Check-in, Before You Check-out: Keeping progress front and center!

This episode is an all call for self-reflection and growth, inviting you to join the newly minted Brewing Success Community. Here, you'll find the support you need to scale new heights in personal and leadership development. As the pages of the calendar turn, I challenge you with a candid evaluation of where you stand in life's essential categories — health, fitness, finances, relationships, career, faith, and fun. This is your moment to acknowledge your triumphs, pinpoint where you need to bolster your efforts, and ardently pursue the year's goals.

In our discussion, I'll guide you through the pivotal practice of self-accountability, setting the foundations for a 90-day reassessment that is sure to keep your aspirations on track. Sharing your game plan not only helps crystallize your intentions but also joins you to a network of like-minded individuals all striving for excellence. 

Looking for More? Join The Brewing Success Community 
The Brewing Success Community isn't just about mentorship; it's a collaborative powerhouse equipped with comprehensive training and an abundance of resources tailored to ignite significant transformations in your life. If you are seeking leadership, guidance, and direction this community is for you! If you are looking to strengthen your leadership, mindset, confidence, team development strategies, and online business skills this community is for you. If you are growth minded and progress focused, this community is definitely for you, and will be the catalyst for growth and success you've been searching for. Be sure to join the community,  and also receive your very own copy of the ABC's of Leadership Mentoring Journal! https://leadlikeandreagebhardt.com/brewing-success-community/

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:12

Hi, my friends, and welcome to Brewing Success, where growth is the mission, change is the reward and progress is the goal. I am your host, andrea Gephardt. I'm a former educator turned passionate entrepreneur, whose desire to create impact has never wavered. I've spent the last decade teaching, mentoring and coaching people on how to create success in their lives and businesses, with proven strategies and systems that not only bring about change but big results. When it comes down to it, teaching is my specialty, leadership is my jam, and inspiring you to live a bigger, fuller life is what I'm all about.

Speaker 1 0:50

This podcast will give you the knowledge and tools you need to brew success in almost any area of your life. You're going to walk away each week feeling inspired, motivated and ready to step outside your comfort zone and into the next level of who you're meant to be. Now let's get into today's episode to step outside your comfort zone and into the next level of who you're meant to be. Now let's get into today's episode. So I have something exciting to share with you today, something I am sharing publicly for the first time. The show, as I have shared with you guys, has been doing really well, and that really is all. Thanks to you, you've come back eager to learn and be inspired. Each week, you're sharing your favorite episodes and what you're learning online on social media. You've subscribed to the show and you're sharing it with your favorite peeps, and seriously, thank you for that, because none of the success of the show would be possible without you.

Speaker 1 1:48

With that being said, for the past year, hundreds of you literally have reached out asking for more from the show, wishing there was more of an opportunity to go deeper, to create community. Many of you have reached out asking for mentorship or a mentorship group to take your learning and your leadership to a whole other level. And so I'm publicly, for the first time, announcing something pretty exciting and amazing. I am launching as in it is live right now the Brewing Success Community, so you can join this amazing group today. I'll make sure the link is in the show notes and you will be so glad that you did. I'm excited to be able to offer direct, active mentorship to all of the members of this exclusive community through in-depth teaching and training on various leadership topics, personal development topics and so much more. This interactive community will be a place to have incredible high-level conversations with like-minded individuals aka networking at its finest, opportunities for one-on-one coaching calls with me and an insane amount of free resources calls with me and an insane amount of free resources, tools and more to help you grow and reach new levels of success. I've shared this secretly with a few people behind the scenes and they've already secured their spot, and now you can too. This is going to be exactly what you needed for direction, guidance, accountability and mentorship and growth, and I'm so stinking excited to be the one to bring it to you. So click the link in the show notes or hop on over to the Brewing Success Instagram page. We'll have the link there as well, so you can get into the group and get your growth on. So I'm excited to you know, evolve the podcast to this next level and create a mentorship community. It's going to be really amazing. I'm so pumped, and you know really to just be able to take you on a deeper dive and create real time, you know strategies, real time coaching, real time mentorship and make it all available to you. So if you're pumped, let me know. If you can't find the link or you're having trouble, let me know. Also, make sure you get that. But let's jump into my message for you today Time flies, time flies.

