194. Holding the Vision & Living the Dream

Welcome to the Inspired Caring Podcast where women who are in the messy middle of this big, beautiful and sometimes chaotic life are finding inspiration and resources to care for themselves and figure out the best options to care for their aging loved ones. How we take care of ourselves today impacts how we are aging tomorrow. This podcast will help you feel seen, centered, and aligned. One that relies on you is so lucky to have you in their life. The Inspired Caring Podcast is your reminder that the number one person that counts on you is yourself. Congratulations on being here in this moment. Let's dive in and be inspired. Hey you guys, I hope you have had a great summer. My husband and I a few nights ago sat down and went through all of our pictures from January 1st to date and we had forgotten how many things we have done. It wasn't to see what we've accomplished. It was we had a gut punch about a week ago and we were just wanting to see what were our wins of the year, like with connections and people and things that we were we've enjoyed ourselves and had some fun and it was really a great exercise. This is something I normally do at the beginning of a new year as I go back over my calendar and back through my photographs and that is when I definitely give myself credit for like what have I actually accomplished, where was my time used, money used, energy used when I do my year in review reflection? This time, I don't know, it was very spontaneous and really fun and sweet and he went through his camera roll and I went through my camera roll and we were impressed with how much love we have in our life and connection and joy and so it was a nice little exercise to do after having kind of a tough week. I've been thinking a lot about living the dream versus living in the vision and there are so many days when I will just look around my home and think, my gosh, I am literally living the dream. It's a phrase that we throw around quite a bit, how do I live in the dream? The reality is if I could go back to my little girl version of myself, like this is literally the dream life that I had hoped for, I have just an incredible family, we have a wonderful and beautiful home, we do put a lot of energy and work into it being what we want it to be and we talked about a raised bed garden, for example, for us to enjoy over the summer and I've been growing tomatoes in it, that was something that we had to intentionally create in our life, it wasn't going to just magically appear but we had to have the idea for it first. So I'm watching my nephew who has always had a vision for himself and a dream for himself to be a pilot and he is 19 and currently in school to be a pilot and he has had his first solo flight where he was given an airplane and this is just wild and my sweet nephew went on a flight all by himself, I mean he's not just given an airplane right, he's been in school, he goes up the instructor, they land and then the instructor hops out and Michael dreams goes back up, but it's just something that he's held for himself for so long, he's been thinking about this and it's been his dream to be a pilot and now here he is really technically, he piloted a plane, he's a pilot. So for you just as you're going through your day and creating your life and thinking about what is it that you want in your future, what is your dream for yourself and where are you already living in that dream? I have a client who's in a really tough situation and she's trying to figure out next steps for her parents and there's just so many layers of complexity to what's happening in their life and you could, I could just feel like the sense that she was starting to feel a little bit hopeless and so we talked about, I mean she's obviously not living in her dream version of her life right now, this was not what she had envisioned for herself and so we talked about just holding on to a vision, visualizing herself, enjoying a cup of coffee at her kitchen table one morning without all of the complex layers happening in her life, like just what could that look like, what would that look like, what would that feel like and just start building a vision around that because something is going to change in the circumstances that their family is currently in, something is going to give, something is going to change. And we know that to be true, like whatever really rough circumstances, if you're finding yourself in right now, like at some point, something is going to change and we don't know the timeline on that, that is true and that can be tough when we're waiting for something to improve. In the meantime, I think it's so important to be visualizing what it is you do want. We've talked in the past about giving yourself credit for the end of the day what you did accomplish because I think our to-do lists, it's just never ending. They will go on and on and on forever and so I think it's just really important to be thinking about at the end of the day, like what did I get done today, what did I accomplish, give yourself credit and it's the same with visualization and envisioning what it is you want and I've been working on this for myself as well because we have accomplished so many incredible goals in our careers, our marriage, our family and we are in a very transitional chapter. And there's nothing that is going to change the fact that we are in a transitional chapter. She is going to be in a transitional chapter at some point and so really thinking about what is the vision of what it is I do want to be happening is really important to be holding on to. So for me, the next five years, here it is 2025, I will have, I already have one child who has graduated, I daughter, test I graduated from college, so the next five years she is going to be establishing her life. She's engaged now, yay, Tessa. So she's getting married. They are wanting to start a family at some time sooner rather than later. Maya, yay, Maya has had just such a great summer. I'm so proud of her and what she accomplished over the summer in her internship and she's going to be graduating from college in a year and a half. So in the next five years, she's going to be graduating from college and establishing herself in her life. Our son Logan, yay, Logan, so proud of him. And what he is accomplishing, his senior year of high school, he is a senior five years from now, he will be graduated from college and launching into the world, getting established. My parents current ages are, my mother is 80, my dad is 84, my stepmom is 81, and maybe she's 82. A lot could happen in the next five years with them. And I don't, a lot of unexpected things. Todd and I are both 53, so we have an idea that we are going to remain healthy and strong and focused on our goals. But I think we've been living in one place and there's a chance in the next five years that we'll have a move, a significant move, household move. So I just think that as we're trying to picture what the next five years are going to look like, I really want to be focused on how I want to be feeling every day when I wake up, who I want to be surrounded with, where what that might look like, what the energy in the room might look like, are there fresh flowers in the room? I am I sitting in my little chairs starting my, with my coffee starting my day, am I walking outside? Am I walking on a treadmill? What does it look like? And start really building a vision for what the next five years could be. Obviously, inspired caring has just taken on this new, these new legs in life of its own. It's a membership now for businesses to subscribe to. So as people are working with clients who are on the family caregiving journey, oftentimes those family members are just feeling so stuck or like lost. And so the inspired caring membership allows businesses to provide added value to their clients. This, the livings are a big component of that because there's not historically been a family support education and inspiration program in the buildings. So someone moves their loved one into the building and the focus is very much on the resident, which is so totally 100% appropriate in the families desperately need more help and love and attention. So that's what the program is there to do. So I'm having little sessions where I'm envisioning what inspired caring looks like and how am I stewarding this incredible product for people and service. So I just want to invite you to be thinking through, first of all, are you living in your dream? Are you? I hope so. I know my audience demographic skews 35 plus years old, 35 to like 80. And I just hope you're finding that there are pieces, parts, or your whole life where you are literally feeling like you were living your best life and you are living your dream. So don't get totally caught up in the shenanigans of worldly affairs. And then the second thing for yourself is if you know there's change on the horizon, if you know there needs to be change on the horizon, what does that vision look like for yourself? What do you want it to look like? What do you want it to feel like? What is a day in that life like? And start to really build that out because if you don't know, there's all kinds of sayings about this. Like you're going to reach some destination. At some point, you may as well have a vision for where you're going. And we can't get to where we're going unless we know the road we're on. All kinds of shit like that. But you know what I mean? Like we need to have a vision of what we want our daily life to look and feel like. Who's in it? Where are we? What are we doing? And hold on to that vision because I just think the shenanigans and energetics of day by day can sometimes be kind of exhausting. And so it's nice to be able to sink back into that vision. And at some point, you'll wake up and I hope you will look around and say, oh my gosh, all of those things that I wanted for myself in some way shape or form have manifested. They are here or better, this or better. And as I've held my vision for myself, I have found that I am living the dream. I have some incredible guests coming up on the podcast that I am so pumped about recording in the next few weeks. And then I've already got someone on the books for 2026 that is going to blow your mind. My mind is blown. And it literally was because I asked and they said yes. So I'm so excited for what is coming up with the Inspired Carrying Podcast. I hope you are just living your best life. I love you and I see you and I look forward to being with you again next week.