Coffee & Career Hour

Stop Chasing The Next Thing And Start Listening To Your Intuition

• Armine & Maria Jose

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Feeling the year-end pressure to do more, prove more, be more? Let’s trade the hustle script for a grounded reset. We unpack how reflection, gratitude, and boundaries help you step into the new year renewed, not rushed, and why alignment is a better compass than applause.

Success can be quiet: emotional maturity, clearer intuition, stronger boundaries, and the courage to rest without earning it. We talk about career as the whole of your life roles, how energy flows through family, friendships, and community just as much as it does through your job. You’ll hear practical ways to identify limiting beliefs, reframe unmet goals, and set intentions that match your season.

In this episode we share how gratitude lowers anxiety and softens comparison, and why guided meditation works even if your mind won’t sit still. We dig into self-awareness through honest feedback and quiet time, plus a digital detox strategy to reclaim attention. For vision and focus, we walk through creating a values-first vision board and separating identity from outcomes. To end it all, we leave you with three journaling prompts you can post on your mirror to keep your intentions alive as routines return.

If you’re ready to feel calm, clear, and aligned with what actually matters, this conversation is your soft place to land. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a gentler reset, and leave a review so more people can find tools to grow their career and life with intention.

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SPEAKER_01:

Now we're seeing all these influencers and people putting the best version of themselves out there. And and we think that's the reality. But ultimately, you know, what's on the inside, how we're feeling on the inside is is the true, true indicator of whether we're living in alignment, right? Ultimately, like all these things like reflection, gratitude, and achievements, it's all about like, are you aligned with what you need to do based on how you feel um in your heart, in your soul, in your intuition, right? Because you can go to the graduate programs and you can go to the promotions and get the promotions and the job and whatever it is, but if it's not your true calling, you're still gonna be miserable. You're gonna be space. You are listening to Coffee and Career Hour. We are your hosts. I'm Armina, and I'm MJ, two career counselors and friends chatting about all things life and career. So grab a cup of coffee and join us.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Welcome back to Coffee and Career Hour, where we talk about all things growth, purpose, and navigating your career and life with intention. I'm MJ.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm Armione. And today we're closing out the year with something a little softer, a little deeper, and honestly much needed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, because this time of the year can bring up everything: excitement, relief, exhaustion, gratitude, but also the pressure to look back and think, did I do enough?

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. And sometimes we forget that success isn't just the goals we took off, it's the quiet growth, the lessons we learned, the boundaries we held, the healing we did, and the resilience we built.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. So whether you crushed your goals, completely changed direction, or just made it through, this episode is for you.

SPEAKER_01:

We want to end this year feeling reflective, grateful, and at peace, not judgmental, pressured, or comparing yourself to everyone else.

SPEAKER_00:

So today we're gonna guide you through a grounding reflection. We'll talk about why this work matters, how to practice gratitude through even through challenges, and how to step into the new year renewed, not rushed.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll even leave you with three journaling prompts you can sit with over the coming days or bring into your favorite reflection space with a cozy cup of coffee.

SPEAKER_00:

