Your Joyful Order With Leslie Martinez

#95 A Year in Review: Reflecting on God's Goodness and Grace

• Leslie Martinez • Season 5 • Episode 95

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As the year comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the transformative journey we've shared—one filled with both triumphs and challenges. Have you ever wondered how embracing reflection can propel you towards your God-given dreams? This episode is a heartfelt exploration of the power of looking back to move forward, where I share personal stories of growth, resilience, and the blessings that have graced my path over the past year. Together, we'll gain insights into recognizing the divine grace that intertwines with our everyday experiences.

In this episode, we dive into the practical tools that can help you track your progress and overcome the perfectionism that often hinders our dreams. Whether it's recognizing the strength in small steps or the courage to ask for help, I urge you to embrace the support of a community—a powerful force that can amplify your growth and success. With gratitude for the journey we've shared, let's step forward into the next year with renewed purpose and the joy of knowing we are not alone.

Link to the tools/resources I mention in this episode that I use to track my goals:
Asana- https://asana.com
Trello- https://trello.com
Miestertask: https://www.meistertask.com/

Connect with Leslie:

Follow on IG: @yourjoyfulorderstyle

Website: https://www.yourjoyfulorder.com/

Email: lmartinez@yourjoyfulorder.com
to schedule- Speaking Events, Interviews or Life Coaching Sessions

Shop my SOAP the Gospels Journal on Shopify:
https://shopjoyfulorder.com/

Listen to this Episode on You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsXoAYIM2mfclNtYiaOzIUw

Shop my Journal (Gratitude, Goals & Prayer Journal) on Amazon:
https://a.co/d/09Djvaw

Book a FREE 30 Minute Discovery Coaching Call: https://tidycal.com/joyfulordermedia/30-minute-meeting

Leslie:

Hey, friends, as we close out the year, have you taken a moment to reflect on all that God has done the good, the bad, the ugly, the hard, the messy moments? Today we are diving in to the power of reflection and why looking back is the key to moving forward with purpose. Looking back is the key to moving forward with purpose. I'll be sharing personal wins and lessons, along with some of my biggest kind of failures from this past year. We're talking about setting goals, crushing perfectionism and why waiting for the perfect moment is actually what's holding you back from chasing after your God-given dreams. Are you ready to end the year feeling renewed and refreshed? Well, let's jump in to this week's episode.

Speaker 2:

Hey everyone, I'm Leslie Martinez and you're listening to your Joyful Order podcast. Each week I will bring you joyful stories that will motivate and inspire you and, at the same time, bring order to your everyday life. Let's just say this show will be a mixture of preaching and teaching, with a kick of motivation from your girl here. Welcome to your Joyful Order podcast.

Leslie:

Now, before we get into goals and progress tracking, I just want to talk about something that's really essential, and that's reflection. Looking back at the past year isn't just about counting our blessings or looking at all that we have accomplished. It's about seeing God's handiwork in every single moment, even the ones that didn't go as planned. Now, reflection helps us to grow, it helps us to heal and it helps us to move forward with gratitude. So right now, I just want to talk about the importance of reflection and gratitude. I've talked a lot about gratitude, but reflection. Sometimes it is hard for us to move forward when we haven't sat to look at where we have been. Now, in this episode, you're going to need your journal, because I want you to write some important things down. So take a pause right here if you don't have something to write with. Ideally, I want you to have a pen and paper type of journal, but if that's not available for you right now, if you have any device, go get it, because I want you to take some time to kind of journal out some things. I'm going to ask you some questions. That's going to help you to reflect on this last year. Now, the first thing that I want you to write down is one what were your biggest blessings? What was something that God just blessed you with this last year? Maybe there's one, two, three, 10 things. Whatever you felt like your biggest blessings are. I want you to write those down. Number two I want you to write down what challenges stretched you. Was it a new job that you got? Maybe you became a new mom, a new role? Is there a new hat that you're wearing? Is there, you know, something that was kind of unpacked in therapy that caused you to be stretched in dealing with different emotions? I want you to look at the challenges that you faced this year that really allowed you to be stretched beyond whatever you ever imagined. And the third question I want you to write down is how did you see God's grace show up? Where did God show up for you? Was it with a family member? Maybe a family member that you've been praying for got saved and came to church? Finally, maybe it's in your finances. Maybe it's in your health. Maybe there's a family member that got healed from a disease, a family member that just finished chemotherapy. Write it down. There is so much power in seeing God's goodness on paper. That's what the people did in the Bible, y'all, just so you know, the Bible were handwritten accounts of all the good things that God did, and those words are left to us from people who experienced Jesus firsthand and experienced God firsthand, to be a source of encouragement for us.

