38 Navigating the New Year: A Guide to Setting Intentions That Align with Your Values and Impact Your Community

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In this episode of the "New World Normal" podcast, host Debbie Harrell, the "question normal coach," delivers her first solo episode. She encourages listeners to shift from setting traditional resolutions to focusing on how they want to show up in life, emphasizing the importance of aligning with core values and understanding the broader impact of their actions. Debbie discusses the limitations of rigid goals and the influence of societal pressures, advocating for a more intentional approach. She provides a framework for reflection, choosing intentions, considering impacts, and taking action, aiming to foster personal growth and community connection.

Exploring How You Want to Be (00:00:00)
Debbie discusses focusing on how we want to show up in life rather than just goals.

Welcome to the Podcast (00:00:43)
Introduction to the podcast's mission of questioning societal and personal norms.

Debbie's First Solo Episode (00:01:45)
Debbie shares her excitement and nervousness about hosting her first solo episode.

Reflection on Resolutions (00:02:35)
Debbie reflects on the challenges of traditional resolutions and their effectiveness.

The Importance of Structure (00:03:57)
Discussion on finding the right balance of structure in goal-setting.

Connecting Goals to Core Values (00:05:08)
Emphasizing the need to align goals with personal values for sustainability.

Unintended Impacts of Goals (00:06:15)
Debbie encourages considering both intended and unintended impacts of new goals.

The Power of Intention Words (00:07:34)
Debbie discusses using intention words to guide personal growth throughout the year.

Reflecting on Past Experiences (00:10:00)
A framework for reflecting on the past year and setting intentions for the future.

Choosing Your Intention (00:11:05)
Encouragement to select an intention for the new year and consider its impact.

Setting Boundaries for Calm (00:12:36)
Debbie shares her goal of embodying calm and setting boundaries for mental health.

Year-End Special Offer (00:15:27)
Debbie introduces a special offer for creating a personal vision statement.

Closing Thoughts on Progress (00:16:36)
Debbie emphasizes progress over perfection as we approach the new year.

Thank You for Listening (00:17:11)
The unnamed speaker expresses gratitude to listeners and encourages sharing the podcast.

Connect With Me:

Debbie Harrell

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livemorealigned/

Connect With The Podcast

New World Normal

Website: https://thenewworldnorm.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenewworldnorm

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/new-world-normal/id1558776039

