S1, Ep 12 Season wrap up, Best parts & Tips for switching off

It is season wrap up time.  
We are so incredibly grateful for all who have joined us on the podcast journey over the past few months & can not wait to return in 2022 with more curated content and bite sized actionable steps to move you from where you are to where you want to be.  We wish you the very best over this festive time!

In this episode we reflect, discuss, curate & plan:  

• Reflections from the season &  checked in on how we were living up to our mission
• Importance of celebrating small wins & encouragement for you to celebrate your wins
• Offered thoughts on most important and most enjoyable pods
• Our one wish for all women  & BIG goal for 2022
• Why a Business or Financial Coach are key
• Curated tips for switching off over the festive season (see below)
• Summer reading recommendations (a nice fictional change from our usual MO) 

SHOW NOTES:
Celebrating Small Wins TED talk by Canadian-based educator Mehrnaz Bassiri
Dare to Lead, Brene Brown
Self Care, Michelle Gibbings LINK
How to Holiday when your brain is still in work mode, Huffington Post, Rachel Moss LINK
For further switch off encouragement: FORBES, Michelle Gibbings, 

If you are interested in Business Coaching and not sure where to start Inspired Reality with Belinda Cohen is my recommendation for my friends and colleagues https://www.inspiredreality.com.au/services/coaching 

Summer Reads (only time Fiction graces our Pod)

• Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams
• Silent Patient, Alex Michaelides
• Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• Malibu Rising, Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Herd, Andrea Bartz
• The Nothing Man, Catherine Ryan
• Apples never Fall, Liane Moriarty
• Klara and the Sun, Kuzua Ishiguro
• Love & Virtue, Diana Reid
• Well Hello, Annabel Crabb & Leigh Sales

If you are keen to check out any of the books for Summer:  http://www.booktopia.kh4ffx.net/Elevate

To catch up on all things Elevate with Grace please subscribe to our Instagram or Website
We would love your feedback.  Please drop us a line via either of the above or our email elevatewithgrace@gmail.com

Have a wonderful festive break and a very happy new year Elevatee's and we look forward to providing loads more to support your journey in 2022!

** Booktopia is an affiliate link 

Music created by Claire's daughter Hannah

Transcript

Miranda: 0:14

Welcome to the elevate with grace podcast, for women who are short on time and long to take steps, to create success on their own terms. Our aim is to curate and share the best tips, insights, and knowledge from all of the content out there and take the brain strain out of it by giving you the, so what, and some immediate actionable steps for you to slept seamlessly into your life each week, that will help you. That will help propel you from where you are to where you want to be. In each episode, we look into one of the pillars of our elevate with gray success on your own terms model, where we explore taking smart risks, cultivating our careers and fueling our financial power. These three elements work together even better when we look at them within the broader context of the big picture aspirations we have for our future selves. We're also paying attention to not letting this stuff that might be holding us back, getting our way.

Claire: 1:04

A big, massive welcome to our listeners and to you Miranda I'm Claire cornfield, and this is our 12th elevate with grace podcast and our last podcast for 2021. I am more than a little bit stoked that we have delivered our first podcast season of 12 episodes with some seriously wonderful curated content, how are you going my friend. are

Miranda: 1:26

I am very excited that we have delivered 11 episodes to date. I love This time of year, is always fun. I'm a big festive nut. I love the lights. I love the Christmas.

