Balanced Black Girl Podcast Summary

Episode: [Solo] Plan with Me for 2025: Creating A Plan to Reach Your Goals
Release Date: December 31, 2024
Host: Les

Introduction and Host's Personal Update

In the final episode of 2024, Les, the host of Balanced Black Girl, shares a candid update about her podcast scheduling mishap. Originally intended to release this episode in January 2025, Les accidentally published it on New Year's Eve due to a calendar miscalculation. Despite this hiccup, she remains optimistic, assuring listeners, "I'm gonna be okay. We're all going to be okay. Because we are going to plan for 2025 together" (00:10).

Les introduces her new brand, Spacious Rituals, which includes a line of planners designed to streamline daily, weekly, and monthly planning. She emphasizes the importance of using a planner to follow along with the episode's real-time planning session, encouraging listeners to pause and prepare their tools for effective goal setting.

Reflecting on 2024: Celebrating Wins and Learning from Challenges

Before diving into planning for the new year, Les underscores the significance of reflecting on the past year. She reminds listeners of her first 2024 episode focused on "entering your successful era," emphasizing the continuous journey toward personal success. Les advises, "If you have not yet done any reflecting on the year, maybe comparing how you feel now at the end of the year to how you felt at the beginning of the year, reflecting on some of your wins, reflecting on some of your lessons, now would be a really good time to do so" (00:10).

She encourages a non-judgmental reflection, stating, "This is all data. This is all information and a checkpoint in time." Les advises celebrating achieved goals and understanding the reasons behind unmet ones—be it shifting priorities or lack of resonance with initial objectives. This reflective practice sets a solid foundation for the upcoming year's planning.

Embracing the Athlete's Mentality for 2025

Les revisits a highly successful episode from a few months prior about adopting an athlete's mentality to achieve goals. The positive reception inspired her to expand on this concept for 2025, focusing on creating a "playbook to win." She explains, "For this planning session, we're really gonna focus on making our playbook to win in 2025" (00:10).

Drawing parallels between elite athletes and personal goal-setting, Les highlights the importance of having a structured approach:

• Playbook Creation: Just as athletes have detailed strategies, individuals should develop a comprehensive plan tailored to their personal and professional aspirations.
• Quarterly Focus: Instead of annual goals, Les advocates for setting quarterly objectives. This method, inspired by the book The 12 Week Year, ensures goals remain achievable and top-of-mind, reducing the likelihood of procrastination.

Setting Specific Goals for Q1 2025

Les guides listeners through the process of setting meaningful and specific goals for the first quarter of 2025:

1. Visualizing Success: She prompts listeners to envision themselves on December 31, 2025, reflecting on their achievements. "Imagine that it is New Year's eve going into 2026. It's December 31, 2025. Who are you at that moment?" (12:45)

2. Aligning Goals with Vision: Goals should directly relate to the envisioned self. Les emphasizes specificity: "I want you to think specifically about that version of yourself at the end of 2025 who you just described, where she is, who she is, what she has, what she has achieved" (12:45).

3. Limiting to Three-Five Goals: To maintain focus and attainability, she recommends setting no more than three to five goals per quarter. This approach prevents overwhelm and enhances the likelihood of success.

4. Categorizing Goals: Goals should span various aspects of life—professional, financial, spiritual, social, health, and personal—ensuring a balanced and holistic approach to growth.

Les provides her own examples, such as releasing a second product through her brand Spacious Rituals and increasing investment contributions, illustrating how personal goals can be mapped out within a planner for clarity and tracking.

Creating a Comprehensive Game Plan

With goals established, Les delves into crafting a detailed game plan to achieve them:

1. Solution-Oriented Mindset: She stresses the importance of approaching obstacles with solutions rather than dwelling on problems. "If there are obstacles, we have to start looking at, okay, how can I either find another way or for this thing that is blocking what I want, how can I dismantle it and work through it to get to the other side?" (25:44)

2. Breaking Down Goals into Habits: Les likens goals to an athlete’s drills—specific, repeatable actions that build the necessary skills to win. "Habits are the daily, weekly, monthly actions that you do and that you repeat to make achieving that goal a reality" (25:44).

3. Scheduling and Accountability: Utilizing planners or digital calendars, Les advocates for blocking dedicated time for habit execution and regular reviews. She suggests a weekly planning session, preferably on Sundays, to organize tasks and ensure consistent progress.

4. Regular Reviews: At the end of each quarter, setting aside time to assess progress is crucial. This review helps in understanding successes, analyzing setbacks, and refining strategies for the next quarter.

5. Celebrating Wins: Recognizing and rewarding achievements reinforces positive behavior and provides motivation. Les encourages planning rewards in advance, such as a spa day or a special outing, to celebrate the completion of goals.

6. Incorporating Rest and Recovery: Emphasizing the athlete analogy, Les highlights the necessity of rest for sustained performance. Scheduling downtime prevents burnout and maintains overall well-being. "Athletes also know that recovery is a very important part of their training protocol" (25:44).

Final Encouragement and Resources

Les concludes the episode by reiterating the importance of intentional goal-setting and maintaining clarity in every action taken. She urges listeners to ensure that each habit and self-care practice aligns with their overarching goals, fostering a cohesive and purposeful approach to personal development.

For additional support, Les directs listeners to the show notes, where they can find links to Spacious Rituals planners, social media profiles, and discount codes related to the episode's sponsors.

Notable Quotes:

• "We're going to release this on New Year's eve going into 2025, which honestly, timing wise is probably better." (00:10)
• "This is all data. This is all information and a checkpoint in time." (00:10)
• "So for this planning session, we're really gonna focus on making our playbook to win in 2025." (00:10)
• "Habits are the daily, weekly, monthly actions that you do and that you repeat to make achieving that goal a reality." (25:44)
• "If you are not playing to win, you are setting yourself up to get played." (25:44)

Timecodes:

• 00:10 – Introduction and Host's Personal Update
• 00:10 – Reflecting on 2024
• 12:45 – Embracing the Athlete's Mentality for 2025
• 25:44 – Creating a Comprehensive Game Plan

Balanced Black Girl continues to empower listeners with practical advice on health, self-care, personal development, and well-being. This episode serves as a comprehensive guide to setting and achieving goals for 2025, blending reflection, strategic planning, and the disciplined mindset of an athlete to inspire success.