From Inner Work to Outer Success with Lorayne Michaels

Ready to embark on a transformative journey of growth? Join me, Lorayne Michaels, as I unveil a year-long quest to expand your physical, mental, and spiritual horizons. This episode is a trove of insights and strategies for anyone yearning to align their life with a higher purpose and foster a profound sense of gratitude. Together, we'll navigate the art of self-discovery, the strength found in connections, and the significance of mindfulness and compassion in our everyday lives. It's not just about growth—it's about becoming the most authentic version of yourself.

Patience isn't just a virtue; it's the scaffolding of progress. In the heart of our discussion, we delve into the wisdom of 'dark work', a concept illuminated by Anthony Trucks, and examine the importance of nurturing the seeds of development under the soil of our immediate reality. Surrounding ourselves with individuals who both challenge and invigorate us is key to our evolution. Whether it's financial stability or spiritual enlightenment you're after, I'm here to guide you in creating a life filled with intentional actions and environments that fuel your achievements.

As we wrap up with the financial and mindset facets of growth, I underscore the necessity of budgeting and tapping into the expertise of professionals while navigating this journey. Resilience is our companion through obstacles, outfitted with plans and resources like an action goal plan to steer your course. This episode is an invitation to embrace the discomfort of growth and to rejoice in each victory. It's a call to inspire and uplift one another, an anthem of hope and perseverance to be shared far and wide. Let's celebrate the milestones together and step into our divine roles, shall we?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, it's Lorraine. As you know, it's my joy and passion to teach and encourage others through this podcast, but my heart is actually at live events. Currently, I'm available for booking, so if you're organizing a live event, I'd love to share my story. Your audience will walk away with tangible tools on how to overcome limiting beliefs, break down obstacles and discover their gifts, talents and abilities in order to live a life that God created them to live. It's not the size of the audience that's important. It's the connection and impact that I will bring. For more information, email me at Lorraine at theboldbeginningscom.

Speaker 1: 0:51

Hello friends, welcome back to the Bite Size Podcast. I'm your host, lorraine Michaels, and today we are doing another solo episode and I wanted to talk to you all about my word of the year. I don't know if you've seen on social media lately probably not so much now, now that we're at the end of January, but towards the end of December and definitely the beginning of January a lot of people talk about their word of the year and what they want to focus on for the year. I waited a little bit just because one I didn't want to just hop on a trend wagon although it is something that I do do each year is I pray about it and I really try and figure out what is something that I want to focus on. I waited a couple of weeks because I really wanted to be intentional about it and I really wanted the word to fit, if that makes sense. I just didn't want to pick something and be like, oh, I want to do this. I really wanted as some of you might think this is corny, but I really wanted to hear from God on this. I really wanted to make sure that it was what I should be doing, my word.

Speaker 1: 2:08

What I came up with, what was revealed to me, is the word growth. That can mean a whole bunch of different things to different people. By definition, we know that growth means the process of increasing in physical size, the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally or spiritually. I got the word growth before I even looked it up. After I looked it up, I obviously know what growth means, but I really wanted to dive deeper into it and I really wanted to dissect it. When I looked at that and the process of developing or maturing physically, mentally or spiritually, that couldn't be more spot on than really what I want to accomplish and do this year and focus on the process, obviously, of increasing in amount, value, of importance or importance. That in and of itself, yes, of course.

Speaker 1: 3:21

With my business, this podcast, speaking, coaching, all of those things I obviously want to grow. I want to grow financially. I want to grow relationally and my connections and relationships that I have. I want to grow spiritually, 100%, obviously. I want to grow intellectually. I want to continue learning. My word is growth. I couldn't be more excited about it. I am honestly excited to see how it's going to evolve this year, how God is really going to mold me into this. I just wanted to dive into it and maybe it's a word that you might choose, or some of these things that I'm going to talk about today are going to be helpful for you in your growth journey, whether that's spiritually, mentally or emotionally or financially.

Speaker 1: 4:22

I already touched on the definition of growth and what it means to grow and what it is To dive a little bit deeper into that. Spiritual growth encompasses the continuous development and expansion of one's spiritual beliefs, their understanding and their connection with the higher power. In my case, I'm a Christian. I believe in God and in Jesus. Spiritual growth would mean to me growing in my intimate relationship with Jesus and knowing God more intimately. How do I do that? By getting in the word, by studying the word, by living out my faith.

