#11 - Position Yourself In 2024

Step back into 2020 with Chelsea Williams, can you remember the heart of the pandemic and the thoughts that were going through your mind with a new year on the horizon that looked somewhat grim at the time?  Chelsea is re-releasing an episode recorded at the heart of the pandemic because the power of reflection can show us that there will always be a crisis that comes along. It's how we prepare for them and the perspective we choose that determines how we navigate the crisis in our lives. Learn some vital lessons of 2020 that are still valid in 2024, and how they can be your stepping stones to prosperity in this coming year. 

Episode Highlights:
1. Reflect on 2020's lessons and growth opportunities.
2. The importance of setting a vision and taking small, consistent steps toward your goals in 2024.
3. Discover the power of small, consistent steps, the law of attraction, and release negative mindsets
4. Find the balance between hard work and self-care for a prosperous 2024.

Don't miss the opportunity to learn more about Chelsea's Money Roadmap Experience program. Join Chelsea in this transformative journey and position yourself for an incredible year ahead!
https://moneymastery.mykajabi.com/money-roadmap-experience

Always and Never About Money Episode Links:
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Money Mastery Website: https://moneymastery.mykajabi.com/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/AlwaysandNeverMoney/

Transcript

Hey there, financial explorers, whether you're a seasoned money guru or just dipping your toes into the world of finance, I'm glad you're here. I'm Chelsea Williams, your money whisperer and founder of two companies that focus on helping business owners and individuals take control of their finances always and never about money is where we gather to dive deep into the fascinating intersection of money and human behavior. We're here to learn about our money story, uncover the driving forces behind financial habits, understand the impact of history on our wallets today, and give you all the knowledge and tools to change your money story.

So join us for insightful conversations, personal anecdotes, expert insights, and thought provoking ideas that will challenge your perspective and help you use money as the simple tool that it is to enhance your life. So whether you're a business owner or an individual working a job, get ready for a journey that will transform the way you think about money.

We are in a period of recalibration. I think technology's only 20 years old. A lot of people are being exposed to information that they never even knew existed. And it's challenging their beliefs. It's challenging how they were raised. It's challenging their reality. People don't like change. Our first reaction to change is resistance. But if we just move one step past that resistance into that second thought of, let me consider this a little bit more. That's where the evolution happens. That's where the change happens.

Hey friends, welcome back to the show. In the last episode, I briefly mentioned the importance of three things, history, evolution, and philosophy, and the role that each of those three things plays in the reality we are in today and the potential future that we see tomorrow.

So a while ago, I hosted a completely different podcast, and I recorded the episode I'm about to share with you at the end of 2020, going into 2021. So at that time, we were really dealing with the heavy part of Covid and the crisis that it brought about. And what I liked about this episode is the perspective in the middle of the crisis because your perspective allows you to either ignore what's going on or choose to see the opportunity in the middle of a crisis. And now that Covid has fizzled out for the most part, or at least become normal, right? The new normal.
This episode is really relevant because we're also coming into another year, and I think that this is allowing us to use history and observe the evolution that we individually created for ourselves. And then look at like what was our philosophy behind that? What were we thinking at the time, right? Because Covid, for a lot of us, what I describe in this episode was a pause, a great pause, and it forced a lot of us to sit down and start to look in the mirror, like really sit with ourselves. And for a lot of people that was really hard. But you can either ignore the hard things or see them as opportunity.
And because we're coming up on a new year, a lot of us like to take, take this time of year to create and look for new opportunities. So the timing is divine.

What does it mean to position yourself? Most of us are in a very different place today than we were at the beginning of 2020. When Covid hit, the world turned to full on existential crisis mode. Many started questioning how they were gonna move forward, the decisions they made in the past where they were gonna find a big break, and generally flailing, rather than positioning themselves to make progress amidst the crisis, we were forced to slow down for those who understood how to do this and recognize the opportunity, they were more likely to experience the impact differently. As we move through a new year, let's take time to reflect on the baggage we are still carrying with us.

Keep what serves us, drop what does not, and identify these small incremental steps we can take each day to move forward in a direction of our own choosing. So whether you're driving to work, folding laundry, working out, or giving yourself a well-deserved moment of stillness, listen to Chelsea's words and consider what do I wanna get out of the next year?