Speaker 1 4:14

Check in before you check out. You know, april 1st is just around the corner, literally, and I don't know about you, but just saying that out loud has me kind of shaking my head a little in disbelief at how fast it seems we got here. Sometimes I wonder if what our moms always said was true. You know that age-old adage that like the older you get, the faster time goes. It certainly seems that way, although I can't also help but believe that it also has something to do with how much we have going on in our lives right now too. Hats off to all the educators trying to finish out this last quarter of school, all the parents looking at an overfilled calendar of sports activities, performances, graduations, oh.

Speaker 1 5:04

And then there are the work things, the house things, the parenting things, and at the end of the day, I think it's pretty safe to say that time is the most elusive thing. Time is what we want most, but what we use worst. Which brings me to the importance of today's topic. We are already through one quarter of the year, and if we don't stop to check in, evaluate, reflect and adjust well, then we're going to find ourselves with another year gone and a whole lot of progress left behind. So let me prove this to you with a few simple questions how much this is needed in your life. Let me help you understand why this activity is required. Let me help you see that failure to check in can absolutely cause you to check out. And the truth is is if you are not checked in with your life, you are checked out. And if you're checked out on your own life, what does that say? So here are the questions. So hear me out.

Speaker 1 6:06

And if you're sitting down taking notes, driving, doing this while you're doing, listening to this, while you're listening to other things, I just want you to think about these questions, and it's a very simple, immediate yes or no. Not a yes but not a no, but just a yes or no. Okay. So here they are. Are you healthier and or more fit than you were this time last year? Yes or no? Okay, so here they are. Are you healthier and or more fit than you were at this time last year? Yes or no? Are you in a better financial position than you were at this time last year? Yes or no? Are you further along in your career slash business goals than you were this time last year, yes or no? Are your relationships stronger than they were this time last year, yes or no? Are you happier or more fulfilled than you were this time last year, yes or no? If you answered mostly yes to all these questions, like, seriously, shoot me a DM. I want to like find out, like, how you've discovered the secret to life. But if you're like 99% of the population and you answered mostly no to those questions, then that should be your wake up call.

Speaker 1 7:24

A whole year has gone by and you are possibly in the same place or worse off than you were the year before, and well, we just can't sit on the sidelines and watch our lives unravel. We have to jump in, we have to take action and course correct. I know the reality of that just snuck up on you and it comes with a bunch of different feels. The only thing I want you to feel, or intend, or that I intended for you to feel, is awareness. I want you to be more aware of the fact that if nothing changes, nothing changes. More aware of the fact that time goes on, with or without us. We've only got so much. We have to make the most of it. Awareness to the fact that your life is the sum of the things you do and or don't do. Action and inaction. Both have outcomes. One is favorable, the other is regret. And you know it's true. You know it's true If you set a goal for yourself and you check in on that goal and you realize you actually haven't made any progress.

Speaker 1 8:35

You know what you tend to do. You tend to scrap it right, like, let's think back to January. You set some goals for your health, for your business, for your finances, for your family. You put some goals out there this year I want, this year I'm going to, this year is about X, y, z. And then you kind of check in and you realize, oh, it's April and you haven't lost the weight, you haven't been going to the gym, you haven't been eating healthier, you haven't been saving money, you haven't figured out to add another income stream or whatever the case may be. And instead of taking a look at what that goal really is for you and what it means, you tend to scrap it. And then you know what happens you beat yourself up for it and then what happens is you decrease your self-belief and then your confidence goes right out the window. And then you back yourself in a rut and begin to question your ability, your worth and so much more. But not this time, not this year, not ever again.

Speaker 1 9:34

I'm going to teach you how to stay on track, how to make real progress and how to stay in a forward moving pattern. I want you to start saying to yourself, instead of saying like I just get stuck, I always this, I always that, no, no, no, we don't get stuck, we make progress. That's what we are about. We don't get stuck, we make progress. I don't get stuck, I make progress.

Speaker 1 9:55

Okay, 20 years from now, I don't want to find you saying things like man, I should have eaten better, I should have exercised more, I should have spent more time with my family, I should have spent more time doing things that made me happy, I should have put more effort into that goal or the dream that I had. That's the result of inaction, it's regret, and we're all going to get to a point in our lives. We're all going to get to a point in our lives when we say, boy, man, I wish I would have. I wish I would have taken my health more seriously. I wish I would have taken, you know, moving my body and staying active more seriously. I wish I would have put my phone down and been more present with my kids.