So take a deep breath. Exhale some of that end of the year pressure, and let's dive in.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's do it. What does reflection mean to you? And why would you say is it important?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, reflect immediately, I think about pausing, um, taking my time, like taking things slower, like everything is in slow motion. Um, just because you kind of have to take a look in the mirror, kind of see a bird's eye view of everything. Um, I can also say it can mean uncomfortability for some people too, because reflection and growth happen a lot. And when you grow, you're not always comfortable. You're most of the time uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, yes. And it it stretches you. The challenges stretch you, right? And in the moment you don't realize how much you're growing. But that's why reflection is so important because when you look back, you realize, oh my gosh, look at how far I've come or what I learned. And sometimes growth isn't visible in the sense of like there's no achievement or certification attached to it. But maybe it's more maturity, more resilience, more awareness of yourself or your emotions, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And for people who growth needs to feel visible, I resonate with you. I'm I'm an achiever hardcore. This is a theme that has been going on for a couple of days now. Um, but it is important to recognize the internal growth that you're having. It doesn't always have to be larger or um some again, something visible, but something you can look at differently, how you handle different situations or how you even think about different things too.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you say how you're an achiever. I know um many, many people can resonate with that. I also have achiever in my strengths. And those of us who are always wanting to strive for more, sure, it's a great thing, especially in this capitalistic economy and in society at large, you've always been, you always got a gold star, you always got a check mark, you always had something that gave you this positive reinforcement where you had like small goals achieved, right? Externally. But we have to sometimes take a step back and realize that you don't need to be productive to earn your rest or to find peace. And I think that's the hardest part is we always associate as a society, oh, I can only rest until I do all these things, and then we end up overworking ourselves. And and that's why we want to encourage our listeners today to engage in that reflection. Because even if you didn't hit every goal this year, it doesn't mean you're not worthy of rest and peace and enjoying the end of the calendar year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, there's no award for an overworked person.

SPEAKER_01:

There isn't.

SPEAKER_00:

There really isn't. What you get is just more work and zero rest.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, that is exactly what it is. There's a saying in Armenian, my mom would always tell me because I would always compare complain that she would ask me to do a lot of the things around the house, and why wouldn't she ask my brothers, right? And she she would jokingly tell me, you know, when you do the work, you know, people come to you with more work because they know that you're gonna do it. Like they you're a trusted individual. She's like, I don't ask your brothers because they're not they don't do it in the first place. Great, lovely. So it's been instilled in us from a young age, whether it's school, whether it's home, whether it's at work nowadays too, right? And the workspace too. So I think just taking a step back and and recognizing what might be happening and that it's okay whether you checked off all your goals or not this year, it's okay. You're no less of a human being if you didn't check off all your achievements.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. And I will say too, naturally coming to a calendar year end, it's important for you to have that reflection. Um, it's important for you to understand it's a big part of career development for you to have that self-assessment and reflection on where you are, how you grew, or how growth doesn't always have to be um vertical. Um, I I wanna I really want to say that it can stretch in many different directions and it can be many, many different things, and it doesn't always have to be tied to your career either.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So a big part of why reflection is helpful too is because it helps us gain clarity on like who we've become, right? So you're talking about how growth isn't always vertical or related to your work. A lot of times it's how we've grown as a person, right? How we've stretched ourselves, how maybe we've learned to relate to other people in a different way, people who are different from us, under coming um into those relationships with more understanding. That's a big like uh aspect of growth, right? So reflection helps us gain clarity on like who we've become, where we were in the past, where we are today, where we're wanting to go, right? Past for the future. Um it helps us also release what we've outgrown. Because a year ago, maybe you had certain goals, and now you've outgrown those goals. Maybe you don't even you want to take your life direction differently. And some of those goals no longer resonate, some relationships no longer resonate. Um because that's the whole point of life is to grow and evolve. Like that's what we're here to do as souls. So if you aren't recognizing the growth in you, I think reflection is is the key here is to help you realize that.

SPEAKER_00:

I I also am gonna make a general assumption and I really hope um, I really hope that that we kind of take this to heart. But I I tend to feel like when I talk about reflection for others and when we as a as a group kind of ref reflect on different things, we kind of see like the negative, like let's point out all the things I didn't do, or it's usually a negative point of view, right? Whereas it should be something positive. And that's kind of what we're talking about. So if reflection for you, you start to do it and you feel like, well, I didn't do this and I didn't do here and I didn't do there. I want you to like stop in your tracks and look at the positive. What are the small wins that you had? What are the things that you didn't expect to grow from that can help you as well? And you really want to have that gratitude because you can't go on, and I say this needing to listen to this podcast myself, um, without ignoring. You can't go on ignoring all the small things that you did and all the things that you overcame just because they weren't big ones.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And the gratitude is such a big um component of like happiness and just fulfillment in general.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And and it goes hand in hand with reflection. Because as you're reflecting, then gratitude comes in the picture, right? What am I grateful for? The small wind. And even if let's say there's something that didn't go as planned, maybe because there was something better in store for you. And you maybe aren't seeing that right now. But in the longer scheme of things, maybe five years down the road, you look back and you recognize, oh, this goal didn't work out, but it actually took me into this direction, which was more aligned or more met for me, right? And that is where gratitude really comes in to be grateful for what you do have, and that opens the door for future opportunities too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. In addition to that, emotionally, understanding really appreciating gratitude and where you are helps you a lot internally, right? Let's thinking about, let's think about how it helps you reduce anxiety, how it helps with you and your comparison and the shame you may feel, or embarrassment, or hesitation as well. Having that gratitude in yourself is like small bits of confidence that you're adding to your own self. You're watering yourself as a plant to help with the internal strength that you're growing to become.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. It's such a such an important skill to have. And it's I I say it's a skill because I think it is. It's something that we develop over time. And yeah, it's not like naturally ingrained in us, or we don't learn it in school or anything. But I think life kind of teaches you to be grateful, right? And it's one of the greater lessons of life. And and I've learned this and on my own skin too. The more you're grateful for what you do have, the more things come your way, better things come your way. It shifts your perspective on how you're seeing what's in front of you in that moment. And and it's a really beautiful thing and place to be.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Gratitude. It's huge. I think it goes um, it's a it's an opportunity for you to celebrate yourself in a way too, right? Having gratitude for what's around you, but also yourself, which we don't really do in this society. We don't kind of take moments for ourselves because we are such achievers.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we hope that our listeners today will take this with them and will to to you, listener. We hope that you can find small things that you're grateful for, reflect on the past calendar year, and notice, notice what worked out, what didn't work out, what direction things went that were beyond what you could have even imagined, and how you are grateful for what you do have and where you're at today to lead you into the new year, feeling more at peace, feeling more whole and more fulfilled.

SPEAKER_00:

I I also want to acknowledge, too, that there's a lot of opportunity for growth in this sentiment where you may not be where you want to be. And you're learning some of those opportunities where you can set those boundaries, but also heal from them, listen to your intuition, right, and kind of grow from that experience. I I want to say wherever you are, if it's one step toward, right, this reflection or even one step back is acknowledging what are things that you can do that can continue to help you moving, not in a particular direction, but just overall. I mentioned the setting boundaries because it's something that I've I feel like in the last two years has become more present for me as I've grown just as a human, but also as a professional, where in the beginning I feel like I was gung-ho on every single thing. Sometimes I've I still feel like that. Um, but understanding what that means in setting a boundary doesn't mean you're shutting off an opportunity. It means you're making more opportunity for yourself. And having to learn that myself has been really hard. But I say that just because we tend to think about it as like if I say no or I limit myself to this opportunity, I'm shutting it off. I'm not getting that. But you are creating more opportunity for yourself as a person, as a human.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that perspective. So thinking, oh, if I say no to this thing, then I'm I'm not taking the opportunity that's right in front of me, but recognizing maybe that opportunity is not aligned with you or what your soul wants or where you're headed, right? So why take on an opportunity that's not aligned just to I guess fill your ego of like, oh, I I I didn't let this opportunity go. I came by and I took it, but what did you really gain from it, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I experienced that recently and I didn't gain much. Um, I will say there's you don't always have to to do the next thing or the learn the next skill. Like whatever you have is enough, and making space for yourself is sometimes more important than doing this extra task or whatever it may feel like.

SPEAKER_01:

MJ, why do you think that it's so common in our society for people to feel the need to just do the next thing and find the next opportunity and find the next, like, okay, how do I advance? And then what's the next step? Like, why do you think it's so common?

