Celebrating a New Year

S3 Ep15 Episode Shownotes:

New year, new possibilities! As the calendar flips, it's the perfect time to reflect on the past and set intentions for the future. What dreams are you ready to bring to life in 2025? 

Heather seems to have it all figured out— a thriving business, a passion for empowering women, and the ability to juggle it all with grace. How does she do it?

Tune in as Heather shares her secrets for getting excited about the new year, from reflective journaling to strategic decluttering and goal-setting. Discover Heather's top tips for making 2025 your best year yet!

Connect with Heather: 

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Episode Highlights:

02:53 The Importance of Reflection 

07:23 Achievements and  Personal Growth

11:53 Decluttering for a Fresh Start 

18:11 Setting Goals for the New Year

25:29 Actionable Steps for Achieving Goals 

26:14 Thank YOU!! 

Transcript

Heather Nelson: Hello everyone. Welcome to this week's Life Conversations With a Twist. Guess what? We're at the end of the year. It is finally the end of 2024. I don't know about you, but I think at the end of the year, I always just get really excited for a new year because it's always a fresh start, fresh goals, fresh perspective. I want to talk a little bit about the theme for this podcast episode, it is how I get excited for the new year. I get asked all the time how I do everything? How am I so goal oriented? How do I just live this life of constantly growing and striving for the next thing? And how am I able to manage so much stuff? You can listen back to all my podcast episodes. I talk about it all the time, but this episode, I really wanted to lean into more of what I do to get excited for the new year. It's a process. It doesn't just happen overnight. It doesn't just say, hey, happy new year. We're here, and it's a new year. And let's get it done. 

There's a lot of mental preparation and some strategy that goes behind it. Again, I'm a strategist, and I'm all about making a plan and setting some goals and doing the things. So there's kind of three things that I really want to hit on this episode, and kind of how to simplify it. I have so many ideas in my head, but this is a great way to, like, simplify it for somebody who is wanting to get excited for the next year and kind of like, figure out the steps to really lean into a new year and make it the best that you can. So there's three things I want to talk about. One is reflection, and we'll dive in a little bit around what that is, decluttering and goal setting. Those are my three things that I wanted to just dive in a little bit on each topic today, and kind of where the mindset comes from each one of those. And I hope this is inspiring and gives you a little bit of homework, some things to think about, and some easy takeaways to apply this to your life as well. 

This year was a good year. I have to say it was a good year, and we're going to talk a little bit about that. So my first thing that I want to talk about is reflection. I think that at the end of the year, it's always good to just sit down and reflect on all the things that happened this year, good, bad, ugly, but really leaning into the positive things that happen. I think a lot of times, we get in our head about all the things that are negative and some negative things, or some hard things definitely will overpower the good. Some people are really going through some hard things. I watch some people in my network struggling with health, or struggling with fertility, or struggling with cancer, and there's not to say that none of these things can really cause a damper. But they could blindside you to the good things. 

I just talked to someone yesterday, and they were saying how they got into an accident. Then something else happened, like a dishwasher broke. Things come up in your life, and it always feels overwhelming when they all happen at once, and we get so caught up in the mindset of like, oh, this happened to me. Oh, this sucks. You know, that kind of talk in your head. So I really am encouraging you to just sit down, take out a notebook, take out a notepad on your phone, however you best can reflect on this. But really, sit down and think about all the good things that happened in 2024. Again, I had to go back to January because good things happen, but you kind of forget about them because new things come up, or they were so inspirational at that time. But then again, something else comes up, or you kind of forget about it. 

And so it is a good way to just kind of like sit in your life and just really reflect on 2024, the good moments, the good things that have happened, or goals that were achieved, or some pivots that were made. Whatever it is, it's a really good time to reflect. I'm not a huge journal person. However, I do like to journal once a day where I'd go through, and write down five things I'm grateful for, and then my goals for the year. Writing them down each day really reminds you of your goals, and to really make sure that you live each day trying to achieve those goals. So I actually had to sit down, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I guess I did accomplish a lot. 

