53. Imagine 2024: Setting Goals, Choosing Words, and Slaying Dragons

In this episode, Laura Sexton explores the unique “liminal week” between Christmas and New Year, a time for rest and reflection. She discusses setting goals for the upcoming year, shares insights on avoiding overwhelm, focuses the majority of the time on choosing a word or intention for the new year. Laura shares her word for 2024 - imagine - and encourages listeners to be creative, embracing the joy of discovery. Additionally, Laura discusses her plans for the new year, including imaginative goals for family adventures, and providing new free resources to support her listeners as they improve their lives. 

In this episode we’ll:

.    Reflect on the holiday season

.    Discuss how to set a word or intention for the new year

.    Encourage creative, imaginative living

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Transcript

Laura: 0:46

Hello and welcome to the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. I'm Laura Sexton, your trusted financial coach and money mindset specialist. Join me as we explore the world of money and money mindset while also paving the way for a lasting legacy that extends far beyond money. Together we'll eliminate stress, amplify freedom, and ensure you stop paying for your past so you can start saving for your future. If you're seeking peace in your finances, more margin in your budget, and a legacy that inspires generations to come, you're in the right place. Hey, accelerators, welcome back to the podcast. I hope that you had an absolutely lovely Christmas. My family and I really enjoyed ourselves. I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what we did for the holiday in this podcast. But I just want to check in with you and see how you're feeling. I know the holidays can be a little hard for some people, and if you need somebody to talk to, that is my favorite thing. I love listening. I love talking. I would love to have a conversation with you. If you are having a hard Christmas, or you're having a wonderful Christmas, I want to hear all about it. I want to hear everything about this holiday season. When it comes to the holidays, We prepare for Christmas, we put up all the lights, and then there's this liminal week, the week in between where kids aren't in school, a lot of businesses are shut down or are on like a minimum kind of mode, and the week just kind of feels very slow. And is it Thursday? Is it Wednesday? Is it Tuesday? I don't know. Are you guys feeling that too? I really love this liminal space of this week where it's a time to rest and reflect. This is the week where I start putting my planner together for the new year and I start listing out goals and listing out dreams and I really enjoy that, but I have to work very hard to not dream so big that I scare myself and then don't do the work that I need to do to reach those dreams. Anyone else? Are any of you feeling that? Do you have giant, huge, humongous goals that scare you? Sometimes it's good that they scare you. In fact, I want to go ahead and let you guys know I'm going to be doing four part email series on the best way to define your goals and way that these goals are going to Make the biggest bang for your buck. So if you would like to get on that email list, you can head on over to my website, accelerate your legacy dot com jump on my email list because I have some really awesome. Very insightful if I do say so myself, things coming out in the next couple of weeks, they come out on Tuesday. So hopefully you're not overwhelmed in your inbox and then you can get some insight on how to set goals that you will actually achieve in the year 2024. So the podcast today is focused on 2024 as that is the time that we are doing this. And if you are listening to this in the future and you've already set goals for 2024, set goals for the next six months. Set goals for the next six weeks. It's very important to look ahead and if you need help with any of those, you know that I am more than happy to sit down with you help you define those goals and then create a path to reach them. 1 of my favorite things to do during this liminal week is to set a word or an intention for the coming year and this year. In 2024, my word of the year is imagine. When I say the word imagine, what comes up to you? It's really interesting all of the things that I've been thinking with this word. Imagine. There are many different places. You can go to find your word of the year. I use day spring. Dayspring. com, it is a Christian organization and they focus on your growth and development in your faith. So if that is not where you want to go to find your word, that is totally okay. Picking a word of the year is just for fun and it doesn't have to be the one defining thing and nothing can change and you have to focus on that the whole year. That doesn't have to be it. You can find your Word of the Year in an online quiz. There are plenty. Just type in Word of the Year and 900 of them will come up. You can look on Instagram. There's going to be one of these flashing words games and you, you screenshot it and whatever word is that your word of the year. There's so many games and ways to, to find it. You can choose it based on your goals or resolutions in the coming year. What is, what's guiding you? What motivates you? Choose a word based on things that happened last year because. You know, the things that are working, keep it up, keep doing it, or I want to do the opposite of what I was doing last year, so I can get better results. That's okay, too. Pick a word based on that. You can look at your browser history on your computer. What have you been looking up? What's been your focus? Maybe your word of the year needs to focus on that or needs to focus on the opposite. Really, the word of the year is just a fun thing. It doesn't have to be stressful. Or precious. For me, this is just a lot of fun. The word is imagine, and what can you imagine for next year? See, here's the thing. I used to be a storyteller. For over a decade, I was an actor telling other people's stories. Before that, I was writing my own stories, and after I was an actor, before I became a financial coach, I was a screenwriter, y'all. I had sold my first screenplay right before the world shut down in March of 2020. It's crazy because I thought all of my dreams were coming true at that moment and then the world Shut down and all of my dreams were shattered and then I found financial coaching and what you know I am more excited and ignited than I have ever been before. I absolutely love this work that I do, but I still remember what it's like to be in those moments of storytelling, of creating, of having to imagine the whole world around me. I