Authentic Growth and Realistic Goals for the New Year

This episode invites listeners to reconsider the phrase "New Year, New Me" and explore the concept of "New Year, Improved Me." We discuss setting realistic goals, the importance of balancing nutrition and fitness, managing time effectively, maintaining meaningful relationships, and embracing self-acceptance without losing authenticity. 

• Celebrating the arrival of 2025 
• Challenging the idea of complete reinvention 
• Importance of setting achievable fitness and nutrition goals 
• Strategies for effective time management 
• Navigating personal and professional responsibilities 
• Fostering authentic relationships amid growth 
• The significance of self-acceptance

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:35

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of the Gag is Pod. I am your girl, charlie Shante. Thank you for joining me. Happy New Year to you. Welcome to 2025. That's crazy to say like 2025. Like, how did we get here? I feel like we just cruising through. You know, just real. But happy new year. I hope you all had an amazing new year's Eve.

Speaker 1 1:05

New year's day Um, hope you got you were doing something that you wanted to. But when you get around my age, you know you start going to sleep and stuff. So you know where you up for new years. But we're going to jump into all of that. So go ahead and grab your drink, grab your snack, whatever it is you need to grab. Go ahead and grab that so we can jump right on in. And while you're grabbing your drink and your snack or whatever you have, if you have not already, please make sure you are following us at the gay is pod on instagram and youtube. You're more than welcome to follow my personal page as well. Smart fit underscore oki on instagram.

Speaker 1 1:41

Well, make sure that you have downloaded this episode to listen to and click that little notification in the right hand corner. That way, anytime a new episode come out. It can already be on your phone. It come out at 5 am on Fridays so you can just listen to that thing on the way to work. You can listen to it if you're getting off from work, if you work at night or if you're working out in the morning.

Speaker 1 2:05

So 2025. Wow, how, how did we get here? Like it's crazy. And so it's 2025 and you know it's all about that. You know everybody on that new year, new me, you know, whatever, whatever I want to kind of freestyle dive into that today Like it's the new year, so you know it's like everybody's like, oh, at the beginning of the year, you know it's going to be a new year, new me, you know it's like everybody's like, oh, at the beginning of the year, you know it's going to be a new year, new me, you know. So watch out, everything that I was falling for back then or everything that I was doing back then. You know I ain't finna fall for that this year, so miss me with that. But like we're getting older now.

Speaker 1 2:55

So at what point does a new year, a new me not apply anymore? You can, I feel like you can, keep the same slogan like new year, new me. But instead of a new year new me, how about new year improved me? Because if you're saying new year, new me, that means you're purposely doing something to become somebody who you're not. So if we continue to do that for year after year after year, I feel like you're becoming somebody that you don't even know anymore, because you're like new year, new me. So if you've been doing that for 10 years, granted, you're not the same person you were 10 years ago, but you're also still not the person you want to be, because we can only do this for so many years.

Speaker 1 3:45

And I realized that, I think a couple years ago, I sat down and I was like let me deep dive into this. New year, new me. And I'm like well, I don't like new year new me, because that means I'm going to intentionally take the time to be and act a certain way, and it's a certain way that I am not. There's ways that I can better myself and still be the same me, be authentic, you know, just keeping with who I am. But there are areas in my life that I can improve in. So I want to kind of talk about that today, life that I can improve in. So I want to kind of talk about that today. You know, just improving in areas instead of doing a whole flip and turning into somebody that you're not.

Speaker 1 4:27

And I think, throughout this month, I think it'll be very helpful If I have some guests on the show who talk about fitness. You know we'll talk about some finances, some other things like that, so that we can genuinely be ourselves but be a more improved version of ourselves without losing ourselves. You know, if that makes sense to you. So one of the things that I did when I was trying to realize like okay, not a new year, new me is we always say we want to get into fitness. You know everybody's like. You know I'm gonna start going to the gym before work or when I get off from work. You know I'm not going to eat this anymore, I'm not going to eat that anymore.

