How to find the courage to pursue your dreams in life with Lisa Michaud

Episode 39: How to find the courage to pursue your dreams in life with Lisa Michaud

Hi, Welcome to How did you learn to do that? Podcast where you will hear tips, guidance, and stories to help you to have a fulfilling life and career. The inspirational stories that you will hear from people will inspire you to know that you can create anything you want in your life. And it just takes commitment and action. This week’s episode is titled How to find the courage to pursue your dreams in life with our special guest Lisa Michaud.

So I’m excited to have you here. I’m excited for you to hear these stories, the guidance, and the tips that I’ll be sharing. And if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me at info@howdidyoulearntodothat.com and you can connect with us on social media or on Instagram, on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter @howdidyoulearntodothat. And we would love if you could help us grow and expand this podcast by reviewing us on Apple podcasts, as well as on YouTube and sharing the episodes with your family and your friends and helping us continue to spread the message that we all are deserving of a fulfilling life and we can be the catalyst in our lives to create that.

Podcast show notes for this episode

To find the show notes for all our podcast episodes, please visit our podcast page. You can check out the show notes for this episode and Lisa’s bio, here!

How to get to know yourself with Career and Personal Development Coaching

So as many of you know, I am also a career coach, a personal development coach, a mindfulness coach. I do coach new graduates, early career professionals, but I also coach people that are far in their career, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years that are just not feeling happy. They’re not feeling fulfilled. They’re not feeling like they’re living their true purpose to really keep asking themselves.

What else is there? Is there more to life? Is there more that I could be doing? I’ve got the career. I completed school, I got the career. I have the family. I have, you know, everything that I thought I wanted and I have it open. Now they’re at that place. That’s asking themselves that question where they want to ask themselves that question of how do I connect deeper with myself?

What can I do to connect with myself, to figure out who I am and what I’m supposed to be doing in this world? So what I’m going to do is I’m going to actually break it down into a couple of different sections. So over the next three months, I’m going to be talking to you about your mindset, about personal development, about things that you can do to connect with yourself deeper, to really get to know who you are and what you’re here to do and how you can build a fulfilling life and career for yourself.

And then I’m going to move through more tangible things of what you can do for your career, how you can know your why, how you can align with your why and how you can actually have the confidence to network to achieve and get close to your why and your purpose and how you can maintain that throughout life and everything that you’re doing.

The Successful Candidate Course

I launched The Successful Candidate course in November. I am going to be launching it again in March. And so I’m excited for you to be a part of that. And I am going to create a Facebook group for everyone that registers into the course so that you can have support and guidance as you’re going through this process for yourself.

And I will be there every single week. We’ll be doing a mastermind and we’ll be sharing thoughts and ideas and challenges and things that you’re going through and things that you could do more of or things you could do less of, or how I can help you troubleshoot a little bit and give you some. Tips and some prompts and some ideas of things that you could try out to see if they’re going to work for you.

So I just want to say, although my course is marketed and geared towards new graduates or early career professionals, it’s really for anybody that wants to be in a place where they’re having a fulfilling career and a fulfilling life. There’s so much to be learnt in that course. So if you want to sign on, I’d be happy to jump on a call with you to chat about it.

You can read more about my story and why I developed this course here!

Otherwise I will see you in the course and hopefully we’ll see you at the masterminds as well.

In the meaning, you can book your FREE 30 minute call to learn how to connect deeper with yourself and bring fulfillment to your life and career!

How to get to know yourself with 1:1 Coaching Sessions!

I will be also offering some one-on-one coaching for, for folks that don’t necessarily want to take a course, but want a little bit of guidance around mindset and really figuring out how to feel fulfilled and what the next steps are. And someone that wants to develop a bit of a morning practice or an evening practice and routine that keeps them accountable and that they’re able to connect with themselves.

I will be offering some one-on-one sessions with you where we can hop on a call weekly and just to keep you accountable for about the span of four weeks. Book your free 30 minute call to see if it is a fit!

And then hopefully you can then flourish and go out on your own and spread your wings and create this life for yourself.

So let’s get started.

How to find the courage to pursue your dreams in life with Lisa Michaud

I’m so excited to welcome Lisa Michaud to the, How did you learn to do that? Podcast today! Thank you so much for joining me.

At the age of 27, Lisa faced the realization that she might only have a year or two to live since then. Her life has entirely changed. She was lucky she didn’t have cancer, but she did realize this. She was waiting for someone to tell her that she was going to die before doing the things that she really wanted to do.

And from that moment, she made a commitment to start living today and moving to downtown Vancouver and creating a movement to empower women were two of her dreams that two of her genes she stopped putting on hold and made it a reality as a proud working mama to her beautiful two and a half year old daughter, Sonoma.

She loves celebrating life in Vancouver because to her, it proves that anything is possible. Now at the age of 33, she’s created a multi-million dollar net worth a growing real estate empire, incredible network and beautiful family. And as an international success coach speaker and entrepreneur, Lisa inspires and motivates you to turn your big dreams into goals you’ll actually achieve.

Her message: You can do whatever you put your mind to, and it’s time to dream big and live life to the fullest.

Angeza: I am so excited to have you here to share everything that you do and all the amazing things that you’ve done and you continue to do within yourself and your community.

Lisa: Oh, thanks. So I’m excited to share with your awesome community and happy help in any way I can.

Angeza: So we’ll just kick it off by asking you how you got started on this journey to doing what you do and being a success coach and having a real estate business and just moving to Vancouver and just everything in between.

Lisa: Oh, well, let me, let me rewind the clock a little bit. And you, the bio, obviously the introduction. Thank you for sharing that, by the way, that shares a little bit of it, but I want to just walk you through a little bit of what that whole health scare experience was and how that really did change my life and set me on this journey that I’m on.

Now, about six years ago, I was living a totally different life and my husband and I were living and working in Fort McMurray, Alberta. So a small town, we both had really good corporate jobs. I was making multiple six figures. We were traveling all the time. We’d just gotten married. We were moving up the ladder. We’d started building our real estate portfolio. And then I faced the reality that I might only have a year or two left to live. And I will never forget laying a bed with my husband that night and looking, looking him in the eyes and just saying, what are we going to do?

What are we going to do if I only have a year or two left to live and he looked at me and he’s super pragmatic and you, you know this. And he was like, well, you know, technically you’re the one with the timeline. So what do you want to do? And that’s when it really clicked for me. And the first thing that came into my mind in that moment was move to Vancouver.

And I’m from Vancouver Island and from a small town. And I remember every time I’d come to them, the city has a little girl. I would just, it felt like I came alive and we might we’d stay at a hotel. My parents would go to sleep and I would sneak out of my bed and go peek through the windows, turn on my Christine Aguilera, a CD, and just dream about living in the city, taking in the lights and just loving it.

And what happened to me is something that I think happens to a lot of us over time. You know, as, as I got older, his idea of living in Vancouver, the dream just seemed like it got further away and it wasn’t, it wasn’t going to happen right then. And at first it was because it’s not where my university was and it wasn’t where my boyfriend was.

And then it wasn’t where my next boyfriend was. And then I had a different job and then we had a mortgage tying us down and we had a second mortgage and a second job and Vancouver got more expensive. And so I had this huge list of reasons. Why we couldn’t do it. You know, my husband’s a small town boy, we have a quad, like, what do you do with a quad in Vancouver?

Come on all these questions. And in that moment, laying in bed with that question of what am I going to do if I only have a year or two left to live, all of a sudden, all those, the reasons why I couldn’t do it, they just didn’t matter anymore. They just weren’t even a thought the question, wasn’t why can’t do this.

And the question instead became, how is this possible? I’m super lucky because that moment, like that was a, that was just a scare I’m healthy things are good. Um, but it was that scare and that realization that Holy Moline, like I’m living a great life. Things are going really good, but. And this happens. I think so often it’s almost like I was on the wrong peak.

Like I had done all these things and ticked all the right boxes and it was great, but there was still a level of me that was hiding. There were still dreams in my heart that I wasn’t fulfilling. There were still things that I was too afraid to try and I was too comfortable to stay and even bother giving them a shot.

So that was like a really, that was a huge awakening for me. Even though I was healthy, my husband and I, we both kind of woken up and we’re like, okay, well, what are we going to do? Let’s do something different here. And so it took us about six to nine months and we started to co you know, he quit his job.

He found a new one that allowed them to travel. We sold one house and then we sold the other house and then ended up making the move to downtown Vancouver. So that was like, that’s probably like the biggest, like big step that we took. And. What I noticed when we moved to Vancouver, I spent the first couple of months looking for a job because that’s what you do.

Right. You get a job. And shortly afterwards, I remember looking at a job description that should have been the perfect description. Like it seemed exciting that company was awesome. I was pumped for it and I had hit me again. And I realized, what, what am I doing? I want to have a business. I’ve always had one to have a business.

You know, I went to, I have my double major in accounting and finance because I wanted to have a business. And I kept telling myself things like. I don’t know enough. I need the right idea. I need to have a certain amount of money in my bank account before I can take this leap, or my kid needs to be grown up and moved out of the house before I start a business.

