I'm your host, Amy Dardis. And in today's episode, we are diving into the topic of vision building and goal setting for our life and our business. And so last episode, we talked about clarity and really positioning ourselves to be in a space where we are canceling out the distractions and the noises of this world and really seeking clarity or a time of clarity, making room, making that space in our life in order to really seek direction and guidance and God's will for where we go next. And in this episode, talking about really painting a picture of what that looks like. So this is something that really changed my life, I feel like. This was something that I actually first discovered or started doing after I read the book Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. And in that, the habit number two is called Begin with the End in Mind. And so Stephen Covey talked about writing out a personal missionslash vision statement for your life. It talked about kind of like painting a picture of your life and where you wanted to be and what you wanted it to look like and the type of person you wanted to be, and writing that out as like actually being detailed about that, like really making a very clear picture of this. And so I don't remember exactly how old I was when I did this, but for the first time. So for the first time, I wrote out, I looked at different areas of my life. So I looked at, you know, what did I want my home life to look like? What did I want my marriage to look like? What did I want my business to look like, my financial life to look like, my health life to look like? I wrote out all of these areas of what good or successful or meaningful meant to me in those areas. And the first time I ever did that exercise, I was made painfully aware of how much my life did not look like that at the time. And I was like, wow, I have some work to do. I am not that kind of mom. I'm not that kind of wife. I'm not that kind of homemaker. But that exercise was so helpful for me because I was like, okay, well, what do I need to do to start working towards making sure that my life does look like that? Like now that I have this clear picture, what do I need to do differently or stop doing so that I start to actually say, this is what my life looks like? And if I'm writing out this picture of what I want my life to look like, why doesn't it look like that now? And what's stopping me from making sure that it does look like that? And I realized that what was stopping me was me. It was my own bad habits, it was my own tendencies and mindsets, which was, hey, great news for me. I could actually do something about that. I could actually work towards that. And I, I think through this process, started to realize how visual of a person I am. That up until that point in my life, I'd never really painted a picture of what I wanted my life to look like. And this exercise that he talked about actually forced me to sit down and really be very clear, very specific. And for me, it helped me to really break down these areas, which I'm gonna share with you in a little bit. But by doing that, what I learned over through the years was that once I had this clear idea in mind of not only what I wanted my life to look like, but the type of person that I wanted to be, it really started to help guide my decisions and it helped give me this why behind making better choices or stopping certain things. Like there's, I remember at this time in my life, my kids were young. They were probably still at home at the time, like not old enough to go to school yet. And my house was constantly a disaster. Like just toys everywhere, food everywhere, dishes everywhere. Like I, my house was just messy, and I did not like that. And obviously, I'm the homemaker here, so I was very much responsible for this mess. And I was spending time mad about the house being messy, and then spending time cleaning the house instead of like having fun or relaxing or playing with my kids, which then pointed out to this idea that I wanted to be a mom who was at rest and at peace and enjoyed her kids and spent quality time with her kids, which at that point I did not. And I wanted to be a mom that, you know, knew how to have fun and knew how to like actually enjoy the season that I was in, which at that point I did not. And I wanted to be good with money, I wanted to be debt-free, I wanted to have a handle on my finances and have that not be a source of tension between me and my husband. And at that point, that's not that did not describe my financial situation. And so it just pointed out this picture, okay, like I want to be different. And I feel like all of these changes are entirely possible. Like, I can make this happen. So I like looked at my house and I'm like, okay, my house is messy all the time. Well, why is it messy all the time? What would make it less messy? What would make this easier? And so that set me down this course of looking at minimalism and decluttering and cis better systems for cleaning and organization. And so, you know, I watched shows like the Home Edit, but also listening to things like the minimalism podcast and show and finding this balance between having a place for everything, having everything organized, but also having less, having less stuff, like which was gonna help with my money situation. Like, oh yeah, I don't need to be buying things all the time. I don't need to be spending my money or my time doing those habits when I could be resting, or I could be having fun, or I could be finding a hobby that actually inspires me and gives me life. So I had this clear picture in mind. I realized that I was fully capable of making these choices now that I knew what it was that I was working towards and why. And then I also want to like mention this other book. It's called The Power to Change by Craig Gerschell, which was also a very impactful book for me to read. That I read probably just within a few years of this other book. Of he talks about like talking