the bossbabe podcast - 313. My Personal Journal Prompts & Tips For Designing A Clear + Compelling Vision

Episode Date: August 10, 2023

Let’s talk embodiment, failure + getting crystal clear on your desires. When it comes to designing a freedom-based business and lifestyle that lights you up, having a clear vision is EVERYTHING… so today, we are diving deep on how to get really clear + specific about what you want. Natalie is sharing some really powerful journal prompts (the ones she uses all the time!) to help you gain clarity, feel really confident about your direction moving forward, and get in tune with your bodys signals and messages, so you can finally live the life you truly want.  HIGHLIGHTS The exact questions + prompts Natalie uses to design her dream life + business How to stop “failing” your future self + let go of everyone else’s dream(s) for you Ways to tap into your body's wisdom + messages (+ incorporate more embodiment into your routine)  How to differentiate between what your mind is saying vs the TRUTH your body is telling you Tips for tuning out the noise + recognizing your own voice  LINKS Join Growth Day - GrowthDay.com/bossbabe Subscribe to our Weekly CEO Newsletter to get more leadership + business insights from Natalie - https://bossbabe.com/newsletter  FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie

Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. So I have been releasing some mini episodes every single week at the end of the week after the longer episode. And I'm really curious, are they resonating with you? Will you drop me a DM and let me know what you think at I am Natalie. I really like being able to drop little nuggets like this because my hope is that when you're on your drive or a walk or getting a quick workout in, there's a little tidbit that you can take away for the rest of your day. So let me know if it's resonating. I'm currently recording this as I am still traveling. So I've made my own little recording situation. You all know how that works. You've got the microphone balancing on the suitcase and all the things, but you're making it work. And it feels really resonant with today's topic because we're talking all about vision and the idea of getting into full alignment with your

vision. You know, so many of us and so many of you are working so hard day in, day out, trying so hard, pushing, but are you actually getting closer to what you truly want? Are you clear on your vision? Are you truly happy? I think it's really important to have practices to get yourself into alignment and to be really clear on your vision for the future so that your effort actually moves the needle for you. And today I'm going to share some of my favorite prompts and what I think is a really powerful exercise to help you do exactly that. And as I sit here recording this, I'm looking around, I'm seeing the ocean from where I'm recording it. I can hear my baby in the other room. She's playing with my nanny. So don't worry, she is taken care of. But also that is something I like to be super honest about. A

lot of people asking, how do you do all the travel and still be able to, you know, work and have alone time? That is how how I am not superwoman. I do not have eight arms or nanny travels with us, which is such a blessing, but I can hear her in the next room. And it's one of these moments where I realize, you know what, I'm living my vision and I'm living the vision that I really manifested for myself and that I really, really wanted to make happen. And like I've talked about, there's been, you know, some big times when I've realized that I'm actually moving further away from my vision as I work harder and harder and get more success. And that's not what I wanted. And so this exercise has been really powerful in my life. And I hope for you too, because success is nothing if it doesn't feel

good. Success is nothing if we don't have our peace. Success is nothing if we're not happy, if we're not healthy, you know? And so I think this is a really powerful episode. And again, it's pulled from a talk that I gave at Growth Day. I speak there every single month. I really recommend joining it. If you're serious about personal development, it's a game changer. I listen to the Daily Fire every day. I journal in there every single day and I do my weekly and monthly check-ins to see how I'm performing and how I'm doing as an individual. And it's been a game changer. So if you're interested, I'm going to put all the info you need in the show notes. And with that, let's

dive in. What is it that I want? Am I quote-unquote failing every day because I'm actually trying to achieve something that someone else wants for me? Am I quote-unquote failing every day because I'm trying to live up to someone else's expectation versus my own? Am I failing or going through a really challenging time because I just haven't taken the time to step back and think about my needs, my wants, my desires, my new path? And often that's where we are. Life can be a bit of a magic carpet ride at times if we let it, because life is going to go on with or without us consenting to it. Hate to tell you that. Listen, I would love to stay 31. If I could, listen, keep me here, but that's not, I'm going to turn 32 whether I like it or not. I'm going to turn 35 whether I like it or not. Life is going to continue happening whether we consent to it or not so let's make sure we're not

just sitting on this magic carpet right letting life take us wherever anyone else wants us to be taken other people's expectations other people's goals other people's visions let's make sure that we're actually coming at it from a place of what we really want. Because you internally are going to feel that if what you're working towards or what you are showing up to do every single day is not in alignment with what you actually want. You'll feel that adversity. You'll feel that failure.

And it might be like we said at the beginning, it might be that feeling of, okay, something huge didn't happen to me, but I'm not happy. And I know I'm not happy, but I don't know why I'm not happy. I know I'm not happy, but I don't know why I'm not happy. I know I'm not happy, but I don't know why I'm not happy. We can be feeling that if we don't take enough time to step back and really examine where we're at. And so what I want

you to do, if you haven't already, is pull up that notes section again and write down if this is resonating with you a commitment to yourself to get really really clear on your wants to get really really clear on your vision to get really really clear on your desires and I love doing this exercise with journal prompts let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is

simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. i definitely recommend kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering boss babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe i love to use the kind of prompt of what i would do if it wasn't going to affect anyone else is x or what i would do if it didn't mean having

uncomfortable conversations with anyone else is x what i would do if i let go of what everyone else thinks of me is, what I would do, this is a good one, what I would do if I could wave a magic wand would be, and if nothing comes right away when you ask that question, the magic wand, I want you to sit in that real uncomfortable space of unknowing because the knowing is there but often we don't quiet our mind long enough to drop into our body like we talked about the beginning to actually let the question land when we talk about things landing what I mean is we can listen to a podcast or read a book where someone's saying what would you do in your life you could wave a magic wand and you might think of a couple of little images and you're like, yeah, that's a great question. And you keep on walking the dog or you keep on driving to where