I think my last year's episode around this time was a reflection of my year, and really talking about all the great things that have happened. I do want to reflect on that. Because if I ever listen back to my podcast someday, I want to remind myself of where I came from. But I also want to just show this exercise to you guys, kind of like the things that you can think of, and I want to spend a ton of time on it because I really want to focus on getting you ready for the next year. So some of my bank accomplishments this year, which are things that were on my vision board from last year. So every year, I do a vision board. If you're interested, I'm having one on January 9. You can just email me or DM me on Instagram, and I will send you the link. It's free. It's here locally in Windsor, California, and it is a really great way to kind of get your mind set and excited for the new year. 

But as I reflect, and I'm looking over here because this is where my vision board is of some of the goals that I had set for myself and some of the things that I achieved. And of course, there's things that you don't achieve, and so they either stay on your board for next year or they get ripped down because you have new goals. So some of my bigger, bigger accomplishments this year, my number one, were moving to Windsor. That was something that has always been on my heart. I needed to do it to get some time back, make it easy for my children, and that has really truly changed my life. I didn't realize moving 20 minutes north would save me so much time. And then also living in a space that is clutter free and doesn't have a lot of projects. How much time it's freed up for me, I think, is one of my number one favorites for this year. I also got a new office, which is what I'm sitting in right now. This is my space to dream big, to meet people, to collaborate, to strategize, to just record podcasts. So much magic has happened in this office, and I cannot wait to see what happens moving forward as well. It just feels like home for me. 

I did two women's retreats. We did an overnight retreat back in April, and then we just did one in October. That was a huge accomplishment, something that's been on my heart with my friend Alicia, and we finally made it happen. And they are not profitable at this time, but the impact that it has made on others lives is truly so rewarding. And so there's more to come. If you didn't know, we do have slots for our next January retreat, which is on January 2. And so again, DM me, or you can email me, whatever. There's lots of ways to get a hold of me and get the link to sign up. What other things did I do? As most of you guys know, I have two businesses, and our labor company doubled in revenue this year. So that was very exciting. A goal that we had set for ourselves. And so it's been really cool to see that little business grow and continue to grow. 

For next year, we have some really great things in the pipelines, and I'm really excited to see the growth in that. And this has allowed, again, financially. So a little bit more financial freedom and giving us a little bit of money to go do vacations, which I'll get to in a second. The other thing was with the connection hive, ending the year in a very good revenue space. I made more money than I did working as an employee, so that was a huge accomplishment for myself. Starting your own business, yet you have no idea what's going to happen. You have no idea financially, if it makes sense, and you don't know what the market's going to take. But I'm very proud to say that I hit my revenue sales. This definitely was a year of reflection for me of what I want to do, and we'll get to what that looks like for next year. 

But also with that, with the business, I was able to hire more support in my business. And I think as business owners, we think that we have to do everything. And when you first start out, you kind of do it because you're not making any money. But I was able to make the leap to hire a bookkeeper who is supporting me in all the financial stuff, payroll and all that stuff. But then also, I was able to bring on a team to help with my podcast. And growing my podcast is definitely a huge accomplishment where it's definitely growing. I hit a lot of milestones this year. I've had a lot of amazing guests on. We'll talk about goals in a minute, and that is definitely one of them that will continue to move forward. We took three vacations this year. We took one earlier in the year with my family to go see my dad. We also went to Arizona to visit my step daughter. And then my husband and I just took a solo trip to Vegas. We didn't go anywhere spectacular, or we didn't go to some tropical island. Door got away for a couple weeks, but we were able to take the time to go get away and spend time with each other and our family, and so that's something that's been very important to me, and will continue. We have lots of great trips on the books for next year. So I'm very excited about that.

And let's see. The other thing is, sometimes when you are going through life, you find some bumps along the road, or you find things that you want to improve on, whether that's your health, or your relationships, or your career, or whatever that is. And one of the things that has always been hard is my relationship with my husband, and we've gone through a lot. He had back surgery last year so we've had a lot of personal things that come up. And so we've been very blessed to be able to find a counselor to help us through the process, being able to communicate better and be happier. It's almost a little bit of self exploration of yourself and how you show up. So we're very thankful to have that, and I think that's something that has been important to me, making sure my relationship with my husband is strong. Also just being able to spend more time with the kids now that I'm not traveling all the time. I have flexible hours with my work, and being able to spend more time with my kids has been very important to me, and will continue to do that as well. 