Speaker 1 10:42

I wish I would have chased after that dream, because we're all going to get to that point in that place in life, when we have way less time in front of us than we do behind us, and what I want you to be able to do is I want you to be able to wake up when you're 73, 74, 75 years old and be like dang. I'm so glad I ate well. I'm so much healthier. I'm so glad I honored movement and moved my body and got those steps in and lifted some weights and made it a priority. I'm so glad I spent that time with my kids and poured into my kids. I'm so glad I put time and energy into that dream because look at what I accomplished. I want you to get to a point in a place in your life when you're like I'm so glad I did versus I can't believe I didn't. We're all going to be standing on one side of that line, and that line is the decisions of how we decided.

Speaker 1 11:37

That felt a little redundant, a little decision of, like the decisions we made about what we did with our time and what we had, which is why I'm coming to you with this today, because here we are in another year and we are, you know, approaching four months in. We're through that first quarter, and I want you to stop and check in with yourself, evaluate, reflect and make adjustments so that we build on what we're doing Right. That's what's important to me. So, every few months, what you want to do is you want to set a reminder, to take yourself through this little exercise, the one I'm going to share with you right now. Like, seriously, take a moment and tell Siri to set a quarterly reminder to reflect on your goals and progress so far this year, and each quarter she'll send you a reminder and then you'll do it and you're going to benefit from the insight and the perspective it gives you, and you know what else? You're going to realize that you're making real progress, and that's what we want to do.

Speaker 1 12:34

It's not about being perfect. It's about making progress. It's not about doing everything right. It's about making progress. It's not about winning and having success at every corner. It's about making progress.

Speaker 1 12:44

If you are not progressing through life, you are regressing through life. Yowch, this is the kind of stuff where I wanted to stop you in your tracks. I wanted to punch you in the gut a little bit, like wake up. Wake up and take responsibility for the life that you are living and what you are giving to it. So, like I said, you need to check in, evaluate, reflect and adjust accordingly.

Speaker 1 13:09

So let's review these few categories Now. These are the categories I recommend that you start with. You can adjust them, change them out, choose what works best for you. This is your life. You choose the categories that matter to you. They are in zero order of like significance. They're just written down, and you know me when I put these things together. I want to make it easy for you to remember and put together. So I'm like trying to like, should I have them all start with the same letter? Should I this, should I that? I'm like you know what. No, I'm just going to give them the strategy. So here you go.

Speaker 1 13:42

So here are the categories that you want to check in with. Okay. So, number one health slash, wellness and fitness. Second category finances. Third, family and relationships. Fourth, career goals, dreams. Third, family and relationships. Fourth, career goals, dreams. You can leave it whichever makes most sense for you. Number five faith. And number six fun, because, like hi, your life needs to be fun and that's important. If you're not having fun, then, like, what are you doing? I don't know what's the opposite of fun Boring, yeah, no, thanks, I'm not here for it. So we have these categories.

Speaker 1 14:18

Now, this is the check-in. So we're going to stop and we're going to check in where we are right now, at this point in the year, I'm going to check in. So here's how we do that. We're going to give everything a scale of one to five. So five, when you rate it a five, it is the best it has ever been.

Speaker 1 14:36

When you get a five, that category is the best it's ever been. Three, it's okay, but not where you want to be. And number one, it's a complete mess. Like it's a mess. I don't have anything to show for it. I've made no measurable progress. I haven't even started, okay, so that kind of gives you a gauge.

Speaker 1 14:57

So we're going to rate these categories. So health, wellness, fitness scale of one to five. Five, it's the best it's ever been. Three, it's okay, but not where I want it to be. One, well, well, I'm, you know, seriously. So let's just go through and rate these finances Five best it's ever been. Three it's okay, but not where I need it to be. Number one finances are a mess. Three family relationships Five my family and my relationships with my spouse, with my partner, with my kids, with my friends, those people who are like the inner circle stuff it's the best it's ever been. Three it's okay, but not where I want it to be. One it's okay, but not where I want it to be. One it's a mess. Right. Faith, your faith, whatever you choose that to be your faith. Five it's the best it's ever been. Three it's okay, but not where I want it to be. One well, okay. And the last one fun.

