Reigniting Your Inner Drive

It's more than just an annual refresh; it's about accountability, continuous improvement, and committing to the transformative journey of becoming the best versions of ourselves. So, let's harness the promise of this fresh start and cultivate a life where every moment is an opportunity to grow. Journey with me as we dust off 2023 and rediscover the driving forces within us!

Join me on the #1 Tool for Personal Development GROWTHDAY
Book Referenced: High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

Are you ready to make a change? Are you ready to feel alive and excited again? The time is now to improve your life and achieve consistency through the help of the world's greatest teachers, digital tools and a supportive community. It's super hard to have consistent days of a great mindset, right? Don't try to do it alone. I know an app that will serve you up a daily audio clip to fire up your energy. I know an app that will teach you how to feel joy and excitement in your life again. I know an app with tools that will unlock a happier, more productive view. Stop spending all your time reacting to life and get in the driver's seat. I'm offering you the number one tool in the world for personal growth Growth Day. If you want to live a fun, energized life, this is for you. I'm so proud of you for making it through these last few years. They've been rough on so many of us, but it's time. It's time to dust that off and live again. You deserve it. Check the show notes for an exclusive link to join me in the Growth Day app.

Speaker 1: 1:17

Hello, my friends, and happy new year. Welcome back to Elevate with Erica Season freaking for you guys. Whoa, I actually cannot believe that this idea came upon me that long ago. It really feels like just yesterday that I started this. This still feels new and fresh to me and I still get a little nervous every time right before I push record. And also, every year I recreate my cover art for the podcast, and so you can go and check that out too. But gosh, I'm just so excited, y'all.

Speaker 1: 1:51

I'm so hopeful for 2024. I still have my tree up for those of you watching on YouTube, don't judge me, we usually leave it up to about mid January. But, that being said, I'm so hopeful for 2024. I don't have that hope because I have a lack of challenges in my life right now, or because the same problems that I had in 2023, I'm not still working through today, because I certainly am. I'm not like the clock strikes midnight and boom, fresh start, clean slate, but I can get myself into a high energy, motivated, inspired, excited to pour into other state with the help of many things in my morning routine.

Speaker 1: 2:38

But I also had always a little bit of that come naturally to me and it's just a part of who I am. It's my personality, it's why I do this. It's why I chose to create a podcast in the first place, why I felt so aligned when I joined a home fitness platform where it made my job to inspire others. But I lost that part of myself in the second half of last year and I'm still working to dust off that part of myself again and uncover her. But let me tell you, I feel it happening and I feel her coming out and I'm excited to use what I felt like broke me in 2023 to see how I can own the parts of what I have control over, so the areas in which I can do better and learn and continue striving to be my best self for my family, my friends, my community, you guys, everyone that I come into contact with and, yes, even myself.

Speaker 1: 3:36

You know, I think that oftentimes we hear the advice of well, you did the best, you could. You know people know some of the things that happened last year that I had no control over and and while it's coming from a loving person and they mean it in a loving way you hear things that don't really help you learn to grow from your experiences. You did the best you could, you did what anyone else would have done, you tried, and while all of those things may be true. That needs to be followed up with some kind of accountability, some ownership. That part needs to happen so that the cycle is not repeated, so that 2024 is not a repeat of 2023. I don't wish that for you and if you're listening to this, I know that's not what you wish for yourself because every year, whether it's a good year or an exceptionally challenging year, when you look back, I don't want you to be sucked into finding the ways in which you can kind of excuse yourself for areas in which you know you actually could have done a little better. You actually or even if it's not that you could have done better, maybe something happened that was out of control, out of your control but you know now areas in which you can learn and grow from those things, right from those challenges that you face that are preparing you for whatever is next for you.