And the last thing was getting on a healthy workout routine. I have to say, I've been very consistent about working out. My eating habits suck, and I do drink a lot of wine. But that will be something I'm working on for next year. But I am proud of the commitment I made to showing up. Working out three to four times a week has helped me, obviously, physically, but also mentally. So as I sit and reflect, those are some of the key points that I'm very proud of this year. And again, it just makes you realize all your hard work pays off. So that is step one of getting ready for the next year, sitting down and reflecting on the good things in life. 

The next one I want to talk about is clutter. This is a very broad topic, but I definitely think that it's something that, as I was putting these notes together, I'm like, this is something we need to talk about. And there's so many little buckets, but really getting ready for the next year in a clutter free space that is not stressful. That's not on your mind, that doesn't bring anxiety to your life. So there's a couple little buckets that I encourage you to take the time. I know a lot of us are taking a couple weeks off between Christmas and New Year's. You can even take January, or a week in January, or weekend in January to do these things. A lot of these things are really not time consuming. 

Again, you can make it a clutter day and just get through all these. But I promise you, if you actually just take the time to kind of organize these things or declutter them, it will definitely change how you move about your life and also in your mind. So a lot of these things I do monthly, I actually schedule them to do. One of them is something that I just listened to on a podcast, and I think that it's a great reminder. So cleaning out your emails. I manage eight emails. It's not a lot, but if you manage one, a personal one, you get a lot of junk mail to go through and delete things. Make little folders. Things that are important, move them over to a folder, delete the things you don't need, and then start unsubscribing. 

Can we all talk about how much junk mail we get? This is probably why I have so many because I get to a point where I'm like, I just have so many. I just open a new email address, and then when I go to sign up for one once and they ask for your email, I give them one that I never check anymore because I don't want to be spammed. So there's two things you could do. You could do that. You could just start over a new email and start fresh, or you can just go through what you already have. Just literally just hit like, select all delete. And then in the mornings as they start popping up, just go to unsubscribe. It's super easy to unsubscribe, and I honestly have changed how many emails I get because there's just been so many. Especially on the personal level. And then I also went through and just cleaned out all of my work emails, all my client emails. I put them in a bucket test. If I need to do something for next year, I will do it next year. So really, going into the new year with a new inbox is very important. 

This also goes for text messages. I don't know about you, and I also don't love the red dots on the phone. If you have an Apple phone, you know I'm talking about. I do not like red notifications on my phone so I go through and clear all of them out. But once a month, I go through and clean up text messages. If you get a lot of junk text messages, I just clear those out. I clear out any group text messages that I'm not a part of. Or say you're going to an event and someone puts you on a group text and blows you up. I just like to get rid of them. And if you have an iPhone, you can actually go through and delete all of your large attachments because that does take up a lot of memory in your phone, and going through and deleting all those emojis or all those photos that people send you. For me, I love to look at my phone and it's clean, and there's not very many text messages, and there's not a lot of emails. Because then, I feel like that is very overwhelming to me. 

Taking the time to clean out your bills. If you do a lot of paperwork, take a couple hours, just go through and reorganize it. If you're really interested in doing a huge organization, message me, and I'll send you a book that I just read. It was very, very helpful for a lot of things. I already did, but there were some great takeaways for going through your bills and reorganizing that to  just clean that up. And then I also wrote down cabinets. If there's a space in your house that brings in anxiety, like a tupperware container cabinet or a water bottle cabinet, just go there and clean it out, throw away things that you don't need, purge what you need to purge and reorganize it. If you can start the year fresh with spaces that are clean and organized, it's crazy to me how less stressed you will be. Maybe it's a closet or a shoe closet, this is a great time of year. If there's clothes that you don't wear, take them out, donate them to Goodwill. Get rid of the things that really, truly bring you stress. Maybe it's a garage, or it's a bedroom, or it's your office, or whatever it is. Being able to clean out a space and starting the year off decluttered is amazing. This is what I do on the daily. I'm just trying to remind you guys, this is how my brain makes me feel better. 