Speaker 1 15:55

You are having the most fun in life you've ever had. Five right, it's the best it's ever been. You are super, taking super initiative and the things that bring you joy You're scheduling in like the things that make you happy, not the things you have to do, but the things that actually bring you joy. Okay, I don't know what happens to women in our forties and why, all of a sudden, gardening and planting things becomes like joyful, like working with your hands being out in the yard. I always used to think it was so interesting, like people who enjoyed it, like, oh, I just go play in the garden and I'm like, oh, that's cute, my stomach just growled at you and I'm like, but now I get it. I could be out there all day. It's amazing.

Speaker 1 16:35

So anyways, finding things you know, five, it's the best it's ever been. I make time for it. I'm doing things that bring me joy Three, well, kind of, but it's not where I'd like it to be. I only get to do things I enjoy every once in a while or one. I'm not having fun at all, I'm miserable. I'm not doing things that bring me joy. So just categorize all those things Again. You can certainly add to these categories, but this is a good place to start.

Speaker 1 17:01

Now let's look at where you are Now. If you're rocking mostly fives, kudos to you. Way to go, keep it up Like, how can you grow from there? How can you expand? How can you take it deeper? How can you make it more meaningful? How can you go the next level with all of that? Right, if you are seeing that you are some fives, some threes, some ones, let's take note. Are you mostly threes? Are you mostly ones? This is where we evaluate Now. Where are you in each area so far this year? Just identify where you are. No excuses, right. Just look at where you are.

Speaker 1 17:35

Don't sit here and try to justify Well, of course I'm not having fun, I've got little kids on time for that. Of course my finances are a mess. My husband lost his job. Of course my health and wellness isn't where it should be. I can't afford a gym membership. Like. Don't sit here and justify, don't make excuses. Just look, just evaluate.

Speaker 1 17:53

I love this. Okay, this is why this work is is important, because if we don't step back and take a look at where we are and the direction we're going, we're going to end up not really going anywhere. It's just like when you're baking brownies or you're baking cookies you open the oven and you check on the progress. Just like when you're making a turkey you open the oven, you check on the progress. Right, this is what we're doing in our lives. We're checking in on our progress and I love this because it's a simple scale to see where we are Okay.

Speaker 1 18:25

Mostly in every of my life it's okay, but it's not where I want it. Are you okay with that? Are you okay with completing a year with things that are just okay but not really where you want it? That notion alone shows you that you're underperforming where you know you can, and if it's all a mess, we got to step in, we got to do something. So now, so we've checked in, we're evaluating. Now let's reflect. Next to all of that, write down okay, why did you rate it? Why did you rate it as such, and what would it need to be or look like to move it up to the next rating? Be specific. So I'm going to just run through these on a very personal level.

Speaker 1 19:08

Okay, so, health, wellness and fitness. I would say it's a three. It's okay, but not where I want it to be. Now, why did I give it a three? I gave it a three because I'm only working out right now three days a week and I'm doing mostly bar, mostly pilates. Now what would I need to do to move it up to a five, to where it's like it's the best it's ever been? I would also be lifting weights right, lifting weights. I've fallen out of that. I need to get back into it. Lifting weights two to three days a week, that would help me feel better. Getting out and walking 30 minutes a day would help. That would be like my health, my fitness, is the best it's ever been. So I'm going to take note of that right.

Speaker 1 19:53

Here's what would move the needle in that area for me Finances they're okay, but not where I need them to be Okay. So what needs to happen for that to happen? I would feel better if I had a certain amount more in savings. I would feel better I feel like you know it's the best it's ever been if I had X amount in emergency fund, x amount in savings, x amount ready to go for college. So then I have to be very specific. What would that look like? That would look like not eating out so we could save money. That would look like reducing unnecessary expenses. That would be automatically scheduling money to like transfer into savings, to transfer into the emergency fund, to transfer into the college account. That's what that would look like. Right, be very specific Family relationships.

Speaker 1 20:45

So I think you guys kind of catch the goal here. So now you want to look at it. Why did you rate it as such? And then, what needs to happen? So if you scored a one, what do you need to do to get it to a three? If you scored a three, what do you need to do to get it toward that five? Do to get it to a three? If you scored a three, what do you need to do to get it toward that five? So this is where we're reflecting and we're taking notes of why it is where it is and what we need to do to change it.

