Reflecting on 2023 Wins: You're Capable of More Than You Think
Nov 21, 2023Episode 27
Karalee Gault
Are you ready to celebrate your wins with me and set your sights on the future?
Walking down memory lane, I take a moment to appreciate the milestones of 2023, recounting the transformative journey of maintaining daily consistency on social media, launching the Neurodivergent Bytes podcast, and the profound impact of mindset work and trauma healing on my personal growth and relationships.
In the latter half, I encourage you, my beautiful listeners, to reflect on your achievements and to dream big. I share insights from my personal experiences and expertise in planning, breaking down big goals into manageable steps that align with your unique cognitive patterns.
Not only is the episode a valuable resource for planning support, but it's also a cheerleader in your corner, reminding you that you are capable of achieving great things. Join me as we toast to our accomplishments and gear up for the exciting possibilities lying ahead. You're amazing, and your future is bright!
Are you ready to celebrate your wins with me and set your sights on the future?
Walking down memory lane, I take a moment to appreciate the milestones of 2023, recounting the transformative journey of maintaining daily consistency on social media, launching the Neurodivergent Bytes podcast, and the profound impact of mindset work and trauma healing on my personal growth and relationships.
In the latter half, I encourage you, my beautiful listeners, to reflect on your achievements and to dream big. I share insights from my personal experiences and expertise in planning, breaking down big goals into manageable steps that align with your unique cognitive patterns.
Not only is the episode a valuable resource for planning support, but it's also a cheerleader in your corner, reminding you that you are capable of achieving great things. Join me as we toast to our accomplishments and gear up for the exciting possibilities lying ahead. You're amazing, and your future is bright!
Hello, hello, amazing humans, welcome back to NeurodivergentBytes. I am your host, cara Lee, and today we're going to be just talking about real life. I am going to be talking about basically reflecting on 2023. As I'm recording this, this is the week of Thanksgiving here in the US and it's just been a wild, wild year, and I'm just going to highlight a few of the things that have been absolute game changers for me over the last 11 months. It's been a crazy year. 2023 has flown by. There's been so much growth, so much like ahas.
Speaker 1:
All right, so to start from the beginning, these are the big things that I did this year. I was able to be consistent every single day. Yes, I'm not perfect. There are a few days that I was not, but in general, every single day, I was consistent, showing up on social media in some shape or form, whether that be in posts, in reels, in stories, you know whatever. That is right. So I didn't do a lot of live video though I'm not a live video person, I mean, and that's okay, but I showed up and I was able to refine my message. I was able to prove to myself that I could do it. I was able to prove to myself that if I had a plan, it would be even easier. So many freaking things and as the year went on, I was able to create content a whole lot easier. I was able to, like, really pull out what was beneficial to my audience that's you right and what wasn't right, what felt good to me, what felt good to them, and then what felt good together right, that's how we do it. So I was able to really get consistent on social media, and then I also started this podcast.
Speaker 1:
So starting this podcast was something that you guys had been asking for from me for over a year, and I was like I don't want to start a podcast. I already got a YouTube channel, or I already have this, or I can just do this. And then it dawned on me that I love to just talk, and so a podcast is perfect. In neurodivergent, humans in general love audio for the most part, and so that's why they were asking me for a podcast, and that's when neurodivergent bites released in June of 2023. And we have one new episode every single week. It has been so much fun. It has been an incredible creative outlet for me to be able to just talk through real life, talk through tips and tricks and things that I've worked for me and just being able to, you know, help you, support you in any little way that I can when you're on the go. It has been. It has been a lot of fun. So being consistent on social media and starting this podcast OK. So those are two of the big game changing things from real life here for this year, ok.
Speaker 1:
So another thing that I have done this year is I really made my mindset in working through my trauma a priority, like a big, big priority, and I say that because I'm currently I'm just finishing up, I should say, as I'm recording this anyway going through what we call a TRIPS certification. This is with Dr Lee Cordell and the Institute for Trauma and Psychological Safety. If you haven't followed her, go ahead and follow her. I think she's on TikTok and a few other places. That's at that, one trauma coach. She's a wealth of knowledge and it's like a no BS type of approach, which is totally what I want and need, and so she has been amazing to work with and go through that certification.
