If this year has taught me anything, it’s that ups and downs are a normal part of life. It’s frustrating, but it’s true. Some of my colleagues have had a very difficult year in business, while others have had their most abundant year ever. I didn’t meet my business goals this year, and while it’s not ideal, it’s not going to make me give up. And if you had a difficult year, it shouldn’t make you give up either.

No matter how this year went for you, it’s always a good idea to take a moment to organize your thoughts. I actually encourage everyone to reflect and revise every 90 days. It’s just the right amount of time to reevaluate, adjust, and lean into new habits that will improve your life for the better.

In this week’s episode, I’m going to help you plan for the new year in a very simple way. I’ll be guiding you through a handful of journaling prompts and together we’ll be reflecting on the past year, resetting our expectations, and rising to the new habits we’ll be forming together. Let’s plan to make 2025 our best year yet!

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Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST.

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, friends. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution. I cannot believe we’re at the end of 2024. If you’re listening to this on the day of its release, then happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Feliz Navidad. It is December 24th. And if you’re listening to this the day of the release, then maybe you’re getting ready to go to your families and maybe already feeling a little bit anxious around seeing family this holiday season.

I mean, we’ve obviously already gone through Thanksgiving, but assuming you are in the US, I mean, I do have clients who are in Canada, so let’s be inclusive. I do know people from different countries listen to the podcast episode as well, but I did want to quickly highlight that if you are. On your way to families or you will be seeing family soon.

I just want to validate that feeling triggered during this time of year is so, so normal. I have a podcast episode that we released last year around this time about why the holidays can be so triggering and how to manage triggers around family around the holidays. And I was actually just coaching about this in my group Courage Driven Latina.

And what I was saying to my client was that, you know, sometimes we are doing the work. I mean, if you’re listening to this podcast, then you are very much into self development. You’re very much into becoming the best version of yourself. And as we begin to advance from a spiritual level or just a wisdom level, and we begin to elevate our consciousness, it becomes really obvious when other people have unhealed trauma.

And it can be very triggering. And it could also be very triggering to be around family who maybe still treats us as if we are kids or maybe believes that they should be able to say an opinion about our body or our choices in life or our marital status or whether we’ve chosen to have kids or not. And, you know, I think while it comes from good intentions, most of the time it can still be really harmful.

So I just am sending you all a huge virtual hug if you are listening to this before any family events and if you have anxiety around that. And I did want to offer something to you. this is actually not even what this podcast episode is about, but I did feel called to say this. So somebody needed to hear this, but when I coach my clients on this, I always recommend that they use something called a self care sandwich.

So what do I mean by that? So let’s say that meeting your family and you know that the triggering family is the middle of the sandwich. How can you do self care before and after? So maybe that means doing a meditation before you go into your family’s when you’re sitting in the car, you just do some breath work or maybe you bring your journal with you and you allow yourself to express yourself and you create a safe space where you can write down how you’re feeling and what’s coming up for you.

And then you go see your family, so that way you are a little bit more grounded, and in your own energy, and then let, you know, whatever happens, happen at the family party, and then when you leave, maybe you go for a run, or maybe you, um, go to kickboxing, or maybe you can, you know, Go back to journaling, doing something that you know fills your cup.

So, when you anticipate a triggering meeting or a triggering situation, how can you sandwich it with self care? So, always take that with you, that you can self care sandwich anything. Even if it comes to a stressful day at work or you know you’re going to have a meeting at work that gives you a lot of anxiety.

Uh, this is actually what I do before big speaking engagements, or I remember when I was first invited onto podcasts, it would freak me the heck out. So I would self care sandwich all the time. I would start with something like journaling and processing my thoughts, and then I would end it by going out like on a hike with my dog or something like that.

So that is my offer to you. All right, back to the purpose of today’s episode. So today’s episode is all about reflecting on the year. Resetting and rising in the new year. So I actually, last year we released an episode all about planning for the new year, where it’s, it’s kind of like a workshop where I take you through a bunch of different reflection questions.

