WITH ANDREA CRISP
“When you choose a word for yourself you may even want to take a deeper look at the impact it will have on certain area’s of your life. ”
Every year I chose a word for the year. It's something I have done religiously for the past five or so years. It's a word that I deeply connect with and something that I want to build my entire year around in every area of my life. When it came to choosing a word for 2022 I knew that I had some work to do to help me truly move beyond where I was.
The word'expansion' kept coming up in my life and when I sat to really think about what I wanted -- it was the word EXPANSION that I knew was what I needed for me to take the next steps in my life. Today on the podcast I want to share how I have allowed myself to expand and what that really looks like for me.
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Every year I choose a word for the year. It's something I've done religiously for the past five or so years, a word I deeply connect with and something that I want to build my entire year around. But when it came to choosing a word for 2022, I knew that I had some work to truly help me move beyond where I was, and the word expansion kept coming up in my life. So when I decided on what word I wanted to use for the year, the word expansion was the choice. I knew I needed to take steps in my life to expand in every area. Today on the podcast, I want to share with you how I have used the word expansion, and what that has done for me, as I've allowed myself to expand in my life, and in my business. Hey, friend, are you ready to take courageous steps to create a life and business you love?
Welcome to the Courage Cast. I'm Andrea Crisp, mindset coach, author, and a multi passionate entrepreneur. For years, I was afraid to allow myself to shine that was until I discovered that I could step into my own power, shift my mindset and take ownership of my own destiny. Now I coach women across the globe who are ready to own their life and make a massive impact. Each week, I'll share conversations with amazing humans who have been willing to face their fear and pursue their purpose. I'll provide a blend of practical and spiritual advice to help you take brave steps in your own life and business.
Hey there, welcome to the Courage Cast. My name is Andrea and I am your host, and I'm so excited. You're here today, oh my gosh. Today, I went for a walk to coffee out into the trails. And it is like about two weeks from Christmas, maybe even a little less. And honestly, it is so cold. Winter has descended upon us. And as I was walking through the trail, it was almost as if I couldn't believe that this is where we're at. It seems like just yesterday, I was starting off 2022. And I was planning out what it was going to look like. And here we are at the end of the year. And I wanted to talk about a word of the year, something that we use to really set our intentions around. Now I am someone who does take time every year to reflect back on the year. And I also plan out what I want to see happen.
Now I'm not meticulously planning every single detail. But I like to have some sort of idea. So that I know what is the roadmap and where am I going? And how am I going to get there. So this week, I'm going to be spending the weekend planning and reflecting on my year. And if you're somebody who likes to do that, I would encourage you to take maybe even a day to get away, maybe get alone, go to a coffee shop and just grab a coffee, get your journal and just sit and reflect on what has been what went well, what you'd like to change, and what do you desire for the new year. Now, it's not a resolution, I think that's something completely different resolutions are things that we use to say I will never do this again. And really, that doesn't work.
Because when we focus on things we don't want to do, we end up doing more of the same. So I want to ask you have you already created your word for the year have you set your intentions for 2023 This is the time you know, by the time the holidays roll around, you're going to probably be well on your way into you know, doing family things, maybe traveling. And so now's the time to actually take you know, an hour, take an afternoon, take a whole day, whatever it was whatever you want, and really set aside that time for yourself. Now, for me, the word expansion kept coming up in my life. And so when I was thinking about what I wanted my 2022 to look like the word expansion was basically the only choice for me. And I knew that it was because I wanted to grow. I wanted to really open myself up to new possibilities and I knew that meant learning more. It meant you know, making more room for things in my life. And the beginning of the year I actually kind of thought oh the word expansion is kind of sexy. And after the end of the year I'm like it is definitely not it is definitely not sexy. It has been while expansive. I have had an entire year of growth. So I always I always laugh and say,
Be careful what you wish for Be careful what you are intending on doing. Because when those things manifest, kinda like, well, I set myself up for this. So the word expansion has been the catalyst for change in so many areas of my life. And I hope by sharing my experience with you, that it will help you to create a word for yourself moving into 2023. But before I do that, let me tell you about my own process. So when I pick a word, I generally know that it's going to touch every area of my life. So I look at it in the financial sense, I know that I want to really be intentional about my health and wellness, my relationships, my professional life, my emotional bandwidth, and even my recreation. And now even just think about it so funny, like how the word expansion really has touched every area this year. So as I look at my year, and I look out, generally, what I like to do is I like to look at it in quarters, or 90 day increments, because it's easier for me to focus on 90 days at a time and really be intentional about that, and maybe know what's going to happen the next 90 days, but not be so in that second quarter, or that third quarter until the time comes. So for me, that's what I like to do, I like to look at it in chunks, the first 90 days, first quarter, second, 90 days, and so forth. So when I chose the word expansion, I knew that I wanted to focus on a couple of areas at the beginning, because that was going to be what was going to basically be the catalyst for everything else. So the first one was finances. And the second one was my business. And then the third one was my personal growth.