Speaker 1 5:05

And one thing I realized that we set forth these goals every year and that's all we do. We just set them. We don't have a plan of action, we don't we haven't done any research or how we can obtain what it is we're doing or anything like that. So we're just like yep, I'm going to go to the gym. You know, seven days a week, be up in that thing, because, summer coming, body finna be snatched. That's fine and well, but let's think about it. So, okay, it's January and let's see summer roll around, about May, we'll say like Memorial Day is like the unofficial start to summer.

Speaker 1 5:44

So you telling me, for the next see, five months, you finna be in the gym seven days a week. So that's five months, that's what. How many weeks? That's 20 weeks. So you telling me you finna be in the gym for like 100 days, over 100 days, like consecutive, like no breaks, nothing, nothing to let your body relax, nothing. That's not realistic.

Speaker 1 6:13

We, we have to set realistic goals, and one of the things that I did was I got with my trainer and she was like that's fine, you can say that you can go to the gym every day for seven days straight and knock it out. But she was like I don't want to hear it when you get burnt out. And I was like what? Why would you say that I'm not going to get burnt out?

Speaker 1 6:36

You have to start with something attainable, start with something that you can stick to. If you just if you ain't been to the gym in years, don't say you're going to code seven days a week, because that's not realistic. You're going to get burned out. Two days a week good, and then anything after that is extra, is bonus, good for you. But two, that's very attainableable. That's seven. There's seven days in a week you can go to. You can go to back-to-back days. You can go to every other days. You can go just on weekends. You can do whatever.

Speaker 1 7:09

But you've started and you've done two days and then say after a month you're like okay, okay, I got this down, pat, add another day and just add and build like that. Because, think about it, when you go buy a house, you don't go and say, okay, I want this house right here, and they just put the house down and it's just there. You have to build on it. And so when you're talking about reinventing yourself and with your goals and dreams, you have to build on it. It's just not. You're just not going to wake up and be like, okay, this is it, and then boom.

Speaker 1 7:44

So it's the same thing with your fitness. You're not just going to go to the gym one day and be like, boom, like I'm fit, like I'm snatched, like you know, watch out beach. That's not going to happen. So you have to be very mindful and very intentional about what it is, especially with one of your fitness goals. And guess what? Going to the gym is just not going to do it.

Speaker 1 8:04

You got to incorporate your eating as well. You can't sit there and go to the gym and then go to Culver's and get you a double mushroom and Swiss with some fries and a Coke and be like, well, I'll be going to the gym, I don't know why, losing no weight. And then everybody be like I'm just going to sit gym and I don't know why I ain't losing no weight. And then everybody be like I'm just going to sit here and eat these salads Well, you're not going to. And then after six days you burnt out on salad cause you ain't doing nothing but eating water.

Personal and Business Growth Strategies

Speaker 1 8:27

But, like I said, I'm going to have um, a couple of trainers and one who specializes in nutrition as well. I'm gonna try to get her on the show so so that she can actually better explain to you you know, about your eating and stuff like that. And, like I said, she's my trainer. She's been my trainer for almost 10 years now. Like train like off and on, but I still get with her because there are still times where I lag, like I didn't, just like, oh, I've reached my goals, several times. But then, you know, I had those times where I backslide a little bit and she, like Charlotte, you know, let's kind of get back on track and so like, instead of just being a trainer, she's become a friend, a close friend, um, as well. And she, she didn't got your girl together, she got. She going to have to get me back together because I didn't sleep just a little bit.

Speaker 1 9:18

But when it comes to your fitness or whatever, just make sure that you're doing something that's obtainable. I will say this Call me a hater, call me whatever. Don't be looking at social media for inspiration, because nine times out of ten them people that you're looking at for inspiration done, had their body, did and the way that their body look. You're not finna. Obtain that in a gym. I don't care how hard you try and what you don't eat. Your body not finna, look like that. Your body is not finna to look like that.

Speaker 1 9:51

And I know, you know eating is one of my biggest things, but when I sit down and I hone in on like eating and like cooking my food and stuff, like that, I am good. So, like over the past, uh, like six months, we've had a change in our schedule because, uh, new face is in swim now, right, so with him in swim we're constantly going. Um, and since we're constantly going, then we, you know I don't get to cook and I'm not meal prepping like I used to meal prep, cook all the food or whatever. So, since we're going, now it's to the point where I'm just eating out two, three times a week, you know. And when I do cook, you know it's not stuff that's necessarily healthy. So I gotta rein that in a little bit. That's like like one of my big things.

