147: {Sassy Solo} My favorite question right now

Today I'm sharing the book that I'm currently reading and how one chapter in particular is really turning my wheels. If you strive to have an extraordinary life, you have to do things that are uncomfortable, not to mention put in the hard work. 

In today's episode, I'm sharing a part of the book that has really motivated me to double down on my goals these next 30 days. 

Transcript

Caroline Pennington (00:01.199)
All right, today I wanna talk about something that's been on my heart and I wanna chat out with you guys today. And for those of you who don't know, I started getting really into personal development, professional development when I turned 30. I'm 38 now and so I've been at it for eight years and I've done that one way, I've done it in addition to getting in the rooms, hiring mentors, coaches, all the things. I really got into reading and I try to read every morning.

even if it's just one or two pages, I try to read every single morning as I have breakfast. And so one book I'm reading right now, I'm actually rereading it, because it's so freaking good. And so if you're listening to this, run and go get this book, because I can't say enough good things about it. But it's called The Common Path to Uncommon Success. And the author is John Lee Dumas. And the book is so good, and just coincidentally to the author of this book is a podcaster, so.

that it was meant to be. I am learning so much from reading this. But I'm reading a chapter right now called Design Your Content Production Plan. It talks really about how there's a huge difference in differentiator between those that put themselves out there and create content versus those that don't. They just consume the content. So I'm in the chapter now about what days you're gonna set aside to dedicate to the content creation. And for those of you listening that see me out there online and everything, I'm not ever live posting.

If you see me engaging, that is me, but all the posts you see of mine are completely pre-scheduled. So for me, a content creation plan is every Saturday for whatever reason in the mornings, the creative juices are flowing and that's been my time where I actually create my content and then I batch it out and I schedule it out for the next five to seven days, whatever it is, on what platform that I'm showing up as. So that's what I do and that's what's set aside for content creation for me.

But anyways, this chapter that I'm reading right now, he talks about how when you run into somebody, a stranger, maybe you know them, maybe it's a friend, maybe someone from church, and you ask the question, what have you been up to? That his least favorite response is the most common one, and it's, oh, I've been so busy. And I don't know about you, but I can relate to this so much too, that answer is seriously so freaking annoying, because I'm like, okay, what have you really been doing? But he talks about how people

Caroline Pennington (02:28.493)
that if you ask them, if you even narrow the question down more as to what accomplishment are you most proud of over the last 30 days, most people can't answer that question. They answered the blah, kids, work, pets, whatever. And so if that's your answer, are you gonna look back when you're 50, 60, 70, 80 and like that's what you've been doing that's kept you quote busy your entire life? So I was talking to Gary, my husband about this and actually he and I started having a really engaging conversation.

based off this one part of the book. And I actually turned to him and said, okay, what accomplishments are you most proud of over the last 30 days? And he told me, and the answer that he told me made me so dang proud of him too. He was proud of himself, I was proud of him. I shared with him my things that made me feel proud over the past 30 days, and we had a really great conversation. So my point in this whole episode is, think about that question. What have you been up to?

and think about how you would answer. What accomplishment are you most proud of over the last 30 days? And make sure that every single day you are doing things to move the needle to get to those accomplishments and goals that you want. Yes, we have bad days. Yes, we don't feel like it. Yes, we wake up in moods. Yes, do we have family life? All this field of blank things. We all have those things going on. But even if you set aside two minutes, three minutes, five minutes to move the needle,

to accomplishing your goals. The law of compounding and the concept of compounding goes such a long way. You'll look back at a year, two years, three years, five years, and you will be astounded by what you accomplish. So that's my food for thought for you for listening to this episode is think about that question. What are you most proud of in the last 30 days? Until next time, thanks for listening.