Hello, hello. Be beautiful people. I'm pumped today. You know, it really got me thinking about, and a lot of people are talking about too, you know, we're coming up on the end of the year. We're coming up on the end of 2020. 2020 is not just another year, okay? 2020 was the shit, all right? We had covid, we had killer beesWe have had an eruption of social issues. This year has been so interesting. And here's the thing, because Covid is not the first crisis that we have seen. It's not the first crisis I've seen in my lifetime. I know it's not the first crisis that you've probably seen in your lifetime. I don't think anybody's young enough watching this in 2008 when everything crashed. Crisis are not, we asked surprise when crisis happened, but they happen every imagine that about every eight years, right? So this is not new. But what I wanna address today is how can we position ourselves for 2021? Okay? We have been put through the ringer in 2024. And now here's the thing too. There were a lot of unseen opportunities in 2020 as well. Everybody didn't suffer. Some people came up amidst every crisis is an opportunity, if you know how and where to find it. And if you didn't take anything from 2020, take what raw goddess calls the sacred pause, the universal pause, the universe's gift to us in 2020 was allowing us to pause. So being locked in the house, not being able to do anything. A lot of us went crazy. Why? Why did we go crazy? Because we were stuck with ourselves. A lot of us don't know ourselves. And I had this conversation with Shante. A lot of us don't know who we are, who, what we like, what we feel, how we react, what our past has contributed to our present and what we want our future to look like and how to get there. So when we got stuck in the house, stuck with ourselves, a lot of us freaked out. A lot of people are going into depression.

We have to take the time to get to know ourselves. So if you have taken nothing from 2020, take the opportunity to pause and get to know yourself in times of struggle. Be still. Be still, and listen. Listen to what? What's going on inside of you. I believe that when you get angry, there's a lesson in Angry Anger is a sign that a boundary has been crossed. Do you ever stop to ask yourself though, why am I angry? What boundary has been crossed? And how can I adjust that in the future? How can I change how I react to situations in the future? So I wanna talk about 2021, okay? And how we can position ourselves in 2021. So I wanna talk about what that means. First of all, positioning yourself.

Shante had a really good piece of advice that she shared yesterday, and she said that when she reflects, when she works on herself, when she thinks about herself, she creates the vision. So I talked about a couple days ago that your mind thinks in pictures, right? That's why we create a vision, something our mind can see in pictures. So she creates a vision and she anticipates the manifestation.

Manifestation is something that is thought of and then becomes reality. It starts as a thought or an idea, and it becomes, it manifests into the real world. It becomes tangible. It becomes something you can see, feel, touch, taste, whatever the case may be.

Positioning yourself for 2021 is gonna take a few different things. You first of all, have to have a vision. What do you want out of 2021? Have you even stopped to think about it? Or are we still hung up on 2020? 2021. Can't be much worse, right? And if you make it better on purpose, that's a thing. That's something that you can do. So what exactly do you want for your 2021 coming out of 2020? That's the vision. And then understanding that it can manifest. It will manifest. Now, that doesn't mean that you say, okay, this is what I want for 2021, right there. All right, now I'm gonna go back to what I was doing, and I'll just wait and hopefully that'll happen, right?

A goal without action is just a wish and wishes. Don't make it that far. You have to plan and take steps and be proactive and continually work towards what it is you're trying to accomplish, what it is you're trying to achieve. So position yourself, meaning really take the time to figure out what is it that you want to accomplish in 2021. And it doesn't have to be anything big, right? It could be getting a promotion at your job. It could be, you know, now that 2020 has taught you the value in being still, because we haven't been able to do anything.

One of the biggest assets in your life are the relationships. So maybe it is working on relationships in your life with family, with friends, with kids, right? There's a lot that we can work on. A lot of valuable things now that we're not running around from sport to sport, eating out every night of the week, going to the movies, staying distracted.

We can invest and focus on some of the things that matter a little bit more right? Now, I wanna bring something to the forefront here that is very profound and very true, and we need to really understand this, okay? We would rather choose the familiar pain of, I'm sad and upset, as opposed to the unfamiliar pain of reflecting and exploring. I'm gonna let that sink in for a minute. We tend to choose familiar pain and revert into comfortable pain instead of forging forward in a new pain that is likely to provide us with healing or clarity. So we would rather stay and repeat what we are doing that is getting us nowhere instead of exploring a new pain that could heal us. In other words, we a lot of times choose to stay stuck.