SPEAKER_00:

I feel like it's because we're very materialistic. We don't really have um and I I say that coming it's so my the way I was raised, I was taught to like value what you had. Right. There was you're the the mindset is like you're not supposed to think about big and better or like what's next. It's not really how we grew up at home. It was just like just appreciate what you have and where you are. So I think in in our society, we're very materialistic thinking like, well, you know, like if you have an iPhone 16, well, guess what? Now there's a 17, and you can always get the big and the better, right? And then no shame on iPhone at all. I have one myself. Um, but it's this sense of like wanting to get the better, do the better, because we're trying to be make ourselves better for everyone else because it's an external view when we're not really focused on an internal view. And that's what's most important, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, yeah, it is. It's ultimate, I think the external of how are we perceived and are we falling behind? And I think social media just it amplified it. Yeah. Yeah, really made it worse because now we're seeing all these influencers and people putting the best version of themselves out there. And and we think that's the reality, but ultimately, you know, what's on the inside, how we're feeling on the inside is is the true, true indicator of whether we're living in alignment, right? Ultimately, like all these things like reflection, gratitude, and achievements, it's all about like, are you aligned with what you need to do based on how you feel um in your heart, in your soul, in your intuition, right? Because you can go to the graduate programs and you can go to the promotions and get the promotions and the job and whatever it is, but if it's not your true calling, you're still gonna be miserable. You're gonna be putting in more effort out there, more energy to perform, and then you're gonna go home at night and like be exhausted and not feeling fulfilled. It's like that hole is still gonna be there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And I think we spend a lot of time trying to fill an empty hole, right? Because we spend so much time pouring and pouring and pouring, and it just it doesn't work. Um, but it's wise because we don't take time to kind of pause and reflect on where we are and who we are, what we want, what we have, um, and take those small steps of gratitude. I I really do think it's like a holistic view. It's not just a one-sided thing. It's not just your career, but it's you as a human being as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, well, when you say that, it reminds me of one of the theories, and I'm not gonna get all academic on you guys, I promise, but one of the theories that talks about your um life roles and everything in your life role at this time in your life is part of your career. Yep. Right? Your career is not just the job, the work that you do, but it's like if you're a daughter, you're a spouse, you're a parent, you're a friend, and those all come with different responsibilities and um uh actions that you need to take, and energy that needs to be spent in these roles, and that is still part of your overall career because ultimately you're still a full person who has to spend energy in all these different roles, right? And you're still growing and learning from each of these experiences. So it just reminded me of that theory.

SPEAKER_00:

It's funny because I I I can see exactly what you're saying, and I think for a listener, how you can visualize it is if we're thinking about like a pie chart, you know, how much of that is taken up by your career, your job, or your family, or are all the pieces aligned? Is there smaller? And how do you want to balance that out too? And I think this time in the calendar year is a really good opportunity to kind of sit back and see like, where is that balance? It's never gonna be perfect, and you're gonna have bigger pieces of pie than others, but it's up to you to really kind of even that out as much as you need for yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And for for our listeners too, what I would say is if you are doing reflection on the past year and you're noticing a pattern of like things you wanted to get done that you didn't get done, I would say like let's focus on what were the limiting beliefs that like stopped you from taking action on certain things, right? Like, did you give it your all to do whatever that goal was and you s you didn't achieve it? Or did you actually not put in enough of the effort? And if you didn't put all of the effort that you needed to put, then we gotta think about what was stopping you. Was this goal because it was coming from external influences because society said you should do this and that's not what you really wanted to do? And so you didn't have the motivation, therefore. Or was it limited resources? What was the stopping point that was not allowing you to focus on those goals, right? And that could be a really good indicator of maybe what kind of goals are you setting for yourself and what are you actually motivated to do? So moving forward, maybe you can shift some of those goals to be more aligned with what it is that you need.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we have to be very cautious and I think very strategic with the goals that we set for ourselves, right? Because we we know what is realistic and what's unrealistic. And I think it can cross a very dangerous line when we're like, well, we have this goal and I can compare myself easily to the next person. And like, well, they're there and they're here and they have this and they have that. Like, I I'm I'm gonna reach that, or is that a realistic goal for you? Is that what's really important to you right now? That's also a very big question you need to answer because you can be like everybody else, but is that internally like what makes you happy? Is that what makes you wake up in the morning? We have to kind of really sit back and and remember that everybody's space, no matter if we're in the same line, is different.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Absolutely. That all kind of uh makes me think about like listening to your intuition and how that's such an important skill to have, you know? Yeah. And I think, and I actually found myself telling this to a student I was working with today, but telling them that self-reflection is one of the most important skills you can have in your career development, right? Because you're going to evolve and 10 years down the road, 20 years down the road, your life, your values, and what's important to you is gonna shift. So there's absolutely no way for you to know exactly what you want to do right now. That's gonna be the same 20 years later, you know. But the skill of reflecting on yourself, the skill of listening to your intuition is going to be valuable in every stage in your career development to help you make decisions that are aligned with where you're headed or what was important to you at that time in your life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The self-awareness piece is something that not a lot of people um speak out loud but expect of others.

