Jump Start Your Joy®

Even though we are a couple of weeks in to 2019, it's a great time to take a few minutes and map out your plans. I'm a big fan of sitting down for an hour or so and getting my thoughts for the year out on paper. I started doing something I call the "Ten in Three" in 2014, and in looking back at that first list, it's fascinating to see that I have completed all but one thing (getting PMP certified, #2).

Set the Intention for your Year You might feel, like I know have in the past, like life is moving fast and you don't have time to really stop and soak in what's going on. You might feel like you're on a trajectory with your career that now feels just OK, but you know you want something more than what you're currently doing. Or, maybe you have not stopped to think about what it is that you want to do with your one "wild and precious life" since college, and feel a bit lost.

The beauty about taking an hour or so to get your thoughts in order about what you truly want to accomplish (instead of being in a reactive mode), is that it provides you with a little time to put some mindfulness and intention around your year.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and get out a blank pieces of paper or journal page and work through these questions to sort through your intentions - try to keep the answers in a list or bullet format so you can easily see the key ideas that start to emerge during this process.

Here are some questions to ask yourself as you start this process:

• What are the big things you want to create this year?
• What are the big things you want to bring into your life, if you take away the current limitations you may feel are holding you back?
• If you could map out anything you wanted for life, what would it look like? If nothing was off the table, what would you do, and who would you be?
• What are some ideas that have been coming back to you, time after time, that you've pushed aside because they are not "practical," or don't fit in your life right now?

Choose the Things You'll Focus On The next step, after you've spent the time doing a highly productive brain dump, let's get sorting through those thoughts. Look over your list, and taking a moment with each item you've written, let the idea settle into your heart. There may be some of those items on your list that are "maybe some day" type items, and others that feel like they resonate with your soul. Take a highlighter or colored pen, and mark the ideas that feel like the ones closest to the things you truly want to focus on.

Set Your Ten in Three Once you've sorted through the ideas, it's likely that there are a handful that are bubbling up as main ideas you want to bring to life. Take a look and see what you've got, and narrow this list down to the top ten that you want to bring into reality.

My process has been that I pick ten items that I want to complete, and spread them across three years. There's a lot of pressure online to "do all the things," and that leads to being totally overwhelmed. Once you've narrowed it down to three big goals for a year, you've limited the the things that will get your attention, and increased the likelihood each one will get completed. I'm also a big fan of this method over something like a Bucket List because it gives you focus, instead of being a big long list hanging out there that feels too long to ever finish.

You can download the fancy downloadable, printable sheet to remind you of your Ten in Three by clicking here.

Two notes on the Ten in Three: while the instructions here are simple, this process can be one that takes a couple of days. Allow yourself the time and space to do this in a way that feels right for you. Make the commitment to yourself to finish this once you've started.

The other note that I like to point out to people about the Ten in Three is to be kind to yourself if, say, midyear, you realize you don't want to do one of the things you added. It's OK to change your list, depending on what life throws at you. The only thing I haven't finished on my list is #2, and it was an intentional decision for me to not pursue getting a PMP certificate. You can change your mind, too.

Resources: Download your Free Printable Ten in Three sheet here A Better Approach to A Bucket List, episode 117 Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown

Jess Ekstrom is the energetic CEO and founder of Headbands of Hope, and the developer of the Mic Drop Workshop. I had the pleasure of meeting Jess in Atlanta last year, and knew from the moment she shared the mission of her company (and it only further made me love her when she quoted Will Ferrell) that I wanted to talk to her more, and to have her on the show.

Jess' story of creating Headbands of Hope is one that resonates on all three of the Inspiration, Intention, and Action tenets that have been a part of Season 4 on Jump Start Your Joy. In her time working with the Make a Wish Foundation, she noticed that children didn't like to wear a wig after having gone through chemo, and that many of the little girls preferred to wear a headband instead. Inspired by seeing an unmet need (there was no central place offering headbands for kids), Jess created Headbands of Hope with a "buy one, donate one" business model similar to Toms Shoes, and created a simple and impactful business that's brought hope to children in every children's hospital in the US.

It was Jess' intention to make an impact through a simple but powerful way - to brighten the day and provide a boost of confidence to children going through chemo. And it was her own action to bring this idea to life that now feeds back to the inspiration and support of others.

Jess Ekstrom and I talk about:

• Her earliest sparks of joy: food, and going on a scavenger hunt for a new skateboard that had her name spray painted on it
• How she started Headbands of Hope
• The insights she learned working for Make a Wish, and having met the owner of Toms shoes as she was creating her company
• Sometimes the things that are most earth shattering and game changing are the simplest
• How to get to inspiration from frustration
• Her Mic Drop workshop, and how it fills the need of having more women speakers at conferences and conventions
• Why we both love Will Ferrell and how we feel that he creates connection with others through humor
• What schools and parents can do to provide children with a more well rounded point of view and better life skills
• Her upcoming book, which is due out in November 2019
• How to jump start joy in your life: unplug: remove yourself from the screen, play more, and develop a writing habit

Resources Jess Ekstrom's Headbands of Hope website Jess Ekstrom's Mic Drop Workshop website

Jonni Pollard is a meditation and wisdom teacher, with his teachings stemming from the Vedic tradition. He's the author of "The Golden Sequence," co-founder of the 1 Giant Mind Learn Meditation course and the 1 Giant Mind Teacher Training Academy. As a true multipassionate, he's also been an actor, and an avid skateboarder and runner. Jonni now works with corporations, individuals and at events teaching others how to "get into the highest state of love to connect to our humanity."

The Inspiration of the Four Golden Insights

I truly enjoyed getting to speak with Jonni, and felt myself sinking into the conversation in a deep way. One of the most inspirational parts of the discussion for me was when we walked through the Four Golden Insights, which are the pillars for the work Jonni does.

