WEBVTT 00:00:01.539 --> 00:00:06.120 Hi, I'm Kara Sutterfield and this is my podcast. 00:00:06.780 --> 00:00:09.759 After over 20 years of leading one -on -one and 00:00:09.759 --> 00:00:12.939 group coaching in professional settings, I developed 00:00:12.939 --> 00:00:15.960 a passion for helping other women uncover who 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:19.019 they long to become and how to live into that 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:22.859 vision of self today. Let's deep dive into this 00:00:22.859 --> 00:00:26.440 profound exploration together, discover how best 00:00:26.440 --> 00:00:29.559 to embody the highest version of ourselves, and 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:33.140 take action in this present moment to be her 00:00:33.140 --> 00:00:41.159 now. Hello and welcome back to to be her now. 00:00:41.240 --> 00:00:44.649 I wanted to jump in before this episode plays 00:00:44.649 --> 00:00:47.549 to set you up for success in listening to it. 00:00:47.829 --> 00:00:51.530 I actually recorded this much earlier on and 00:00:51.530 --> 00:00:55.929 became inspired by some other topics. So this 00:00:55.929 --> 00:00:58.329 episode was meant to be episode number three 00:00:58.329 --> 00:01:02.530 and directly references episodes number one and 00:01:02.530 --> 00:01:05.379 two. If you have not listened to them yet, I 00:01:05.379 --> 00:01:08.420 recommend pausing here, circling back to those, 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.420 and then coming back to this episode. If that 00:01:11.420 --> 00:01:13.500 doesn't work for your timeline, that's totally 00:01:13.500 --> 00:01:16.379 okay. The episode does stand alone, but I did 00:01:16.379 --> 00:01:18.299 want to give some context to what I'm talking 00:01:18.299 --> 00:01:21.099 about when I speak of your vision. Okay, I hope 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:24.079 you enjoy the episode. It's been a little bit. 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.799 I have been very busy my life and realizing that 00:01:27.799 --> 00:01:30.879 it is time to get a very strict plan in place 00:01:30.879 --> 00:01:33.540 that allows me to have episodes available to 00:01:33.540 --> 00:01:35.659 post weekly because that is what I would like 00:01:35.659 --> 00:01:38.700 to do. So that's my plan going forward to have 00:01:38.700 --> 00:01:42.579 a consistent timeline on which to post. So apologies 00:01:42.579 --> 00:01:45.159 for the break in between, but this is definitely 00:01:45.159 --> 00:01:48.420 a learning process for me. And so here we go. 00:01:48.590 --> 00:01:51.969 So in our first episode we began to define what 00:01:51.969 --> 00:01:55.890 it meant to you to be her now and in our second 00:01:55.890 --> 00:01:59.569 episode I walked you through a visualization 00:01:59.569 --> 00:02:03.329 or an idea for a visualization that could help 00:02:03.329 --> 00:02:06.290 you to imagine what your life might be like in 00:02:06.290 --> 00:02:10.550 the future so that we can then today take a look 00:02:10.550 --> 00:02:13.789 at how to take that vision and bring it into 00:02:13.789 --> 00:02:16.930 reality. It can be hard to go from where you 00:02:16.930 --> 00:02:21.310 are currently into seeing yourself living in 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:23.250 a life that's drastically different from the 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:25.550 one you're in. So let's talk about some tangible 00:02:25.550 --> 00:02:28.610 ways to make that happen. One idea that's very 00:02:28.610 --> 00:02:31.469 prevalent is the idea of setting SMART goals. 00:02:32.150 --> 00:02:34.990 I've heard a lot of different renditions of what 00:02:34.990 --> 00:02:38.569 SMART stands for as an acronym, but the way I 00:02:38.569 --> 00:02:41.090 first learned it and the way that I tend to repeat 00:02:41.090 --> 00:02:44.689 it is to say that the letters in SMART stand 00:02:44.689 --> 00:02:48.680 for specific, measurable, actionable, meaning 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:52.319 you can do actual work on it, realistic, and 00:02:52.319 --> 00:02:55.139 time bound. So let's give a couple of examples 00:02:55.139 --> 00:02:58.120 of what this might be. If in your visualization, 00:02:58.460 --> 00:03:00.919 when you're looking out into your future, you 00:03:00.919 --> 00:03:04.719 saw yourself as a marathon runner, but you are 00:03:04.719 --> 00:03:08.439 currently a couch potato, it is not realistic 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.639 to pull one of those letters to say that you're 00:03:11.639 --> 00:03:14.139 going to run a marathon in three weeks. So the 00:03:14.139 --> 00:03:17.340 