Like wouldn’t you have a kid, I was a pregnant, but I needed her to move out for me to even go for my dream. And I realized that. This, even though I’d had enough courage and Gusto to do at once to shake out my life for my dreams and go make it happen, that wasn’t enough to change the habits, the mindset, all the other pieces, the layers, the societal expectations, and really tap into what I wanted.

It. It’s not that easy to just have something happen once and then always do it. Um, so I that’s what got me really fascinated in, okay. If I’m struggling with this, if I had to literally have like, Face reality. They might only have a year or two left to live to do something. And then that still wasn’t enough to make me keep doing it or what is going to be enough.

And that’s what got me really curious and passionate. And in some ways kind of obsessed about figuring this out for myself and then helping other people do it too. And that’s what made me decide to start my coaching business. And I love to talk clearly. So started, uh, I’d already been speaking a little bit, so I decided to kind of formalize that and create a business out of that. And then it’s evolved into what is now golden girls, our brand, our podcast, community, and mastermind. That’s how I’m here. That’s a story.

Angeza: Yeah, that’s awesome. You said a quad. What is that?

Lisa: Oh, that’s so funny at ATV. Oh, okay. Yeah. It’s different. Yeah. Yeah. Like, um, like an off-roading little formula thing. Yeah. So I’m so glad you.

Okay, you’re gonna laugh. It is sitting in my parking stall in downtown. And so we had to buy a special parking stall that would fit my SUV and the quad and it’s down there. And it’s just so funny because this was something that limited me for so long. I was like, what are we going to do with the quad?

Come on. I like app. And, you know, we just, we just had a party. So we just bought parking stall that works for us. So, um, it. It’s just so amazing. We think these things that we, and I’m like, I’m guilty. This I’m not, when I say these stories, I’m not, and all these little tips that I share, I’m not sharing these being like, you should do this because I know better.

I’m saying this because I’ve made these mistakes and I’ve lived through it. So I hope that my, I can share this. And like this little thing is quad. Like we make up these stories. Like I can’t do it because of. This like this quad and it’s like, well, well, how, how else could it look different? How would it be possible?

And like, even just, if you listen to nothing else, if you turn this podcast off right now, which I hope you don’t. But, um, if you listen and you just take this away is start to ask how is it possible? Because that is a question that expands possibilities. That’s a question that creates and gets your mind going into creativity mode instead of what so many of our defaults have been programmed over the years is to look at what’s realistic and look at what’s achievable and look at what is what’s, what’s the prudent thing to do, or what’s the safe thing to do, or what’s the, we get, we get so stuck in those that we never actually look at.

Like, well, how could I do this? And if you can just shift your mindset on anything that you’re thinking, like, whether it is starting a business, whether it is figuring out what to do with quad, when you move to Vancouver or whether it is living in a city, you want to live in traveling to a place you want to travel to whatever goal or dream that you have. If you can just start to say, how is it possible that can change everything?

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah. I love that you share that because I have someone that’s like, you know, both, both him and his wife. They’re, they’re really good friends of mine and I’ve known them since high school and we’re really, really close. And the one thing I always tell him and he’s, you know, he’s a very bright person and, um, and you know, he can achieve really anything he wants.

But the one thing I’ve always told him is that you get in your own way. And you’re the only reason why you haven’t achieved those goals is because he has this order of events. Needs to happen. And he always is like, I can’t do this because this needs to happen. And then that needs to happen before this can happen and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And there’s this order of events that he needs to happen in order for him to start living that dream or that goal and realizing it. And I keep telling him, I’m like, you don’t need that order. Why don’t do the last thing work towards the last thing. And then maybe the first thing will happen just on that way on that path.

And yeah. Stop limiting that you can get to your goal because you have the sub goals you need to get to first. And, um, and I always tell them that. And so I love that you share that because it’s true. How do you just switch your language and your mindset to just think, okay, how is this possible? Like, how can I get there?

What else can I do? What are some other options around this? And I think that that’s, that’s key because that really helps you move forward. And I know, um, Just, you know, with like, and I love what you mentioned about just having this business or this, um, peak actually that you were saying, but it was the wrong peak for you because that’s exactly how I feel.

I feel like I’m in Michelle. Obama says this in her book and I don’t know if you’ve read her biography. She calls herself the boss checker, you know, you just check, check, check, like these, all the things you set yourself up to. And sometimes they’re not. The boxes are not what you’ve put in.

It’s kind of like what society says or what your parents upset, et cetera. And so I didn’t say anything, you know, it was like, From a young age, my parents had instilled that, you know, you have to have a minimum of a master’s degree and the PhD is your option, but you have, have to have a minimum. And my grandpa used to say, you’re not allowed to get married until you get that.

Master’s and it’s funny because the day I got married, I actually submitted my master’s thesis at 8:30 AM. And I got married at 4:00 PM. So I told him, I said, I told you, I like, I fulfilled your, your dream. Like what you said, you know, You expectation that I get a master’s before I get married, it just happened to be on the same day.

Um, And it was funny, but I did all of that. And then I got, you know, a job in government and I’ve moved up the ranks and then in a management position now. And so what I tell when I tell people that, and on paper, it just looks so incredible. It looks like, wow, like you’re, you’re doing it and you’ve got to it.

But similar to you, it always felt, um, unfulfilling, you know, and it always felt like this is not, there’s something missing here. And when I got pregnant, um, and I talk about this a few times, but when I got pregnant, I was obviously excited to be pregnant, but I was more excited about the time off that I was about being pregnant, even though I was so excited to be pregnant, but it was definitely like, I was like, I have an end date.

To this job and it will be here for me, but I get this chunk of time to focus on myself and focus on what I wanted to do. Um, and I didn’t realize that my daughter was gonna take most of that. How did that work out? Cause I know what mine look like. I was so naive. Like I was contemplating doing an MBA while on mat leave.

And one of my coworkers that had just returned from it said to me, Don’t do it, like just enjoy this moment and this time with your daughter, like, you don’t even know what your mat leave is going to look like. You don’t know the challenges that come with having a child. So don’t, don’t try to set yourself up for something that you probably will not do.

Um, just, you know, take this period of time and just enjoy. And luckily that was the best advice I had been given. Cause I, you know, closed my application and everything and you know, it’s true having a kid it’s just, you know, next next go. And I don’t know if you feel this way, but I was telling my husband, I was like, next go, I’m really going to cherish the newborn phase where they don’t move.

Angeza: So once you did decide that you were going to start this, what, how was that experience for you? What, what did you have to do in order to start your business? I mean, how do you keep, how did you keep yourself aligned with that feeling of. This is what I want to do. And this is my purpose, or this is my why statement, you know, how did you keep checking back into that? Because I know it’s, it’s hard not to get lots in all the noise of what’s going on in the world.

Lisa: Totally. I wanna say that probably what I’m going to share for myself is probably also true. Some of the same things that if I was chatting with your friend who gets himself a stock, like similar things there, that, and anybody else is saying, it’s a pro.

Oh, SAS for all of us and like ongoing through that process too. And what it took to start my business is different than what it takes to continue to showing up at my business. And what it takes, took to get started is everything. What it takes to pick myself back up after I failed. And it’s like very different skills and.

Mindset and habits that we need to change as we go. And I think that’s a skill that we don’t learn well enough as we’re growing up. Like we really only learn how to kind of follow and take leads and tick boxes. And we don’t learn how to figure out what it is. And you poised such beautiful questions.

They’re like, well, what is it that I even want? What is it that does fulfill me? What does it that makes me excited? And I just want to reframe dealing for you too. No, you said, I didn’t, I didn’t do my masters on mat leave, but like, and this is the thing that, that’s the, that’s the sexy thing. That’s what everyone wants to check the box.

I got my master’s, but like, you probably got something even more powerful and like, let’s talk about, you know, the newborns they’re adorable. They’re great. They don’t move. It’s beautiful. But like also for yourself, you know, you said it was such a period of healing and such a period of growth and reflection like that.

We should be celebrating you ticking that box way to hack more than celebrating it. NBA box cat. Like, can we just get an amen on that? Because that is what it’s about. It’s about figuring out who you are, what’s aligned for you. What’s important to you, and then being able to move your life from that, like no MBA or no typical box that you take is going to give you that sense.

And that’s, I think what we’re missing. So that’s a really long way to say. Hey, like, that’s what I continue to do all the time is check in. And it’s the same thing that I would say to your friend, like, you know, number one, it’s super normal. We all get in our own way. That’s why I’m a coach. That’s why I have a business.

That’s why I help people solve their problem. Cause we all get in our own way. And you know, at the same time I am always working on myself and I’m working with coaches and I’m working on my mindset because that’s normal. And when you can see that as a part of the process and a part of what’s. It was normal and everybody goes through it.

Then it takes away the negative thinking that comes up because we often start to think, well, I can’t do this, or I’m not good enough at this. Or I don’t know how yet, or I get overwhelmed or I’m not cut out for this. And then we give up or we slow things down or we get afraid, or we put the gap, we put the brake pedal on when we really should be putting the gas on.

So that’s kind of like the first thing is just knowing that for me, like. I’m getting in my own way all the time when I don’t get things done or when things fall down, I always just go back to like, this is a learning moment about myself. What can I learn here? How am I holding myself back? What do I really want?