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ExvDQtv2gOVf0UX8mbAES

Transcript

0:00

Instead of focusing solely on what you want to do, let's explore a little bit about how you want to be, how you want to show up in your life, how you want to show up in the world shifting. It's just a little shift. It will allow us to connect deeper with our core values and consider the impact. Our new habit or goal is going to affect our lives, the people of the people around us in life, and then also how those ripple effects are going to roll out into the world around us. Welcome to the New World Normal podcast. I'm Debbie Harrell, your host, and the question Normal Coach. This podcast is all about examining our norms, whether these are societal norms or personal norms. These are the systems, the cycles and the patterns that are keeping us stuck there, often keeping us overwhelmed and under fulfilled. So if you're less than excited by the status quo and you're ready to create, change, disrupt, and do better. Challenging the norms we've all been told will make us happy. Asking the questions that we've been conditioned to ignore and change our lives and our communities for the better in the process, then stick around. As a lifelong questioner and someone who prefers to operate outside of the box, I have designed the space for us to do this together. The disruptor. The cycle breaker. The rebel. Welcome. And now for today's show. Hello and welcome back to the New World Normal Podcast. It's me, Debbie, your host. And today I'm doing something a little different. For the first time, my very first solo episode. That's right. Solo episodes are now a part of the New World Normal lineup. I'm not gonna lie. I'm equal parts excited and terrified, but I guess that's where they say the magic happens, right? So these solo episodes were going to explore topics that come up in my coaching practice. Things talked about in the new world, normal community, or even friendly reminders that I might need for myself. But as always, these conversations are going to conversations with myself. Anyways, I guess I'm having a conversation with myself and you at the same time. That'll align with our mission of always exploring, questioning, sometimes disrupting societal and personal norms, turning off likes, autopilot, creating new habits and systems that support us all a little better. This episode is airing in December. We are officially at the end of the year. Christmas is pretty much upon us, and this is the time of the year that many of us start reflecting and setting resolutions, maybe goals, intention, words for that bright, shiny new year ahead. But if we're honest, a lot of times these traditional resolution resolutions aren't always super effective. Why is that? There's probably lots of reasons, a few that come to mind for myself and things that I've witnessed in coaching. Sometimes the goals are too rigid and sometimes they don't have enough structure, so they might have too much structure and not enough structure. I feel like for the too much structure, it doesn't leave space for us to be human. I always feel it's really important to leave space for a relapse and have a plan. What am I going to do when I fall short? How am I going to regroup and continue on? And then of course, when you have when you lack enough structure, it doesn't define a clear path on how you're actually going to get to that goal. A lot of times the goals we set or the resolutions we choose are driven by external ideas of things we shouldn't do or things we shouldn't want. And many times, and I feel like this is probably the biggest one that gets overlooked, is how they're disconnected from our core values. Let's take the classic example of wanting to lose weight or eat better. On the surface, it sounds great, but unless you tie it to something deeper, like how it aligns with your values or how it will impact your life and the lives of others, um, it can feel a little empty and often unsustainable, right? When we get into that. If you don't have the plan for the relapse, that's one that that I feel like is really important to have a plan for a relapse because you're going to get off track, you're going to be human. And remembering that doesn't mean you have to give it up completely. You can't just get right back to it and make better choices the next day, and that'll make it a little more sustainable, because you understand that I might fall short on a day, that doesn't mean I'm going to be done with it. But what I'm here to talk about is I'm going to invite you to approach things a little differently this year, instead of focusing solely on what you want to do, let's explore a little bit about how you want to be, how you want to show up in your life, how you want to show up in the world shifting. It's just a little shift. It will allow us to connect deeper with our core values and consider the impact our new habit or goal is going to affect our lives, the people of the people around us in life, and then also how those ripple effects are going to roll out into the world around us. Roll out to ripples roll. Yeah, I guess they do. Let's go back to the example of wanting to eat better. Beyond the personal benefits of feeling healthier, maybe increased energy, feeling more comfortable in your body. It's also likely going to, um, impact how you show up as a consumer, right? Because if you're eating healthier, you're probably shopping differently. You're not buying the crappy processed foods. You're likely, um, buying more fresh foods, fresh vegetables, produce that might lead you to recognize the quality of the produce in your grocery store. Maybe you decide to start going to farmers markets. You meet more people in your community. It might open the door of sustainability and Environmental impacts that the way we shop. And that's just some things to think about. And I encourage you when you're thinking about the impact your new goal might have on yourself, your family, your community in the world. Don't just think about your intended impact like what you hope the impact will be, because that's great. But often there's unintended, um, impacts. So think of what your intended and your hope impact, but then also think of a few alternative impacts that might not be as obvious. And that serves a few purposes. It might encourage you more, but it also might prepare you for if there is an unintended impact that doesn't necessarily feel great. You'll be a little more prepared for that. So you won't have like just the idea of this one thing is going to happen. There's a wide range of things that could happen a little bit on intention words. I'm a big fan of intention words. I use them. But speaking of impact and unintended consequences, I have had those in the past. When I choose a word and then yes, that word shows up, but just not in the way I thought about it. So now I, I try to think more thoroughly. So a little bit about intention words. Um, they've gained a lot of popularity in recent years, and for good reason, because they're simple. Um, but they can be very powerful and help you stay grounded in an idea or a principle. Um, instead of a checklist of goals and intention, word offers a guiding guiding principle or a feeling to embody throughout the year. Um, in the past, for me, I've chosen words like joy, which