goal here is to step back and say when do I want 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:20.539 to have attained or achieved this thing. So just 00:03:20.539 --> 00:03:22.819 to stick with the example of being a marathon 00:03:22.819 --> 00:03:25.479 runner. Let's say you do a little bit of research 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:29.300 and figure out that a year's time frame sounds 00:03:29.300 --> 00:03:33.080 realistic for you. Today is April 18th on the 00:03:33.080 --> 00:03:35.379 day that I am recording this so I might look 00:03:35.379 --> 00:03:39.099 at the calendar and find a marathon right around 00:03:39.099 --> 00:03:41.659 today's date a year out. And let's say I found 00:03:41.659 --> 00:03:45.949 one on April 22nd 2025. So my specific goal would 00:03:45.949 --> 00:03:51.250 be I ran a marathon on April 22nd, 2025. Specifically, 00:03:51.669 --> 00:03:54.969 I want to have run a marathon. Measurable. How 00:03:54.969 --> 00:03:57.189 will I know when I have done it? Well, I will 00:03:57.189 --> 00:03:59.090 know it when I have crossed the finish line. 00:03:59.310 --> 00:04:01.409 So we have a clear point at which I will have 00:04:01.409 --> 00:04:04.949 achieved this goal. Actionable. I can absolutely 00:04:04.949 --> 00:04:07.729 put a training program in place and take actions 00:04:07.729 --> 00:04:10.449 that will build me up into being able to achieve 00:04:10.449 --> 00:04:14.639 this goal. Realistic. A year's time in the research 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:16.860 that I've done or whatever time frame you were 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:19.160 to come up with if that was your goal says that 00:04:19.160 --> 00:04:21.579 I know from my current physical capabilities 00:04:21.579 --> 00:04:24.439 I would be able to work my way into having achieved 00:04:24.439 --> 00:04:27.560 this within the time frame I'm setting. And then 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:30.819 time bound I have decided that I will have run 00:04:30.819 --> 00:04:34.040 a marathon on April 22nd of 2025 so I know I 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.139 have a year to train for it. Make sense? So that's 00:04:37.139 --> 00:04:39.779 an idea of smart goals. And I hope that you will 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:43.100 be able to intuit into whatever your specific 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:45.680 goals were, how you might be able to fine tune 00:04:45.680 --> 00:04:48.660 those. One thing I want to point out is whenever 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:52.279 you're setting a smart goal, absolutely set it 00:04:52.279 --> 00:04:55.420 in the present tense. Meaning I'm not saying 00:04:55.420 --> 00:05:00.019 I want to run a marathon in a year. I'm saying 00:05:00.019 --> 00:05:04.779 I ran a marathon on this date so that That goal 00:05:04.779 --> 00:05:07.540 begins to work in my subconscious as something 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:10.100 I can attain. There's a lot of science behind 00:05:10.100 --> 00:05:13.139 that that is accessible and researchable that 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:16.100 I will leave to you to do. What I know for sure 00:05:16.100 --> 00:05:18.839 is that when I start speaking in the present 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:21.319 tense as if I have achieved the things I want 00:05:21.319 --> 00:05:23.879 to achieve, I'm a thousand times more likely 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:26.800 to achieve them. The next idea I have for taking 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:30.180 your big goals and bringing them into your reality. 00:05:30.439 --> 00:05:33.860 is to slice those goals into very bite -sized 00:05:33.860 --> 00:05:38.579 pieces. Let's say that in my vision I saw myself 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:42.319 as a published author but I am at this time not 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.459 writing any words whatsoever and I have a little 00:05:45.459 --> 00:05:48.060 flicker of an idea but nothing really developed. 