Speaker 1:
But the biggest thing has been like I didn't realize I was still walking around with so many things for my childhood that were affecting me today and I was able to start working through a lot of those and start releasing those layers. Like you know, like an onion, you have to peel it one layer at a time, right? I was starting to be able to become out and be myself. Now not this year, but two years ago. We're coming up on the anniversary of me having my ADHD diagnosis, and that diagnosis was actually something that was game changer for me, because my whole life made a lot more sense with why I struggled and why I always had to, like, do things a certain way but it didn't work time, all of those things right. So being able to then take that ADHD diagnosis and start working through and start working with my brain right in a way that made sense, but then also start working through all the trauma that is from my past, has been able to allow me to be more open, like open-minded. It's been able to help me a lot with, like, just being able to feel, like I can be myself, being able to understand that there are different reasons why I react in certain ways and just be okay with that, like it's okay. Through that I've been able to really work on my mindset, because now I know what blocks there are right and through all of that, it brought up childhood, it brought up adulthood, it brought up finances, it brought up relationships, okay.
Speaker 1:
So I have got one of the best, most amazing marriages that I can ever ask for. Like it has a game changer, and it all has come to this amazing place because we both got our shit together, but also because we both started working on ourselves. And for those of you that have a partner that doesn't wanna work on their selves, mindset-wise, if they're still open to listening to you and seeing you change, just sharing your journey with them can be absolute game changer. That's personally what I've done with my husband and it has been like he has grown over the last couple of years and he hasn't picked up a single book, he hasn't listened to a single podcast a couple of them, maybe, but like he hasn't been intentionally doing the work, he's just been listening to me and supporting me and I've been sharing my alhas with him and so he's been starting to ask a couple of questions a little bit more and different things like that. So if you have a partner that's not, we're open to it, just keep working on you, okay. You cannot expect anyone else to make you happy. You have to make yourself happy, and a lot of times that starts with your mindset Right and working through the trauma from your past and different things like that. Okay, so we are able to really get this thing Rolling this year with, like I said, with my marriage. It has been amazing. We have wonderful relationships, friendships. There's intentional time.
Speaker 1:
I have a lot of blank space in my calendar that has been. Another Huge thing for me is having blank space in my calendar. I used to be like this huge planner that had to have every single thing planned out and when everything is planned out, there's no room for error and there's no room for like Spontaneity, and I used to hate surprises or being spontaneous and then I realized that was just my nervous systems reaction to always having to be in control, and since I've been working through a lot of things, I have released the need to be in control, which allows me to be able to be more spontaneous, and it's actually really, really fun. I Love it. I wish I would have gotten to this space in my life a lot sooner, especially because my husband is super spontaneous, so now we're kind of like on the same level playing field, which is fantastic. So that has been a lot of fun. So we're really working through a lot of things consistent on social media.
Speaker 1:
I started this podcast as a creative outlet and to support some support you, all of you in an audio format. I, you know, was able to have a really great marriage. I've been going through my trauma certification and really working through those things, really working on my mindset, and I have also been really going for what the fuck I want. Okay, I've been going for what I want in a way that feels really good. This year has been game-changer.
Speaker 1:
I read the comfort zone book by Kristen something I can't remember her last name, but it'll be linked in the show notes here but I was able to like Start working from my comfort zone, like in slowly expanding my comfort zone, and there was an exercise in the book that told you to create your comfort zone vision board. And I haven't you know, I mean I just did this. This is a more recent thing, but like I was, I didn't know, I didn't realize really reflect on all the things that I've accomplished over just this last year or the last two years or the last five years. There's not a single thing on there that didn't happen in the last five years and that was getting my own home. That was five years ago, so all the other ones are more recent, two years or newer, and two years ago Was when I really started Freaking out what do I want, where do I want to go, working on myself, getting all the things right in my brain and just really going for what I wanted. Now it's a very slow process. This is really a minimum of two years in the making, but really four, and We've been going for it. But some of the accomplishments I have my little vision board over here is Like becoming an area manager for a cleaning company.
Speaker 1:
I have 15 years of cleaning experience and I never. I was always passed over for promotion. So really being able to have that step into that leadership role and Step into systematizing their business and really being able to like Jive with it has been a game changer, and that promotion happened this year, so that has been a lot of fun. Becoming an executive assistant to Holly Haynes that is a more recent one, but it's something I never thought would freakin happen, but because they opened myself up to the possibilities and shared With certain people that I was looking for something, and then referrals right now I should say, in the networking. That is how I got this position as an executive assistant to Holly, because my mentor knew her from networking and it was like, hey, she would be perfect for you. And there we go. I probably would have never felt out the information otherwise to get this job, and so being open and honest and really doing these things has been an absolute game changer and we're just gonna have lots of fun with that. It's a complete dream job, for sure.
