Episode #124: On Ending the Year Soft AND Strong

What if, instead of either worrying about ending the year strong, or wishing it was over already you decided to focus on your unique energy, however that is right now in this moment – and you decided that you can still make magic happen no matter what energy you are currently in? That’s the question we are posing in today’s episode of the Quietly Ambitious podcast.

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Ruth Poundwhite 0:00
What if instead of either worrying about ending the year strong or wishing that it was overall ready, you decided to focus on your unique energy however that is right now in this moment, and you decided that you can still make magic happen no matter what energy you’re currently. And that is the question we are posing. In today’s episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. You’re listening to quietly ambitious with conversations about how it really feels to build a business that honours your whole self unapologetically. And that includes who you are, how you feel, what you really desire, the impact that you want to create, and importantly, the money you want to make. I’m your host, Ruth Poundwhite. And my superpower is supporting sensitive and ambitious humans to make more money by fully expressing and owning all of who they are. Let’s dive in. Hi, and welcome back to another episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. And today, I want to talk about something that is really on my mind right now. And that is the idea that we get to end the year, both soft and strong. Now, obviously, at the time of recording this, it is right at the beginning of December, we’re in that final stretch of the year. But if you’re listening to this at a different time, then, you know, take what works for you, or whatever season you’re in. But really, this is a conversation about pushing and allowing and flowing, right? It just so happens that some of this stuff can really come to the forefront during this time of the year. So at this time of year, and in January, as well, the New Year vibes, I see a lot of like, kind of almost argumentative posts, I guess, saying we need to start the year strong, we need to set it off on the right foot. And then there’s like the backlash, which is like, No, I’m not doing that I get to start the year, however I want the New Year’s vibes doesn’t don’t resonate with me. I’m absolutely done with the year and I’m not doing anything else. And it’s just like, I’ve also seen a lot of posts saying like ending the year strong and ending the soft. And I just want to say like soft is not the opposite of strong, like soft and strong are not opposites, they can both exist together. And that is definitely the vibe that I am going for as I end 2022. And I think that I mean, I get why people have strong feelings about this, I totally get why people have strong feelings about that, about the end of the year, or the beginning of like the New Year vibe. And it’s because we are all unique human beings. And we all have unique energy. And we are all in a different stage of the cycle of creation and growth. At the end of the new year, like yes, some of us do get motivated after having a break over potentially Christmas and coming back after the year, maybe we do feel that kind of like renewed energy. But just remember, we are all unique human beings with our own cycle of energy with our own cycle of creating with our own cycle of visibility with our own cycle of ideas. So it makes sense that we’re not all on the same page at the exact same time. Right? So what about if we didn’t worry about the noise? What about if, you know if the noise is getting to us? But for sure, mute some things. But what about mute? Some people need some things. What about if instead of worrying about all of that, we decided that this is really all about my energy? This isn’t necessarily about the New Year energy isn’t necessarily about the end of your energy. This time, and every time actually is about my personal energy. And what if and here’s the thing, what if my personal energy didn’t actually mean anything for what could happen in my business? This is where I want to like expand. I can’t think of my words very well today. But this is why I want to add some nuance to the conversation around this stuff. Right? Because I think sometimes at this time of the year, a lot of us are ready to completely tap out a lot of us are ready for the year to be over a lot of us are waiting for potentially time off. And that’s okay. It’s absolutely okay. But what if you could be ready for the rest what have you gave yourself what you need and it didn’t necessarily have an impact on what you can. I want to say create but in the broadest way This magical sense of the word what it can create in your business. So what if we were able to honour our energy? And to know that we can still make money? What if we are able to honour our energy and to ask ourselves questions about, okay, what’s the resistance I’m feeling here to carrying on right now? Is it because I think I need to show up in a certain way? Is it because I think I need to be a certain way right now? What if we can let that stuff go? And what if we can show up in alignment with our energy. So like I said, I don’t think it’s about ending the air soft or strong, I think it’s about ending the air soft and strong, we get to open our hearts and listen to the wisdom of our body, and the wisdom of our feelings. And we get to create what we want to create in the final stretch of the year, in a way that really honours us. So like I said, at the time that this episode is coming out, we still have a whole month left of this year, we still have a whole 12 of the Year left to go. And my

