Denise Duffield...:            Hey, gorgeous and welcome back to Chill & Prosper. Ah, I am so excited about today's topic because it is all about setting goals for the new year. Now, I don't care when you're listening to this, by the way. You do not have to set goals only in January on January 1st. This is just not a thing. It's totally okay for you to set and reset goals all throughout the year. So today, we're just going to be talking about different goals that you can set, different ways that I approach goal setting and just some extra tips for you to not get so freaked out about it.

                                                Now, you might have heard me tell this story a million times and I don't care. I'm sorry, I'm so repetitive, but I want you to hear this so, so clearly, and the first thing I'm going to talk about is why some people really struggle to set goals and I do think it's just such a core memory for so many of us.

                                                Okay, so birthday party, all right? You've heard this before. I don't care. Think of every single birthday party you've ever been to as a kid, all right? And the birthday cake comes out and they light the candles and they say, "Make a wish, but don't tell anyone or it won't come true." Just think about how many times you have heard this in your life. "Make a wish, but don't tell anyone or it won't come true." I actually didn't realize that this had happened so much until I had kids, right, because we said the same thing. And I was watching Cinderella with my daughter Willow and it's in Cinderella. The mice bring her birthday cake and they go, "Cinderelli, what are you going to wish for?" She goes, "Oh, I can't tell you my dreams and my wish. It won't come true," and I was watching that with Willow who's three at that time and I just went, "Oh my God, of course, of course," and it doesn't matter how many times I have told Willow, "Hang on. No, in our family, we do tell each other our goals and dreams."

                                                At birthday parties, whenever I say this or whenever I tell her, "Yup. Make a wish." I can just see the discomfort in her body about saying it out loud because it is in every single movie, every single TV show that depicts a birthday party. That's what they say. And so I just want us to acknowledge this collective, cultural thing about saying your dreams out loud and what has done to us as a generation and how we can undo that.

                                                Okay. So how is this showing up for you in your business? You might not have even heard that before or even thought about it before, but I find for so many people, it shows up as this complete inability to set goals, to ask for what you want, to even articulate it out loud, because you are scared of jinxing your goal or making it run away, if you look at it too closely. And what I've even seen it manifest as is that some people say to me, "No, Denise, you don't understand. When I do set a goal, everything falls apart and it doesn't work." And I do think it is just so embedded in us, culturally, that we feel we're not allowed to talk about it out loud. So, let me just share this really quick story.

                                                When I was a kid, I grew up on welfare, single-parent family for a long, long time. When I was 11 though, my mom married a wealthy businessman and they were together a couple of years and it was very on and off. We would go, we'd live in his big ass mansion and then they would have a fight and my mom would just move us out and we would go back to a very tiny little flat. So, it was very feast-or-famine rags to riches story. But when we were at the mansion, my step got me a pony, an actual pony and I was never really that much of a horsey girl. I really liked dancing, but my pony did not like to be ridden.

                                                Her name was Crystal and she just did not like to be ridden. So, what I had to do is I had to hide the bridle behind my back and I had to kind of walk sideways, so I would walk towards her, but I would be looking in another direction. And I just had to kind of sneak up to her and she would be looking at me going, "What are you doing?" And I would sneak up to her and I don't even care, I'm not even looking at you. I don't even want to go for a ride. What are you even talking about? And then I would sneak up to her and then I would kind of put my hand on her and slip the bridle on and she'd be caught kind of thing. And so some of you are treating your money like my pony, Crystal, you are, "I don't even care. I don't even want to make money. Who cares? All these people talking about six-figure and seven-figure [inaudible]. How tacky? I don't even want that in my life. I just want to be happy. I don't even care about money."

                                                And so you are trying to sneak up on your income goal, hoping that it won't run away from you. Okay. And so there are easier ways to make money. All right? So, before you even set goals, just have a look at what you think is going to happen if you set a goal. Some people tell me that they hate setting goals because they'll be so disappointed if it doesn't come true and if it doesn't happen and I get that. I really get that. But also, if you were to really think about that, what's the worst that can happen? What is the worst that can happen? Nothing. No one's going to put you in goal jail. I love how jail, how sometimes jail's spelled G-A-O-L? Wow. It's almost like goal. There is no goal jail. Nothing bad is going to happen. Yes, you could be disappointed but on the flip side of that, lots of good things can happen when you're clear on what you want to make.