Claire: 1:36

Yes, I've started to get into it. It was a bit full on to go from zero to a thousand at this time of year, I've had my massive Christmas jingle hoops on this it's nice to get into that time of year. It is the perfect time to be reflecting on the year that has been and getting really excited about the year that is going to be, I think I'm always a big advocate for you can start any time that you. It is a very auspicious time of the year where we do need to, embrace and enjoy the fact that we can wrap up one year and start a new one. So it's great. I was just reflecting on what we've covered in our first season of Elevate with Grace podcasts over the last few months. We have covered a massive amount. We Started an episode, talking about our passion for inspiring and supporting women to create a life of success on their own terms. Then our mission is to deliver thoughtful and curated experiences and actionable steps to make that happen for ourselves. It all centers around the five elements of our elevate with great success on our own terms model in pod two. Started to explore why we have to talk about what might be holding us back, which is one about five pillars. And we wanted to kick start some thinking about where as women we might need to get out of our own way sometimes and be aware of when those things might happen. And then into podcast rated for our chats were really centered around why knowing your why is super important to driving towards success on your own terms. And we curated some bad content together. There's some ways to start looking to do that for yourselves, a bit of a shitty first draft on your why and add some other bits and pieces that we covered then. And then podcast five was our very first review, which was really fun. That was the one thing, the surprisingly simple truth behind extraordinary results. Which we both really enjoy diving into. And then we moved into a four-part series to explore all things around our smart risk-taking pillar and we create, and we curated some super awesome content to share with our listeners about making decisions and how we can more confidently make decisions. In helping us be brave out to take smart risks and achieving our vision for the success that we want to deliver for ourselves. Knowing our why can really help me find, some of that stuff we had some awesome chats about what it means to cultivate our careers. And so we. Punch through a bunch of great content that we found that we want to share around this. And then we rounded out with our last episode before this one, but it was, it's definitely not a least pillar about fueling and financial power and getting curious about finessing our finances. So I am so proud of his Miranda for launching a bunch of amazing content in these first 11 episodes. We've had well over 500 downloads. So if people listening to podcast so in the year that's been I feel really proud of that stuff. And I personally have learned a great deal of stuff and absolute ton of things as we've been kick-starting this passion project of ours so far, it's been really great.

Miranda: 4:36

Absolutely. And you're so right, Claire, there is just so much to learn and unpack in bringing this podcast and this idea of elevate with grace to life. Lots of great learning and we've, I massive congrats definitely a champagne popping moment and a very exciting season two and hopefully season three and more what to come out of this, there is just so much here to unpack. So I'm also just really proud of us. It is so easy to dream up to dream up an idea, even to map out an idea. But as we all know, taking action can be the real challenge. And when it's a, non-revenue, it's a massive want to help project. You'd like, it's needed. There really is so much in trying to bring that to bear. So I love that we've made it to episode 12 and that we've created this this cool thing, which, I've been really grateful that we've received some wonderful feedback from those who have listened to the podcast. It's helped them see something, that's holding them back. They've used a couple of tools to make a big decision and my heart just swells. And I just, I'm so grateful for that feedback and I hope that, we can touch more people and support them in this great big audacious life. So yeah, and as I mentioned, there is just so much that's come out of this way. We've got more episodes and more content that we want to get ready for 2022. So couldn't be more excited about that.

Claire: 5:52

I think it's really critical that we support the little wins. There's a great Ted talk by a Canadian based educator Mehrnaz Bassiri. And she talks about the transformational power of small wins. We've talked about it in a few of the episodes that we've had this year. Basically Besara says that there is one big mind shift that we have to make in setting these forces in motion in terms of the transformational power of small wins. We have gotten really habituated in seeing major successes in the news media or in the social media posts that we follow. It's all about their achievements and all this sort of stuff. We can get ourselves into a situation where we feel that our accomplishments and not really that worthy of acknowledgement to ourselves within this sort of outsized, massive nature of the expectations that we see in the media around us. Once we've got one small win accomplished, then the forces are set in motion to favor another small win and another small win until we get a combination of small wins that lead to larger and greater accomplishments. That's mostly what we talk about it's just one little action, bite sized, actionable steps in these elements to create success on your own terms. And that's just one little success in one little step. And we just need to keep. Acknowledging that and celebrating that. So it's pretty cool.