I would encourage you to ask yourself, what familiar pain are you holding onto? What familiar situation are you holding onto instead of exploring a different pain that may not be as familiar, but it's going to lead to you understanding something that can help you move forward, understanding what it is that you're holding onto. So here's the thing, nobody, nobody told us that life was gonna be easy. Nobody gave us a book that said how to do it. We don't have a blueprint, right? And let me just, let me just give you the truth. Life is hard. No matter which road you take, there is no such thing as no pain, no failure, no hurt. There is no life that has been lived. That doesn't include all of that. So which pain, which hurt are you going to choose the pain and hurt where you revert back into a shell and try to avoid it, but you experience it anyway?

Or the pain and the hurt that you experience by forging forward and finding happiness, fulfillment, clarity on the other side of that pain, which pain are you going to choose? Because it's there? Either way, might as well grow and learn from it. And get somewhere where you can find fulfillment, passion, purpose. There's an equation that I heard on a podcast this morning. It said, pain plus reflection equals progress and pain can be substituted with pressure, challenges, any negative thing that you're going through. So in 2020, let's make this specific. In 2020, what are all of the pains, the pressures, the challenges that you experienced?

How can you reflect on those? How can you look at those and say, here's the lesson. Here's the lesson in that, because there is lessons in every pain point, every pain, every struggle, when you felt like you were pressured, the challenges that you have faced, there is a lesson in that. This is how we get to know ourselves, okay? This is how you get to understand how you operate as an individual. It's 2020. We're completely deluded and overloaded with messages and social media and distractions. There is a show on Netflix called The Social Dilemma.

If you have not watched it, you should watch it because you will understand that our minds are being affected, altered, tainted, everything in moderation, okay? We, technology has been in our life for 20 years. That's not even a lifetime. Humans have evolved more in these 20 past 20 years than we have since the beginning of time. You have to be aware of that. You have to be conscious of that so that you can filter what it is that you are taking in so that you can understand that while you're scrolling on Instagram and watching YouTube and Facebook and all of the, all of the social media outlets, you have to protect your mind.

It is more important than ever to protect your mind than it is anything else. And so, by pausing and reflecting, that is the only way that you are going to make progress, that you're gonna get in touch with yourself.

Not all of these things that you've taken on based on what you see and hear on social media, on tv, on the news, oh, the news. I can't, even with the news, I can't even watch the news. Because here's the alternative. If you are not looking at pain, pressure and challenges in your life and reflecting on them so that you can make progress, what you're probably doing instead is avoiding the pain or numbing the pain. And I don't think I need to go into detail about how unhelpful that is.

So for 2021, what are you avoiding? Are you numbing? And what do you need to face? What do you need to reflect on? Because here's the thing, all of those negative situations, they are trying to gift you something. They're trying to gift you a lesson.

Are you willing to uncover it? And when you do, how can you not forget that gif and taking it even a step further? How can you share it with others? Because you are not the only person the Bible talks about all the time. There is nothing new under the sun. There is nothing new under the sun. We like to think that we're unicorns and that we're special, and that what we're going through, nobody can relate to. And woe is me and all of these things, none of this is new. If you are going through it and feeling it, I guarantee you someone else is too. So not only uncovering the gifts that you're pains are trying to give you, not forgetting them, but how can you give that to somebody else?

How can you let somebody else know that they're not alone? That they're not the only ones going through this that is okay to feel this way? And there's also a way out of feeling this way.

Expect the manifestation. So Shante, God, love her soul. Y'all, seriously, go check her out. Shante is amazing.

Expect the manifestation. Expect that when you know better, you're going to receive better. Don't just hope there is no, there is no success on a wish and a hope. You have to expect it. If you all, there's another show movie out there on Netflix called The Secret. And it talks about the law of attraction. And the law of attraction says whatever you put out to the universe is what you get back. And people have a lot of different feelings on that. Whether you believe in God, the universe, energy, whatever you believe in, energy is a thing. It is a real thing. And what you put out, people call it karma. Call it what you want.

What you put out is what you summon in return. So what are you putting out and are you confident? Do you expect it to manifest? So for 2021, don't just write all these things out. Don't just position yourself. Don't just plan to do all of these things. Expect it to work. Know that it will work. One of my mantras for 2020 is it's not about hitting it out of the park. It's about hitting singles. You hit enough singles and you win the game. A lot of people are waiting for this big grand, this one lick that they can hit and it's gonna change their entire life. In the meantime, someone else is taking incremental small steps and they're there already while somebody else is waiting for the big hit, right?

