Episode 11
Hello, and I hope everyone is having a lovely holiday season! Welcome to episode 11 of the Beyond Nourished Podcast. This is the place to become a better, more efficient health-focused cook in just 10 minutes or less.
My name is Rachelle Girardin. I am your host, a certified nutritional practitioner, holistic private chef, and I've been a business owner for over 10 years.
And the truth is, this episode is coming to you from a very dear part of my heart because I am completely obsessed with goal-setting! Truly, I wanted to take this episode and this opportunity to share my process with you so that you can use it to incorporate it into your business life or your personal life, but more specifically into how to achieve your cooking or your kitchen goals this year.
For as long as I can remember, I have planned out my year in advance, sometimes it looks less specific, other times it's extremely detailed, but nonetheless, I carve out a little bit of time before the end of the year to sit down and really think how I want the following year to play out.
This typically looks like taking one big goal and then breaking it down into little pieces - I'll get to that in just a moment - but first I wanted to just talk about the carving out of time. Now there are some years where this looks like just inviting a friend and going to a local coffee shop to get cozy for a couple of hours and just sharing and letting each other know what we might be doing for the upcoming year.
Sometimes it's doing it alone as well, however, it is making sure that I do something that’s attainable to where you're at that year. So maybe going away on a three-day planning trip is not in the cards, but still, take a little bit of time and make sure that you schedule it into your calendar.
I love doing it with a friend because it allows me to be accountable. This year, I had the opportunity to go to Tofino, British Columbia here in Canada with a good friend, and we got to get cozy for three days. It is one of the rainiest, wettest places in Canada during the winter season, and we took that opportunity to just stay inside and work work work. We spent over 13 hours that weekend planning out our 2022 year, and it was just such an incredible experience coming home and knowing how each month needs to look going forward.
When it comes to any goal that we're setting, it really starts with planning out something that seems high to achieve, and exciting to achieve, so picking just one thing as your big goal and then breaking that down into small bite-size goals for the year to make sure that you accomplish them.
For me, this year in business, my goals are having a million-dollar year and also to pay myself 25% more than I have been in preparation to get a mortgage in the next two to three years.
I've met the love of my life and I'm ready to have children and get married and build a house, and these are all things that require a lot of forethought and a lot of planning.
So one of the other things that I love to do because it can be very overwhelming to plan so much in a year, is to pick one word that you use as your anchor and as what you want to move through the next year with. I do this and learned this from a couple of great girlfriends over the past couple of years. I think last year my word was openness, this year my word was love, and next year I have chosen the word consistency - and this truly becomes the theme. Everything that you do, you do from this place, and you weave it into your year, every chance you get.
For me, from a business standpoint, consistency looks like staying on top of our social media, making sure every day I'm doing outreach, making sure that we are saying on our sales targets, making sure that every little thing that we do, that it goes into that big goal of having a million-dollar year.
So you break it down and make it into really digestible pieces. What are all of the things that I need to do on a daily, weekly and monthly basis to make sure that by the end of the year, I'm going to hit that large goal? The same thing with my personal goal, it's staying on top of it from a consistent place, moving my body, reducing spending, saving money, reading, starting to speak Spanish and improving my financial literacy - all of these things are helping me to move in the direction that I want to go.
So if you're listening to this podcast, I know that you're looking to improve your cooking skills, so I want you to pick one cooking goal to complete by the end of next year.
I want you to write it down because this is a very important part of goal setting. Make sure that you put it somewhere where it's visible or that you visit often. This for me has looked like putting my word on the lock screen on my cell phone, putting post-its on my mirror, putting it on every page of my day planner - there are a lot of ways this can look.
And don't forget if your goal seems too big, then break it down into smaller, more digestible goals. So when talking about cooking or a kitchen goal, let's say that you have a goal of wanting to host a three-course dinner party for eight people - that seems like a pretty big accomplishment if you're just a new or a beginner cook!
Start by seeing what it's like to plan this for yourself, or for you and a friend, or you and your partner - and then maybe try it with four people. Go for smaller pieces that eventually make the bigger one come true.
Other examples of goal-setting in the kitchen might be you wanting to cook for your loved one because they're usually the ones to cook more. Or maybe you want to make your kid a spectacular birthday cake this year, or cook your way through your favourite cookbook or try one new recipe every month. The ideas are limitless!
I would love for you guys to share your kitchen or cooking goals with us this year. I would love to see it on any of our social platforms, you can follow us @cookwithbeyondnourished.
Share with us what you would love to accomplish from a goal-setting perspective, and what would really get you excited about bringing in everything that you might be learning in this podcast into your 2022!
Happy holidays, happy new year, and we will see you next Tuesday for episode 12.