Ep. 221 - 2022 Goal Setting (Part 3 - Personal Development)

Join us on the 2022 Goal Setting journey!  Rob continues the multi-part series on the 2022 Goal Setting Workbook, by Dan Miller.   You're invited to join us on this journey -  the Goal Setting Workbook is a 100% FREE download and available in the show notes!

In today's episode, we dive into personal development goals, how that factors into a balanced life, and how a balanced life factors into finding your true purpose and passion. 

This series includes discussion and review on the seven aspects of our lives:   Financial, Physical, Personal Development, Family, Spiritual, Social, and Career.   

Links:     

• 2022 Goal Setting Workbook by Dan Miller - 100% FREE download

• Holistic Psychotherapy - Mind and body therapies are used to treat physical illness, emotional issues, family dynamics, work-related issues, trauma, addiction, stress, anxiety and more.
• Behavioral Health vs Mental Health
• What exactly is Heart-Centered Hypnotherapy?
• Guided Meditation - Relax. Change. Create. - with Andrew Johnson

Past Episodes on 2022 Goal Setting:

• Ep. 219 - 2022 Goal Setting (Part 1 - Intro / Financial)
  • Put together a plan to get out of debt NOW!  
  • Visit fpu.com/1141840 to sign up and learn more!
• Ep. 220 - 2022 Goal Setting (Part 2 - Physical)
  
  

Finances can contribute to a lot of our stress...but it doesn't have to be that way!  It’s possible when you know how to handle your finances.  Join my virtual Financial Peace University class, and we’ll learn how to dump debt and build wealth.  You won’t even have to leave home.  And now, you can try Financial Peace free for 14 days!  Visit fpu.com/1141840 to sign up and learn more.  Class starts Thursday, January 20, 2022.

~

If you want to participate in a group chat with fellow audience members on a similar path, you can join the community on our Telegram chat group:  

• t.me/allaroundgrowth    

Subscribe to the All Around Growth Podcast channel for show updates ONLY:  

• https://t.me/allaroundgrowthpodcast  

~

• How To Leave a Rating & Review in Apple Podcast App
  • This really *does* affect the algorithm...
  • ...as of recording in November 2021 - I would invite you to do this!
  • The podcast game is changing - help us with a rating and review!

~

Please spread the word and share on social media as well! 

• Follow this link to ALL EPISODES   

~

Have a Question or any feedback for Rob? 

