Dec 23, 2019
Reflect on God's Faithfulness with This Christmas Tradition 0:53 My Favorite Christmas Tradition Resources 2020 Business Boutique Goal Planner Get going on your goals and make 2020 your best year yet! Order the new Business Boutique 2020 Goal Planner at BusinessBoutique.com/Planner and use the code BBPLANNER to receive Christy's Setting Goals video that you can watch right now! If you have a success story you would like to share with the Business Boutique community, email me at podcast@businessboutique.com. New podcast episodes are available every other week. Merry Christmas, y'all! A million years ago, before I was married and had kids, and before life got so busy, my mother encouraged me to try a new Christmas tradition-one she'd been doing most of her life. Even before she had me, every year my mom would sit down and write a letter when she was packing up her ornaments after Christmas. In the letter, she would write about all the major things that happened in her life that year. She'd write about the highs, the lows, and everything in between. When she was done, she'd fold up the letter, pack it up in her box of ornaments, and put it away in the attic, not to be seen again until the following year. Related: What People Want the Most From You This Christmas A year later, when it was time to bring out all her Christmas decorations from the attic, she would open that letter and read it. She loved this tradition because it amazed her to see how much could happen in just a single year. Well, I loved this idea so much that I also started doing it in 2006. Now, I'll tell you, it wasn't very sophisticated. I would sit down with a couple pieces of printer paper and just write down all my thoughts-in true Christy fashion, I rambled on and on and was very honest. For example, in my letter from 2006, there's a line that says, "Dear God, please let me go on at least one date next year." Well, bless my heart. Apparently, that was a tough year in the love department . . . But you know what's so amazing? Year after year, as I've written these letters and then faithfully put them away to open the following year, I've always been blown away at not only how much can happen in a single year, but also how faithful God continues to be. I start every letter by talking about what happened that year, and I end every letter by writing out prayers, dreams and hopes for the next year. When I read the letter from the year before, I feel like I'm living in the fulfillment of God's promises that I had prayed for (and forgotten about). I remember, in December of 2014, sitting on my couch, reading my Christmas letter from 2013. One of my prayers that year was that Matt and I could start a family. And y'all, I was holding that letter over a giant belly-my son Carter was due the very next month! Of course, every year isn't like this. My letter from 2016 had prayers that Matt's grandfather, grandmother, and our 11-year-old dog Jackson would get better. But all three of those loved ones passed away that year. Tears streamed down my face as I read those heartfelt prayers. That was hard to read. Related: Ep 70: How to Be Content in Every Situation But you know what? Even in the despair, even in the grief, and even when it seemed like God didn't fulfill that promise or answer those prayers, I was still able to see God's faithfulness in how those events played out. Writing this letter has looked differently since marrying Matt because-I'll be honest-he writes them reluctantly. But we've gotten into a rhythm. Here's how we do it: Every single Christmas, I'll sit down with our notebook (we upgraded from printer paper!) and write my Christmas letter for the year. And then I'll give the notebook to Matt so that he can write his letter. And the following year, I read my letter aloud to Matt, and Matt reads his letter aloud to me. I'd like to point out that my...
Dec 10, 2019
How to Be a Successful Woman and Live a Balanced Life 1:26 How You Can be Successful in Many Areas of Your Life 4:39 Seven Areas of Your Life to Find Balance 11:30 Making Time for Both Your Family and Career with Sarah Sloyan 31:04 Leading with Grace and Strength with Jen Sievertsen 43:51 Focusing on Goals to Be Successful with Suzanne Simms 54:53 Challenge: The Best Way to Have What You Want Resources 2020 Business Boutique Goal Planner Get going on your goals and make 2020 your best year yet! Order the new Business Boutique 2020 Goal Planner at BusinessBoutique.com/Planner and use the code BBPLANNER to receive Christy's Setting Goals video that you can watch right now! If you have a success story you would like to share with the Business Boutique community, email me at podcast@businessboutique.com. New podcast episodes are available every other week. You can be successful in many areas of your life. Work, Sleep, Family, Fitness, or Friends: Pick 3. I recently stumbled upon an article online with that title. And I have to tell you guys, I disagree with it. The idea that you can't work, get enough sleep, and have time for family, friends and fitness is crazy. I'm tired of hearing the message that if you're winning at work, you're failing at home. Or if you're winning at home, you're failing at work. What's interesting is, not only is this message common in media, but it's also reinforced by the narratives in our heads. So many of us have this broken record on repeat in our heads telling us we're always failing. It's not if we're failing. It's which thing are we failing at today. But you know what? It's simply not true. Now, I know you can't do everything in the world (of course you can't). But you can do the most important things. You can't take advantage of every single opportunity, but you can do the right things, and you can do more than three things. The truth is: You can be successful in many areas of your life. Related: Ep 84: Cultivating Good Habits in Every Season of Life 7 Areas of Your Life to Find Balance I love Zig Ziglar's Wheel of Life. It paints a great picture of the most important areas of a person's life. If you're not sure where you should be prioritizing your time, these seven areas are a great place to start. The Wheel of Life isn't a prescription for every single person, but it does hold true for most of us. Just like a bicycle, when one wheel isn't working, the entire bicycle will have trouble moving forward. That's why it's important to find as much harmony and balance as possible in each area. Let's go through each of the different spokes of the Wheel of Life and what they each represent. This list is not in order of priority. You should prioritize these different areas based on your season of life, and then set appropriate goals in each. 1. Career (and Business) You spend a lot of hours of your life at work or in your business. So this should be an area of your life that brings you joy and fills you up. 2. Finances Your money affects everything. It impacts almost everything you want to do in life. That's why you need to be intentional about how you manage your finances and set goals in this area of your life. 3. Spiritual growth Growing in your faith is not going to happen accidentally. Your relationship with God is like any relationship. It will grow in proportion to the amount of time you invest in it. 4. Physical health I'm not talking about being skinny here. I'm talking about how you feel. How's your energy? Are you sleeping enough? How are you taking care of yourself? We only get one body, so taking care of it should be a priority. 5. Intellectual growth Are you investing in your personal development? What books are you reading? What conferences are you attending? What podcasts are you listening to? What are you putting into your mind that will change the actions you take and the decisions...