The ONLY Way To Grow and Scale in 2024 KDS: 125

Do you want to Grow and scale in 2024?This episode is for you. I know you might be thinking, “Um… duh Kim, who doesn’t.” But I will take this in a different direction than you might expect. At least compared to trite advice, you might see popping up at this time of year. Like everything I’m doing moving forward, this episode is going to be a mix of things that speak to both the tangible (tasks) and intangible (thoughts, beliefs, mindset). I’ll share the only way to grow and scale in 2024; then I’m going to share a story with you that was the inspiration for this episode. The point of sharing the inspiration is to piggyback on the last episode, “Everything Is Content, 2.0.” I want you to start finding content ideas and inspiration from all areas of your life. So first, here’s the ONLY way to grow and scale in 2024: Take complete and total responsibility for everything in your life. Doesn’t sound very exciting, does it? Contrary to how that might feel when you hear it, I promise you that when you truly step into owning responsibility for everything in your life, it creates massive freedom, which then opens all kinds of doors. Besides showing you that “Everything Is Content,” the story that led to the inspiration for this episode is also an example of me walking the walk. Because it’s going to be much less about the contrast that showed up and much more about how I caught myself playing the victim, feeding old beliefs, and then stopping that bullshit as soon as I realized what I was doing. Here’s what happened. I recently had a conflict with someone I love very much. It went sideways, some heated things were said, and then a resolution was reached (sounds so formal, but truly, the details aren’t what matters here). Like all of us, I did the normal regurgitation of things in my head. You know what I’m talking about… “I should have said this, yea, but, if only, blah, blah, blah.” After having returned home from the holiday and a fairly good night’s sleep, although not enough, I found myself rehashing things within minutes of waking up. Two things to note here: even though I was home and had slept pretty well, it was less sleep than I needed, and I was pretty worn out from the previous four days. Because I woke up earlier than I wanted to, in some ways, I ‘woke up on the wrong side of the bed.’ The house was pretty cold (52), so I got to work to get a fire going right away after getting the kettle going for my coffee (I use a French Press and enjoy this slower process of brewing my coffee in the morning). While I was doing all of this, my mind started going a million miles a minute. Replaying the conflict, wishing I had said things differently (or not at all), and really working myself up. It only took me about 30 minutes, but it was like someone had splashed cold water on my face. I instantly thought, “What the hell are you doing to yourself?” Which was then followed by a firm and resounding “Fuck this!” I realized how quickly my ego had jumped in to take the wheel, and I was feeding that little shit as though I was a helpless victim to what was going on in my own mind (humans really are fascinating creatures!). I’ll come back to this realization in a moment, but before that, I’m going to get a little meta here, and I want to share why this victim realization was so powerful to me. The first time anyone called me a victim was in 2011. It was my therapist/mentor (who I still speak...