Miranda: 7:09

Absolutely. And I think also our listeners, there's been maybe a couple of things that you've done this year that have lifted you a bit further up and you're so track clear the social media lens. Doesn't offer people that view of the work behind the scenes, all the other bits and pieces that are happening. So I think everybody. Needs to celebrate a small win, whatever that is for you this year. And, celebrating small wins has always been super important. I've always worked in a long tender cycle kind of world. And so this is just an essential part of the work culture that I've been part of. It's certainly when you run a marathon, you've got a. Really celebrate those milestones along the way. I've made it five Ks. I've made it 10 Ks. I've been, up to 15 because otherwise you just really lose sight of the ending and everything just feels so far ahead of you. Bernie brown actually talks about this in her book, daring to lead as one of the key ingredients of daring leadership over Armoured Leadership. doing so you're encouraging your team to really race it and to focus on the next small goal in front of them, which yeah, absolutely. Was the one thing premise as well, encouraging each of you attain, encouraging yourself to move towards that next step. And that next step, rather than just this really big goal out there in front, that you might not reach for a very long time. So yeah. High energy on that one.

Claire: 8:24

The challenges in the rollercoaster that we've been through, make us reassess, in some ways it's even more profound and interesting you take it a step back and thought I want to do. less things, but doing them consciously and think about some of the collective challenges that we've faced in our communities and what colleagues in our home lives and how you can use some of that stuff to really think about what that means for us in terms of what we're sending for our lives and our goals and how they're going to living our best lives going forward. And so there's always a silver lining. I think I remember at one point my girls who are eight and 10 as and they felt like this thing was never going to end. And I said, the one thing I don't know much, but the one thing that I do is that I know is that tough periods always come to an end. After the experience I would all had it feels more intense and broader about the opportunities that are gonna come from that. So from having those kind of really powering experiences for many, so

Miranda: 9:19

yeah, how much more do you value your girlfriends when you catch up for dinner and you don't want to be late and you want to cyber every moment because how I get to hang out with you again, and I get to enjoy a meal with you I really loved the recap that you just did of the podcast episodes thus far and reflecting on those pillars and then how he dived into those topics. I wonder if you have a favorite episode yet?

Claire: 9:41

Yeah, that's true. That's true. They're all my favorites it's had to put some quantifiable structure around which one's my favorite, but I think episode seven, when we were talking about boosting our decision-making confidence, I think I really liked the content that we covered from that episode. So any duke, Seth Goden in my eyes. Heaps more, after the last couple of years that we've all been through, I do think that many of us are looking to make decisions and changes in various aspects of our lives. Whether we're doing that already, we have done that. there's a lot of decision-making and change that people are looking at and reflecting on. I personally got a lot out of that episode, myself in terms of my own career and personal journey and some of the decisions and risks that I want to take and make. And I just believe that learning more about our risk biases and decision-making styles is really crucial right now. And I've just found that below that content I really enjoyed. And then I have a bit of a love, hate relationship with the last episode we did episode 11. So I had. Quite a severe case of imposter syndrome when it comes to that episode I really. I feel energized whenever I'm talking about all things, women and money women, money and financial empowerment and the financial freedom that it brings and how important it is to have a longterm view of that sort of stuff for yourself and your financial independence. As that's something that I'm really passionate about. It was great to get a conversation started on that last week. Miranda to do have any ones that you loved?

Miranda: 11:05

I am so grateful that you took on the challenge of episode 11. I love your passion around finance and women. I also think you've just done some incredible work and live some big financial experiences tonight. So back to that small way and or big win I think we all benefit from learning a little bit from you and celebrating that in that process. For me the episode I point everyone to and perhaps the most important concept is making sure that women are not getting in their own way in episode two and also understanding what else is holding them back it's not all us, there is definitely some things happening there with society that we need to just, be aware of. We covered a lot of topics and we just did them quite high level. I've looked forward to really digging into that in more detail. I was talking to a work colleague recently, and we didn't deep dive into this too much in episode two, but that awareness of what career gaps do that whole wife drought phenomenon of Annabel's crabs book is just so many women are making those decisions without really thinking of the long-term impact. I do find that quite scary. And it does keep falling back on the women's careers regardless of their position, really to be the one that supports the child when they're sick, the family member, when they need to take care of. That their work takes a hit when things get a little bit too hard to balance at home. Claire, we briefly spoke last week about the risk that being to present as a mom in the workforce, has potentially impacted career progression probably an area where we will definitely talk more and hopefully find some solutions together, but it's a really big audacious challenge. We can definitely change some of the things that we're doing to hold ourselves back, before we decided to take a career break, think about the long term impacts on your super on your career progression on your income, obviously working part time, not just today, but in 20 years time. If divorce does happen, what does that mean for the balance and where you sit? Yeah, I think that one's really stuck with me. It's something that I'm hearing from colleagues and I'm saying do some thinking and really look into it. And certainly this colleague I was talking about was completely shocked and had never really given any of that. A pause for five years doesn't feel like a bad thing at the time.

