027 | Where Will You Be One Year From Now?

Merry Christmas! Hap-py hol-i-days! (I hope you sang that like *NSYNC btw…)

2020 has been a wild ride. What lessons have you learned from this year that you will take with you going forward?

In today’s episode, let’s look back on this year and talk about making intentional plans for your life for the upcoming year.

Lightly edited transcript appears after the show notes.

Topics Discussed

• look back at 2020
• making intentional plans for your life for the upcoming year

Listen to the Episode

Resources mentioned

Lifestyle Freedom Starter Guide: https://www.rhothomas.com/start

Wealthyesque, Episode 24: https://www.rhothomas.com/issue-with-shaming-yourself-for-mistakes/

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Email: hello@rhothomas.com

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Lightly Edited Transcript

Hey friend. Happy Friday and Merry Christmas to you. Or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate Christmas.

Welcome to the final episode of 2020. I cannot believe that we have reached the end of this year. But here we are, and so I just want to take a second to kind of look back over the year and look ahead to 2021.

Everyone at the start of this year was talking about how this is going to be the best year ever. And everyone made that 2020 vision play which, if I’m honest I was kind of sick of.

But this year really did bring so many things to light, like so many things did become clearer.

We saw how life can change in an instant. Just looking at the pandemic, you may have left the office one day, like I did, and then you were just told to stay home until further notice. And many of us became work from home parents overnight.

We also saw that tomorrow isn’t promised. There has been so much loss this year. There are the prominent figures who have passed but also all the lives that were claimed by COVID.

We saw a lot of civil unrest this year, and many people realized for the first time that although we live in the same place, we have completely different experiences.

And then on top of all of that, the natural disasters and the devastation and any personal issues that you may have dealt with.

It’s just been a year, right? Your life probably didn’t look the way that you planned it to this year, and it’s okay to be sad or upset about that.

But even though you may be over 2020, we’ve still got about a week left in this year, and so you don’t have to wait for January 1 to start working on the life you want.

We just went through all the things that became clear this year. I think one of the biggest ones for a lot of people is seeing how out of whack our priorities were.

I mean I certainly saw that my way out of whack, and I said this a lot this year, but the pandemic forced me to slow down in a way I probably never would have on my own. Or at least not anytime soon. And it put the focus on myself and my family, instead of on work.

We tend to say that our family or all of these other areas of our lives are the most important, but then when you really look at the way that your life is structured work comes first, right? Work is in the forefront. And then we try to squeeze everything else into the nooks and crannies where we can.

And for me that was not possible this year. My family had to come first. I was home with my two young children. My husband is still working because he’s a doctor and is not seeing patients from our home.

So, my focus this year has been on my family and had to fit work in where I could, and I also was very intentional about taking care of myself in this time because you know things are so crazy. It could have been bad if I had not made sure to care for myself.

I had the worst year I’ve ever had numbers wise and review wise, at work, and I talked about that in a previous episode. If you head back to Episode 24, then you can hear more about that story.

But I made the choices that I felt were right for my family and me, and we really have to look at life holistically. Work is one small part of our lives, but so many of us treat it like it’s the only thing, or at least the most important thing.

And so I encourage you to think about what you want your life to look like going into this next year. And what you’re going to take from this pandemic when we return to some semblance of normal.

Are you going to jump right back into the way things used to be? And if so, why? If not, why not?

If you haven’t done it yet, this is a great time to do the “Wouldn’t it be nice” exercise. We’ve talked about it in a few other episodes, but you write “Wouldn’t it be nice if…” at the top of a page. Set a timer for 10 minutes or so and just write everything that comes to mind.

And don’t try to censor yourself. Don’t skip things because you don’t think that they can happen or anything like that.

And try to think about all areas of your life, so think about your health and wellness, your mental, your physical, and your spiritual health, think about personal development, your marriage, your kids, your home, your other relationships, your money, your work.

And then once you have that list, then you know what you’re working toward, and you can come up with a plan to accomplish each thing.

And don’t try to tackle everything at once. You have to make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself, but pick the top thing that you want to focus on and decide what’s one thing you can do to move closer to that goal.

What if you improve one thing in your life each week for the next year? Or even every other week? Or every month?

Just imagine where your life could be a year from now if you just commit to taking steps toward the life you want to live.

I don’t typically choose a word for the year, but so many women have told me recently about the value of doing it and so I thought a lot about it and I chose my word for 2021. It’s intentional.

I will be intentional in all areas of my life. I will take intentional steps toward the person I want to be and the life I want to live.

How will you show up for yourself over the next year? What intentional steps will you take to get to the life you want to live?

Maybe it’s committing to date nights with your spouse or significant other. Or spending one-on-one time with your kids.

Or maybe it’s making a plan to finally get out of debt. And by the way, if that’s your goal and we haven’t chatted yet, what are you waiting for? Because I can help you. So head to rhothomas.com/coaching, and let’s talk.

But anyway, the main takeaway from this episode is this has been a life-altering year, and you can take nothing from it, and continue on the way you always have. Or you can see it as the catalyst that causes you to take a hard look at your life and decide what’s not working and what you want to change.

Whatever you decide is completely up to you.

So, that is the final episode of 2020. If you’re up for being intentional about moving toward the life you want to live then come join us over in the private Facebook community, and you can get the support and encouragement you need. You can find us at rhothomas.com/community.

If you’ve been getting value from the podcast, and you want to let me know, I’d love if you’d leave a review for the show. Those reviews help tremendously because they signal to the platforms that this show is valuable, which means that it will more likely be shown to more people, so if you could take a second to write a review, I would greatly appreciate it.

Also, if you have a friend who you think could benefit from this episode, go ahead and share it with them. And if you share on social media or just want to connect, my handle is @iamrhothomas, and I’m most active on Instagram.

So, friend as we close out, I pray that you will really look at your life and be honest with yourself about what’s working and what’s not.

I pray that you will be intentional and choosing the life that you want to live heading into 2021.

And as always, I pray that you will continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live the life of freedom and choice, you deserve.

Talk to you next week.