And the last one, which is something that I think is super important. I just listened to a podcast about this, cleaning up your social media. We spend a lot of time following people who make us feel like shit. Let's be honest, how many of us scroll and we're looking at people that maybe have a life that you want, or make you jealous, or make you feel a certain way, or make you feel uncomfortable, or make you feel crappy about your own life. Unfollow them. Nobody tells you that you have to follow these people. Go in. No one will even notice. Just go in and unfollow them. Go to your followers list and just unfollow the people that literally make you feel like crap. Stop following the things on social media that make you feel like crap. The reels that you follow, there's so many different ways to get rid of those types of things in your life that will make you feel better. Maybe it's a friend, or maybe it's a group, or maybe it's someone in your life that doesn't bring you joy or that makes you feel like crap, declutter them. Let them go. So that's just a reminder. 

I think that going into next year is just a great way to kind of let it all go, right? Lesson, release. It was a great year. It was great to have them in your life, but it's time to let them go, let them free. And if it's meant to be, they'll come back. So that was my second thing I want to talk about is just decluttering. Decluttering all the things. I'm sure you can think of more, but these are the ones that I find a lot of stress and angst around doing. 

And my last topic, which I talk about all the time, and this is a huge part of how I'm able to do the things that I do and to constantly move my life forward, setting goals. I know everyone loves talking about it. But here we are. I mentioned earlier that we have a vision board every year, so I'll be doing that in early January. And again, this is going live on January 2. So some of you will have already done this, and if you haven't done it, it's not too late. It's never too late to start. So this is something that you can do in January, and then maybe you start fresh in February. Whatever it takes, just get it done. But I am going to challenge you to set three goals. Three. I have more than that, but let's start with three vision boards. You have a lot more, which is fine, but I want you to sit down and think of three goals that you're going to focus on for next year. We're going to do a little exercise around them, but they can be anywhere from career, health, family, relationships, hobby. 

You want to do more work in the nonprofit sector. You want to start a business. You want to start a side hustle. You want to leave that job that you hate. You want to start taking up yoga. You want to take more vacations. You want to spend more time with your family. Whatever it is those three things that, if you can write them down, you get excited about. You know that if these were accomplished, your life would be different. Those are the three goals that you should be writing down. 

So the three goals that I have, let's see if I can remember them. One is to continue my health journey, but also more on the eating side and less drinking. I have been very good about showing up, working out, but my eating habits are not the greatest and not consistent. Drinking has really been a downer for me as far as how I react to things, how I show up. If I drink the night before, I don't want to work out. So just getting that more buttoned up is definitely a big goal of mine. 

Number two is growing my podcast. Honestly, I'm ready to take my podcast to the next level, and I have lots of things in the pipeline to get there. I'm going to set personal goals to be on 24 different podcasts in 2025 as a guest. I just need to get in a room with people that are going to help move that forward. I have lots of things around that I would love to make money on doing a podcast shoot at some point. I would love this to be my full time job. But here we are putting a lot more effort and time around my podcast. 

My third one is really figuring out where I want to take my career. I'm definitely in a space where I get very lost and confused about what direction I want to go, whether that's leaning into my career that I've had for 20 years, or it's leaning more into my podcast, or it's leaning more to the retreat world. I'm still not very clear on it, and I would love to take the time this year to figure out what that is, and to get more clarity around it. So I'm putting my goals out there, because I believe in manifesting, and I believe in talking about them, and I believe if you tell people about them and talk about them. You write them down, you're definitely going to be more focused. 

So once you have set those goals, one, I want you to write them down. Maybe put them on a stick, maybe put them on a vision board. I want you to put them somewhere where you're going to look at them daily. Again, every time you look at your goals or write them down, it reminds you that each day you need to do something to work toward that. So that is like an exercise one. 