Claire: 12:59

you're right. There's so many. And I think there's, there is so much to look at that. I think I, as I think about it, I think that episode and also about having, Like being a bit clear on your vision. You don't have to have it all perfect. But understanding that you might be doing a lot of spoke about it a few times. Like they, yes. But reasons for the spike, I've put so many years into this particular career or yes, but I really need to be there for my kids because I feel like society expects that from me or yes, but I think we do a lot more of that than we probably think we're doing. And some of the time I've, some of the mentoring conversations I've had. Often, if I step away from it think about the key message, the key messages you just need to get out of your own way, this next dream, big everyone is as capable as everyone else. And so there's, yeah, there's a lot in that. So I agree. We wanted to raise it, but we didn't want to spend all season talking about that stuff. But I think there's definitely a lot more to unpack because we really went through those topics for me when we spoke about that in episode two, but it's being, and I think it's big too after COVID. I think there's a lot of that. There's a lot of evidence there that shows that women have had to take a step back again. So it made all this progress. And then because of the homeschooling and of the implications that have happened through COVID, it's it's a bit of a, two steps forward, one step back kind of scenario that was happening as well. So it gets even more important to be talking about some of that stuff. Impacting burnout levels and all sorts of crazy stuff. So yeah. Good point. It was a very important.

Miranda: 14:34

Absolutely now I think the most enjoyable episode and the one that had a lot of fun with definitely the episode seven on this decision making I've absolutely devoured all of any Duke's work. then that book review of MRIs, zags, I she's just a, such a fun character. So I felt like that was a lot of fun to discuss and, some great outtakes in terms of decision-making, which also helps with that episode too of. Making sure you, you've got a lot of great decision-making tools and then winging it for the rest and deep diving in the yes. and. Not the yes. but. So you know, on that, are there any big outtakes that have stuck with you? Maybe on this or just another content, you know what stuck with you through this?

Claire: 15:13

Yeah I think I've really enjoyed our conversations. It's really challenged me around the need have a vision and dream big and have audacious goals. And it doesn't matter if you never get there, but if you don't have. Then you're not stretching yourself to get out of your own way and think about all of that sort of stuff. Having an SFD of my, why that really has stuck with me because I think it does help you. Decide what part of the financial finessing stuff you want to work on and what risks you want to take and what are you prepared to look at in terms of what career transitions or moves you want to make? Again? Doing that as much. I think we will wonder whether it's worth right to do it or not is definitely something has helped to form some of those initial thinking. Also the concepts of the one thing that review they have consistently stuck with me. So whenever I started to feel overwhelmed and anxious, Speeding and out of plates at any given time. I do stop and check myself to ask what is the one thing I can do right now to make everything easier or unnecessary? What's the one thing that if I do that tomorrow, some of that stress will go away and I won't feel so bad about stuff. And so I've used that quite a lot actually. So I found that's really stuck with me.

Miranda: 16:26

I love it. For me, It's been around how hard habits are to form and maintain. So I actually came into the 2021 with some reasonable habits around my 60 minutes, 5:00 AM. And the way that the year progressed and what was going on, it was very much an up and down on actually delivering on that habit. I was listening to the gentleman that wrote atomic habits the other day. he was really just saying habit. Forming is a lifetime process, as much as we want it to be something that happens in 21 or 66 days if you stop doing that certain habit that you've got to get back on that horse and keep going again. And it's not. Always just easy, but the benefits of having those habits and having that default are just so strong and I really want to be a more habitual person going forward. There's lots and lots of studies around the benefits from even just taking off that mental load, taking out that decision, making that you're just going to do those things. It's not a question. It's not something that you need to make a decision on. It's ingrained in your. day so continue to work. So it piece of work for me, it's like a continual pace of progress. The other thing too, that is that how challenging it is to live. The one thing, so habit forming and then the one thing and you think, yep. I've got my one thing. I know what I'm doing and I don't know about you, but I just find myself consistently getting derailed. Something. Aspire and we'll focus on being better at, I think going forward is just that one thing. What's the most important thing. How do I not get lost in the tidal wave of busy?

