Speaker 1 0:02
Today you're tuning into a very special episode, and it's going to be a treat for you, because I'm gonna give you 10 Really powerful questions for you to ponder on maybe the journal on that will help you to look back on what 2023 has been like for you. And then leap ahead into 2024 to create the vision of the business and the lifestyle that you want to lead. It's a pretty special episode. And I'm excited to dig into this with you. So go grab your favorite drink, rather create a cozy spot. Or if you're listening and you're driving or you're walking, then it's going to be a bit of a soul searching and dream making episode today. This is the shoes in business podcast, where every week I'll explore topics and have real conversations around what it's like to run a regional business, the advantages and the unique challenges. I'm Donna Han, a seasoned regional business owner, and certified high performance business coach. I'm here to make training and professional development easily accessible for regional business women everywhere. So join me and guest experts as we share tools and insights to elevate your business, boost your mindset, and ensure that you never feel alone on this journey. No matter where you live. I'm fired up. And I'm here to educate you on what it truly takes to grow your business and your mindset beyond what you thought possible. Thank you for joining me for another episode of The she's in business podcast. Welcome back. It's Donna Han, your host. And today we're going to have a bit of an insightful moment together. Almost like imagining we're kind of doing a bit of time travel together. We're going to be glancing in the rearview mirror to see the road that we've traveled upon this year, looking at the ups and the downs, the unexpected kind of detours that maybe you've taken, I know I certainly have. That's just part and parcel of running a business and part and parcel of life, right? And then we're going to, I'm going to pose some questions to you to look forward into the year ahead. So I've got 10 powerful questions for you. They are incredible questions that actually were shared with me by a beautiful business buddy of mine, and Angela Lockwood, shout out to you. And she shared these questions with me that she actually uses every year to Jen Alon, and to help her to get ultimate clarity going into the next year, not just for her business, but her for her life as well. And I love them so much that with her permission, I asked if I could share them here on the podcast, to give you some real aha moments as we hit the road running right going into 2024. So the first question that we want to kick off with is what am I most proud of this year? And I love this question. Because I want you to think about those moments where you truly surprised yourself, where you were so proud of whatever it was that you did, or someone in your life did that, that you want to remember, right. And so what I like to do with these questions, is actually journal on them, you know, you might, maybe you could do this, and you could sit down and just like, go for it and do all 10 questions. Or maybe you might like to set yourself a bit of a challenge to go every day for 10 days, I'm just going to do one. And it might be that in the morning, you take the question you ponder over, you sit with your thoughts throughout the day, maybe jot a few things down. And then maybe at the end of the day is where you sit down and you really put pen to paper with it. If you're not much of a journal, maybe it's just a thought process for you. Use them however you will. But taking note of what you're most proud of this year, is a really great starting point. Often, we don't take the time to do that. And it can sort of feel like the year has gotten away from us and we haven't really achieved anything but I guarantee you if you take a few minutes to really think about what you're most proud of this year and note that down. It's it's a really great thing for you to be able to do. The next question is all about lessons. So what has been your biggest lessons this year? Was there a challenge that taught you something invaluable? Maybe there was a mistake that turned into you know, one of your most important learnings, whether it be in B Nisour in life, that's where growth happens, right? Often it's the hardest things that teach us the most, either about ourselves or about our business or about the people around us. So Question two is, what have been your biggest lessons this year? And then less? Question three is, what patterns have I noticed happening this year? Now, this is a bit of a quirky question. And and you did say to me, like, I'm gonna give you some extra context to this one. But I love this question, because it is about self awareness. It is about picking out your patterns of behavior that either help you to strive forwards and achieve things. Or the things that you maybe don't realize, are actually holding you back and sabotaging. So we're talking about our behavioral patterns that you've you've noticed happening this year. And you know, sometimes, we repeat the same behaviors over and over and over without realizing what the lesson is in that. And so when we pay more attention to what those things are, than the clarity of where the lessons lie within those patterns are what we need to do to adjust it, it becomes more clear. So what patterns Did you observe in your personal or your business life that either helped or hindered you? What were those things? And these takes real honesty with yourself, right? So what patterns have you noticed happening this year? Now I'm going to shift into talking about distractions. So what distracted you from your goals this year? And we all have distractions, right, those sneaky little things that veers off course. Maybe it's the shiny objects, right? But identifying them is the first step to overcoming them. So what has distracted you from achieving your goals this year? Be really brutally honest with yourself. Question five, what excuses Have you been making this year? Or what excuses Have you been making this year? And