Leslie:

So, writing down your reflections, your experiences, looking back on what God did for you in this last year this isn't something new. It might be new for you, but when we look back, this has been being done for centuries and centuries and it's a tired and true practice that just has so much value to it. So I want to start there Now. This is going to kind of be a little bit of a hands-on podcast session. Consider it maybe a coaching session for you as we reflect podcast session. Consider it maybe a coaching session for you as we reflect, because I want you to take action in preparing yourself to move into 2025 with great intentions, with looking back at where you've been, knowing where you've been, so that you know where you're going. So it is important that we reflect and that we set intentions with gratitude to see where is it that God is taking us Now?

Leslie:

The next thing that I want to talk about are just some personal reflections, are some goals, wins and just lessons that I've learned myself. I kind of contemplate in sharing this next section with you guys, because I'm literally going to share like 90% of my wins and losses from this past year with you because I think it's going to just serve as a great example for you as to how to properly, one, set goals and intentions and, two, reflect and know what you need to do to move forward with other goals and intentions that might be stirring in your heart. So I want to be real with you. This year I had some really big goals and some of them well, let's just say they didn't go as planned or they just didn't even happen. There was lots of things. As I reflect on my goals and I'm going to share them with you, I'm going to be very transparent and share with you like, hey, these were my wins and these are my losses. But I also had some unexpected wins that I never saw coming and the only way that I am able to look back at those as wins is because I track them.

Leslie:

I have systems in place that allow me to track my goals, measure my progress. I normally try to keep track of my goals weekly. I check in. I'll be honest, there are some times where I might go a few weeks and I'm like, oh, I haven't updated my goals yet. And I go into Asana and I'll get back into that a little bit later but I use Asana to track my goals and when I go in there I am able to see, like, where I'm at and then I'm reminded of, one, the progress that I've made and, two, some goals that I'm just like it's just not even going to happen Now. There have been personal wins and failures that I had this year, so I'm literally going to read my list off to you right here. Okay, and again, I'm sharing goals that I am comfortable with sharing in public. There are some personal goals, like financial goals and some other goals that I had that I'm not going to share, but I am sharing about 90% of my personal goals for you. I kind of section my goals off into categories and that helps me to know, like, okay, learning. I have podcast goals. I had other different sectional goals and I am going to share those with you and that way you can hear the goals that I was able to accomplish, things that didn't happen. Like that.

Leslie:

I literally set a goal in the beginning of the year and made absolutely no progress with Now. The first. This was a big learning year for me, and this is something that was not intentionally planned. This year I completed a print school, which allowed me to launch my journal. I also completed a discipleship mentor program called Propel Equisia. I also completed an apologetics course and I also went to a writer's workshop retreat.

Leslie:

None of these were even on my Asana goals list. None of them. Y'all. These are all things that I invested in. I invested my time, I invested money to these people that were offering growth for me, that were offering things that I knew that I needed, that was going to help me to get to the next level. But I'm sharing these with you because these are things that I had to track by checking in on my weekly goals, that I wasn't even measuring. These were things that weren't even set out as goals for 2024. These are things that just happen and as I started to work my way through there, I added these in. I wanted to add them into my sauna because I'm like you know what this should be on here. I should be tracking this, and I was able to track kind of the lessons, my growth within each of these courses that I took.

Leslie:

Now here's another goal for you Complete Bible verse mapping once a week. There's 52 weeks in a year. You want to know how many Bible verse mapping lessons I completed in my you know, fancy, big like eight by 10 workbook that I bought intentionally to reach this goal. I completed eight. Eight out of 52. I started off strong and I was like, yes, I'm going to do one a week. I sat for probably an hour mapping out like all the chapters that I had read, whatever character it was. I did eight. Y'all Eight out of 52. My goal was 52. So I don't want to call it a complete failure because something is better than nothing, but I only did eight.

Leslie:

Next were my podcast goals. I had a goal of launching on YouTube Done. Publish 30 episodes. We published 35. Publish 30 YouTube videos we only published 13. However, there are 100 videos that sit on YouTube when we launch.

Leslie:

Now, my goal of this was to put full video on, just like you're watching right here. You see my face. I have to actually put makeup and do my hair on for y'all now, before I show up with sweats and a hat no makeup and just record, because I was just doing audio. My husband was pushing me. You got to get on video. We got to get on video. So our goal was to publish 30 videos where you could see my beautiful face here. We only did 13. I'm okay with that because these 13 have been great. They're sitting here. You can see the phenomenal videos that we have created.