Like all of those kinds of reflection questions. I come back to them often. Um, every month I do a reflection I reflect on the last month and I look ahead for the next month. What am I? So what I do last month, what worked, what didn’t work. Um, and then for the next month ahead, like what, uh, what is important to me?

What am I looking forward to? What could I do this? Month that would my future self would thank me for it. Like it’s a lot of constant reflection checking in and going from there. I think that’s one of the problems. Um, I think we can tie a lot back to the example you gave with your friend, you know, um, We sometimes we set a plan and we think it has to happen in exactly this order.

And it’s one of the reasons why I hate smart goals because it’s whole like hat specifically is if you have to know every single step and it’s just not possible, you just don’t know. There are times when having a plan or having an order thing can work for you. And perhaps for your friend, it’s worked at times, or if you’re listening to this, you’re like, Oh, but I like having a plan.

I like knowing. Yeah. There are times where that works for you and there’s times where that actually holds you back and that doesn’t serve you. And that’s a skill, that’s a reflection point to be able to know, when is this plan going to work and when is it not for my business. And I think. Maybe others who are mompreneurs too, can relate to this, like being a mom, especially hello, 2020.

It doesn’t matter how freaking good my plan is. It doesn’t matter how many people signed off and authorized on it. Doesn’t matter how people made it work. In 2019, I have all the data. I have all the proof in 2020 that shit’s not going to work. I need to be ready to step up and adjust it. So there is always a point where we have to check in and say, whether it’s, we’re talking about this.

And what desire to have a plan or any other strengths that you have. There’s a point where it’s going to work for you. And there’s a point where it’s not, there’s a point where it serves you. There’s a point where it holds you back. This is like the question I’m always asking myself is, you know, is my ability to speak is my, is my big heart.

Is this is my kindness. Is it serving me? Or is it actually holding me back in some places is my, um, desire to be secure and to create stability. Is that working for me or is that holding me back? Leasings is my thoroughness on creating a good plan. Is that working for me or is that holding you back? Like these are the kinds of reflection points that I’m always working through and I’m not like I’m not spending all day reflecting on this or meditating on a mountaintop, hoping the answer comes to me.

I’m like figuring it out, journaling it, meditating it and moving through it and trying to see like, is this working? Is this right? Yes or no. And I think that’s a skill, both in our personal growth and in our businesses too, to be able to adapt, figure it out, try it. And if it doesn’t work, understand why not and keep going.

AngezaL Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s true. That’s that’s true. Just trying to. Assess and align yourself as you go. And that’s, that’s the biggest thing that I always, um, say to, and that I always share for myself too, is that you need to always come back to your goals because, you know, I know for me, the goal is set up for myself.

Um, in April when I started this podcast are totally different from now because it just evolves and it just learns. So much as I had gone through. And, uh, you know, when I started in April, I set four goals for myself and I recently looked back at them and I was like, wow, I really did not, you know, make these goals from an informed position.

And one of them was. You know, because they started off in April wanting to do affiliate marketing and a blog and doing affiliate blog, marketing, and through podcasts as well. And I said, you know, I’m going to have the podcast up by April and by June I’ll be making $10,000 a month. You know, it was like, that was what I had.

And now I’m, you know, in December and I’m like, That I don’t know why I had that goal. I was like, because there’s so many other goals I have now for myself that are more nurturing, more about me and, you know, and none of my goals, I mean, obviously I should have goals about finances and you should always have that because it’s a big part of.

Of your life. Um, and you should be talking about what kind of money you want to be bringing in or what kind of lifestyle you want for yourself and all of that. So I have that, but that’s not in my top four goals, that’s in its financial goals, you know, but for just me, um, and for my business and what drives me, my goals right now are more nurturing.

And obviously these four goals will lead to the financial goals, but, but that’s, you know what my, my. What I want to do right now with my business. And, um, and so, and so you’re so right about just, you know, going back and reflecting and just saying like, does this work for me anymore? You know, what about we do this first and do that later.

And, um, and I’m going, you know, I had a. Um, I had a discussion with, um, and you know, this, I had a discussion with my husband about our future, and I feel like we had that same discussion that you had with, with your husband and saying, you know, like, what’s next for us? You know, we keep talking about this all the time and say, we want to do this and we want to do that, but we’d never really pulled the trigger.

We do the analysis we’ve we do all of that, but when are we going to actually pull the trigger and do it? You know, and, and stop thinking about it and just getting it going. And, um, and that’s always a challenge, you know, it’s always a challenge to, to actually just take the risk and just go for it and just see what comes out of it and what you learn from it.

Lisa: It is totally, I think, you know, we’ve touched on goals a little bit and I want to just share a couple things that helped me with goals and how I, how I teach goals and how I, what kind of framework I have. So. I always focus on a hundred day goals. So focusing, picking one thing and sticking with it for a hundred days.

And if you can’t stick to something, if it’s not important enough to focus on for a hundred days, it’s not a goal. Why are we talking about it? Like, that’s kind of what I say. Um, And the number one thing I love that you said it, you’re like, it’s not about the money, because let me tell you something. It’s never about the money.

It’s never about the followers. It’s never about the letters after your name. It’s never about how nice your offices cause that stuff fades. And I’m going to tell you that, and even, you know, anybody listening to this, if you’ve ever, you know, think about your first job, when you, somebody paid you $8 an hour or $4 an hour for babysitting or $15 an hour, you’re like, this is amazing.

And you thought, well, if I ever made like $20, now it’s going to be the best ever. Then you hit $20 an hour. And you’re like, Oh, well, I mean now, like. $30 now it’d be nice. And then you hit that and you’re like, well, 50 and the a hundred and like the same thing with the, you know, the, your, your house. If you ever moved into like a slightly.

The nicer place. You’re like, this is gorgeous. I’ll never forget how nice, how nice it is to like, have these super nice doorknobs or whatever, like the stainless steel appliances or whatever these things are. And then like six months down the road, you just don’t notice it. And so it’s, I always go back to, when you set a goal, think about how you want to feel, what is it that you want to feel?

It’s not to say that you can’t have financial goals because we have financial goals, but it’s like, how is that? Going to actually add to your life. And if you cannot answer that also should not be a goal. You got to understand and know what it is that you’re actually trying to feel, because that’s what makes a difference in your life.

Because so many of the things and humans are fantastic for this. It’s one of our strengths that we’re very adaptable. It’s also for one of our weaknesses that we’re very adaptable. It’s the whole reason why the rat race exists and why the rat race is so real because we adapt very quickly to our story.

So our situations, but what we don’t adapt to is. When we’re consciously paying attention to how we’re feeling and how we’re feeling is what we want it to be. So. That’s like the biggest thing that I always go back to and tell people, I was like, how do you want to feel? And then craft a goal from there.

So do you want to feel, do you want to feel abundant? Do you want to feel generous? Do you want to feel confident? Do you want to feel like you’re serving people? Like what does an, all those things could tie back to a financial goal, but you’ve got to know first, like what it is that. What, what is the money going to give you?

Maybe it’s freedom like that. You know, I just had a call with somebody this morning about, about finances, and they were saying how they want to make a certain amount of money because they want to be free. And then they started telling me about how they’re spending all these hours, doing all this research and that, and it’s, they’re not like setting up an asset, like they’re just, they’re gonna have to do it every day.

Okay for the rest of their lives. And I’m like, you’re just creating yourself a second job. That doesn’t sound like freedom to me. Isn’t that the whole point and aha clicked. Right. But often we don’t do that. We don’t think about like, what am I actually trying? What does even freedom mean to me? What does even abundance mean to me?

Like, get really clear on that so that we can reverse engineer, whatever goal we sat. And however we set it up that we’re not completely missing the whole point of why we’re going after what we’re going.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah, that’s so true. And it’s just, sometimes you get so caught up in the, in the work that you’re missing out on the future thing.

And I actually just did this recently and it’s funny you share because when I first started, one of my biggest things was the goal of time, freedom, you know, freedom of time so that I could spend as much time as I wanted with my daughter. I mean, I loved my maternity leave. I’d love that I could just get up and go, whatever I wanted.

I wasn’t. Stuck to a certain amount of hours and whatnot. Um, so really, really appreciated that. And I know, I knew when I was going to go back to work that I wanted to. Have time, freedom and love. And, you know, co COVID obviously is such a tragedy and it’s taken so many lives and it’s just cost so much damage.

But from a, from a personal perspective, it’s given me so much freedom that I wouldn’t have been afforded before. And it’s, I feel like for the most part, it’s given a lot of people time to just slow down and reflect and taken away so much pressure. Um, where they can actually now have time to reflect and to start shooting some of these things that they’ve put in putting on the back burner.

And so for me, um, It gave me the honor of being able to work from home. Right. So I didn’t have to, um, you know, have to commute into the office and have to do all that work, which I never liked anyways. Um, but because of that, I actually was able to also work on my business because they took the commuting time and converted that into time.

I wanted to work on my business, which is huge. Um, and, and so what, um, It’s a, what happened was I wanted this time, freedom for myself to spend more time with my daughter. But until about a month ago, I realized I was actually taking more time away from her. Because I would work my day job and then I would have to work on my business.