Speaker 1 10:45

I don't have a problem with working out per se, that just. I mean I walk every day, you know. I do want to get back to lifting weights, like I really miss lifting weights, but that comes with due time. I just, you know, took on something new and you know I just just gotta figure out how it works in addition to that. So I just gotta get back on track um with that. And I love to cook and I can cook like really good. I thought about going back plant-based, like slash vegan a little bit. I don't know yet I gotta see you know, like what this next schedule is going to look like in order for me to do that.

Speaker 1 11:32

One of the other areas that I focus on when I say a new year improved me is I always work on personal goals and since I have the pod now I have personal goals, I have business goals because the pod is a business. So I have personal goals, I have business goals, I have family goals. So for my personal goals I try to make sure I'm like okay, what is it that? I take a look at what I did last year, I'm like, okay, I did that last year. You know I want to continue doing that or no, like there's some areas of improvement. And I know my biggest thing because it started in my between my personal and the business that's starting over like run together, which is not it's not a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either is time management, because I there's a lot of business things that I have to take care of, but you know, stuff in my personal life is kind of rolling over to and it's preventing me a little bit from having put for, from putting the time into my pod, into my business that I need, and you know, getting an assistant this year. So that's going to help just a little bit. But between personal and business, I definitely, definitely, definitely have to work on my time management.

Speaker 1 12:58

When I first started off with the pod, you know I was so laser focused in you know I was I had reduced my social media time, I had reduced my TV watching time. But now, like I've fallen back into my old ways and I'm like, well, how can you succeed as a business person If you're not willing to let go of your comforts and enjoyments for just a little bit not all the way together, not all the way like 0% enjoyment, but can we scale it back just a little bit so that you can hit your deadlines and hit your benchmarks and everything that you set out for yourself? Because there's only so many times that you can roll something over. And you know I just have like little partnerships now and it's kind of like, if I can't take time and manage my little partnerships, how can I manage bigger partnerships? So there's some things in my personal life I'm going to have to scale back on so that I can dedicate time to the business. But once I get those, I feel like, once I get those things taken care of and my time management better. It'll give me back the time that I've been looking for in my personal life.

Speaker 1 14:09

So, like I've said previously, sometimes you got to get uncomfortable to get comfortable. And so now you know it's football season. If you know me, you know we're coming up on the end of football season. If you know me, you know that I love football, and so you know Saturdays and Sundays and Thursday nights, like I'm glued to the TV, when, honestly, this is time that I, although I'm glued to the TV, this is time where I can be editing, I can be clearing my notes and different stuff like that. But not me, I am just honed in on that TV looking at my sports. But it's like okay, you can multitask, ma'am, you sitting on the couch, you can get your laptop, you can multitask. If not, they got talk to text.

Speaker 1 14:54

So there's different things that I got to hone in on in my personal life so that I can ensure my business is thriving. And you know, and things like that. You know, uh, nick, she, she keep me, she, my manager, she keep me together. You know, and she'd be like you know, you got to take care of this, you got to take care of this and I'm like, okay, cool, like I still, um, I you know I got like my little vision board that I did and whatever you know. So I got to really take a look at that and hone in it, because I forgot where I seen it or where I heard it or read it at.

Speaker 1 15:30

But you know, it's easier to accomplish things once they're written down and once you can sit there and you can look at them daily or wherever you put them, because you're going to be like OK, like yeah, that, because like you can keep it up here all day every day, be like okay, like yeah, that. Cause, like you can keep it up here all day, every day. But if you have it wrote down and you looking at it and you can see you're like okay, cool, like I need to get on this. You know, it's just not a thought in my head, but I've written it down, which means that I need to take time and put it in there. So, yeah, so I would say you know, so, yeah.

Speaker 1 16:02

So I would say you know, make sure you're taking time and you know personalizing and critiquing things, but also giving yourself grace. You know what you need to do. You know how you need to do it, just do it. You know, like I wouldn't sit here and say something to y'all that I wouldn't do. I know what I need to do and so I mean, instead of being grumpy about it, you know like on Saturday mornings I would love to lay in bed. You know every Saturday, but I know every Saturday I can't lay in the bed. I need to take care of business stuff, like sleep in a little bit, take care of business stuff and then go about your day.