SPEAKER_01:

And it's not there. I love that. Yeah, it's true. It's so easy to pinpoint where somebody isn't self-aware, right? It's so easy on the outside to be like, wow, I can't believe they didn't recognize how they just came across or how they're showing up in these spaces. But then when we have to do it for ourselves, it's a lot harder.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a lot hard. How would you say someone can develop self-awareness? Or what is one step someone can take?

SPEAKER_00:

Honestly, I think it's connecting with someone, a trusted person, and just asking, like just honestly asking for feedback and and and what the how they're coming across, what does that look like? I also think though, you have to get comfortable with yourself. Um, if you can't sit alone with yourself in silence for like 10 minutes, there's something there where what is what is what is making you uncomfortable in that situation where you can't sit with your thoughts and you have to be going to the next thing. Something I say just out of personal experience. I've had a lot of trouble sitting with myself in the past just because I've constantly been like, I don't want to think about whatever I've done or where I am or who I am, and I just need to get to the next thing. And filling that empty hole and watering is something that I experienced very early on in my career, where it was like, let me just um eat as much opportunity as I can without fully digesting.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And sitting with myself is the digesting part. So something I would recommend is one, get a trusted person and kind of have a really deep conversation of someone who really knows you. I think that's really important because feedback in that way is good for you. It's a lot of growth, but also is sitting with yourself and just letting your thoughts kind of come about. Um, funny enough, it's a lot of meditation there too.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, yeah, I love that you brought up meditation because when you were saying sitting with your thoughts, I have heard so many people say that they don't meditate because they cannot shut their mind off. That it's more distracting for them to sit in silence. And um, I meditate regularly, so uh but I do use guided meditation. Um, I don't do it in silence by myself, so I'm I'm not sure if I would have the skill set just yet to be able to do that. But the guided meditations they work really well to shut off your mind and help you tune in because they start with breath work, and the breath work actually gets you tuned into your body, into the present moment. And and they do say in the um in the videos and the audio, it says, if you're noticing thoughts come into your mind, just recognize that a thought is there and don't engage with it because it's very common, it's very natural. There's a lot of chemicals going through in our brains at the moment. So the thoughts are gonna be there, but just to let it recognize it, observe it as like a third person observing, oh, there was a thought, okay, and let it go. And you learn to do it, but it is a practice that you have to engage in daily, I would say, um, to get good at it. But it's so healing, it's so healing to be able to do that. So I love that you brought up meditation because I do think that is one of the best ways you can become more self-aware and and really start taking action with things that are more aligned with who you are.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I I also something that I I tend to do is like before I do anything new or something that is um very in my routine or something that I bounce back into, I ask myself if this is something I really want to do. Like, am I forcing myself to do it because I've done it before, or it's something I'm familiar with, or is it something that's genuinely gonna make me smile or make me feel better after I do it? Um, that's that's recently how I've started um behaving, I guess I should say, like internally, just because we tend to do things out of the norm or because it's where it's expected. Whereas, like, am I just gonna, you know, what do whatever it is for myself. And I've I've learned to really listen to myself recently because that's you can heal yourself that way.