One of my big takeaways was how much I learned about how to deal with money, the mindsets that have held me back and how I have been actively blocking my own abundance, through my mindset and through the stories that I have allowed myself to really believe. And it was truly eye opening. For me, it was the exact expansion, I needed to put myself in the driver's seat when it comes to my finances when it comes to money, learning about money, learning about money mindset, learning about the energetic flow of money, how to call it in with ease, and how to really just be okay with money. And it's so interesting, because many of my clients that come to me, we end up talking about money. And it's one of those things where I completely understand and I, I know the barriers that we all face when it comes to money.
And it's one of those things that Vanessa has said to me and really to the group over and over again, is that it doesn't matter how much money you're making, you could be making, you know, basically the poverty line, or you could be making like 50k a month doesn't matter. Whatever you are doing. And however that looks in your life, there is money blocks that you are going to have to work through. So this is continual expansion. And the beauty of what I feel like I have been able to do this year with being a part of that cohort, unblock abundance, is understand that my financial journey and the expansion of my financial journey is on going. And I'm okay with that. And I know that as I go, I'm going to keep growing, I'm going to keep learning, and I'm going to keep accumulating wealth. So I love that. So it has been a complete game changer.
And, and as if that was not enough, she actually created a second program called unblock your business. And so we are now in the midst of diving into the expansion of our business finances. So it has really truly changed the game for me. Now the second place that I wanted to focus the expansion was in my business because I knew that I had to take a step back and see the big picture view of what was happening. And I had been trying many different approaches and many different things over the year. And I knew for me expansion meant learning about my business specifically and about learning how to sell effectively and how to create leads and cultivate community within my business, all of those things. And so the next area that I really wanted to focus on was in my business and so I enrolled in sales and social.
I had already been working with Gillian Murphy who is a phenomenal sales mentor and This container, wow, it was expanding, oh my goodness, the amount of things that she was able to teach us and I was able to learn about how important not only sales are for our business, but learning how to build relationships that convert into sales and how to not be like a sleazy salesperson. But to really offer impactful things that people really want to be a part of and are willing to pay for. That was so, so helpful for me in understanding how I wanted to run my business. And so I took six months of the year to really dive into this process for myself, and I know have still so much to learn when it comes to this area. But it was definitely something that I knew I needed to focus on. And the expansion that I had, because of it was e Norris. The third area that I want to share with you is really expansion in my personal life.
So it's hard to tie this one up in a nice neat bow, because there's still so many things going on. But over the past few years, throughout the pandemic, I feel as though I had kind of been pressing pause, I guess, or putting myself on hold. Because I was intentionally working in my business, I have been living in a rural small town in northern Ontario feeling kind of like, you know, there's not much to do here other than just work and be at home online. So that was what I was doing. But I felt the nudge, and a big nudge at that, that it was really time for me to start putting myself out there again and start to create community here where I'm located, to build new connections, and really to create a life for myself, apart from what I'm doing in my business. And you know, I've always been the type of person where, wherever I am, I can build community and I've have amazing friends in real life and have amazing friends online. But I have to admit that over the past few years, it wasn't easy, it was actually really difficult. And I really almost like got to a point where I was like,
You know what, I'm just not going to do it, I guess I'm probably not gonna make friends here. And I'm not going to have a community here in northern Ontario. So I'm just going to go ahead, put my head down and focus on my work. But that match was really strong, and I knew that I had to follow it. So I was allowing myself to lean into that expansion. And you know, as the saying goes, you know, when you are expanding, it is not easy, there is stretching involved, and it can be challenging. And so I decided that one of the ways that I was going to do that was I was going to go and join a community center, who that offered programs, workout programs, and workout classes, gym, pool, squash courts, all the things. And for me, it was so funny, because it was a very simple thing to do. But when I started going, it was almost as though I came back to life in a way that I had not really been experiencing it over the past few years, you know, being in isolation up here in the northern part of Ontario. And so I really, really started to see myself living outside of just my online business, which was amazing.
And I'm so grateful because I am now going to the community center several times a week, I'm back to going skating, and really just back to enjoying my life and creating something for myself. That feels really good. And I'm still allowing myself to lean into the expansion. But as that came that came towards the end of the year. So as I was focused on the 90 day increments it started with finances then moved into business, and then personal. And generally what I like to do is I like to do three things in a year. So that's how I focus myself. And choosing the word expansion, when it came to my personal growth is really where most of it took place because I had to move out of my old paradigms, my old thought patterns, the stories I was telling myself so I could see where I could actually create something that I wanted to live out of. And throughout the year as well.