                                                All right, so you thought this podcast episode was going to be about how to set goals. It's not. It's about unlearning all the crap about why you're not setting goals, why you are not allowing yourself to dream about it, okay? So, the benefits of actually having some goals means that it might influence what products and services you're going to create this year. It might make you realize you need to increase your prices. It might bring up even other goals, how hard you think have to work in order to achieve your goals, right? And so you could have some big stories around that. You might think that if you don't do it by the 1st of January, that's it. You've only got one shot at it and it's done for forever. And that's why I said at the start, I don't even care when you do this. You can set goals each and every month. You can shift and change it.

                                                And that brings me to just one final reason why people don't do it sometimes is this feeling that it is one and done. So, you might have been told as a kid, "You made your bed, now you got to lie in it," or it feels like you're writing them in cement, not in sand and it's totally okay for you to shift and change your goals. Okay. Let's talk about different ways to set goals. And then, again, I'll tell you what goals to set, but there are so many different ways to set goals and people get into real tease around it. So, I have people say, "Denise, I really want to set goal, but I just want to make sure I'm doing it perfectly. I want to make sure I'm doing it right." And I get that. I'm a Virgo. I love doing things perfectly too, but here's the thing, our brains all work in different ways. And so what works for you, setting goals, might not work for somebody else, setting goals. Okay.

                                                So, let's just take one example. People ask me, "How should I write it down? Should I write it down in future tense? I am on my way to making a million dollars or should I do it in present tense? I am rich. I am a millionaire. Or should I do it in past tense? I'm so grateful that I made a million dollars." Okay. One of those three will feel better to you. Some people are excellent at future casting. They're good at visualizing. So, this is actually one of my strengths in the StrengthsFinder assessment, the Gallup StrengthsFinder. I'm future oriented. I'm really good about thinking about the future, too good sometimes because sometimes I'm just, as soon as I hit a goal, I'm already thinking about the next one, which can be its own problem. Right?

                                                So, for me, it's real exciting to think about the possibilities and the what ifs. For some other people, though, it feels too far removed. It feels scary. It feels unknown. So, you might be someone who works really well in the present tense, and it could be, "I'm so excited that I'm on the journey right now to making a million dollars. I am on the journey or it could be, "I am a millionaire," feels good for you or I am a successful coach. It feels good to you because it's in the present tense. Now, some people love living in the past. If that's you, you could write it in past tense because you love thinking about things that have happened before. So, there is no right or wrong way. It has to be feeling good, it has to feel good for you and your personality. Okay.

                                                So, just ponder on that for a moment about how in the past, if maybe someone says you, "You have to write it like this," and it just didn't feel good for you, then try in a different way. Try it in a slightly different way. And it's also okay to explore your different senses, right? So, some of us are more visual people. So, if that is you, you might not like writing down your goals as much as you like creating a dream board, creating a Pinterest board of all the things you want to manifest, saving pictures on Instagram, how you can save things and create collections. You can create a collection of dream house, things I want to manifest, a branding that I love. So, for you, writing things down, words might not be your thing, but visual images might be your thing. Now, you might be someone who is more auditory and in that way, how can you explore that sense to your goals?

                                                So, it could be that instead of getting stressed about writing down your goal about being an author, that you start to listen to author podcasts every day, because that makes you feel it's real. And you listen to stories of success and that feels like it's real. Maybe listening to affirmation audios is going to be your thing. You can record your own. One thing that I used to do is I used to practice out loud what I would say to Oprah, if I was interviewed by Oprah about my goal.

                                                Now, you might be someone who, smell is your thing. Olfactory sensors are your jam. So, what sensors would activate that goal for you? I used to have a candle that smelled like the ocean and it was in a big, beautiful blue glass jar. I would like that and go, "I am working towards my million dollar beach house," and that was anchor for my goal. I didn't need to write it down every time because I would smell it and that would activate that same feeling for me. So, I want you to ponder on that, about what senses you like. One last one before we go to break, you might be more kinesthetic. So, if you love feeling things, what little anchor would remind you of your goal? It could be a little charm that you put on your keys. It could be a shirt that feels good and when you put it on you go, "This is my million dollar shirt. This is my author. These are my author panties."

                                                It could be something like that. I'm wearing socks today that make me feel good. I have bee socks that I always wear during launches because it reminds me that I'm attracting, I'm attractive to new people and new bees. All right. Have a ponder on that and I'll be right back with three different goals that I think you should set this year and more stuff that might be stirred up around that. All right. See you in a sec.

Caroline:                              Hi. My name's Caroline and I'm based in the UK and I ran a business called MindBodyMeno, which is a movement platform to support women through menopause. I recently read Denise's book, Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. And I have to say, I was skeptical but very quickly I noticed that every time I picked the book up to read it, I got a physical reaction. My foot would start to kind of twist and contort as I was reading. It was like my body was kind of having a real physical reaction to talking about money or thinking about money. Some of my takeaways from the book have been the kind of playful and yet serious attitude to money. I'm talking about it more, I'm thinking about it more, I'm investing more time into my attitude towards it. I'm encouraging my kids to manifest the things they want and openly talk about the things that they're excited about. And I feel it's been a real game changer for me.