we're all human right? Sometimes we build barriers for ourselves that keep us safe. But maybe it's time that we get honest. And we break some of those barriers down. So what excuses Have you been making this year that have kept you safe, and stopped you from moving forwards? That was question number five, I am speeding through these pretty quickly because the real value in these questions, is you taking the time to sit with your thoughts and actually answer them. Yeah, you can understand how powerful these things are right. It's also a really great time of the year to sit with these as we go from one year and transition into the next. And jumping in here, the thank you for listening to the shoes in business podcast. Each week, I watch the number of downloads rise. And I am really grateful that you choose to have me in your ears supporting you and your business. And I really, really appreciate it when you take the time to leave a review of the podcast. So thank you for taking the time to review the podcast, I have got a special gift for you a productivity notepad designed by me that I will personally pop in the mail to you. I'm going old school, this is not a digital download. This will physically arrive in your mailbox. I have crafted this to help you optimize your focus and maximize your productivity. And I personally use it every day. I've also gifted it to my clients and it's been a real game changer for them as well. So here's the steps. Step one, review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on and then snap a screenshot of your review. Step two, and this is an important step. If you want me to send you a productivity notepad, I want you to DM me on Instagram, type the word review. And you'll get a link to a form that provides me with your postal address. And voila, that is it my friend, I will personally make sure that a productivity notepad goes in the mail for you as a special thank you for taking the time to
Speaker 1 9:22
review the podcast. The next questions question number six is a pretty it's a feel good kind of question, who have been my biggest supporters and key people in my network? Who have been my biggest supporters and key people in my network. So just taking a moment to appreciate who's really stood by us, who's cheered you on? Who's lifted you up? Who's offered you advice that has been incredible for you, who's just held space for you to be you, you know, unapologetically you Who are those key supporters? Who are those key people in your network? Really important to identify who they are, so that you can keep them as part of your world, right? Question seven is about stepping outside comfort zones. So what have been the out of comfort zone actions that you've taken this year? What have been those moments where even though it's felt maybe pretty uncomfortable? Maybe you've surprised yourself? Maybe you haven't wanted to, but you've done it anyway. What have been those moments? What have been those moments that you've stepped out of your comfort zone and take an action? And the reason that this question is really important is because if you've done it before, you can do it again, yes, it might be in a slightly different way. But it's building that inner confidence in yourself. Because as business owners, we're always stepping outside of our comfort zone. In life, we're always stepping out of our comfort zone, because we're always growing and shifting and changing. We're always adapting to our ever changing environments. And so there can be that point of fear and stepping beyond our comfort zones and doing things differently. But when we reflect on the year that has been and we look at the different, the different times that you have stepped beyond your comfort zones, and what actions you took in order to do that, we can then celebrate those moments because that's where growth happens. And it also lifts your confidence to know that if you did it, then you can do it again, going forwards really powerful stuff. Now, question eight. Question Eight is what am I most excited about for the year ahead. And I really want you to let your imagination run wild here, I want you to dream big, I want you envision the possibilities to make your heart to make your heart big with excitement, right for what the year could hold for you ahead. So what are you most excited about for the year ahead? If there was nothing holding you back, what are you most excited for? And we're almost there. We're out quick after question nine already, this is going to be one of those shorter episodes, right. But as I said before, the value is you actually sitting down with these questions, pondering them, and getting real clear about it. Because that clarity is then going to plug in beautifully for you mapping out 2024. And I do have a 2024 planner, a guide that will help you to take these questions, implement them in your mind as you're building out your 2024 plan. And if you want to go and grab that free guide, go to Donna hande.com, forward slash 2024 planner all in lowercase, and you will find it there. It's going to be game changing for you if you don't already plan within your business. But if you've done any planning with me before, you'll know how impactful it can be. So where was I actually I was up to Question Nine wasn't? Question Nine? What changes? Will I need to make my vision for next year come to life? What changes do I need to do to make my vision come to life next year? So this is sometimes I phrase this question with my clients, whether I'm working one on one with them, or even inside the membership, when we do our group coaching sessions, or if I'm delivering a masterclass, and we've got set actions that are going to help my clients and members to go to that next level and implement to see results in their business. I often ask the question, okay, now you know what you need to do? What are you going to start doing? And what are you going to stop doing in order to create space for that to happen? And it's a similar question that to this one, what changes will I need to make to see my vision for next year come to life? If