Episode #7 Reflect, Plan, and Achieve: Your Path to a Fulfilling 2025

Kara Sharon encourages listeners to start planning for their best year yet by diving into reflection and goal setting for 2025. She emphasizes the importance of dreaming big and gives listeners permission to envision their ideal lives without restrictions. Throughout the episode, Kara shares engaging exercises designed to help identify personal values, visualize a dream life, and create a "no limits" list that encompasses aspirations in various areas of life. By exploring scenarios and reflecting on what truly lights them up, listeners can uncover patterns that will guide their goals for the upcoming year. Ultimately, Kara motivates everyone to embrace their dreams and take actionable steps towards making them a reality.

Takeaways:

• Successful people start planning their goals well in advance, ideally before the new year.

• Reflecting on past failures can empower you to dream bigger and take risks.

• The week between Christmas and New Year's is perfect for reflection and goal-setting.

• Engaging in random acts of kindness can create significant positive impacts on others.

• Visualizing your ideal day can help clarify your goals and aspirations for the future.

• Creating a 'no limits list' allows you to explore your deepest desires without constraints.

TRANSCRIPT 

Hey there, I'm Kara and welcome to Design your Dream Life podcast where we. Dive in and explore how you can use practical personal development to up level your life.

Whether you are looking to have better or deeper relationships, fix your problems with money, learn to love yourself unconditionally, leave a dead end or high stress career, or just want more happiness in your life. My friend, you are in the right place.

Are you ready? Hello my friends and welcome to another episode of Design youn Dream Life. My name is Kara Sharon. I am your host.

I am so excited that you are here today. Today we are diving into some of my favorite things which is reflection and goal planning and how to make next year your best year ever.

So many people don't start thinking about 2025 until January and to me then you' behind. You know, the most successful people start planning beforehand.

I mean businesses start planning generally a quarter which is three months before the next quarter.

So today I want to encourage you to grab your notebook, grab a pen, because in a little bit we are going to do some super fun exercises and I want you to be ready when we dive in. So let's just talk about even myself for a second. I love planning. I am definitely a planner, I'm definitely a dreamer.

And I feel like you might be either one of those things if you're listening to this podcast. And I want to, before we dive in, just, I want to give you permission to dream the biggest dreams.

You know, one of the things that we've always done in our house since our children have been so tiny, we always ended their their night when we would go in and say goodnight would be dream big dreams. Because we always wanted to encourage them to just always be a dreamer. Shoot for the moon. Because even if you miss, you might hit the stars.

I love that quote. I don't remember who said that quote, but I do love that quote and I really, really believe that.

And I think that so many of us, we just, we go along with life and we might have some dreams, maybe we accomplish a few goals, maybe we don't. Maybe you're like me and you have failed miserably so many times and for some reason that has allowed you to start playing small.

And so today I want to encourage to open yourself up to a bigger version of you and playing at a larger level in 2025. And I will tell you something, just because you have not hit your goals in the past doesn't mean that you should stop dreaming big, right?

Because then you give up.

And you know that if you have some dreams deep down inside yourself, man, you wouldn't have those ideas and those thoughts if you weren't met on some level to be able to go for them. And everyone has their own path. So maybe you went for something and you didn't get it.

But I firmly believe that then that's part of your journey and it's going to lead you to somewhere else. You know, I've had a lot of failure, a lot of letdowns, a lot of things, but I wouldn't. A lot of negative things is what I was going to say.

But I wouldn't trade any of those things. All those hardships, all those heartaches, all of that crap, I wouldn't trade that because it's gotten me to where I am today.

And I believe I am where I should be.

And so if you are in a place where you're not like on the path that you think you are and you're afraid to dream bigger or you're afraid to put yourself out there, man, I wish I could just give you courage through this microphone, but I want you to try and give yourself courage and also permission to open yourself up again because it is so, so, so powerful.

And I'll tell you, one of the biggest, most productive weeks of the year in my opinion is that week right between like right after Christmas and before New Year's, like, what a magical week, right? People sometimes call it the dead week, you know, between Christmas and New Year's.

