week I had Jenny Donato come and talk to us about motivation and how we can actually make sure that we are setting goals that we are going to achieve and that we are going to be able to continue to work towards for the rest of the year rather than failing, because she actually came on the day that most people have given up their resolutions. 21st of January is like the D-Day for resolutions, having gone out the window. So if you're somebody who has set goals and you're sitting here listening to this thinking, oh gosh, that's already me, I've already failed at my New Year's resolutions. I already forgot what my business goals were. It was three weeks ago. I've been asleep since then, donna. Then this is the episode for you, my friend. Let's jump in to it. So one of the things that Jenny suggested was that we actually scrap New Year's resolutions altogether, and I couldn't agree more with this one.

Speaker 1: 5:07

I think it is really hard to set a New Year's resolution in the traditional sense of the word and actually be successful at it, because oftentimes, when we set a New Year's resolution, we are starting at the end. You know, we're saying something like I want to lose weight or I want to be fit this year, and we jump to exactly where we would want to be by the end of the year. So exercising three times a week, not eating a scrap of rubbish, you know, always eating the good stuff, never making the wrong choices, and we do that for so long, and it's such a jolt to the system that the system almost has a breakdown and is like oh my God, what are you doing to me? And then your body just goes and by week three, your body said, said no, this is not going to happen, rather than doing what we need to do, which is saying by the end of the year, this is where I want to be, and then making those changes across the year that are going to help us get there. So if health and wellness is your goal for the year, then how do get there? What are the changes that you need to make and focus on different things each month to get you to that point.

Speaker 1: 6:20

So by the end of the year, you're in a position where you've made some really lasting habit changes. That means going into next year, you're going to be that fitter, healthier version of yourself that you want to be, and that's the problem is. We can't make these changes overnight, as much as we would like to snap our fingers and be different, and there are very, very few people that can do that. But generally speaking, we are creatures of habit and habits are so, so hard to break. Trust me, I know this one.

Speaker 1: 6:52

So I am a very habitual person, routine led, and when it comes to health and wellness stuff for example, my lunches I could eat the same thing for lunch every single day. Doesn't bother me and I will just continue to eat that. So if I work out that this is what I'm going to eat to be healthy, then I will have that every single day. I won't deviate from it because it's too much hassle, it's too much hard work, it's too much, it's just too much to do it. So I will have the same thing every single day and it doesn't bother me. But for other people that would be like a nightmare. But those are the things that you're trying to break.

Speaker 1: 7:31

So for me, then, to change it up and have something different, I am always resetting to my default. It's really really hard to get away from it. Something as easy as having a couple of slices of toast for my lunch is quick and easy, whereas you know, defrosting some homemade soup or you know making something from scratch is effort that I haven't got time for. So when I am busy, it is so, so easy to default to the toast because it's quick, easy and it's ground in habit that is easy for me to fall into. So this is what we are battling against. We are battling against these almost. It's almost like it's threaded into your DNA that this is what we are battling against. We are battling against these almost. It's almost like it's threaded into your DNA that this is who you are and what you do and you're trying to change that. It is not easy and it takes practice and it takes effort and you've got to keep resetting because you will fall back into old habits. You will want to go back to those old patterns. It will naturally occur and you'll slip up, but you need to be able to do. You know when people turn around and say when you fall off the wagon, you don't have to wait till Monday to get back on it. That's the thing.

Speaker 1: 8:50

So when we're looking at our businesses, it is so easy to default to all of the things that we normally do. So I'm checking my emails, I'm posting on social, I'm making this podcast. Those are habitual things in my business that I do. So when I am busy, it is easy to default to those things rather than sitting there and thinking okay, what are my goals this year? What am I looking to do? So, for example, I'm doing this live event in April. There are a lot of things that I need to consider that I have never had to consider in my business because I've never run a live event before, which is all the more reason why you need to go and grab your ticket and come and support me, because I need my friends there, so come and support me and cheer me on, because it is going to be. It's going to be fantastic, but it is one of those things that is just not something that I do all the time. So, therefore, those habits aren't there and if I'm not careful, it would be really easy to forget things in terms of what I need for that event, because I'm in my habitual state of like I'm busy, I'm just going to get done, I just need to get this done today and then I'm done, rather than thinking what are my goal targets that I need to hit?

Speaker 1: 10:06

So Jenny was talking to us at the meeting about our word of the year and using that rather than goal setting. So, rather than saying, I want to hit this many clients this year, I want to hit this revenue, I want to go to this event, go to that event or any of those kind of goals that you might set for yourself, instead, looking at the overarching theme of your year, what do you want your year to be? And for me, my word of the year was balance. What does your word of the year look like in tangible terms? So what tangible things can you write down to say that if I was to achieve this by the end of the year, then I'll be able to look back and say my year was whatever your word of the year is balanced for me and that was a really good little task to do. And then she talked about breaking those events, those targets, those tangible things down into monthly milestones that you need to do.

