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January Reset Day 4: Plan Your Steps
28 Plays3 days ago
Welcome to the January Reset for High Achieving Women! This five day transformative program meets daily at 10am EST the first full week of January to support ambitious women in starting the New Year off strong with a renewed sense of purpose, actionable goals, and a plan to thrive both personally and professionally. If you’d like to attend live tomorrow, register here {https://www.linkedin.com/events/januaryresetday5-commitandconne7281423177719721984/theater/}.
On day 4, we’ll create your 2025 plan, focusing on small, actionable changes. Learn how to shift away from all-or-nothing thinking and take meaningful steps forward.
Subscribe {subscribepage.io/janreset} to receive reminders, recordings, and worksheets for the rest of the January Reset.
Connect with Leanna on Linkedin {https://www.linkedin.com/in/leannalaskey/}.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Host Background
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast, where we support women who are attempting to find balance and joy while simultaneously leading people at work and at home. I'm your host, Leanne Alaska McGrath, former tech exec turned full-time mom, recovering perfectionist and workaholic and certified executive coach. Hi, everyone. Welcome to this special bonus episode of the January reset.
Introduction to January Reset Program
00:00:36
Speaker
The January Reset for High Achieving Women is a five-day transformative program to support ambitious women in starting the new year off strong with a renewed sense of purpose, actionable goals, and a plan to thrive both personally and professionally. I do this every year and this year I decided to do it on LinkedIn Live and to then share the recording here on the podcast so that everybody in the world can listen to it and benefit from what I'm teaching.
00:01:05
Speaker
If you would like to receive the associated worksheets, there's a worksheet for each day to help you in your practice to setting you up for an intentional year to create the kind of life and career that you want to this year.
00:01:21
Speaker
then just go to the show notes and you can sign up for it. So I hope you will join me all week long. I know that it will help to set you up for an amazing year. And now onto today's episode.
Self-Reflection and Planning Discussion
00:01:38
Speaker
Hi, everyone. Welcome to day four of the January Reset. We are well on our way here to creating the life and career of your dreams. And it is really for us to take an opportunity to check in, to stop for just a minute running through our lives and going, going, going, and just check in with ourselves and see What's going on? Am I in the career I want to be in? Am I in the place I want to be in? Am I in the life I want to be in? And what life do I want to be in? And then to create that life and just make sure that we're on track. Because if we never take the time to stop and check in with ourselves, then we're going to get to the end of our lives and realize, like, what just happened? I didn't actually get to do all the things I wanted to do. I didn't actually live the way that I wanted to live.
00:02:33
Speaker
And I want to try to invite every everyone to make sure that we get to live the lives we want to live today on purpose because all we've got is time in this one and only precious life. That is what the January reset is for. That is what we are here to do. So day four of the January reset is all about action and planning.
00:02:54
Speaker
So let's dive right in. You are in the right place today if you are a high achiever, if you are one of those people who is always succeeding and achieving, climbing the ladder, going for it and just nailing it most of the time, if not every time.
00:03:14
Speaker
You have a desire for change. So you might want something different or something more for your life, for yourself, for your career. I think a lot of times, especially for high achievers, it's like we just get on this ladder and we're just like climbing and climbing and climbing. And then at some point, whether that's when we have kids, whether that's when we lose a loved one or whether that's when we hit a certain age or we just wake up one morning and say, what am I doing? Is this?
00:03:41
Speaker
the right ladder that I want to be on, is this the way that I want to do this? Is this the pace that I want to continue going? And and what am I even doing this for? And I think a lot of that happens because we don't usually take the time to stop and check in with ourselves.
00:03:58
Speaker
So you might have a desire for change. You know how to plan at work because obviously you're very successful at work, but you might struggle with creating a life plan, whether that's because you've just never taken the time to do it. You've never thought of it because it's not something that our society really talks about so much as it says, like, get back to work and keep going and keep pushing forward.
00:04:19
Speaker
But you're really great at planning at work, but maybe haven't spent as much time kind of planning and thinking intentionally about what you want to create in your life. And you always make the change. So when you do have that desire for change, and you maybe even make a plan, sometimes you get so excited for your plan, but then you don't always follow through in all the way and kind of make the changes actually happen or make the changes stick and make them sustainable. So I think that happens a lot with like New Year's resolutions where we're like so excited to make a change. and so you know we we
00:04:58
Speaker
Get really built up about that and we get on the bandwagon and then at some point we kind of fall off. And so that change is not a lasting change. It's just a temporary change that we made for January and maybe February. So if any of that describes you, then you're in the right place.