Um, and I thought I needed to do X, Y, and Z in order to keep it going and whatnot to end up, you know, have that hustle that everyone talks about. Right. And I realized that one day I would, um, I realized last a couple of weeks ago, actually, that I was shifting all my work to evening. So my husband would get home.

I would. Do all my work and he would spend time with her. So I’ve missed out on time there. And that was trickling into my weekends. So, you know, I feel frustrated because I wanted to do my work, but then my husband and my daughter were going out to the park and I also wanted to go to the park or I wanted to spend time with the family.

And so I just felt like I always had to choose and I was so frustrated with it. And so, um, So what you said about keeping that goal in mind. And I had to, I had to sit down and reflect upon it and say like, why did I start this? Put myself back to April? Um, and then I realized that I did it for time freedom.

So why am I taking more time away? You know, I know I can do this a bit slower. I don’t have to have all these goals in a week. I can have them over two weeks or over three weeks and still get there, but I’m not having to miss out on my. Big goal that was time, freedom and spending more time with my family, um, and my daughter.

And so, and it’s made such a big shift and change for me because now I appreciate all the time that I’m with her. And when I’m with her, I’m 100% present versus trying to, you know, send messages or engage and do all that other kind of stuff you have to do in emails and feeling guilty. And feeling guilty.

Yeah. So it feels so much better. So I love that you shared that. And so how do you do that? I know that you work with a lot of clients to do for your success coaching and all that, but how do you do that for yourself? Because you too, I have a young daughter and, um, and have well businesses going on and trying to coach, um, clients and be there for your clients.

So how do you do that for yourself? How do you to maintain the ability to, you know, keep aligned with. What you set forth to do in your why statement or your big, big goal?

Lisa: Okay. So reflection is definitely a big one, but let me give you like a really tangible, what I do is I set a goal for every hundred days.

Like, what am I working on? What’s important to me, that’s a big one. Um, I’m checking in every month. Like, how’s it going? What’s working and what’s not adjusting from there. And then every week I actually sit down and. This is also in the planner is a weekly planning. So I write, I have my goal written down.

So what I’m, what am I focusing on? And the first thing I do is I think about like, what have I done that I’m proud of? What am I celebrating? Like what did I do last week? That it was really awesome. Cause I think otherwise to do, let’s just become to do list and they drain our energy, but I want to come at it from an exciting place.

So I’m like, okay, here’s what I’m proud of. This is what I’m going. And then I say, what am I going to do this week towards that goal? And. A couple of things that helped me kind of keep that balance is, and I’m not perfect at it. So I’m still working on it. This is like lessons learned. Uh, but I will then say, okay, how much time is this going to take me?

And I will map it out. I’ll usually add like 50% because it always takes me longer than I think. And then I’ll literally put it on my calendar and make sure it’s going to fit in there and it’s going to work. I have bad weeks where I have planned myself like 200 hours of work in a week, which if, you know, Oh, there’s only 168 hours in a week, so that doesn’t work.

Right. So I have like, I’ve had to figure this out over the last few years of like, okay, how much work can I actually kind of plan for and make sure that that’s going to fit in the things that I, the timeframe that I have to work now, here’s the balance part. This is the part where I think this is one of the things that it’s really unique.

I. Kind of started doing this for myself. And then now a lot of other people, um, have asked me about it and it’s in the planner, too. What I do is I have a personal intention every week. And for some people that might change for me, it I’ll read it out to you. It is, I am my best self. I am healthy, thriving and inspired.

I am energized as I grow and expand. So I have that one to come back to me. And then I also have one that is, I’m living an exceptional life and an exceptional marriage and happiest wife and mama. I know. So for those two intentions as well, uh, I always go back to, again what I do last week that I can celebrate.

And by the way, if I can’t celebrate or I’m not proud of things, I’m not like, Oh my gosh, I’m the worst mom ever. I’m like my terrible South. I’m just like, Oh, like something came, got out of balance there. Okay. It’s just time to like, shift that. Let’s do a little more this week. How do I want to feel in this?

Right. So it’s always coming back to like, I’m at the happiest way. I’m bringing the energy. I want to, um, how am I feeling? Am I energized? Am I growing? Am I expanding? Those are the things that it’s coming back to. And then what I do is I set intentions for those. So for example, this week, um, like one of them is date with my husband.

One of them was being present on remembrance day with my daughter. Um, another one has been take my daughter, something like I’m kind of looking through some of the last couple of weeks to give you some ideas. So I get really conscious about what am I going to do this week to balance that out? Same thing with myself.

Like what did I like? And I am an achiever. Like if there’s a task, like I want to take it off. Nothing feels better for me than like taking a box. Um, so I use that it’ll be a week. It’s a strength and it’s a weakness, right? It could be a weakness, like ties me to my desk all the time and never gives me freedom.

Never gives me permission to take a break. But instead what I do is I use it as, as, as a gift in terms of my own self time or my time with my daughter. So it’s like, I’m going to have three play dates. Plan for her to, for us to do, or I’m going to take her to Granville Island, or I’m at a journal this many times, I’m going to go for a float this week.

I have a massage. I’m going to go do these workouts. I put all these things down on my weekly planning sheet. And then as I do them, I’d get the ticket. It feels really good. And at the end of my week, and every week as I look ahead or look back, it feels like, okay, I actually did get, like I worked and I made progress towards my goal.

The thing that’s important to me right now. And I also showed up as. Then these are my intentions. You can make your own. Right. But I also showed up as how I want to show up in my relationship and my family. And I also did it for myself.

Angeza: Yeah. That’s amazing. I love that. And I think that. I love that you share more about like your, your intentions and your, your goals that you set for your week or your plan for your week is not just about business, but it’s about you, about your daughter, about your husband.

And it’s more, it’s more about your life as a whole. Um, and I love that. And, um, I know we’re going to link, I’m going to link them the weekly planner that, uh, Lisa has on her website on the show notes. So you can check it out and you can download it and do it for yourself. Um, but you know, I, I, I actually am the same as you.

I love checking things off. It’s the best feeling in the world. Um, but there was something that you said that really resonated with me that got me, um, thinking, uh, I just have to remember what it is. Um, He said something and I was like, Oh yeah. Oh, well, it’s okay. I’ll I’ll if I remember, I’ll come back to it.

But, but yeah, I love, I love everything that you, that you shared because setting goals or setting a plan for yourself during the week is one of my most favorite things to do. And, um, I’ve had a platter. For as long as I can remember, if I have like, you know, early high school days until now every year I, I scope out I get a planner and every year, every Sunday night, it’s like a ritual.

I sit down and I write out what am I, what are my plans for this week? And I color code it. And you know, when it’s sold such a good feeling to highlight, um, and to cross things off of those lists. And I think that, that, um, you know, everybody works a little bit differently, but for me personally, I feel like.

Sitting down and being intentional about my time and intentional, but my days, um, and my planner now is just like a weekly planner, but I used to have like the half an hour time blocks planner, you know? Um, and before back backpack, like I’m not that old, but, um, like 10 years ago when I was 21. Yeah. I, I couldn’t find those anywhere, those like half an hour time block.

So I would literally have to go to my local salon and they’d be like, where do you get your planner from? Cause they had to schedule that on paper. Right. And now it’s all digital. But do you remember used to be on paper? Yeah. Look at it like a reservation book. Yeah. You just ask them and um, and they would, and luckily I knew the owner and like I had been going there for years, so she’s like, you know, I’ll just order one on my neck.

Order. And I’d always get my yearly planner from the salon, which is I find funny because what it would allow me to do is to schedule time for myself, like, you know, in this hour, this sort of doing this, and I’ve moved that over to my business as well, like my work, um, and, and my business now, and to have it just allows for so much flexibility, which is funny to say, because you know, you look at your calendar and it’s looks so busy.

Um, but it just. It’s because you’re scheduling in, you know, everything that you need to do, um, and your intention and your hours so that you you’re taking care of yourself. And you’re reminding yourself of that. And recently I did a podcast with someone and she said she had to schedule in, cause she knew her week was busy, but she had to schedule in a 10 minute meditation right before our podcast, because she said.

In order for me to shift from being, you know, a CEO mindset to sharing my story, which is more personal she’s like I needed that 10 minutes to just do some meditation or just to like quiet my mind and just relax and get into that place. And yeah. And sometimes I think that that’s so key, um, getting to know yourself, getting to know what you need to do in order to take care of yourself and shift, shift your mindset from different roles that you have in your life, I think is so key.

Um, and I know you, and I know your a hundred days, um, it made me laugh earlier because I have this hundred day workout. Uh, program, uh, I doing the beach body one. Yes, the morning also. Great wait. So I got a confession to make, I started it in September 7th and got to day 18. It fell right apart, but I am starting, I was supposed to start it again one Sunday and I’ve always been pushing it because, you know, I just did not have the discipline, but now I’m getting started today.

Um, But I’ve been contemplating I’m like, should I do the hundred days of a half-hour workout? It’s much shorter. It’s more manageable, but it’s a hundred days. And I’m like, that seems like so long. Right? And then there’s the option of doing a hundred days, but every fifth day, you double up and take the six or every fourth day, you double up and take the fifth day off to rest.