And then I take you through a bunch of questions that help you plan for the new year. And if that is something that you’re looking for, I recommend that you go back and check that out. But this year I wanted to do something that felt a little bit more tangible. And as much as the other workshop is so helpful, I do think that it can be overwhelming to try to set goals for every area of your life at the beginning of the year, because Yes, it is the beginning of a new year, but so much happens throughout the year.

I actually feel like it’s more effective to check in with yourself every quarter. And you’ve heard me talk about my program Courage Driven Latina that many times. And let me just give you some background. The reason that we have people work on a courage project 90 days at a time is because 90 days is enough time to begin to build habits.

So if we think about you changing your life. I actually recommend that you check in with yourself every 90 days. Like, let’s just think about big businesses, right? Or, or small businesses, but the way that things are done in the business world, they don’t just have one meeting at the beginning of the year and say, all right, here’s our intention.

Here’s what our goals are. Here’s what we plan to do. See you all next year. No, there are. meetings where they check in. There’s quarterly meetings. I mean, even my team and I, we have quarterly meetings. We have one in a few days to plan for the following quarter. And we plan three months at a time. And a big thing that we do is we check in and we’re like, all right, what worked well last quarter?

What did we learn? What do we want to make sure we focus on this quarter? And a lot of times our priorities have shifted. Things have changed. Even with my clients inside of Courage Driven Latina, maybe they thought their courage project was going to be starting a podcast. And then once they got started in the program, they’re like, you know what, I actually want to move up to a different level in the company that I work at.

I actually really want to do leadership or maybe I want to do financial coaching instead. And things change, allow things to change. And the way that you’re going to give yourself more flexibility is by checking in more consistently instead of putting pressure on yourself to try to get everything done at the beginning of the year.

So, again, I still think the workshop is really helpful that I did last year. I would even think it’s a great workshop to do every quarter if you’d like, but today what I want to do is I still want to reflect. And I still want to take you through a quick reset, and then I want to help you plan for the new year.

But I want you, I want to help you plan for the new year in a very simple way. So that you do it because when we try to do too much, it’s so much easier to give up. So let’s begin with reflections. So let’s think about your 2024 and who knows how your 2024 went, right? I don’t know. For some of my clients, it was the worst year ever.

For other clients, it was the most abundant year ever. I will tell you that there has been a lot of shifts. in the economy, in just culturally in society. So if you had a difficult year, you’re not alone. Personally, I had a difficult business year. I mean, I’m, I’m okay. Right. But it didn’t go the way that I wanted.

I did not meet my business goals in 2024, but some other amazing things happened in 2024. So however 2024 went for you, maybe you’re feeling ashamed because you said at the beginning of the year, it was the year that you were going to make all these changes and maybe those changes didn’t happen or maybe you blew it out of the water, right?

But whatever it is, I just want you to hold compassion for yourself because life is not consistent. If you’re running a business, business is not consistent. You’re going to have ups and downs and your life is going to have years when it feels like there are growth years. And then it feels like there are years where you are taking steps back.

And even in those years where it can feel as if you’re taking steps back, I guarantee you, you’re not taking any steps back. You are taking steps forward when it comes to your knowledge. Um, I’ve heard another coach talk about this. I think it was Stacy Baiman where she said, You know, every year is a growth year, but some years are going to be different types of growth, right?

So maybe it was like one year was a financial growth and the other one was like growth when it comes to lessons and the same thing could be for life. Maybe one year was growth when it came to your education or your friend groups or relationships. And maybe other years are growth. years when it comes to, to finances, right?

We can just have growth in so many different ways, or maybe you had a really difficult year. I’ve spoken to people who’ve lost family members and grief is a real thing and it doesn’t go away just within a few months. Like grief can resurface at any time. So if you can hold compassion for yourself, And let the year be what it was.

I think sometimes we get so caught up and like, Oh, if I would have done this differently, or if this would have happened differently. And we have to just come to peace with like, it is what it is. What has happened has happened. And we can’t go and we can’t change the past. So we could sit here and ruminate on it, or we can learn from it.