Leslie:

If you're watching on YouTube and if you're not watching on YouTube, go watch on YouTube. You get to see my hair, did my makeup. I even put red lipstick on. For you guys, today it's Christmas, I got the green shirt. I got the red lipstick on. For you guys, today it's Christmas, I got the green shirt. I got the red lipstick on.

Leslie:

We had a goal of 13 edited videos. We only did or, I'm sorry, we had a goal of 30. We only did 13. However, there's a hundred videos on YouTube because I was able to turn all my previous episodes just into an audio file that sits on YouTube, so you can also listen to all of the podcasts on YouTube. And if you are not a YouTube subscriber, y'all do me a favor, go subscribe. It's the season of giving right now. Give your girls some love and go subscribe to my YouTube channel. The link is in the bio. If you're listening on Spotify or iTunes, whatever, just go and subscribe. Show your girls some love.

Leslie:

Next podcast goal was to host 15 guests on the podcast. We hosted 16. 16 out of 15, y'all. And then last was for me to learn how to edit using Descript. And you guys, I believe that I edited about four out of five of our episodes this past season. Pretty dang proud of myself. Typically, my husband, steve, is the one that does all of the editing, but I made it a goal to learn an editing software that worked for me and I was able to edit a few of the podcasts this season. All right, another goal I had was to launch four new journals on Amazon. In case you haven't heard, your girl published a goals, gratitude and prayer journal that was on Amazon, using the KDP. Kdp is their self-publishing platform and at the end of last year around this time I had made it a goal that I wanted to publish for more using the KDP on Amazon.

Leslie:

After I published my journal on Amazon, I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy how it launched. I wasn't happy with Amazon. I wasn't happy with the sales. I wasn't happy with the quality of the product. It just was not what I dreamt my product would look like. So I just want to say the print school that I had heard about earlier with Polly Payne, the print school that I shared about earlier with Polly Payne all God that, the way she came across my way and the way that I was able to invest to do this.

Leslie:

So I came across the print school and it was all about creating your dream paper product. And as I did my research, I was like you know, this is what I want to do. I want to create my own line of journals. I want to create my own product that I have no limitations, that I can market myself, that I don't have to rely on Amazon to print, and you know all of that. So I signed up for the print school and hence this goal of launching four journals. It didn't happen because I kind of shifted my goal. I launched one journal, but I also completed umpteenth amount of amounts of lesson through this print school, where I was able to learn how to create my own dream product. Um learn, you, guys, I have I'm holding up here, like I have samples of different types of covers, like leather and linen, and like I I've learned all the GSM's, of paperweight and so much different things to make a quality product for you, and I'm super proud of that. Even though I didn't get the four that I wanted to, I'm giving you guys one really good product, and for that I'm considering it a win and not a loss. Hey friend, I got some exciting news to share with you.

Leslie:

I want you to mark your calendars for Friday, november 29th, as we're revealing something that will transform how you connect with God's word the Soap the Gospels Journal. This journal will transform how you connect with God's word. Soap stands for Scripture, observation, application and Prayer. A simple yet powerful way to study the Bible. You write down a verse, reflect on what it means, apply it to your life and then end with a prayer. It's intentional, transformative and helps God's word speak directly to your heart. This guided journal takes you through Matthew, mark, luke and John, helping you to grow deeper in your faith. It's beautifully designed, with a hard cover, gold foil accents, a pen holder and even a small little prayer pocket inside to hold your most precious prayers. Pre-orders are open December 2nd. Don't miss your chance to start your journey with the Soap the Gospels journal. Visit yourjoyfulordercom and subscribe to my email list to learn more. So, again, this is how you are looking at your wins and your losses and the lessons learned in between that. There's lots of lessons that I just shared with you right now.

Leslie:

Now I'm going to go on with a couple of other ones that I made. Now let me move on with some more of the goals that I had. Another one was to launch and rebrand my website. So we rebranded the website and then we've launched Shopify, which is where you can shop for the Soap Journal right now. Another goal here's a big failure one right here.

Leslie:

I made a goal to publish 12 new blogs. I wanted to get my blog up and going, and part of that was to get me into the writing process I knew that God was stirring a book on me and to write more, and I wanted to get some practice in by doing blogs. I got zero. Like big failure right there. I published zero blogs. I wrote zero blogs this year and I kind of realized you know what this writing blogs? It's just not my jam anymore, it's not a season that I want to be in anymore, it's not a direction that I want to go, and I realized like, yeah, I have this goal, but it's not going to happen this year because I just wasn't passionate about it and I just felt a different direction was coming. However, what I do have, I use the app called Notion on my iPad and I have like pages and pages and pages of notes of writing, of quotes and ideas for my book. So I kind of shifted here. Lesson learned Blogs aren't my thing, but free writing is my thing, but free writing is my thing, and I use the Notion app for that, and I basically have a complete outline to my book on my iPad. All right.