00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:51.100 So I'm going to take that goal and I'm going 00:05:51.100 --> 00:05:53.879 to turn it into a smart goal for you. And then 00:05:53.879 --> 00:05:57.079 I'm going to illustrate how I personally would 00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:00.180 slice this down into bite -sized pieces so that 00:06:00.180 --> 00:06:02.920 I could move forward each day taking an action 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:05.160 towards achieving this goal in three years. So 00:06:05.160 --> 00:06:06.899 knowing I want to achieve it in three years, 00:06:07.139 --> 00:06:11.360 it is April 18th, 2024. I have published a self 00:06:11.360 --> 00:06:14.160 -help book to help women live into their best 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:18.019 lives by April 18th, 2027. Now, let's take this 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:20.379 idea of a huge book and let's figure some things 00:06:20.379 --> 00:06:23.160 out. In a quick Google search, the average self 00:06:23.160 --> 00:06:26.259 -help book is between 40 ,000 and 60 ,000 words. 00:06:26.680 --> 00:06:29.399 So let's go with 50 ,000 words as a goal and 00:06:29.399 --> 00:06:31.680 it's a nice round number. Something else I might 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:34.420 want to do is to brainstorm and develop the ideas 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:36.470 that I really want to have in the book. So I'm 00:06:36.470 --> 00:06:38.730 going to decide on a main topic. I'm going to 00:06:38.730 --> 00:06:41.730 brainstorm ideas around that topic. I will then 00:06:41.730 --> 00:06:44.970 take my broad ideas and outline them in a much 00:06:44.970 --> 00:06:48.230 more detailed way and then arrange those ideas 00:06:48.230 --> 00:06:51.250 into some ideas for chapters. I am an actively 00:06:51.250 --> 00:06:55.569 recovering perfectionist and so for me this process 00:06:55.569 --> 00:06:58.189 might become very sticky. It's highly possible 00:06:58.189 --> 00:07:00.889 that I would get stuck in the process of trying 00:07:00.889 --> 00:07:03.939 to outline ideas. So I'm going to give myself 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.699 permission to establish a loose outline and trust 00:07:06.699 --> 00:07:09.199 that I will be able to fine -tune it as I go. 00:07:09.420 --> 00:07:12.560 So for this example, let's take the idea of 50 00:07:12.560 --> 00:07:15.180 ,000 words. I'm going to say that in three years 00:07:15.180 --> 00:07:17.759 time, I'm going to need to write a book, I'm 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:20.040 going to need to have time to edit a book, and 00:07:20.040 --> 00:07:22.060 I'm going to need to publish a book. But we have 00:07:22.060 --> 00:07:25.660 to take a first step first. So there I have three 00:07:25.660 --> 00:07:28.740 clear overarching goals. So I'm going to assign 00:07:28.740 --> 00:07:30.639 one of those goals to each of my three years. 00:07:31.000 --> 00:07:32.819 So in this first year I need to write a book. 00:07:32.879 --> 00:07:35.379 I'm going to take those 50 ,000 words and divide 00:07:35.379 --> 00:07:38.060 them by 12 months. That means I need to write 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:42.360 4 ,167 words every month. That's rounded up. 00:07:42.519 --> 00:07:44.399 Then I'm going to take an average of four weeks 00:07:44.399 --> 00:07:47.720 a month. So now I need to write 1 ,041 words 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.069 per week. Now let's look at the days of the week. 00:07:50.230 --> 00:07:51.769 I don't want to write every day. I'd like a day 00:07:51.769 --> 00:07:54.329 off now and again, so I'm going to divide my 00:07:54.329 --> 00:07:57.470 weekly number by five days a week, and that brings 00:07:57.470 --> 00:08:00.769 me to the position of writing 209 words a day. 00:08:01.069 --> 00:08:04.490 Now, suddenly writing an entire book of 50 ,000 00:08:04.490 --> 00:08:07.410 words feels way more tangible, at least to me. 00:08:07.790 --> 00:08:11.910 209 words is maybe a few paragraphs, so If I'm 00:08:11.910 --> 00:08:13.509 just sitting down every day with the intention 00:08:13.509 --> 00:08:15.829 of writing a few paragraphs versus writing an 00:08:15.829 --> 00:08:18.829 entire book, already I feel so much better. See 00:08:18.829 --> 00:08:21.009 how this is going? So let's say I stick to my 00:08:21.009 --> 00:08:23.870 goal of writing five days a week at 209 words 00:08:23.870 --> 00:08:26.949 a day. And at the end of my year, I have a written 00:08:26.949 --> 00:08:30.870 book. My next goal for year two is to edit the 00:08:30.870 --> 00:08:33.090 book. And again, I'm going to break this down. 00:08:33.169 --> 00:08:35.549 Let's say I've ended up with 12 chapters. Well, 00:08:35.610 --> 00:08:38.210 that's pretty easy for a year's time frame. I'm 00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:40.019 going to edit one chapter a month. And I can 00:08:40.019 --> 00:08:42.539 break that down further by saying how many pages 00:08:42.539 --> 00:08:45.240 are in each chapter, divide that by four weeks 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:47.059 out of the month, and I'm going to tackle that 00:08:47.059 --> 00:08:49.799 section as I move along. So we have our finished 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.259 and edited book, and it's time to get it published. 