Speaker 1: 5:07

There's different things to help with your spiritual growth. I just want to go over I think there's like seven of them that I looked into that I think are important and anyone can do. First is self-discovery Knowing, knowing. Knowing knowing what makes you tick, knowing what really gives you motivation and what makes you move Self-discovery. Number two connection Finding out what is it that helps you connect to yourself, connect with others, strengthening that connection, strengthening that connection with God. And you can do that through meditation, prayer, different things that really bring that relationship, that connection of you and Jesus together.

Speaker 1: 6:13

Another thing is mindfulness. I talk about this all the time, but just cultivating that awareness and that being present in the moment, being mindful of what you're feeling, what your thoughts are. Your thoughts are huge because if you're not aware of your thoughts, that ultimately is going to create your feelings. Thoughts create feelings, feelings create actions and your actions determine how your life is going to go. So we need to back that all the way up, reverse engineer it to mindfulness being mindful, understanding your thoughts, getting curious about your thoughts and your emotions. Number four compassion. So growing spiritually often involves an expansion of compassion and empathy towards other people, what they're going through, but recognizing the interconnectedness of everyone because we're all connected, we're all going through something and just developing that compassion. Number five purpose and meaning. Spiritual growth often revolves around discovering a sense of purpose and meaning. When you find that, when you have that, the purpose and meaning, and you know, going back to the self-discovery, what makes you tick, it opens a whole new door of growth.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Number six gratitude. Again, I talk about this all the time developing a sense of gratitude for life, the experiences and just the whole, how everything works and is connected together, and just really finding peace in that. And I don't know about you, but with me. I am in awe all the time of God's beauty and how he created us and what he did and just the whole picture. Like I just I get excited for heaven, because when I see the beauty of the world and this is a fallen, broken world but when I see the beauty of it and when I see how things work together and when you see, when I see and experience the flow of stuff and when things are working in unison and together. I just get excited about heaven because it's going to be perfect and that's the way it's like. God gives me little glimpses of what heaven is going to be like.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Number seven lifelong learning. So I am a student, I am a constant student and I'm always wanting to learn and grow. And hello, that's my word, you know it's growth. And so I definitely don't want to become or think that I am a master at something and I have arrived. I want to always be learning and always be growing, and so, really, those seven things that I just talked about, those are all aspects of growth and if you do those things, you're going to grow. And so what I really think and what I've been, you know, kind of journaling about and really just reflecting on because it's my word is the seasons of growth. Because you know, when I got into this entrepreneurial space and the coaching and speaking space, this doesn't happen overnight, this is not it's. I don't want it to happen overnight because it's not going to last if it does.

Speaker 1: 9:52

But you know, my dream, my goal, my calling, if you will, is I want to speak to and get in front of as many people as I can to tell them, to show them, to teach them that they were divinely created for a divine purpose and everyone has a calling. Everyone has a calling on their life and they were created to do something, no matter what it is. It doesn't have to be big, and in fact, that's what I love about how God created us is he created everybody to do everything, and some of them are huge things and some of them might seem insignificant or small, but they are so significant and it's such a big deal because if that person doesn't step into their calling, then they're doing the world a disservice, and so I really don't think it matters if it's a big thing or a little thing, because, in the scheme of it all, it is a big thing because we should be stepping into our gifting, our calling, our flow state, if you will. You know I used to think it was medicine. I was in medicine and I thought that was my lane, but it wasn't until I found this, and it wasn't until. So let me give you an example. I used to think it was medicine and now, being back in it, I'm like I know it's not. This is not where I'm supposed to be, just because, you know, for my personal reasons. I just don't agree with how it has gone the way medicine and pharmaceuticals and all that, how that is now. But anyways, I do feel in my flow state when I am at the hospital, when I am interacting either with a colleague, a patient, but when I'm interacting with them and I'm encouraging them or I'm getting to know them and I'm finding out what makes them tick and what they love to do, and just really calling them up and encouraging them and letting them know that, hey, god loves you and there's a bigger story to this. This isn't the end, I'll be all like if they're having a hard time, you know, really encouraging them in the sense of like this isn't the end, you know, there's something bigger planned for you, just encouraging people and really speaking life into people. So that is my flow state and that is why I love speaking and teaching and getting on podcasts and having people on my podcast that I can encourage and showcase what they do and talk about what they do and get that out into the world. I love that and so it's kind of going off on a tangent.