00:05:15
Speaker
I'm Leanna. And if you've been here with me for the last four days, then you know a little bit about me, but I will tell you my goal in life is to help more people, specifically women and moms who are leaders at work and who are leaning at home.
00:05:34
Speaker
to really make sure that you are living the life that you want to live, that you're in the career that you want to be in, and that you're getting fulfillment out of all of it. And you're getting to actually enjoy your life, that whenever you have everything looking good on paper, that what's happening inside is matching up and that you're getting to enjoy that too. And what you're going to walk away with this week is really more clarity. Hopefully so far, if you've been following along and doing the exercises, you should have a lot more clarity about what you want, about what's most important to you, a clear vision for the year ahead.
00:06:12
Speaker
and for the future beyond the year ahead. And then what we're going to work on today is a plan for how to get there and also what to do when obstacles present. We talked a little bit about that yesterday and we'll talk more about that tomorrow as well.
00:06:26
Speaker
All right, I am offering everyone who is a part of the January reset the opportunity to have a one on one vision call with me.
Vision Call Invitation and Progress Review
00:06:35
Speaker
This is where we spend an hour to really dive in further and get some feedback and just kind of have a work session together figuring out where are you now and where do you want to be and how are you going to get there.
00:06:47
Speaker
And what are you going to do in 2025 toward those goals? I think it is so, so helpful whenever you have a second set of eyes and you know another person just to bounce these ideas off of and to ask the questions that are going to help you to really get more clarity and really get more solid in what you want your plan to be, what what your vision is, and just make it more solidified for you. So I invite you to this vision call.
00:07:15
Speaker
Everybody who is watching this is invited. If you're on the podcast, it's in the show notes and you can schedule this anytime in January. So I hope to see you there. So, so far what we did on day one is we took stock and we asked the question, where are you now?
00:07:33
Speaker
On day two, it was create your vision. And we asked the question, where would you like to be? And then yesterday on day three, we identified barriers. And the question was, what's been stopping you? What's been stopping you from getting from where you are now to where you would like to be? And now, today, we're going to ask the question, what are you going to do about it?
00:07:56
Speaker
Two reasons why we ask that question is first of all, what are you going to do about making your dreams come true and living into your vision? What are you going to do about it? Let's make a plan. And also what are we going to do about the obstacles that have been holding you back? Whatever it is that's been holding you back, whether it's been thoughts, whether it's been different circumstances that you need to make changes in.
00:08:20
Speaker
We are going to talk about all of that today and we're going to start with really making that plan. Setting goals that really kind of move you toward your vision. Look at those areas that you would like to change.
00:08:34
Speaker
And the question is just what feels right to change in 2025? There's no need to overthink it, but just ask yourself, what are two or three things that I can do this year that are gonna move me closer to my vision?
00:08:50
Speaker
And I do recommend setting two or three, even one to three, bigger goals for the year, because you can always add a new one once you achieve one. But whenever we add too many, whenever we're like, you know, I want to do this, and I want to change this, and I want to add this, and you know, all these things and we try to do it all at once, then what happens is we dilute our focus. The purpose of having these bigger goals is to kind of give us a North Star so that we can make decisions about how we spend our time,
00:09:24
Speaker
and make sure that we are in alignment with them. And if we do too many, it's just too hard to do that. It's kind of like KPIs at work. You don't want to have like 10 to 20 KPIs on a team, right? Because it's going to confuse them about what they're supposed to be prioritizing and focusing on.
00:09:41
Speaker
The fewer KPIs you have, the more likely you are to actually achieve them. Two to three goals max. I mean, you want these goals to be stretch goals, but possible. So they should feel hard. They should feel like a reach, but also
Setting SMART Goals for Success
00:09:59
Speaker
possible. So when I say that, I say that with a caveat because a lot of times our brains will tell us that, you know, nothing is possible because like we talked about yesterday, our brain wants to keep us safe, wants to keep us,
00:10:09
Speaker
in the cave, it wants to keep us from changing. And so when I'm saying possible, I mean like should be stretch goals, but measurable smart goals. I'm sure we all know what smart goals are specific measurable achievable, relevant and time bound. Naturally, it's time bound because We have 2025. We want to make sure that it is clear, that it is achievable, that it's relevant, relevant in terms of our vision. We want to make sure that these goals are getting us closer toward our vision.
