Hello and welcome!

On this episode, I’m sharing my 2023 biggest lessons learned as a mompreneur. I chat a bit about S.M.A.R.T. goal setting and share some of my biggest goals and my word of the year for 2024.

I’d love it if you’d connect with me over on Instagram! It’s where I’m most active and I love to share behind the scenes of mompreneur life on that platform.

Main Topics included in this Episode

  • 2023 biggest lessons learned
  • S.M.A.R.T. goal setting
  • My biggest goals and word of the year for 2024

Resources Mentioned

  • Capture the Chaos Planner/Workbood for entrepreneurs: Link

Connect with Alysha

Music Licensing Info

Music by Eli Lev - Dancin' on the Lawn

Link

Episode Transcription

Welcome back to the Messy Mompreneur Podcast. I'm your host, Alysha Sanford, and I'm so happy to have you here. So 2024 for me it's starting off productive, I would say the first day was the opposite of productive. My daughter refused a nap and here it was the first day of the year of Monday. So the first day of the week it was like the most epic Monday possible. I had a huge To Do List and it was a big flop. So after I tried multiple times to get her down for a nap, I gave up and. Ask my husband if we could just go for a walk, get outside, get in the sunshine and that. That was probably exactly what I needed, even though I was fighting against. Slowing down anyway, so yeah, I hope you had a great first, you know, first day of the year, first week of the year. Here we are closing it out as I record this. But I wanted to share a little bit about my goal setting for 2024. And what I'm looking forward to 1st, I want to do a tiny bit of housekeeping before we really get into that. I have decided that I'm ditching my own mental limitations on who I am and where and how and what I can share here. I don't want to box myself into what I think I should. Or shouldn't do. I feel like. I have to be this person or sound like this person, or if I record and I say the word umm a lot. But I just feel like it's a big failure, but I then realized that I listened to plenty of other podcasts that use the word all the time, and I don't even really notice it unless I'm starting to, you know, search for it. So with that, please don't judge me if you now pay attention to all of my UMS. I'm trying to work on that, but I am. Not even a year into this, so bear with me, but yeah. So mompreneurship intertwines life, motherhood, and work. So I'm going to continue to share about all of it, every aspect. So I'm going to try and be a bit structured with my, you know, episode topics and whatnot, but. I don't know. I feel like I can't leave certain things out because they all play such a big role in it. Like, if I do an episode on meal planning hacks for me, that makes a huge difference. In my work days, because if I know that I've already done the work for dinner, I have that much more time to implement elsewhere. So anyway. I'm starting to ramble, but you get the point. Yeah. So find me on Instagram, please, because I really like to connect there. That's where I'm most active and some of what I'm excited to share. In this I don't know, this world isn't always just podcast stuff like I love making reels and sharing some behind the scenes and how we're spending our days and favorite products and stuff for time efficiency and whatnot. So if you're into that sort of thing, please find me with the handle at messy mompreneur. Yeah. So if you haven't already listened to the previous episode, I think it would be #17. Please do because it's going to provide more context for the next couple of episodes that I'm recording. They all kind of, you know, follow along with each other. So today I wanted to talk about the biggest things that I learned from 2023. And how that affects my goal setting for 2024. So the three key things that I learn? Is that every season is just that. It's a season. A good season can be rocked by unexpected news. As I shared previously and a tough season can teach You Beautiful lessons and it can be a short, tough season. Life's unpredictable, so if I'm in a hard moment, it's a hard moment and I don't have to just assume that the rest of my life is going to be hard because I kind of, yeah. So number two, time is our most valuable asset. And again, I shared why I learned that in the last episode. We've heard it all the time. We really have that time is fleeting, but. Scary news can really put that into perspective so. That's a big one. Number three, I need systems. So for one, I have inattentive ADHD. You've heard it a million times for me before, but I have it. It plays a big role in my life. It's a struggle. There's some positives to it. I'm a very creative person, I guess, but I. I take on a lot and I hyper focus on things that I have an immediate interest in and then I have a whole pile of unfinished projects sitting behind me sometimes. And it's just kind of a roller coaster. But here we are. I need systems and I knew it before, but I really know it now as an entrepreneur. And if I had structured routines. And had automated and batched what I could earlier on. So much of my stress could have been avoided coming into motherhood. This goes back to the pregnancy and postpartum days like I there's so much to talk about there and it's going to be a future episode. So more on that later too. But systems could have been an absolute game. Danger. So those are the three things that I learned. So let's get into goal setting. So with my inattentive ADHD tendencies, I am an absolute dreamer without a plan. Typically I love scrolling Pinterest and designing my dream life in pinboards, but I don't think I'll ever get close to those dreams actually coming to fruition if I don't determine the small steps that are included. In those big jumps like you have to take the small step to get moving forward, right? You can't. You can't just leap into next year and have things magically happening that you dreamed about. So anyway, I'm a printed planner lover and one of my favorite productivity and business podcasters launched a planner. It's actually more of a workbook for entrepreneurs. She launched it this past fall and it is so good. I got it right before Christmas, so I was able to start it up before. And it's called the capture the chaos planner. It's from Brittany. Renee and I will link it in the show notes, in case you're curious. And I'm sure I'll share more about it and my experience working with it, but. Yeah, there are so many details that aid with getting organized, planning and scheduling your home and work life. It also includes a free mini course. So anyway, this is not a paid shout out. It's just me loving her planner so much because it's already changing my life. So I wanted to touch on one of the first sections in it as it relates to goal setting. So smart goal setting, it's a known concept, but Brittany, the planner creator, includes it in her goal setting section of the planner. So smart goals are it stands for specific. Measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound goals and she walks you through creating your goals, but then also listing out your action steps to actually help you achieve them, which is so much better than the generic New Year's Eve resolutions without a plan, right? Like that used to be my go to and then I'd come around to the next year and be like, oh well, I guess I'll try again. So looking at 2024, I have multiple goals that touch on many areas of my life. This is the year that I want to commit to more scratch cooking. More time outside. Efficiency in my business, networking with more fellow entrepreneurs, local and long distance, and then a few financial goals that I'll keep private. But listing the action steps to accomplish these actually makes them feel doable for me as I write out my to do lists for each month. Week and then day I can actually reference those goals and steps and implement them into my schedule in order to actually move forward with those goals. So with that, I'll share my word of the year for 2024. Drum roll, please. It is efficient. And I realized that efficiency was the key to all of those goals that I just previously listed. So the word is efficient. I want my year to be efficient and to continue to utilize my time better. Batch tasks and automate what I can. I want to spend my time more wisely and with my favorite people and out of this dang house, I feel like I feel like if I have to be. I feel like I have to be in my house in order to be. Moving the needle forward in my business, you know, behind the scenes on the computer or with office tasks or in the kitchen cooking dinner every night. But there are smarter ways to accomplish what I need to accomplish and still be able to be out to be out and about, live my, live my dang life. So anyway, yeah, if I manage my time more efficiently in all areas of my life, I can still accomplish my giant to do lists and simultaneously enjoy life. And you can too. So anyway, I'm excited to share more. In upcoming episodes, as I try out new strategies, I'll share what works and what might not be a great fit for me, my business, or even my clients.