                                                I'm definitely starting to see changes in my business, money coming into my business, that I didn't expect. Things that are perhaps I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't read the book. So, I think it's brilliant. I loved it. And I'm now moving on to Chillpreneur.

Denise Duffield...:            Okay. Welcome back. So, hopefully you started to think about different ways that you could anchor those goals in few, not just at the start of the year, but for the rest of the year because I find, too, some people write them down in a and then they never think about them again. So, definitely think about what little things in your life you can add in to keep you up to date on your goal. Okay. So, I talked about three different goals that I think you should set this year. So, of course I think you should set an annual income goal. For sure, you should set an annual income goal because sometimes that just gives you something to play for, as I said. So, is this the year that you're going to crack six figures? Is this the year that you're going to crack a million dollars or is this the year that you're finally just going to make any amount of money from your new business?

                                                Okay. So, definitely set that overall revenue goal and sometimes even just to see what it brings up for you. Okay. When I set my million dollar goal, I was making 250,000 a year. And I realized that I had a story that I was going to have to work four times harder, to make that million dollar goal, which of course was impossible because I was already working at capacity. And so your goal can really be a great way to uncover money blocks around how hard you have to work or what you have to do to earn that income. The other thing, though, it can do is make you realize that maybe you need some structures in place. Okay?

                                                So, my friend Natalie MacNeil, she was already at the million dollar mark, but I remember she told me she wanted to double or triple a business. I can't remember what it was, but she said, "But I need to build some stuff behind the scenes. I know that my customer service team needs some work. I need to build some of the systems behind the scenes." And I remember thinking, "What? You're allowed to do that?" And because I was, I thought you just kept on running at a breakneck speed until you burnt out and crash or that advice you always get about build the plane as you go. Well, you might look at your goal and go, "Okay. So, if I were to achieve that goal and I would have X amount of clients this year, what things do I need to put in place to make sure that's actually really smooth sailing?" Okay?

                                                So, that overall income goal, if you break it down, it just starts to become more real and we actually hired a ton more people at the start of this year because I had a really big money goal. And then I was, "Oh my God, we've got bandwidth." So then we did a surprise launch with four weeks notice and that launch was a million dollar launch for us, but I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't built some of the capacity. Okay? So that thing of jump and the net will appear or leap and build the plane as you fall. That can be great advice but also you might have some extra time to sit and think about it and think about what that next step goal would require from you, both from a money block point of view, I said, I'm going to have to work heaps harder or just from a capacity and logistics point of view. Okay? So, that's why we do it. So, write down that goal and have a think, what do I feel I'd need to thrive to achieve that goal?

                                                Now, I also want you to think about this in terms of what do you need in your personal life to achieve that goal. Okay? And I've done other podcast episodes about what help I have at home and things like that. But do you need extra childcare if you have kids. Do you need pet care? Our dogs go to daycare twice a week and on those days I'm, "Oh, I've got just extra bandwidth. Nobody needs to poop. Nobody needs to go for a walk." And those two days are extremely valuable for just an extra little bit of bandwidth. So, looking at that goal that hopefully you've written down, what do you need to thrive? Do you need a bit of help around food or laundry or something that stresses you out that is taking up bandwidth that could be used to achieve that goal. So, think about that.

                                                Okay. So, I said there's a lot of different income goals that I think you should set this year, but here's another one that I think is so important. How much money would you like to make this year out of passive income? So, I'd love you to set a passive income goal because it will do the same stuff as I just said, what support, what structures do you need. So, if you've been procrastinating releasing your book or releasing a course or a template that you want to sell or something. It's not going to happen without setting a really clear intention to do it, okay? And there's so much resistance and so much money blocks that come from creating passive income and I've got other episodes about that, if you want to look at that, but there can be some real guilt that it's not allowed to be easy or that stuff is cheating. And that is absolutely something to explore, okay? But for today, I want you to think about for the next year, how much income would you like to make from passive income?

                                                Now, if you are new to a whole passive income and you've never launched anything before, set something really simple, a thousand dollars for the whole year. If that's too much, set a hundred dollars, if that's too much set one sale. If you do one sale of something that's passive this year, wow. You're a winner. That could be amazing, right? But if it's something that you're just exploring, you could maybe look back at what you earned from passive income sources last year and double it, triple it, put a zero on it, whatever it is. And I don't want you to overthink this, okay? And again, I'd go and have a look at some of my other passive resources.