Speaker 1: 5:08

And you know I don't believe in the new year, new me. And it's not new year same me either, it's just new year better me. I'm not shaming the me that I was in twenty, twenty three, but I know that there is a better me ready to come out. And every year I just do that on repeat, no matter how good the year was, no matter how bad the year was. That's our responsibility to ourselves, to our families and to one another. And by the time this episode is published, you will probably be about a week into twenty twenty four and maybe some of you have set resolutions and stuck to them over the past week or, if you're like me, you've selected your word of the year.

Speaker 1: 5:56

I don't really set resolutions anymore. I prefer to feel a line to a word and to make decisions that support that word. So for me it's a better approach, because life happens and then sometimes the resolutions that we set on January first, as I learned last year, just aren't supported by major life happenings that come throughout the year. We realize we don't even desire that thing anymore or it's not even aligned with the turn that our life took. So all this to say, I choose a word, and my word for twenty twenty four is presence. My life was so chaotic last year, right like we've all got so much on our plate. Social media makes us feel like we should just add more to it, and we're trying to keep up with the Joneses, or even just constantly Feeling the need to to grab our phone and mindlessly check social media as if anything is really that important than whatever that took our time and attention from, and I just want to do better with that this year. I want to not be worrying about the last thing or the next thing while I'm in the current thing, and I wanted to help deepen my connection with my inner self and with others I feel like I lost the ability to even hear the own voice in my head. So back to you being a week into twenty twenty four when you hear this.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Whether you set resolutions or picked a word or not, it doesn't matter. Any day can be a fresh start for you or a chance to grow. Try something new, challenge yourself. Any day that you decide is the day. The pressure of January 1st can be discouraging, right, because we're all coming out of the busy holiday season and we're running tired and we're running on less sleep and we're running on more sugar than we're used to and just bad nutrition in general, and maybe you've forgotten to drink as much water over the holidays, right. But if you've gotten to this day and you've seen people crushing their goals on social media and you're feeling a little down on yourself or beating yourself up for already veering a little off track, or For maybe not even getting on track, or for being tired this past week from staying up too late and maybe having too much champagne on New Year's Eve.

Speaker 1: 8:15

Maybe that's just me, but whatever, we've gotten to today and you're just like, what is wrong with me? Why can't I get my shit together? And where is this person and that person getting all of their energy from? I don't know. Whatever, it is right. All the something is wrong with me, things that you say to yourself If that's you, this podcast is for you. But even if that's not you today, even if you're like Eric, I'm thriving, I'm doing good, I can bust in out the gates of 2024, I just still want you to hang on to this message, because studies have shown how many people don't stay committed to their resolutions. It's a scary number and it's only about a month in and it's not a great percentage. And I'm not even gonna share that here today, because I'm lifting you up today Big New Year energy right here, people, because, look, I want you to do a little exercise with me that's gonna help you do this, and it's not Bulgarian split squats, so don't fret, you won't even have to sweat. I just need your attention for a minute. I want you to ask yourself what would you tell someone that you loved?

Speaker 1: 9:30

That said to you, I feel like I'm not as committed as I used to be. I'm not as motivated as I used to be. I don't have as much energy as I used to have. I don't see why it matters if I even try anymore. I'm just not as disciplined as I once was. I just can't.

Speaker 1: 9:53

What would you say to them? Would you tell them to go take an enneagram personality test so they can figure out why they are the way they are? Would you help them create or support their excuses? Would you tell them to run away to Mexico and open a margarita stand? Or would you get to work? Would you help them take some action? Would you help them get reconnected to that energy they know deep down is inside of them and that they wanna feel it again, the one they are struggling to feel Any hope is even possible for them anymore. Would you help them get to that hunger for achievement again? Because that hunger is something that we for achievement, that's something that we all have. It's just in our human nature, and you may have guessed by now that in this exercise. I'm talking about you.