But strategically speaking, I know even in business it's such a great time to reflect and look at, at where you want to go and really focus in on the year that is coming up. So I want to dive into a little mini exercise and we're going to do that in just a minute.

But so if you do not yet, friends, have a pen and a paper, please go and get that. And then because we're going to do this very soon and I don't want you, I'm going to be rapid firing questions at you and I want you to answer them.

And I think if you are listening to this while you're driving or doing something, come back to this timestamp.

I think we're like six minutes in and come back to this part and re listen to it again and actually write down your answer because it's so much more powerful if we can write things down. Okay, friends, we are about to dive into what I like to call the Dream Life Design Sprint.

All right, so again, get your notebook, your pen, find a quiet spot and let's map out what really lights you up. No filtering, no being realistic. This is your permission to dream big. All right, so there's a few parts to this.

We're going to go into part one right now. So part one is a values speed round. So first up, we're playing with what I like to call the gut check game.

And I'm going to give you some rapid fire scenarios. And I want you to write down your instant reaction. No overthinking the things that first come to mind is the correct answer.

So here are the scenarios. Okay, I'm going to give you five. So some people like to write down 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Some people just want to go. But there are five scenarios.

Now again, first thing that comes to mind after I say these things. Okay, so scenario number one. It's Saturday morning. What's your perfect first hour look like? I'm going to say that one more time.

Scenario number one, it's Saturday morning. What's your perfect first hour look like? Is it working out? Is it quiet? Is it reading? Is it journaling? What is it for you?

What is that first perfect hour on a Saturday morning look like for you? Scenario number two. You just got a $10,000 bonus. Woo woo. Now, what is your first thought about spending it? How are you going to spend it?

Are you going to save it? Invest it? Are you going to buy something you've always dreamed of buying? What is it? You got this $10,000. What are you going to do with it?

Okay, scenario number three. Your friend calls with amazing news. What do you hope they're about to tell you? So they're calling you.

Your best friend calls you up or sends you a text message with amazing News or maybe FaceTime, whatever. What do you hope they're about to tell you? And then number four, scenario number four. You have a completely free day.

Who do you want to spend it with? All right, you've got a completely free day. Who do you want to spend it with? And scenario number five, ready?

You're feeling totally fulfilled after work. What did you do that day? So you've had an amazing day. You feel lit, you feel energetically amazing. You feel so fulfilled. You had an awesome day.

What did you do that day? All right, so what I want you to do is I want you to look at your answers and what patterns, if any, do you see?

I want you to circle words that keep coming up or feelings that you repeat. All right, so take a second. You can even hit pause. Kara will be here when you get back. And Go over and have some reflection on some of your answers.

Then when you come back to me, when you are here, Part two we're calling the Time machine Journey. So now we're hopping into our time machine and we're zooming into December 2025. And if you can get comfy, close your eyes, if you're able to.

And I want you to listen to these prompts. You're living your dream life. What's the first thing you notice when you wake up? That's the first prompt. So you're living your dream life.

What is that, first of all, when we're closing our eyes? The feeling. What are you feeling in your body? For me, I know when I'm lit up, I can just feel this electricity running through my body.

I can feel my energy. But what is that first thing you notice when you wake up? Next, I want you to walk through your ideal day. What are you doing? Who's around you?

What is your perfect day look like? You know how they say? Is it basketball players? I can't remember. I'm not a huge basketball player fan or a huge sports fan, if I'm going to be honest.

My kids played competitive volleyball. I love that sport. But what was it? Is it Michael Jordan? I'm probably butchering this, you guys. So sorry.

But one of them, somebody, some, you know, awesome basketball player, said they visualize their perfect game before they play it. They. They're dribbling the ball. They see all the shots that. All of that. And I want you to do that right now.

I want you to close your eyes and I want you to walk yourself through your ideal day. What are you doing? Like, envision yourself getting up. Who are you with? What are you doing? And walk yourself through your perfect day.

What does that look like for you? And this might take a few minutes, so I'm going to be babbling in your ear. But what are you doing for work? What are you doing in your free time?

What are you doing that is making you feel so full and happy and alive? All right. And after you do that, think about, what are people congratulating you for? They are. When people see you, what are they like?