Claire: 17:54

So an acceptance of doing a little reset. Not to be hard on ourselves if we fall off the wagon, like that's hard to, I think we're just always so having SL so yeah. Thinking about our listeners and our tribe that we're trying to create here and what we're trying to support? What if you had one wish for women going into 20, 22, what would that be

Miranda: 18:15

for me? one wish I feel very much about knowing your own power. I think so often women give them. For women, we give our power away to our employer. We sit back and wait for managers to tell us where, ready for the next step or whatever. Potentially, we're hearing about how many women are giving away them. How if financial power what's holding you back, there's so many. Things that you can be doing to collectively hold onto your empower and deliver that. And we get an, the way in that space. So if I've only got one wish and obviously I'd 20, but if I've only got one way, sh I think it's for me to know your own power

Claire: 18:48

I like the fact that you said that you wanted 20, I'm not going to give you 20. Maybe you can have a couple more, but not in this episode, we don't have time. My one wish is for women to stop living their lives on other people's terms and to be braver about listening to their gut and taking action on their gut feelings. And also to be consciously aware of when we might be brushing those gut feelings aside and rationalizing it with a yes, but because we've got all that baggage that comes along with the unconscious biases. We tend to just brush aside some of those feelings of what will we know. We should be doing something about it, for 2022. Do something about it, but take action, take some smart risks, texts, and actions to cultivate your career. Whatever that means to you, take some actions on your finances. Can't stress that enough about the long-term implications of all of that. Put our fears aside and to make the changes that we know we bravely need to make, to set us onto a path for how we've defined success for ourselves on our own terms.

Miranda: 19:47

I like both of our answers were so big picture encompass. A lot of topics are covered underneath it so we can use our wishes very well. If we ever run into a, any I just want to talk quickly about something and we haven't been on a fit into an episode as yet. And there's actually a couple of points here. That's just wanted to highlight. And one of them was an interesting fact that women say 20,000 words a day and men say 7,000. And the thinking in this book was that we maybe talk ourselves. Promotions, there is so much in the social contract of being female versus being male that we can get in our own way, in that way as well. So I thought that was just a little fun fact. I don't think I've spoken less because of it, but, I'm inspired to think about it at least. We use less words, more succinct, and that link we, you spoke last week about just communicating to boards differently, to communicating with friends and, succinctness is valued so highly in that game. So can absolutely see where it can play to their strengths. And then I think coming into the holiday period we've spoken, I think about work-life balance around boundaries or but we haven't spoken, I think, directly to work-life balance. And I do feel that there's like this accumulation of concepts, that can help support us. I thought it was just a nice one to tap into and just think about, how are we going in into the holiday season? How are we setting ourselves up? Because so often we go into the holiday. Racing, we're still gonna to do less pages long. And maybe it's taking us a couple of days to get into the groove of holiday. You've got a couple of extra days and then you're back to work and you feel maybe more fatigued than even when you went into work. And we all think there's enough studies around there. I think you have an awareness of how important holidays are to avoid burnout. And sometimes, the Christmas holidays can be really tough because there is just sorry, many events and so very much socializing. So I think that balance and Being comfortable with saying no. And, just taking on the amounts that you can chew particularly as you mentioned, Clara has gone from zero to a hundred to a thousand. It doesn't need to all be hustle all the time. So you know, some of the little things I did when I took a short break earlier in the year was actually deleted my mail app from my friend. Now that might not be big for a lot of people. You may have already lent. Don't look at your emails when you're on holidays. But I have to consciously talking mail into the search on my phone. I can't access an app to access the mail and it makes such a big difference for me, knowing that I'm consciously checking this versus just this automatic kind of push on the phone button, almost like a Facebook kind of push or up Instagram, Bush, which is also really bad. I think I need to delete those from my phone as well. The other one is just empowering the team. So if you're called with an SOS call, it's not taking any actions from the call, but empowering the team and then maybe doing a quick meditation or kind of getting yourself back into holiday mode for the quick walk or something. So you're not trying to solve that issue because that mental load can really take it on Just looking at some great tips to ensure that we can maximize our downtime. Huffington post had an article 2019 by Rachel Moss around how to switch off on the holidays. I'll put these tips in the show notes and the link because it links got some really great content around each of these tips. But for the speed of this podcast, I want us to think about things like. Setting the foundations before you leave. And Michelle Giddings is actually also had some great stuff around this, which is making sure that leading up to the holiday you're really prioritizing what work you take on and not setting unrealistic deadlines. So you are taking on just the right amount of work that you can achieve in that time or pushing it out to when you're back. And therefore you're not trying to do a full-page of to-do lists as you go into your holidays avoiding work communications while you're away, if at all possible. So the email tip would probably help that one out and also the phone calls only SOS. There was a good piece in there about if you continue to set the boundaries for your team, that you are available, that you are checking that they're going to accept or expect a response from me. Really being clear that you don't want to set those boundaries for. Make a plan for holiday admin. So make sure that you can be off tick as much as possible by making a plan to take on that holiday admin in advance or some good planning around that ditch the tech, wherever possible, ask yourself why you can't relax. So a lot of people change their sleep patterns while on holidays. So there's some great recommendations around maintaining sleep patterns. Maybe not trying to. Partying until one, two o'clock every night, just a couple of nights, but your holidays and really being kind to yourself and not taking on lots of go giving yourself downtime during your holiday period. So some really good tips as we go into the new year, some great topics or episodes that you've been burning to, to discuss. We haven't been able to fit into the last week.