ended up being more of a study of the idea of joy for me and how I was recognizing it or actually not recognizing it in my life. I've. I, um, enjoyed that. Enjoyed. Huh. That's funny. But here's the thing intention words alone also might feel too abstract because they don't have a clear plan. My my word. Last year I chose the word feel to encourage myself to move beyond intellectualizing my emotions and my life experiences and talk about unintended consequences or unintended impact. Um, it led to a year of feeling all the feelings. I had a lot of life experience that challenged me to feel things, which was it was work, but it was good work. I was given a lot of growth opportunity, and I don't always welcome it in the moment. But in hindsight, I was like, oh yeah, that was cool, I see that. Okay, so if you were thinking about if you're thinking about setting any goals or intention words or exploring impact you want to have. In this new year, I'm going to offer here a little simple framework. Start with reflecting. Reflect on this past year. What went well for you? What are the things you're proud of that you accomplish? Were the things you did that felt really good and aligned? What are some of the obstacles you faced? Were there any opportunities in that, those obstacles that you didn't recognize at the time? But looking back on them, you can see, oh, because that crappy thing happened, I was able to do XYZ. And that really helped me grow into someone that I admire and am proud of. Did you set any goals last year? How did you go about setting them? What were they? Were they did they have a lot of structure? Were they loosey goosey? How successful were you? This is a time to be honest but kind with yourself. This isn't about judging yourself. It's about building awareness about our Right here, right now. And what how you might interact with this new goal you're working on setting. I would also offer you to choose your intention. What do you want to feel or embody more this year? I am contemplating leaning into calm. I feel because I've been doing a lot of healing this year and it led to a tumultuous year, so I'm ready to embrace a steadier presence. I also am looking forward into the year that we could potentially have. Last time we had this president in the white House. They led to a lot of cycles of crises after crises encourage us to be outrage after outrage. And I don't want to fall into that pattern again. That's not to say that I'm not going to remain engaged and informed, but I'm going to work to take care of my nervous system so I can show up with more calm. And how will this intention ripple. So think about. Okay. So I want to show up with more calm. What what's the intention that you want to embody this year. What will that impact be on your relationships and your community? And how will that ripple out into the world around you? I just mentioned I wanted to embody more calm, make sure that I'm regulating my nervous system, and that will then create a grounding presence for others. Also, like I know when I'm around a person that's calm, even if I'm in an activated state, freaking out about something, just being in the presence of someone who is more calm will help you de-escalate. And I want to be a de-escalating force in this new year. I feel like there's going to be a lot of escalation of perceived crises and actual crises. And if we all start freaking out about it, or none of us are going to be effective about taking action, that's going to contribute to solutions rather than perpetuating more problems, more outrage. Okay, so going back to the simple framework I've offered reflect in an honest but non-judgmental way. Choose your intention. Decide what the impact you want that intention to have. Also, consider other impact that might not be as apparent to prepare yourself. And then how are you going to take action? Is there anything that you can do more of that will help you embody that intention? For myself, if I stick with calm, who knows? There's a few weeks before the end of the year I might change my mind, but if I stick with calm, I might lean more into my daily mindfulness practices and set clear boundaries for myself and others that protect my energy. And one way that's helpful is setting boundaries on the way I consume media, whether that's news or social media. I feel like that will setting boundaries around that will help me not get caught up in those cycles of outrage and crises, but making sure I am still staying engaged and consuming news and informing myself in ways that still protect my energy and my nicely regulated nervous system. Anyways, so if you are thinking about setting goals or intentions for the new year and you want a little extra support, I do have a year end special that I am running only $33. It was very important that I keep. It's very important to me that I keep all my offers accessible, but this has been a game changer for me. I actually created a personal vision statement, and so I'm offering that to you. And it's as I said, it's been a total game changer for me. It's been super grounding, a great reminder of who I am and what it is I'm trying to accomplish in those times when I get a little derailed by life, because life does that. So this would be a roadmap for you to align with your core values. It'll help you in clarifying the impact you're hoping to have on the world around you, and it'll help you stay focused on the things that truly matter to you. It will be a chance for you to go deeper and create a personalized guide for your year ahead. In addition to the personalized vision statement, you will also get 52 affirmations. So that's an affirmation for each week of the new year. Yeah, I think it's really cool. I'm very excited about it. You can of course find all the info in the show notes or in my link Lincoln bio on my Instagram. So yeah, check it out. And in closing, I just want to remind you that this is about progress, not perfection. As we move into this new year, let's stay grounded and our values embrace our intention and focus on the impact we want to create. What kind of world we do we want to live in. How are we taking steps to build that world every day and create our normal? And if you do choose an intention, weird. I'd love to hear about it. Either share it with me on social media. I'm mainly on Instagram. Do show up on TikTok sometimes. And if you're ready to level up with that new personalized vision statement, check it out. It's going to be a permanent offering for me, but it will only be at this$33 until the end of the year. And as always, thank you for being here and choosing to live your life with intention. And let's make 2025 our most impactful year yet. Thank you so much for being here and for listening. To the New World Normal Podcast. I really appreciate each and every one of you. Hope you enjoyed what you heard today, and if you did, feel free to head over to Apple or Spotify and leave us a review. It's a very easy way to help us get the word out about the show. And if there is anyone in your life who might benefit from hearing the information that we shared today, please send them this episode. Let's get the word out that normal isn't always better. A lot of times it's what's keeping us overwhelmed and under fulfilled. Let's keep questioning it together. Thanks again.