But then there’s the option of doubling up and having a one hour workout for 60 days. And so in my head, I’ve been toying with the three ideas and I’m just thinking like, You know, I’ll do 60 days. It’s an hour. It’s 60 days. It’s much shorter. I think I’m going to do that. But knowing myself to dedicate an hour to working out for me right now in this season of my life is very, very hard.

And I like the idea of the half hours. Right. But then I, in my head, and this is where the Mindflow roadblocks come up for us individually in my head, I’m like a hundred days. That’s so long like that. It’s like, I want to achieve this goal. Like in 30 days, you know, in 60 days, but a hundred days is just too long.

Lisa: But why don’t you here’s here’s the question is like, what is your goal? Like, is your goal just to do 100 workouts or is your goal to feel stronger? Is your goal to have more energy? Is your goal to have some time for yourself? Is your, like, what is your, is your goal to be able to do pull-ups like a hundred pull-ups like, what is your goal?

Angeza: Yeah. And that’s exactly it as you’re talking about your 108 plans and your hundred eight goals and all that works through it. And then it just dawned on me, like, you know, and I know I, it just clicked to me as you were speaking, I was like, Yeah. If I can’t commit a hundred days. You know, why, why would I, why would I not want to commit a hundred?

It’s not like in 60 days, I’m never going to work out for the rest of my life. It’s not like in like a hundred days, if I double up on every fourth day that the first day, you know, I’m going to rest, you know, or is it okay if I do half an hour and like not potentially stop because on that fourth day I had to do an hour and I couldn’t do it.

You know, what is my plan? And as you were speaking, it just dawned on me because. As I’ve been thinking about this today, I’ve been, um, today being day one again. Um, I was just thinking about that. And as you stay here, I’m like, yeah. I was like, why don’t I just, what is my goal? My goal is to incorporate working out into my day every single day.

So how can I do that? Half an hour is way more manageable to me than say that I’m going to do this for an hour. Right. Yeah. And a hundred days is not that long. When you think about it, it just sounds very long, but it’s not that long. And there’s just so much change and impact you can do. And I’ve done a 90 day challenge and I never thought that was an issue.

So I don’t know why that number a hundred to me just seems so daunting. You know, and I thank you for sharing that because as you just said it, I just clicked to me. I was like, yeah, like, why do, why am I putting this limitation or this roadblock up for myself, this, you know, something that is stopping me, but, you know, yeah.

Lisa: What, what, what is my goal after a hundred days, is it to stop or to continue? You know? So it doesn’t matter. Um, I should just call it the lifetime challenge. I love it. So good. Thank you so much for sharing that. That’s super cool. Yeah. Like, you know, it’s so funny how you’re like, Oh, a hundred days feels like a long time and well, like, well you said, are you just going to stop?

And. Most like a goal is either going to be to like, get you to the next level of something or to build something. And if it’s like about getting you to the next level of something, it means you’re creating a habit and like that’s not going to change. So a hundred days is actually pretty short if you compare that to the rest of your life, right?

Angeza: Yeah, exactly. Right. And we think like a hundred days ago like that, how did it go was August, which is, you know, crazy. Cause you think of what you did in August. And you’re like, Oh, it’s already been a hundred days. Like. It seems, it seems wild, but yeah, it’s so true. And I appreciate you sharing that. And so, um, so with, and I’m just curious from a, from a coaching perspective, I know you have a lot of clients that use, so you help them through these goals and these, these experiences and all of that.

How do you, how do you, um, You know, how do you make sure that you’re taking care of yourself? I know you just success coaching. Um, but I know there’s a lot of people that come with a lot of roadblocks that they have, or a lot of questions or challenges and experiences, but how do you take care of yourself not to absorb the, the, those issues or those concerns or those roadblocks that come up for your clients, um, in, for yourself?

Lisa: Oh, that’s a good question. I think there’s a few things. So first of all, I don’t do a lot of one-on-one coaching. I only do. One or two private clients a year, not a lot. And a part of that has been because we’ve struggled with childcare and it’s been just really stressful to try and do that. And the other part of it is because I want to come with my full energy and I want to do the best job I can for them.

Another piece that I’ve done that I think is really helpful. Well, a couple of things, so yeah. One of them is that I always remember that my clients, and this is from my coach training are naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. And coming back to that reminds me that I don’t need to fix them. And they don’t mean need me to fix them, that they have everything they need inside me, that they are perfectly whole, they’re resourceful.

They are capable humans, and I’m just here to guide them and they don’t need me to fix them or save them because that if I thought I needed to save everyone or fix everyone that would be draining. That would be exhausting. But when I remember that my clients like they’re incredible and they are like, they really, truly are.

They’re brilliant. I can just see them for who they are and I don’t need to fix them. I’m just here to guide them. And that takes the pressure off me. And that takes them from being like. It takes them from being the victim and me being the hero and to us being equals. And it shifts the energy in them too.

Right. So when I’m not coming through being like, you need me, I’m your hero. Let me fix you. They’re not becoming victims. They’re actually being the hero of their own story too. So I think that energy shift changes things as well.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah. Well, what I’m getting in from everything that you’re sharing is that it’s just so important to be clear on, on your intention of, of what are you here to do both in your personal life as a mom, as a wife, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, as a coach, you know, and I think that, that, that’s so true and, you know, it’s so, um, interesting to me and I find this all the time that how many of us don’t actually take time to reflect.

That way. Um, and then we just move forward in a certain, in certain restaurant. And, and as you know, I just. Um, you know, uh, uh, a couple months ago launched my course, and now I’m going to do it again, um, this month, but it’s just, I’ve had so many people come to me and just tell, tell me about how they are doing, you know, actually I’ll back up, I’ve recently talked to someone that’s an that’s just started as an angel investor and she said, She, she was working in healthcare.

Um, and I can’t remember her position, but she was working at Hopkins. Chief said she’s like, I just felt so unfulfilled. And I had. Thought that this is what I wanted to do, but this is not what I want to do. And so I’ve gone back to testing the waters from different areas and doing this, but I just, you know, I just don’t know why I don’t feel fulfilled, fulfilled doing now the second career that I always wanted to do.

And I thought this is what I wanted to do. And it came back to the fact that, you know, she hadn’t really spent a lot of time self-reflecting to find out who she truly was. Um, and not just seeing what’s out there, what, you know, right now, angel investing and like shark’s tank and Dragon’s den and all that.

It makes it look so cool and so fun and to do all that. But when, but if that’s not who you want and that doesn’t resonate with you, it’s just, it’s just not as important. So, um, so a lot of the people that I meet through the course, or through coaching myself through looking at new goods, that a lot of the times it’s just that nobody’s really reflected.

In high school, you know, that you may be maybe, you know, you don’t know if you’ve. Actually, we don’t really talk about self-reflection in high school. So I don’t, I don’t even think it’s too young to do it. I think it’s an important thing to do. But the only question you’re asked at that point is what are you doing after high school?

You know, are you going to work? Are you going to school? What are you planning to do? Then you get into school and that’s, you know, grind on its own. Um, or you start working and whatever, and then you’re done school and then you’re expected to start a career. But nowhere in that trajectory, are you reflecting or.

You know, is there something more formalized asking you to reflect and to get to know yourself because you’ve grown, you’ve grown, you’ve changed. You’re such a different person. Um, so I love that you share that because it’s, it’s, you know, just, you need to be intentional and you need to really know what are you here to do.

Um, because a lot of these things that are not as applying started creeping in and overwhelmed.

Lisa: Totally. It’s I love that you said that because that was probably some of the. Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten. I remind my career that I want to share. And some of the things I see happen, it just happens all the time.

You know, one of my really close friends, she was in her twenties and she said, by the time I’m 30, I want to be a manager. I want to be making six figures. And she’s a smart girl. She’s brilliant. She got there. She was 30, she was a manager. She was making six figures, tick, tick, those boxes. She had 34 and she was exhausted.

She was burnt out and she was like, What the heck I hit all my goals. Why do I still feel unfulfilled? Why am I so miserable? What is happening? And she had to do like, it wasn’t, it wasn’t until that point. And she’s lucky that that happened then, and not at 55 or 65 or later on, at least that happened then.

But she realized that like, Hey, she didn’t even like managing people. She just wanted the title. And how often have we done that? We’re like, that looks like a sexy thing, or that sounds sexy, but we don’t actually understand what it takes to go into that. So she didn’t even likely, like, she found it annoying that people kept, kept coming to her, but that’s what it means to be a leader is to lead your people.

And so she had to shift from leadership to being a technical specialist and that was more aligned with her. Yeah. She also realized that she was making this money. You should making good money. And she was like, I don’t even have time to spend it. I don’t even know what to do with it. I mean, obviously I was like, give us some to me, I’ll help you out with that.

But the bigger problem was, you know, why, what, it was more important than, than money if money wasn’t giving her what she wanted, what did she do? And so it took her a few years and like a lot of these big goals, by the way, like this overnight success thing is a myth. Nobody’s an overnight success. Um, It took her a few years, but her husband and her were able to take that extra money.