                                                Actually, if you go to denisedt.com/passive, I've got some stuff there for you and it will all be in one place. But my first passive income product was a $50 eCourse that I filmed on my iPad and it was about manifesting. So, if you've bought my manifesting course before, that's how it started. It started as a $50 course that I filmed on my iPad. Oh my God, it was pretty budget. But the content actually was pretty similar to what it is now. And so you've probably got everything you need inside you to do it. You just haven't made it happen because of reasons, right? But tech should not be a thing anymore.

                                                I've been around so long. I'm practically a grandma in the online space. The tools that you have available to you now, literally your iPhone or your phone, your Android phone, has probably a better camera in it than 10, 15 years ago when I was using a Kodak Zi8 to film my courses. The iPad that I filmed my course on, it's probably that first generation iPad, so that you have no excuses. You can use your phone, you can use the headset, you can use that as a little camera. But the thing is, you just have to do it. And people loved that $50 course. Soon that cost may be a thousand dollars a month. And it meant that I could release some of my one-to-one clients. It meant that I could say no to people who weren't a fit.

                                                So, set a passive income goal. How much would you like to make in passive income this year? And that's really it guys. Set an annual goal, set a passive income goal. That's it. Now, if you want to get fancy with it, you could set a goal of how much you want to have in savings by the end of the year. Okay. Now, I've done a separate podcast episode about savings because that brings up so much money blocks for people, setting savings. There's so much around that. So, check out, just search for the savings one, but you might set a goal to be debt free this year or to reduce your debt by a certain amount. The idea is just to be specific. Give your business something to work towards, give it a container to go to and write it down, put it somewhere. That's it. It does not have to be complicated at all. Stop thinking this is a one and done thing. Stop thinking that if you don't get it perfect, the universe isn't going to like you. It can be so easy. I promise.

                                                Now, I've got a final piece of homework for you before our last break. Send me your income goal. I mean it, I really really mean it. You can tag me in a post. You can email it to me. You can DM it to me on Instagram. You can tweet me on Twitter. My handle's across the web @denisedt. Okay? But share it with me if you have no one else in your life to share it with and if you feel shy sharing it with me, you can share it with a business bestie, okay, because that might keep you accountable. So, I would love to hear you HAHAs, as usual, you can, tweet this episode at me, but it's safe for you to set goals. It's safe for you to ask for what you want and it's going to bring up some stuff for you, but I know this is going to be an incredible year for you and everything that you want is available. You just have to be brave and ask for it. All right, gorgeous. I will be right back after this short break with my final thought. All right, bye.

Speaker 4:                           Hello, lovely bees. This is Deborah Hein. I am a certified alternative hair fitter, boutique owner and now author located in Western Pennsylvania. I joined bootcamp this past January after listening to Denise's books for two years. I hesitated to join because I figured I had already learned everything I would learn by listening over and over and I had no idea of how my life would change and how quickly it would happen.

                                                When you join bootcamp, you join an incredible network of beautiful, inspiring bees that will help guide you through the manifesting, formula steps, decluttering, forgiving, upgrading, et cetera. I had read it over and over, but doing it with accountability is when the magic starts. The community is there 24/7 for feedback and inspiration. My favorite tool that I learned is EFT tapping, which I had heard of, but never tried until bootcamp. And if you have anxiety like me, it is a game changer. Because of bootcamp, I am currently working on an audio version of my first book and busy writing my second. My life is joy-filled, abundant and I could go on and on, but you know what? Don't take my word for it. Why not jump in and see for yourself? The little changes you will make along the way will amaze you.

Denise Duffield...:            Hey and welcome back. And I just have one final thought about asking for help. I've realized recently how much I still have this story that I have to do everything myself. I'm the one who has to suck it up. I'm the one who just has to do everything and it's not even from the Virgo perfectionist thing of only I can do this right. But it really is this thing of, "No, I can't rely on anyone else for help." So, a little affirmation for you could just be, it's safe for me to ask for help. It's safe for me to get help. It's safe for me to not do it alone. It's safe for me to be vulnerable and not know all the answers. It's safe to not be perfect. So, I want you to ponder on that, were are you not asking for help?

                                                And sometimes of course we don't have, maybe you don't have reliable friends and family. So in that case, it's safe for you to pay for help. It's safe for you to ask people and pay them to do what you want them to do and to get that help and support. So, just see where you're holding yourself back there and where you are maybe being a martyr or you're just being the strong one who never needs anybody. It's safe for you to ask for help. It's safe to ask for help. All right. That's our episode for today. Thank you so much for joining me on Chill and Prosper. Peace out and I will see next time.