Speaker 1 16:41

I'm not saying deprive yourself of everything, because somebody going to probably be like well, you talking about something, just cut away. No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying if you took 30 a minute, if you, let's say, you took 30 minutes away from watching TV to focus on your personal development, you spend more time on that, scrolling on social media. So if you took that 30 minutes and roll it into whatever it is you're trying to pursue or something like that, just think all those 30 minutes that you add up is going to eventually go to 45 minutes an hour. You're going to eventually have that time and you're not going to really miss what it was that you was spending that other 30, 45 minutes hour. You're not going to miss that because you're going to be like, wow, I'm getting so much further because, like, I just took just a little bit of time away from a comfort, but guess what, I'm achieving this, but I still got the comfort that's. That's just a simple way of how I would look at it.

Family Time and Personal Growth

Speaker 1 17:42

I also, you know, in my business, like this year, like some of my goals are, I want to collaborate with more people and I believe, I think that last year I was just a little scared to like reach out and, you know, be like hey, you know, would you like to be a guest? You know, I feel like you bring a lot of. You know, you could bring something good to my show. I've just tried, like different partnerships, like, hey, I would love to work with your brand. I've just been a little scared. And this year I would like to branch out and I would like to come up out of my shell and kind of foster some new relationships, some new partnerships, because if you know me, you know that I ain't shy and you know that I can walk in a room and make friends with anybody, you know, and hold a conversation with anybody. So I think that this year I think I'm going to focus, focus more on that. You know that'll be good for me. But, like I said, I got to let go of a little bit of those comforts so that I can focus more on creating these partnerships and reaching out and branching out in things like that.

Speaker 1 18:49

When it comes to my family, which is also part of our personal life, you know it's kind of hard because I have kids and they're 10 years apart, so they live two different lives in essence. You know. So I like to do family stuff, but in the same time that I like to do family stuff, they both don't like the same thing. And then it's like I'm hanging out with one kid is like, oh OK, cool, we're having fun. And I'm hanging out with the other kid oh, it's cool, we're having fun. But it's like I like to do stuff when I have them together and it doesn't always work out like that, because man child is older and then, you know, new face is younger and new face of time. He he's a swimmer, he's a competitive swimmer, so a lot of his time go like that. So me and him inadvertently ended up, end up spending time together on the weekends because we're always traveling to a swim meet or something like that. And then man, man, chisel, he, he has his marco poe, he has his own life because he's older, so he's out with his friends and you know he's working and stuff like that, you know. But I just, I just be wanting, you know, them together.

Speaker 1 19:58

Like last year we were able to take a family vacation and it was like so super fun, you know, and I think we have another one planned for this year. I'm not sure it's very dependent on a couple of things, but I would love to go on another vacation with them, you know. So I'm probably have to find some time and just be like, okay, you know what, like this weekend is for the boys, like I need to spend time with them. Like I'm going to clear my schedule and we're going to do something where we're going to go to a universal, we'll go to Disney, or, you know, we'll find something to do, we'll have a go to Atlanta, something like that. You know, just depending on the time of the year it is and what we got going on and how much time we have allotted, we'll find something to do. We always find something to do and have a good time with it.

Speaker 1 20:52

One thing we did talk about doing that we did during COVID is we took a road trip. We rented a car and we took a nine-state road trip and just packed up the car and just had a good, grand old time, went through nine states, went visited cities we'd never been to before and it was just a grand time. So I think, donate more, have more family time. We used to have a game night on Friday nights and I think that's something that I definitely would like to bring back because we, man, we had such a good time. We have so many games, you know, and I just want to yeah, I just want to get back to like that little stuff.