They were able to set their intentions and they ended up. Paying down to buying a bunch of buying some real estate, and now it pays them all the time and they live like fairly frugally once in a while, they’ll kind of do some odd jobs and they sail around the world and have a great life. And to her, you know, 20 something year old, self her 40 something year old self is a complete failure because she’s unemployed and she’s now a manager and she’s not making six figures.

But to her 34 year olds off into her 40 year old self and the age that she has now, she’s a success because she’s recognized that what matters to her is to spend quality time with her partner and to be doing work that she actually enjoys and to be seeing the world. And that’s more and to have the freedom to do those things, and that’s what she was looking for.

So I think like that her story is just so powerful. It’s really amazing that she’s, she’s gone through that. Um, What are the other things? My mentor told me that I think is really, really helpful, and I hope that it helps anybody listening. If you’re in like a career transition to ever wondering this. I remember.

So I was fairly, not even a year into my job at Suncor. It was an HR analyst job. And. One of the projects that I was working on was relocation. We were working on relocating people from Fort McMurray down to Calgary. And one of the jobs that was chosen to be relocated was my own job. And my husband, I had just bought our house in Fort McMurray and we were building a community and we just.

We were starting to really enjoy it so we didn’t want to leave. Um, and so my only option was to find another job within Fort McMurray within that company, I wasn’t ready to move, but none of the HR jobs are fit and I was completely spiraling. I remember going to my mentor and I was like, I want to be an HR, but there’s no HR jobs that I want to be an HR and I want to be here and I can’t move to Calgary.

And like literally just spinning. And he was like, what do you actually like to do? And I was like, uh, HR, are you not listening? Like what kind of a mentor are you now? I’m getting he’s great. But I was like, right, what are you not getting? He was like, no, no. He’s like, what about the actual work? And I was like, Whoa, tell me more.

So what he had me do, what I often suggest people to do is like, as you’re doing things and you can do this any time, write down the things that make you forget to eat pee sleep. On a piece of paper, like put two post-it notes, an extra desk on one side of the things that like you are so excited, you’re into it.

You forgot to eat your sleep and the other side, right? The things that you keep procrastinating on, the things that you’re like, Oh, this sucks. Or like, this is like, I hate doing this, write down those things. And if you do that for a couple of weeks, you’re going to get a really solid sense of what you do like to do and what you don’t like to do.

Yeah. And so often we are not, we’re never taught this, which is mind blowing to me now, but we never actually think about what the work actually is. So I like the topic of people. Um, but I much prefer, for example, speaking or leading or doing presentations or doing project work versus like the firefighting stuff that came up or the analytics piece of the spreadsheets, I didn’t really.

I do. I like myself, a good spreadsheet, but I don’t like being them all day. So like this took me a bit of time to figure out, but what I did, I spent the next couple of weeks creating this and then I came back and we. For that new lens. I was able to look at job postings and there was something in stakeholder relations that would actually fit really well because I like project based work.

I like working with interdisciplinary. I like the people side of things. I like being able to present. And I was able to look at something in safety, safety training, like what the heck, um, where that was an interesting role. And I was able to look at something in supply chain. That was interesting. And I was able to look at something in finance.

That was interesting because it’s not that I want to talk about money or they want to talk about supply chain or that I care. On like such a profound level about safety training it’s that the type of work was so interesting that it got me excited. It got me engaged. And at the end of the day, everything is people.

So I could make that connection to that. So when I looked at things that lens that’s made a really big difference for me. And that’s what allowed me to go from being in HR, to being in learning development and safety training to then I actually, my last job in corporate was something called continuous improvement specialist.

The job description wanted somebody with eight plus years of engineering experience of which I had zero. And I was able to get into it. And it was exactly the type of work that I liked, which was project work. It was working with different groups. It was all about mindset. It was all about community.

Whereas in the beginning I thought it was like HR was my only option, but once I was able to look at it through the lens of what kind of work do I like to do, it changed everything.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah, it’s so true. It’s, it’s so true that we don’t, we often just look at the titles and I am definitely guilty of this.

You know, I wanted to manager a title and I wanted to do it before I turned 28, which was crazy. That was my goal. Um, and I wanted to travel. Like I just want it to be on airplanes all the time. That was my definition of success. And, um, and it’s so right. You know, it’s, it’s all the things that, um, That makes us forget to eat and sleep a and P that are the door, the things that we find joyful.

And I remember similar to what your mentors share too. Someone told me earlier, early on in my career that every project you work on create like this master resume. Put in the title of the project and write about it, reflect upon it and say what you’ve liked, what skills did you learn? What did you like?

And what did you hate? And he said, you really have to hate it in order to put it in. And, and so I have this master resume at the end of all of it was, um, The ones that I loved was where I had stories. Like people, like, I actually love to speak to people. Right. And so in that position that I had, um, where I was traveling across the entire province.

So like every day was like, I’d have meetings from Colona to the Island back home by the end of the day. And it was odd at the time. I was like, this is so cool. This is so awesome. And I’m a political. Junkie. I would say like, I love politics. I know all of our politicians and all that. And so sometimes I’d be on these like Harbor airplanes and like our attorney general would be sitting right next to me and I’d like, totally freak out.

Cause I’d be like, Oh my God, it’s so cool. And, um, It was so awesome. But I remember towards the end, when I knew I wanted to get back, I, then I was like, well, I can’t sustain this lifestyle of traveling and these hours and all of this, like while having a child and being pregnant. And, um, and I met, I did something similar and I was like, what do I love about this job?

And it was, um, it was risk management. So it was, um, for, for the provincial. Health authority in BC. So I got to dig deep into the entire health organization, across the province about like, what, what is everybody doing and what are we not doing? What are the risks and what do we need to do to mitigate those risks?

And so I would use stories about people hearing stories about services. Hearing employee stories and, um, actual people, you know, that have had experiences with our health system and everything from, you know, from all over. And I remember every time I heard one of those stories was where like my heart fluttered, or like, I felt the most like, Oh, this is worth it.

This early morning, wake up call was so worth it. And at the end of the day, that’s what I love. And so when I was. Deciding whether to stay or to leave, you know, that job. I luckily got another job at the same time offered to me. That was, um, that was similar in the sense of the stories. And I remember just thinking my husband and I, he, and, you know, my head like he’s so analytical.

So he did a spreadsheet for me of all that, like financial back and forth and the commuting and all that time and the cost savings and whatnot. And, um, And I remember the one thing he said to me, he’s like, forget all of this, but like, what are you going to get? What you love about your current job in this new job?

And I remember thinking to myself, I was like, yeah, that’s I would, you know, and so the dollar amount doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter the title. It doesn’t matter what it is, but I would, but more importantly, I would actually get more time with you. And if I get pregnant and get more time with our child, because this place is close to home and I’m not traveling all the time.

And are doing all of that. And, uh, I made the decision so much easier. Um, but, but you’re right. It’s just sometimes it’s the, it’s the like, um, the societal expectations or the, the thought of this is what I want to do. And this is my goal. Yeah. But, but being, having continuous reflection points in life to say, is this still what I want?

Like, why am I working so hard towards something that I don’t know if it serves me as well as I thought it would have, um, Which is, you know, and I was just wired. It’s completely love everything that you share. I share this with you, but I downloaded all your resources on your website. It felt like I loved the one that says a hundred dreams.

And I just, I was just thinking like, if I could just dream, you know, what could I do? And, um, And so I found your resource and I was like, Oh, this is amazing. So I’m just going to put all these dreams down and dream for a little bit to see, you know, see where it takes me. And what’s really important to me.

And, um, I actually found that most of the themes across all those dreams were very similar and it all had something to do with, um, time. Which for me, it’s like as an entrepreneur, I think it’s hard when you say time is your goal, uh, because of the longterm goal, but, um, But it all had to do with time, you know, it’s so envious of your friends, sailing the world.

Lisa: Well, I hope that you hear that and know that it’s possible for you to like that’s the whole point, right? Is that she, she caught it and you’re catching it. You see it too. Right. And now that you know that you can. Put your time and your energy and your intentions towards the right goal, the right thing.

That’s gonna, that’s gonna work for you. Yeah. Cool. I want to also like make a quick distinction that I think is important to hear, and it is that like, Not every single day at every moment that you do is going to be like, Oh, I love this. This is amazing. This is perfect. It’s perfectly aligned. There are times where we do have to, and you probably know this too.

And I know in my business there’s times where like, I do have to work a little more or I do have to push through for something or, you know, my husband, I also have a real estate business. So there’s times where we’re like on the phone, a little more, not connecting as much, or we’re looking at spreadsheets more than we should be.

What I, what helps me, like kind of justify this to figure this out. So, number one, I, anytime when those things come up, it’s like really important to say, like, is this worth it for me? Is this something that like, I really want, and I’m willing to give up what we’re doing, you know, am I willing to give up some evenings to make this happen?

Am I willing to give up some weekends to make this happen? That’s kind of one of the first things am I willing to do it? And the second one is, is this like a short-term thing? Or is this all, is this a forever thing? So example of like, I want to have more money. Let’s say that. I’ll say my goal is I want to have more income so I can have maybe take more time off later down the road.

A difference that I would see is like, I T H I want more income. I could, for example, drive Uber. I could drive Foodora, or I could do some extra coaching sessions, or I, on the other side, I could create an asset, like a group program, or I could create an affiliate blog. That’s going to continue to be shared.

