As we welcome the year 2024, let's raise our coffee cups for a cheers to new beginnings and the exciting journey of "becoming." It's a time to be thankful, look back on the past, and set strong goals for the future. This story is about how a simple habit of writing down things we're grateful for turned into a year full of unexpected good things, like getting more clients and starting a group for empowering women. I'll share how embracing change, even when it's a bit uncomfortable, has been a key to my success and why the word "becoming" is guiding me in the coming year.
The "Level Up 2024" workshop and its workbook will be our guides for the year. We'll talk about the ups and downs of the past year, finding strength in the tough times. So, let's celebrate the progress we've made and look forward to the journey ahead. Share your goals, stories of personal growth, and dreams with me. Together, we'll step into a year full of promise and discover more about who we're becoming. This conversation is more than just thinking about the past; it's an invitation to grow, laugh, and trust in the amazing story we're all creating with our lives.
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Kristi:
Hi, I am Kristy Ballard Fellini. I am a certified life coach who found herself at 42, freshly divorced kids off to college and having never dated in my adult life, I was starting in the middle. If you haven't yet hit, start on your middle time in life, let's do it together. The journey began. Hello, hello, my friends, today I am recording this on New Year's Day, and so I just want to wish you a happy New Year and, again, welcome to 2024. Y'all, I wanted to pop on to the podcast today because I was spending the first part of my New Year's morning doing a year in review, and I just encourage you, if you do not do a year in review, that is definitely a practice that I would encourage you to put into play and especially and no, it's not too late, even though we are currently now a week into New Year's, but this is definitely something that I would encourage you to look at, because what I do in my year in review is I have a tablet that I write in every day, that I do my journaling, that I keep all of my church notes, that I keep all of my podcast ideas, all of my business things. I have this tablet and basically for my journaling.
Kristi:
What I have started doing is creating a notebook a month, and so as I went back into my notebooks for each month of last year, I sort of noticed that I was reading through the material kind of with a heavy heart. But what I was noticing as I was reading through is that I was very strongly practicing in gratitude. So almost for every single day in the first half of the year I was in gratitude, which means that for every day I wrote down at least three things that I was grateful for and why I was grateful for them. And something that I noticed is that it started that practice started to kind of fall off in the middle of the year and, if I recall back to 2023, I did notice for myself that towards the summer month, there was a shift that was happening for me, and what was happening is that I was growing and in that growth period it felt very uncomfortable. And that normally happens when we are in a growth period, that we are trying new things, we are expanding ourselves, and sometimes it feels uncomfortable, okay. But as I'm looking back and I'm reflecting on the year, I now notice that it was actually a growth period, because when I look back at my accomplishments, I was praying for specific things, and you know what, at the end of the year, when I look back at those things that I prayed for, they all came true.
Kristi:
I finished the year with more clients than I started with. I finished the year by expanding my reach way more than I had at the beginning of the year. I finished the year with a brand new group of amazing women in my circle that I did not have at the beginning of the year. I finished the year with an amazing container called empowering women's coffee and connections, and so y'all, even though I was uncomfortable during that time, god still followed through with the blessings, and so, as I was doing this year in review, I noticed specifically that there were things that I incorporated at the beginning of the year that kind of went by the wayside, and so the amazing thing about it is that I get to choose to pick up the things that I enjoyed, to pick up the things that caused me to grow, to pick up the things that I found strengthen, and what I found strengthen is definitely in my practice of gratitude, and so that is something that I am bringing into the new year with me.
Kristi:
Something else that specifically stood out to me, because if you listened to last week's podcast, you know that I did a workshop called level up 2024. And inside that workshop, we created all of the desires that we want for 2024. We looked at the roadblocks that our brain was offering up as to either why they were hard or why we shouldn't be able to achieve them, or maybe even why they're not possible, and then we did small shifts in those roadblocks, creating new beliefs, and from all of that work, we chose a word to help us focus on those desires and those new beliefs, and my word for 2024 is becoming. Because there has been so much growth in myself this year and who I am becoming, in the person that God has meant for me to be, that I want to continue that growth. I want to continue to see who it is that he has me becoming, and so the other principle that I found in my year in review as I was going through my journaling, is that at some point last year, I said to myself have fun, stop taking things so seriously. And so this is my intention.
Kristi:
All right, and I did not even come about an intention until today, and I think that it just fits into the reflection that I did in my level up workshop in the word that I chose for myself for 2024 and now, in setting an intention, because 2023 was a heavy year. It was. It was a heavy year. It was a heavy year, I believe, for everyone. There are so many struggles going on in the world, so many struggles that I am hearing from my clients that they are going through, and so what I want to bring into my space is the intention of creating not only for myself, but also for my clients and for the lovely, beautiful women that I have in my circle is to have more fun and to stop taking things and stop taking myself and the circumstances in my life so seriously, because I know that God carries our burdens. And that is exactly what I want to go into 2024, believing for myself and creating for the space that God has intended for me to take up in this world. So I encourage you if you did not get to attend my level up 2024 workshop, I recorded it so I have the replay for you.
Kristi:
I also created a workbook to go along with the workshop. I did the workbook. I did all of the work myself before I presented it to the women inside that workshop. So I know that the practices that I taught and the practices that I brought to that workshop, they work, and they work if you follow through with them. So if you would like to replay in the workbook, please just shoot me an email and I will get that to you.
Kristi:
Also, do for yourself a year in review. Go back and look over your accomplishments for the year, look at the areas of your life that felt hard, discover the growth that you had that you created during that hard and decide for yourself. A word to help you focus on the things that you want to in 2024 and also create an intention. All right, you guys, I just wanted to say thank you so much for following me, following my journey throughout 2023. I appreciate having you in my circle and I love to see what you come up with for yourself for 2024. All right, have an amazing week and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you.