00:10:41
Speaker
and also you know measurable. am i Did I achieve it or not? It should challenge you without overwhelming you. Not so much that we're like, oh, it's just too much and it's overwhelming and I already have too much on my plate. And then we get overwhelmed and don't actually do them. And we want to make sure that we feel motivated and inspired to take action by these goals. And then when you're setting these goals, when you're choosing which goals to focus on, I encourage you to go back to your notes from day one and day two.
00:11:11
Speaker
in terms of checking in with where you're at. And remembering day one, we talked about the wellness wheel and all of the different areas of our lives. And so I would check in with those different areas in terms of like, where do I want to spend my focus for this year? What feels the most important? What feels the most achievable?
00:11:34
Speaker
And also don't try to change everything at once. I think so often we get so excited and we're like, we have this vision and we just we just want to go and we just want to change it all, especially as high achievers. We're like, I can do it all. But again, whenever we start to dilute our focus, whenever we try to do too many things at once, it's just like multitasking, right? Like we can't actually truly multitask. We need to focus on one thing at a time.
00:12:02
Speaker
And also note that you can always iterate. Sometimes whenever we have to make decisions, and here's a decision point, right? Choosing what goals we're going to set for this year. Sometimes we think that like, oh my gosh, if I choose this, then I'm stuck with it forever and I can't change it. And that's just not true. We can always iterate. If life, you know, things in life happen or if things at work change,
00:12:28
Speaker
then of course we can iterate on our goals. Don't use it against yourself. We're supposed to be using these for ourselves and for our own good. So I want to share what my goals are for this year because I go through this process every year and I spend a lot of time figuring out like what are my goals. and And honestly, since I am kind of checking in regularly, usually by the beginning of a new year, I'm pretty clear on what I want my goals to be. It doesn't take like a huge exercise for me to do. It's just kind of part of my ongoing process because I've been thinking about, you know, what do I want to do? So I will share my three goals for 2025. I have a revenue goal for my business. So I have been building my business now helping executive moms and women for the last two years.
00:13:16
Speaker
and it's been going amazingly. and i've been um I've been able to work with some of the most amazing and inspiring women, and I've loved every second of it. And also, I have been doing that while my daughter was in preschool, and now she's in kindergarten.
00:13:32
Speaker
And so my goal is really in my vision for my business is to scale my business with my daughter as she spends more time at school. I spend more time at work for this year. I have a very specific milestone revenue goal and that is, um, you know, and ah and of course I have my business plan to create that. So that's one of my goals. My second goal is to complete a triathlon. I haven't completed a triathlon since 2018, since before I got pregnant with my daughter.
00:14:02
Speaker
And it's something that I really enjoy doing. I also had surgery two years ago, so I'm also, this will be my first one back from that as well. So I have been working with a personal trainer for the last couple of months and, you know, just kind of get my body ready for this. And I'm really excited to be doing a triathlon. So I have one on the calendar in July and I'll be, um, doing a triathlon. So if you follow me on social media, you'll see me in my kit, um, on my bike and in the water and running.
00:14:33
Speaker
My third one is that while I go for these goals, while I do the work to get there, I want to maintain a healthy balance. I want to make sure that I continue focusing on my daughter, continue focusing on my family, and not do these things at the expense of them. And that's really important to me. And so I made that one of my top goals for this year.
00:14:59
Speaker
So those are my three. And I'm sharing that only because I think it's helpful to hear other people's goals. Whenever I do goal workshops, it's always helpful, kind of gives you some inspiration. So maybe that gives you some ideas. But you'll notice that I chose to focus on occupational and as well as families. I picked one work goal, one fitness, health and fitness goal. And then the third one kind of being in the middle of the wellness well being that balance.
00:15:28
Speaker
So then you're going to create your plan. This process is going to look different for everybody. I am not going to prescribe a specific way to do this because if you live in Gantt charts all day and you are a project manager for a living, then make a Gantt chart.
00:15:44
Speaker
If you love your Trello boards, then create a Trello board for each goal or a sauna or however you like to do it. There's not a right or a wrong way to do this. The only right way is the way that works best for you and that supports you the best. For me, I know about myself that um Gantt charts are like not my thing. And if I spend a ton of time planning all of the steps and all of the details and all of the scenarios. If I, if I spend tons of time and energy in that, then I end up not executing. I end up not saving energy to execute. I get so excited about the plan and it's like, well, that was enough for me. I just spent all that time and energy doing that.
