[00:00:00] Rebecca: Hello and welcome to episode 57 of the Rebecca Saunders Show. We are coming up very fast, to the last few weeks of 2022. Last week's episode was very much around the magic of space and the importance of space and what it brings you personally, energetically to your personal life and to your business life.

[00:00:22] And so today's episode, I wanted to explore how I prepare for the year ahead. Next year for me is set to be a really big one. But it's also set to be filled with a lot of creative space, very intentionally. November is a time for me that I sit and I reflect on the year just gone, what I've been involved in what's worked, what hasn't, you know, all the usual stuff when it comes to reviewing the year.

[00:00:53] But it also is one of those times where I literally think about what I want to be doing more of and what I want to be doing less of. And so that's where I start all my preparation for 2023. it sounds super simple. What do I wanna do more of? What do I wanna do less of? Cuz that gives me a list of, particularly in the less of things, gives me a list of things for me to go, okay, do I need to be doing that still?

[00:01:18] Like, is doing that activity actually moving the dial? Is it actually giving me the impact that I want to have? And is it just the task that I just don't enjoy doing personally or you know, is it a task that isn't having any impact at all on the bottom line of the business isn't having any impact in the way that we show up in the world?

[00:01:38] Is it a task I'm just doing, but out of sheer. process right out of sheer, just, you know, churning processes been in place for a while, and we are just keeping doing it without actually thinking it through. So if that's the case, then I take that list and I go, you know what, I'm not gonna do that next year.

[00:01:55] Like, that's just a, we're just gonna take it away, put it in the bin, forget about it. We're just not gonna do those tasks. [00:02:00] But for other tasks, I go. You know, I don't enjoy doing them, but they do move the needle on the dial. They do push us forward. They do ensure that we're showing up and having more of an impact, but I just don't enjoy doing them

[00:02:12] then I look at who I can outsource those things to, and it's important for me to outsource to either external contractors or external agencies who, for me, understand why I'm doing what I'm doing, understand the ethos of my business, understand the impact I wanna make, understand the target audience I'm trying to reach.

[00:02:36] And they make me feel like a v I p. I go above and beyond to ensure that all my clients get their video ninja experience. If they're making videos with me, they get me wholeheartedly and presently when they're booking in power hours or coaching sessions. . And so I wanna feel like I'm getting that time and you know, I'm deserving of that time.

[00:02:57] I'm paying for that time. I wanna feel like a v i P client. I want the experience from my suppliers that I give to my own clients. And so that's a really big thing for me when I look at outsourcing the year. And so that's like really the starting point, those fundamentals. But it's not just work tasks for me, I also look at personal tasks.

[00:03:16] You know, what are the things that have really lit my soul on fire this past year? What are the things that I've really, really, really enjoyed doing? Who are the people that I love to hang around who really lights me up and fills my cup? All of those things I look at and go, what was so amazing about those?

[00:03:33] How can I recreate something similar moving forward. So, for me it's very much around having a monthly dinner at my house where I love to cook and I invite friends. And it's all about that creativity in the kitchen for me and the connection around the dinner table. And so I deliberately make space and time to put those things into my diary so I forward think the next 12 months and I go,

[00:03:58] Where am I gonna [00:04:00] craft time in my calendar for the things that are important to me? So those things include that monthly dinner with friends. Those things include taking time away, both by myself, with my husband and with friends on long weekends.

[00:04:13] Let's put those in the calendar so they actually get done. There's a post-it note that's been on my desk for the best part of two years, and it says, prioritize your self-care. And I found over the years that if I don't put these things in place, I get to a point where I can get really, really burnt out. And I am the last person that I put at the forefront of my mind for looking after.

[00:04:39] I'm constantly giving, giving, giving, and I don't really give myself the time, or I haven't traditionally given myself the time to actually recoup, reset, recharge, reenergize, all of those things that I need to do to ensure that I'm showing up to my absolute best. So those things go in the diary first. Those weekends away.

[00:04:59] Those spa days. I give myself a quarterly spa day and it's down the road at the Fancy spa and I've given myself that luxury, I guess that little luxury because I go there and I have that day at the spa with all of those treatments as a reward for hitting the goals and targets that I set for each quarter.

[00:05:17] So I put that in the diary cuz I know I'm gonna smash the targets. I'm gonna put them stretch targets out there, but I know it's gonna happen. And so I put those things in the calendar. I mark in where I needed to go for my nails, appoint nail appointments. I've got friends I know that book in their hair appointments.

[00:05:32] Like literally, we'll go in about now and map them all in the diary for the following year so that it's done. They're prioritizing their self care and making sure that they're gonna constantly show up to be the best they can possibly be when they're showing up for their clients, for their friends, and for their families.

[00:05:50] And so the importance of this really is about always being able to show up your best for the people around you. You don't want your friends and family to [00:06:00] always get, you know, the dregs of you cuz you've given everything to your clients and to your business. So you want to ensure that you're recharging alone so that you can spend time with those people and give them the best.

[00:06:11] So it's friends, family, and clients always get the best of us. So that goes in to my calendar. I mark in when I want to take holidays. These are non-negotiables I've taken from December to January. Next year I have taken a good four or five weeks off this year and next year I'm gonna change it to eight.