get to make it up in my mind. Or I'm on a set or I'm on a stage with other people and we are creating a whole world around ourselves. Those worlds aren't real, but they are so fun to play make believe in. When was the last time you played make believe? If you have the ability to be around small children and play a game with them, make something up. And if you don't know what to make up, Go on Disney, look up a show called Bluey, and they will come up with some weird, bizarre game that you can play, and your kids will love every single moment of it. And you don't even have to do it right. You can do it wrong. You can do it your way. You and your children will have a good time. If you don't have children in your life, don't just go find one. That would be weird. You know, let's not do that. But, are there ways that you can play Make Believe in your life? I think that's the first step to being more creative. And maybe, just maybe, no matter what it is you want in your life, is there some creative solution to the thing that's holding you back? Is there something creative that you need to develop in your life just to have more fun? You see, I help people get out of debt. And one of the things we do is we pare back a lot of things that we spend our money on. But what I focus a lot on is how to not spend money, but still have fun. I love coming up with creative ways to spend time with the people we love. Creative ways to get abundance of life without having to spend an abundance of riches. I would encourage you in the new year to find ways to be more creative. For Christmas. This year, we took our kids to Universal Studios. My oldest daughter is absolutely obsessed with Harry Potter right now, which I just think is wonderful. We've been focusing on reading the Harry Potter books and she said this year for Christmas, she would like to go to Universal Studios. So that's what we did. Oh, my goodness. Have you ever watched a child's eyes light up when they see a giant Christmas tree? Oh, the wonder of it all. It's just absolutely amazing. And watching them discover new things, new ways of doing things, new, routes to get to places, looking at a map and figuring out how a map works and running around. It is so incredibly fun to watch them grow and watch them. Discover and, and watch them wonder, watch them imagine what could happen. Imagine what could happen if I turn left here, imagine what could happen if I turn right. One of the things we want to do in 2024 is discover new things with our children. We want to go to museums and zoos and aquariums and try out new things. More theme parks, more hikes. More adventures. That's what I'm imagining my 2024 can look like. And some of those things, yes, some of those things cost money, but some of those things are totally free. Watching my kids feed the ducks at the park just brings them so much joy, and it terrifies me. If you guys don't know this about me, I'm terrified of birds. I know it's weird. It makes no sense. It is completely irrational. I'm aware that it's irrational and I don't necessarily want to do the work to get over it. I just would like for the birds to stay over there and I will stay over here, which is fine until my kids start feeding them. We have this one friend, her name is Cheyenne and she can catch multiple chickens. And we had 1 day where she was laying down underneath the blanket, trying to catch a seagull. This girl has no fear around birds and I am terrified. She's 7 and I am terrified. And she's like, whatever I can do this. Sometimes we just need a person in our life. That's brave in an area that we're not. And when it comes to your money, if you are afraid of your budget, or if you are timid around your budget, sometimes you need a friend that's fearless. That's when a financial coach would come in. That's when an accountability partner would come in. Somebody that's fearless and ready to help you conquer. Your budget. It's funny, I was meeting with a potential new client today, a wonderful couple, and they're trying to get everything together. They want to do it together. And for whatever reason, this came up to me and I said. In 2024, you 2 are going to slay a dragon. I don't know what that meant for them. They both kind of, it felt good to both of them. You could see it resonate in both of their hearts. Like, yeah, we're going to slay a dragon. We're going to come together. And we're going to do this. I think that's really cool. Maybe it's because I've been in this imagine creative state that dragons came up for me. What's your dragon this year? What beast are you going to slay in 2024? I have no doubt that you're going to do it if you set your mind to it. So, as I'm imagining things, another thing I'm imagining is my business. What can my business become? What new ways can I serve you? One of the creative ways that I am hoping to get things together in 2024 is I would like to have new free resources to give you every month. Every month I want to come up with something new to give away for free. It's just because you, you want your life to be better. I want to help you. I want to help you make your world a better place. So, every month in 2024, I'm vowing to you right now, I'm going to imagine something new that I can give to you. For free. Okay, friends. I want to know from you. What's your word? What is your word in 2024? Can you write to me and let me know? You sit down and think and dream and be creative and just imagine Just imagine what your 2024 can look like. What word do you want to focus on? If you need help or resources to find that word You Let me know I would absolutely love to help you and give you some resources on how to find a word and intention for 2024 and as always. You have a goal that you're ready to tackle, I want to be in your corner. I want to help you slay dragons in 2024. So if you need me, all you have to do is reach out on Instagram at accelerate your legacy or send me an email, Laura at accelerate your legacy. com. I am here for you. I am just waiting with open arms to help you slay dragons in 2024. That's all for this week, my friends. Go out and make a difference. Thank you for investing your time with us today on the Accelerate Your Legacy podcast. Remember, your legacy isn't just measured in dollars and cents, but in the tools, habits, mindset, and reputation you leave behind. Don't just listen to the show, but take action on what you've learned. Share this wisdom with a friend who can benefit and help us spread the word by rating and reviewing the podcast. For questions or encouragement, reach out to me on Instagram at Accelerate Your Legacy or explore the resources listed in the show notes. I will be back with you next week. Until then, build your legacy with intention.