00:16:32
Speaker
And um I don't always end up executing it or I start it and I don't finish it. And so for me, I have learned that my process works better to kind of have a North Star, something to be working toward and to make decisions based on that. Whatever is right for you and and also to make some plans. So, you know, for my triathlon, of course, I have a training plan to success for that. And for my revenue goal, I have a business plan to lead me to success for that.
00:17:00
Speaker
And I also have a system, a calendaring system to make sure that I plan my time accordingly to make sure that I allow for family time and don't let work overrun family time as I have had a tendency to do in the past.
00:17:14
Speaker
So what factors impact the probability of change in humans? I want to talk about this because I think this is really important. And I think that it's a helpful self-awareness tool to figure out what are the factors that will either create the change, that I will actually make the change,
00:17:38
Speaker
or that I might not. Okay, and there are three factors. Dissatisfaction with the current situation is one, a compelling vision that you're committed to, and a clear, doable first step.
00:17:50
Speaker
So those are the three factors that really factor into whether someone's gonna make a change or not. So in coaching, we have a formula where we can actually work through and figure out what is the probability that this client is gonna make this change that they're saying that they want. And for some people, the dissatisfaction with the current situation has to be really, really high in order to make a change. For some people, it doesn't at all. It might just be, maybe I wanna make a change in,
00:18:18
Speaker
what we're eating for dinner every night because I'm tired of eating the same things. It's not that I'm like dissatisfied with it. I like what we're eating, but I want to make a change, right? I want something
Factors Influencing Change and Advice
00:18:28
Speaker
different. So it doesn't have to be for everybody and for every situation, of course, it's different. For some people that vision needs to be very, very clear and specific and more like detailed.
00:18:42
Speaker
um And for some people, it can just be a big picture vision. So I think it's just helpful for you to recognize, to go through and kind of check in with yourself as you have made changes in the past, as you have desired change and not made changes.
00:18:59
Speaker
When you look at these different components, what was present? What wasn't present? And kind of, I like to do kind of a scale of zero to 10 on each one of them. So if we look at how likely is it that I'm going to make this change? How likely is it that I'm going to achieve these goals in 2025? I need to take a look at, you know, where I rank on these different things, these different factors. And today, what we're really focusing on is that clear, doable first step. So I said before, if you want to map out the whole process, you totally can do that. If that feels overwhelming to you, or if that is something that you found doesn't work for you, like I have found for myself, then what I would invite you to do is focus on a clear first step.
00:19:47
Speaker
And I'm going to invite Ana to the party. Anyone with young children may have watched Frozen 2 800 million times like I have. And one of the things that Ana says in there, I think it's pretty profound and I love that that they're teaching young children this, is to do the next right thing. That I might not know the whole plan. I might not be able to go all the way into the future. But what I need to do is focus on what's right in front of me,
00:20:15
Speaker
and do the next right thing again and again and again and again. You know, I do the next right thing and then I find out and then something else presents and I need to do the next right thing after that. And what if we don't know what the next great thing is? Well, um just remember that I don't know is usually your survival brain trying to confuse you so you don't make a change. So anytime you say, you know, what should I do? What change should I make? What should my goals be for this year?
00:20:40
Speaker
It is totally normal if your brain says, I don't know. And it is totally up to you if you want to accept that as the answer or if you want to push further. If you had an employee at work and you were you know trying to get a project done and you asked them to do something and they would say, I don't know how to do this, would you just say, oh, okay, well, we won't get the project done.
00:21:03
Speaker
Or would you challenge them and say, okay, well, if you don't know how to do it, how are we gonna figure this out? If you you know were to take a guess at how to do it, what would that be? right So I think oftentimes we need to manage our minds around this whenever our brains try to put us in a confusion or tell us, you know I don't know, I don't know what my goal should be. I don't know what the right next step is. I don't know what the steps are to get there. It's usually just our brain trying to keep us in that cave, trying to keep us safe. So if you were to guess,
00:21:32
Speaker
What would the answer be? All right. I'm going to share some do's and don'ts real quick. And I'm going to go into this a little bit more tomorrow to kind of help set you up for a success. So first of all, do not try to change everything at once, trying to change everything at once.
00:21:48
Speaker
ends up taking longer and you won't always get everything done and it'll feel overwhelming. Do not expect yourself to suddenly become a whole different person overnight. While it's important to think about who you are becoming, you can't expect yourself to completely change all of a sudden. and So notice in your plan if you are expecting yourself to be a totally different person than you've ever been and maybe just like ease into it a little bit.