SPEAKER_01:

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's it's an ongoing cycle, right? I feel like because there'll be phases in our lives where we'll be like, oh my god, I just gotta get the next thing done, right? Super busy cycles, and then there's times where we can naturally like ground ourselves and reflect. And this is usually for many people, this is that time of the year to feel find some grow um sense of groundedness, find some peace, and and just a slower pace of life. And this is a really great time to do some of that self-awareness, some of that reflection. And really, I think just understanding that everybody's journey unfolds differently because that whole idea of like rechasing the next next thing is coming from that perfectionistic tendencies that people tend to have, right? Um I I wanna be I want to be perfect, I want to be whole and doing these things is gonna make me whole, but then not recognizing if somebody else is doing that, their journey is different than yours. And it doesn't define you if you're doing things at a slower pace or you're completely in a different direction that other people are. It really is an individual journey, this thing we call life.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. Okay, Arminate. What are some like you mentioned meditation, we mentioned practicing gratitude. What are like a few other things that you would recommend our listeners to kind of do to get them into the in the mood or the vibe or the space?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, one is, and we've been hearing more and more about this, is a digital detox, right? And I know that's that actually sounds really hard to do for me as well, but to be able to to take a step back from our social media, from just our devices. I mean, think about it. I know, I know you're gonna be doing this sometime soon where you're not gonna have your laptop with you.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's hard. I'm grieving.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and you're not even there yet. I actually did that when I went on a trip. I went to Armenia in the summer. I didn't have my laptop, I didn't even have my um my Apple Watch. Yeah, I just had my phone, and you know, I wasn't necessarily using my phone that much except for just taking pictures because I was engaged with my present moment, the family I had out there, the the culture and the environment, and it was it was beautiful. I did not miss my laptop, I will tell you that. But um think about I think m many of us have probably had experiences like that where there was a period of time where maybe you stepped away from assignments and work and things like that. How good does it feel? How refreshing does it feel to just be in the present moment? So I know there's apps out there these days where you can actually like turn off your social media, turn off your phone, and people I think lock their phone in a in a drawer or whatever measures you need to go through. But if you can do even just start with one day and then you can add on to two days, three days as you get more and more comfortable with it. But a digital detox is so freaking good for your mental health.

SPEAKER_00:

I will tell you, in high school, I did that for six months. I think it was a um I was a little more than a semester. It was like a semester and a half, um, if I remember correctly. I in college, I think I said that already. Um, and it was the best. I had so much self-love and I I cared for myself. So like I'd never been happier, like mentally, physically, emotionally, like I felt so confident and I didn't have the comparison in my head. It was a lot of social media. I don't remember if it was for like a class project or something, or if I just did it just to do it, or I continued it from a class project. But I will tell you, those six months really healed a lot of different things inside. Um, you know, in the society we live in, we have to be connected to one one thing or another. But if you can start little by little giving yourself a digital date detox, it's really important for yourself. Um, I started recently doing that, stopped listening to to stuff that was making my energy or drain my energy. So I stopped, I stopped listening to the news in the morning and just listened to music because it was something that just made me happy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I haven't listened to the news in years. I mean, there's certain cycles where maybe a lot is going on in society and I will, but just as a general practice, I avoid listening to the news because it does drain me, it makes me anxious, and there's a lot of negative energy that I get from the news, and I don't I consciously want to not put that into my daily practice, you know? Yeah. Um, but the digital piece is one thing. What is another tool that you would recommend, MJ?

