Balancing Festive Joy and Future Success

This episode centers on preparing for growth as we approach 2025, highlighting the significance of setting structured and actionable goals grounded in faith. With an emphasis on reflecting on past achievements and involving the Holy Spirit in our plans, listeners are encouraged to embrace challenges and create a solid foundation for the new year. 
• Importance of reflecting on past year’s achievements and lessons 
• Setting clear and attainable goals for personal and spiritual growth 
• Breaking down larger ambitions into actionable steps 
• Evaluating if goals are challenging yet achievable 
• Engaging with God to ensure faith-guided planning 
• Understanding scripture’s role in our growth journey 
• Emphasizing the importance of preparation for a fruitful new year 
• Encouragement to blend wellness practices with spiritual intentions 
• Thanksgiving for listeners and blessings for the holiday season

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Hey, there you're tuned into another episode of All Things Skin Wellness and Faith, a podcast where you'll learn simple ways to implement skin care and wellness techniques from a holistic approach. On this podcast, we'll explore practical ways to address skin health and overall holistic spiritual well-being, while deepening your faith. I'm your host, natasha Diaz, a licensed holistic esthetician, day spa owner and a faithful believer and follower of Christ, and it's time to get ready to get encouraged and empowered as we dive into all things skin Wellness and Faith. Hello, welcome back to another episode of All Things Skin Wellness and Faith. How are you guys doing? It's been a little bit Natasha.

Speaker 1 1:03

Here we are just jumping back into the swing of things as we embark upon the end of the year. I can barely believe it that we are just a few days away from Christmas. This year has just gone by so fast and it has been such a good year. I mean, as I sit here and I reflect on growth and all that is taking place throughout the year, I see so many strides, so many goals that I have met, and that is actually what I want to discuss with you today just a little conversation on preparing for growth and preparing for the future. As we sit and we reflect on, hopefully, everything that you have attained throughout the year. It's a time where we're in a time of preparedness and we're preparing for holidays, but certainly we want to prepare for the new year and we want to prepare goals and we want to always make sure that we are climbing the ladder, and so, in order to do all of those things, we have to be prepared and we have to lay out goals and things of that nature. So that's just what today's episode will be about, entitled Preparing for Growth, and that is exactly what we're going to embark on today. Now, like I said, as we are preparing, you know, for the holidays and we are certainly preparing for the beginning of a new year, I'm quite sure that we all have things that we wanted to do this year and hopefully this is a time when you can kind of sit and reflect and see, you know, what transpired over the year, what you got done, what you could have done better, what you would like to do for next year, and you can roll all those things together and make your goals and your plans for next year. But if we don't have a springboard or a place you know to continue from from this year, then it makes it kind of hard. So this is just a season where we usually get caught up in shopping and you know holiday gatherings and parties and things like that. But let's also making sure. Make sure I'm sorry that we are constantly pursuing growth within the realm of skincare and wellness.

Speaker 1 3:28

This is how I work with my clients. I mean, as I bring you to a certain level in your wellness journey or your skincare journey, I'm always looking to take you to the next level. I'm always re-evaluating, I'm always looking to see what we can implement and what we can do differently to improve your wellness, improve your skin, and that's basically, you know, what we want to do in our lives. I mean, setting forth goals is a really good place to start with that. And actually, you know, one of the things I've done is I have enrolled in a life coach. Well, I guess you can say it's a life coaching business type 12 week acceleration program and it's just to help you hone in basically on your goals, so that your goals are not just things that are just in your mind or written down in a journal somewhere, but it's something that's actually helping you make sure that you attain those goals by simplifying them, looking at the big goals and kind of just breaking them down into smaller goals and making sure that you know they're actually attainable and you can make progress, and as I've done that.

Speaker 1 4:45

You know, I think it was shortly after Thanksgiving it was either shortly after Thanksgiving or before Thanksgiving that I started this program and I think it's just the perfect time of the year, because it's the time of the year where one we can get really consumed in the holidays. We can get consumed in things that I don't want to say are not important, because the holidays are important. You know spending time with your family and you know getting together with people you haven't seen for a while, and things of that nature are definitely important. But there's a balance to those things and I think that, with you know Christmas and Thanksgiving, new Year's all of them being in such a short time span I think that what happens is you get so caught up in holidays and eating and drinking. Hopefully none of you are drinking, but I know that there's some that you know may indulge on a little bit of wine or what may have you, not me but you know some of you are out there that indulge in that, um, no condemnation, but that's not something I partake in personally, but anywho, um, it's a time that I feel, if you don't keep an eye on what's going on in those areas, like the end of the year can easily get away from you and before you know it, you're at the beginning of a new year, and then we start with our new year's resolutions and we make these oh, I want to lose weight and all these different goals, and we make them without any real plan on how to execute them and without having a real plan and just saying I want to do this, I want to do that.