Speaker 1: 11:15

So if you want balance in your work life, what is one of the things that you need to do there? So I want to be able to have Friday as my free day, so that I don't necessarily do business work on that day and I don't do any other kind of work on that day. So really, the way I split Fridays is I split it in half In the morning. If I've got stuff that I desperately need to do, that's time critical, then I will do it then. If I don't, then I claim that back and have it with the rest of the day as my own day. So what is a way that I can do this, a tangible thing that I can do to help me bring that part of my balance into my life? I can go in my calendar and I can block Fridays out right now as busy and then nobody is going to be able to book anything on a Friday, which means that I will not have any calls on a Friday this year, which is already miles ahead of where I was last year, where I would like look at my week, think, oh, it's all really quite busy. Oh, I'll just stick it in on Friday morning, when that's not what Friday mornings were for. So that is a really important thing to kind of do is to actually put the steps in place to make those things happen. So by doing that, I will have Fridays free.

Speaker 1: 12:33

So something else that I'm looking to do as part of my balance forming is to be out of the office by 6pm. Now I can already tell you that I am failing that right now. As I'm recording this because it is late and I am not, I am not out of the office. It's 5.30. I wanted to be out of the office by 6. I have got to edit this and put it up before I can leave the office. So I know I'm not going to be out of the office by 6 o'clock tonight. However, that is not my goal right now. It's my goal by the end of the year to not be in the office at 6pm at night. So this is something that I've got to work at. I've got to create space in my diary, which I have done this week. It was only this week that I started to change my work hours around a little bit to give me some extra time to hopefully help with that. So that's going to be something that we see coming to fruition over the next few weeks, hopefully. So what is it for you? What are those tangible things that you need to do to help you attain your word of the year? And write them down and start putting those in your diary as action steps to take.

Speaker 1: 13:49

Another thing that you might want to do when it comes to setting your goals and intentions for the year is to create a vision board. Now, I did a vision board last year and it was actually quite magical that, as soon as an, it's almost like you put all these things on the vision board, but it's not necessarily that you want all of those things enough to make it happen. So you've got to want it enough to make it happen. There were words of affirmation that I put on there. There were little quotes that I put on there, so one of them was what is for me will come to me and that I am enough, just as I am. And romance, the day was another one, which is something that I want to bring in this year as well. So I didn't do enough of it last year, but when I did it was magic. So these little things, but of everything that I put on the vision board, two things really stood out to me was my trip to Paris that I wanted to do, and visiting London, being in London more, because I really enjoy going to London for the things that I have gone to London for. So I wanted to do those two things. And if you have been listening for any length of time, if you were listening last year, you will know that I went to Paris in June last year for my birthday. So I made it happen. It was almost instantly after I finished my vision board that it was within a couple of weeks that I actually booked Paris. So it was like I put it on my vision board I wanted to make it happen. I knew that if I didn't just book it it wouldn't happen. So we booked it. It was magical and I loved the fact that that happened.

Speaker 1: 15:35

And then London I did a trip to London with my mum and my sister to go to Kensington Palace. So I did that trip with them. I got the new part-time role that I now do as well as my business, and that part-time role involves me being in London quite a bit. So I was in London um, I think it was four time for four days in December. We went on the 6th of December, I was there on the 16th and the 17th of December. I was there on the 16th and the 17th of December and it might have been another day as well that I was down there in December. Then I was there in September. I went to an event in London in June or July I think it was in summertime, so I went down then. So there was a lot of London activity this year, both personally and professionally, which was fantastic. So those two things got very much ticked off. Now there were other things on there, like health related things, and I did start working with a nutritionist last year. So there is definitely things that I can tick off that were very much focused on and achieved, which was amazing.

Speaker 1: 16:53

So if you want to create a vision board to help you visualize these tangible goals that you're writing down to help you achieve your word of the year. Then I am going to send you to the show notes. Go to the show notes and I will have linked there for you my episode with Vanessa Buck. Vanessa Buck is the vision boarding queen. She absolutely loves the power of vision boards and she shares it with everybody. So if you want to learn vision boarding, she is the lady to go to. I will link her episode in the show notes for you. You can go over there. You'll find the links in the show notes of that episode to go and connect with Vanessa. So make sure you do that.

Speaker 1: 17:37

Vision boards are very, very powerful. So that is another great way of bringing your thoughts, ideas, beliefs to your mind. And that is a powerful thing. Because this was another thing that Jenny said at the meeting and I was so, so grateful for her saying it, because it was so important and that's why I want to repeat it to you guys is she said that your brain is very powerful, and we all know this. If there's something that we've been learning as a sort of a species over the last sort of decade or so, is how powerful the brain is, and one of the things she said was that if you ask your brain a question you ask your brain a question your brain will go and find the answers and it will go and find evidence to say that what you're saying is true. So if you make a statement or you ask a question, your brain will go and find the answers and the evidence to support it. So, for example, if you turn around and say to your brain gosh, you are so fat and lazy, your brain will go and find evidence of that.