Leslie:

Another goal read 12 full books of the Bible. Y'all, this is a goal I crushed. I've read 23 books of the Bible so far. I am reading 1 John right now. I will. I think I will have maybe read 25 by the end of the year or somewhere around there. But let's just say I crushed this goal.

Leslie:

Now this next goal read or listen to 24 books. I've only read and listened to 15 books. However, I replaced listening to you know, books with actually reading the Bible. So my morning routine it consists of reading the Bible and I typically would read a book for about 10 minutes, and that's where you know just being consistent in reading. Well, I kind of did away with reading a book and replaced it with just reading more of the Bible. So I don't want to say that that's a complete failure, because I just read more of the Bible books than I did non Bible books. So 15 out of 24 isn't bad. Some of those are audio. Actually, most of them are audible books, because sitting and reading is just like hard for me to do and it's just it's time consuming. But I did read some actual like page books also.

Leslie:

I had a goal of hiking 260 miles. I only hiked 168. Had a goal of taking four sabbatical weekends with my husband. Goal of taking four sabbatical weekends with my husband. Four out of four. We slayed that. I had a goal of leaving two community groups. I led three Another goal crushed. And then we had a goal of growing our media company, joyful Order Media. That's where my husband and I do like photography and video and we had a goal of growing it from bringing in this much money and this many clients to this much. And we crushed that goal. Like we went from x to triple x and that is just a fun goal that we have been keeping track of to see where we started and where we're at now and the lessons learned in that, like the content creation that we're able to make, the photography like, I blow myself away sometimes when I'm like I took that picture and I'm like, hey, pat on the back to me.

Leslie:

You know my husband. He is the true photographer. I always refer to myself as his backup photographer. But I sometimes surprise myself when I'm uploading pictures and I'm, you know, scanning through them to find that one image that we're going to give to the family is in their galleries and all of that, and I'm like, who took this picture? And then I look what camera it is and I'm like, hey, I took that picture. That's a really good picture. So the growth there has just been so much growth in our business, and not just like revenue and clientele, but in our skills as well, and that's something important to reflect back on when you are reflecting and looking at how your past year went.

Leslie:

Now, another big thing to reflect on and I put this early on I wanted you guys to write some things down. What are some of the blessings that God allowed you this year? I have a little section in my Asana that is called Big Wins and throughout the year. I just type in some big wins which were big blessings for us and I'm going to share a couple of them with you. One was that Steve, my husband he got promoted to COO of his company. Yes, he has a day job and he is the COO of the company. My son's team made it to nationals my oldest son he got hired for like a real job where he's talking in and out, real job where he's talking in and out.

Leslie:

We planned and executed an amazing 50th wedding anniversary for my in-laws. I launched the soap journal. I had a dream guest on my podcast, which is Pastor Bianca. If you guys haven't listened to that episode, you guys got to go back. I don't remember the exact episode number, but it was an amazing, amazing podcast and y'all got to go listen to that.

Leslie:

And then we had a random refund tax check just show up in the mail, y'all and it was a pretty significant amount, like it was just a blessing where God's just like bam, you earned this and we're like what. We were even scared to cash it y'all. We let some of that money just sit in the bank for like months because we were scared to touch it, that the IRS was going to come back and say like, oh, just kidding, that was not a check meant for you. But what a big blessing and there's tons more than what I just shared with you right now. I just shared with you right now, but, reflecting, it's so easy for us to sit and think of our failures, of what didn't go right over the year, and you know the direction where God is taking us. But it's always so pivotal in our goal setting that we sit, we look where are we? You have to do like a check in, and I advise that you do these check ins weekly, bi weekly, even monthly, so that you can continue to see what your progress is, adjust goals as you need to.

Leslie:

You know, like I have that goal of writing a blog, and I'm just like it's not going to happen. I wanted to share that with you, though, because I found an alternative, but the goal of that was to do creative writing. I just needed to get practice in writing. I kind of switched that goal and said, well, blog writing isn't for me and I'm not passionate about it, I'm not looking forward to doing it, but free writing, when I have ideas pumping my head, I just get my iPad and I start writing on my Notion app. So another thing that I just kind of want to bring up in all of this I'm not perfect, I fail. I mean you've read some of the goals. There's other goals that I said were just a little bit more personal, that I failed at.