that's a really big question for you, and you're like, Whoa, how do I? How do I pull that apart? What do you need to start? What do you need to stop? And what do you need to keep doing is another way to phrase that question. And this will really help you to make small changes, that will return a big impact either to your business or to your life. Right? The reason that we started our business is to grow that beautiful lifestyle, the freedom, the flexibility, the income, to be able to be in the moment with the people who mean the most to you. When you want to be when you need to be without having to ask permission to take time off right? For me that's really important. And maybe that's important for you as well. So in order for that vision, to come to life, and for you to be able to maintain if you've already achieved that, that lifestyle that you set out to achieve with your business. How do you maintain that? What are the things that you need to change in order to make your vision come to life and next year? And finally, question 10 What would make me smile this time next Next year, what would make me smile this time next year? So picture yourself a year from now? How do you want to feel? What are the emotions running through your body? And what would what would really light up your soul? What would make you smile? This time next year, basking in the joy of all your achievements, looking back on the year. And going yeah, that was awesome. That was an awesome year. What does that look like for you? Today, these are the 10 questions. They're pretty good questions, right. And I also want to share with you, you may have seen if you follow me on social media that last week, oh my goodness, it could have even been the week before now Time just flies. I went to Brisbane, I met up with my core business buddies, six incredible women who are doing amazing things with their businesses, who are also beautiful souls who are giving supportive. Just hold space in a whole nother nother dimension for me, right, and we do it for each other. And the first day that we got together in the Airbnb that we reserved for the weekend, we sat around the table. And we each asked one question that each of us had to individually answer and the power of questions. It is, it is awesome to be able to pose these questions to yourself. And really get clarity and understand what's going on on the inside for you. Because life gets busy, right, we just keep putting one foot in front of the other. We keep moving forward, we you know, sometimes take a step back, and then we're recovering from that. And we're we're just the wheels are always spinning right? When you can take the time to pause. And maybe right now for you, it feels like that's too much of an ask, you know, being that we are, you know, November, December, it's a busy time of the year we've got all of the other things that we're doing, as well as our business, it may feel like asking these questions and spending time pondering them is just not, you know, you just haven't got the capacity to do it right now. And that's fair enough. But having these questions now, in your toolkit, just choose one a day, if it's too much to sit down and do it all at once, choose one a day. And make it your mission for that day as a opportunity for your own self care to tap in to what's going on for you on the inside, take a pause and really answer it honestly. And what that's going to do for you is that as we wrap up this year, you can celebrate what you've done, what you've achieved, because we often don't do that as business owners, right.
Speaker 1 18:01
I know we do it a lot inside my membership for regional business women, because that is always what we start with. It's always what we post inside of our Facebook group every week. It's like what were your wins for the week, because that is something that keeps us in motion, motivated to keep moving with our business. But if you're not part of my membership, or you're not a private client of mine, and you don't feel like you have that community support to be able to do that. Just doing it for yourself can be really impactful. And of course, you're always welcome to come and join us in the membership. But taking the time to answer these questions for you is so important. And then it's going to give you the clarity that you need to build the life of your dreams and the business of your dreams moving forwards over the next 12 months. So I hope that this episode has been really beneficial to you to kind of look in the rearview mirror the rearview mirror of the road that you've been on this year. And then to look forward and dream forward to creating the life and the business that you want for you. Right. Because we need to do both of those things in order to continue to spark joy and ignite new ideas and nudge you closer to your dreams. So as I wrap up as we wrap up this episode as we wrap up this year, please take time to reflect to reimagine what the next year could be for you what reimagine what your business could look like in 12 months from now. And be curious, be bold, be brave in really allowing you to dig deeper kind of peel back the layers of the onion so that you can guide yourself forward on this journey and you can take big steps and take new adventures keep shining keep dreaming. And I hope that this episode has been be helpful for you in giving you kind of like a framework of questions to help you to move your way through that. Thanks for tuning in. And I'll see you next week for another episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of The shiz in business podcast, make sure you hit follow so that you are the first to know as soon as a new episode drops. And if you really want to deliver me smiles, send me a DM find me on Instagram at Donna Han underscore coach and tell me what you loved most about this episode. Also, feel free to let me know what topics you need to learn more about if you are a regional businesswoman, ready to rise and soar towards success. I'll see you back here next week for another episode.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