[00:06:30] We're gonna take the whole of December and January off and I am so excited to give myself that break and I pop short things and other holidays in the mix so that I've got them in the diary because if we don't put them in the diary, time's just gonna get away from us, and they just don't happen. So I sit down with my husband and we plan out where we're gonna go. When we can lock holidays in.

[00:06:53] He gets them locked off with his work. I've got them in the calendar, so they're non-negotiables for me, and they're in there. We know we're gonna get breaks. The next thing I do is get a little bit more creative, I guess. . I sit and I go, well, what would my ideal working week look like? You know, we're building businesses to live the dream life, to build our dream life, to live our best lives, right?

[00:07:17] So I don't feel anymore that I need to be chained to my computer or chained to my phone or my laptop or all of the things. And so I've instigated a couple of things which I've started perculating on over the last sort of six to eight weeks at the end of 2022. But what I'm really gonna push for in 2023, and I've got friends around me that are holding me accountable to this.

[00:07:39] Number one is I am making Tuesdays to Thursdays, my client facing days. That's where we're gonna do all productions, all coaching calls, all VIP days all power hours. They're all gonna go Tuesday to Thursday. So I am on 120% of those three days solid. On Mondays [00:08:00] I'm giving myself time to be creative, to podcast, to write, to do whatever the hell I want

[00:08:06] really. Like just set it as to be creative and then Fridays, I'm having them off. I'm just taking 'em off and doing my thing. Because I found that the more space I give myself, the more creative I am, the more present I am, the more excited I am about the work that I'm doing and the more impact I can have on the world.

[00:08:26] So, I show up better for my clients. I show up better for my friends and family and I feel much more alive. So put that in the calendar. I've put that in. I've got sacred time for exercise morning and evening. I'm ready. It's a bit of a structured week but it's giving me space for clarity, connection, and creativity, which is super important.

[00:08:47] The next thing I've been trialing is what I'm out and about on the road is not traveling with my laptop charger. Now, I know it's gonna set some alarm bells off for a few people, but what if you charged your laptop overnight and took it out with you fully charged for the day, and then when it died, that was the end of your work.

[00:09:10] I've been trialing it and so far touching wood, there's been no fires, nothing has gone wrong, nothing has badly happened. So I'm make that time. I'm conscious that the time I have when I've got charge in my laptop needs to be switched on time. , it forces me to be focused and use that time wisely. Use that time well, but it also means that when it's finished and it's over, like that's it.

[00:09:33] I'm done. I don't have a charger with me. I can't keep going and just constantly burning out. I know that I operate really, really well in short stints, and so I've given myself these hacks to ensure that I'm showing up in the best way possible. so I'm no longer carrying around my laptop and a whole heap of charging cables for different things and different adapters, cuz I don't need them.

[00:09:56] It's worked for me so far and it's gonna work into 2023. [00:10:00] And I encourage you to explore similar things. You know, what are the things that you're doing out of share wheels in motion type scenario. What are the things that you can stop and start doing differently? They're the really core things for running my week.

[00:10:14] I've got in place when I can be creative. I've got in place when I'm gonna be working. I've got those holidays in place. And then I start getting a little bit more sort of, I guess, bit more abstract and I start putting together a vision board. Historically, I love cutting up

[00:10:29] magazines and sticking them onto boards and doing all that fun stuff. But I just don't buy that level of magazines anymore. I don't have that level of newspaper clippings, so I actually do it online. I find the clips, you know, I'm walking and spending time in nature, and I'm thinking about what the next year will look like, and I can visualize it in my mind.

[00:10:49] So I go and find images that will represent that, you know, that represent for me last year it was getting the country house, getting married, getting a dog ensuring that I'm spending time outside in nature, doing some hiking. I've got this mood board as a screen saver on the back of my computer, and that's why I now do it digitally.

[00:11:10] So I find those images online, Google, Pinterest, all of the places. And then I use Canva, my most favorite software in the world, and I create a mood board to the dimensions of my computer screen. And I pop all the pictures in. I make it look pretty. I've got my word of the year in the middle of the screen.

[00:11:31] And I build out what I want the year to look like, what I want to achieve in that year. And it is so rewarding to be able to see it and open it up and, and see that every single day and be able to tick things off. And I might actually do a video on this later.

[00:11:47] I can switch out those stock photos for real photos of experiences that I have had this year. Oh, that feels so good to say and to see it come [00:12:00] to life. Oh, I'm a huge believer that if you can see your dreams and you've got those post-it notes up, you've got those pictures on the walls of what you're aspiring to do and why you're wanting to create it and what you're wanting to create.

[00:12:13] The more you see it, the more you remind yourself that that's why you're doing what you're doing. The easier it is for it to achieve to be achieved, I should say. And you know, if you can see those images and you can see them coming to life, it is such an incredible feeling. So take some time, pick your word for the year.

[00:12:32] think about what that word means to you and why that word's really important and create that vision board for what the next 12 months looks like. Because this isn't about the tactile, howtos, task orientated stuff. This is about the bigger picture. The fun, the passion, the soul stuff that makes you really like your soul on fire.

