Creating a Vision for the Next Season of Your Life

Welcome to Beyond the Brand, the space where real conversations meet real growth. I’m your host, Tracy Strader—entrepreneur, mentor, storyteller, and believer in those little “aha” moments that shift everything. Over the years, I’ve built a multi–six figure online community by doing one simple thing: bringing people together through honest, human stories.

Each week, we peel back the layers of business and life with candid conversations, practical insights, and heartfelt reflections. You’ll hear from entrepreneurs, community leaders, and everyday dreamers who are boldly pursuing their purpose—and inspiring you to do the same. I weave in my own experiences too: nearly three decades of coaching, the seasons of my personal growth, and the strategies that have helped thousands find direction, balance, and healing.

In this episode, we continue exploring the power of seasonal living—turning reflection into action, building vision with intention, and aligning your goals with how you want to feel. From identifying your priorities to choosing the emotional tone of your next season, we’re diving into a grounded, heart-centered approach to creating the life and business you envision.

So grab your coffee, settle in, and let’s go beyond the brand together.

If today’s conversation resonates, share it to your stories and tag me @tracystrader—I’d love to cheer you on. And if you’re seeking deeper support, I currently have two openings for 1:1 coaching starting in January.

Transcript

0:02

Hey friend, I'm Tracy Strader, and welcome to Beyond the Brand. I'm all about real conversations, fresh perspectives, and those little aha moments that help us grow in business or life. Over the years, I've built a multi six figure online community by doing one simple thing. Bringing people together through open, honest storytelling. I've been coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs for nearly three decades. My passion is helping others find direction, balance, and healing, and creating spaces where people feel safe enough to just be real. Each week, I'll sit down with entrepreneurs, community leaders. And everyday dreamers who are out there living boldly and inspiring others to do the same. My personal stories, business knowledge, and life experiences will be woven into this podcast as well. So grab your coffee, get comfy, and let's go beyond the brand together. Welcome back. Last week, we discussed turning our reflection into action because action is what brings our visions to life. Acting gives us momentum, and it propels us forward. Your challenge was to identify three top priorities for this upcoming season of your life, and then list one activity that you could make to actually move it forward. This exercise should have provided you with some clarity, direction, and even confidence. When we begin to realize that our lives move in seasons, and each season has its own focus, pace, and purpose, we can give ourselves some grace and actually eliminate those self-imposed expectations that we put on ourselves. This week, I want to dive into creating that vision for the next season of your business or your life. They're intertwined. Each of us has a unique set of circumstances, and those circumstances typically will dictate our actions and behaviors on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. We've got long-term goals or big picture goals. We've got seasonal goals, which are typically a shorter period of time, two to four months, and then we've got micro goals, which are the daily activities or steps that we take to get that big picture goal that we envision. The seasonal part of this strategy is flexible. It evolves as you evolve. A key ingredient that I always include in this process is feelings. It's important to clarify for yourself how you want to feel moving into this next season or even during the season. Here are a few examples of questions and statements that you can consider. How do I wanna feel when I wake up in the morning? What emotional energy do I want to influence my decisions? What do I want less of? Energetically, I feel happiest and the most at ease and content when I feel most unsettled or stressed out or frustrated. When. And then name three things that don't support you right now, or three things that you want less of in your life. When I recently asked myself these questions, I came up with the following words, grounded, confident, free, and energized. Basically, I wanna feel grounded and confident in the path that I'm on and the decisions I'm making in my life and in my business. I want those decisions to give me the freedom to prioritize my personal wellbeing, and I wanna feel energized enough to carry out the daily activities that will get me to that big picture goal that I have. 12 months from now. The idea here is to choose three to five core feelings that will set the emotional tone for this next season that you're in. If you did not participate in last week's challenge of identifying your top priorities, I'm gonna encourage you to do it now. Let's consider the following categories, finance, career, family, personal development, spirituality, relationships, social life, health, and creativity. How fulfilled are you in those areas of your life? Remember, this is your season, not your besties or your coworkers or another family members. It's your season. So all of this stuff needs to be linked to you, your feelings, your desires, your passions, the, it's all about you. Don't compare yourself with anyone else and. Most importantly, you gotta be honest with yourself. These priorities must align with your big picture goal, and they can't be forced. You actually have to feel it. It can also be fun to create a powerful vision statement for the season. Here's what that structure might look like. In this next season, I'm focusing on blank so that I can feel blank and create blank in my business or life. It's best to write this statement in the present tense I am becoming. I am creating. I'm focused on you following me. Here's my example. In this next season, I'm focusing on moving my body so that I can feel alive and energized and create freedom in my life and business. Here's how that works in real life or has been working for me in real life, because I'm moving my body consistently. I'm sleeping better. I am eating healthier, and this has me feeling more alive and energized because I'm prioritizing myself. I feel like I have more freedom in my life and business, which leads to me making better decisions on how I'm spending my time and resources, and this has led to better clarity and confidence. It's also helping me to recognize the things that don't belong in the season. It's a letting go process that has me reviewing my commitments and freeing up some emotional space. The past five weeks have been so liberating for me. As you navigate the upcoming holiday season, I'm going to encourage you to create a visual anchor. This can be a word, an image, a notebook page, even your phone lock screen. Mine currently has my vision board on it. It can be anything that symbolizes your vision. I also have a word bracelet that says freedom on it. The bracelet is a daily visual reminder of what I'm working towards. Last week I shared with you my goals for moving my body and how I was committed to walking 25 miles per week. This week I met the goal, but boy was their resistance, and it took everything within my being not to quit on myself because I desperately wanted to. Why? It's plain and simple. I overcommitted. The good news is that the reflection process gave me clarity, and now moving forward I can review my schedule, make adjustments. Stay committed to the process. I would love to hear about your journey. I invite you to DM me with your vision so I can cheer you on if you need support, DM me. I have two slots open in my schedule for one-on-one coaching starting in January, and I'd love to be able to support you. That's what I got for you this week. Thank you for joining me. If there is anything about this episode that resonated with you, please do me a favor and take a screenshot of this podcast and post it on your stories and tag me at Tracy Strader. I would love to connect with you. So thank you in advance and I appreciate you. I'll see you next week. I.