Speaker 1: 12:41

But the seasons of growth it's not always and it's not always what you picture, right? So I left medicine and I got into speaking and coaching. And obviously I'm not an international speaker yet, I'm not traveling all over the world speaking yet, because I'm still in that growth phase. I'm still growing, I'm still learning, I'm still becoming, and so I keep coming back to this imagery of you know, farming and each phase of farming has a significant time and purpose.

Speaker 1: 13:28

A farmer doesn't plant a seed and then wake up the next day and has a full blown crop right. He has to cultivate the dirt, he has to make sure the dirt is ready and the soil is nutrient dense and ready to receive what he's gonna put in it. He can't just put it on rocks, he can't put it on sand, he can't put it in the cement, he can't just throw it out into the wind and wherever it lands it's gonna grow. No, you have to be intentional about cultivating and nurturing that soil to make sure that it's ready to receive what is supposed to be there. And so obviously, when we start something and we start a new adventure in a business, we wanna see the results yesterday.

Speaker 1: 14:22

But that's just not the way it works and I feel like I'm in the season right now of what Anthony Trucks says is the dark work. I'm doing the dark work. I'm doing a lot of self-discovery and learning and growing mentally and I'm helping clients and I'm speaking and I'm doing the things not to the scale that I want or that I have dreamt of or that God has laid on my heart. I know it's not my time yet. I'm still in that season of preparation and then there's gonna be the planting, and then there's gonna be the cultivating, and then there's gonna be the harvest. And so if you're in this season of not, you made a decision, no matter what it is, if it's financially, in your health, in business, in a career, with school, whatever it is I wanna encourage you that if you made a decision and you're doing the work and you're not seeing the results yet, to stay the course and to realize that the growth takes time. But as long as you're on course and you're doing the things that you're supposed to be doing, it'll happen and you just have to have patience and give it time. And you have to realize that God may have given you a dream and a desire and laid this calling on you, but he's not gonna just give it to you right away. You have to be ready for it. You have to be prepared for it, and I am so okay with that. Before I wasn't. Before I was like why isn't this happening? I got a coach, I did this, I have a framework, I'm on social media, I'm doing all the things. Why isn't this happening? Because it's not the time, and that's okay, and I'm ready whenever that's gonna happen. And so those are the seasons of growth and you have to just be patient in it but stay the course.

Speaker 1: 16:20

Another thing is cultivating the growth. So what are some practical steps that you can do to cultivate this growth in your life? And I don't wanna just keep it towards business. So I'm trying to frame this for you. If this is just a season in life where you want to grow spiritually, you need to be intentional about what it is that you're doing. Are you spending time in the word? Are you spending time in quiet and meditation and worship, getting in Bible studies, getting in groups of other men or women, but just people that hold you accountable and call you up?

Speaker 1: 17:08

Oh, my goodness, I was listening to a podcast with Ed Milet and Andy Fosella Incredible business leaders, entrepreneur, speaker he's the CEO of First Form and just really intelligent men and really hard workers, really successful people, and Gosh, I don't even remember where I was going. Oh, edmai let was talking about how he doesn't want to have friends that accept him for where he's at. He wants to have friends that call him up to where they know he can be. He wants to have friends that call him and see in him who he can be and not just accept him for where he's at. I love that, like I want that. That's the kind of growth that I want. And how do you cultivate that growth is making sure you have those people in your life. You cultivate those friendships and those relationships. You get in rooms with people that are doing big things and are dreaming and who see the best in you and see the better in you, if that makes sense. Like they're not going to judge you for where you're at or what you've done or anything like that, but they know you and they know what you can be and they know your potential and they call that out in you. I love that because that's how I am, and so that's a way to cultivate growth.