Leslie:

Now, one thing that I want to point out with your goals, it is not about perfect timing. It's not until everything is perfect for you to start aiming for your goals. It's about making progress with where you're at and with what you have. Perfectionism kills more dreams than failure ever will, and if I waited for things to be perfect for me to start chasing after some of these goals and dreams that God put in my heart, like I wouldn't be talking to you here on YouTube, I wouldn't be talking into your ear, because I would still be sitting and saying, well, things aren't perfect yet. I don't know how to create a podcast, I don't have the technology to create a podcast. I don't know anybody that is running a podcast to teach me.

Leslie:

There's so many excuses that we can give ourselves as to why we are not chasing after our goals and our dreams that got put in our heart. Because we're waiting for things to be perfect, and I hate. I hate to like be the bearer of bad news here. Things are never going to be perfect for you. The timing is never going to be right, like everything is not going to be synced to where it's perfect to say, oh I'm, I'm going to start that business now, or we just have enough money to finally invest in this opportunity that we have. It's never going to be perfect. So, looking back at your failures, at your progress, at your accomplishments, and knowing that there's a lot of things that went on this last year that I can say, whew, I'm glad that this year is over. And I don't even know how I managed to accomplish the things that I did, because it was just a tough year.

Leslie:

I can focus on the bad things that happened this year, but when you track your progress, a lot of that stuff just kind of it goes like I don't want to say unseen, but you start to shift your perspective on what can and what will happen and the progress that you made, rather than the failures and what didn't happen. Okay, so I want to talk about why tracking goals matters. Again, I said it earlier we can't know where we are going unless we track where we have been. So tracking our progress helps us to stay accountable and it helps us to celebrate the small wins just along the way. Now there are some tracking tools. I wanted this episode to be practical, so I wanted to share some of the tracking tools that I use and other tools that are out there that will help you to create some type of system that will allow you to track them and make progress in them.

Leslie:

In today's world, there's so much in our hands, like there's so many apps on your phone that can help you to track. I truly enjoy my Asana app that I said that I use. Now I'm going to list out just some of the digital tools. One of them is Asana, and I will tell you right now. If you are not already on Asana, there is a fee for it. I got on Asana a few years ago and there was a free version back then. There was no longer a free version, however, because I basically was grandfathered into the free plan, so I am able to still use Asana for free. I am limited as to what I can do, but it works for me. There is another tracking app. It's called Trello. Trello is amazing too. I've trickled in it a little bit.

Leslie:

However, the big game changer for me this year came with MeisterTask. Meistertask it's web-based and it is an app and OMG, I am moving away from Asana and fully integrating MeisterTask next year for my goals. I already started like typing out my goals for next year, all on MeisterTask. Meistertask was introduced to me from my print school and Polly that I went through this print school with. She created an entire template that she shared with her students that we were able to upload, and it had every single task that we had to do to launch our product. Like, I mean, this board looks pretty crazy, but y'all, I love MeisterTask. It has been such a huge game changer for me and helping me to launch my product. So, podcast and goals are moving to MeisterTask in 2025. And there is a free version. I've been using the free version. Free version only allows you to have three projects my journals, my goals and my podcast, and that's all I need. So I'm happy with the free version, but check it out for sure.

Leslie:

Notion is the app that I use to write stuff down. It can be on your iPad. If you have an Apple pen, it lets you like write in there, so it's like a journal, and Notion is a great way and a great system to help you keep track. And then there is what if you're a Google user, there's Google Keep. I personally don't use Google Keep so I can't speak too much of this, but that is a recommended app also for a digital tool that you can use to track your goals If you are tracking your fitness and health. A Fitbit, your Apple Watch, myfitnesspals those are all ones that are great. I use Fitbit personally. I love my Fitbit. Looks like an Apple Watch, works like an Apple Watch. It's just like $400 cheaper than an Apple Watch. So Fitbit I love you know getting the little buzzes that reminds me to move your body but it's a great tool that helps me to keep track of my, of my health progress, basically journaling y'all.

Leslie:

Good old journal, pen and paper is another essential way of tracking your goals. Tired and true pen and paper will do that. Rhymed the tired and true paper and pen will do. Use a notebook. Get a bullet journal. Paper and pen will do. Use a notebook, get a bullet journal. There's also apps that you can kind of like trickle in, like that Notion has just a paper and pen option, which I do. There's also apps like Day One or Penzu. I haven't used those personally, but those are ones that were recommended, but you guys, I have, if you are, if you are on the YouTube, watching through the YouTube here I don't know if you'll be able to see this because I have a virtual background here, but, like I use journal still good old pen and paper where I write stuff down and it works for me.