vibe for December is to play. My word for December is to play not to plan. And I just want to say as well, like, there can be a lot of pressure right now. And don’t get me wrong. I am someone who loves a planner, like I have bought a new wall planner for 2023. And I love it. But I’m not actually someone who sticks to a plan. I’m really not. And that’s something that I’ve had to learn to accept about myself. So I both love a plan. And my plans are never to be stuck to like they’re a way for me to play. Sometimes I have to admit, they’re a way for me to keep anxiety at bay as well. So there’s that as well. But often they are just a way for me to play. So where was I going with this? Yeah, at this time of year, there can be a lot of pressure to be planning to know what we’re doing in January. And I do think it’s actually really helpful, especially if you’ve taken a chunk of time off to know where you might be getting stuck back in when you come back. But one thing I want to offer you is that you can plan to plan. If you know that it’s helpful for you to have a kind of bigger picture plan, but you’re not feeling it right now, then just put it in as a plan to plan. This is something that I do every single year. If you’ve followed me in any way for any length of time, you will probably have heard me talking about having business meetings with myself, this is where I put a date in my schedule to work on my business rather than in my business. And I really like to at this time of year, put a date in for January so that I can leave the niggle behind like there’s no part of me going, Hey, you should be doing this, you should be doing that when it feels really like shoddy in your head. That is a sign that you need to let something go. And that for me is a really powerful way to let it go. Because it’s not like I’m putting burying my head in the sand. It’s not like I’m not honouring my business. But I get to know that I’ve planned to plan. So I just want to offer you that as well. But here’s what I’m doing in December. So I am going to be putting myself out there in certain ways, but I’m really leaning into what feels good, what feels easy, and what feels in flow. And the mindset that I’m going into December with is a kind of magical thinking, I wonder what could happen in December? I wonder what could happen if I wonder what will be the easiest way to make money in December? I wonder what would be the easiest way to invite people into my world without creating something new. I wonder what would feel right for me in alignment with my energy and still give me the spaciousness I want to enjoy the festive period, right? And I just want to ask you to start like, I just want to invite you, I should say I want to invite you to ask yourself those kinds of questions. This is a time where magical thinking is really, really beneficial. The times when we feel like we’re ready for the year to be over. We’re wishing time away. And by the way, I know that not everyone listening to this will feel this way. But if you are, you get to ask yourself, well, I wonder how I can make money anyway. I wonder how I can make money and honour my desire to completely rest right now. Right? I wonder what could happen in my business. And these questions are so much easier to ask yourself, and to have fun with when you do have a kind of ecosystem and your business model that supports these kind of more fallow periods. So for example, you have got programmes that are available for for sale at any time. So money and clients and sales can come in unexpectedly. And this is something I’m going to talk about in a future training actually. But the more that I ensure that I have things like this and also you know, knowing that I’m open for business in terms of a new one to one, like a one to one client turning up paying in full out of nowhere. That’s another way that this can happen. Knowing that I have these kinds of offers available on my business makes this magical thinking so much easier. But no matter what your current ecosystem is, I’m not, I’m obviously not encouraging you to go out there and to fix everything and to create new self study courses right now. But no matter what your current business ecosystem is, you still get to play with the kind of magical thinking in December, I wonder what would happen if I stayed open to the possibility that money is coming. So I don’t know if you can relate to this. But a lot of us have this thing where in a calendar month, we might get to like the 20 something of the month, and decide that. That’s it, you know, No More money’s coming in this month, I’m not gonna make other things happen this month. That’s it, and you start thinking about the next month, even before the current month is already over. I mean, I’m recording this on the 29th of November, we’ve got one day left. And it can be really easy to think, you know, no more