00:08:52.500 --> 00:08:54.580 And I have no idea how to get a book published. 00:08:55.000 --> 00:08:57.580 So I'm going to take a little time, maybe the 00:08:57.580 --> 00:09:00.279 first quarter of the year, and do some research. 00:09:00.620 --> 00:09:03.360 Find out what are the steps to publish a book. 00:09:03.460 --> 00:09:06.000 I probably need to find a literary agent. How 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:07.909 do I go about that? Who do I need to meet? Where 00:09:07.909 --> 00:09:10.450 do I need to go? Who do I email? In quarter two, 00:09:10.450 --> 00:09:12.529 I'm going to start taking those steps. Maybe 00:09:12.529 --> 00:09:15.629 I'm sending my book out into the world on a regular 00:09:15.629 --> 00:09:18.269 basis to the entities that are important for 00:09:18.269 --> 00:09:21.230 that. Now there's aspects of this goal that start 00:09:21.230 --> 00:09:23.289 to rely on other people if I'm wanting to go 00:09:23.289 --> 00:09:25.269 through a publishing company, right? So let's 00:09:25.269 --> 00:09:27.389 say halfway through the year, I'm not making 00:09:27.389 --> 00:09:30.529 traction with literary agents or publishers directly, 00:09:30.610 --> 00:09:33.570 but I know I have this goal of having a published 00:09:33.570 --> 00:09:35.970 book by the end of the third year. Maybe I start 00:09:35.970 --> 00:09:37.750 looking into self -publishing. What does that 00:09:37.750 --> 00:09:40.250 look like? Amazon makes it pretty easy to bring 00:09:40.250 --> 00:09:42.870 publications into the world now. You get the 00:09:42.870 --> 00:09:46.110 idea. This is how we take a big elephant of an 00:09:46.110 --> 00:09:48.830 idea and break it down into easily chewable bites. 00:09:49.549 --> 00:09:52.429 Another way to make your goals more tangible 00:09:52.429 --> 00:09:54.809 is instead of thinking about what you want to 00:09:54.809 --> 00:09:56.809 accomplish in a year, think about what you want 00:09:56.809 --> 00:09:59.889 to accomplish every three months. When you break 00:09:59.889 --> 00:10:02.789 down your year into 12 -week sections, suddenly 00:10:02.789 --> 00:10:05.990 it becomes very easy and very tangible to make 00:10:05.990 --> 00:10:09.769 traction on goals. If I have a goal within 12 00:10:09.769 --> 00:10:12.929 weeks to accomplish x in my business, then I 00:10:12.929 --> 00:10:15.470 can divide it by three months and I can divide 00:10:15.470 --> 00:10:18.070 that by four weeks and have a very clear direction 00:10:18.070 --> 00:10:20.250 every Monday when I sit down at my desk to do 00:10:20.250 --> 00:10:23.139 work on this particular goal. Something else 00:10:23.139 --> 00:10:26.240 I'd love for you to do when looking at your biggest 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:29.019 goals is to examine your habits right now in 00:10:29.019 --> 00:10:31.799 the moment. If when you did that visualization 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:34.440 or when you take time to see yourself years from 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:38.580 now and you see someone who is social and surrounded 00:10:38.580 --> 00:10:41.580 by friends but you don't reach out to schedule 00:10:41.580 --> 00:10:44.549 a coffee or lunch with anyone you know. or if 00:10:44.549 --> 00:10:48.289 you see yourself as fit but you don't have any 00:10:48.289 --> 00:10:50.809 workout routine or take any care in the types 00:10:50.809 --> 00:10:53.070 of nutrition that you put in your body. Your 00:10:53.070 --> 00:10:56.129 habits right now in this moment are hindering 00:10:56.129 --> 00:10:58.929 you becoming that person in the future. Likewise 00:10:58.929 --> 00:11:01.929 the habits you choose to implement now day after 00:11:01.929 --> 00:11:05.889 day consistently are what will create the person 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:08.029 you want to be and the frustrating thing about 00:11:08.029 --> 00:11:11.950 that statement is you will not see an indication 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:15.000 of that big goal coming to fruition depending 00:11:15.000 --> 00:11:17.340 on where you're at right now in relation to it 00:11:17.340 --> 00:11:20.320 for a long time. But there's so much information 00:11:20.320 --> 00:11:23.679 in the world now that it is very easy to establish 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:26.200 what habits you need to have in your day now 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:28.759 to create the person you want to be. And it really 00:11:28.759 --> 00:11:31.879 comes down to deciding that you're okay with 00:11:31.879 --> 00:11:34.399 living in the mundane every day in a consistent 00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:37.019 way to achieve the big shiny thing at the end. 