Speaker 1: 10:56

So, whether it's you today or you down the road, when you're feeling low energy, when you're not feeling motivated, when that zest you had on January 1st is gone, when life starts to feel like a series of tasks and you're just going through the motions, when you're losing hope, I want you to ask yourself when was the last time you felt consistent, disciplined, driven, energized, excited, dedicated, and think over what were the forces that were driving you. Write about what was pushing you during that time, when you were acting as your highest self, when you were dedicated to your goal. Write some words or sentences down that would describe those forces, the why you had that was driving you at that time, and get reconnected to those forces. Take time every single morning, guys. This has to be on repeat and it's such a short small thing to add to your routine. Take time every single morning, or two to three times a day if you need to, to look at what you've wrote down or just to think about what came up for you when you thought about that driven self, that driven time in your life. Uncover that person, uncover those forces within you that maybe just got a little dust on them, cause life has a way of kind of mucking up our why doesn't it Like we just lose touch. We start to question ourselves, our desires, our abilities, with every challenge that adds a little layer of dust on top of those things. But I want you to remember that, that driven person again, that future consistent self, in a way that connects you with those driving forces again. And what helps me is to find something that I deeply care about, that pushes me, and it's up to us to create the urgency and the necessity to work on ourselves and on our goals.

Speaker 1: 13:09

You know last year I'm gonna be very vulnerable and tell you how I use this exercise. Last year was a rough year financially for me. Things just did not go the way that I planned because one challenge bled into another, that created another and so forth, and ultimately my finances took a hit because I was so far from the best version of myself that the part of me that naturally energized part of me, that driven, that inspired that part of me, was nowhere to be seen for too many months that I care to mention. And as I uncover that piece of me again, I use this activity that I described to help me find something to drive me again to improve my financial situation, and I had to create the urgency and the necessity.

Speaker 1: 14:03

It's not as easy as saying I need to make money to pay the bills and cover groceries, and while that is true while that is very true, if you've ever been in a rough spot financially it causes such a stress to every area of your life that you can actually get to a place where it becomes hard to do anything to help yourself and you're not sleeping well and you're not eating well and you start to run tired and you feel hopeless. Prices of everything are going up and it's hard to see it way out sometimes. Now, look, this is a judgment-free zone, all right. So, trust me, I was raised by two very hardworking parents. My mom would work multiple jobs and do what she had to do to make ends meet, and they were not ideal jobs. I know the put your big girl paintings on and get to work mentality. I get it.

Speaker 1: 14:59

But I look around and I see a lot of unhappy people. I talk to a lot of people because of what I get to do every day and I see and hear a lot of unhappy people, people struggling behind closed doors, people struggling financially, people not sleeping well, families falling apart, people not taking care of themselves, people feeling depressed and full of anxiety and hopeless, and that just saddens me and it's why I continue to do this podcast, despite my own hard times. It's why I show up every morning on my social media with a shaky voice, because if I can just add a little inspiration to someone's day, I can know that I'm making an impact, that I'm an active part of society. We don't have to be miserable while we are putting our big girl panties on or big boy boxers I don't mean to leave you guys out when I talk sometimes and getting to work right. We don't have to be unhappy and just work, work, work. Until one day when I get this, one day, when I pay off this one day, when I reach this age, then I'll be happy. But I want us to feel that joy before we get to the goal.

Speaker 1: 16:17

Thinking about my financial goal this year, I'm reconnecting to the force that drives me and I think parents get a leg up on this one. That is my kids, the life that I want for them, the legacy I want to leave, the choices I want them to have the experiences I want them to have the way in which I want them to view a woman and also the mom I want them to have. I don't want them to have a mom constantly stressed about money. I don't want to be taking my money stress out on them. I don't want to teach them bad money habits. I don't want to leave anyone with my debt. I want them to see what hard work affords you and I want them to see what living life in passion and purpose affords you. I want them to want to strive to build a legacy of their own for their own families, because I want to break the cycle in my family. I want to create better, I want to do better and when I just envision their little faces, it pushes me. When I just imagine them wanting to sign up for extracurricular activities and getting their first car and their first job and starting their own families, I feel the fire under my ass to get a move on and I feel lit up again and I'm reminded of what really matters to me. I'm reminded of why I decided to take a stroll down the beaten path. I get excited thinking about what I can do this year to make progress on that and I created the urgency. With that I created the necessity, and that's the goal with this exercise today.