Transcript

Copy Transcript Copied

SPEAKER_01 1:25

We have a sound and balance of the life. We have no sound or no one to the life. For those of you who are just tuning in and didn't catch episode number two hundred and twenty or episode number two hundred and nineteen. Those episodes two hundred and nineteen covered financial goals, and two hundred and twenty covered physical goals. And today we are going to talk about personal development. This is going to be a seven-part series on setting goals. And what we are talking about is a 2022 goal setting workbook that is provided by Dan Miller, author of the book 48 Days to the Work You Love, and also author of the book Rudder of the Day, whose content I regularly use as fodder for conversation on today's show. The background noise that you hear today may sound a little bit different because, unlike most days, I am not headed to the day job. Rather, I am headed home. But why? It's still early. At least it will be by the time I upload this and get it on the air. I was up in the big city this morning, Cleveland, Ohio. And I've been making multiple trips up there recently because of the financial, I'm sorry, the uh functional medicine treatment that I'm going through. And this is actually an appropriate topic for today. Today's episode might run a little longer than the normal 20 minutes because, like I said, I'm coming from up in the big city. I pulled off the highway real quick to get my notes and get adjusted, and I've still got a little bit of highway time, and then some time to get back to the old homestead. By the time I get back, it's probably gonna be 11 o'clock. I could go to work, but I scheduled the whole day off to get caught up on some things that I have been unable to get caught up on otherwise in past weekends. This is also an episode that I tried to record on Friday, but for whatever reason, I was experiencing some technical difficulties and was unable to actually capture the recording. I was recording, but well, the microphone was on, but I wasn't recording. Anyways, let's just get down to it. So with this personal development and the goals that we're looking at for next year, just like all of the other goals that we've looked at thus far, financial, physical, we begin with studying, I mean, we begin with looking at three-year goals. And then we begin, or we follow that rather, with looking at one-year goals. And then we look at specific actions that we can take today. Now you may be asking yourself, what can I do? Like what are appropriate personal development goals? And that's a good question. Now, like I said in the beginning of this episode, your success, financial and otherwise, will never far exceed your personal development. Start doing something that you've put off because of the risk of failure. So ask yourself, what are some things that you've put off because of the risk of failure? Dan Miller, who put together this workbook, prompts us with some questions such as, do you want to learn a new language? Make this your year. How many books will you read this year? They say that if you read three books on any subject, you will be an expert in that topic. Take the time for personal development. This may be the inhaling part of healthy personal breathing. If you do nothing but exhale, you'll turn blue and pass out. Speaking of time, join Automobile University. If you drive 25,000 miles a year at an average speed of 46 miles per hour, you'll spend about the same amount of time in your car as an average college student spends in class. The question is, what are you doing with that time? You can listen to podcasts and audio programs to transform your success. And where do you look for inspiration, mentors, and positive input? What gifts do you have that are not being used? Are there some potential for full achievement for full achievement that needs to be unlocked? Furthermore, we read, if you invest 3 to 5% of your income in your personal development, you can put yourself on the path to success that most people never experience. Now I believe this, and this is a big part of the reason why I'm a member of the 48 Days Eagles community. Because it's a membership program, and I get a lot of value out of it, which is why I promote it. And I'm gonna link to this in the show notes like I've done in the past, uh, the past two episodes. So if you want to get a feel for what the 48 Days Community is all about, you can download this workbook at no charge. Just follow the link in the show notes, and you can get a little bit of a taste of what the 48 Days Community is all about. Now investing in yourself is very important, and I agree with Dan on this 100%, but I do want to throw out my own personal take on this, which is investing in yourself is important, but it's not the end all be all. And what I mean by that is for those of you that have listened before in the past, I've talked a lot about Financial Peace University. For those of you who listened to episode number 219, I've talked a little bit more about it there because that is the platform that I'm utilizing to achieve some of my financial goals. And real quick, for those of you who are not initiated into the Financial Peace University way of thinking, we begin, there's seven steps. We begin with baby step one, which is saving up a thousand dollars in a baby emergency fund. Baby step two is paying off all consumer debt utilizing the snowball method. Baby step three is saving up three to six months of emergency expenses or living expenses, and that's what we refer to as our emergency fund. Baby step four is investing 15% of our income into retirement. And this is where I believe three to five percent of that fifteen percent is where we need to start thinking about. I believe that the best investment you can make in yourself is getting out of debt. If you can't see or hear that little clicking in the background, I'm notifying oncoming traffic of the cops back there. Not today, sir. But consumer debt is something that excluding the mortgage, consumer debt, credit cards, medical expenses, things that we're all familiar with, that is something that if you have it, it's going to continue to keep you down and be a burden for as long as you maintain it and carry it. If you're not implementing a plan to get out of financial debt, consumer debt, go back to episode number 219 where I talk about Financial Peace University. Go to the show notes and link and click on the link to the virtual class that I'm hosting in January. If you want to get your 2022 financial goals off to a great start, join the class, change your life. As long as we've got that financial burden over our shoulders, we can't do anything. I say that because I've struggled with it my entire life, and it wasn't until last year that I actually, after several years of acting on the plan that I had, which was Financial Peace University, it wasn't until then that I was able to actually think about the rest of my life with clarity. And it wasn't until I received financial peace through getting out of debt that I was actually able to think more clearly about my physical goals, my personal development goals, my spiritual goals, my social goals, my career goals. Right? So invest 3-5% of your income in personal development, but consider doing that after you have gotten out of debt. Now, like I said, three-year, one year, and ultimately actions that we can take today. But personal development is kind of a unique topic in that I'm talking about it with you today as I come back from the Cleveland Clinic. Why? Well, I was up there as part of the functional medicine protocol that I'm following, and one of the suggestions that the doctor, who's in charge of, not the department per se, but is my one of the several doctors in the functional medicine department, is uh the doctor that I'm working with. One of the things that they talk about is what's referred to as the four pillars of health. Nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress. With the primary focus being on nutrition and stress. One of the things that