We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention. Gratitude and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.

Happy holidays. I can't believe that it is a couple of days until 2024. Merry Christmas to those that just celebrated and thank you so much for joining me today. I wanted to come on and do this solo episode. First, I want to thank you for being a part of my community. Thank you so much for listening to these podcasts.

I was doing an exercise this week that I love, and that has become such a huge part of my end-of-the-year ritual. And I wanted to share it with you because I do believe so strongly that this is a great way for us to live. So I want to give credit first to Mel Robbins and Marie Forleo because they have shared within their community on their podcasts, probably in different posts that they've done over the years, their end-of-year exercises.

And I have participated in those. And I've also been able to take from that and create something that I do for myself. So I think that would be a helpful thing for you to do yourself as well. So the first part of the exercise starts with this year. So this year is 2023 and doing a reflection.

So pause to see and ask yourself, what did this year look like? Was I happy with the way things turned out? What are my wins and my highlights from the year? It's important to celebrate our wins, which we rarely do. We're usually just moving from one thing to the other. And especially this time of year.

We're so busy with the holidays. You barely have time for yourself. And sometimes we just completely slide into 2024 without a chance to celebrate. So look back on your photos, and go through your planner. If you use a planner like me, or if you write your morning pages these are wonderful ways for you to be able to look back and say, what did the year look like?

Because we forget. Too often, we're moving so quickly, we don't even remember what we did. Looking at your photos, celebrating where did you go? Who did you spend time with? Did you visit any places? Did you spend more time out in nature? Are there concerts that you went to? How did you spend your summer, et cetera, whatever it is, but it allows you to spur some memories and to celebrate those things.

And then if you use a planner, maybe you look back on your calendar and celebrate the wins. What are the things that you are so proud of personally and professionally that you accomplished this year? Maybe there were goals that you had. Maybe there were unexpected miracles.

Maybe things turned out even better than you could have ever imagined. But taking the time to reflect is so important before we go into the next year. Then I go into gratitude. I love my gratitude practice. I love doing it every day, but when you also spend time intentionally to do it at the end of the year, it's so important to give thanks for being alive, giving thanks for health, giving thanks for shelter, giving thanks for any freedoms that you have that we sometimes take for granted, daily blessings, all of those things that people in your life that you're grateful for. unexpected blessings that may come into your life this year. So just taking time, giving thanks, naming all of those things, and just recognizing how supported you were all year round. Then I ask myself, how did I limit myself? Sometimes we hold ourselves back from our goals. Sometimes the same limiting doubts or beliefs or fears or that inner critic is so loud and it's so prevalent and it's on repeat that it's important to pause and to recognize them.

If you held yourself back, if you limited yourself in any way, why, and then how will you change that going into the next year? Then I do a lesson learned, and this is really without any sort of judgment, without any emotional attachment. What did I learn? And it could be about myself, it could be just about other things in general.

What are the positive, what are the negative things, what were those lessons, and what will I do with them? After I do that, I start to focus on the upcoming year and this is a beautiful, part of the exercise. This is where you ask yourself, what is my intention for next year? Some people set a word, some people set a phrase or maybe you do a vision board, which I also do all of these things but it's a really great way with the intention to start the new year.

This is different than resolutions because this really is going to help you set up the resolutions in a way where you'll be more successful and likely to sustain the results that you're looking for. So as you go into the year, set your intention and then write a heartfelt letter to yourself. This is acknowledging yourself, giving thanks, recognizing how you've grown, and celebrating yourself.

But the kicker is, is that you're writing it now. With the upcoming year in mind, you're not going to read it until this time next year. So I just read mine So I just spent the end of last year. I wrote something to myself in advance planning for what 2023 was gonna look like how I show up the commitments I made myself the goals that I had personally and professionally and then I thanked myself for showing up this way this is It's so amazing to read a letter that you write to yourself and especially if you can look back and you can say, Wow, actually these things all did happen.

I saw it for myself and then I committed and I took daily aligned action to get there. We all seek praise. We all look for validation. At least most of us do. And being able to do this for yourself feels so good. So, starting the year with intention is going to ensure that the upcoming year is more aligned with your goals, your vision, and your purpose.

As I read my work from last year, I celebrated a lot of things that happened that I'd hoped for. And once we actually achieve things, sometimes we forget that at one point we wished for those or that we'd hoped for those. We forget that we worked for some of these things that we already have in our lives now.

I also gave thanks for things that turned out even better than I could imagine. If we let go of control and attachment to how things will turn out, sometimes things turn out even better than we could even plan. And sometimes it just requires us to get out of our own way and to let go of control.

And then I recognize the areas of my life where I need some more focus. If there are things that come up year and year again, something where you didn't make progress, or maybe there was a miss, or maybe there was a fear that held you back. Spend a little bit of time with that, it gives you an opportunity to say, what's really the issue here, and can I solve this on my own?

So, when you do this exercise. It could get overwhelming when you think about all the stuff that you want to do. And I just want to remind you, that you don't have to do this alone. I am here and I'm here to help. I'm starting a 12-week group coaching program called Live the Width, and it starts on January 16th.

We're going to have a module every week accompanied by breath work weekly, as well as access to my morning meditation and yoga class. And this is a wonderful way to be part of a supportive community. And work through those goals together, I will guide you through the process. I will guide you every step of the way so you can gain your confidence and you can gain the skills and tools in order to make 2024 the best year ever.

If you're interested, go to my website anetakuzma.com/livethewidth, and you'll have all the details there to enroll. If you're interested and want to know if this is for you, if you have additional questions, just reach out to me. You can email me, you can DM me, and I would love to schedule some time to talk to you.

Have a wonderful, happy new year. And I look forward to seeing you next year.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.