Speaker 1: 18:02

So a lot of the inspiration from the episodes that I do here come from personal development. I'm listening to or even reading, and today's particular message was inspired by some recent reading from the High Performance Habits by Brendan Burchard. I'm about halfway through and it's a great book. By the way, it doesn't matter if you're an entrepreneur or just looking to improve your personal habits. You can take something from this book and I'll link it in the show notes. I started this book because we decided to do like a little book club in my virtual gym group on Facebook and some women made the commitment to read this book with me and some didn't make the commitment because they kind of got the idea that it was more for entrepreneurs. But it's absolutely not, and as I've been sharing little takeaways with them daily and sharing little screenshots of some of my favorite parts, I've piqued a lot of their interest to grab a copy for themselves. So again, I'll drop the link in the show notes. It's a great book.

Speaker 1: 19:07

I honestly feel that anyone can take something from it. So, look, I gave my financial situation as an example, but I hope that you see where you can apply this to other areas of your life, areas you're feeling discouraged, in hopeless, lost, forgetting why it ever even mattered to you in the first place. I hope that you think of this episode in the future, maybe save it to come back to when you find yourself in that space. I know I'll be back in that space again. This part of life. It's a roller coaster, but there is beauty in your brokenness and when you fill the cracks with gold, you start to see that and that's not just a pretty phrase I just threw at you, because that brokenness is whatever happened that landed you in that space of feeling unmotivated and lost. You may be feeling broken, but you have all the potential in the world right inside of you, the gold in those cracks being what you're going to learn from that which made you feel disconnected from your excitement for the goal or for life in general, and how you're going to use what you learned to dust yourself off and get back to work on being the best version of yourself today.

Speaker 1: 20:24

Your family deserves an empowered, charged, excited, purposeful you, as does your community, your friends and as do you. You owe this to yourself to fight for her or him, that part of you that was once fired up and disciplined and dedicated to what they said they wanted, whether it be a better marriage, a better self-care routine, better sleep, better career, better living space, better home environment, better parent, better friend, better leader, better human, a more energized life. You owe it to the you who, deep down, wants those things, who was working so intensely on those things at one time. You owe it to yourself to dust those parts of you off and remember your why and get reconnected to your driving forces. It is time to rise. It is time to grow. It's time to fill the cracks with gold, and I am so excited for this year. I am so excited for the opportunity that you have in front of you to grow into a better version of you this year.

Speaker 1: 21:34

If you want to stay the same, if you want to just repeat 2023, if you want someone to tell you don't feel pressure to grow I've already seen some of those this year Don't feel pressured to do better, then there are plenty of podcasts and social media pages and quotes that you can save and share to help you do that. But if you're listening to Elevate with Erica, I don't think you're here to do that, and you won't hear me say that here or anywhere. So how are you rising from the ashes? How are you stepping up? How are you standing back up? How are you reconnecting with your best self? I want you to put your shoulders back and stand tall if you're not driving, and shoot me a DM on social media. Tell me what you're declaring this year. What driving force are you reconnecting to and what are you working towards? I'd love to send you some love and support back, and if you connected with this episode, don't keep it to yourself. Share it on your social or send it to a friend that you think would love.

Speaker 1: 22:38

Today's message too. As always, I would appreciate if you took just 30 seconds to go leave a rating and review. Your support means so much to me, and thank you for taking this time to hang out with me today. Thank you for taking the time to hang out with me over our past seasons. I'm so excited to head into our fourth season together. More fire this year. I might get a little louder, I might seem a little crazier, if that's possible, but I'm declaring it. I'm declaring to find my inner passion for life again this year, and I am excited to do this with you. Until next episode, friends E.