00:22:12
Speaker
Do not beat yourself up when you get off track. We'll talk a lot more about this tomorrow, but I almost wrote if you get off track and then I realized, no, it's when we are human, we expect linear paths. And the reality is, is that part of the process often is that we fall off the wagon, we get back on track, we fall off the wagon, we can get ourselves back on track and we have the opportunity to bring curiosity in so we can learn what was it that got me off track and What did I need to get back on track so that way, you know, we can learn something and maybe get back on track more quickly next time it happens because it will do not expect perfection and quit. If not, I think we have a lot of kind of all or nothing thinking like we have to go all the way in or we're out.
00:23:00
Speaker
And if we do that, then what's going to happen is as soon as we miss a day, as soon as you know something doesn't go right for us, then we're going to quit. And that is not going to, that's just not the recipe to success for getting us to where we want to be.
00:23:16
Speaker
and Do not discount small steps and little progress bill gates and most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year and underestimate what they can achieve in ten years if by the end of twenty twenty five you are five percent closer to your vision for your life.
00:23:31
Speaker
If you make one part of your vision a reality by the end of the year, that's amazing. You should be so proud of yourself. That is progress. And we like to discount progress that doesn't feel big enough. But what often happens is we only give ourselves credit for the big things, but it's actually the little things over and over and over again.
00:23:53
Speaker
are what it's going to take to actually make change. Do celebrate teeny tiny minuscule wins. If you notice that you are spending too much time on your phone and you decide that that's one of your goals for the years, you don't want to, you know, you want to spend less time on your phone, then celebrate every time you don't pick up your phone and scroll and instead you work on your goal or you sit in stillness and and think about your vision.
00:24:19
Speaker
and reconnect with it. If your goal is around something like showing up better as a partner or as a parent, then celebrate every time you take a breath before you respond. If it's a fitness goal, celebrate every time your brain tries to tell you, we don't need to go to the gym today. Celebrate every time that you say, yeah, well, that's cool. I'm going to go anyway.
00:24:42
Speaker
and then celebrate the times when your brain doesn't offer that because you are just in the habit and in the muscle memory. Do take small, simple, aligned actions. Sometimes, honestly, the smaller the better because you're more likely to do them. Focus on consistency over intensity and perfection.
00:25:02
Speaker
Again, it does not need to be this big grandiose thing. Focus on doing things over and over and over again.
Aligning Actions with Long-Term Goals
00:25:09
Speaker
Do revisit your vision and goals regularly. I talked about how I read my vision statement every morning to keep me in that mindset. So I almost said daily, but I don't want you to think it has to be daily. And then if you miss a day, you you quit. Just go back to it regularly and check in and say, am i is what I'm doing today helping me to get there?
00:25:31
Speaker
And then do use your vision goals and priorities to guide your decision making and action. So whenever you have an opportunity to make a decision, when a decision presents itself, and a decision could be to get out of bed or hit snooze for five more minutes.
00:25:46
Speaker
It could be very, very simple. Do I eat this thing or eat this other thing, right? These little, little decisions all throughout the day, we can always go back to our goals and our vision and what is going to help get me closer to my goal. What is going to help move me into that vision? So ask yourself daily, what is one thing I will do today to move me closer to my vision and goals?
Closing Remarks and Subscription Encouragement
00:26:13
Speaker
All right. And just a reminder, I am happy to talk through this with you. I would love to talk through this with you in a one hour 2025 vision call. And tomorrow is our last day. I cannot believe it. This week flew by. I have maxed out my invites for the week. So I know many of you have said you appreciate getting the invites and I would love to send you more, but LinkedIn.
00:26:36
Speaker
said no more. So please sign up for tomorrow. And I hope to see you there. We're going to talk about how you can make sure to support yourself to achieve your goals and and make sure that you stay on track. And whenever you get off track, how to bring yourself back to it. Okay, so we've got lots more to talk about tomorrow. And I hope to see you there at 10am Eastern Time on LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube. too Thank you all so much for joining me today for creating your plan, and I hope to see you tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone.
00:27:11
Speaker
Thanks so much for tuning in to the Executive Coach for Moms podcast. Please like, subscribe, or follow the show so you'll be notified when the next episode is available. I hope you'll join me again next time. Take care.