Speaker 1 21:12

So our next step, then, is to adjust. This is the thing that most people fail to do. They like look at their life. Oh, you know, I set that goal of losing 15 pounds this year. I haven't lost a single pound. Jeez, that stinks, and I guess I really suck at this part. Blah, blah, blah. Again, they scrap it and like when it's so easy to make an adjustment.

Speaker 1 21:35

So here's what we, what we're going to do. So we're gonna look at those areas. We've written down what we need to do to get it to that next level. So we're going to put a plan in place. So I want you to pick and the reason why this scale is so big, because I want you to do you boo, like you pick what is manageable with you, within the scope of reason, for what your life looks like and what you have going on. Looks like and what you have going on. Pick one to five actions you can take in each area and put a plan into place to hold you accountable in those categories, track your progress and check in next quarter on where you are so you can see how far you have come.

Speaker 1 22:17

So for that finances example, if I put myself as a three, it's okay, but not where I want it to be. And I said what would I need to do? Reduce unnecessary expenses, stop eating out. Okay, so I'm going to pick two actions One, we're not going to eat out this month, right? Or this quarter, that's going to be my focus. We're not going to eat out. Or I'll reduce eating out to like maybe like twice a month because, like hello for kids, athletics sometimes it's unavoidable and reduce unnecessary expenses. So I'm gonna take a look at some of the apple subscriptions we have, take a look at some of the streaming subscriptions that we have, you know. Take a look at some of those rando kids wanting starbies trips that we have. What can we reduce? It's unnecessary.

Speaker 1 23:01

Pick one to five actions, put it into place and hold myself accountable to that so that when I come back and do this again next quarter I'm like, oh, my finances are better. I do have X over here in the savings or in this emergency fund or in this college account, right? So I want you to think about that. If it's that health and wellness fitness category, pick one to five actions. One I'm going to eat more vegetables. Two I'm going to walk for 30 minutes every single day. There's two actions. Put them into place, do that. Watch what happens. Give yourself that you know 90 to 120 day period to see the fruit of the change that you just put into place. And I promise you that when you go back and you reflect that next quarter, I'm like wow, I'm, I'm. Instead of being it's a mess. It's going to be like, wow, it's okay, not where, not where I want it to be, but it's good, you made progress, and that's the point, right? That's what we talked about.

Speaker 1 23:57

So, at the end of the day, what we need to remember is what we cannot address, what we don't address. This is why this is such a crucial aspect of growth and success. If you don't check in with where you are, you will likely check out. A whole year will go by before you realize it and you're going to be in the same place, fighting the same problems, dealing with the same challenges, and, before you know it, that one year turns into 10 years, turns into 20 years and a whole lifetime can pass you by.

Speaker 1 24:32

Instead, let's stop from time to time to check in with where we are, evaluate what's going on, reflect on what we need to do and create those adjustments. Create those micro adjustments in our day to day so we can experience those macro jumps, those macro you know times and periods of growth. That's what we want to do, so we can create that progress. We want to make those adjustments so that we can course correct and get back on track and make real, measurable progress in our lives, create real, lasting change and live our lives in a way. That is, if we want to live out our purpose, we have to live on purpose, not autopilot.

Speaker 1 25:28

So take these, take this check-in, put it into action. My gosh, guys, as you're doing this seriously, will you take a screenshot, like put your categories down, rate them, send me a screenshot, tell me what actions you're going to put into play. Can we follow up in the next 90 days and do another check-in and evaluate? I want to know how far you've come. I'm telling you it's going to be so great. And if you want more in-depth mentoring and coaching like this guys, get yourselves into the Brewing Success community because I'm telling you right now, it is going to be monumental. It is going to create massive shifts in your life, in your businesses, in any area that you are really seeking growth, and I'm so, so excited.

Speaker 1 26:09

So, you guys, thank you so much for joining me here on Brewing Success, where growth is the mission, change is the reward and progress is the goal. Gosh, I'm so excited and so fired up. I'm sitting here just like bouncing and getting tangled up in my words. I can't wait for you to do this exercise. I can't wait for you to be excited about the changes that you're going to implement right away. I can't wait to watch you experience consistent progress that is going to move the needle and create those big shifts in your life. Cannot wait to be back here with you next time. Thank you.