about, you know, who you want to become and who God is asking us to become, and the power of the Holy Spirit, like helping us change the way that we think, you know, we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. And so we change the way we think and we change our habits, but it's also done like through faith and through prayer and through the power of the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't just this thing of like it being willpower or more discipline. It really was just like sitting back and being like, okay, God, who who do you want me to be? Who did you create me to be? And what what does the best version of myself look like? And what does that actually look like in my life? And how does it play into these different areas? And that really set this the tone for moving forward and for being willing to work through all of these changes and really and endure and enjoy the process of changing and the process of growth. And so this was the first time that I did this, like kind of, you know, state of the union of my life and of my marriage and of my parenting and all of these things. And it's something that I've continued to just do every year. And right now, the picture itself of kind of like what I want this life to look like, that doesn't change as much anymore. I mean, it's tweaks here and there, but more it's realizing more and more and more of my life is actually starting to look like that. And that's encouraging, that's motivating me to keep on going and to keep going deeper and to keep honing in on these areas to know that wow, this is possible. And this idea of having this clear vision has been so helpful for me in my life as a person, but also carrying that practice into how I run my business and how I set goals and realizing that a year is not a long time. I used to think a year was a long time, but almost always my question is, what do I want my life to look like a year from now? Or what do I want my business to look like a year from now? Because it's short enough that I can see the the and the finish line, you know, a short enough, but long enough away that I'm like, okay, if I want some significant change, I have enough time to actually make that happen. So there's really kind of four benefits that came through going through this process. And so one was that I was able to assess where I was at right now. Like I was able to actually look at my life and be like, okay, if this is the picture, if this is the standard, let's say I just now created something that is now objective that I can measure against, I have clarity around what it is that I am working towards. And I can clearly see how my life is flourishing in those areas or it's not. So I can, you know, actually make it a pretty good assessment of how I am doing. And then because of that, then I can be like, okay, well, what do I need to do differently? And, you know, we don't tackle every area of our life at once. There's different seasons that we focus on different things because some of them take more of our bandwidth and more of an emotional toll. And some of them are easier. And obviously, if we just rip the band-aid off on every area, then that makes it much harder to actually see success. And so it's easier to kind of just like focus on a few key things at once, or maybe just one big one at once, to say this is something I'm dedicated to changing because it's part of this picture. That's not only just like a picture that I set for myself, but it's a picture that I feel like I have prayerfully considered, really sought, you know, God's heart and his will and his purpose in that, and knowing that, yeah, it is supported biblically. It is, it is, you know, scripturally based, and this is something that I should be working towards. So no matter how hard it is, I'm I'm gonna keep doing that. And then as I've gone through this process, the other thing I'm able to do is I'm actually able to acknowledge and celebrate the growth because I can look back over a year or three years or five years and see maybe I didn't see all the change happening on a day in and day out basis. But as time has gone by, I can look back and be like, yeah, my marriage is different, my home life is different, my the atmosphere in my house is different. And it's not what it was a year ago or three years ago. And so that right there just helps us to pause and look back and to recognize how far we've come and to see that wow, yes, change is happening, even if I don't see it or feel it on a day to day or week to week or even a month-to-month basis. Because some things worth changing take a lot longer. Like, I know, like for us, working through things in our marriage, I mean, it was probably a five-year transformation process. And, you know, I was 18 months in and I was wondering when when I was gonna start to see the fruit of it. But now I can look back over the last 10 years and be like, yes, absolutely, like so worth it. I mean, life-changing, and I would, I would do it over again. You know, it was worth it to get to the other side. And, you know, that helps build our our endurance, our our resilience, our character, our faith through the process. So these are some of the areas of my life that I look at. And I like to break it down instead of just looking at my life as a whole and just being like, what would I change? Or what would a good life look like? It actually helps me to kind of put these in buckets and kind of work from there. So if you're someone who's maybe not a visual person, like maybe this exercise seems a little gray or daunting, going through the the the lens version of it can actually help in a lot of ways. And the other I think preface to this is that at the end of the year, at the beginning of the year, you know, that's a a good time that a lot of times, especially as entrepreneurs, we're we're goal setting, we're planning for the next year, we're looking at our business, we're looking at, you know, kind of what we want to accomplish and stuff. But for