Exercise two is, I want you to take each goal separately and dissect it. So if one of your goals is to change your career, I want you to figure out and write maybe a couple of action items. Maybe it's like three action items of what you can do to make that goal happen. And if you don't, if you get stuck in this process, please reach out to me. I'm happy to do a little session with you, and we can figure it out together. You have to get creative. So if it's changing your career, is your resume updated? Is your LinkedIn updated? Do you know what career you want to get into? So spending time researching it, listening to podcasts. If it's a career that you know you want to get into, find a podcast or books that will educate you on that. There's so many things you can do to move your goal forward, but you need to sit down and figure out what those action steps are. And then finding out the time you're going to do it, whether that's a weekly thing that you're going to work on, if it's a one day thing you're going to work on, if it's a continuous daily thing you're going to work on. Whatever it is you need to have the action items, and then you gotta calendar them, or put them in a to do list, or put them somewhere where you're actually going to do that. 

Another example would be, you want to get in a healthy, physical routine? Great, that's wonderful. Set a goal. What is the goal? How many days a week do you want to do it? I always tell anybody to start with fewer days. Maybe it's two days a week. And then once you can be consistent at two, you add a day. So again, setting the goal of, what does that look like? And then also, what does that mean to you? Does that mean going on a cleanse? Does that mean going to a yoga class, or going to orange theory or whatever? Find that exercise or that body movement that's going to make you enjoy the process. One of the action items is to sign up for a class. Sign up for a cleanse. Sign up for a run. If you've been wanting to run and want to run at 5k, go look for one and sign up for it. Because then, you have a date to work toward. 

I really think it's super important that once you set the goals, you've got to figure out the strategy behind it, and then having action steps around them, and then also calendaring them. So those are certain things that I do to kind of move the needle. For me, my health journey will consist of doing juice blends for five days, just to kind of restart it, and then just finding activities or things to drink that aren't wine or beer, cocktails, and just kind of really leaning into that. And if you're somebody who wants to eat healthier, that could be its own podcast for me. But one is meal planning. The easiest way to eat healthier is meal planning and having a plan each week to stand by. And then grocery shop based on that instead of just grocery shopping based on how you feel or what you are craving because that's when you can kind of derail. 

Any of these goals that you might find challenging, that are going to be hard for you, get in a room with people who are wanting to do the same thing, or find an accountability partner. Because I think if you can find somebody who's kind of striving through for that same goal, now you have someone to work on. If you're wanting to change your career and you have a friend who does want to, do your best together. Take a class together. I think it's really important to find somebody who has similar goals or similar drives. Get in a room with them, become friends with them, spend time with them. So yeah, these are some of my ways that I get excited for the next year. I'm so excited I've decluttered, I have my goals set, and I've done my reflection. 

I'm ready for a new year. I'm taking the next two weeks off to just spend time with family and to kind of regroup. Then gonna hit the pound, or hit the pavement running in 2025 if you want any one on one sessions. I do offer one on one sessions if you want to just do a little deep dive. I've had friends come into my office, and I have a really cute whiteboard. We've just dumped everything that they want to achieve, and then come up with a strategy behind it. If these are any of the things that you're interested in, I'm happy to help. There are things that I love doing, and I always love to pull happiness out of people, pull goals out and challenge them, and help them see a different point of view that you kind of get stuck in yourself. 

I hope you enjoyed this podcast. I want to take this time to thank everybody for listening to my podcast every week, sharing them, and supporting me. I truly, truly am blessed. I'm so thankful for all of my guests. I love every single one of my guests, I've made amazing connections with them. I know that they're changing people's lives within their story. I'm so grateful for this platform and support from all of you, so thank you so much. More to come in 2025. This isn't goodbye, this is seen in a week or two. And I hope everyone has a great holiday, a great New Year's, and let's go crush 2025. I hope today's episode resonated with you. And if it did, don't keep it to yourself. Spread the inspiration. Share this episode on your socials. Tag me. And if there's anyone in your life who could use a dose of encouragement, pass it along. Looking forward to continuing this journey of inspiration with you. Until next time. Stay empowered and connected.