Shannon Kaiser shares motivating tools to help you make 2012 your best year yet.
The Awakened & Aligned Podcast with Shannon Kaiser
Episode 2: Happy New Year Happy New You
(upbeat music) - Hello, welcome to PlayWithTheWorld.com's podcast, episode number two. (cheering) I'm your host, Shannon Kaiser, and I am so happy that you have decided to join me today because it is a Happy New Year, Happy New You. Welcome to 2012, and this is the official podcast for PlayWithTheWorld.com. An inspirational site to help you love your life to the fullest. I am a travel writer, a inspirational author, and a motivational life coach, speaker, and I am here to share what I know with you. Today, I am sharing the tips that I have implemented into my life over the past couple years to literally go from crappy to super duper happy. That's right. I used to be a very depressed girl. I was completely out of alignment with who and where and what I wanted to be, and I took these steps that I'm gonna share with you today, and it just starts right now with a change in your mind to say I want to be happy. I deserve more than what I've been giving and giving myself and letting myself deal with. I choose to be happy starting right now. It is a new year, which means new beginnings. A lot of the times we look back on the year before, and we think about the things that we didn't like, and we think about the things that we wish we would have done a little better, and that often inspires new goals. But before we go gung-hoing into new goals and making resolutions that most likely won't stick, I am all for a goal setting. I have a lot of workshops and lectures that I do on goal setting, but today I'm holding space for us to clear the way so goals will just happen. They will just come a reality without us even having to focus on them. And there's three easy things that you can do right away. And I'm challenging you to implement these for 30 days. It's January 1st, y'all. So here we go. We can start today, and I will be checking in on February 1st to see how well you guys are doing. Because it is all about making a change, a positive change, but focusing on what is really important to you. And you've showed up today, and you're listening to this podcast, which means you can't wait to say happy new you, because it is a happy new year. The first thing I'm gonna share with you guys is something that I did a couple years ago. It actually was inspired from Jim Carrey. Jim Carrey was in a movie called Yes Man, and he starred in it as kind of a ho-hum lackluster guy who wasn't really enjoying life, very monotonous, boring routine that he did day in and day out. And he ended up going to a motivational speaker presentation and that guy challenged him and zapped him and cursed him, kind of, who wasn't really cursed, but basically told him, you have to say yes. You have to say yes to every opportunity. I thought this was a really cool concept when I watched it back in 2009, because I was super depressed. Literally, I was crying every single day, trying to numb my pain with whatever it was, food, exercise, drugs, just to escape the fact that I couldn't stand my life. And when I watched this movie, it kind of provided a little bit of hope for me, and I thought, wow, I could be the yes lady. What if I'm the yes man? So I implemented it. It was 2009, going into 2010, so the whole entire New Year's resolutions that happened, you know, come the beginning of the year, I chucked them out, and I said my only resolution is I'm gonna be a yes man. I'm gonna say yes to every opportunity that happens and guess what happened? Holy miracles. Whoa, like the coolest things in the world happened. It was going into, when I really implemented this, I was coming out of my depression, moved from Chicago back to Oregon, and it was 2010, going into 2011, so I'm going one year backwards in time, and I transformed my life by becoming the yes woman. Within 30 days, not only did I get a promotion, not only did I meet an amazing man, have a first date, our second date was bungee jumping, and now I'm dating him, loving him, living with him. I have been in a really fulfilling romantic relationship, and I was single for a really long time before that. Not only am I more happy, more fulfilled with my career, I have been surrounded by quality friends. I am best friends with best selling authors now. My whole world has expanded just by saying yes, just because I was open. So the very first thing you guys have your pens out, get them out, write down, say yes. That's right, Y-E-S, just say yes. You have to say yes to the opportunities that come to you for you to get more opportunities, and when we focus on the things that we want, we get more of what we want. You see when I was living in Chicago and I was depressed, I turned down every opportunity. People from work would invite me out, and I would say no, because I was so depressed, I'd go home and just, whatever it was, stuff my face with sugary foods, or go to the gym for four hours to numb my pain. Whatever it was, I was running away, and I was saying no, I was saying no to life. I don't want you guys to say no to life, you deserve better, you deserve so much better, so say yes. This means when your boss asks you to do something that you haven't done before, you say yes. Not only will you grow and learn a new skill, but you may surprise yourself, because your boss asked you to do that for a reason. This means stepping out of your way to make the living environment for those around you more comfortable. Doing things for others before you do something for yourself. It means letting the person on the freeway who is riding on your bumper tailgate, pulling over so they can pass you. Saying yes is as much about embracing the positive aspects of life as it is being compassionate and kind to others, because in reality, we're all connected. We are all connected. When you say yes to one person, you got to say yes to another. That person on the street who's begging because he doesn't have a home, he doesn't have shelter, he doesn't even have food to eat, say yes and give him a coin, give him some food. Just say yes. No, of course, I'm not advocating that you just go say yes to everything and go bankrupt and become homeless and go fly around the world on a credit card. I'm simply saying practice saying yes with respect and caution to the cause and effect of it. But I did this. I mean, really, if someone asks you out to dinner, you really don't want to go. Consider going because your presence is important and it matters, it matters to those around you. So if you're finding yourself in an opportunity, like in the next 30 days, if you find yourself feeling stuck or feeling like you really don't want to do something, ask yourself, what if I said yes? What would happen? And this leads me to my next thing, the second thing that I implemented, just three simple ways that you can have a happy new you in this happy new year. The second is to just be courageous. That's right, my friends. A little bit of courage can go a really long way. I saw the movie we bought a zoo the other day with Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson and it was so rewarding. Not only is the movie about a man who wants to start