I could buy real estate property. That’s going to continue to pay me. Those are two different things, right? Like, One of them is building an asset or something that I’m going to do once or for a short period of time. And it’s going to continue to work then forever. Whereas the other one is like, I have to keep doing it.

It’s almost like I’ve built this habit of always needing a second job. So those are like, that’s another thing that I always like to think about too, which is like, cause I can, you know, I can do. There’s a lot of things. I think you probably know this in our business. We have to do that kind of sock that I’d rather pay somebody to do, but I’m not in a position to do it right now.

So I do it, but I know that like, it’s not a forever thing that I’m building and my vision and what I’m creating is going to be bigger than so I can have somebody eventually do that. But for now, for the next little bit, I got to do it and make that happen in order to get there. So it’s a good, it’s a good distinction to make is like, am I doing this?

Um, To eventually have it change and become what I want or am I creating an unsustainable habit or am I creating something that’s that there’s no end point to and therefore it’s not going to be worth it. Yeah. Yeah. I completely agree with you. It’s a, you have to, um, and you said this earlier, you have to want it.

And why are you doing this and what is it for? Because like you said, at the beginning, you’re putting in those hours for a future. You and a future goal, um, that you may not see an immediate, but you’re right. You know, there’s things that we have to do that we don’t want to do right now, but we have to do it.

And, uh, in the future we may be able to not do right. Um, and actually be able to delegate it. But for now it is, we do have to do it in order to build a business. Um, yeah. And it was a big difference between taking, you know, taking a job that’s maybe not ideal in the beginning. Cause you think it’s going to get you to experience for the next job you want, or it’s going to get you in the right connections with the right experience or the right community or with your business.

It’s like a big difference between like building something that you’re excited about versus. You’re just doing it and it sucks. And this is like a common narrative out there that I hear. It’s like making money as hard. That’s just the way that it is. And you’re not going to like your job and you’re not going to like your business and you just have to suck it up.

Two totally different things. It was like, you got to, if you can do the crappy things, if it’s aligned, if you know it’s going to. If you’re pretty sure that it’s going to serve in the future, you’re willing to do it. That’s okay to do, but don’t get yourself caught in. I think a lot of people get themselves caught in like the next 20 to 40 years are going to suck of my career, but then I’ll retire.

Like that’s crap. That’s not, that’s not what we’re here for, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Yeah, exactly, exactly. You know, that whole narrative, uh, you know, it’s just eight hours in a day, but I have the whole rest of the day. That could do whatever I wanted. And I think to myself, I’m like, you know, and I, this is the thing that I always say it’s the saddest part of reality is that you’ve spent 40 hours or more per week feeling unhappy.

That’s a huge chunk of your time. That’s 2000 hours a year multiplied that over 40 years. That’s, you know, how many hours of that? Could you have been happy? You know, could you have done more fulfilling for yourself? And unfortunately what you do during your day? It does. It’s not like. Your mind, like shuts the door on it.

You do take it with you. That mindset goes with you through your, the rest of your day. Absolutely. It keeps you up at night. It makes you maybe wake up in the middle of the night. It makes you want to sleep in a more, or wanting to procrastinate. It lowers your energy. Then you have less energy. You show up at home grumpy.

You’re flipping off people on the highway as you driving home on your commute. Right? Like it just, it’s not some. And are you really doing great work? Like, and I think. Again, if you’re doing, if you’re like Mike, my first job in corporate, it wasn’t my ideal job, but I was like, I know that this is going to be a great company.

I know that I’m going to learn a lot. And so that energy of knowing that there’s a future was enough to carry me through some of the things that weren’t as fun. But you have to know that you have to be super clear on that because yeah. Even two hours. I mean, you know, it like you hang out with somebody who’s draining or you even look at one negative comment that you get on social media can actually like lower your energy or a nasty email that you get can lower your energy for a lot longer than just the 30 seconds.

You’re reading it.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Jay Shetty says that, like how many times do you go through your comments? And like, you see all the positive ones, but you stop at the negative one. And he says, he’s like, why did we stop with the negative one? Why do we disregard the hundreds of positive comments for these few very few.

Negative comments and how that takes us throughout our day. Um, which is so, so true. And I do want to talk about the a hundred day planner that you have coming out, because it’s also exciting. And I want to talk about, about your, your vision behind that and what, what really sparked that. And I know we’ve been talking about the worst thing you do in through the success in your weekly planner, but what really, um, sparked you to create a planner.

Lisa: Well, it really came down to me noticing the same kind of problems that a lot of women in my community, a lot of people that I talk to when I speak a lot of the same challenges people have when it comes to goals. First of all, a lot of people don’t even know how to set goals. Like a lot of people don’t know how to what’s the right way to do it, and all we’re ever taught a smart goals and I hate smart goals.

I could like we could do a whole other podcast on why I hate smart goals. Um, I actually. Um, my podcast, I think episode two or three is like why smart goals, socks. So if you want to know more, go listen to that. But the reality is like if smart goals worked, we would all be retired. Billionaires, married to Brad Pitt with six pack abs like that.

They don’t work. They’re just, there’s a lot of pieces in there that aren’t effective. So, um, throughout the last couple of years, for through my own processes, through what I’ve worked with clients, I’ve come up with a goal setting process. So. I saw that, first of all, people didn’t know how to set a goal and then people didn’t know how to like stick to it.

And there wasn’t a lot of like built in reflection points, which we’ve talked a lot about. And I honestly think that’s such a big key is to check in every week to do some reflection and every month to do a deeper dive. Um, and then the a hundred days came about kind of randomly kind of, kind of by accident.

But what I’ve found is that it helps with a lot of. Common things that I see stop people. So I have a lot of people will be like, Oh, well, like my new planner doesn’t start til this day. So I’ll just start then. Right. Or like, Oh, it’s already November. Like, what can I do between now? And then I’ll just wait until January.

And we know all know how that goes. When you start in January. Or people saying, well, I’m just going to wait until Monday, or I should start on the first of the month for something. And then, and then they’re waiting for the first of the month. That’s also a Monday, which means they never get started. And so that’s where I was like, you know what?

I just w I screw this like 90 day plan or idea, or like every quarter, like people need to just get started now and take action. The other part of the a hundred day goal planner that I see so many myself included, like we’re very guilty of overestimating what we can do in a year and half.

Underestimating what we can do in like five years or 10 years. And so what I wanted to do is create, is give people incentive to just focus on one thing. So the whole planner is focused around one goal, one focus goal for 100 days, and you simply take one action every day towards that goal. The other part of it, that’s really powerful is that it allows you to create a habit.

So we were all grown up. We’re heard that like 21 days make a habit. That’s actually not true. It’s closer to about 60 to 70 days to create a habit. So that’s why the a hundred days, like I wanted to go beyond that so that we’re actually establishing the right habits because goals are not about what you actually achieve.

It’s about who you become in the process. It’s about how you feel on the way to it and what I want to see, what, what I think what I’ve noticed really helps people when it helps my clients and helps me. How’s probably you too, is when you see results, when you feel momentum going, then you have more excitement.

You have more energy, you get more momentum and it creates more results. And frankly, whatever your goal is actually just takes time. But I feel like a hundred days, what I’ve noticed is people are. It’s enough time to get real results and to make real progress. And it’s not so long for maybe for the a hundred day, how did they work out?

But is that so long that most people are like, you know what? I can do it for a hundred days. I can figure this out. Um, they create a list. I use them like open up a note on your phone. And every time you have an idea to switch your goal, put the next goal. Excuse me. Oh that listen, you’ll tackle it in a hundred days.

That’s when you can, re-look at it. But for now, this is your one goal. So we’re not, I’m not going to lose that idea, but you’re just not going to focus on it for the next a hundred days. So that’s kind of how the planner has, has come together. It starts out with the whole, like an actual framework on how to set goals and gets you thinking about what.

What mindset or what stories, what limiting beliefs might hold you back, what habits you need to create to set this goal, how is it that you want to feel? And here’s another really powerful thing that I want to pop in here is like, what are the things you can do everyday to feel the way you want to feel?

Because I’m all about like, how can we get the results today instead of meeting, you know, Three years down the road, like, let’s say you want more freedom or more time with your daughter, you know, what could you do today to, to feel that way or to feel connected to her? Could you write her a little note to read at daycare?

Could you read her a story? Just the two of you and put your phone away for 20 minutes. Could you go for a walk with her? Could you, you know, go in the bath time with her, like these little things that you’re not waiting, you know, till your blog is making $10,000 a month and you know, who knows how long you’re actually getting that, that extra time and connection with her today.

So that’s another part of the plan. And that’s really important is thinking about how can I do these things every day? And the more we feel the way you want to feel, the more we’re going to feel the way we want to feel. And the more we’re going to become the person who has whatever that goal is that we want.

So it starts with a framework and then for a hundred days, it gives you, you know, the weekly reflection points, the monthly reflection points, and just keeps you moving forward. Like, that’s the biggest thing. There’s a tracker in there too, that like every day you can tick off one thing that you’ve done and keep you moving forward, because it’s really about getting started being intentional about what you want.