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:39.309 So to break habits down a little bit further, 00:11:39.570 --> 00:11:42.169 do you have a daily routine and is that daily 00:11:42.169 --> 00:11:45.169 routine scheduled in your calendar for you to 00:11:45.169 --> 00:11:47.470 follow? Or if you're not a scheduled person, 00:11:47.669 --> 00:11:50.110 do you have a list of things that you want to 00:11:50.110 --> 00:11:52.250 accomplish every day? Somehow, some way, you're 00:11:52.250 --> 00:11:54.519 going to get it done. Two ideas that I use on 00:11:54.519 --> 00:11:57.000 a regular basis are to have a virtual calendar 00:11:57.000 --> 00:11:59.220 that houses everything so that I can schedule 00:11:59.220 --> 00:12:02.019 my personal goals, habits, and routines around 00:12:02.019 --> 00:12:04.519 what's required of me for work. And I utilize 00:12:04.519 --> 00:12:08.379 the alarms on my phone when I'm trying to establish 00:12:08.379 --> 00:12:12.519 new habits. I absolutely am a creature of routine 00:12:12.519 --> 00:12:15.740 and habit and I will forget. I will come to the 00:12:15.740 --> 00:12:18.159 end of the day and I will forget that I wanted 00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:22.850 to do X. And if X is, for example, working out 00:12:22.850 --> 00:12:25.669 and I've gotten so busy or so distracted that 00:12:25.669 --> 00:12:28.070 I haven't done it I am not the type to go out 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:30.049 and do it when I'm tired and I have to have an 00:12:30.049 --> 00:12:32.490 alarm to remind me until that thing becomes a 00:12:32.490 --> 00:12:35.470 habit. An awesome book on habits is Atomic Habits 00:12:35.470 --> 00:12:38.080 by James Clear. And if you haven't had the chance 00:12:38.080 --> 00:12:41.000 to read it yet, he gives a million and one suggestions 00:12:41.000 --> 00:12:44.559 on how to establish new habits and routines in 00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:47.700 ways that don't feel overwhelming and allow you 00:12:47.700 --> 00:12:50.700 to tackle the small aspects of your goal in a 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:53.080 consistent way to get you where you want to go. 00:12:53.240 --> 00:12:56.559 Highly recommend. The final thing I want to recommend 00:12:56.559 --> 00:13:00.879 is to identify and bust through the roadblocks 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:02.740 that are keeping you from achieving your goal. 00:13:02.960 --> 00:13:05.080 One of the things that I noticed myself doing 00:13:05.080 --> 00:13:08.419 was procrastinating recording this podcast. And 00:13:08.419 --> 00:13:11.500 it took me a little while to get a clear understanding 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:13.620 and get real with myself as to why I was doing 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:16.179 that. And when I sat with my expectations of 00:13:16.179 --> 00:13:19.700 myself, I was realizing that I really thought 00:13:19.700 --> 00:13:23.419 I needed to put out a 45 minute to an hour episode 00:13:23.419 --> 00:13:25.720 every time I sat down to record. And that felt 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:28.659 so overwhelming. I wasn't doing anything. And 00:13:28.659 --> 00:13:32.200 so what I had to do after identifying that roadblock 00:13:32.350 --> 00:13:35.710 was bust through it by saying, it's okay if my 00:13:35.710 --> 00:13:38.730 episode is five minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. 00:13:38.929 --> 00:13:41.330 I'm going to sit down and get these ideas out 00:13:41.330 --> 00:13:44.490 and trust that if there's a topic that I have 00:13:44.490 --> 00:13:46.809 more to say on, I will. But by removing that 00:13:46.809 --> 00:13:49.929 constraint of time, I suddenly feel freed to 00:13:49.929 --> 00:13:52.309 sit down and share my heart, which was ultimately 00:13:52.309 --> 00:13:54.669 the goal of starting this podcast in the first 00:13:54.669 --> 00:13:58.080 place. I hope that you have received some ideas 00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:01.200 today that either directly impact your ability 00:14:01.200 --> 00:14:04.059 to be her now or have stimulated some thoughts 00:14:04.059 --> 00:14:06.059 that are going to help you to do that as you 00:14:06.059 --> 00:14:09.259 move forward. And I very much look forward to 00:14:09.259 --> 00:14:10.360 talking to you next week.