me, it has always helped to start even bigger than that. Like like the business ends up being one of the buckets. And before I end up even starting to look at that, I want to look at my life as a whole, myself as an individual, as a leader, as a wife, as a parent, as a disciple, as a Christ follower, you know, looking at who I am and how I'm working towards like becoming the person that God has called me to be, and realizing that what I do in my business or how that factors in is just a part of that. It is, it should not be like the main thing. I would have caution against like just focusing on setting goals for your business and looking at, you know, the obstacles that you have and the goals that you want to accomplish within the business without actually looking at, okay, well, how does this play into the rest of your life and how is your business affecting all of these areas? And, you know, how are you living the life that God has called you to live? And yes, your business plays into that, but we are individuals, we are children of God before our business ends up being something that defines our identity. So this is looking at our life through different lenses. So we're looking at things, what how are we doing mentally, emotionally, spiritually, financially, physically, and relationally. Like we're looking at like how is the health of our life in these different areas? And really, it's just we're just one, like I said, painting this picture of what do we want it to look like? Like what would great look like? And not going to an extreme or something that is we feel like not probable or possible, like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, win the lottery or something. It's like we we really are trying to make it realistic of like, hey, if if I were to live my best life just realistically, what does that look like? And then you can answer the question of, am I living my best life right now? And if I'm not, how can we narrow in on the areas that we could make the biggest impact that really would push us closer towards, you know, what that picture looks like? So most of these, I I actually have them all as Fs just because that's you know, that's cool, that's catchy. But so faith, faith. Like what does faith look like in your life right now? Like what is your time with God look like right now? Are you spending as much time in the Word as you want to be, as you should be, as you feel convicted to be? Do you feel like God is leading your life? Do you feel like you sense his presence? Do you feel his voice? Is there intimacy and relationship there? Does he feel distant from you? Does he feel like this, this disconnected, far off being that you're not quite sure? You know, are you there? Do you hear me? Do you know me? You know, what's what's his power and presence look like in your life? What do you want it to look like in your life? What is being a, you know, a Christ follower, a disciple of Jesus, like what is what does that look like to you if if you were really just having vibrant, healthy, thriving spiritual life? You know, are you making it to church? Are you serving in church? Are you connecting with people in in prayer? Are you praying for people? Just those are all just all kinds of questions you could be asking yourself on this faith area. Are you leading your family? Are you a spiritual leader? Are you praying with your kids? Are you guys praying together at the table before dinner? Are there rhythms and routines that continually put God at the center of your life? Are you fasting once a year or a couple times a year? Are there things that you are giving up in order to intentionally seek his word and seek his presence and direction in your life? Second, F, family. So what does your family life look like? What does your family relationships look like? So looking like your marriage, you know, are you are you feeling connected? Are you feeling like thing you're on the same page, you're having fun together, you're communicating together, you're spending quality time together, you're working together as a team, you're taking time to, you know, be romantic and to be intimate and you're connecting on all the different levels. What does you know your relationship with your kids look like? You know, are you the dad that you want to be? Are you the mom that you want to be? Are you happy with the level of quality time that you're spending with the with your kids or the way that you're raising them, that the conversations that you're having together, the the moments of connection? Are you impatient with them or snapping at them or avoiding them? Or are they avoiding you? You know, is there is there work to do in in any of those relationships? What does your home life look like and feel like? You know, is it safe, comfortable, inviting, like something where it's like everybody is that that is a safe place for everybody? Everyone is connecting and together, or maybe it's stressful or tense or messy or cluttered. You know, when you come home at the end of a day or you're spending time together on the weekends, you know, is how does your home affect that dynamic? The third F is friendship and fellowship. So this is relationships outside of your immediate family. And this is, you know, what does what is fr friendship look like in your life? You know, is that something that you have friends and and they're good friends and they're good influences and they're praying for you and encouraging you and you know being someone who pushes you towards God and and challenges you in a good way? Are friendships something that you are lacking in? Like you want more of them in your life? You want you're missing that. Like maybe you have good strong relationships with your family, but maybe there isn't a friendship outside of that. Maybe you haven't made time for that, or you've thought that, you know, that was just not important. You know, are you part of a a small group? Are you meeting new people on a regular basis? Or how are you