Speaker 1 6:31

It doesn't really. You know, you're not really set up for success. I mean, a lot of people can set out and say, you know, I want to be a millionaire, I'm going to run my own business, I want to do all these different things, but do you have a plan? Have you broken it down into baby steps, into smaller steps, so that you can actually be working to this one big goal? And that's one of the things that we really focus on within this 12-week goal accelerator program that I have embarked on. So, one of the things that, like I said, goals, goals are really important and as you have a bigger goal and you're breaking that down into a smaller goal, when you break down those smaller goals, how do those smaller goals break down into a monthly goal, a weekly goal and even so much, a daily goal. And when you start to reevaluate things from that type of mindset, then it makes it more attainable and you tend to prosper more.

Setting Challenging Goals for Success

Speaker 1 7:37

So one thing I want to say and one thing I want to speak on is are we challenging ourselves? Are our goals even big enough, or are we just intimidated by fear? Do we not even believe that we can attain these goals? Because what I've noticed is that a lot of the times we have these big goals and they look really big, and I think that when we look at them from a big point of view, it seems like, oh, I could never do that. I could never, you know, make, you know, a six figure income. I can never do whatever the goal is. But what happens is when you start to break down, month by month, week by week, day by day, it actually begins to become attainable. And once you have a mindset in your mind that, oh, I think I can actually do this, it becomes, you breathe life into it and becomes alive, and then you can actually, you know, make progress in doing it.

Speaker 1 8:38

Now, for me, I tend to work on the other side of that. I always start big and I always, you know, see a big goal and I'm like, automatically, without seeing, you know, the tiny little increments. I just have this. I don't I've been told that I have a supernatural faith about me. I've been told that by several people. But I tend to see big goals and I just automatically think that I can do them and that can be. You know, that's the other side of things. That can actually be a little bit. I don't want to say bad, but it's not really a good way to look at things. It's good to have that big goal, but you also want to have those small, attainable goals that you're not just, you know, reaching for something in the wind, but for me, I feel like it becomes alive in that big state, whereas most people they become overwhelmed with goals that are that huge. So I think I kind of work in reverse.

Speaker 1 9:39

So maybe I don't, I don't know, but anyways, are we challenging ourselves with our goals? Is the point I wanted to get to. Are our goals something that is challenging not overwhelming, but challenging. There's a difference between the two. And they may be overwhelming, but if you find that they're overwhelming, that's when you're going to apply, you know, that tactic to break it down into something smaller that your mind can actually grasp it and your mind can actually see like, oh okay, this is attainable, but is it something that's challenging? And I think about this. You know when we go to the gym because you know a lot of us go to the gym and we have been going to the gym for a while but are you really seeing results? When you go to the gym, are you really pushing yourself to the point of true exhaustion? Are you really challenging your muscles in a place that it's going to bring forth results? So I want you to think of it that way Are the goals that you have in place really goals that can bring forth change, or are there goals that just leave you in the state of complacency?

Speaker 1 10:51

So, as we look forward on 2025 and and we have these goals and we have these you know things that we want to attain. Let's make sure that we're not overwhelmed with them, but let's make sure that it's something that is challenging. That is going to be, like, you know, a major, you know you can really see, at the end of 2025. Like, wow, this was a challenge. I really had to work through this, this and this. This was really hard, but I got there. And I mean, for 2024, I definitely had some goals in place, but I think they were not as tight as they should have been. So for 2025, I'm really challenging myself, and being inside of this program is bringing me to a place where I have to step outside of the box. It's bringing me to a place where I'm not exactly comfortable. And when you're not comfortable, I actually think that that's a good thing, because that shows that you're being challenged. As long as you're comfortable and as long as you can do everything on your own, well, that's not really a challenging place.

Speaker 1 12:00

And I feel like, even within our faith, that's how the Lord leaves it with us. I mean, as long as we're in a place of you know, where we can kind of bail ourselves out if we get into trouble, if we can, you know, have a backup plan. If this doesn't work out, then I can do this then I really feel like that doesn't leave space for God to move. For God to move. We need to be in a place that we are totally and completely dependent and relying on him. We need to be in a place where our faith is stretched. We need to be in a place of like okay, god, if you don't come through, then I'm going to fall flat on my face, because that is where he can really stretch us and that is really where he can stretch our faith. And that is what we want to do Like even in our goals for like 2025,. We always want to make sure that you know we're being stretched and if we have these goals in place, where we were being stretched in our goals, then those goals can transcend over into our faith, walk with the Lord and we can see that our faith is also being stretched.