And that’s the, what I want to talk about today. Like how it is that we can learn from. Our past experiences and how we can learn from the previous year. But sometimes we just get stuck on autopilot. We don’t even give ourselves time to reflect. So let’s reflect. I would like you to, if you are in a place where you can, uh, write, assuming you’re not driving or anything like that, I am going to read out some questions for you, some reflection questions.

Again, if you want to write them in your, in your journal, you can do that. You can write them in your phone, or you could even voice note them. If you’re driving and you want to come back to this, maybe just screenshot the timestamp you’re on so that you can come back to them, but here they are. Okay, first question.

What are you the most proud of in 2024? I’ll let you pause the recording so that you can write. I’m just going to keep talking because there’s no reason I have blank space in the recording when you can just pause it. Okay, next question is what challenges did you overcome and what did they teach you? I want you to spend time on this question because the, the question of what challenges did you overcome to you, maybe you’re like, oh, I failed at something.

Well, what did that teach you? Or maybe an obstacle came your way and you overcame it. What did that teach you? So really sit with what were the hard parts of the year and what lessons came from those hard parts. Okay, next question. Where did you hold back and why? Was it fear of judgment, overthinking, cultural expectations? Where do you know in your core, in your gut that maybe you played small and why did you play small? 

Amiga, I hope you’re enjoying the show. We are going to get right back to today’s episode, but I just had to drop in and check with you. How are you feeling? How are things going? If you find yourself frustrated or maybe shaming yourself because you have not taken the action that you wanted to take.

Maybe you are just tired of starting and stopping or overthinking or worrying about what your co workers are going to think about you or your family members are going to think about you if you finally start that project that you’ve been wanting to start. I just want you to know that I see you. I feel you.

I overthought starting. My Instagram page for two years before I actually started it. So I get it. I totally understand. And if you find yourself in this position where you know that you want to make 2024 your year and you’re ready to start procrastinating and start taking action, then I invite you to Courage Driven Latina.

Courage Driven Latina is my signature program where you will legit change your life in 90 days because we are going to help you take action on a courage project in 90 days. I also recently introduced the courage project paths, which I’m so excited about. So you essentially get to pick the path that you want to work on and you can work on more than one path because the program is now 12 months, right?

But we recommend one path at a time. And I’m so excited about these paths because. We have a confidence, courage, project path. So if you want to speak up in your relationships or maybe speak up at work, this would be the perfect path for you. Or if you just want to establish more self trust. The second path we have is the content creation courage project path.

So this is perfect for you if you want to create an Instagram page, a TikTok account, or perhaps you are ready to launch your own podcast. We even have a whole podcast course inside of Courage Driven Athena. The third path is the career courage project path. So if you know that you want to be at the director level or the VP level, or maybe you’re ready to change your job to a different job, then this would be the perfect path for you.

Maybe you’re like, you know what? Entrepreneurship is cool, but it’s not really for me. I really want to be a boss ass mommy, then this is going to be the path for you. And last but not least, we have the Chingona CEO path. So if you know that you want to be an entrepreneur and you know, you want to start your business, whether it’s a coaching business or a physical business, if you want to sell a product, then this is the perfect path for you.

Again, because this program is not 12 months, you can work on more than one path. Join the waitlist for Courage Driven Latina by going to the link down below in the show notes, because when you join the waitlist, you are going to be the. first to know when we open doors and you may even get some early access.

So ensure that you join the wait list. I cannot wait to work with you. We have some incredible women in this program and the fact that it’s now a year long, we’ve already seen so much transformation. I can’t wait to work with you. Let’s get back to the show and don’t forget to join the wait list. I’ll quickly give you all my responses to these questions because I think it’s important to hear some examples. So the thing I’m the most proud of in 2024 is my resiliency. I think this was the year where it could have been easy to just throw in the towel, not just in business, but a lot in a lot of areas of my life.