Claire: 24:26

Yeah, totally on reflection. I think we've probably covered so much that I would have to say no, probably I would've loved to, for us to come more, but then we've just got to think, yeah, it's, we're on a marathon here. We can do all of that in 2022. It doesn't all have to be done like immediately. So probably not. I think one thing that I was thinking of though, because I guess I'm thinking about it for myself is, the value of considering a business career coach and also for those who the concept of a financial coach as well. So that's not a financial advisor. And then it's not when you're getting into financial dire straits, and you need financial counseling, there's a concept that sort of really taking, hold of getting a financial coach to help you with some of that. Sitting around your long-term like your, what your long-term financial goals, what you want for your life and stuff like that. So either a business coach or a financial coach I think is something that is definitely a good thing to think about to help. But with some of that stuff, you said Miranda, like when we've got so much. How do we get someone to bounce off, to bounce ideas off about what do we need to do? What is our next best move? What are we planning on doing? So I think that's probably something that I wouldn't mind bringing to the table and someone from that, I'm quite happy that we've distilled a lot of content in 2021. I'm looking forward to breaking them out a bit in our next year's podcast. Yeah, that's the lead for me on that one.

Miranda: 25:53

I've never had a financial coach. So I can't wait to hear more about that in future episodes. I think as far as a business coach, absolutely. I have just been so great. A friend of mine introduced me to a business coach way back when I was first given a leadership role. And I think that, the reality of leadership is that many people go from being very tactical and doing into a leadership role without training. And I've got this beautiful business coach has helped me through that. Give me some great tips and some great guides in, back in 20, 20 13, 20 14. And then, my last session with her. And I check in every quarter when it's needed sometimes less. It really just depends. But having that person that sort of understands what your journey is a little bit and can go with you on that and pick up where you were. Really doesn't is such a great asset. And my last session, I was armed with some of the great work that we've done through these podcasts. I had to clarity around my, why I had my decision tree with those supported breakout branches. I could clearly articulate my fears and the magic just came in this coach catching what I was putting down and helping me to clearly define what it was I needed. We worked together on an action plan to get to where I wanted to be and some breadcrumbs to stop finding my path whips. Yeah, I totally agree, Claire. Great. Great recommendation. So CLIA, so much stuff we've covered already. I thought this was going to be a really quick, easy episode. Do you have any cool goals you're excited about for 2022.