[00:12:51] So what are the things you want to experience over the next year? What are the big goals you wanna knock off your list If you've got a dream car that you want to get and ensure you've saved the money for, earn the money for who, you've got a trip that you've been wanting to go on and now borders are opening and flights are available.

[00:13:08] You can go and do all of that stuff, be creative, put it on a vision board, see it every day, bring it to life. My vision board is the background of my main computer, of my laptop, and I have a printed version that I laminate that comes with me when I travel and I stick it on the wall. I wanna be able to see that every day.

[00:13:27] Cause it's so important for me to be able to see those goals and why I'm wanting to achieve or what I'm wanting to achieve. Every single day. It reminds me why I wanna do it. And I guess that then brings me to the next thing in terms of always seeing your goals. And you've heard me talk about this before, if you've been a regular on the show champagne bottles at the beginning of December, I buy my case of champagne.

[00:13:52] I buy my 12 bottles of Verve Cleco in boxes. It's really important for me that they're in boxes and [00:14:00] I write out my big 12 milestones for the year. So these are split up into several different categories. I have rituals for myself. There's a bottle that's marked open on your birthday.

[00:14:14] There's a bottle that's marked open on Valentine's Day. There's a bottle that I mark with drink on Christmas morning, and there's a bottle that I mark with putting up Christmas decorations. So I take four out for the really fun stuff that I like to just celebrate each year going, you know what? I deserve this.

[00:14:31] It's a special day for me. I enjoy it. I've taken four post-it notes and I've put that there. I then divide up the other bottles. in terms of big, crazy goals personally and big crazy goals business wise. So one year for me it was hit the seven figure mark. And I tell you that bottle of champagne sat in my fridge for a very, very, very long time.

[00:14:52] And every time I opened the door, I was reminded that that's the goal I was going for. We had buy a puppy that was on it. So when we got Bailey, our dog, we opened the bottle of champagne. We had buy the country estate. we'd been looking for a country house and dreaming about it for such a long time that when that offer was accepted, the bottle of champagne got popped.

[00:15:12] So one of those things, both personally and professionally that you want to achieve. You know, you've been working hard for, striving for, can see in your mind's eye and go, I want that. And I want to celebrate getting there cuz it's gonna be a hard slog to get there. And by golly I deserve to celebrate.

[00:15:31] Buy a champagne, stick your post-it notes on it with your goals and pop them in the fridge. Cuz again, opening that fridge every day and seeing those goals really will help bring them to life. And then the final thing I do, which some people think it's a little bit wacky, but I love it. I write a list of 52 things I want to do in the year.

[00:15:53] Now these aren't big, scary, audacious goals. These aren't massive, massive things. Cuz I can hear some of you now [00:16:00] going 52 things. Oh my gosh. Like how do you fit this all in and still spend time with friends and family? These 52 things comes from a very simple methodology. There are 52 Saturdays. 52 Sundays.

[00:16:16] There are 52 weeks in the year, and I don't wanna waste a week. These 52 things to me couldn't be as easy as booking the bloody dentist appointment. You know, making sure that you actually put it in, you've diarized it, you can take it off a list. What are the key things you wanna do that year? I'll give you a list of examples of stuff that I've done

[00:16:38] 2022. I'm still compiling the list for 23, but 2022 is very much around I had on there A hot air balloon ride. Go to Necker Island. Spend time out in nature, walk the Lara Pinter, go on a honeymoon, get married, book the dentist. See my family. Who in the uk I couldn't do that during Covid, so I had a whole random list.

[00:16:59] Do Christmas in July, take a cooking class learn how to make dumplings the traditional way. All these little things I want to do gives me a little list so at the end of the year I can look at it. Heck, I've achieved that and that's really cool. I have a template for it. If you wanna go to rebecca saunders.com/ 52, you can download the template and pop your own things in.

[00:17:20] I run mine both digitally and I print out a copy and just tick them off again, I have things around me, on my walls that show me and remind me what I'm wanting to create and achieve and, and do and experience. And so I'm very much a, if I can see it, I can believe it and I can make it happen. So I hope, I really hope that, you know, me sharing how I plan a year, you know, both from business, tactile task things all the way through to the big creative stuff and adding the fun and space and creativity back in

[00:17:50] has inspired you to create your own mood board, to dream big and pop it out there for the world to see, to buy your favorite champagne, even if it's just a [00:18:00] bottle. Stick on that big goal and stick a post-it note on it and pop it in your fridge to see it every single day until you achieve that goal.

[00:18:07] Write that list of 52 things that you wanna do. It could even be, you know, taking the kids to a swimming carnival or, you know, taking your dog on a four wheel driving adventure or going somewhere on that long weekend with your husband that you've been talking about for a really long time. You know, all those things that are, it'd be really good one day if.

[00:18:27] Put them on a list, bring them to life. Make them happen. Make 2023 your best year yet, and it's all about that fine integration between business and personal life. Make it fun, make it worthwhile, and enjoy every minute of it. Life for living. Go out there and live your best life and make 2023 your best year yet.