And the fact that I am still showing up and that I’m still looking to see what it is that I could learn from it, and to use another word for it, I guess my grit. My perseverance, my resiliency to keep going, even in the face of challenging times, even when things aren’t going my way, that doesn’t mean it was a walk in the park and I was great.

I definitely had a lot of moments this year where my mental health was not where I wanted it to be. It was almost. Like I didn’t feel like myself this year. And even then I was always able to get myself out of these ruts. And I mean, I think you all listen to this podcast and you think, yeah, she doesn’t have self doubt.

She already has a podcast. She already has a business, but you know, life isn’t just about making it to one place and then you’re done. We’re always striving for something new, not from a place of, Oh, I need more accomplishments, but it’s human nature to grow and to, to strive for more. And there, there was many times this year when.

I lost belief in myself, but I always found my way back. So I think that is the most, that’s the thing I’m the most proud of. And I also think this is what makes me such a good coach because if I never ever experienced doubt, if I never ever lost belief in myself, I, it would be really difficult for me to coach my clients.

So I’m actually super grateful for that. All right. My answer to the next question is what challenges did you overcome and what did they teach you? There are many challenges that I overcame, but I think the first one that came to my mind is that it’s very important to be authentically you. And as I was going through a lot of changes with a quickly growing business, I was just kind of following what needed to be done to grow the business. And I do think I lost myself.

a few times in that. And what it taught me was that you have to be authentic. 

And I think what it taught me is that sometimes you have to lose yourself in order to find yourself again. And what I mean by this is it’s almost like sometimes we have to be completely overwhelmed to realize that we have too much on our plate. Like we just have to get to that place where we maybe went too far with one thing so that we could come back center.

And that is, I think, one of the biggest challenges that I overcame. And I’m going to give you an example. I’ve always known that I’m a pretty spiritual person. I mean, I went to a private middle school. It was like a Christian middle school. And. I loved studying the Bible and then I would do these prayers for my family.

And then I went to college and then I really began to question religion. I went to UC Berkeley, which is a pretty liberal school. And I learned just how religion had been used in the past. And I really moved away from being religious. And I made my way back to spirituality in when I was working in tech because I was so unfulfilled.

And that’s when I started learning more about mindfulness and that type of spirituality. And Once I grew my business and there was just so much demand and I was so busy, I lost that connection with mindfulness. I lost that connection with my spiritual side. And this isn’t, you know, to say that you need to believe in any type of religion or anything like that.

I think you all know I’m pretty spiritual being that I have a big heart. Spiritual business mastermind being that some of my podcast episodes are guided meditations and visualizations But I remember when my business was taking off. I was visualizing every single day. I was meditating. I was journaling I did that like it was my job and this year I totally lost that and it wasn’t like I just did it intentionally.

But what this difficult year taught me is how important that was in my life. And I don’t think that I would have recognized or gone back to my spiritual practices if it wasn’t for this year being such a difficult year for me. And because it was a difficult year, now I have reconnected to the spiritual side.

And I’m like, Oh, just kind of like this deep breath of like, this is who I am. And this is what I’m supposed to do. And I really think a big part of my purpose is helping mindfulness and spirituality apply to us in today’s society, especially as women of color and especially as just women in general, right?

Just being human beings in today’s day. And I remember having a dream once where this I’m assuming it was like an ancestor, but they told me you’re meant to bring ancient practices to modern day. And I don’t know exactly what that means yet, but I feel like if it wasn’t for this difficult year and me searching for answers within myself, I wouldn’t have made my way back to that.

So I know that my answer was really deep. Your answer could be something along the lines of Oh, I overcame the challenge of starting to create content. And what it taught me was that you just can’t overthink content. It could be, it has to be imperfect. You just kind of have to do or another challenge maybe could have been, worrying about what your family thinks about you.

And it taught you that your opinion is the one that matters more than anything. So there was no right or wrong answer here. Mine is really deep and profound because I think it’s important to share that here being that I speak to you all on a weekly basis. And this is where I see. The podcast and my brand and myself kind of headed and headed in the next year.