Claire: 27:18

Yes. So I think inspired by him. Isaac's you mentioned her and we did the her winging at Booker. I think one of the things that really resonated for me was how much fun the MRIs. Has or talks about having and all that sort of stuff. And so I, my goal is definitely to have more fun in 2022 for me, 2020. And I think for a lot of people, 20, 20 and 2021 was mostly about surviving rather than thriving. I learned a lot about myself during that period of time, but it was definitely more towards this surviving spectrum of the scale. And so I want to hear you to 20 to 22 with a much more light-headed mindset at the back of everything I do. Now, that's not to say that I don't have people. I get data's goals that I want to set, but I just want to take it out myself a little bit less seriously, to be honest. So I think I've been way too hard on myself. These last two years, trying to put way too much pressure on myself to be all things to all people. And I haven't stopped to recognize and celebrate the good things about myself anywhere near enough. And so I want to do much more of that. I think related to having more fun. And, because I have to bring it up because it's so critical to everything that I believe is I really want to work hard on my money goals and my long-term saving goals because for me, financial freedom and financial independence over the long-term is such a critical foundation for living a life designed by me on my own terms. And so I just want to make sure. It's it's taught us anything. It's we absolutely have no idea what's going to happen tomorrow. What's going to happen next year. What's going to happen 10 years from now. And so having financial S having some plans around the financial security that you can do that for yourself, I think is really critical. So I want to do a little bit of that. And I really still want to continue with my journey of learning. I always want to do that every year, but I think learning about who I am at my core and really. Delving into some of that stuff that I, that he then self-aware of what he's holding me back, what, one of the stories that I'm telling myself and how that impacts how I show up for myself personally, and at work and for my friends and family and in the local communities. And so I've done a lot of work on myself this year and it's been rather uncomfortable to say the least, but it's, it's been really worthwhile. And so we continue to double down on that next year.

Miranda: 29:35

Cool goals there, Claire, very insightful. And I love this idea of doubling down on journey of you at your core. And I do think that once you articulate that for yourself, it's it changes how you show up for people. It changes how you articulate what you need by all. Mantra of mindset should attract what you need to you. Because you clear on it, you can tell people what you need and communication is just so key in that, getting to where we need to be. So for my goals are elevating out, delivering on my mission statement, shedding an episode for. To just value and leave that Y every day. So trying to hold for the value on my one thing, focus on my important work just does not get lost. I think that gets really tricky when there's a lot of demands on you at one time. And you're just feeling really sunk, just putting my own oxygen mask on first and trying to find ways to empower people, to deal with their own urgent, not take it on. It's just going to be so important to achieving that for me. And to be fair around my boundaries, I think bringing that laughter and fun into my every day. And that's just always been who I am. And I think the last couple of months have really. Seeing that depleted. So it's important to bring and the energy and the excitement and the optimism

Claire: 30:46

There's a really good connection there too, because you're talking about, so you wanted to bring laughter and fun back into your every day as like one of the goals, but that I think being firmer around you a bit like being really firm around your boundaries getting your own oxygen mask on they're really interconnected. In order to have fun and laughter and relax more in your day, then you really do have to hold strong on those boundaries. And also looking after yourself first, before you can look after others.

Miranda: 31:12

Thank you. I think I'm going to print it up on a wall or something just to make sure I remember in those busy times I think a big part of this for me is diving into some summer reading and taking a really nice pause. So a couple of summer writing books, and I'd love to hear what your plans are as we round out this episode and hopefully leave our listeners with a bit of fun. The dictionary of lost words is a book that I started back in June and I've put it on hold. I've been very disciplined not to go back to it. I've got it in the, up to where she finishes boarding school and she's gone to work on the dictionary so I'm looking forward to finishing that one and likewise, the silent patient. So bring on. My beautiful friends Steph actually let me a book back in 2019. After she had actually ventured off on holidays with us and my six month old baby, she left me a book, Daisy Jones and the six, which I devoured it's fun. I did notice that there is a book touted as the new daisy Jones called Malibu Rising. I read that this year.