broadening your social circle? And is that something that is life-giving or life draining? You know, what is there areas in in your life when it comes to friends that you would is that something you would change? Finances. So what does your financial situation look like? Is that something that you have peace about? You feel like you have control over? You feel like you are honoring God with your resources, you're stewarding well? Um is it a source of pain, of anxiety, of fear, of scarcity? You know, what what kind of influence and effect are finances having in your life? What is giving look like? What is generosity look like in your life? Is there are those areas that you could you want to do more of? You want generosity to have a bigger role in your life? Or maybe it's something that you it it it is not an abundance season. It's a maybe it's a planting season and you're trying to have faith through the process and just trying to, you know, honor God with with everything that you have and trusting Him in the process, or maybe debt has a hold over you, or you're spending money on things that you shouldn't be, you know, there's all kinds of different directions there, but just what what do your finances look like? How what do you want them to look like? And you know, where are those those gaps? Fitness, so your physical health, you know, are you getting up and moving? Are you spending time, the time that you want to at the gym? Do you feel healthy? Do you feel strong? Do you have the energy that you need to get up and get through your day? Are there things you know, health-wise, physical-wise, are you maybe you're struggling with headaches or migraines or some unknown symptoms, or maybe some blood tests are off, or you know, what kind of change is there? Or maybe you're sitting at a desk all day long and you want to be moving, you want to be in the gym more, you want to be doing this more. Maybe that's something we're like, yeah, absolutely. I'm so on top of this. I'm very happy with my gym routine, my health routine, just the way I you feel physically. And then that leads into our next F, which is food, you know, so your food choices in your life. And I think food is not only what are we eating, you know, what is that look like, but also how are how is food making us feel? Cooking, just the role of is it something we have control over, the something that is fueling our bodies? Maybe we're spending a lot of time eating out and we want to be cooking more. Maybe that's an area that you're just like, I just want to be a person who cooks and I'm tired of eating the plain same stuff all the time, or maybe you're someone who's like, food just isn't that important to me. I could eat the same thing all day, every day, and not care. Like, you know, for everybody, I think it plays a different role. Or food is something that maybe is how you deal with feelings, and it does have control and influence over you, and it's something that maybe there's some shame there, maybe there's just some guilt there that you're just like, man, I recognize that this is not a healthy area in my life. So food, and then next F is fun. So, what does fun look like in your life? Like, what do you enjoy doing that's fun? And are you spending time doing those things? I know for me, there was a time in my life where I didn't know what fun was, and I didn't know how to have fun. I didn't know what fun looks like for me, I didn't know what it meant for me, and that was a huge just that was a huge issue in my life. And I actually did this took years of figuring out what does fun look like for me as an adult, as an entrepreneur, as a parent, as a wife. Like, what do I think is fun? Because for years of my life, I wasn't having any fun. And I wasn't having any fun because I was spending all my time working. So the next one is function, which in this one, I was just the the easiest F-word I could find for basically your your work. Like whether you're I mean, in this case, if you're listening, you're probably an entrepreneur, owner, business leader, but you know, maybe you're an employee. But it's like, how is how are you feeling about work? How are you feeling about the role that it's playing in your life, your gifts and your contribution towards it? Is it something that is stressing you out? Are you finding that maybe you want to do something different? Is that is there a good balance there? I know for me, this has been an ever-changing one in different seasons. Sometimes it's been something super stressful. Sometimes it's been something that was incredibly not motivating, something I desperately wanted to change. And other times where I'm like, yeah, I feel super good about where I'm at right now, what I'm doing, how I'm spending my time, this work-life balance thing, how the time that I'm spending working in my strengths or the people that I'm working with. So that's just like the function is really just like our our occupation and and the role that that is playing in our life. And so this one, if we're looking at, you know, are there issues in your business right now or goals in your business that you would really want to tackle or deal with or really kind of break free from, you know, that's that that's a big one right there. The next one is focus. So outside of your occupation, like focus really being like this this purpose and calling and passion of your life, like the impact that you're having, I would say like for the kingdom, in the sense that God designed you uniquely on purpose and for a purpose. And it was not just to run a business and make money and pay the bills. Like he designed you to be like he gave you specific gifts, you know. And do you know what those gifts are? Do you know what your unique strengths are? Are you developing those gifts? Do you feel like you're contributing those gifts? And maybe you're contributing contributing them in the workplace. Maybe you're contributing them in a ministry, serving at church, serving in your community, or maybe you're