So that’s why I chose to share that example with you all. All right. Oh my gosh. We’re still in the reflect place. We’re still reflecting. So let me, let me move along here. Where did you hold back and why? I think I held back because. From trying creative things in my business and the reason that I did that is because I was so worried about getting things right or wrong.

I’m in a lot of coaching programs. I’ve done a lot of coaching and coaching has completely changed my life. No regrets. But I do think that there’s a point where I had invested in programs where there was like this right way of doing it and then this wrong way of doing it. And that blocked my creativity from being able to do things the way that I wanted to do. So if you feel comfortable sharing your reflections with me, I would love to hear them. So you can send them to me on Instagram at the Erica Cruz, or if you wanted to share them on your stories, you can just tag the Instagram for the podcast, which is at Chingona Revolution. So, now that we’ve reflected a little bit, I want you to look over what you responded, and I just want you to have so much compassion for the 2024 version of you.

Because that 2024 version of you is what is taking you into the next year. And again, maybe you had a killer year. Maybe your year was amazing. Or maybe it was one of the most difficult years. And as much as we want, you know, to shame ourselves about it, it is what it is. Take the lessons and let’s move on to the next year. So as we think about this upcoming year, it can be really easy to have all of these different goals. And I do want you to have multiple goals, but one of the things that helps, has helped me in the past that I think might help you is choosing an intention word. So an intention word is a word that you come back to throughout the year.

This word that is reminding you how it is that you intend to live. for that year.

Your intention word is a word that reflects how it is that you want to feel and how you want to show up in the new year. So think of it as your compass for the year. So almost like this compass word. It’s kind of like your North star. Whenever you are struggling to make a decision, you can think about your intention word and be like does this align with my intention word?

And some examples of intention words could be courage, right? So maybe to take bold action. Or it could be abundance, and that is to welcome opportunities with open arms. Or try to shift from scarcity mindset to abundant mindset. In the past, I’ve done intention words like create. So I really just wanted to be creative, to create content, create relationships, to, to create, create connection.

And that was a really good word for that year. I ended up finding a lot of success on TikTok. I ended up connecting to a lot of different people. It was some of my biggest speaking engagements. And another example is alignment to ensure that your actions match your values. Those are all really good examples. And here’s how it is that you could pick yours. So we want you to reflect on those big lessons from 2024. So look back at your reflections and then ask yourself, how do I want to feel in the upcoming year?

How do I want to feel in 2025 or 2026, right? Whenever it is that you’re listening to this podcast episode and then choose a word that excites you and inspires you. My word for 2025 is serve. It’s to serve. And the reason is that when I started my business, I didn’t even really know I was starting a business.

I was just serving. I was just showing up, creating content, giving value. And yes, it turned into a business and it turned into a business that has changed the lives of hundreds of people. And I appreciate the messages and the words that I get from every single one of you, but there was a point in which running a business It’s a whole new skill set, right?

And I got so caught up in learning how to run a business that it more became about my processes and it became about, okay, what systems do we have for this? And how do we automate that? Which is all necessary and it’s all a part of business, but that became a big focus and I feel like I lost that.

Connection to serve. And I was always serving. I was, I mean, I’m still show. I was always still showing up on my podcast, but I do feel this call to serve even at a deeper level. So I have this belief that not this belief. I know that when I am approaching things from a lens of service, everybody benefits, including my business, including my clients, including my audience.

I can do something that benefits everybody, that is what I want to do. So that is my intention word, to serve. And you know, serve doesn’t mean to be a doormat and let people walk all over me. No, it means how can I give, because if I’m serving and giving, then that is telling my nervous system, my subconscious, that this world is abundant.

Again, this doesn’t mean I don’t have boundaries. I’m allowed to have boundaries, but I really do want to be in service because when I’m in service, that is when I feel the most connected. That’s when I feel the most abundant. That is when I end up landing the most amazing opportunities, meeting the most amazing people and creating impact.