was suggested was talking with a behavioral therapist or a psychotherapist or whatever, whatever they he he referred to her as. And initially, I was not really going to move in this direction. Okay, I I ended up going back to functional medicine or going to functional medicine because of gastrointestinal problems that I'd been having for an extended period of time, and also to try and learn new ways to not only deal with that, but also the epilepsy that I have due to the strong ties between gut health and neurological health and well-being. Functional medicine is helping me get in the right, not only mindset, but the right get on the right track. Because there's many alternative and adjunct therapies to epilepsy, and there's many alternative and adjunct therapies to a lot of the issues that we deal with as a Western culture, but in large part we are unhealthy people, and we've gotten so accustomed to the pharmacological remedies, and when I say remedies, I mean symptom mitigation. We are unhealthy people that far too frequently mitigate our symptoms and then call it good. I recognize that I am not well, and I recognize that I have not been well for quite some time. And I've also been realizing that there are some significant lifestyle changes that I need to make. And this was a realization that I made well over a decade ago in my early 30s. And incrementally, I've begun taking steps to put together a plan based on my dreams and take action. Over that decade, I have successfully moved forward with some of those dreams. I've taken steps back in other areas. I have made some plans, I've stopped a lot of plans, I've taken some action, and I've stopped some action. There's a lot of work to be done. And in achieving this balanced life that I previously mentioned, that in and of itself, the life balance, is part of the objective of working through this 2022 goal setting workbook. We look at the seven different aspects and areas of our lives: financial, physical, personal development, family, family relationships, that is, spiritual, social, career. By setting goals in each of those seven areas, we find balance. And when we live a balanced life, we begin to understand what our true purpose, what our calling really is. And that is something that I've been struggling with for quite some time. What is my purpose? Because I'm certainly not finding that fulfillment at my place of employment, and not necessarily finding that in the things I do in my free time. So what's what's it all about? What's the point? As I started talking about functional medicine in this process and the doctors and all that, like I said, I came to functional medicine because I had specific problems that I was trying to work through, specific to my gastrointestinal system in my brain. It was recommended to me and suggested to me that I deal with or work with Chris Semina, who is a behavioral health therapist at the Cleveland Clinic. And this was entirely optional. But I decided that I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain. And I'm not opposed to working with a behavioral health specialist. Not in any way, shape, or form, not at all. As a matter of fact, and I shared this with her, I think the world would be much better off if more people engaged in dialogue with behavioral health specialists, counselors, therapists, whatever. My reasons in the past for doing so were that it seemed like a good idea. As I was going through some transition in life and trying to process or anything. Perhaps even stranger than twenty twenty. So yes, I'm not at all opposed to the idea of working with someone about these things. I think it's a very good idea. And today was today was the first appointment that I had with my behavioral health specialist. So it was kind of a get-to-know you and get acquainted. And just get some history on me. And there's there unlike a lot of people that she works with, I am not necessarily working through or challenged. With a specific thing to be diagnosed, a specific challenge to be diagnosed. So the diagnosis that I walked out of the office with was stress. I'm sure that you can relate to that. So some of the goals that I have are to practice diaphragmatic breathing, which I've already been working on for reasons I won't get into right now. And also just simple documentation of feelings. How am I feeling? What am I thinking? And documenting and writing down if anything emotional is coming up for me. And also thinking about how my environment is affecting me right now. And the idea behind this is we're trying to identify patterns. So that if something comes up that I can't let go of, I journal it and I document it, and I will be talking about it further with her. She shared with me that the way in which she works and some of the things that she utilizes are referred to as holistic psychotherapy. And this is all new to me. I don't really know much about this. Like I said, I've seen a therapist or a counselor before, but we didn't really dive into some of the stuff that I think we will be diving into here in the functional medicine department. And in addition to those questions, she definitely suggested that I look into meditation, guided meditation, and I'll see if I can't drop some links to some things that I've talked about in past episodes before. An app that I use by a gentleman named Andrew Johnson. Definitely good stuff. And he's from Scotland, so he's got a great accent. And I very much enjoy the content. I've been using his guided meditations, and I've been aware of and using his work for almost 10 years. So I highly recommend it. And like I said, I will link to his work and his site in the show notes as well. So in addition to the meditation, we're going to be looking back at my childhood as time goes on in future um I was gonna say future episodes, and we'll be talking about that in future episodes, but we'll be talking, she and I will be talking about this in future appointments. She also mentioned that she utilizes a process called heart-centered hypnotherapy, which is something that is very new to me. But in all of this, we're going to be looking at and identifying emotional triggers that cause me to experience the stress that I do experience, and we're going to be looking at or trying to identify some of the root causes in my life that contributes to the stress. So how does this factor into all of this 2022 goal setting workbook? Well, in as far as I'm concerned, it it fits into it quite well. I've been working through this workbook since last Monday. I started it on the 1st. Actually, I st I take that back. I started it on the 31st. The 31st of October. And I really started putting work in on the 1st. Monday, November 1st. The idea with this workbook, and I didn't mention this earlier, is that we work through this in order to have it complete by the 14th of November. And why that date is relevant is because the 14th of November is 48 days prior to the end of the year. For those who don't know, 48 days is what Dan Miller is all about. 48 days to the work you love. 48 is a number that is a theme of his work. And that is the case with the 48 days 2022 goal setting workbook as well. The idea being that we have it done 48 days prior to the end of the year, so that we we can make any tweaks, adjustments, or whatever we need to do to that prior to the end of the year, so that when we get to the first of the year, we are ready to begin acting on our goals. And that is what we see on the workbook, the very first page, the cover page. Dream, plan, act. And this process of functional medicine not only integrates quite well with my physical goals, but the goal setting workbook and the processes that I'm using with functional medicine, especially with what I learned today regarding my behavioral health, fits in well with my personal development goals, as well as with everything else, leading towards a more healthy and balanced lifestyle. And a healthy, balanced life is what we need to do to find our purpose, to find our passion.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