Speaker 1 13:16

And as we are in a place that we are totally dependent and relying on the Lord, and the scripture I want to refer to today is Proverbs 24 and 27. Proverbs 24 and 27 in the NLT reads do your planning and prepare your fields before you build your house. So this is where I was speaking more so about, like, the way I tend to operate. Sometimes I can be in a place of where I can just go out and I can just say I have a really big vision and I'm just going to go out and I'm just going to start planning to build this house without having foundational goals in place. And that is where you can run into a little bit of trouble, because without planning I mean, even if you do plan there's going to be things and mishaps that take place.

Speaker 1 14:12

But when you just have a zealous moment and you're just out and about and you're like, oh, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, and you really haven't sat down to plan it out, think it out, make those small little goals, you can find often find yourself running into more problems than what you would have if you would have set and planned it out and thought about okay, what are the potential problems that I may run into and how may I plan to rectify those things, of course leaning on the Lord and leaning on the Holy Spirit. So in this scripture it tells us to plan and to prepare, and that's just going back to the same thing that I just said about having those goals in place. It is good to start now that we're at the end of the year and make sure that you know we are examining and just listing out what we want to get done for 2025. And we are listing out exactly how we plan to have those things Lean again, leaning on the Lord. I want to reiterate that because the Bible clearly says apart from me, you can do nothing.

Speaker 1 15:23

So one another mistake that I've made in the past, even when I've had goals, is to go out and to just make plans and to make goals without involving in the Lord. And I can think, even on a previous business that I had when I had my makeup artistry business, how there was just a lot of struggles and not to say that there's not going to be struggles when you have the Lord. Of course there's still going to be struggles, but when you're not trusting on him, trusting in him, leaning on him, when you're not relying on him, then you're not likely to hear a resolution or a way to resolve those problems or to get over those challenges where you can actually really make progress and be successful, because you're just dealing on your own knowledge, your own know-how. God is all knowing our Father God. You know he leads us through His Holy Spirit. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit is there as our divine helper and it's like, if you have a trusty assistant which is like what I like to think of the Holy Spirit as to help you navigate through those challenges, then why go through the pain and the frustration and the agony of trying to figure things out with your own limited understanding when you have an assistant that is all-knowing and all-powerful?

Speaker 1 16:48

But if you don't have those goals in place, if you don't have those things outlined before you go and embark on that journey, then you're working on a foundation that is not solid to focus on as we wrap up the year, just being prepared for 2025, having a solid foundation, a solid ground and a solid vision for what you want to see take place in 2025. And then just having goals and things that you have in mind. And then, once you have those goals and those things in mind, bring them before the Father, bring them before the Lord and say okay, father, this is what I'm feeling in my spirit. What say you, lord? And he may give you a plan. He may say, nope, this is not the way that I planned for you. He may say yes, but either way, he's going to help you navigate those waters so that you're not going into 2025 blindly. You're going into 2025 with a vision, you're going into 2025 with a plan that is backed up by God, the Father himself, and you're going into 2025 with the divine help of the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 18:10

So, all right, guys, I'm going to keep this not short, but a little bit shorter than I normally would. It has been a little bit since I've been on here with a full episode, but I do want to advise you, guys within your wellness, within your skincare, within your personal lives, set goals for what you want to see transpire in 2025, whether it's losing weight, whether it's, within your wellness, becoming more healthy, eating right. Set these big goals, break them down into smaller goals, go and consult with God, the Father, and come out with a plan so that, when 2025 rolls along, just a few weeks away, you're ready to hit the road you know running. All right, guys, I'm going to wrap it up there for today. I'm going to leave you guys with a prayer, as always. So, father, god, I just thank you once again for the opportunity to come before these wonderful brothers and sisters and to deliver a message that I pray touches them, leads them and guides them to be prepared for 2025.

Speaker 1 19:22

As we embark on this holiday season, lord God, as a time to remember the birth of our Savior Jesus. I pray blessings and abundance over every person listening to this podcast. I pray, father God, that as we go and enjoy this time with our families, we would also be mindful to execute balance, that we would not go too far off the deep end of enjoying the holidays, but we would also make sure that we are embarking on the time to prepare and the time to grow into the future and into the plans that you have for us. So, father God, I just thank you and I praise you in the mighty, matchless name of your son, jesus Christ. I pray and I say amen, all right, guys, I pray that you have a wonderful, wonderful holiday season, as always. Be blessed and be a blessing.