money is coming this month. And I think that the same can be true of the year as a whole, like, it’s actually probably a protective behaviour, for us to mentally let go of and tap out of the current time period, because it can hurt. If we haven’t met our goals, it can feel really disappointing, it can feel really sad. But I want to encourage you to stay with it. Just stay with it. Just allow yourself to think that you don’t even know what’s possible, that you might be surprised. I wonder what might happen. What might happen if I had my magician’s hat on right now, this is the vibe that I want to that I am going into December with wholeheartedly and I really want to encourage you to as well, a client can drop out of nowhere, a funnel sale could happen out of nowhere, you could get an opportunity that you can’t even imagine what that might be, that doesn’t necessarily require extra work from you, right? There are possibilities everywhere. And our logical mind wants, wants to tell us that we have it all covered, like I know exactly where I might make money from. And I know exactly how that’s not possible. And I want to encourage you to hear that be curious about it be lovingly compassionate towards it and say, You know what? I’m choosing to think differently this month. So yeah, what might you be able to sell that requires less energy? What might you already have out there that might be able to sell? What might you do if you allowed yourself to show up in the energy that you’re in right now. So if you are finishing the year strong, then great. If you’re finishing the year, soft and tired, then you know, you get to show up tired. One of the most helpful mindset shifts I have given myself over the last few years is that actually, I can still be really powerful, and still really speak to people when I’m tired. And don’t get me wrong. It’s not about pushing through and working myself to the ground. But there are times when you know, I’m tired and I want to work. I mean, it happens quite regularly. Actually, I’m quite a tired person. So a key mindset shift that you might want to take is that what no matter what energy you’re in, if you can open your heart, firstly to yourself and then to your right people, then you can connect with people from no matter what energy headspace you are in, right? You can always connect with the right people, but you’ve got to be honest with yourself about the way you’re going about it. And sometimes there can be stories that get in the way. So always being very curious and very compassionate. And asking yourself What else could be true? That is just like, the perfect question in these situations. So yeah, that’s really what I wanted to say about finishing the year, both soft and strong, they are not opposites, we get to be both. We also get to have our own unique energy and our own unique needs right now. And only you know exactly what they are. So just be curious about them. Be loving towards them. Ask yourself where your energy might be limiting you right now and ask yourself how you might be able to open that up while still honouring your needs and your energy. And where I where this gets to expand is that it’s not just about the end of the year, it’s not just about the start of the year. It’s not just about any given week or any given month. This thinking is actually about the lifetime of our business. We get to play with the magic in the lifetime of our business in our lifetime as humans. What might be possible in my lifetime. Where might my mind be logically thinking? I am limited, but actually, I don’t know where I get to be surprised. I don’t know what I’m capable of. I don’t know what might happen. Our logical thinking is limited. A lot of us are doing things. A lot of us are doing things we have not seen that many other people do a lot of us doing things that are very new in the world like new kinds of businesses, and a lot of us base what we think is possible on what has already happened for us. But just pause for a moment and ask yourself, can you think of a time when you have been massively surprised? In your life and business? Can you think of a time where something magical really did happen and you never in your wildest dreams, thought that that would have happened? Whether you thought like, you never would have thought that that was possible for you, you never would have thought that was you are capable of that. You never would have thought that you could have created something, whatever the example is just pause for a moment and think of a time when something magical happened. And can you just reflect for a moment on whether you would have logically thought that that was going to happen? And I hope you’ve got an example because I have got lots and I actually do have a few previous podcasts episodes about this. I think one of them is about big leaps happening when you least expect them.