So this is about consistent steps in the direction. 'cause you call your shot, right? I genuinely believe that you call your shot, but you have to take the incremental, small, seemingly meaningless steps sometimes. Sometimes it feels like it doesn't even, they're just so small. This doesn't matter. It matters. It matters because each small action that you're taking is putting energy out into the world, into the universe, into what you're trying to, you never know who's watching. You never know who hears you, who sees you, what power they have, what they might think to offer you if they see you putting this out to the world.

So don't underestimate the power of the small consistent things that you put out. 2020 has sucked a lot of people into negative mindsets. What has 2020? What mindsets has 2020 put on you? So a lot of people in 2020, experienced loss due to covid, due to other things. It's really easy to get lost in that grief and that sadness and take on, you know, negative mindsets and habits. What mindsets did you develop or take on in 2020 that you need to let go, let and change and evolve for 2021?

What are you taking from 20? What do you risk taking from 2020 into 2021 that you don't need to be taking? And here's another thing to think about. The mindsets and the habits that have served you in the past, that have done you good in the past may no longer be serving you. So some of us have taken on survival mindsets from 2020. It's it's, it's what we had to do to get through, right? A lot of us lost our jobs. We, we, we lost our way to provide for our families, for our kids. It was seemingly hopeless that, you know, there are a lot of negative feelings that come from that. And so some of us chose to survive, right? So these terrible things happened, but we chose to survive anyway, that may have served you in 2020. But ask yourself, is that going to serve you in 2021?

You have to understand what you should let go of versus what you should keep and carry with you into 2021. We have a lot of misconceptions in this country of a few different things. But what I wanna talk about is the myth of hard work. So in America, a lot of us are brought up and we are told to think that the way to success is to bust our ass and work all these hours and deplete ourselves, sacrificially, to get to this place of what we consider success and wealth. I will have you know that Americans die on average two years sooner than our western counterparts. Part of that is because we believe in hustling.

We believe in working so hard that we stress ourselves and work ourselves almost to death at least sooner than our counterparts. Why? Because Western, our western counterparts tend to take more vacations. They tend to not work 10, 12, 14 hours a day. Their work, their hustle has its place and it is not the main focus of their life. So I ask you in 2021, find the balance. Find the balance between hustling or making money or hard work and pouring into yourself, spending time with your family, doing what you like to do. If I was to ask you what is fun to you, how do you have fun, would you be able to answer it?

Because I've talked to a lot of people and I'll say, you know, what makes you happy? What do you do for fun? What's a, what's a hobby or something that you can do that's enjoyable to you? And a lot of people don't know. So I poses that question to you. There's a balance between acceleration and reflection. So I do this a lot in my business. I will get in these seasons of go, go, go, grind, grind, grind. I'm motivated, I'm riding the wave. There's so much momentum, let's get it done. And yeah, I work 10, 12, 14 hour days, but I am loving what I'm doing and it's lighting my soul and it's setting me on fire. And it's my passion and I love it. That's acceleration. But then I get into these seasons where I don't have motivation. I don't want to work even eight hours a day.

And that's okay because that is a season of reflection. And so I choose to go with my natural seasons and I ride that momentum and I go with what? What I'm feeling at the time. So there is a balance between acceleration and reflection, and you have to do both. There is a time to grind and a time to reflect. Give yourself that gift, that grace in 2021.

Because something that a lot of us do and believe is that we have to sacrifice. Now, don't get me wrong, you do have to sacrifice, but not to the point of self abandonment. We sacrifice sleep, time, family, food, yet those are the things that really should be important. Sleep science tells us we need sleep. I mean, that's not rocket science right there at a molecular level. Your body is regenerating, it is healing itself in your sleep. If you are not getting enough sleep, you are literally physically deteriorating your body.

How much are you gonna be able to help or show up for people in work? If you are not getting enough sleep, if you're not allowing your body the time that it needs to heal, right? We sacrifice time. Time is the biggest asset you have in this life. What you do with it, who you give it to matters. It is not to be wasted.