SPEAKER_00:

I did this recently, um, vision boarding. Yeah, yeah, vision boarding, that's a term. Um, but thinking about a theme that kind of goes with it. It's something that I I did once with my niece, ooh, years ago, for it was funny enough, like for the beginning of the year. But I recently did it where I was like, what are my favorite things? Like what what makes MJ like happier? What is a true representation of me through different um aspects of my life? And it was something that I absolutely loved. And there's a whole, there's like uh it's a digital one, I will say it's easier to make than a physical one. Physical one is also very healing. That's the first time I did that a few years ago. But recently I did a vision um a digital one, and every kind of corner has a different value of mine. Um, there's one corner that's more like work and career oriented, there's another one that's more health and wellness, another one that's that's a representation of like family and marriage and things like that as well. So that also helps you. It's really fun to do stuff that you like and it's cute and whatever, but I invite you to do one that's more about who you are as a human being and your values and your morals. Um, that will also help you see yourself through other images too.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh, that reminds me of one of the first vision boards I did years ago. Years ago. I was in my early 20s. And it was like that. It was a representation of like what makes Armine Armine. Yeah, and I think that was like me just brain-dumping everything that like I felt on the inside. Um, and it's very healing because it's like, well, this is how I see myself. And well, it doesn't matter how other people see yourself because you see yourself this way, and these are the things that are important to you. And it's almost like this identity exploration type of activity. You can get really deep with vision boards. So, yes, whether it's physical, it's digital, there's a lot of different websites and tools. Um, do you mind sharing which tool you use to make it?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. I grabbed all of my images from Pinterest. I didn't, I'm not sure if you guys know this, but you can download the different images on Pinterest. Um, you can also pin them to a board on there as well. And then I just put them in Canva and kind of just made it there. But when I made it in like a physical version, I grabbed a poster board from like the Dollar Tree. Um, I printed a bunch of stuff at home. And I just went through different magazines and whatever I had at home and kind of just took different things from there um and made it. But it helps a lot. Uh Pinterest is one of my favorite apps um to use. So if that helps you, I hope so.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I love it. And there's actual websites too that you can use that are made to like design vision boards. Um, and you can do animation on there and stuff too. It gets all it gets crazy. That's cute. Yeah, but physical ones um are just as valuable as well. So whatever tool you think would work best. But a vision board is also good as you're ending the year going to into the new year. It could be one could be values and identity focused, the other could be more goal focused and looking at okay, what are the things that I want to accomplish in this next year, and kind of aligning your energy with some of those things as you're transitioning into the new year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And as you are, you know, engaging in whatever, if it's meditation, if it's um gratitude, if it's a digital detox or vision boarding, um, there are three kind of prompts that we would love to leave you with for you to, you know, think about while you're doing this, and and of course be reflective as well. So I'm gonna invite you to write these down in your phone, in your notes app, um, physically, and put them places that you frequently visit. So, for example, your car mirror is something I tend to look at a lot, or um at home, if there's a mirror in the bathroom, or the mirror you look at before you leave the house, or even your front door. What am I grateful for and have learned about myself this year, even if it came through struggle or uncertainty? What am I proud of that isn't quantifiable? Or something about who I am becoming? What do I want to bring into the new year? Not as a goal on paper, but as a feeling, a value or an intention.

SPEAKER_01:

We hope that these reflection prompts are helpful for you as you reflect, find some gratitude, find some peace and fulfillment as you end this new year. We wish you all warmth and happiness ending this year, and we look forward to seeing you all again, hearing you all again next year. You are listening to Coffee and Career Apple. Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoy our show, we ask that you write a review on Apple Podcasts to help us reach more people looking to level up their career. Want to connect with us? Be sure to follow our Instagram and websites. Follow CareerRise on Instagram for career advice and motivation to help you stay up to date on all things career. Be sure to also visit my website, careerise.org, to book a session with me and access free resources. My goal is to help you clarify your goals, make a plan, and feel confident in your career journey.

SPEAKER_00:

Follow Career Confident Latina for your weekly dose of career advice and my journey as a first gen Latina counselor. You can also send me a message on MJCareerconfidence.com if you want to book a career counseling session. I want to help grow your confidence as you reach your career dreams.