Impact would be a great word too. Impact would be an amazing word to use for, for your 2025. And then what you can do is you can take this word, and if you do vision board, I would put this word at the center of your vision board, and then everything else that you want to create around it.

So reflecting was reflecting on the last year. Reset was forgiving yourself for any mistakes, for being at peace with making peace, right? Not being at peace, but making peace with allowing 2024 to be what it was, whether it was great or not the best. That’s the reset part. And then rise is where we are at.

Embedding this intention word. I would actually, that is what I want to know. I want to know what your intention word is. So if you follow me on instagram, if you don’t follow me, then go follow me or if you follow me on tick on Yeah, tick tock or on linkedin. I would love for you all to tag me send me a dm But share what your intention word is because and tell me why.

So like my intention word is blank, and here’s why. I would love to hear that. And then to help you plan for the new year, as much as I would love to give you a huge action plan with all of these different things to do, I really think it’s going to serve you to have a clear intention with your intention word. And pick one goal that you want to work towards. This, we’re just taking a page out of my program, Courage Driven Latina.

Pick the one thing that you want to work on and find another person who gets it. Find somebody who can hold you accountable. Find somebody who you can talk to about this goal that you’re working at. Having a, an intention word, having a clear goal that you want to work towards, and then having somebody that can hold you accountable.

Those three things are going to set you up for the new year. If you didn’t make your goals in 2024, maybe because there was, and I actually talk about this in last week’s episode where I talk about reasons why we fail or reasons why we don’t make our goals. So go back and listen to that episode if you, if you have questions.

If you want to know more about that, but find an accountability buddy that you can rely on, send them this podcast episode, have them reflect on their year, have them pick their intention word, and then have them pick a small goal that they want to work towards. Once you’re done with that goal, you are going to feel like you can do anything and then you could pick a new goal.

But if you create this massive goal that feels overwhelming at the beginning of the year, it’s not going to work. You’re, it’s going to be really hard to follow through and it’s not going to be tangible. It’s not going to feel, it’s going to feel overwhelming instead of exciting. And sometimes whenever we’re picking small goals, it feels like, Oh, that’s not big enough or that’s not hard enough.

Let yourself have an easy win. Let yourself get into the momentum, pick a goal that feels attainable. And I would also look up smart goals, which is specific, measurable, attainable, relatable, and timely. Look up the smart goal framework and use that to pick your goal. Once you’re done with that goal, check in with your, well, I mean, you should be checking in with your accountability buddy before, but once you’re done with that goal, pick a new one.

And if your accountability buddy was a good match, stick with them, keep it going, but send whoever it is that you want to do this with this podcast episode. And as I mentioned, I would love to hear from all of you. What is your intention word? What were your big lessons from the last year? Remember, we can’t change the past, but we can learn from it and we can.

change how we move going forward. I’ve said this many times on this podcast, but Steve jobs has a quote. We can’t connect the dots looking forward. We can only connect them looking backwards.So you might be at a place where you’re saying, I don’t understand why the year went the way it did.

And you may not understand that now, but in a few months, Or maybe this time next year, you’re going to be like, yep, I know exactly why that year went the way it did. So I know we want to make sense of things right now, and sometimes we can’t, but know that everything is working in your favor, even if it was a very difficult year.

It’s taught you what you need to know for the following. year for this upcoming year. Okay, y’all. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Thank you for spending another year with me. If you’ve been here from the beginning, everybody who tagged me in their Spotify wrapped, it is such an honor to be in your ear, to be with you every Tuesday.

This podcast grows through Reviews through sharing this podcast episode with friends. So if you find value in this podcast, share it with a friend, please leave us a review. I’d love to hear from you. Send me a DM, tag me in an episode. Tell me what you took away from it. If you have requests, send your requests my way.

I am happy to. record podcast episodes that are relevant to you. So if there’s something specific you want me to record an episode on, send it my way. I am ears and I am wishing you all a prosperous, abundant, loving, and healthy following year. See you next week.