What's your purpose? What's your passion?

SPEAKER_01 29:23

That came up.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

That was a question.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

And there was something a coworker asked me earlier this year. She asked me what happened to all that permaculture stuff that you were doing and what happened to, you know, basically what happened to all that permaculture stuff that you were doing. Because I was very much involved in it and very passionate about it years ago. Still am. But I paused and she said, what are you passionate about? And I said, I don't know. I don't remember. For a long time, my passion was directed at chasing the dreams of other people that were not appropriate for my life and my context. Chasing those dreams with money I didn't have. In an effort to impress people that I didn't know. I had no idea why I was doing what I was doing. Some of it seemed to make sense, much of it didn't. But I just I was just doing doing what seemed to be a good idea. But oftentimes when things seem to be a good idea, it's only because we're hyper-focused on that at that time, subsequently not focused on much of anything else in our lives. And we live a life out of balance. And if we continue this for any period of time, something happens. We burn out. And that's what happened to me. And then you're just doing everything you can to hang on. Wake up the next day, get through one more work day, just to get through the weekend. That's ultimately and always too short just to do the same thing again the next week and the next month and the next year. Guys, that shit gets really old. It gets really old. And that's why this goal setting workbook is such a such a breath of fresh air. I first stumbled upon the workbook when I joined the 48 Days community in the early part of this year. After making some good progress in my baby, in my emergency fund rather. So after paying down my debts and making some good progress, involvement in the 48 Days community is part of that 3-5% that I invest in myself. Remember, if you invest three to five percent of your income in your personal development, you can put yourself on the path to success that most people never experience. Now, if you want to invest that three to five percent into yourself while you're still carrying debt, that's fine. I'm not here to tell you how to spend your money. But for me, it was important to get out of debt, focus on that first, so I could better understand how that 3-5% investment would actually be spent. If you think all this is a good idea now, then by all means follow the links or ask me questions about any of this stuff with the 48 Days Community, I'll be happy to guide you through. And even if it's not the 48 Days Community itself, if it's spending money on books, seminars, education, and you're doing all of this while you're still carrying debt, especially if it's credit card debt to the tune of a what percent APR? Well, they're still coming in at a loss, guys. Unless that 3-5% of investment is gonna turn around and give you a 20% return within a year. Get rid of that debt, guys, get rid of that debt, get rid of that debt. I cannot say it enough. You are carrying debt and it is literally not just figuratively, but it's literally killing you. Look at the toll it's taking on your health. Even the medical debt that I have now, guys, is taking a toll on my health. Luckily, there's no interest with that. So I'm on a payment plan, everything's hunky-dory. Still able to work towards achieving that balance. But the balance is what we've been talking about for the past few days with the goal setting workbook. And working through all of these steps is exactly what we need to do to find that balance. And you know, I don't know if we're ever going to reach a point where we look at ourselves in the mirror and say, self, you've achieved that balance. Good job. You've done the work, it's paid off, you understand what a balanced life is like, and now you've figured it out. Now you can move on to the next objective. I don't I don't think that's how this works. I think the journey towards finding a balanced life is a process, it's a path. Something that we that we do. And when we get into things like this, the 2022 goal setting workbook, and we're going through this in November, preparing two months out, we're thinking where we're at three years from now. One year from now, one month from now, one week from now. And the reason that all of this is important is because what this what this is is incremental change in how we approach life, how we live our life, how we think about life, how we move forward through life. These little changes that we make, provided there's enough consistency there, and enough application, or enough consistency with the application in our life, these little changes begin to become big changes. And the big changes, they become our new life. It doesn't happen overnight. But I realized that when I first started being mindful of my health over ten years ago, and I stepped on the scale the other day. I've lost almost a hundred pounds. I've changed my life tremendously. I've done things over the past ten years that at one point in my life in the past I thought I'd never be able to do. But I did them. What would have happened if I started doing a workbook like this ten or more years ago? I don't know. I started doing something, but it wasn't this. So if you find yourself thinking about your past and where you are, where you want to be, sometimes not really thinking about how satisfied you are, but oftentimes thinking about how unsatisfied you are, then I would definitely encourage you to check out the show notes, download this workbook, and join the Telegram chat. t.me slash all around growth. Let us know what you're up to with the goal setting workbook. In that chat group, along with yours truly, you will find other people who are on a very similar life path. Some of them Andy specifically is signed up for this and is going through with me as well.