Speaker 1:
I Became a verified click-up power user, something I never thought what happened either. Like, I use click up for everything. I set it out for people. I'm always in there. 90% of my clients also have click up and so, like we use click, I use click up all the time literally. I should probably time how often I'm on click up, but if becoming a verified power user Tells you anything, then I'm in the top 10% as far as how often I use click up globally. So a lot. So that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:
A couple of other things is really just having friends and business, besties, you know, having savings, loving family a business I freakin love. Like a business I freakin love. I love my business, I love what I'm doing, I love serving my clients. I never thought I would have that, I never thought I'd figure it out and I have, and that's really fun. And then I was able to get my dream SUV. I was manifesting this SUV, didn't even realize it until I had it and I was like wait, this is exactly what I want and everything I wanted, my kids wanted and my husband wanted. The only downside is maybe gas mileage, but that's, that's just a real-life thing, okay, and but that's the only downside. The only downside. Everything else is perfect. It's my dream SUV and I got it way sooner than I ever thought I would. So there is that, oh, and then, of course, we also have some other things that I am working toward as well, on the outside of that. So there has there was a lot of things that I was able to start reflecting on. I was able to have a lot more fun this year. Why? Because I had blank space in my calendar, I was being intentional, I was working myself, my nervous system felt safe, right.
Speaker 1:
There are so many different reasons why this year was absolute game changer. It's not because I made more money. To be honest with you, if we're talking about money, we made the same amount last year and yet have way more freedom and all the things this year with the exact same amount of money. And it's all because my mindset, our mindset, completely changed around money, around friendships, around people, around our schedule, everything. We could do things completely different. We save money different, we spend money different. We do so many things different because we start working through the things from the past. We started really looking at where do we want our money to go. We started really intentionally figuring out what all this was. Intentionality is huge.
Speaker 1:
So I could go on and on and on on this podcast about all of the other things that I would love to talk about, but I really just want you to start thinking about, reflecting on. What have you done this year? What are some of the amazing things that you've accomplished? Sit back and relax and just think about those things. If you're a journaling type, journal it down, journaling. It was really really freaking helpful. And really doing that exercise in the comfort zone book was really really freaking helpful.
Speaker 1:
Because now I look at, oh my gosh, this year alone, so many things that I had been wishing for and manifesting over the last couple of years have come true, which is proof that it can happen. So those other things that are outside of what you really think are realistic right now can also come true. They can also happen, right. And you have to put in the intentional effort and steps and do the things, reach out, get to support all the things to be able to get to those desired outcomes right. So we're going to continue to do that, but we've got to start somewhere. We've got to start with intentionality. And what have you already done? And where do you want to go? And now do you have the time in your calendar, like the space in your schedule, to be able to do those things? Right, we got to go from it, from that capacity. All right, what does your capacity look like?
Speaker 1:
So you have your reflection, which is step one. What have you accomplished this year? What are you super proud of yourself for? What are things that you never thought would happen that actually did? That's step one. Step two is like okay, what do I want to do with the next year? Start brainstorming about 2024, if you haven't done so already. Like what in the world do you actually want to do? Because this is when we end up having like really powerful dreams and desires, is when we actually start looking at it from a place of positive, right. We looked at what we're really proud of first and then we switched it to now. What else do I want to do? I'm going to make me super proud, still moving forward. Right, that is what's fun, all right.
Speaker 1:
So if you are looking for planning support okay, I said you're reflecting on things looking to 2024. If you're like, okay, great, I can create the goals and dreams and all the things. Now I need the little, itty-bitty, bite size action steps. So I need you to take this big thing and we need to break it all the way down into tiny, tiny things. Right, I am your expert here. I absolutely take planning to a whole new level, but in a way that works for your brain. We create systems that work for your brain and each planning system is very unique to you, and that's why we start from a framework.
Speaker 1:
So if you're looking for really getting that planning support and the accountability to actually take action on the plan that you create, go ahead and join us in the capacity club. Or if your capacity club does not sound like something that you want. You can go ahead and customize your own sort of partnership with me. We can talk about it. All you have to do is send me a DM. You can find all of those things in the show notes. In case someone's told you today you're amazing and you're going to do great things. Bye for now.