Speaker 1: 18:44

You know, let's talk about with your finances. How are you going to cultivate growth in your finances? Get on a budget. Have an investor. If you're not good with money, find someone that can help you with that. Take a class, a course, get a bookkeeper or you know. There's plenty of things that you can do to help you reach your financial goals, but budgeting is huge and so, kind of moving on from that, nurturing this growth journey, I really want to emphasize the role that your mind has on this process.

Speaker 1: 19:28

In order to nurture this growth journey, in order to get to where you want to go, be due in life, your mindset and resilience are huge in it. Because when you are in a season of growth and you're wanting this, you're going to come into seasons of challenges and setbacks, and I mean that's life. That's inevitable. There's setbacks and there's obstacles in life, no matter what. And so if you're operating in this space of growth and you want to achieve and do and be, what I find that helps is beforehand kind of mapping out, like when you have a goal, dream and you're mapping out what you want to do, it's healthy to take note and to think of what are possible obstacles that I'm gonna have to overcome in order to achieve this goal.

Speaker 1: 20:37

In order to accomplish this and when I say I don't want you to marinate on this, I don't want you to get stuck on this. I don't want you to obsess about this, of all the things that can go wrong. No, I just want you to think about what are possible obstacles that are gonna come up and how are you gonna overcome them. What are you gonna do to get back past them, through them, and that's it. Leave it there, don't ruminate on it, don't get stuck on it. Write it down so you know and you're aware and you have a plan of action should that happen. Because a lot of times, oh man, I was reading a study I can't remember where it was, but it is like an astronomical high percentage of the amount of things that we think negatively. I think it was like 90 something. Percent of the things that we think negative never even happen, and we spend so much of our mental capacity and mind space on thinking of those negative things and they never even come to fruition.

Speaker 1: 21:44

So, having that mindset of resilience and growth and knowing you know what's gonna happen, what can happen, what you want to do, and adapting to that, and just having that growth mindset I talk about that in a couple of my workshops and trainings, actually, and so I've already given you practical steps of what you can start doing in immediately, you know, to help cultivate this, this growth journey, and what you can do. One of the things that I have it's a freebie, it's my action goal, my goal plan. If you're watching this, it's my little freebie that I created and it has you write out your goal action plan and you write down your goal, you write down your why, you write down your motivation for it, your start date, a deadline, a reward that you're gonna give yourself, the obstacles to overcome, like I said, and the resources that you need or that you have in order to get this goal accomplished. The big steps you're gonna take, the little steps you're gonna take, and then some notes that you want to write down. But, friends, so that's my word of the year is growth, and I plan to fully.

Speaker 1: 23:17

I already am, but I plan to fully embrace it and all the things that come with it and whatever that means, whatever God is gonna show me and reveal to me about growth, and I'm excited.

Speaker 1: 23:31

I am so excited because I know that, in order for me to do what God has called me to do and accomplish what God has called me to accomplish.

Speaker 1: 23:42

It's gonna take a tremendous amount of growth and I know that in growth there's growing pains, there are seasons of drought, there are seasons of pruning, there are seasons of fruit, you know blossoming, and there's incredible seasons, and I'm so ready to embrace all of it and I'm excited, and so I hope this has helped kind of lay a perspective for you for growth and what that means, and I hope this has given you some encouragement to stay the course and that it doesn't always happen overnight and it's not easy, and if it was easy I wouldn't want it and, friend, neither would you, because if you're listening to this, I know that you have a growth mindset, because you're trying to learn and grow and do better and be better, or you just support me and you love hearing all the things that I get to talk about and who I get to talk to.

Speaker 1: 24:45

But no, either way, you are divinely created for divine purpose and you're here for a reason, friend, whatever that is, and I'm here to encourage you to step into that and to step into your calling. And, yeah, I hope you have a fantastic day and if this episode has helped you, inspired you, encouraged you, or you know someone that needs to hear this. Please, please, please. It doesn't cost you a thing, but to forward this episode to someone, tag me, share it and please review the podcast. It's easy to do that on on Apple. Just go ahead and slap a review on that baby, because the more reviews, the more views, and we just want to get this message out to everybody. So I love you guys and have a fantastic day.