confused as to what those actually are, and you feel this emptiness, you feel this lack of fulfillment, you feel this thing that is missing, and you're like, I want to know what this looks like in my life. I want to know how did God create me? What did he create me for? Like, what makes you feel alive? And it's going to be under like his plan and purpose for your life. It does have to do with the kingdom of God. It does have to do with loving and serving people. Like those are the two, you know, the two greatest commands, like love God and love people. So I think you're gonna find it within the realm of people, but it's gonna be specific to how God designed you, how he wired you. And once you're able to at least spot it, then you can start to develop it. And when we're developing it and working in it and spending time in it, then we're getting to see the impact and the contribution. Um, and it's life-giving for us and it's life-giving for the people around us. And then the next F is fruit. So, what fruit are you bearing? And, you know, even go back to the fruits of the Spirit, you know, we're we can only bear fruit when we are connected to the Spirit, you know, though they're they're not from our sinful nature, they are from our spiritual nature, they come from the Holy Spirit, and so you know, we're looking at love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, thankfulness, self-control. Sorry, always not sure if I spout those off correctly every time. However, it's like look at each of those fruits and say, Do these, what do these fruit look like in my life? Am I happy with with the evidence of it? Am I happy with how much that is? Or is are there areas where I'm like, man, I'm struggling with patience? That's definitely been one for me where I'm like, I've been snapping or I've been impatient and I've been bitter and angry. And I'm so I'm like, I didn't have joy, I didn't have peace, I didn't have patience, and I'm like, I desperately want those in my life. You know, God help me, help me to be connected to you, to be in your word, so that I actually can see this fruit in my life. I want to see the evidence of it. So, how do you feel about the evidence of the fruit that is in your life currently? And what do you want it to look like? And then the the final F is fear. So, how do what is the role you feel like fear is playing in your life right now? So, fear of failing, fear of people, fear of rejection, fear of judgment, fear of losing security, fear of losing significance, fear of not being valuable. You know, how are your fears and your insecurities playing into your life right now? And is there some of them, is it having too much of a hold over you? Because I'm I feel like we're always going to be afraid. We're always gonna have insecurities and struggles, but are we capturing them? Are we, you know, making them obedient to Christ? Are we putting them where they belong, or are we letting fear rule our life? Are we letting fear hurt our relationships or affect our decision makings because it's coming from a place of fear instead of a place of faith? And so there's, I think, different seasons of our life, different fears that can really control us and affect the choices that we make that are, you know, we have to just be aware of them and just not letting them, not letting them rule us. So those are, I don't even know the total number of Fs that I have, but they'll they'll all be listed in the show notes for you. And I just encourage you just take, just take some time, like take a clarity break, take a clarity session, take a clarity pause, you know, take some time to really paint this picture of, you know, who is God calling you to be? What is what is your best life lived for him look like? And before we get into tactical and operational things of our business, and we get caught up in all of that, and you know, the next episodes or we're gonna get into tactical and operational things, but I always feel like it always starts with us as the leader. It starts with our heart, it starts with where's our heart at? Who are we trusting in? Where are we putting our faith? And remembering that our our business does not define us, our business is not our identity. You are an entire person outside of your business, outside of your job. And God cares so much about your life and your heart and your family and your relationships, and he wants those to be a blessing in your life. You know, we he wants there to be fruit in your life that you're loving and serving others, and there is a blessing that comes from us, and I think our our sinful nature is just to kind of like hunker down and to just be like, oh, let's just focus on the business. Let's just like focus on making money and then kind of not worry about everything else. But I think that's that's not the approach that God wants us to take. That's certainly not the approach that he has convicted me or challenged me to take. It's always been to one, you know, put him first and foremost in my life, look at myself and my life, you know, first, like my relationships, my health, my finances and everything, and then just keeping my business where it belongs and not ever letting that really dictate how I make decisions in other areas of my life. So I just encourage you to take some time, think about it, pray through it, write some things down. And it's not something where it changes overnight. You know, like I said, this is something I've been doing for years. I do it regularly just to be like, okay, where am I at? Celebrating the growth, acknowledging it, but also being realistic about, okay, you know, what do I need to address? What where are the areas that I need to focus on? And you'll feel that conviction. Like God's God's gonna lead you through that. And he's gonna, he wants to do a work in you. He wants to to work in these areas and heal these areas of your life. So that is all I have for you today. As always, you can learn more at Clearauthenticbrands.com. See you next time.