you're going and it doesn't really land. We hear it, trying to get to here, gets to the neck level and then it's gone again. But what if we hear it and we let it sink in? If we integrate it into our bodies? Because newsflash, our bodies typically know what's up. Our bodies typically don't lie. Our bodies are typically really terrible at covering up when something's not right. When you walk into a room that you don't necessarily want to be in, your stomach's going to tell you, don't necessarily want to be in, your stomach's going to tell you, I don't want to be here. If you're lying in bed at night feeling like

you're just not living your purpose, I hate to tell you, but your body is going to reflect that back to you. Your body's not a great liar. If you every single day are burning yourself out when you go through this chronically, your body's going to lie about that. Your body's going to stop putting the engine light on. Your body's going to stop waving that amber flag until there's a red flag that you can no longer ignore. Bodies always know. There's a lot of wisdom in there. so if you aren't having the answer to that question come right away I really want that in in your notes for you to sit with that uncomfortability of find a magic wand what what would I change what would I do differently and breathing into that

uncomfortability and every time the well I don't know the answer pops up in your head, letting it be there. Let all of that be there and just sit. And I promise you, if you just sit in that without scrolling on your phone, without grabbing your laptop or book, turning on the TV. If you just sit there, you're going to get the answer. And we generally know when it's an aligned answer or if it's your mind giving you an answer so that you'll just get up and move around again, right? So if you're sitting in that uncomfortability, your mind's like, I don't like this. I don't like it, Natalie. I want to move on. I want to, you know, get up. I want to watch TV. I want to go on a walk. I want to get to the kitchen that really needs cleaned. I want, right. If your mind wants to move, your mind's going to give you an answer. And it's probably going to sound a bit chaotic like this. And you're like, wait,

I could do this, but what about this? And then there's this and then, and it's going to run, run, run, run, run. And it's high pitched and it doesn't take a breath. And you're like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Okay, great. I've got my answer. I write it down. That's your mind answering. When your body answers, sounds a little bit different. There's no over explaining. There's no need to yell. There's no need to analyze all of the things that might go wrong. It can sometimes be as clear as, yep, that's really what I want to go do. Or Natalie, you know this job isn't for you. Natalie, you know that friendship isn't serving you anymore. And there's a big difference between hearing our body respond and hearing our mind respond. And the ugly truth about all of this is these are the hardest moments to be in.

And you're going to want to give up. When you're really in that transition and things feel challenging and you're very used to your cortisol operating at a very high state and you're very used to your cortisol operating at a very high state and you're very used to just continuing to go so you don't need to slow down and really accept that things aren't working for you, you're going to want to let the boulder push you downhill again. You're going to consider shying away from the hard conversations or letting things be as they are. But when you get through, that other side is absolutely amazing. And the thing that you feel like is a failure right now may not be anymore. Feeling like you're up against it every single day might not be your reality anymore. And so you want to make a plan

for yourself. You want to ask what that magic wand waving would look like. And you want to make a plan for yourself. You want to ask what that magic wand waving would look like, and you want to make a plan for yourself. You need to make it as mindless as possible and give yourself as few excuses to say no to doing this as possible. One of our growth day teachers, Mel Robbins, who loves Mel, she talks about leaving her workout clothes on the floor by her bed. So she literally has to step over them or put them on and make herself work out. So you want to make your growth journey as formulaic as possible. So in your calendar, have the time that you're going to journal in growth day. Have that standing therapy appointment. You know, put that book on your bedside, schedule those hard conversations

in your calendar and invite the person by email that you need to have the conversation with. Practice saying no. Practice saying yes. Put the hours in and you'll see results. Just like if you're trying to scale up that marketing funnel, you put the mastery hours in when you're really trying to get in alignment with yourself and move through this feeling of stickiness, mud, adversity. You need to put those hours in to really know yourself, know your own advice to get results. And I want you to take before and after pictures. Not literally. I mean, if you want to, I'm not necessarily saying strip off and pose in front of the mirror. What I mean is in your notes right now,

write down where you are now and then write down where you want to be. Read that to yourself. Like every single day, if you can. In six months, I am happy. In six months, I am doing X, Y, Z. Get really granular on the details. If it's me, I'm like a real details

person. I'm like, okay, like if I'm writing about my environment, I'm like, I'm sitting on my porch at 7am, the sun is rising. It feels like a cool 73 in the air. I'm drinking organic coffee with my organic heavy cream and a scoop of collagen. Like the details make it real. The details allow you to drop into your body and feel that experience. I'm not saying, you know, I have a great porch. I'm saying I am there. Read your best case scenario every single day to yourself, visualize it, and save that as your today pictures. And then in six months time, come back to these notes and you can even re-listen and write down where you are. And I guarantee if you do the work, things are going to change. And like I said, this isn't a typical failure,

but when you are giving yourself the opportunity to cop out on your growth, that is failing your future self. That is a huge failure to fail your future self. Failure is usually a gift, but I don't think it is in this scenario. I don't think it is a gift to know that what you're doing today is failing your future self. My life's completely changed from making these shifts. I've went from trying to push that boulder up the hill and getting crumpled by it every day to that boulder being on top of the hill. And it feels like I'm skiing downhill each day when I come to work. I feel like I've got that freedom and I work on it every single day.

I'm in growth every single day. I love to use the journaling prompts. I love to be prompted to just bring out what is really authentic to me. And I guarantee you, if you put the reps in just like if you're squatting at the gym it will make the biggest difference.