over and he has this adventure streak, which I think we all can understand, especially me as an adventure travel writer, we want something more. So we're looking outside of us to get it. We're looking, we're searching, we're hoping we can find it in some adrenaline fix. But really, what it is that we're looking for is inside of us. It's inside of us all the time. We have what it takes to make our dreams come true. And that's really what that movie shows people because he had an opportunity to start over so he took it. And then he had this dream and he focused and he put in his do's. He paid a lot of money to invest in his dream and he's tried to picture the best outcome in order to make his dream a reality. He was very compassionate and kind to everyone around him and his dream came true. But in order for it to become a reality, in order for your goals to become a real live thing that you're living, you have to be courageous. And I know you have it in you. I see it, I know it, I feel it. We all have insane courage inside of us. That's exactly what I needed in order to walk away from advertising. If you know my journey, you know, if you've been following, you know that I was in a career that I didn't relate to. So I had to walk away. It took so much courage and three years to get up enough courage to say, this isn't me. I'm walking away. But in the movie, they're very adamant about saying, all you need is 20 seconds of insane courage. And you will be blown away at the outcome that happens. You will never be disappointed. So I thought about it when I had the moment in advertising where I could stay, where I could say, no, I'm walking away. That took so much courage inside of me. I didn't know if I had it in me and I shied away from it quite a bit. But it was inside of me. And I said, I want better. And I know you want better and you have a dream inside of you too. Think about that dream that you really want, that dream that takes a lot of courage and it's scary because it's such a big dream. And if you had it, you know, you know with every fiber of your body that you would be so fulfilled, so full of joy and so happy at every moment of your life. You can have that. That dream is yours. It's your dream. It belongs to you. So get that courage up and just go for it. Give yourself 20 seconds and watch what happens. So 30 days, 30 days is all we're doing right now to be as courageous as possible and make sure you're saying yes to every opportunity. If you want to go open a bakery, then do it. Go for it, say yes, be courageous. Get that recipe out there, share it with people. You want to publish a book. Go for it, talk to the publishers, self-publish. There's so many opportunities out there. So you get clear about what your goal is. That one thing that you really, really want, you will have it in 2012. If you're courageous and if you say yes and if you keep focusing on what you want. The final thing that will really get you closer to your goal is very much like saying yes, but a slightly little bit of a twist to it. Say why not? If you're looking for something in your life to fill that void, consider saying why not. A man, maybe you really have a goal to fall in love this year. And a man who is not your type at all asks you out on a date, say yes. A man who doesn't look like how you think he should look or talk or smell or smile the way you think your dream man should look, say yes. I did this and now I am in love with the most amazing man, the most sweetest, kindest person. And it didn't look like how I thought it did, but if I didn't challenge myself to say yes and say why not? Then I would have never gone on that first date and found out that he's an adventure junkie and he wants to take me a bunch of jumping and he's a really kind man. I would have never given myself that opportunity. So the thing is, it's about giving yourself the opportunity, guys. Put yourself into the equation of your own life. That is the only reason we don't have what we have right now. We don't have what we want. There's something you really want, which is what I help people with. I help people get what they want. That's what I do. Ask yourself, why don't I have it? And that thing, that voice that comes up in your head, that is leading you to what you want. You see, we know what we don't want and that can help us get clearer about what we want. I spent many years in advertising in a corporate environment that did not work for me. What I knew I wanted and what I knew I liked was the design. I loved being creative and being a designer, but it was the wrong outlet for me. So I knew what I didn't want, but it took me saying yes to life, saying yes to the unknown, stepping out off that platform, because guess what? I promise you, friends, when you step off, when you step through that fear that's holding you back, it is 2,500 times better than you can ever imagine. That fear keeps us playing small. When you say yes and bust through that fear, you will be rewarded tenfold, always, because you're honoring yourself and you're honoring your heart. So remember, for 30 days, happy new year, happy new you, we are going to say yes, yes to life, yes to love, yes to opportunities, yes to everything. We're gonna be courageous as courageous as you can. If you feel like you can't be courageous, just give yourself 20 seconds, that's it, 20 seconds. Goes by really fast and then watch. Watch what happens after you tell that person that you love them that you've never told them, after you tell your boss that you quit. Watch what happens when you talk to that person in the grocery store line and all of a sudden, and they are a publisher who's looking for the exact type of book that you wanna publish. These things happen when you say yes. Be courageous and say why not, because life is a big why not. It's about enjoying every moment. Thank you guys. I have so many exciting things coming up. I'm very excited. The podcast is doing really well. We have a lot of people all around the world who are really digging it. Thank you my Australia fans. Thank you in England and Israel. I got, you guys, this is so great. I'm so excited to see you guys really getting this and enjoying it and loving it. If you have podcast questions or things, or if there's a question that you want me to answer, I get a lot of emails from people who are looking for me to kind of solve some problems. And I weave those into these messages. So please email me at Shannon, S-H-A-N-N-O-N at playwiththeworld.com. And in January, January 22nd, I'm having a workshop. It's going to be in Portland, Oregon. So you can log on to my website, playwiththeworld.com and get more information about that. We have a lot of good speeches and workshops coming up because this is weird, just getting started, guys. This is so exciting because it is the first month of the year and I am going to help you have the best year of your life. So far, you gotta have that so far on it because literally every year of my life gets better than the year before. And you can have that too. Imagine if every day is better than the day before. That's what playwiththeworld is all about. That's what living life to the fullest and loving it is all about. Thank you, I will see you guys soon. [ Silence ]