Speaker 1: 19:04

You didn't go out for your walk today. You didn't drink the water that you said you were going to do. You couldn't be bothered to go to your parents house when you said that you were going to go. You couldn't be bothered to make your dinner, which isn't going to help you. Like all of these things, your brain is going to bring to your mind as negative reinforcements that what you said is absolutely true, whereas those things might be true, that those you did those things, you might not have gone to your parents because you just did an eight hour day and you were exhausted because you had to use a lot of brain power to work out something complicated at work or in your business. You may not have gone for your walk because you were in that eight hour day. You just didn't have a moment to stop and you got so distracted by what you were doing or you were so engrossed in what you were doing you didn't know the time. You might not have cooked yourself a dinner because you were tired. But your brain is not going to show you the logic of that, it's just going to show you the evidence that you're right.

Speaker 1: 20:14

So if you want your goals to be coming true, you can't be negative with yourself. You have got to look at the positives. So you know, ask yourself different questions. Ask yourself the different questions. What did I do today to help the me of tomorrow? Well, you got up on time, and you don't normally do that. You went to bed on time and you got a good night's sleep. You managed to get a quick walk in between calls earlier. You know these are all things that you know. Your negative brain might turn around and say you didn't do enough, but your positive brain will tell you that you are making these incremental changes. So that's another thing to think about when you are looking at your goals, your vision for the year and just how you're talking to yourself, because it makes a huge difference. So that is it for today.

Speaker 1: 21:24

I really wanted to just bring you this session this week because we all know that. You know it was Blue Monday this week and I want to sort of address that as well. And it does tend to be a week in the month of January where it all starts to go a little bit wrong. We had all the good intentions on January the 1st and then all of a sudden, by the third week in January, those intentions have gone out the window. And there is a very good reason for this, I think, and that is because we start our new year in the middle of winter and I think it's silly and I wish we could change it, but unfortunately January the 1st is not going to change. It's always going to be January the 1st and nobody is going to do what I would like them to do, which is change the new year to March the 1st.

Speaker 1: 22:22

So in the Western calendar, new Year's Day is January the 1st and that is what it's going to be, and unfortunately we are all programmed, almost like in our DNA, that that is the start of the new year and that is when we need to make these changes and because of that we put this added pressure on ourselves. And it's just, it's the wrong time of year to do it, because we are mammals and a lot of mammals hibernate for the winter, but we don't. We don't. We have to live through it. And we're awake, but we're really tired and we're pretty lethargic, especially after Christmas and all of that good stuff. We are cold, we just want to be warm and we're a bit sluggish and it's just not the best time to make all of these really big changes. And I feel like, if we're going to make these changes, doing it Jenny's way, where she's sort of saying look, where do you want to be at the end of the year and let's start working towards that, rather than we need to be this right now and then we've got to hold fast and keep it going until the end of the year, is a gentler way of getting to where we want to be and it is also something that you know is bred into us by marketeers.

Speaker 1: 23:45

So Blue Monday was something invented by the travel industry. No offense to my travel agent friends Absolutely love you guys, but it was a term coined by the travel agency world to get you to book summer holidays. Oh, you're feeling blue this Monday. Book your holiday and you'll feel better. And so it's a marketeer's day. It's not actually a psychologically proved day where people are more sad than any other. It was a marketing day. It was something that I saw on Martin Lewis's Twitter, I think that he put out saying don't give them the credit for it, because they are, because a lot of people are looking at it as this sort of mental health day when it's not. It's a marketing day. So you do have to take care of your mental health.

Speaker 1: 24:37

This is a especially vulnerable time for people who struggle with their mental health. I will put my hands up and say it has not been the best of times for me these last few weeks. I feel like I am very, very slow coming back into the new year. I had a lovely Christmas break and I just I'm just struggling to get myself moving this year. So it's all been a very slow comeback and I'm trying to be gentle with myself. And it's not because of Blue Monday, it's because it's January. It's been grey for weeks. I can't remember the last time I got to see the sun, and it's just a real big struggle for me personally.

Speaker 1: 25:19

So if you are somebody who is struggling like that, or if you're not struggling like that, I would love to hear from you. I would love to hear where you are with this time of year and how you feel about it, because my feeling is we should start our new year in March and that would be much better, which is why I kind of go with my financial year April to April. So March is the time where I kind of treat it as my December, where I'm doing all of the okay, what are my goals for the year? What am I going to do? What do I want to achieve? What can I start putting in place? Because then that leads me into April, which is the beginning of my financial year. So that works better for me. But I would love to know from you how you guys work, how you find this time of year. If you struggle with it, what do you do to help? I would love any tips and you know, if I get some, I might share them in another episode. But if you are all good and groovy, ready, rocking and rolling, I would love to know what you're up to. What are your goals for the year? What are you working towards? What are your goals for the year? What are you working towards?

Speaker 1: 26:26

So that is it for today's episode. Thank you so much for joining me. Come and join me over in the facebook group and let me know all those details. Don't forget to go and grab your ticket for the event. It's donnaeedcom forward slash birthday event, or one word, and that early bird code is early bird 50, or one word lowercase. So go and grab your ticket now. I hope, hope to see you on April the 3rd. I will be back next week. We have got some guest episodes coming Again, slow me this year. I am slowly getting back into my recordings and whatnot. So there will be some guest episodes coming, but I've got another couple of great episodes coming up for you next week and the week after. So stay tuned for that. I'll see you next week and the week after. So stay tuned for that. I'll see you next week. Bye for now.