I think there was in the previous season, I should have got the episode out. But yeah, and basically, like my income jumped massively like when I look at it at a bird’s eye view of my income year on year, like I never ever would have expected it to go the way it did. Especially because the first few years it was just crawling, crawling up scraping by, I never would have expected those big jumps. So just remember those moments. And remember that there are so many of those moments in your future as well. So this kind of magical thinking, and expanding what’s possible for you is about the lifetime of your business. It’s not just about how we end the year, absolutely not. And I really do want to encourage you to get a bit wacky with your thinking, I want to encourage you to get a bit like to really play and to really consider things that do seem ridiculous, because that’s how we expand. That’s how first we play with different possibilities what we might do and actually feel into what we really want. Because so many of us don’t even know what we really want. Because we don’t even allow our minds to go there. And it’s how we expand what we see as logical like, one day, I can remember having an idea of a certain income goal and thinking that’s ridiculous. And then a certain time later, that has become normal in my body. And that’s actually like, you know what that feels good. And that’s actually what I want. So allowing ourselves to get a bit ridiculous is actually a really helpful thing as business owners who want to live our best lives, which is a totally cheesy way of saying it, but you know what I’m saying, right? Okay, so all of this to say, I am about to rerun, actually not rerun, upgrade, run version 2.0 of my play with possibility workshop, this is completely free. I ran it in December 2021. And people bloody loved it. It had rave reviews. Literally the other day someone in my Facebook group was saying how it changed so much for them in their year, which was just like the most, the loveliest cupboard come in, like so much so much time after I originally ran it. And yeah, it’s free. So I’m running the play with possibility workshop, again, it’s going to be happening on the 14th of December, there is going to be a very limited replay just one week only, it’s a one more thing. It’s not an ongoing thing that you get access to unless you’re a one to one client. And I would love to see you there because this is your space to have fun to play. It is not a planning workshop, if you are feeling a version two, if you are feeling some aversion to planning at this time of year, and you don’t want to be using your brain in that way, come and play. Instead, I’m going to encourage you to get wacky, I’m going to encourage you to get ridiculous in the name of figuring out what it is that you really want. Figuring out what feels good in your body, what you actually desire in your life in business, and actually expanding the limits that your brain puts on all of this stuff. So yeah, play with possibility is happening 14th of December, there’s a one week replay if you can’t make it live. And you can sign up at Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash possibility. So that’s Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash slash, I can’t speak today, forward slash possibility. And I will put the link in the show notes. And like I said, this workshop had rave reviews when I ran it at the end of 2021. So I would love to see you there. And I do have a couple of other resources that I wanted to give you just as we wrap this up as well. So I did mention having a business meeting with yourself. I have a whole course which goes through the process I use the questions I asked myself to get into the bigger picture of my business. So that is at Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash clarify. I do also have a freebie that kind of gives a really brief overview of the process if you if you just if the URL is too long to say out loud, but I’ll put it in the show notes or you can just search for there is power in stepping back. Ruth Poundwhite You should find it there. I’m also I’ve also got space to work together in the new year and I just want to encourage you to ask yourself, like if you’ve been desiring support and if like the work that I do really speaks to you it feels activating to you. If it helps you to expand those limits in your brain. Then I would love to for you to ask yourself what might be possible if you were supported next year. Who or what might be possible in terms of how I can make that support happen this year, just play with possibility play with magical thinking around it if you’re getting the nudge to do it. And you can find out more about my one to one packages that Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash mentoring, my prices are all going up on the first of January. So now is a really good time to book and you can book in advance at the current price. And then we can start in January. Now what might what might be possible if you were supported in the way that you desire to be supported? So yeah, I hope that this episode has given you permission to really honour your energy as the year ends, but also to know that you can make magic happen and no matter where your energy is right now, sometimes it requires a little bit of mindset reframes and asking ourselves those expansive questions. And if you really want to go deep onto those expansive questions, if you want to get ridiculous in the best way, then come to the play with possibility workshop. It was so much fun last year. So yeah, join. Join in at Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash possibility, and I will catch you again soon for another episode of The quietly ambitious podcast. Have a wonderful December. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of quietly ambitious, if you have a moment to rate and review know that it really does make a difference. And if you’d like to carry on the conversation, then you can connect with me on Instagram at Ruth Poundwhite Join me in the Facebook group or my personal favourite. Sign up to my newsletter letters to quietly ambitious humans. Just go to Ruth poundwhite.com forward slash newsletter to subscribe and keep doing what you’re doing because your work really does matter.

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“Soft and strong are not opposites. They can both exist together”
Ruth Poundwhite

Show Notes

What if, instead of either worrying about ending the year strong, or wishing it was over already you decided to focus on your unique energy, however that is right now in this moment – and you decided that you can still make magic happen no matter what energy you are currently in? That’s the question we are posing in today’s episode of the Quietly Ambitious podcast.

Some of the things I talked about:

  • Why it’s not about ending the year either “soft” or “strong”
  • The questions to ask yourself to allow magic in (no matter what your current energy)
  • How our logical thinking is limited, and how to overcome this across the lifetime of our business

Links from the episode:

Other episodes you might like:

“we are all unique human beings and we all have unique energy and we are all in a different stage of the cycle of creation and growth at the end of the year”
Ruth Poundwhite

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Thanks so much for listening!

When you subscribe to updates you get access to 3 bonus episodes of the podcast – exclusively for email subscribers – that dive behind the scenes of my business (I talk about failures, money, community & more!)