Claire: 32:07

it was a bit of fun actually, quite

Miranda: 32:08

fun. A bit of popcorn. That's what I'm looking for. Then I guess there's just some other thriller books. One is a book called the herd which is Andrea Bartz. It's a co-working space that's created by women for women the founder of this community goes missing so I'd be interested to read that one. Another one which has, comes really highly recommended as coping nothing, man, by Catherine Ryan, so some fun holiday writes. What about you?

Claire: 32:29

I do a lot of reading. So the last couple of years, I've had a KPI on myself to read 40 books each year. I'm almost there for this year. Matt books. But when you're making me think about reading for the summer, I haven't even thought about it to be honest. I had a quick look, I was in. Yesterday in the city. I will check out. Apple's never fall, by Liane, Moriarty, I've never read any of her books, but I really did enjoy the TV adaptations, nine perfect strangers and being a little off. The synopsis did sound pretty popcorny and lovely and something that I could get into. So I'm keen to try that one. A couple of others on my to read list is Clara and the sun, which I think has a bit more kind of heavy going, intellectual kind of mindful reading there. And one called love and virtue, which I think the girls chats in looks three recommended. I think Annabel Crabb gave that a ride review. So I might check that out, but the, her I'm going to check out some of yours, I think too. So now I've got to listen. I'm going to have to distill and work out which ones are going to range. And I think I'll also my best mate walked for me. Hello. 10 books, three book which is great. It looks like it's a really fun book to read. It's not really a standard book. So I think I'm going to give that a go cause I reckon that be a bit of fundraising this holiday time

Miranda: 33:43

as well. Oh, fun. All right. That brings us to the end of this episode before we actually dial out though. I think we need to leave our listeners with an inspirational thought or quart. So for me, I have. Gone quiet esoteric, so I feel like knowledge paired with insight and a great plan that you're taking action on daily will get you from where you are to where you want to be. Really important knowledge, insight planning action. What about you, Claire? Did you a.

Claire: 34:08

I thought that I would bring up a couple of our own bits of thought leadership from our Instagram posts. Since I went back and had a quick look at ones where we got lots of likes. Was every woman, needs a little support. Let's build each other up and prosper together. I think has been a critical element to me, still standing at the end of 2021 is the women in my life that have supported me through this time. And I've hopefully supported them. I will live. I have had that. I believe I supported them too. So when that popped up and I noticed that I thought, yeah, that's the one. Everyone we know needs a little support. Let's build each other up and prosper together. Thinking for 2022,

Miranda: 34:49

I think love it. All right. That brings us to the end of episode 12. We cannot thank you enough listeners for joining us on this journey. We really do just value you so much. I hope that we've given you a bit of summer reading and the lightness and some great tips for switching off in this episode. We are so grateful for your support. We would love if you could like or share this podcast with a friend who needs some great insights and some superpowers for 2022. So please feel, please we'd love you to share it, and hopefully you can help out a friend and then a fellow human doing side. We want to wish all of our listeners, a safe and Merry holiday season. Look out for January four. Be ready with a clear plan to tackle the year ahead. And remember your resolutions and not limited to a timeframe. Anytime resolutions can be created any time they define your why and support you in achieving success on your own terms, sign up to our email list and we'll start to cultivate that one and a huge, thank you, Claire. It's been a great episode and it's been a great year. I am so grateful for you.

Claire: 35:49

Okay.

Miranda: 35:50

we'll put all of the links in the episode nights, please visit our Insta post for more inspiration, please visit our Insta place for more inspiration. Email us@elevatewithgraceatgmail.com. Check out our website, elevate with grace. Dot com.edu. There is going to be some great blogs and such over the summer.

Claire: 36:07

Thank you so much for that. That was a lovely wrap up. So I went to anymore, except thank you so much to, you've been amazing support and I've loved everything we're doing and I can't wait to keep going with this in 2022 and beyond.

Miranda: 36:20

Thank you. Thank you. Thank

Claire: 36:21

you. Bye.