We sacrifice family for this stuff. There's a book, I can't remember, I wish I remember what it, what the name of the book was. I think it's called Like The Wishes of the Dying. And this lady wrote it. And her job was to, I believe, comfort people who were essentially about to pass. And she wrote this book about what people wished they would have done differently when they were on their deathbed. And it was not money, it was not work, it was relationships. It was, I wish I would have told somebody I loved them more. I wish I would have spent more time with this person or that person. It was relationships. So you have to ask yourself, why are we sacrificing the most important things in this life for the hard work, the grind, the hustle.

And what can you do in 2021 to not sacrifice what matters the most? So here's what I wanna leave you with today. I listened to the Mindvalley podcast with Vish Ani. It is an amazing podcast. This guy is gonna change the world for our kids, for us in an amazing way. He talked about the evolution of humans in a way that I love. So he has identified three phases of human evolution. The first being egocentric. So back when it, it was hunter gatherer, cavemen know technology, you know, very beginning of, of recorded mankind. We were egocentric. That means that we were all about me, me, me, I, I, I if another person, if another man threatens my kill, it's fight or flight, it's kill or be killed, right?

This is a very primal mindset, right? Egocentric me, me, me. Now we are more in this place of ethnocentric, which is survival of the tribe. You could see that as a lot of ways today. You could see it as my tribe, as my country. You could see it as my tribe is my race. You could see it as my tribe is my family. But it's this tribe mentality where yes, we have embraced other people, but if you're not in my tribe, I don't feel the same. Right? But this place that he poses, that he suggests that we are working towards, headed towards, should be headed towards, could be headed towards, however you wanna word it, is world centrism. And that means kindness and compassionate to all. No matter what color your skin is, no matter where you live.

No matter where you come from. I like to keep in perspective the pinpoint of time that we are in right now. And think about, you know, 20 20, 20 20 has brought awareness. The past 20 years also has brought awareness to a lot of different things. You know, I see the post on Facebook a lot when it comes to racial issues. There will be white people holding up a sign that said, sorry I'm late. I had a lot to learn. We are in a period of recalibration. I think technology's only 20 years old. A lot of people are being exposed to information that they never even knew existed. And it's challenging their beliefs. It's challenging how they were raised. It's challenging their reality.

People don't like change. Our first reaction to change is resistance. But if we just move one step past that resistance into that second thought of, let me consider this a little bit more. That's where the evolution happens. That's where the change happens in 2021.

What will you do differently? When you reflect on 2020, what did you lose? What did you gain? Where are the lessons?

What should you take with you to 2021 and what needs to be left in 2020? Because that's how you're going to purposefully position yourself for something different in 2021. 'cause it happens with purpose. You have to have intent. This is not just gonna happen by default 12.

So here we are a couple years later and we're onto the next crisis. The delayed effect Covid had on economics is setting in. And the cost of living is creating financial pressure in places where we didn't feel it before. Food is skyrocketing, rent has gone up, the housing market is at an all time high. The money is shifting. And your position is what will determine whether or not you get through this crisis and the crisis that are yet to come, both in the economy and in your life. There's always going to be a next crisis. The question is, will you be prepared and will you be able to see the opportunity in it all?

And of course, I'm here wanting to help you in the best way that I know how. If you are one to leverage a new year for a new you and money is one of the things that you want to change, I want you to check out my first ever group experience. This is designed to take you from a place of losing track of your expenses, hoping you're making smart money decisions, not saving at all or not enough, and avoiding planning for your financial future to a place where you know exactly how much you make, where you can make more, where you are spending what you make, how much you're saving, and how much of what you save is being invested into your financial future.

My brand new Money Roadmap experience is designed to elevate your finances In 2024, I'll give you simple, exact steps to take to get you to the next level in your money life. And I'll be there the whole time to make sure that it happens for you in your life. I want this for you. I want you to not have to feel the pinch every time life or the world throws a wrench into your money. I've been helping businesses do it for 15 years, and now I want to help you do it in your personal finances. So head on over to our website. The link is in the show notes of the podcast and check out Money Roadmap Experience, elevate Your Finances in 2024.

If you liked this episode, be sure to show us some love by subscribing and turning on those notifications. You can find me on Instagram under the Money Whisper, and also where we encourage you to contribute to join the conversation, ask questions, and share your thoughts so we can create more episodes tailored exactly to what you wanna know about Money. I'm your host and your personal money whisperer. Until next time, remember, it is always and never about the money.