Leslie:

So figure out a way to track what it is that you are working on. Paper and pen works phenomenally, and then just allowing yourself daily reflections Also create a habit of jotting things down that went well for you and areas that you need to improve. So this is a weekly planner that I use and there are sections on here for a weekly review, and and it says, like what tasks were not complete? What habits did you not pursue this week? What did you learn this week? So these are all things that I have in here that I can reflect on. And then it also says how can you improve this next week? How do you feel about your progress from this next week? There are so many different tools out there to help you to track your goals, and I will tell you a special tracker tool may be coming out next year. As I'm making that a goal. My goal is to get a planner out to you all next year that allows you to do this type of stuff. So we'll see this time next year if I'm celebrating that with you All. Right?

Leslie:

So I shared a little bit about how perfectionism can kind of kill your goals, right? So I want to talk about this for a little bit. There's perfectionism and the word until those are dream killers right there. How many times have you told yourself well, I'm not going to start working on that until the kids are older, or I'm not going to launch that business until I filed all the paperwork, or I'm not going to start investing in my business until I get a big lump of money Until you're waiting for things to be perfect. Again, I touched upon this a little bit earlier, but I want you to just kind of like sit here for a little bit, because I've been there and I've been there so many times and I want you to think right now what is holding you back, right now that you're saying until? What is holding you back when you're waiting for everything to be perfect? And I want you to write this down in your journal. I want you to tell yourself the lie that you are saying.

Leslie:

There is a goal or there is a dream that you have inside of you right now. It could be opening up a bakery, it could be writing a book, maybe it's launching a consulting business, maybe it is something of launching a non-profit to help people. There is something that is stirring inside of you, but you keep telling yourself well, I'm not going to work on this until I want you to write what that goal is down right now, and I want you to write the lies of until. What have you been telling yourself? Are you saying I'm not going to do this until the kids are older, or I'm not going to do this until you know I file paperwork.

Leslie:

The perfect little shop on the corner in the cute little quaint downtown area of Glendora or Covina or whatever little city you know, has that Hallmark feel to it where you want that cute little bake shop and you're telling yourself, well, I'm not going to open it until I see a spot open or I'm not even going to start working on my business until I file an LLC. And I can't file an LLC until I get money, like there's so many untils that you're telling yourself right now, but you can do something so small right now to move the marker forward in that goal. Now I don't know, and maybe you know you do want to launch that big shop and you want that cute little quaint shop in the downtown area where all the traffic is and you know everyone out there is hanging out on a Friday night during the farmer's market and they come in and they get to experience your beautiful little quaint bakery that has those fresh baked chocolate chip cookies ready to bite into. But you, like, you're waiting for the money, the shop, you're waiting for the LLC to be filed. What can you do today to move forward in getting closer to that dream? Can you maybe, like even just come up with a business name. You don't have to come up with a. You know you don't have to file your LLC, y'all I start. I'm gonna tell you a secret.

Leslie:

I ran my business for two years without any business legal paperwork, when I was selling clothes. Yeah, it was about like two I almost want to say maybe three years, until I filed an LLC and actually did it legit. Now, is that the best way to do it? No, I'm not like telling you to do that, because there are some repercussions because of that. However, sometimes you got to just go with it and figure things out along the way. Were there some penalties? Actually, there was not any financial penalties from that, but I did have to invest money to file an LLC. Right, a lot of times. You just have to start.

Leslie:

You cannot wait until things are perfect. I used to sit on things for a long time because I'm like, well, I'm not going to start until the kids are older, when everybody was home and I was like, there's no way I'm going to record a podcast right now. I'm not going to start a podcast until the kids get back to school. And I did, I waited. I wish that I had started it much sooner. I don't regret when I started. I could have started a lot earlier and I could have been along in the journey, and who knows if I had an extra year under me, who knows where I will have been now. But I kept saying not until things go back to normal, not until the boys go back to school. I use that as an excuse, and I wasn't trusting God in that.

Leslie:

I read a quote today. It was from Stephen Furtick. Here it is Every time you make an excuse about something God called you to do, you worship your weakness instead of worshiping the God who gives you strength. Y'all like right there, mic drop. You're focusing on your weakness with your excuses. If God told you to do something and you've been sitting on it because you're like well, it's not perfect, I'm waiting until, or God, I don't know how to do it. Think about it. You start where you are with what you have Progress, not perfection. That's what you're aiming for. You want to make progress. No matter how small, progress is still progress. All right, let's keep moving along, y'all.