They're like, hey, oh, my gosh, it's so amazing that you're doing xyz. What are you doing? What are they saying to you? How are they congratulating you? And what makes you feel proud when you reflect on 2025?

What are the things that you are so proud of? Now again, we're in a time machine. We've Gone forward. What in 2025 when you're looking back, we're here in December of 2025 and you're looking back.

What is making you feel the proudest of the year of 2025 as it comes to an end? And what's different about your life compared to now? So what has changed? Okay, that is part two. Now part three is called the no limits list.

This is the last step. We're going to create your no limits list. So the only rule is, my friends, there are no rules.

So write down everything, everything that comes to mind of everything you want to be, everything you want to do, everything you want to have, and everything you want to give. Okay? And I want you to spend some time. So write down, be, do, have, give, and just brain dump, right? Just anything that comes to mind.

Go ahead, write all those things down. And again, if you need to come back to this later, this is an open exercise. I want you to start thinking about this again.

Who do you want to be, right? What characteristics, what roles? What do you want to do? What are your achievements and the actions and the things? What do you want to have?

What possessions or experiences do you want to travel the world? Do you want to buy property? Do you want to invest in stocks? Do you want to start another business or a business for the first time? Right?

Like what experiences do you want and how do you want to give? What kind of impact do you want to have? Do you want to.

Maybe you don't give anything right now and you're just like, I want to start doing some small random acts of kindness. I really believe giving can be as small or as big as you want. I'll touch on giving for just a second.

I am such a firm believer in random acts of kindness. I like doing them big or small, whether it is paying for somebody's order behind me in the drive through.

One that we love doing in our family is giving 100% tips if we go out to a nice meal. We've done that numerous times. And to watch it impact people has just been absolutely amazing.

I've had, yeah, just the most amazing experiences, which is crazy to me because I give a hundred dollar tip and this woman is like, I've been on waitress for like 25 years. I'm gonna pray for you for the rest of your life. You guys are amazing people. I've never had this happen.

This is changing my life so much, you know, like, it's. It's really crazy. And so I.

There are so many different ways that you can give I've also am donating a classroom that's a big one, and we're gonna go to Kenya this summer to help open that classroom. That's a huge impact that I am having, and it's one that was a goal of mine.

So, again, big or small, but maybe even giving is helping your neighbor shovel snow or rake leaves or a neighbor that is down baking brownies and delivering to them. Like, you can give on so many different levels. And this is the season of giving. So this is why I'm kind of harping on this a little bit. I just.

I really feel that there are so many people that could use some good love, and that love can come in any form of giving, and it is the season. And I think the best thing you can do is look in your heart and decide, how do you want to give?

And not even just in the future, but even giving through this holiday season.

All right, so now I want you to circle your top three values from part one, your biggest dream from part two, and your top three desires from part three. And these are your guiding stars for 2025, my friends. This is your guiding star. And again, you can come back. You can do this again.

If you don't have a whole lot of scribbles and you've just listened to this, listen, come back, put on some awesome, Some of your favorite tunes you've heard, all the questions I'm asking, write it all out preemptively, light a candle, do whatever, get that music going, and come back. If you didn't really do the exercise completely with me as I'm walking you through it, that doesn't mean that you. You can't do it.

So I would suggest making that time all right. And if you're brave enough, my friend, take a photo of your notes and put it somewhere where you'll see it daily. And here's the magical part, right?

Share one of your dreams with us on Instagram if you want. And our account is design your dream life today.

You could even use DreamLife 2025, because when we declare our dreams out loud, something powerful happens. So if you're brave enough, go ahead and share and tag us in a post that you are declaring your dreams for 2025.

And we want to be there along the way to cheer you on and support you. Because if there's anything, I believe. I believe you can choose and do anything want as long as you're willing to keep fighting for it.

And so whatever that dream is, I firmly believe as long as you keep working at it, you can achieve it. All right, so that's it for this week, my friends. Next week, I'm going to show you exactly to how to turn those dreams into reality.

With simple systems that has helped me create my freedom and my dream life. But for now, I want you to sit with those dreams. Let them marinate.

And remember, you wouldn't have these dreams if you weren't capable of achieving them.