1. Life is Sacred
2. Love is our Nature - we serve, nature, and find connection
3. Wisdom is our Power - Jonni talks about finding the intelligence of love, and reconciling the appearance of resistance and opposites.

• We also talked about "embodied leadership power, which equals the ability to influence the environment around us."
• Wisdom can enliven and awaken the truth of who we are

4. Fulfillment is our Purpose - we find our purpose by fully understanding who we are

Jonni Pollard and I talk about:

• His earliest sparks of joy as a child - playing with other kids, playing games, and any kind of games where he could evolve and find excitement
• Being a multipassionate, where he reflected that he felt that the many different things he enjoys in his life are all just different ways that his soul and purpose is revealing itself
• The filters that we use from the outside looking in, and how it changes the way we see ourselves
• The desire of creative beings to become expressive
• Our conditioning as children and the pervasive ideology that we learn as young people
• How adopting and conforming to social ideals causes immense suffering
• The four golden insights that set the pillars for the Golden Sequence
• What happens when energy does not flow naturally
• The dissonance that fear creates
• Why we need to connect to our purpose and our humanity
• Jonni's thoughts How to Jump Start Your Joy: wake up and connect to the world around you, meditate for success and to affirm your humanity, and to show your best connected self to whomever you first have contact with in the morning

Resources

Jonni Pollard's website

The Golden Sequence by Jonni Pollard on Amazon

1 Giant Mind Podcast

1 Giant Mind App

As entrepreneurs and solo-prenuers, let's look at a new definition of abundance that makes room for the lives we want to lead, the people we want to reach, and the we way want to show up in this world. Learn how on this final episode of 2108.

This week on the show, Andrea Owen returns for a second visit and this conversation is, hands down, the hardest I've laughed in quite some time. Andrea is a coach, author of two books (52 Ways to Live a Kick Ass Life and How to Stop Feeling Like Shit), and she's the host of the amazing "Your Kick Ass Life" podcast. She and I talk about how to be taken seriously even when you're not a serious person.

As an entrepreneur, and a woman out doing business in the world, I am betting that this episode will resonate with you strongly. It's getting at the heart of some deep seated conditioning, and calling into question something my own personal inner critic is pretty tied to: as a person who does serious work (life coaching, business coaching and project management all require an understanding of deep emotional or business acumen), I often worry that if I present my light heartedness in front of others, my ability to be serious and taken as a credible intelligent person will be dismissed.

What I love is that in this chat, Andrea calls bullshit on this, for both of us. She says it's "inner critic bullshit" that's just getting in the way of our being our true selves. And, I agree with her.

I also love that this discussion goes meta and self-reflective on itself, as we start out talking about how we're both silly people at heart, and how as humorous people we both worry that we can't ALSO be serious. After laughing our butts off (you'll have to listen because it is funny, I laughed out loud when I was editing this episode), we then dive into deep and serious territory. We talk about the death of her father, about numbing out, about PTSD, about the serious shit.

In other words, the conversation itself shows us that yes, you can be funny, and serious all in the same 45 minutes.

Inspiration and Intention:

Where are you undermining or downplaying your own natural way of being because you feel like they are not "acceptable" to others?

How can you look at those traits as a gift, using a different lens? Who are some other people you can identify (and maybe even look up to) that share those traits with the world?

In this episode, Andrea Owen and I talk about:

• Body suits and blazers (and we have a good laugh about this)
• How humor can be a way of connecting with others
• That humor can be healing
• Rumbling with your emotions
• What happens when we label emotions as good or bad, instead of just letting them be
• Surrendering to emotions
• When it's time to find help with emotions that are overwhelming
• How to interact with unusual relatives at a holiday party
• Body suits and blazers (yes, again)

Resources

Your Comfort Zone: A Rant (Episode 257 on Your KickAss Life)

Menudo on Silver Spoons

Andrea Owen on Episode 115 of Jump Start Your Joy

How to Stop Feeling Like Shit by Andrea Owen (on Amazon)

52 Ways to Live a KickAss Life by Andrea Owen (on Amazon) - her first book

Your Kickass Life - Andrea's website

A project manager with 20 years of experience, Paula breaks down how to take the basics of project management & apply the skills and toolset to your small business as an entrepreneur. A great primer in running a project & insights on what to look

Self Advocate, activist, mentor and coach, Christy Tending joins the show with a fresh take on leaning into our uniqueness, owning our imperfections, and waking up to our own freedom.

Sarah Von Bargen of Yes and Yes joins Paula to talk about how to build joyful, intentional habits, how to question the messages in the world around us, and how you can craft your most mindful and meaningful life.

Are you having anxiety about the family Thanksgiving dinner, your spouse's company party, or spending the holidays with your inlaws? In this episode, Paula talks about how to create an intentionally joyfilled holiday season.

Welcome to Season 4! This week on the show, I'm doing a solocast to kick off Season 4 and taking a look at the direction the show will be headed this season.

This week on the show I'm talking about: – the three steps in the process of going after your dreams: inspiration, intention, and action – why you need to build in time for rest and activity – the bookends of emotions – hanging on to the "anchor" of good times, even when you're faced with difficult times – my amazing time on the NKOTB Cruise X in 2018 – how people around us can inspire us and remind us of who we are and what's important to us

Resources 8 Great Reasons to Start a Podcast / Episode 146 Kate Swaboda – "Courage When You Hate Your Job" on her Your Courageous Life Podcast New Kids on the Block Cruise recap from 2017

Books Art of War by Steven Pressfield Lunar Abundance by Ezzie Spencer

See more pictures from NKOTB Cruise X 2018 on my Instagram Feed.