Leslie:

This episode is turning out to be much longer than I wanted it to be, but I'm kind of off script here a little bit. In case you haven't noticed, my husband's probably like racking his brains right now because he's like you know how many times he said, um, and so, babe, just leave it, let's just go with it. I'm having a real and raw conversation with my peeps here and I just I want you guys to imagine that we are just sitting and I'm kind of doing a coaching with you, all right, so about coaching, it is so pivotal for you to make progress in your goals by allowing yourself to get help, seeking a guide. You don't have to do it alone. Now let's just get real for a moment here. One of the biggest mistakes that we do is thinking that we have to achieve these goals all alone, by ourselves. It's a bigger flex or you find more success when you do it by yourself.

Leslie:

Now it's almost like a toddler, you guys, if you have children, you're going to know exactly what I'm talking about. You know, when you're a toddler, just your baby just starts to learn to walk right, like one years old. By one years old, they start to have this little personality, you know. They start to talk and just be their own little independent person. And then they start to learn to walk and all they want to do is walk by themselves. You know, and you have this toddler that wants to walk down a flight of stairs or walk up a flight of stairs, and you're trying to hold their hand and they're letting go of your hand and they're saying no, I do it by myself, I do it by myself, mommy, or they just let go. Right, my children.

Leslie:

Okay, I have two children. I have an older one, his name is Noah. A younger one, named Jacob, jacob, was the. I do it by myself, mommy, I do it by myself. Anything that he sought out to do when he was little walking, tying his shoe, reading, cooking, eat, like everything no, I do it by myself, I do it by myself. He's a very independent, like driven, stubborn child, strong willed, that everything was. No, I do it by myself, I do it by myself. I have no idea where he gets that from. I have no idea where he gets that from. Okay, I said that sarcastically because clearly he is my child.

Leslie:

That is me asking for help. I don't know why it is so hard for me to ask people for help, y'all. It's really hard and there could be some pride in that. There also is just the sense of like I don't want to bother people. You know, like, let me learn. I am a self-taught, self-learner, so I kind of feel that if I have to rely on others too much, that I am taking away the opportunities that I have as a teacher. I'm just, I just figure it out right, that's just how we roll.

Leslie:

But I shared with you about my goals and how I sought out guys. I did print school, I did a discipleship program, I did an apologetics course, I went to a writer's retreat, four different guides that helped me grow. And when you think about it, I mean when you look at the Bible, I mean Jesus had his disciples, he had people to help him, he had an entourage. Y'all Think of other people in the Bible. You have, like, even Moses had Aaron. There are people that came to help Jesus had 12 disciples that helped him do his ministry. And oftentimes I think because one, we can be so prideful and stubborn and not want help, and one, you are missing out on growth opportunities for yourself. But two, there is community when you come with other people right, and it's just finding the right people that can be behind you.

Leslie:

I've been big in community groups for a long time. I ran three community groups this last year with my church and I have found some of the most amazing people in my community groups. I've gotten plugged in and connected and I have found people that have come and supported me. As a matter of fact, one of the people that were the first to buy my journal like I cried. I sent her a voice memo of just crying. When I saw that it was her name that appeared as the first person that purchased my journal, because she's someone that I met in a community group and these are people that God wants to bring into community with you to not just love and support you, to love and support each other, but there is something that you each are going to have value to each other for, and that is something that I have learned these guides that I have personally sought out. This last year there was so much value that I got, but I also know that there was some value that I gave out in these communities as well.

Leslie:

So when you are looking to chase after your goals, it's important that you do allow people to come in. Maybe a coach just saying A coach is a great guy to come in and help you, and I want to actually share with y'all an opportunity that I am offering to my community. I am offering a free yes, I said free, that is free 99 coaching opportunity for just a handful of people that are ready to take action of their goals, like I'm talking, hit the ground running in January. And this is all for research, though, so I have to give you a little bit of what I am looking for. I'm looking for someone who is serious about pursuing their goals and that's going to be ready to commit to 30 days in the middle of January to middle of February. So we're going to go 30 days of you just really committing to trying to chase a goal, one goal, maybe three goals.

Leslie:

I don't want it to be more than three goals, because 30 days it's you know it's a short period. Now you do not have to complete the actual goal in these 30 days. You just have to make progress, and I am going to track your progress and I am going to create tools and resources to help you to get there. I just need people that are going to be committed, people that are going to be willing to share your research and data with me for a book. Yes, y'all, I'm writing a book that is all about taking action, so I need some research, so I need people that are willing to allow me to study them and use them in research for my book. Now, your real name can be used for the book. Your goals will be used for the book. I can change your name all completely, though, and you can be like an anonymous person in this research, but I am looking for people that are just like.