And then just following through.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love that you say that you just focus on one goal because I’m so guilty of creating too many goals and trying to fit that in one in, you know, a month. And when you do that, you just do not able to actually make it a habit like you said. And one of my biggest, um, habits or goals I will have for myself was to be a part of the 5:00 AM club.

And I’ve had that since I started this. Podcasts in April, but it just never came to fruition. And I had to reflect and think like, why is this not working? And it’s because. In order to wake up at 5:00 AM. You have to go to sleep at a reasonable time, right? Like that’s, that’s there there’s you can’t just wake up at 5:00 AM, but B go to bed at 1:00 AM.

That’s not, you know, you gotta take a step back. Um, but you know, both my husband and I, we set that goal for ourselves and, you know, and we said, What are we doing to get to that? And now he, he is really good about going to bed. Like at a reasonable time, I am like, you know, the one that stays up late and doing nothing, I’m just doing my list.

Things, nothing that’s moving me towards my goals or anything, but just okay too. But I was doing that like till late in the mornings and, um, And he, he said, you know, cause he’s a morning person, I’m an evening person. We had the same marriage. I feel like your husband, my husband are like the, all the, all the things I’m like.

And he said, he’s like, you know, just because you’re a morning. Cause I always just say like, well I’m not a morning person. I’m an evening person. And he’d say just because. You were an evening person, are you still an evening person in this life?

And I was like, no, because my daughter does not care. What time I go to bed? She’s up at six 30 and it doesn’t matter what time I went to bed. And, um, so I was like, no, it was, you know what, in this life, and in this phase of my life, I do have to become a morning person. So I need to do this, you know, go to bed thing.

It’s so slowly we started shifting our bedtime or I started shifting my bedtime from 1:00 AM. To around nine 30 now, nine 30 rolls around. I’m ready to go to bed and I’ll be in bed and I’ll be up at five. I will be out of bed at five, which is the goal. But today I got out of bed at five 45, which I was so excited for.

I finally got up, but my daughter heard me and she woke up too. So that’s funny. Oh, so that’s such like that’s motherhood. Right. And so, but it was just like, I remember sitting in just like feeling so proud of myself that like I got out of bed at five 45 and I was ready to get going and my day and I had this goal and I hope it keeps going for myself, but you know, I’ve so here’s.

Lisa: Can I say two last quick little things, you know, I love that you shared that for two reasons. Like number one. So here’s the thing, if you said, okay, I’ve got another 99 days to figure this out. Doesn’t that make you feel like you can do it? You know, like you’re like, okay. So day one, wasn’t like exactly what I thought I got up a little later and I woke the daughter up.

Um, but. I got a hundred more days to figure this out. Like it is going to get easier. I’m going to figure it out and it gives you like the grace and you’re not like, okay, well, I got up at five 45. I think that was good enough. So like, let me also try and see if like, maybe I stay up like a little bit later or maybe I can also like, do this, do this extra workout in here.

And I can also, I’m also going to create this new blog post. Like you’re not adding all these other things. You’re like, you know what, this one thing can I do this well? And when you say I’m going to do it for a hundred days, like none of days, you’re like, you’re going to figure this out. I bet you, it won’t even take you that long.

The second thing I want to say. Honestly, this is probably one of the most powerful examples. So many people hesitate to say, I don’t want to do just one thing, Lisa, you don’t understand like my businesses work. My, I certainly to work work. I have a family, I have workouts. I have finances. I’m all these other things happening.

I can’t just focus on one and I’m like, When you focus on one thing, the rising tide, John F. Kennedy raises all the boats. So one thing that you do is going to have a profound impact on all of the things. If you can do it well. And for women, I always say like, go back to you. If you’re not feeling fantastic and energize and happy and joyful, that’s where you start, you start with your own self.

You start with your self-care. If that’s good, then we can look at the other pieces. Cause like first thing is you, when you feel good, everything’s going to go up. Sleeping. That’s a great example because not only, you know, if you’re getting up early, are you getting a bit of time? So you’re more present with your daughter when, when she’s waking up, as opposed to like, she’s waking up and she’s asking you for her juice and you want your coffee and everyone’s like all upset.

Um, You know, you’ve maybe you’ve had time for your workout or a shower. So you’re more consistent on that. Maybe you’ve had time to respond to a few messages and you’re not worrying about doing that later on in the day. So you’re more present later, like one little thing and I get, it’s not easy for us, like night owls over here.

I see you, my friend. One thing can make such a big difference on so many other things. And so, uh, that’s the other thing for anybody that’s resisting and they’re like, I want to do, but you don’t understand. I want to do all the things I’m like, just pick one because one will actually impact others. And once you have that solid, once you have that habit down, then you can build on top of that.

Then you’ve got a great foundation to keep building on. One thing will make a massive impact in every aspect of your life.

Angeza: Yeah. Yeah, I can, I can’t agree more with you and I think that’s so true. And, uh, just being clear on that I think is, is so good. And I, and I love everything that you’ve shared and I so appreciate you sharing all of your insights and all the great tips and sharing your story, um, and everything that you’ve done to get to this point, um, in your life and both in business and in your personal life.

And it’s so, so appreciated. Um, and if anyone wants to connect with Lisa or wants to check out everything that she has been doing, um, I will link all of her social media and her website on the show notes for you to connect with her. Um, and I so appreciate you joining me on the podcast. Thank you so much for having me.

I loved all your questions and you know, your stories are amazing too, and I’m sure you know, that’s why your listeners absolutely love, love, hearing your stories because you’re so good at sharing them. And you’re so good at pulling out all of, all the lessons from them too. So thank you for making this such an awesome conversation.

I learned a lot and I know anybody listening is going to love it too. Yeah, thank you. Thank you so much for listening to the end of that episode. I hope that you have learned something from that episode that can have you getting closer to a fulfilling life and career. There’s so much out there in the world that you can learn, you can experience and you can apply to your current life.

That will help you start making those little steps towards a career that you love. And that you’re inspired by. So I’m excited for you. I can’t wait to hear what you’re doing. I would love for you to share with me over on our social media, or you can send me an email and let me know you can visit our website Howdidyoulearntodothat.com for the show notes and for blog posts and to hear more about what we’re up to. And of course we would love if you could help us grow by reviewing us on Apple podcasts, as well as on YouTube and sharing with your family and your friends. All right, we’ll see you next time.

WEBSITE: www.lisamichaud.com

To grab Lisa’s 100 day Goal Getter Planner and Journal, click here for CANADA and here for the USA. *note both links at affiliate links to amazon.

If you liked this episode:

I do have an affiliate link for the morning ritual mastery by Stefan James. You can also visit my website. There’s a blog about how to connect deeper with yourself and get to know yourself and self-reflection, and I’ll actually put the link in my Instagram bio as well. So you can just quickly link and check it out and see what it can help you do, and I’ll go walk you through kind of like what you would want to do in the morning practice anyway.

So if you are looking to have some connection with your higher self, that mastery, I would highly recommend that course for you.

Let’s Connect!

I would love to hear how it’s going for you and if you’ve implemented. And if you have any ideas for future episodes or any. Things that you want to learn more about and you need more help with feel free to send me an email info. How did you learn to do that.com or connect with me on Instagram.

And if you could. If you love this episode, I would love if you could review it on Apple podcasts. Like I said, I would love to learn more about what you liked about this episode, what you would like to learn more about. Like I said, um, and you know what, I just want to say that you take the time that you need to do what you need to nourish your soul and your mind and your body and everything that you do in life.

Okay. So I hope that this lesson in this episode has taught you so much and that it’s getting you started to working towards that fulfilling career and that fulfilling life in the successful candidate course, I will teach you a little bit more about how to connect with yourself deeper, how should really figure out your why and its importance.

And so I’m excited for you and I’m excited to see you inside our course, um, or to connect with me on one-on-one sessions, which I will be offering soon as well. All right. So we’ll talk soon. Thank you so much for listening to the end of that episode. I hope that you have learned something from that episode that can have you getting closer to a fulfilling life.

And career there’s so much out there in the world that you can learn, you can experience and you can apply to your current life. That will help you start making those little steps towards a career that you love. And that you’re inspired by. So I’m excited for you. I can’t wait to hear what you’re doing.

I would love for you to share with me over on our social media, or you can send me an email and let me know you can visit our website. How did you learn to do that.com for the show notes and for blog posts and to hear more about what we’re up to. And of course we would love if you could help us grow by reviewing us on Apple podcasts, as well as on YouTube and sharing with your family and your friends.

If you enjoyed this episode, check out these ones too!

Episode 7: 15 books that changed my life and set me on my journey to finding my purpose in life

Episode 21: How to know your why and stop having expectations

All right, we’ll see you next time and hopefully in the Course!.

Angeza

Angeza’s purpose in life is to share and inspire you with the stories of people from all walks of life who have made small daily commitments to themselves, their purpose and their happiness. These stories will be tangible, easy to digest and implement. Allowing you to begin to understand what makes you, your soul and your mind truly in tune and peaceful. What is it that you are here to do in this world?

We look forward to having you listen to this episode and to join us weekly as we release new episodes every week. Please visit, like, subscribe and share this episode!

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