Speaker 1 21:40

But it also brings you back to the personal stuff. If I let go of some of those little comforts, then you know I have time to put time into other buckets my business bucket, my family bucket, you know, and you know my friend, my last bucket, like my friendship bucket. That bucket has been I don't even know. I feel like I cut some people off last year, but I feel like it's some more people that's going to end up getting cut off this year. We always say at the beginning of the year I'm going to cut people off, I ain't going to do this, I ain't going to do that. Okay, that's fine, that's cool. But when I'm doing that I'm always mindful because I'm not going to be like oh, you know, I can't fuck with you, no more, I'm not going to do that.

Speaker 1 22:33

It's more of a where I am in life right now. I don't feel it's appropriate for you to go there with me right now. I don't feel it's appropriate for you to go there with me. Where I'm at and where you're at are two separate places and you know, I just don't think that where I'm going is somewhere that you're going to be comfortable going with me. You know so, like we still cool, but you know we, we gotta be cool from, we gotta be cool from a distance, like when you still call me, still text me. We can still call chit, chat, um, you know catch up and whatever like that. But in the same token, just where I'm going, you know you can't bring everybody with you. You know so, but the, and so the friendships, the and the relationships that I have with you. You know so, but the, and so the friendships, the and the relationships that I have, you know I'm going to ensure that I continue to. Um, as long as they're pouring into me, I'm going to pour into them because I don't pour into friendships that that serve me Like if if I'm constantly pouring into you but you're not pouring back into me, or you know, when I make moves, you know you constantly have something to say about it, you know nothing good and it's always negative, then that's just not.

Speaker 1 23:46

I feel like where I'm going, that that energy is not. I can't take that energy with me and you know it's never personal, it's just I just know where I'm going. It's just like when you have that. It's just like when you have that string on the jacket, like if you pull it then it could unravel whatever the garment is, and then it's ruined, versus if you were to take a pair of scissors and you would just cut it, then you're good to go, you have a clean, you saved the garment, Everything is good to go.

Speaker 1 24:25

Now I, um, I wanted one of the personal, personal things I want to. I've got to. I got to give myself so much more grace. One thing that I've always had an issue with is accepting compliments, and you know everybody's like you're so beautiful. You know you have amazing skin and all of this and I'm always like you think. So. You know, I'm always hard on myself and I think this year I need to really sit down and hone in on that and figure out why I don't allow myself to accept compliments and different things like that. That's one thing that I need to sit down and work on and understand where that comes from. I think I have a feeling I know where it comes from, but I'm going to sit in and hone and figure out how I can heal from that, because I'm a very positive person and I know I'm a very beautiful person. I just need to understand how I accept those and, you know, believe it for myself, you know, and not just when someone else tells me, tells me All right, so we have come to the end of the show.

Speaker 1 25:49

I got to get my you can't make these up. I got to get those together because I've been so focused on bringing such a positive message from week to week that I think I've kind of let go of the aspect of you can't make this up. However, you can't make this up is one of the aspects of the show, and it's kind of like we talk about seriousness, and then we have a little lighthearted kiki at the end, and so I'm going to have to start getting those back together, because you guys tell me all the time like man, that, that you can't make this up, like that was crazy, and I'm like, yeah, I know. So you know we're, we're, we're going to get back to that. But one thing I'm always happy, y'all, is that song lyric of the week and I believe this was a song lyric of the week, um, last year. No, let me see, let me pull out my trusty dusty phone and, uh, view it um, um, oh, wee, oh, we. And I think this is going. This is just here we go. My song lyric of the week for this week is going to be a repeat one, but you know you just have those songs that just uplift you and you know it kind of becomes a soundtrack of your life and you know there's nothing wrong with that. So my song lyric of the week for this first week in January of 2025 is DJ Khaled. God Did All right.

Speaker 1 27:40

Now put down to the business. If you have not already. Like I mentioned in the beginning of the show, if you're not following us already, please follow us on the Gag Is Pod on Instagram and YouTube. You're more than welcome to follow my personal page at smartfit underscore okie on Instagram as well, if you want to do any collaborations or anything like that. Have an item or a book you want me to read, or anything like that any kind of way you feel like you can collaborate with the show or you can add value to your show. If you feel like you have something to add or you would like to be a guest, please reach out at thegagispod at gmailcom and myself or my assistant will get back to you. Until next week, I am your girl, charlie Shante. This is the gag is pod. Bye, guys.