Leslie:

God has put this on my heart for a long time time, and I'm ready to really take action in this, and I just want to be able to track people's progress over 30 days and give them the tools and the resources that they need and see what progress you make. Now, if you are committed to doing this, please, please, please send me an email. So, if you are ready to commit for one month of free coaching from me and tracking you got to track your goals reach out to me, go to the show notes. You can send me an email. If you are listening on Apple, you can even hit the send text and let me know I will be putting things on social media and sending out to my email subscribers. Also, there will be a form that you got to fill out to get your information. But this is something that is upcoming that I'm super excited to share with you, because I want to help people to take action of their goals, and I think a big thing that people miss and why they don't pursue their goals is because they don't know how to track and put systems in place to help them to get there. So that's where me, your girl, your coach comes in and will help. So let's see what we can do in 2025 to get you to reach your goals.

Leslie:

Now I just want to close in some final thoughts here. As you reflect on this past year, remember to give yourself grace. Also, celebrate what you've accomplished and learn from what didn't work. I am sure that there are tons of lessons that you are walking away with in this last year and, most importantly, keep going. God is not done with your story. There is so much more that he has to write for you. You just have to keep pursuing him and the more that you pursue God, the clearer the vision gets for you, the more that you can hear his voice and understand and, kind of you know, discern what it is that he is putting in your heart to do Now. I want to challenge you Again. We're taking action and this is a kind of hands on workshop let's let's call it that but I want to challenge you as soon as this episode ends.

Leslie:

I want you to take at least 15 minutes today to reflect on some of the things. If you wrote some of the journal prompts down that I told you, go back and maybe add a little bit more as you were thinking, maybe there's some things that came up that I shared in here. But I want you to reflect on your year, get your journal sit down and I want you to jot these three things down. All right, first, I want you to write down a couple of things that you're grateful for just in the last 24 hours. Write down three things that you are grateful for. Next, I want you to write down three lessons that you learned this last year. What are three lessons that just really resonated with you and helped you become the person that you are at the end of 2024. And then, lastly, I want you to write down one goal that you want to carry into the new year. Just one, it's that simple. Now, friends, thank you for hanging in, thank you for letting me just be that voice in your ear.

Leslie:

This was a very kind of unscripted conversation that I wanted to have with you at the end of the year and share just how I wrap up my year and really reflect on what God is doing and stirring in my heart.

Leslie:

That prepares me for the next year, almost spend like all of December sitting with reviewing, reflecting what's new, what's to come and, as I shared before, I already started typing in a lot of my new goals and new perspectives and Meister Tasks for 2025. And I am excited for 2025 and just the new chapter that God is going to write in my story, and part of that is me actually becoming a writer and I'm putting it out there to y'all. I oftentimes don't share big goals with my community because, I'll be honest, if I don't hit it, there's like some pride in that. Where I'm like I'm a goals coach, I got to, you know, make sure that I'm hitting these big goals and doing all that, and I'm putting it out there Now. My goal is not to have a book released by next year. I'll tell you that. My goal is that by the end of September of 2025, I will have a first draft of my book.

Leslie:

That's my goal. It can take years for books to get published, but it starts with just getting a draft out there and from that I'm sure I will start working through edits. But by September 30th of 2025, my goal is to have the first draft of my book completed and I'm throwing that out there to y'all because God's still writing my story. God is still connecting me with people and putting me in spaces and places where I'm going to be able to impact people and others are going to impact me. There are so many people that have impacted me throughout this year. I wish I could sit and just name off so many of them, but I do want to say that you that are listening right now, you have been a huge impact on my 2024.

Leslie:

This podcast almost ended in May. If you guys have been a longtime listener, you might have known in May I kind of left the podcast the last episode of the last season with a we're taking a break and I don't know if I'm coming back, kind of thing. If you are listening today, messages and just a sermon from God telling me that it's not done, and then my husband he's like we're not done, this isn't done, we got to get to at least 100. And here we are 94 episodes in. We're about to hit 100 episodes in January, which we're going to have a huge celebration over. But I just want to tell you thank you.

Leslie:

You have been part of this journey with me for the last couple of years. I have been the voice inside your ear and there are oftentimes that I get messages or I see some of your beautiful faces, because I know you guys personally and you come up to me and you're like Leslie, that episode was just awesome. Or you know the messages that you send, like this was a great one. They mean the world to me. Y'all. They really really do. So thank you for just being part of this community and let's make 2025 the best year yet. So thank you for just joining me on this journey, hearing me kind of rant and ramble a little bit, but let's step into the new year renewed, refreshed and ready to take action. Until next time, friends, keep chasing joy.