This is something that I have not mentioned, but I was studying NLP manifestation human design, and just even doing that was so so helpful for me, because I didn't realize up until that point that I had such a fixed mindset, but allowing my myself to learn these modalities really has opened me up, to know that I have so much to learn still, and there is still so much growth. And I was noticing patterns in my life that I was able to start to shift. And that was all because of the expansion that I had really been intentional about creating within my life. So I wanted to share with you just some of the people who have been my expanders, because, you know, it's one thing for us to, to do things on our own, and to focus and be intentional about creating things on our own.
But it's a whole other thing to invite people in on the journey with us. And so I'm going to share with you some of my people, some of the the friends and mentors, peers that I have been walking this journey with. So the first person I want to share about is my friend, Stephanie, who I have been meeting with weekly for over a year, her and I met in fast foundations, and we connected we connected very quickly. And we decided that we wanted to be holding each other accountable. And over the course of our relationship, we have experienced huge expansion within our lives and in our business. And because we have been on a journey to learn and grow in our self development, and in our business development, we are able to really help one another see each other's blind spots. And it has been just a tremendous catalyst for expansion within my life. So grateful for Stephanie. And it's so funny because I have never actually met Stephanie in person. So I am excited for the day when that will actually happen.
Hopefully, it's 2023 that we will actually meet in person. The other two expanders that I have been meeting with are also coming from fast foundations, which are Amanda and Christina, and they are beautiful souls. And both of them. And the three of us decided that we were going to meet every second week, after we wrapped fast foundations, which was back at the beginning of 2022. And in our container, what we do is we talk about our businesses, we troubleshoot areas that we really want to work on. And it has really been an area of of my life where it's I'm able to kind of get granular and really talk about some of the things that are not working. And on top of that, we've just also been able to just share very candidly and openly about how we feel about business and what things are going on. And it's so cool, because Christina is in her 20s Amanda is in her 30s and I'm in my 40s and so we span the generations, so we have such unique perspectives to bring. And yet we are all so like minded, which is just amazing.
So both Amanda and Christina have been amazing expanders within my life. And of course, my wealth abundance buddies, my my wealth expanders, Vanessa and Tamiya, who we have been basically meeting over the past probably six months. So as I mentioned, Vanessa is my money mindset mentor. And Tamiya is also in the groups that I have been in with Vanessa. But what we have been doing is really connecting on the level of finances and holding space for one another in that area. Oh, my gosh, if you don't have someone in your life, who has a wealth expander you need to get one. This has been such a tremendous, tremendous blessing for my life. So I recommend that to anyone. When you are trying to make strides in your life, you're trying to move forward, get a wealth expander. So as you can see, my whole entire 2022 was filled with expansion, really focusing on my finances, my business and my personal growth, to really start showing up for myself in a whole new way.
I'm grateful for the programs and the masterminds that I've been part of. I'm just super, super grateful for the friends, the peers who are on the journey and are willing to do this work with me and walk alongside me I'm grateful for Stephanie for an for Amanda. I'm grateful for Stephanie, Amanda, Christina, Vanessa Tamiya. And of course, the mentors that I have worked with over the year, which at the beginning were Chris and Laurie harder. And at the beginning of the year were Chris and Laurie harder as well as Gillian Murphy. So, man, when I think back of this year, I am just so so grateful of how I was able to utilize my word for the year, and truly create expansion in my life and in my business. So I hope that this has encouraged you to be really intentional about creating a word for yourself. And for setting aside the time to choose the direction you want to go. Because Because where you put your attention is exactly where you will end up.
And so even as I'm saying that I am reminded myself to be so intentional about choosing a word, sometimes, you know, choosing a whole big path seems daunting, and a bit overwhelming, quite frankly. But when you choose one word, and just keep coming back to that word, and you know exactly what that word means for you, you cannot go wrong. So I'm going to be including in the show notes today, a free guided meditation to set your intentions for 2023. And I hope that it will help you to start on the path to really have the best year you've ever had in your life and your business, your relationships, your finances, all of the ways. So make sure you go to the shownotes and you can click on that link and it will take you to a free workbook and a free guided meditation just for you to help you as you are sorting out your plans for the new year. Okay, friends, I am excited.
We are a couple of episodes away from the end of the year. Oh my gosh. And just like right around the corner is Christmas and super excited for that. So anyways, love you. Until next time, remember, you have everything you need to live bravely. If you liked this episode of The Courage cast, we'd love to hear from you. Leave us a rating review. And while you're there, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Original music and production by Stephen Crelly
